What is your body image? How we think about how we look can
either positively or negatively impact our self esteem or how we feel about
ourselves. Our body image is formed out of every positive and negative experience
we have had. Mine started at a young age when my mother complained that she had
to buy me “chubbies” instead of wearing the hand-me-downs of my sisters. It has
continued to take hits from classmates, friends and most of all from what I
call the “tyranny of the media”. Think about all of the images you are
bombarded with on a daily basis – the ones that show the perfect bodies, the
beautiful faces, and even their seemingly perfect lives. This does not even
include the sexualization of women based on their so-called perfection…..and
that message can have us question whether we are attractive if we don’t look "perfect".
What I find so disturbing is that children and teens are so
impressionable. Our children are literally attacked by images through social
media, Youtube videos, magazines, movies, television shows and especially
commercials. Here are some disturbing facts, taken from www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.
·
42% of 1st-3rd grade
girls want to be thinner (Collins, 1991).
·
In elementary school
fewer than 25% of girls diet regularly. Yet those who do know what dieting
involves and can talk about calorie restriction and food choices for weight
loss fairly effectively (Smolak, 2011; Wertheim et al., 2009).
·
81% of 10 year olds
are afraid of being fat (Mellin et al., 1991).
·
46% of 9-11 year-olds
are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets, and 82% of their families are
“sometimes” or “very often” on diets (Gustafson-Larson & Terry, 1992).
·
Over one-half of
teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control
behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and
taking laxatives (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
·
35-57% of adolescent
girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or
laxatives. Overweight girls are more likely than normal weight girls to engage
in such extreme dieting (Boutelle, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, &Resnick, 2002;
Neumark-Sztainer&Hannan, 2001; Wertheim et al., 2009).
·
Even among clearly
non-overweight girls, over 1/3 report dieting (Wertheim et al., 2009).
·
Girls who diet
frequently are 12 times as likely to binge as girls who don’t diet
(Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
·
Of American elementary
school girls who read magazines, 69% say that the pictures influence their
concept of the ideal body shape. 47% say the pictures make them want to lose
weight (Martin, 2010).
·
The average American
woman is 5’4” tall and weighs 165 pounds. The average Miss America winner
is 5’7” and weighs 121 pounds (Martin, 2010).
·
The average BMI of
Miss America
winners has decreased from around 22 in the 1920s to 16.9 in the 2000s. The
World Health Organization classifies a normal BMI as falling between 18.5 and
24.9 (Martin, 2010).
Do these statistics disturb you as much as much as they do me?
Bottom line (no pun intended), we are allowing the media to
erode the vulnerable self-esteem of our children and teens. Here are some
things to think about to help our children, and
us – think of it as putting on strong armor so that these messages don’t
sink in as negative attacks.
Myth: I want to look like a magazine model in real
life.
Fact: Even models don’t look like their pictures in real
life. There are many tricks to
“doctoring” pictures. Some techniques
include airbrushing, computer alterations, special lighting to cast shadows in
just the right places, even black and white photography, especially on
“muscular” men, so that the definition of muscles is greater. All types of media trick us into thinking
that there are people who look far more “perfect” than any person really ever
does.
Fashion models are actually thinner than 98% of women. Why
would we allow this low percentage of people regulate how the rest of us feel?
So, how can we fight this? One way is to have a radical
acceptance of our body and to develop an attitude of gratitude for what our
body actually accomplishes. Here are some of those marvelous accomplishments we
take for granted every day:
•
Fights off infection
•
Allows you to move
•
Rewards you with the sight of a sunset
•
Heals the bruises
•
Expresses emotions
•
Creates another human being
•
Defends you and heals you from attack
•
Gives you pain to inform you that something needs to be
cared for
•
Releases you from pain
•
Allows you to hear the sound of laughter
•
Refreshes you after a night’s sleep
•
Allows you to touch, hear, smell, see, laugh, cry,
scream, and live!
Finally, we are much more than what
we look like. We are strong, loving, intelligent…you can name the adjectives
for yourself. As for your body - respect it, love it and become comfortable
living in and with it! You are so worth it!
Bonnie Lillis, LPC, CI-CBT
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