Body Image Tropes

Some boys hate themselves
Spend their lives resenting their fathers
Some girls hate their bodies
Stand in the mirror and wait for the feedback

—Arcade Fire, "Creature Comfort"

All people have bodies and all people are vulnerable to angst. Beauty standards can sometimes exclude people who are not quite slim, tall, or beautiful, so why not have a character angsting about their body? But body image is not always negative, and happily, we have tropes about characters who are fine with, and even proud of what they have, even if it is supposedly negative.

Compare with Appearance Angst, Obsession Tropes & Prejudice Tropes.

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Positive Body Image

• Big-Breast Pride: A woman is proud of having large breasts.
• Charm Point: A character's In-Universe most appealing physical feature or personality trait, self-designated or not.
• Distracted by My Own Sexy: A person admires how they look to the point that they're easily distracted by their own reflection.
• Fat and Proud: An overweight character is happy that they are obese.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: A character goes naked or wears revealing clothing because they are unaware of the nudity taboo and are clueless as to why their anatomy would be considered obscene.
• Just the Way You Are: A person is considered attractive without a makeover.
• Petite Pride: A woman is proud of her flat chest.
• Proud Beauty: A character is proud of their good looks.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: A character goes naked because they don't care about the nudity taboo. To hell with anyone who'd be offended by seeing their exposed body!

Negative Body Image

• A-Cup Angst: A woman is upset that her breasts aren't very big.
• Appearance Angst: Being upset about the way you look.
• Baby Don't Got Back: A character is ashamed their butt is small.
• Beautiful Sexual Assault Victim: Beautiful characters are more at-risk for sexual assault.
• Big Prick, Big Problems: A man is unhappy because his penis is huge.
• Blemished Beauty: An otherwise conventionally attractive person doesn't like their physical abnormality.
• Circumcision Angst: A man is ashamed that he's circumcised.
• Compensating for Something: A man uses large weapons, vehicles or other objects because he is insecure about having a small penis.
• D-Cup Distress: A woman is upset about how her breasts are big.
• Defiled Forever (often has overtones of this)
• Fake Boobs
• Fake Muscles
• Food and Body Comparison: Food is used as a metaphor for portions of the body
• Freakiness Shame: One person is ashamed of a trait, someone else admires it.
• Height Angst
• Hollywood Homely: Average looks are treated as ugly.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Fat = bigger than Hollywood Thin.
• Hollywood Thin: Skinnier than normal is seen as normal/ideal.
• Huge Schoolgirl: An abnormally tall schoolgirl is isn't happy with her height.
• I Am Not Pretty: A character is convinced that they are ugly.
• Indifferent Beauty
• I Just Want to Be Beautiful
• Involuntary Shapeshifting
• Internalized Categorism
• Muscle Angst
• The Napoleon: Short and belligerent.
• Nothing but Skin and Bones
• Shoe Size Angst
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse
• Teeny Weenie: A man isn't happy about his small penis.
• Tiny Schoolboy: A schoolboy is unhappy with his small size.
• Weight Woe: An overweight person is miserable about their obesity or when a character internalizes Hollywood Pudgy and Hollywood Thin.

General Body Image

• Beauty Is Best: Being beautiful is better than other traits.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Women with large breasts are considered more desirable.
• Hollywood Beauty Standards: Most people are thin and toned.
• Obliviously Beautiful: Not noticing how beautiful you are.

Reactions To Body Image

• Bemoaning the New Body: Reacting negatively to a transformation.
• Does This Make Me Look Fat?
• House of Broken Mirrors
• I Am Big Boned: An obese person insists that they're not really obese.
• Rage Against the Reflection: A person breaks the mirror they're looking at because they hate how they look.

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