Our society, as a collective, is far too concerned with body image.

The selective, often sensationalist, & supposedly 'ideal' bodies that are presented through media, advertising, film, television and a myriad of other ways create a dangerously false model of how one ought to look - and hence, how one ought to live.

The phenomena is not only detrimental to girls and women but also to men and boys.

It is responsible for both mental and physical ill-health and/or unfortunate, detrimental and often delusionary eating, nutritional habits and even irrationally extreme measures to change, which often, in themselves, go wrong and make things even worse, rather than better.

I applaud the attention to this topic. It needs to be aired and discussed by men and women, preferably in mixed company as well as by same sex participants.

Our society could benefit greatly from appropriate airing of this issue with children and youth, within the context of defining and appreciating what it is to be human and a 'person'. Simplistic judgments based on appearance serve to increase prejudice, dismiss and demean worthy individuals and ignore the complexities of what congtributes to a person's worth.

I am now 75. As a child I felt ashamed of my body because it was debilitated following Polio, because I had only one working eye and because I had poorly fitting clothes to wear.

As an adult, despite having undertaken strength training and gained considerable stamina, I remained unwilling to take my shirt off in public because I always considered my chest to be unmanly. I still do.

That factor and the frequency with which I would experience involuntary erections also meant that I couldn't bring myself to wear bathing trunks or even tight fitting trousers.

It has always amazed me that any girl or woman found any attraction towards me. Despite much experience, being reasonably intelligent and articulate and having worked in mental health for many years before I retired, I still have those reservations about myself. It simply doesn't really matter any more because I am now reclusive and rarely venture out other than in the dark or if I cannot avoid it.

When I do have to go out, although I'm aware that most people won't notice me at all and wouldn't care what I look like anyway, I still feel second-rate.

So, even as a male and not having been subject to the extent of false sexualising of my sex's bodies as is the case for girls and women, the preoocupation with body image has had a significant effect on my life and personal feeling about myself.

I commend anyone who works towards changing this noxious judgment of people that creates such harm and division and unhappiness.