Emma Flint picks up on how shallow and body-beautiful Ken is portrayed to be in the new Barbie movie compared to Barbie (Paunch-free zone: why the Barbie movie’s body diversity message shortchanges Ken, 24 July). I have a 13-year-old daughter who is sporty, curvy, and has a very positive body image. And a 15-year-old son whom we are currently referring for private counselling due to a gym obsession and possible body dysmorphia.
In my youth, it was girls who felt the pressure to be model-thin or magazine-perfect. Today, boys are bombarded with images of six-packs and bulging biceps, driven by algorithms on social media which risk amplifying a teenage boy’s reasonable interest in the gym into an obsession.
