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My network is evolving right now, and I have faced a couple of challenges along the way. I am sure that they will continue to happen, but I will not stop until I find the correct network that can help me achieve my goals. I have started by reaching out to influencers in Colombia who have openly discussed their struggles with food and body image. I have only received one response, and I am waiting to see who else I can contact who might be helpful in this area. I have also started reaching out to several organizations that are trying to combat this in various ways, such as NAAFA (BBC). However, I have also started to reach out to several support groups dealing with eating disorders, but want to find more to reach out to and will continue to research this is a challenge because a lot of these groups are very closed, and the people participating in some of them might not want to discuss their struggles since this is something that is still very taboo in a lot of societies. I also have reached out to several artists, including Ally Z, who creates pieces about her experience with her several eating disorder struggles and how it looks different at several times and what it means to her (Ally). I have also started looking at more artists with a similar goal whom I could contact. I also was able to look at some of the previous projects that were done in the masters that are relevant to my topic and decided to contact them as well to see what similarities they might have and ways in which they could help me complete a meaningful project tis artists are Shuang Zheng who looked at eating disorders in China and how there could be a change on education (Zheng). One thing that I discussed with my tutor is the fact that I want to do something after I graduate pertaining fashion, marketing, journalism or PR and I want to try to build a network around it in order to create something that can help when I graduate as well which includes reaching out to different magazines as news papers and some different media outlets as well as experts in this fields that I might find and I will continue to work on who else is relevant in my network. One person I have access to, whom I had not even realized, is my aunt, who I actually have had several conversations with this past week, since she is an activist in Colombia and has been involved in aspects pertaining to our culture, and our conversations actually led me to look at my project from many different angles that one might not even realize are possibilities. However, I am aware that plans might change, since networking is very challenging and it can be hard to get a response at times. I will have to look at different people than the ones I have planned, but everything is doable if I stay persistent, even when it is hard. 

(No date) Eat well – Shuang Zheng – Ual Showcase. Available at: https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/510139/cover (Accessed: 21 May 2026). 

What is the history of body positivity? (2023) BBC Bitesize. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z2w7dp3 (Accessed: 20 May 2026). 

This weekend I went to the exhibition of Tracy Emin taking place in the Tate modern and it was very interesting to see her journey and how she suffered so much after having had an abortion which came with a story because she went to a doctor in a church and the doctor had told her previously that there was a 99.9% chance that she could never get pregnant because of a bad case of gonorea she had previously so she never took precautions to not get pregnant but then she got pregnant and wanted an abortion and was upset because if she had known that there was a possibility of being pregnant she would have taken precautions and then the same doctor who had told her this did not want to help her get an abortion because of religious ideals and tried to brain wash her into thinking that it would make her a bad person. She went through a terrible depression and stopped painting for a while, but then started to create art because of her experience, and I thought this was really interesting because she felt as if she was not the owner of her own body; she was told her body was made to make the child who was inside her. 

Episode 2: Breaking Down Patriarchy and Body Image – an Interview with Dr. Lindsay Kite

This is a podcast by Dr. Lindsay Kite, author of the book Beauty Redefined. She is a very accomplished woman with a PhD in female body image, and she works to help women reject being treated or viewed as objects and reconnect with their own bodies. In this podcast one of the main things that are talked about is how as women we grow up with images and are told to treat our bodies as objects which leads to self objecification which lead to them looking from the outside and only caring about looks, this is something that starts happening from the age of 5 and 6 because of the society or the social construct we are around this is something that makes people feel less than others or as not good enough not just fiscally but also in their humanity as people and personalities and who they are at their core.

There is also the talk of the “Split” from the human bodies, which is something that starts after childhood, when we are always in our bodies, and it’s because we use it as a tool in running, playing, and swimming without thinking about how we look while doing all of the different activities. After a while, and from the social world we live in, there starts to be objectification, and this leads to them feeling as if they are something to change or fix and need to reach perfection, which is not realistic, and this is something that has been seen by the media, as well as what adults say and the social norms we live by. 

A personal exhale she shared is how she was a competitive swimmer and loved it as a child but when she was in high school she became very self concious and ended up quitting because she felt a fear of being judged and seen differently by the boys because of how she looked in a swimsuit and this lead to her starting to hate the sport and stop enjoying it, This is something that is seen in a lot of young girls because they decide to hide instead of participating. 

It is not just men but also women who are enforcing the different beauty standards, as women at times we start to internalize the patriarchy and the beauty standers that are set because women are taught from a young age that beauty is power and they also start to see each other as competition for male approval and also women trying to protect mean and boys from being tempted by the female body. Which means women criticizing each other feeds into the same system. 

There are many comments made to women and girls which hit them in very emotional ways and it is important to understand it, first of girls are raised to think that are only worth what they look like and it is different for boys because they are praised more by their actions and what they are able to do while girls are only looked at by their appearances and this changes the different gender identities as a whole.

It is important to know that when people just compliment female bodies, we are more than just our bodies; they are tools to get through life. It is not just about self-confidence and loving what we look like, but about getting back to experiencing life in our bodies. 

https://www.instagram.com/naafaofficial

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_acceptance_movement#:~:text=Critics%20say%20NAAFA%2C%20which%20opposes,same%20rights%20as%20everyone%20else.

NAAFA is the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, and I plan to reach out to them because of their focus on promoting acceptance of different body types and equity for all, no matter what. There is a lot of criticism when it comes to them because they do not agree with dieting and weight loss surgery, and people believe that this means that people will not change their habits if they have unhealthy habits, and it enables, but they also have some solid arguments when it comes to loving one’s own body.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-02/the-problem-with-the-body-mass-index-bmi/100728416

People calculate BMI using a simple formula: weight in kilograms divided by height in meters. It puts you in specific body-mass categories. 

The categories are very black-and-white. If you are underweight, if you are less than 18.5, you are normal weight if you are 18.5-24.9, and you are considered obese if you are higher than 30. People believe it is simple, but in reality, it makes the subject simple and creates very radical feelings. 

The BMI scale was developed in the 1830s by the Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet, who was not a medical professional. What is really interesting and funny is that this was never his goal for BMI to become such a relevant thing, but to find the weight and height of the average man, whatever that means; it was never about health or a measure of it. This was a measure in which only Western European men participated. In the 1970s, Ancel Keys proposed it as a way to study obesity, and the study was conducted only on men. 

There are many flaws with BMI. First of all, we can see how it works when applied to a large group, but it is not to be used for individual health assessments. Another difference is that there is no distinction or further investigation of muscle, fat, and bone, which is why athletes mostly score as overweight; it is mostly muscle weight. There is also no breakdown by ethnicity, age, or gender. There is the fact that healthy BMIs differ across groups and populations. It is very interesting to look at the fact that there are people with a high BMI who are considered healthy, but others who have a normal BMI who suffer from several health issues because of this. 

There are some medical and emotional consequences when it comes to this and one of the main things that happens is that it can cause it might cause shame and stigma, some people avoid medical care because at times they feel that doctors are only focused on their weight, the high weight stigma causes people to get discouraged and accept that they can not gee a healthier body and finally BMI become a tool for judgment instead of something that actually helps. 

BMI is still used for several reasons, two thirds of people in Australia are considered overweight or obese by the use of BMI alone, the reason why it is still used is because it is really easy to use it takes limited costs and it is easy to measure, it is really useful when doing large scale reaserch for example it helped at the time when COVID 19 vaccines were hard to get to sort out individuals who could be considered high risk and experts believe it can be used but not alone there needs to be more context when it comes to measuring bodies. 

There are better alternatives they could use in this sense, such as measuring the waist, which can help better assess health risks and the risks they entail. Women with high waist measurements have increased medical risks, and one fact that some people don’t realize is that the fat in your abdomen is more dangerous than in every other part of the body. 

There are different situations that doctors suggest doing, and one of them is focusing more on behaviors and habits, and not just weight, and also looking more at habit building can have more of a difference than losing weight. 

I was walking through London one afternoon and wandered into a gallery called Galeries Bartoux. I was very intrigued because they had several pieces that embodied the female body in different forms. The collection I was most interested in was a set of three sculptures, because I felt it embodied the form of a body during sport, showing it in different dimensions, such as when she was resting and when she was exercising. I thought this was interesting, as women as subject matter in art can be beautiful, but it can also become complicated. I think it might be worth it for me to go again and look at them more closely, as well as the art that surrounds them, which might be correlated to the female physique when it is active. I also found it interesting that they are showing women as athletes, not just as static objects, as sometimes happens.

https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/11/06/laura-tobon-dedico-un-mensaje-a-quienes-la-siguen-en-redes-sociales-que-se-comparen-conmigo-no-es-realista

Laura Tobón is a revered and very well-known personality and model in Colombia. She is one of the most well-known internationally and is also known because of her work on TV networks. In a recent social media post, she says it is not realistic for young girls to compare themselves to her and that they should not feel pressured to look like her. She said people should not compare themselves to her because being a public figure is her full-time job, and if it is not your full-time job, you should not have the same expectations she has. She expressed that she would have liked to see a video or message on her social media, because people only show a perfect life at different times. She says there are many comparisons on social media, which make many people feel different kinds of insecurities and make them feel smaller or as if they are not worth it. She expresses that social media is a small piece of reality and creates expectations that are unsustainable for others. People who are content creators have a whole team that helps them with aesthetics, and this happens mostly on a daily basis. This is not the reality for most people. She says people should not aspire to this because it is her job, and if it is not your job, it is not realistic to consider it real life. This shows the expectations people have and how comparisons and the social media world have created great controversy, and even this video she posted created a great deal of controversy.

https://tma.socsci.uva.nl/23_2/ochoa.pdf

This journal speaks about Medellín, Colombia, and how bodies are viewed and seen differently, and it was written by Ana María Ochoa. There is an ideal of western body types of being in a thin body and it happens more in the richer parts of the country however even though there is a change in how people view the world and it is seen in a more global perspective there are still different standards in different countries, this has lead to there being a lot of problems in how young women see their bodies and in their health especially when it comes to countries in Latin America were the ideal has started to change into the idea of being as thin as possible. This is thought to be happening because of the way bodies are understood in the United States and Europe, and the body images seen there. In Medellín, this is considered the ideal body, and it is valued; people depend on it for their sense of self-worth as persons. However, the controversy is that curves are also valued and important, which leads to extreme practices among many girls in Medellín. In this article, they discuss treason and why it occurs, including factors such as political and gender inequality and community pressure in this city. 

The main people who suffer from pressure are mostly adolescents, and the ideas are shared in similar ways all over the world, especially in Western society. The way this is sent into the world shapes the exercise and eating habits girls adopt. In Colombia, it is assumed that the pressure that young girls feel is because of American and European beauty standards, and that is why they want to achieve extreme thinness. This might be somewhat true; there is more to it in the background, such as political and gender norms. Body dissatisfaction is most common in richer countries, especially in Western societies. Girls want to achieve extreme thinness, and boys want to appear extremely masculine. Studies have shown that there has been an increase in eating disorders in countries such as Japan, Malaysia, and China, and there have been similar studies done in Fiji, where being fat is seen as a positive result of love and support. Studies have shown that women who start to see the Western media have higher levels of body dissatisfaction. There is also a shift toward a more Western way of life in countries such as Iran and Tunisia. However, things are seen differently in different countries, such as the fact that Hong Kong anorexics do not believe that it is because of fat shaming but because of the suffering they get through bloating and having little to no appetite. In places like San Andres and Belize, it is very uncommon for people to strive for extreme thinness; their ideal body is the Coca-Cola-shaped body. Eating disorders and their symptoms differ across cultural settings. 

Being thin is often considered the ideal for girls, as it signifies beauty, health, success, and self-control. Something that is very surprising is that girls in Latin America have a higher level of body dissatisfaction than girls in the European country of Spain. This is mostly based on the media and the idea that what is considered attractive is normal and should be easily achievable. 

Colombia, as a country, has very specific beauty standards; women in Colombia are expected not just to be thin but also curvy, meaning large breasts, a flat stomach, and thick hips. There is also a lot of value placed on people with European features, such as light hair, light eyes, and being tall. This is not the reality of most women in Colombia, which leads to girls being very critical and feeling severely insufficient in their bodies. 

Ana Maria Ochoa conducted research on high school girls in Medellín between 1999 and 2000 to better understand how they viewed their bodies and body image. The way she conducted this investigation was through interviews, focus groups, observations, and the stories the girls shared. There was a range: some girls did not care much about their appearance, while others were very focused on dieting and losing weight. A common belief among some of them was that having what was considered the right body would make them more worthy and better accepted by society, especially if they were more attractive to boys. 

Medellín is considered the fashion capital of Colombia, and beauty, modeling, and appearance are highly valued in society. There has been a shift in traditional family and social values driven by social media and modernization, making society even more focused on appearance, status, and competition, so most girls feel even more pressure as young girls. 

Medellin and Colombia have a strong culture of modeling, celebrities, and beauty queens, which influences girls in Medellin. Many girls compare themselves to these figures whose job it is to look this way, and they feel as if they don’t look similar enough. According to the girls who were interviewed, they believed that men have a preference for women who are thin but still have curves, and these are considered perfect bodies. This leads to girls feeling pressured to complete diets, exercise, and change their natural body shapes in order to gain social approval and the male gaze. 

Many of the girls who took part in this research followed unhealthy diets to lose weight; some skipped meals and ate only certain foods they considered healthy, such as fruit, and counted calories very obsessively. For a lot of the girls, eating less became a form of discipline and self-control, and on the other hand, eating too much made them feel weak or guilty. These extreme habits caused several health concerns and physical effects, such as dizziness, headaches, stomach discomfort, and an obsession with food. 

The only reason why people feel this pressure is not only from the media but also from family, friends, and teachers. Some girls were insulted by their brothers, mothers, and classmates. Mothers want their daughters to look as perfect as possible and comment on their daughters’ bodies to try to improve their appearance. They also saw how men mostly treated and judged women because of the way they look, but men feel less pressure and are less critiqued. 

Excessive is another method used to achieve the dream body. The belief that they needed to be thin while still having muscle led girls to spend hours at the gym, scared of gaining weight or looking flabby. Excessive is not just about health in Colombia, but about being accepted by society and following the status quo. 

There is also a very large culture when it comes to plastic surgery, and it is accepted in Medellin, with the most common being breast implants and liposuction in order to have the perfect bodies, which is seen as normal. Surgeries are planned by girls at a very young age, and sometimes they are gifts from parents for important birthdays. Even though it has the nickname of “Silicon City”.

There are a lot of girls with lower socioeconomic status (SES), who are also considered, who come from poorer backgrounds and have a different or lower economic position. When people are attractive, they think it will help them get better partners, jobs, and a better life in general. Most of these girls from lower economic backgrounds sometimes face a lot of backlash because of where they live, which forces them to look well-presented and always as perfect as possible, as part of survival. 

There is also a Narco-Asthetic culture because of the drug trafficking history in Medellin, which has had an influence on the different beauty standards. One can see a high value placed on curves and cosmetic surgery, as well as a way of life that emphasizes being very showy in what you do and what you own. The television and the media glamorize this lifestyle, leading young girls to believe they need to reach this level to achieve success and security. 

In Colombia, there are beauty vs. Beauty contradictions: it is a message that comes from both sides of society.: Health is very important to stay healthy,, but there is also the extreme pressure to stay thin and look attractive. This leads to a lot of girls taking part in unhealthy diets and having different surgeries in order to get to this level, and this really leads to this contradiction that you have to be healthy but thin at the same time.

In this article, at the end, we see that there is a social construct in Medellin, influenced by the media, gender expectations, and inequality, that ties together in the culture and exposes young girls to an impossible beauty standard. There are some girls who are able to deal with this and can deal with the pressure from other girls, who end up with health issues and are not able to deal with it well, resulting in body obsession. Girls who come from a lower socioeconomic background don’t feel that it is just about appearance, but it is about being accepted by different levels of society. 

Lisa Rinna, a very well-known actress in LA, is also recognized for her work in reality TV and her openness about her daughter’s struggles with food and anorexia. She took part in an episode of American Horror Story called “Tapeworm,” where she played a model agent who acts as a mentor to a young girl desperate to enter the modeling industry. Her agenda is to get the young girl to change her body type and appearance, insisting she achieve the “perfect” body required to succeed in this industry. This leads the girl to go to extreme measures, such as using a substance similar to Ozempic, even though she was not medically in need of it. Later, when that stopped having its seemingly magical effect, she started to take tapeworms as pills, allowing them to consume the food she was eating, which led to various health problems. Although she was doing everything “right” according to her own standards, she was still not attaining the expected body type naturally and resorted to other methods. This was almost expected, as she learned about a doctor who could help her from another model seeking to lose weight. He continued suggesting these outrageous ideas, and the model agent was aware of how the girl was achieving this level of thinness.