The unnecessary expectations of a summer body

Social media is fueling eating disorders and self hatred. We must learn to love ourselves, despite societal expectations.

As summer approaches, it welcomes the excitement of discussion of summer plans, or in true Glasgow University fashion, sitting in the park with your friends. However, the warm weather also initiates the annual rise of “summer body” expectations, as people flock to the gym, often competing in a chase for thin privilege. 

I can’t pin-point the exact moment when people began believing their body was no longer good enough, but perhaps we could finally begin to disregard the hierarchy of body types that so many people strictly follow. A “summer body” is still your body and should be treated with consistent care rather than judgement, across every season. It is as society pushes weight to be a determinant of the respect you believe yourself to be worthy of that it uncovers its progressive disguise and reveals the true repetition of a need to conform, oppression, and isolation.

It is easy for anyone to promote inclusivity and self-love to a minority of people who fulfill, or at least appear to fulfill, the lifestyle they idealise. While choices that contradict this are frequently deemed a result of laziness, this fails to acknowledge that one diet or way of living isn’t suitable for an entire population. 

As healthy food becomes increasingly expensive and less available to people on lower incomes, it is unfair to expect someone on a lower income to live the same lifestyle as someone with a larger amount of wealth. Medications, health problems, pregnancy and changes in life can all also have an impact on weight. Although this is not an exhaustive list, it demonstrates the complexities of body image that narrow minded comparisons based on appearance alone fail to recognise.

It’s disappointing that this recognition seems to remain a fantasy as the serious consequences of diet culture and idealising unrealistic body standards persist. No one is immune to eating disorders, and this is demonstrated in cases of anorexia in children as young as 6 years old. Eating disorders are not limited to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, but include orthorexia, binge eating disorder and more. It is a sensitive topic but should be spoken about without shame or judgement. 

In a world where body types can be shared, criticizsd and praised, the only consistency seems to lie not in the ever-changing trends, but in the repeating influence they have over people’s lives. The 2000s era supermodel skinny trends re-emerge in the form of heroin chic, while the promotion of fit girl eras continue to disguise the promotion of calorie restrictions and over-exercising with ‘wellness culture’. 

Instead of constantly wishing for change, we could teach ourselves and others to be proud of our familial features

Chubby filters, controversial Kate Moss audios and the use of Ozempic dominate social media platforms whilst continuing to blur the line between healthiness and skinniness. It’s too easy to blame an individual for “giving-in” to what you might deem an obviously bad idea, when the favourite body standard of the time can be pushed onto you by any social media platform. It would be naive to underestimate the influence of social media on body image.

Society's expectations for you to conform to a stranger's vision of the best version of yourself while simultaneously claiming to be inclusive is nothing short of confusing. For example, when someone explains the feminist motivations for their cosmetic surgery, as they insist that they are doing it for themselves, what is making them feel it is necessary to change? Is it an effect of social media or are the persistent jokes from people around them intruding their inner monologue and eroding their self-esteem? 

Unfortunately, it appears that there is an idealised image of what a person should look like with minimal room for variation. Cosmetic surgery can, of course, improve your confidence and give you a new level of comfort in your own body, however, it is important to be sure that this won’t change like trends and societal controls often do. Instead of constantly wishing for change, we could teach ourselves and others to be proud of our familial features, rather than conforming to the feminist facade of changing yourself for someone else, all in the name of self-love.

Everyone has different goals in life, but no one deserves to have these controlled by a desire to change after being inspired by the judgment from others. You don’t always need to fit an idealised body standard to make the most of your life, but you do need enough food to have the energy to enjoy it. None of this is to say that you cannot change yourself but sometimes reaching a new body standard won’t bring you the satisfaction you might imagine if it’s unsustainable and creates stress or melancholy. It is your body, your choice and your life, not someone else’s, yet it is too often that we see society negatively influencing people’s lives. It would be a nicer world if everyone could see the beauty within it rather than criticizing it first.

Advice for dealing with an eating disorder can be found here. 

Published 10 June 2025