Abstract
Most of us are trying to salvage what's left of the promises we made to ourselves in the new year. One of my resolutions – to learn the ukulele – has already crumbled, and the ukulele that my sister got me years ago still sits sad and unplayed in the corner of the room. By this point, resolutions are in one of three phases: happening, but only occasionally; being constantly thought about, but never acted upon; or already forgotten.
The thing is, people are becoming fed up with new year resolutions. This is probably because most people's resolutions are no longer their own. The new year and all its resolution-making glory has been stolen – hijacked like many things – by the consumerist culture we live in.
Resolutions have the potential to be positive and exciting. But in a consumerist society they are mainly just another ploy to remind us how awful we are, so then we go out and buy more stuff. For women and girls, this pressure is especially high, as the diet industry targets us and chimes its overused line about “new year, new beginnings and a new you.”
A flashback to the beginning of January: everywhere there are advertisements for diet classes or trashy self-help weight-loss books. There are posters making promises you will lose this amount by this date, like Jean, 22, from Cornwall did in just six weeks. Articles online marvel at the performance of a new diet pill that “shocks doctors” and “really does work”. Coincidentally, a new gym has just opened down the road. It's charging £30 a month on “special offer”, and there is an army of women with clipboards lined up outside the door, telling you just how affordable it really is. Even body-confidence campaigner Natasha Devon is supporting Slimming World's latest campaign – because confidence is all about looking slim, right?
Every magazine, every tabloid newspaper, is ramping up the criticism of women's bodies, teen magazines included. I sit with the latest edition of some tattered magazine that I can't remember the name of in the doctor's waiting room. It's a few weeks into January and Beyonce's baby bump is already being speculated upon, Jennifer Lopez's boobs have just been commented on at the Golden Globes and Daniella Westbrook is being criticised for taking the bins out make-up free.
All this is bullshit. But it's bullshit we buy into. Even if we don't buy it personally, it's the wallpaper of our society And it's having a particularly negative impact on girls and women, as many of us strive to lose weight, get fit and reach an ideal. The pressure in the new year is worse than ever, and we know that we shouldn't feel pressured, but we can't help it when everything around us is telling us to.
So now most of us are in phase two and feeling awful about ourselves. If we're lucky, we'll reach phase three, but when it comes to body image, most of us never do. The diet adverts will be as persistent as ever and we'll go into a cycle of feeling endlessly bad because we're not changing our lifestyle choices to adhere to the ones in the magazines.
When the next new year comes, we'll attempt to start dieting all over again, we'll see if that gym membership works out “just one more time”. It seems to be an endless cycle.
Where it becomes hardest for me is when I start thinking about the kind of example I'm setting for my sister. If we, as women, take the time to imagine the messages that we're sending to every girl and woman we know, suddenly things become different. When I criticise my weight or my height or the spots on my face, I think about my little sister. I know I wasn't born hating my body, that this self-loathing was learned. And as soon as I rationalise to that point, I wonder about what I'm teaching. As a woman, it is hard to love myself, but if I think of loving myself as being more loving to others – for example, my sister and my young cousin – I suddenly have a situation that makes me want to reject everything the media are feeding me.
More and more women are doing it. This year, I noticed something new. My Facebook feed was filled with “alternative” ideas. Whether they were alternative resolutions – or alternative ideas to resolutions – the online sphere was buzzing with creativity. People are becoming fed up with the new year resolutions that are being prescribed to us by advertisers. Many do not want to be spoon-fed anymore – we want to make informed and realistic choices about what we want to change for ourselves and others.
Hopefully we're seeing a new backlash here – a revolt against harmful conditioning. If mainstream media publications don't offer an alternative slant and a fresh and imaginative perspective in the next few years, they will be in danger of looking tired, old and boring.