Most of us are no stranger to some kind of body anxiety. Considering the impossible and downright ridiculous standards society and the media place upon us – whether it's an A4-sized waist, how big your mon pubis is or whether you have thighbrows – it's no wonder so many of us struggle with having confidence in our body image.
Dove, in a bid to understand the relationship women and girls have with their body and confidence around the world, have conducted their largest ever study, The Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report, into self-esteem. They interviewed 10,5000 females in 13 different countries aged between 10 - 60 years old. In the study they defined girls as 10-17 years old and women as 18-64 years old.
From their research they found that, sadly, female confidence in their bodies is on a steady decline and that low body esteem is something which transcends ages, culture and geography. However, they also found a conflict in their behaviour with 60% of women believing they need to meet certain beauty standards but 77% believing it was important to be their own person and 83% of women saying they want to look their personal best rather than follow someone else’s definition of ‘beautiful’. Proof of the confusing and unrealistic standards that are being put upon women.
They were able to rank each participating country in terms of their body confidence and Japan came out with the lowest at 8% with the UK second at 20% and South Africa as the most body confident with 64%. Here's the full list:
This UK statistic is actually much lower than a 2014 British Social Attitudes Survey which found that 63% of women aged 18-34 and 57% aged 35-49 are satisfied with their appearance.
Interestingly the study noted how the pressures manifest themselves in different ways in different countries, allowing them to decipher the following:
Shockingly they also found that 9 out of 10 women (87%) stop themselves from eating or will otherwise put their health at risk. It showed an affect on the way females present themselves socially too, with 7 in 10 girls saying they won’t be assertive or stick to their decision if they don’t like the way they look and 8 out of 10 of women and girls (78%) feel pressure to never make mistakes or show weakness.
Unsurprisingly these findings were related to advertising and media with 69% of women saying that increasing pressures from the unrealistic standard of beauty were key in driving anxiety over the way they look.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.