Navigating Swimsuit Season While in Eating Disorder Recovery

Contributor: Staff at Montecatini Eating Disorder Treatment Center

Swimsuits are supposed to offer women fashion and function, but these garments have become the catalyst for an entire season of body shaming. And when you’re already struggling with concerns about your body, getting through swimsuit season can be cause for some major anxiety.

Bikini-Body Shame in Swimsuit Season

A quick scroll through social media, and you’re bound to come across posts that create a culture of food and body shaming. Popular hashtags like #summerbody, #summerready, #swimsuitready, and #toned feature photos of svelte women posing at the gym or in swimsuits. And images of mouthwatering dishes paired with the hashtag #thisiswhyimfat send the message that it’s not acceptable to enjoy food unless the focus is on weight loss or management.

Although these images might seem like harmless fun, they can actually do significant damage to a person’s life. Chapman University found that when women see depictions of models in bikinis, it makes them feel worse about their own bodies. In fact, 1,426 women across two studies reported more interest in diet and exercise to lose weight, and nearly half were less interested in wearing a swimsuit in public after seeing professional models in bikinis.

“Our results show that seeing slender and bikini-clad models had an immediate and direct impact on how women feel about their own bodies — and that impact was mostly negative,” said David A. Frederick, Ph.D., assistant professor of health psychology at Chapman University and lead author of the study.

Social Media Influence

The “summer body” culture that is so prevalent on social media can put significant pressure on women to meet unrealistic expectations regarding their appearance. For women who are already struggling with disordered eating behaviors or concerns about their bodies, the damage can be even more severe.

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The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine published a report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that found that young adults who spent more time on social media had a greater risk for developing an eating disorder or body image concerns. Of the 1,765 adults ages 19-32 who participated in the study, the young adults who spent the most time on social media throughout the day were more than twice as likely to report concerns about their eating habits and bodies.

“We’ve long known that exposure to traditional forms of media, such as fashion magazines and television, is associated with the development of disordered eating and body image concerns,” said Jaime E. Sidani, Ph.D., MPH, assistant director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health and lead author of the study. “Social media combines many of the visual aspects of traditional media with the opportunity for social media users to interact and propagate stereotypes that can lead to eating and body image concerns.”

Social media platforms such as Instagram have attempted to combat less-than-healthy representations of women’s bodies and eating habits by outright banning hashtags such as #thinspo and #thinspiration. And Instagram has currently limited hashtags such as #bikinibody, #bikiniready, and #swimsuitbody, but social media users continue to find ways around these limitations.

Navigating Swimsuit Season

“Summer body” culture is built on shame, making women feel ashamed if they don’t have a body that “belongs” in summer clothes, swimsuits, or a bikini. That means you must work to eliminate shame from as many aspects of your summer as possible to successfully navigate the swimsuit season.

Eliminating shame might sound impossible, but there are many small ways in which you can start to remove shame from your life:

• Change who you follow on social media – If your social media feed is full of images that represent the thin ideal, try switching it up by following people who represent body positive images. You can search hashtags such as #bodypositivity, #bodypositive, #bopo, or #boporevolution.

• Wear what you love — today – When you’re struggling with an eating disorder, wearing the clothes you love can be a constant battle. Give yourself permission to wear that cute summer outfit, regardless of the size on the tag. You are enough to wear whatever you want today. No qualifiers needed.

• Don’t participate in body shaming talk – Body and food shaming amps up at this time of year, when women feel pressured to slim down to fit into swimsuits, bikinis, and other summer attire. But, remember, you don’t have to take part in any conversations about “bikini-body diets,” food shaming, or fat-shaming.

• Reach out for help if you need it – You don’t have to go through swimsuit season alone. “Summer body” pressure can be intense, so reach out to a trusted friend, loved one, or member of your treatment team if you need help.

It can be difficult to navigate swimsuit season when you are bombarded by unrealistic messages about what you should look like. But it is possible to get through it by doing small things throughout the season that reduce feelings of body shame and boost feelings of body positivity.

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References:

Carey, M. and Preston, C. (2019). Investigating the components of body image disturbance within eating disorders. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 10, 635. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00635.

Fredericka, D.; Daniels, E.; Bates, M.; and Tylkac, T. (2017). Exposure to thin-ideal media affect most, but not all, women: Results from the Perceived Effects of Media Exposure Scale and open-ended responses. Body Image, (23)188-205. Retrieved from https://blogs.chapman.edu/research/2017/11/15/new-research-shows-most-women-report-more-body-dissatisfaction-directly-after-seeing-fashion-and-bikini-models/.

Sidani, J.; Shensa, A.; Hoffman, B.; Hanmer, J.; and Primack, B. (2016). The association between social media use and eating concerns among young adults. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Retrieved from https://www.upmc.com/media/news/sidani-eating-disorder.

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About Our Sponsor:

Montecatini provides comprehensive treatment to females age 16 and older who are struggling with eating disorders and co-occurring addiction and mental health concerns. We provide a full continuum of life-changing care, including residential treatment, a partial hospitalization program (PHP), and an intensive outpatient program (IOP). We also offer a wellness center where clients can build healthier relationships with their bodies through joyful movement.

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The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer a discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.

We at Eating Disorder Hope understand that eating disorders result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. If you or a loved one are suffering from an eating disorder, please know that there is hope for you, and seek immediate professional help.

Reviewed & Approved on July 21, 2020, by Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC
Published July 21, 2020, on EatingDisorderHope.com