Celebrating Our Natural Sizes, Part I
Nobody knows, nobody knows but me
That I sometimes cry, if I could pretend that I’m asleep
When my tears start to fall
I peek out from behind these walls
I think nobody knows, nobody knows, no- Pink, Nobody Knows
In Canada, the first full week of February is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. For 2010, it happens to fall from February 1st to 7th and for those of you in B.C., you’ll notice that falls precariously close to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Locally, it looks like most events will be put off until the first week of March; For the rest of Canada, NEDIC has a listing of some of the events, seminars and such going on next week.
For our part, we’re going to talk about it both weeks, if only just to be cheeky. This week: a short look at the media.
Every day from advertising to TV & movies, we are bombarded by messages telling us what’s “normal”, what’s “beautiful” and what we should want. Even if you don’t watch TV or go see a movie, there are billboards and posters everywhere (even at school and in bathroom stalls!), and I bet even the songs you listen to will occasionally tell you why that girl/guy’s body was soooooo hot.
On top of that, “media-portrayed images, especially those presented in the context of advertisements for dieting and weight-altering products, promote the idea that body shape and size are flexible, and that achieving the thin ideal is relatively easy.” (chain-referenced from About-Face.org) In the real world, though, it’s not easy… and the ideal you’re trying to achieve isn’t just a one-in-a-million supermodel, it’s a one-in-a-million supermodel that then got photoshopped and airbrushed.
The media isn’t the cause of eating disorders, it does try to tell us that we should be thin (and beautiful) to be happy.
There is much, much more to you than your body. Challenge what you see and let’s learn what’s beautiful about the real you.
Links:
- The Real Me Experience is an interactive web site for young women. It’s basically surveys and exercises to help you reflect on yourself, your self-esteem and body image. It’s completely private, and your account (free, no e-mail required) stays open for 30 days, then is deleted. It takes around 2 hours to do, but you can do it little by little as long as you have your account.
- About Face is an organization based in San Francisco that runs workshops and a web site to help equip women “to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image.”
- NEDIC stands for the National Eating Disorders Information Centre. It is a program of the University Health Network in Toronto.
Posted by Youth In BC at January 30th, 2010 under Blog.
Write a comment