The second episode of Vogue Williams’ On The Edge is set to air on RTE 2 tomorrow night, and it will cover the issue of body shame. The Howth native will speak to a young man about his struggle with Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
Danny Bowman, a 21-year-old sufferer of the disease, tells Vogue about his body shame, and how it had such a severe impact on his life.
“It all started when I was 14. I was not that popular and girls were not interested in me and I wanted to improve that and I thought the best way was to seek perfection.
“I started taking 10, 20, 30 selfies to examine myself. I was getting up two hours before school and was looking in the mirror. I was struggling in class because I had to leave to take photos. I was taking up to 100 selfies a day.
“I withdrew from school for six months because it got so bad. Then I was taking up to 200 selfies a day and examining every part of them.
“I spent the whole day looking at them. I spent ten hours a day looking in the mirror,” he said.
Danny and other young people explain their battles withy body shame to the model, and she then gives detail about some backlash that she received this year about her own body.
“Body shaming is a nasty virus in our media culture. We women are only thin enough when we are emaciated. When it comes to the shape of our bodies we just can’t win.
“For my generation body anxiety is a part of the landscape of life. Overwhelmed with the pressure to look perfect is it any wonder that I have ended up obsessed with perfection,” she said.
You can catch On The Edge on Tuesday the 15th of November, at 10:30pm on RTE 2.