Advertisements should feature realistic people

Unrealistically slim models twist notions of beauty, leading some to suffer from eating disorders

The UAE is part of a global trend for slimness to be seen as the epitome of beauty and health. But as The National reported yesterday, an unfortunate corollary to this has been the corresponding rise in eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and ­bulimia. Experts fear that many UAE children and young adults with these conditions are not being diagnosed or getting treatment.

In a region where high rates of obesity are causing avoidable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, there is good reason for people to pay attention to their weight. But sometimes this focus goes too far and crosses the boundary into an eating disorder, which carries its own health risks.

Although there is no single cause of eating disorders, with some triggered by factors like depression, a significant contributing component is the unrealistic depictions of beauty – and particularly female beauty – in advertising and other forms of mass media. Like the connection between slimness and beauty, this is an idea with its origins in the West and women feel targeted by unrealistic ideals of beauty that focuses on appearances, neglecting that beauty can be more than skin deep.

Some companies have fought against this trend. Dove, which specialises in beauty products, has a “Real Beauty” campaign featuring women with different sizes, shapes and colours. However, most companies continue to advertise their products by using models that bear little relation to realistic prototypes of body size in the community.

With few seeking to challenge the popular notion that slim is beautiful, the vast majority of women whose bodies do not match those of the models can suffer from lowered self esteem that leads, in some cases, to eating disorders. As with the slim-is-beautiful standard, this trend is a relatively recent arrival in this region. One effect is that families and friends of sufferers lack awareness about these disorders and signs that someone they know has one.

This is an opportunity for advertisers to depict realistic portrayals of beauty. Some would argue that even this is not enough – Dove’s Real Beauty campaign still attracted criticism for continuing to focus on how women look, but it still constitutes a step towards changing attitudes about true beauty coming from within and not from having a body of a certain size or shape. Keep your weight to a healthy level, which means something different for each of us.