Proposed U.K. bill targeting unrealistic body image receives praise in Manitoba

A Winnipeg counsellor says she was happy to hear about proposed legislation in the United Kingdom intended to addressbody image issuesbyrequiring advertisers and social media influencers to put a label on edited photos.

"I'm in favour of anything that could help protect people around internalizing harmful, and limiting appearance ideals,"said Lori Peters, a counsellor whoworks withthe Women's Health Clinic.

"I've certainly been hearing, from folks that I work with, increasing concerns about their appearance."

The proposed U.K. body image bill,formally known as theDigitally Altered Images Bill,hasresonated with people around the world, says themember of Parliament behind it.

"We're creating a society where no matter how hard you try, the image doesn't exist. And that's having a really negative impact,"Luke Evans, a former doctor and the MP for Bosworth in England, told CBC Manitoba's Information Radio in a Feb. 11 interview.

The bill aims to make it clear to consumers what a realistic portrayal of the human body looks like, by requiring anycommercialimagesfeaturingdigitally alteredbodiesto be labelled.

"These editedcommercialimages do not representreality, andare helping to perpetuate a warped sense ofhow we appear, with real consequencesfor people suffering with body confidence issues, which I've seen first-hand in my role as a GP," Evans said in an online post.

Peters says she shares Evans's concern aboutthe rising number of young people who have issues regarding their appearance.

"Having a negative relationship with [one's] body can leadto having a disordered relationship with food as an attempt to try to change one's body," she said.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, has studied how that photo-sharing social media platform affects its young users, according to company documentsobtained last year by the Wall Street Journal.

The three-year study revealedthe peer pressure generated by the image-focusedplatform led, in some cases, toeating disorders and suicidal thoughts, according to theJournal.

The study found Instagram can be particular harmful for teenage girls. About one-third of teen girls who responded to the study saidthat, when they felt bad abouttheir bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.

Peters said while she supports the U.K. MP's private member's bill, she also wants to know more aboutthe long-term effectiveness of labelling edited photos.

"I would be curious about would it be worth having more research just focused on this to see how is this actually helpful? And then looking at moving legislation [in Canada] to support that."

People need to'see that their bodies matter'

Winnipeg actor Robbie Ambrosio is no stranger to body image issues. In a personal essay he wrote for CBC about body shaming, he reflected on how media played a role in his ability to love his body.

"I remember when I was 12or so, my mom and I would watch Baywatch before bedtime the worst possible television show to watch for a chubby kid's self-esteem," he wrote.

Ambrosio has since found peace with his body through positive affirmations and adopting a healthier lifestyle, but he says he feels sad about the shift from valuing natural beauty to valuing filtered beauty.

"I, for one, love using [photo] filters from time to time," he said in an interview. "I just find it really sad that younger generation is now growing up in an era where the beauty standards is no longer 'natural beauty' but a filter."

Ambrosio says he had to shed the negative beliefs and expectations he put on himself to look a certain way in order to developa more realistic view of his own body.

Peters says there are ways to help people dealing with body image issues that don't have to be as big as a federal legislation.

"As a society, encouragingmore diversity inclusion in terms of the image andthe media that's out there would make a big difference."

It would help, she said, "if people could see themselves reflected and see that their bodies matter."