Body Image

At a recent event, I spoke with a woman who read one of my blogs and she said to me that one thing I wrote had really hit home for her as she raises a daughter. She said to me that girls allow their value to be established by their relationships with boys. We both talked about why this could be and it reminded me of my senior thesis in college.

I got my undergraduate degree in communication. I wrote for my college newspaper, The Sundial, and I was the edior of the sports section for two years. I enjoyed learning about producing media, but I also had a keen interest in critically reading the messages that we are bombarded with each and everyday of our lives.

For my thesis, I decided to survey athletes about a popular women's sports and fitness magazine and if these images of skinny women were impacting these strong and fit athletes in any way. Even further, I wondered how many of them had eating disorders. This blog is not going to be just about eating disorders because eating disorders can also occur for various reasons. There is a theme that when one can't control their environment, an eating disorder gives one back that control.

I wanted to know why women were so obsessed with their bodies. The biggest reason why I wanted to know is because I have always been obsessed with figuring out my own. In fact, during my sophomore year in college, I had an eating disorder. I was bulimic. There is anorexia nervosa. This means that someone does not eat enough and there is bulimia. This is someone that binges and purges. I felt out of control in college for several reasons, which I will probably get into in a later blog. However, once I lost that control, I became obsessed with the way I looked. I do not think this just started in college though. I think it was something that slowly became apparent, and I think a lot of it has to do with the images that are imposed on our young girls each and everyday. I found in my research that there is a lot of work that goes into those images and many of those women are even stretched to appear taller and thinner or touched up, so even the women we see in magazines are not perfect enough. Even though I could critically read the magazine and the other athletes that I surveyed could also do that, many of them were still affected by the images. How can we not be affected by the images?

Here's the catch, in an article by Dr. Mary Rooney of the Child Mind Institute, she says, "When things are kept at a superficial level - the more time they spend shopping, or making themselves attractive, or talking about who's dating who the less time they spend engaged in activities that would actually make them develop positive core values and a positive sense of self." She and others have developed programs to help girls to stop looking for validation from outside sources like boys and instead find their own inner voice.
http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/2012-9-25-girls-healthy-self-esteem-confidence-body-image

Let's not forget about peer pressure and puberty. All of these issues combined is the reason why we need to turn off our televisions and put down the magazines and get outside. That same woman I had a conversation with, posted pictures of a hiking trip that her entire family had taken a few days ago. Her daughter posed for a picture on a mountain top that she had just climbed up. That reminds me of those times when I have felt most like myself and the most in the moment. Those times are when I have been playing or engaging in some type of a sport or while I was surrounded by nature.

In a recent World of Psychology article by Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross, she says that currently 80% of women in the US are dissatified with their appearance and more than 10 million are suffering from eating disorders. She discusses in the article, that the once vulumptuous Marilyn Monroe was replaced with the boyishly thin look that has become known has the western culture look. This look has enforced a belief that full figured women are self indulgent and unhealthy. Below is some additional information sited in the article:

• According to the National Eating Disorders Association, 42 percent of first- to third-grade girls want to lose weight, and 81 percent of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fat.
• According to a study in Pediatrics, about two-thirds of girls in the 5th to 12th grades said that magazine images influence their vision of an ideal body, and about half of the girls said the images made them want to lose weight.
• By adolescence, studies show that young people are receiving an estimated 5,260 “attractiveness messages” per year from network television commercials alone.
• According to Teen magazine, 35 percent of girls ages 6 to 12 have been on at least one diet, and 50 to 70 percent of normal-weight girls think they are overweight. http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/06/02/why-do-women-hate-their-bodies/

Alison 11 Ways to Get Rid of the Body Image Issues
1) Turn off the television and do not buy fashion magazines! Read books on a subject you enjoy while sitting outside on your porch, play a board game with your family, go for a hike, plan a trip to the museum, plan meals for the week and go food shopping, cook, take your dog for a walk etc.
2) Point out to your daughter when a body type is not realistic. Make sure she knows that genetics play a large role in the shape and size of a body.
3) Do not let her life revolve around boys and going to the shopping mall. Make sure she is engaged in outside activities, sports, theater productions, camps, classes etc. Keep her busy as a bee.
4) Cook healthy meals and eat dinner every night at the table. Teach your daugther that eating healthy can make her feel good inside and out.
5) Debunk images when you see them with your daughter. Ask her if the image seems real and then show her something that is real.
6) Seek counseling for your daughter or yourself if you have an eating disorder. Explore all of the issues that can cause an eating disorder. You must educate yourself on the topic and find healthy ways to cope.
7) Have conversations with your daugther about core values. Help her identify what her core values are and how she can use them to express herself and let the outside world affect her.
8) Join a support group or talk to other women about your feelings related to your body. You are not alone.
9) Exercise three to four times a week. Exercise increases endorphines and makes you feel better. Start out by walking around the block. Do not make the exercise about losing weight. Make the exercise about becoming healthy in your mind.
10) Surround yourself with positive people that are not "negative nancies." If you find yourself surrounded by women that complain about their bodies or are trying to achieve this goal of the perfect body, how can you ever feel better about yourelf?
11) Remember that you are not alone and that you can't totally tune out the images and accept that you will be affected by what you see. However, take back your power and create your own reality. Volunteer at a local Boys & Girls Club or Girl Scout program and get involved in helping others debunk the images too. Your body type is your own and there is nobody else out there like you. Celebrate the differences!