June 25, 2024 • 13 mins
La dismorfia corporal no es una novedad, ni es propia de esta era digital. Pero sí es verdad que, con el tiempo, el concepto de dismorfia y los problemas acarreados por las redes sociales respecto al físico de las personas ha variado. Charlemos un poco sobre la dismorfia corporal en la era de las redes sociales.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We already know the story. Womenhave great aesthetic pressure, as patriarchy is
one of the power systems operating inthe world. Gender roles based on sex
are not assigned. If Naziste comaginayou, you will have taught that one
of the most important things in yourlife is to be beautiful, attractive and
desirable for sex. Opposite, themass media through advertising industries such as beauty
(00:21):
or fashion, will show you ananesthetic cane of how to be a beautiful
woman who is often traversed by racismor gerantophobia and fatophobia. If you don
' t enter into that canon,the world will notice it in different ways,
depending on how close or far youare to that ideal. What is
expected of you is that you spendtime, money and mental health. Looking
(00:43):
to keep that eternal beauty impossible,but what happens when all that pressure generates
mental health problems. Several things cometo mind such as depression anxiety, but
perhaps the most associated is body dysmorphia, chemical chinga beauty. Body image is
(01:03):
very important. It is the waywe see our physical, in reflection,
in photos and in our mind.It is the sum of our beliefs and
feelings about the aspect that we haveon many occasions, about our experiences,
about the environment and culture. Bodyimage is important because it affects how you
move in life. Body dysmorphic disorderis a disease in which a person cannot
(01:27):
stop thinking about one or more defectsof his appearance, even those small defects
that may not be perceived by others. That can give you shame and anxiety.
A huge approach to its appearance,revision of its image, in a
mirror repetitive behaviors subject you to multipleaesthetic interventions. In general, people with
(01:48):
dysmorphia feel that others pay close attentionto their physical appearance in a negative way
and mock that defect. Whether thisis true or not, as they can
often receive some comment or mockery,and that triggers a trauma that this situation
is always going to happen. Theconcern for your body must be excessive,
with dominant thoughts within your mind andrepetitive behaviors that become undesirable, difficult to
(02:13):
control and time consuming, generating problemsin social life, work or school.
Obviously, this term is used alot today on social networks, not always
in a wise way. And whiledysmorphia is something that always existed, the
networks may have a bigger weight ingenerating it. In women, people,
especially adolescents and young adults, spenda lot of time on social media.
(02:38):
While the networks have many positive aspectsand that we will not deny, they
also have some not so good.The main problem is that the networks show
us and by showing us, Imean they become viral, they become influencers,
the contents produced by beautiful people theprinty privilege of which we spoke in
(02:58):
previous episodes also operates in the successthat you can have as influencer and on
the other side of the viewer issubjected to a face, to a beautiful
body, one after another, oneafter another, generating dissatisfaction by its own
physical aspect. Mass communication measures havealways had that effect. The most traditional
media, such as advertising in vais, television, press radio, have always
(03:20):
had complex messages within the industry,fashion or beauty. This does not come
from now alone, since in timeswhen television did not exist, we could
already see advertisements selling you beauty andeternal youth. In addition, the media
have other forms that are more indirect, but equally powerful. Hollywood actresses in
their golden age were the model tofollow and today that remains with actresses as
(03:42):
role models with singers. For example, in the nineties with the rise of
the supermodels and in the ninety-sixty- nineties we had a clear path
to which those faces and bodies hadto go. Now that' s what
' s vast Imagine that if itwas already problematic to have all that and
much more, because influencers are thenew generators of aesthetic canons. We also
have him at hand from a cellphone 24 hours a day. It'
(04:06):
s terrible. On the other hand, that device that we have in our
hands all day allows us to takepictures of ourselves at any time, which
could imply a new obsession with bodyimage that previously did not exist with Rosh
' s cameras. We also havevideo calls on a daily basis in many
cases, especially during the pandemic andon many occasions for work or for having
(04:29):
loved ones in other countries. Andthe big problem with the cameras you know
what it is that all the lenseshave a certain distortion, so the image
we see on the cell phone isnot what we really perceive in the mirror
or how the others see us.That' s why many times we forget
and give us a certain shock tosee ourselves in photos. An experiment involving
(04:50):
two hundred and twenty university students inseventeen and twenty years' time revealed that,
by reducing the use of social mediato fifty percent, they had a
better significant relationship with their physical appearance, after three weeks of super- fast
intervention. Among the behaviors in networksthat generate more dissatisfaction is the poster of
images and the interaction that they obtain, since the personal image is submitted to
(05:14):
the judgment of all. The othercomplex aspect is the use of filters and
tweaks in general, which are oftenso imperceptible that we end up forgetting that
they were made both as viewers andusers. According to who amahon, a
postdoctoral researcher at the Youth Mental HealthLaboratory at University College Dublin, there are
two mechanisms that can lead to problemswith body image within social networks. The
(05:40):
first is the internalization of the bodyideal. The second is the comparison.
These two mechanisms are the ones thatcan generate dysmorphia, as we try to
align ourselves with that body ideal andhave a lot of graphic material to compare
with. In a world where onein fifty people have body dysmorphia, it
is normal for us to worry aboutthe networks, especially since their increased consumption
(06:01):
during the pandemic, which seems notto have gone down, even though we
return to the so- called normallife to this specific phenomenon is called in
some cases digitized dysmorphia. Men andwomen suffer from body dysmorphic disorder differently,
as both sexes have different pressures.In the case of men, for example,
(06:21):
it is more relative to body sizeand are more likely to use physical
exercise and take supplements, while womenhave a more focused concern about thinness and
eternal youth, which does not leadto eating disorders and subjecting us to multiple
cosmetic treatments. And in adolescence,it' s obviously much harder to identify
(06:43):
for yourself that you' re havinga distorted body image. That' s
why it' s imperative that adultsbe attentive to what they see, what
they feel about what teenagers think.The increase in cosmetic surgeries in recent years
is enormous. Numbers grow every year, especially glutium augmentation, lip- filled
lifting and vows. More than amillion aesthetic procedures were performed in patients between
(07:09):
thirteen and twenty- nine years ofage in the United States in two thousand
nineteen, something that also draws ourattention to the young people who undergo these
procedures. However, the networks mayhave a lot to do with it,
but also the low prices and thepossibility of having certain treatments and procedures at
hand influence notoriously. While we cannotice that social media can become a problem,
(07:32):
either from personal experience or by talkingto people who lived it. There
are no studies that show that 100percent of the networks are actually increasing cases
of dysmorphia. What you do seeis that people who already have a bodily
breakdown disorder or a tendency to haveit are more likely to use certain social
(07:53):
networks to check their physical appearance orcompare their appearance with that of others.
For example, no one who hasa problem with body dysmor is going to
use Twitter. For example, astudy of two thousand and twenty, including
seven hundred and ninety- six participants, found a negligible direct effect between network
use and dysmorphia. The results arevery few in general, in different studies,
(08:16):
for science to show that there isa direct cause. However, that
does not imply that it is nota very recent issue and that we still
have a lot to explain and investigate. Moreover, the relationship between mind and
beauty has been quite studied, butvery little is yet known about it.
Perception of Beauty It is probably influencedby many different factors and is not known
for certain even if it is predefinedby specific standards incorporated into innate behavior or
(08:41):
if it is totally subjective. Thetruth is probably at a midpoint between the
two, but we can' tsay it scientifically, so I can'
t tell you. The reality isalso that there is not a single cause
for the disorder to be caused bythe body dysmorphic disorder and blaming it on
social networks would make the whole populationend up suffering the problem, because we
(09:03):
all use social networks. This disorderdevelops due to biological, cultural, psychosocial
and neuropsychological causes and in general,there is a predisposition of between forty and
fifty percent to suffer from genetic causes. This, along with life experiences such
as mockery, such as a familythat overvalues physical appearance, neglect, abuse
(09:24):
in childhood, can increase the chancesof dysmorphia. People with dysmorphia also tend
to have brain disorders in regions associatedwith obsessions and compulsions, as well as
chemical imbalances of serotonin. Therefore,networks can influence. We don' t
have enough research, but they caninfluence. But dysmorphia is a slightly more
(09:46):
complex subject. That is why Ithink it is very important to keep in
mind that low self- esteem doesnot always mean having body dysmorphia, as
is often spoken in networks. Oh, I' m dismorphed because I didn
' t like it, it hadnothing to do with it. Even if
you don' t get to thelevel of dysmorphia, it can affect the
things you see on social networks,lower your self- esteem and so on.
(10:09):
There' s no doubt about that. It can happen to you and
it has nothing to do with itand, in addition, having low self
- esteem can be linked to othermental health problems. Now I want to
go back a little bit to aterm I mentioned earlier, as well as
passing, which is digitized dysmorphia.I like this term because it is not
coined under the concept of a mentalhealth disorder, but as a collective phenomenon
(10:31):
coming from the growing weight of thebeauty industry in our lives and the use
of social networks. This combination ofthe two generates digitized dysmorphia, which is
not a bodily dysmorphic disorder, buta phenomenon It is not a mental disorder,
but a cultural phenomenon. The useof social networks, digital retouch filters
that generate a very artificial and impossibledigital beauty. And, in addition,
(10:56):
the constant bombing of the beauty industryfrom traditional advertising, marketing, advertising with
influencers and so on, causes thisdigitized dysmorphia to occur. The female bodies
are no longer bound to anatomical capacity. Today we are in an era in
which everything that can be manipulated digitallyis going to be done and the worst
(11:16):
of all is that many people don' t know how to recognize the difference
between a common image and a digitallyaltered image. Thus we see people praising
bodies of women who have been retouchedso much that they have very long torsos,
with tiny waists that they would notenter even half an organ in there
(11:37):
or influencers that are made entirely byartificial intelligence, without realizing that, indeed,
they are not human. This digitalbeauty can take place in a scenario
where women are more empowered and competewith men in the labor, economic and
political fields. That is why patriarchyalways invents new things so that we lose
our heads in search of that idealthat is actually becoming more and more impossible.
(12:01):
I mean, how can it bethat women aren' t focused on
being cute, how can it bethat twenty- four seven of us aren
' t worried about being beautiful?So what we' re going to do
we' re going to put avery difficult ideal for you to achieve.
What can you do if you feelthat you are suffering from dysmorphia or that
there is at least one problem inthe way you relate to your body image.
(12:22):
The first and fundamental thing is toseek professional help, both from psychologists
and psychiatrists, who can advise andtreat you correctly. But, obviously,
mental processes are not fast or linear. So, in the meantime, you
can add some strategies like limiting socialmedia consumption, changing consumption patterns, choosing
healthier content, spending your time onother hobbies or situations that don' t
(12:43):
involve something aesthetic, doing an analysisof your person beyond your physical appearance,
value other elements of your life likeyour passions that you' re good at,
how you deal with others, yourlinks, etc, so that you
can get the focus of your physicalappearance. I hope you liked this episode.
(13:07):
I tell you that there is onemore, so soon you can go
listen to it and you also havefour beautiful seasons to keep listening. You
can follow me in networks looking forme as chemical beauty. Don' t
forget, this is an original UICASTproduction.
We already know the story. Womenhave great aesthetic pressure, as patriarchy is
one of the power systems operating inthe world. Gender roles based on sex
are not assigned. If Naziste comaginayou, you will have taught that one
of the most important things in yourlife is to be beautiful, attractive and
desirable for sex. Opposite, themass media through advertising industries such as beauty
(00:21):
or fashion, will show you ananesthetic cane of how to be a beautiful
woman who is often traversed by racismor gerantophobia and fatophobia. If you don
' t enter into that canon,the world will notice it in different ways,
depending on how close or far youare to that ideal. What is
expected of you is that you spendtime, money and mental health. Looking
(00:43):
to keep that eternal beauty impossible,but what happens when all that pressure generates
mental health problems. Several things cometo mind such as depression anxiety, but
perhaps the most associated is body dysmorphia, chemical chinga beauty. Body image is
(01:03):
very important. It is the waywe see our physical, in reflection,
in photos and in our mind.It is the sum of our beliefs and
feelings about the aspect that we haveon many occasions, about our experiences,
about the environment and culture. Bodyimage is important because it affects how you
move in life. Body dysmorphic disorderis a disease in which a person cannot
(01:27):
stop thinking about one or more defectsof his appearance, even those small defects
that may not be perceived by others. That can give you shame and anxiety.
A huge approach to its appearance,revision of its image, in a
mirror repetitive behaviors subject you to multipleaesthetic interventions. In general, people with
(01:48):
dysmorphia feel that others pay close attentionto their physical appearance in a negative way
and mock that defect. Whether thisis true or not, as they can
often receive some comment or mockery,and that triggers a trauma that this situation
is always going to happen. Theconcern for your body must be excessive,
with dominant thoughts within your mind andrepetitive behaviors that become undesirable, difficult to
(02:13):
control and time consuming, generating problemsin social life, work or school.
Obviously, this term is used alot today on social networks, not always
in a wise way. And whiledysmorphia is something that always existed, the
networks may have a bigger weight ingenerating it. In women, people,
especially adolescents and young adults, spenda lot of time on social media.
(02:38):
While the networks have many positive aspectsand that we will not deny, they
also have some not so good.The main problem is that the networks show
us and by showing us, Imean they become viral, they become influencers,
the contents produced by beautiful people theprinty privilege of which we spoke in
(02:58):
previous episodes also operates in the successthat you can have as influencer and on
the other side of the viewer issubjected to a face, to a beautiful
body, one after another, oneafter another, generating dissatisfaction by its own
physical aspect. Mass communication measures havealways had that effect. The most traditional
media, such as advertising in vais, television, press radio, have always
(03:20):
had complex messages within the industry,fashion or beauty. This does not come
from now alone, since in timeswhen television did not exist, we could
already see advertisements selling you beauty andeternal youth. In addition, the media
have other forms that are more indirect, but equally powerful. Hollywood actresses in
their golden age were the model tofollow and today that remains with actresses as
(03:42):
role models with singers. For example, in the nineties with the rise of
the supermodels and in the ninety-sixty- nineties we had a clear path
to which those faces and bodies hadto go. Now that' s what
' s vast Imagine that if itwas already problematic to have all that and
much more, because influencers are thenew generators of aesthetic canons. We also
have him at hand from a cellphone 24 hours a day. It'
(04:06):
s terrible. On the other hand, that device that we have in our
hands all day allows us to takepictures of ourselves at any time, which
could imply a new obsession with bodyimage that previously did not exist with Rosh
' s cameras. We also havevideo calls on a daily basis in many
cases, especially during the pandemic andon many occasions for work or for having
(04:29):
loved ones in other countries. Andthe big problem with the cameras you know
what it is that all the lenseshave a certain distortion, so the image
we see on the cell phone isnot what we really perceive in the mirror
or how the others see us.That' s why many times we forget
and give us a certain shock tosee ourselves in photos. An experiment involving
(04:50):
two hundred and twenty university students inseventeen and twenty years' time revealed that,
by reducing the use of social mediato fifty percent, they had a
better significant relationship with their physical appearance, after three weeks of super- fast
intervention. Among the behaviors in networksthat generate more dissatisfaction is the poster of
images and the interaction that they obtain, since the personal image is submitted to
(05:14):
the judgment of all. The othercomplex aspect is the use of filters and
tweaks in general, which are oftenso imperceptible that we end up forgetting that
they were made both as viewers andusers. According to who amahon, a
postdoctoral researcher at the Youth Mental HealthLaboratory at University College Dublin, there are
two mechanisms that can lead to problemswith body image within social networks. The
(05:40):
first is the internalization of the bodyideal. The second is the comparison.
These two mechanisms are the ones thatcan generate dysmorphia, as we try to
align ourselves with that body ideal andhave a lot of graphic material to compare
with. In a world where onein fifty people have body dysmorphia, it
is normal for us to worry aboutthe networks, especially since their increased consumption
(06:01):
during the pandemic, which seems notto have gone down, even though we
return to the so- called normallife to this specific phenomenon is called in
some cases digitized dysmorphia. Men andwomen suffer from body dysmorphic disorder differently,
as both sexes have different pressures.In the case of men, for example,
(06:21):
it is more relative to body sizeand are more likely to use physical
exercise and take supplements, while womenhave a more focused concern about thinness and
eternal youth, which does not leadto eating disorders and subjecting us to multiple
cosmetic treatments. And in adolescence,it' s obviously much harder to identify
(06:43):
for yourself that you' re havinga distorted body image. That' s
why it' s imperative that adultsbe attentive to what they see, what
they feel about what teenagers think.The increase in cosmetic surgeries in recent years
is enormous. Numbers grow every year, especially glutium augmentation, lip- filled
lifting and vows. More than amillion aesthetic procedures were performed in patients between
(07:09):
thirteen and twenty- nine years ofage in the United States in two thousand
nineteen, something that also draws ourattention to the young people who undergo these
procedures. However, the networks mayhave a lot to do with it,
but also the low prices and thepossibility of having certain treatments and procedures at
hand influence notoriously. While we cannotice that social media can become a problem,
(07:32):
either from personal experience or by talkingto people who lived it. There
are no studies that show that 100percent of the networks are actually increasing cases
of dysmorphia. What you do seeis that people who already have a bodily
breakdown disorder or a tendency to haveit are more likely to use certain social
(07:53):
networks to check their physical appearance orcompare their appearance with that of others.
For example, no one who hasa problem with body dysmor is going to
use Twitter. For example, astudy of two thousand and twenty, including
seven hundred and ninety- six participants, found a negligible direct effect between network
use and dysmorphia. The results arevery few in general, in different studies,
(08:16):
for science to show that there isa direct cause. However, that
does not imply that it is nota very recent issue and that we still
have a lot to explain and investigate. Moreover, the relationship between mind and
beauty has been quite studied, butvery little is yet known about it.
Perception of Beauty It is probably influencedby many different factors and is not known
for certain even if it is predefinedby specific standards incorporated into innate behavior or
(08:41):
if it is totally subjective. Thetruth is probably at a midpoint between the
two, but we can' tsay it scientifically, so I can'
t tell you. The reality isalso that there is not a single cause
for the disorder to be caused bythe body dysmorphic disorder and blaming it on
social networks would make the whole populationend up suffering the problem, because we
(09:03):
all use social networks. This disorderdevelops due to biological, cultural, psychosocial
and neuropsychological causes and in general,there is a predisposition of between forty and
fifty percent to suffer from genetic causes. This, along with life experiences such
as mockery, such as a familythat overvalues physical appearance, neglect, abuse
(09:24):
in childhood, can increase the chancesof dysmorphia. People with dysmorphia also tend
to have brain disorders in regions associatedwith obsessions and compulsions, as well as
chemical imbalances of serotonin. Therefore,networks can influence. We don' t
have enough research, but they caninfluence. But dysmorphia is a slightly more
(09:46):
complex subject. That is why Ithink it is very important to keep in
mind that low self- esteem doesnot always mean having body dysmorphia, as
is often spoken in networks. Oh, I' m dismorphed because I didn
' t like it, it hadnothing to do with it. Even if
you don' t get to thelevel of dysmorphia, it can affect the
things you see on social networks,lower your self- esteem and so on.
(10:09):
There' s no doubt about that. It can happen to you and
it has nothing to do with itand, in addition, having low self
- esteem can be linked to othermental health problems. Now I want to
go back a little bit to aterm I mentioned earlier, as well as
passing, which is digitized dysmorphia.I like this term because it is not
coined under the concept of a mentalhealth disorder, but as a collective phenomenon
(10:31):
coming from the growing weight of thebeauty industry in our lives and the use
of social networks. This combination ofthe two generates digitized dysmorphia, which is
not a bodily dysmorphic disorder, buta phenomenon It is not a mental disorder,
but a cultural phenomenon. The useof social networks, digital retouch filters
that generate a very artificial and impossibledigital beauty. And, in addition,
(10:56):
the constant bombing of the beauty industryfrom traditional advertising, marketing, advertising with
influencers and so on, causes thisdigitized dysmorphia to occur. The female bodies
are no longer bound to anatomical capacity. Today we are in an era in
which everything that can be manipulated digitallyis going to be done and the worst
(11:16):
of all is that many people don' t know how to recognize the difference
between a common image and a digitallyaltered image. Thus we see people praising
bodies of women who have been retouchedso much that they have very long torsos,
with tiny waists that they would notenter even half an organ in there
(11:37):
or influencers that are made entirely byartificial intelligence, without realizing that, indeed,
they are not human. This digitalbeauty can take place in a scenario
where women are more empowered and competewith men in the labor, economic and
political fields. That is why patriarchyalways invents new things so that we lose
our heads in search of that idealthat is actually becoming more and more impossible.
(12:01):
I mean, how can it bethat women aren' t focused on
being cute, how can it bethat twenty- four seven of us aren
' t worried about being beautiful?So what we' re going to do
we' re going to put avery difficult ideal for you to achieve.
What can you do if you feelthat you are suffering from dysmorphia or that
there is at least one problem inthe way you relate to your body image.
(12:22):
The first and fundamental thing is toseek professional help, both from psychologists
and psychiatrists, who can advise andtreat you correctly. But, obviously,
mental processes are not fast or linear. So, in the meantime, you
can add some strategies like limiting socialmedia consumption, changing consumption patterns, choosing
healthier content, spending your time onother hobbies or situations that don' t
(12:43):
involve something aesthetic, doing an analysisof your person beyond your physical appearance,
value other elements of your life likeyour passions that you' re good at,
how you deal with others, yourlinks, etc, so that you
can get the focus of your physicalappearance. I hope you liked this episode.
(13:07):
I tell you that there is onemore, so soon you can go
listen to it and you also havefour beautiful seasons to keep listening. You
can follow me in networks looking forme as chemical beauty. Don' t
forget, this is an original UICASTproduction.
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