‘The stigma over having a larger body is intense’: The Irish filmmaker trying to redefine our body image ideals

"We are being told we don’t deserve to be loved or respected because of how we look."

Swimsuit season - two words that will strike excitement, fear, exasperation or a mix of all of these into the hearts of... well, everyone. When the sun comes out, for lots of us so too do our body insecurities. Now an Irish filmmaker is asking why that is and tackling the issue at its root. In the same week that Love Island returns to bring a very specific body type to our TV screens, Straight/ Curve: Redefining Body Image premieres in Ireland. In it, producer Jenny McQuaile speaks to models, media and fashion industry insiders and, most strikingly, ordinary young girls about the media's narrow view of beauty. It unpacks how this view has warped what we see as healthy and attractive and aims to change the conversation. For Jenny, the project was a long time in the making. She began her career as a journalist in Dublin and then London in the 2000s before taking off to travel. "While backpacking for four years I met so many people with incredible stories that needed to be told visually and not just in the written word," she tells us. "This drove me to think about visual storytelling and led me to documentary filmmaking." She decided to go to the states to up-skill, Googling  "documentary production degree. America. Cheap". "Brooklyn College came up! I applied, got in and moved to New York City seven years ago this August." Jenny cut her teeth on film and TV sets, working her way up from production assistant to assistant director and even earning letters of recommendation from Susan Sarandon and Naomi Watts - but decided to leave that behind for documentary making.  

"Our fake concern over fat peoples’ health... drives a multi billion dollar diet industry."

Straight/Curve came about as Jenny says she was "sick of seeing thin, white women being presented as the only way to look." "When I was growing up there was literally no alternative and still today there is a dire lack of representation of what women really look like - the entire spectrum." Representation matters, she says, because if women don't see themselves reflected, they start to believe they're not "good enough."

"We are being told we don’t deserve to be loved or respected because of how we look. "Women and girls everywhere are internalising this and the statistics are shocking. "Seventy per cent of girls believe the media sets an unrealistic standard of beauty; 36 per cent of seven-to-ten-year-olds believe the most important thing about them is the way they look; and 79 per cent of girls opt out of important life activities because of how they feel about their bodies. "We have to change this and fight back."

In the three years that Straight/ Curve took to make, Jenny says the biggest change in her mindset was the notion that size is an indicator of health.

"I decided to dive deeper and I now realise how untrue and dangerous this idea is. "Our fake concern over fat peoples’ health is just implicit bias in its ripest form. The shame and stigma attached to having a larger body is intense and drives a multi billion dollar diet industry. "Millions of girls, and boys, across the world are being driven to eating disorders, body dysmorphia and even death because they think they have to be thin to be accepted - THAT is a public health crisis."

The film debuted in the US in 2017 to an overwhelmingly positive reaction. Jenny found herself popping up in Vogue and People Magazine, as well as on Good Morning America and The Today Show - but said the best part of it all has been the response from teenagers. "I’ve travelled around the US to schools and colleges over the last two years and showing the film to the people who need to see it the most has been inspiring," she says.   "I feel hopeful for the future." Two years on from its US release, is the film still relevant now? Yes, Jenny says, and probably will for a long time to come.

"Body image issues and the lack of diversity and inclusion are as rife today as they were two years ago [but] the fashion industry and media have started to change. "Since I began making this film five years ago I have seen a lot of progress. "Brands and designers are using more women of different sizes and colours and ages. But it’s not enough! Nowhere near it."

Still, Straight Curve doesn't aim to attack and will, Jenny predicts, eventually serve as "an historical account of the fashion industry at a true turning point."

"I feel hopeful for the future. It feels like an holistic change across all of the sectors of the industry, which is what is needed for sustainable change. "We are seeing different bodies on TV, in magazines, on runways and on social media. That is a start."

So what's next for the Irish journo turned New York City filmmaker? A documentary on masculinity, Jenny reveals. "While screening Straight/Curve I kept being asked ‘what about the boys?’ "Boys and men do suffer from body image issues too and these are so intrinsically linked to what it is to ‘be a man’. I’m fascinated to explore this in the #MeToo era."   Straight/ Curve is available on iTunes in Ireland now.