I take the question, what is body image? seriously. Body image starts with the body, so that’s where I begin.

The body forms the foundation of our biological, psychological, and sociocultural being. For good or ill, our bodies can be liberating and constraining, alive with agency, yet subject to influence and control. It’s within this multidimensional and complex frame that body image—the particular perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours we have about our body— continually takes shape.

This means body image is inherently open: what body image is depends on how the body is personally experienced. Yet studies have often focused on singular aspects of the body—such as appearance or weight satisfaction—and presented their findings under the umbrella term body image. Doing so risks conflating the part with the whole, reducing a complex phenomenon to a narrow slice of experience.

We experience the body as both one and many, a singular whole made up of different parts, each with its own appearance, function, and meaning, that can feel seamlessly unified or distinctly separate. Because we can experience the body in both singular and plural ways, body image may appear as a single, global experience or as many distinct, site-specific experiences. Importantly, even a singular, global experience is an integration of multiple, interconnected experiences that create a sense of unity.

Tip: In my work, body image refers to the overarching conceptual construct, whereas body image experience describes a particular, lived expression of that construct as it emerges in people’s lives.

Adding the term experience serves as a reminder that the body and body image are multifaceted phenomena, open to multiple forms of experience. It also gives us a way to move between whole-body and site-specific experiences without collapsing one into the other.

I take a body image experience to be any discrete perception, thought, feeling, or behaviour—or any combination of these—that arises in relation to one’s body, whether as a whole or in relation to any of its parts.

In practice, this might involve, for example, referring to a specific body image experience—or cluster of experiences—relating to hair, appearance, physical functionality or our body as a whole. Ultimately, it depends on what’s being studied.

Body image experiences may be satisfying in some ways and distressing in others, or ambivalent, creating conflict and tension. Across time and space—whether throughout the day or during different life stages—some of these experiences may, knowingly or unknowingly, intensify or fade, be reinforced or resisted, remain enduring and trait-like, or fluidly reshape and transform entirely.

We shouldn’t make generalisations about the body and body image experiences as if they’re the same for everyone. Instead, we need to understand their relationship for particular people, in particular periods and places, where different internal and external influences come into play. When we explore these relationships, the contours of someone’s body image experiences begin to come to light.

However, this complexity is why body image research will always be, to some degree, partial. No study can capture the body and body image in their entirety. Some studies may illuminate more than others, but each remains necessarily contextualised and limited—as all research inevitably is. This is why being able to differentiate between body image and specific body image experience(s) is critical: it offers a conceptual grounding and a language that’s attuned to the complexities of the body and body image.  

In light of this, one way to approach body image in research and writing without reducing it is to ask under what conditions particular body image experiences tend to come to the fore, rather than attempting to account for every possible influence at once. Framing questions in this way helps bring analytic focus without losing sight of the broader picture, making it easier to see which bodily aspects, experiences, and influences are most relevant in a given context.

Still, such research offers valuable insight into how people generally experience their body and body image across their many forms. From these findings, we can see patterns, possibilities, and points of reflection that might help us make sense of our own body image experiences. The challenge, then, is to interpret these insights in ways that fit who we are, where we are, and what we need.

While body image as a construct is easily defined, the ways people experience it cannot be so readily fixed or finalised. Body image experiences can endure or shift as bodies, meanings, and contexts change. So, the point isn’t to find a universal answer, but to stay curious about how body image is lived and made meaningful for particular people, in particular periods and places.

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This article does not constitute personalised advice or professional consultation. For personalised assistance, please consult with a relevant professional. The opinions expressed are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect any organisation’s or individual’s views.