Debunking the myth of the “summer body”

Mental health campaigner Hope Virgo unpacks why we are seeking too much value from our physical bodies and what we can do about it.

The obsession with food, as well as shrinking ourselves and our bodies, is normalising eating disorders globally, and having hugely negative impacts on our mental health – taking many down a dangerous route. But while we know that social media isn’t reality and know how bad it is to compare ourselves on Instagram, we still do it. Why are we letting it affect our mood and behaviours?  Why are we letting influencers with no nutritional qualifications tell us what we should and shouldn’t be eating? 

Each day we are bombarded by messaging which, for some of us, starts a negative narrative. For those of us of which this is true, we look enviously at those who don’t seem to have this narrative.  

Struggling with summertime

It is no surprise that in a world where we can order weight-loss drugs, and find the latest cosmetic surgery on the high street, that there are more people struggling with what they look like and finding pressure from magazines, social media and books.

I lived so much of my life like this, and even over the last year since having a baby I was convinced that if I just did a huge ASOS order, and changed my external appearance, that maybe everything would feel better and be more manageable. While there is something in the positives of getting dressed and keeping hygiene up, when did society start to believe that to be accepted or ‘right’ we have to have a certain body? And why do we let the onset of summer add even more pressure to ourselves?  

Grace Shepphard, who is in recovery from an eating disorder, says: “I find the change in season from winter to summer really hard. As it gets warmer, not being able to cover up in as many layers feels exposing and vulnerable. As I’ve been recovering from an eating disorder over the past few years my body has changed quite a lot. The heat makes me more aware of my body taking up space and can feel intolerable.”