Doctors think body image issues exist only for anorexics
How would you feel about men in white coats scrutinising an image of your almost-naked body laid out on graph paper?
I had assumed most people, especially women, would feel a little exposed if they had to step into a scanner which created a 3D image of their body without any clothes on.
That was an experience I had recently, all in the name of journalistic research, which you can read about in today's Birmingham Post.
I was doing it because I was writing about the body volume index which is being created by a Birmingham research company . Once that research is complete, it could replace the body mass index as a way of assessing if a person is overweight or obese.
The BVI has been talked about for some time, but what interested me was the actual experience of being scanned and looking at the results. How did it feel to be scanned? What are the implications of health professionals looking at images of you, in effect, with no clothes on?
I found it exposing. It is not something I did without any hesitation at all.
But within the office, opinion differed. Some people thought it was no big deal.
I interviewed Dr Asad Rahim who is spearheading the research at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital. He said the majority of women do not have body image problems. "Those that do have a bad body image tend to be at the anorexic end of the scale," he said.
My perception is that almost all women have issues with their bodies and most would feel at least a little uncomfortable about looking at images of themselves naked, even if their curiosity got the better of their instinct to hide.
But maybe, I'm wrong. Would you happily strip off so a doctor could tell you if you were an apple or a pear and tell you about the health implications of your particular body shape?
Or is there no where you would step into that glorified photobooth? I'd be very interested to hear.
*For more information on this topic, visit Jo Ind's links on bookmarking service Del.icio.us.
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Jo ...
Most people have body image issues - mostly down to advertising and media manipulation of what is 'ideal'. Younger men seem to me to be subject to the same pressures as women, and my experience of gym culture and the widespread use of anabolic steroids to get results bears this out. How else account for the huge rise in cosmetic surgery for both sexes? Roll on the BVI. The current BMI scale is, frankly, a joke.
I have to say that I would be petrified by that sort of experience.
We've been groomed in our society to believe that anything other than a perfect size 10 (not sure what the male equivilent is) demonstrates weakness and an inability to control one's own body.
Being nothing like a perfect size 10, putting myself through such a scanning process would be daunting in the extreme - it would put me face-to-face with what I have been taught is an example of my fallibility. Not pleasant at all.
I've no doubt Sid's right - that younger men are subject to the same pressures as women. I tend to focus on women because that's what I know about and because a couple of decades ago body image issues and eating disorders and were predominantly female concerns. As a signed-up, badge-wearing feminist, I would like it to go on record that what I want is for everybody to feel at home in their bodies. All that seems to have happened since women burnt their bras in the name of equality is that men have become as hung-up as women in terms of their physiques. I guess this is equality of a kind - but it's not the kind I was hoping for.
I think it's to do with what the jargon-loving social scientists like to call 'commodification', where even our bodies have become part of the great selling frenzy that is modern life. Because they were the first initial targets, I think the early feminists did a great job in alerting us all to the process. Think of the front cover of The Female Eunuch and all that it implied. We're all feminists now ... or we damn well should be!
Ah Sid! I like that thought: "We're all feminists now." I shall remember that with a warm glow as I spike my hair each morning. Thanks for your perceptive comments, sister.