We live in a world where society places value on what our body looks like and how much we weigh. For women, the smaller and more delicate you look, the more value you have as a person. For men, it is important to be bulky and muscular. This value on appearance is known as diet culture and beauty standards. Diet culture is a pervasive issue that is, and has been, spreading throughout college campuses like a wildfire. It is an issue that affects a mass number of students, both male and female. Young adults are force-fed beauty ideals via various social media apps. Beauty standards are present everywhere, it is almost impossible to escape them. Being in college, surrounded by so many external stressors, it is so easy to break underneath society’s beauty standards.
The ‘freshman 15’ is the first thing that many college students learn about. This idea of gaining 15 pounds during your freshman year is terrifying to so many college students. They become consumed with the fear of gaining a mere fifteen pounds. Suddenly, this weight gain is somehow given the power to destroy confidence and self-esteem. So many of us forget that our bodies are supposed to grow and change as we age. When it comes to these situations, health is almost never the most important factor. Remaining thin and fat free becomes the only goal present.
Social media targets students as well. Apps like Instagram and Twitter send targeted ads for dieting pills and shakes. They show us slogans like ‘burn the fat off’, and images of drastic bodily transformations. The ads seem friendly and encouraging, they say things like ‘You too can look like this!’, and the ingredients of the pills and shakes seem harmless. More often than not, the ingredients of these items are dangerous, and the idea behind the products are dangerous as well. In all reality, these products almost never induce weight loss! They do almost nothing in regard to changing appearance. Instead, the products drastically change the way we view the world. They promote unhealthy relationships with food and create unhealthy opinions of our bodies.
Dieting culture has become so ingrained within college students’ minds, that everywhere you look, fatphobia runs rampant. The popular college app, YikYak, allows people to anonymously post to anyone within a five-mile radius. Coastal Carolina’s YikYak is filled with people asking questions about weight-loss, talks about gym-life, and concerns about weight gain. Weight and body image have become the only important thing within college students lives, and this is so detrimental to students’ mental health statuses. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 25% of college students suffer from eating disorders. Considering the number of students who attend university, this is a massive number.
College students are suffering daily with body image and weight control. When did diet culture become the most important thing on students’ minds? How can we stop these negative thoughts, or intervene before they even begin? It is so difficult to attack a problem that runs wildly throughout the internet. It is almost impossible to rid the world of society’s pressures when it comes to body image. The most important thing we can do to attack this issue is to begin to celebrate every body type. Size is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. You are beautiful no matter what, and your self-worth is not determined by your size. You are destined for great things. Remember to love yourself. Celebrate yourself. You are beautiful!