Taylor Swift’s positive influence on her fans’ body image and eating disorders

Summary: A new study shows that Taylor Swift’s openness about her body image and eating disorder issues positively influences her fans’ attitudes. Researchers analyzed thousands of online comments and found that her fans see Swift as a role model for recovery and feel inspired by her openness.

Despite the positive influence, some fans still objectify Swift’s body, highlighting the complexity of celebrity influence on societal norms. This research highlights the power of Swift’s revelations in promoting healthier attitudes towards body image.

Important facts:

1. Positive influence: Swift’s openness inspires fans to improve their body image and eating habits.
2. Ongoing objectification: Some fans continue to objectify Swift despite her message.
3. Celebrity Power: Swift’s influence can significantly affect society’s attitudes towards body image.

Taylor Swift’s past struggles with body image, eating disorders and body objectification have had an overall positive impact on her fans’ attitudes toward these issues, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Vermont (UVM).

The new research, published in the journal Social Sciences and Medicine, analyzed the 200 most popular TikTok and Reddit posts – including over 8,300 online comments – about Taylor Swift, eating disorders, and body image to determine the impact of Swift’s revelations about her past eating disorder on her fans.

“Our findings suggest that fans who felt a strong connection to Swift were influenced by Swift’s revelations and messages in her music to positively change their behavior or attitudes toward food or body image,” says Associate Prof. Lizzy Pope of UVM’s Department of Nutrition and Food Science, a registered dietitian.

“Fans seemed to be inspired by the fact that Swift had overcome her eating disorder and seemed to be doing well afterward,” adds Kelsey Rose, a clinical assistant professor at UVM and a registered dietitian who specializes in the treatment of eating disorders.

By analyzing thousands of online comments, researchers were able to identify several positive aspects, the most important of which was that fans viewed Swift as a role model for eating disorder recovery and were inspired by Swift’s story or her art for their own recovery.

Several of Swift’s songs reference eating disorders or the pressure of body image. Swift has also spoken openly about her struggles with eating disorders, body image, and body objectification in her 2020 film Miss Americana.

These revelations are unique in that they challenge societal norms that perpetuate a diet culture, which in turn can be driven by celebrity culture, the researchers say.

Swift’s openness helped reduce the stigma surrounding eating disorders among her fans, the researchers say. That’s important because other research has shown that shame associated with stigma can reduce help-seeking and have negative health effects.

However, despite Swift’s overall positive impact, her fans often objectified Swift’s body, and researchers found that Swift’s artistic choice to depict the word “fat” on a scale in her video for “Anti-Hero” sparked conflicting debates.

Even when her fans praised Swift, they sometimes damaged society’s image of thinness.

“Even though Swift says in Miss Americana, ‘I’m so sick of being objectified and it drove me to an eating disorder,’ fans still commented on her body. Even though it was meant positively, fans still commented, which means they didn’t fully internalize her message of ‘Please stop commenting on people’s bodies,'” Pope said.

The authors found that even when fans wanted to defend Swift, they continued to objectify her by saying things like, “She’s gained weight and looks so happy and healthy now.”

Surrounded by students who idolize Swift and are receptive to diet culture, Pope and Rose were inspired to explore the impact of Swift’s eating revelations on their fans’ relationships with eating disorders, their own bodies, and diet culture.

The study’s findings show that Swift’s public disclosure of her own struggles with eating disorders and diet culture empowered her fans, but also highlighted that individual disclosures are limited in their ability to address broader systemic issues like obesity bias.

Importantly, fans of all body sizes self-identified in comments reflecting how Swift’s honesty has helped them with their own relationship with food/body. Swift’s Eras Tour currently has a cast of dancers of varying body sizes, challenging the notion that there is only one body size for professional dancers, the researchers say.

The researchers hope their research could encourage Swift and celebrities like her to use their influence on society.

“Taylor Swift can do more to change mindsets in a few sentences than we can in our entire careers,” Pope said.

“That’s why it’s important to study people who have such influence. There’s little doubt that Swift, if she chooses to do so, can be a powerful voice for health, wellness and more weight-conscious practices that could bring society closer to the idea of ​​body liberation.”

About this research news on body image and eating disorders

Author: Rene Dillon
Source: University of Vermont
Contact: Ren Dillon – University of Vermont
Picture: The image is from Neuroscience News.

Original research: Open access.
“‘It’s all just fucking impossible’: The impact of Taylor Swift on fans’ body image, eating disorders, and diet culture rejection” by Lizzy Pope et al. Social Sciences & Medicine

Abstract

“It’s all just damn impossible”: Taylor Swift’s impact on fans’ body image, eating disorders and rejection of diet culture

Taylor Swift is arguably one of the most popular and influential celebrities. What is particularly interesting is her role as a role model for millions of fans around the world. Swift has spoken openly about various cultural issues, including her struggle with eating disorders and diet culture.

The purpose of this article, therefore, was to find out whether Swift’s revelations about her own issues with eating and body image have impacted her fans.

To examine relevant themes, over 200 TikTok and Reddit posts about Swift and eating disorders or body image, as well as their associated comments, were qualitatively coded.

Key themes included: 1) Swift as a role model for eating disorder recovery, 2) using or identifying with certain Swift songs to illustrate eating or body image issues, 3) continued objectification of Swift’s body, and 4) conflicting reactions to a scene in Swift’s video for “Anti-Hero” that depicted the word “fat” on a scale.

Overall, Swift’s revelations about her own eating and body image issues have had a positive impact on her fans’ attitudes toward their eating and body image.

This analysis illustrates the positive influence that celebrities can have, but also shows that personal disclosures have limited value in understanding systemic issues like anti-fat bias.