Airbrushing is ‘glamorising’ eating disorders, say psychiatrists
The Royal College of Psychiatrists (The RCPsych) is calling for warning symbols to be placed on images that have been digitally altered or enhanced and for underweight models to be banned altogether.
Children are now frequently exposed to airbrushed imaged of underweight models, leading them to believe that this is the natural body type they should aspire too.
It was only earlier on this week that The Telegraph printed a shocking report about how half of Britain’s six year olds want to be thinner and the majority of 12 year olds see themselves as overweight.
The RCPsych believe that frequent exposure to unhealthy figures is glamourising easting disorders such as anorexia and bulimia and have called for warning symbols to be placed on pictures of celebrities and models that have been airbrushed to remove blemishes or stretched to make the model appear thinner.
Instead they believe that publishers and magazines should images of people with more varied body types to make the public feel more comfortable with their own bodies.
On the opposing side to this British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman recently penned an open letter to designers, asking them to make samples larger so that models could be bigger, and claiming that many models in the magazine actually needed airbrushing to make them look less thin.
Consulting psychiatrists at the RCPsych have said there is a continually growing body of research that shows the media plays a part in the development of eating disorder symptoms.
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Tags: airbrushing, Eating Disorders