An Obsession With Body Image

Dixya Poudel

Oprah Gail Winfrey known mononymously as Oprah is a world famous American talk show host, actress, television personality, media proprietor and author. She has openly admitted to having struggles with health issues such as obesity throughout her life. In March, 2024 Oprah hosted a TV special in which she talked candidly about the criticism as well as shame she felt throughout her life due to her weight. 

She confided to taking weight loss medicine quite recently to tackle her obesity as she could no longer work out nor climb steps easily and had to strictly limit her diet to one meal a day. At the show she appeared quite thin stunning the audiences. And she credited her body transformation to a weight loss drug although she didn’t specify which one.

As such, body image can be psychologically crippling for females. From a very young age, they are nudged to be overtly conscious of their appearances. Young girls tend to grow up to be women who are constantly vigilant of their appearance. 

When women meet and greet one another, they are quick to judge the appearance of each other and often offer compliments while also expecting one in return. 

Parties and events become an occasion to dress up with heavy makeup. Although women relish the attention that they get when they are glammed up, it tends to fester feelings of insecurity. There comes a point in their lives when they start to question who they are beneath the layers of obligatory makeup.

 Even sadly, media is hyped with celebrities laden with Botox to overcome wrinkles, lip fillers to plump the pout and cosmetic surgeries to make them look more youthful. 

Why do females take extreme measures to present themselves with wrinkle-free, pouty and enhanced features rather than owning their natural looks with acceptance and confidence? Take a moment to think and you will be right in assuming that the driving factor in cosmetic beauty is patriarchy. Females are particularly vulnerable to body image issues because it has been ingrained in them by patriarchal standards of beauty to appear lean, thin and youthful, whatever their age. 

Ultimately it tends to puts a toll on them. Constant comparison and competition doesn’t help either. If patriarchal societies fuel body image issues in females, what could it take to reverse this plight inflicted on them? Oftentimes it feels like the beauty and fitness saturated media in today’s societies is past reversal. 

Now people have smartphones to easily access these media that highly perpetuate unrealistic ideals of beauty. The well-known philosopher Plato accredited beauty as a form of virtue and noble character but today it has become an attention-generating quality.

While it is admirable that Oprah lost weight and presided over her body image insecurity, it is also disappointing that she had to defend her weight loss treatment. It remains to be seen how weight loss drugs currently in the market and those in production will fare, but it may come at heavy costs such as medicinal side-effects. Body image in females could continue to spell a struggle between societal expectations, health considerations and self-esteem. 

Thus, despite the strides in female empowerment, there remains a lot to be done when it comes to the psycho-social support of girls and women.