Love Your Body

It's week one of the Love Your Body Project here at Mizzou, as is subtly hinted in the title of the post. The project (I think) was started as a way to increase awareness of eating disorders, but has been expanded somewhat. This subject is one of very few hot-button issues for me. I wish people, women in particular, didn't have so many problems with self-image. It is so sad to see so many girls struggling with this. I find it horribly ironic that obesity is on the rise, but from what I've seen and heard, anorexia and various other EDs are, too. This is, of course, fueled largely by the media. I attended a lecture by Dr. Jean Kilbourne about the portrayal of women in ads last night, and was horrified beyond words at some of the ads she used as examples. I don't want this to be too much of a rant, so I'm not going to go into the details of the lecture. I do recommend finding out more about her and her work, though. It's vital to keep discussion going about this issue. Anyway, I wish she could have given suggestions for not falling into the traps of ads. I know I do. It's actually kind of strange that this is an issue that I care about so deeply. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I have a horrendous self-image. I think I always have. I have never felt beautiful enough or thin enough or ... just enough. I hate that this life of fear is inadvertently (or maybe not) encouraged by our society. Women, and men for that matter, should not feel obligated to focus so much attention on physical appearance. Health -- physical, mental and any other kind -- needs to be the focus. As someone who is going into the media industry, I feel a particular burden when it comes to this matter. I'll be deciding how much attention is paid to people of different sizes. I sincerely hope that I can promote a healthy view of women's bodies, because this is no way to live.