At the recent Golden Globes, celebrities strutted their stuff on the red carpet with silicone nipple covers, fake hair, and industrial strength girdles. Eva Longoria, Jennifer Garner, Jenny McCarthy and Lara Flynn Boyle flaunted air brushed tans detailing fake muscles. Their flawless look took six weeks of pre-event preparation and thousands of dollars. Similar amounts of time and money are spent preparing celebrities for the awards season (Oscars, Grammys, etc.).
Many of us already know these behind the scenes gimmicks but still try to emulate an image and a look that isn’t real. In the name of health and fitness, we may go to extraordinary lengths (restrictive eating, excessive exercise, plastic surgery) to model an impossible image of beauty in Western culture that is narrow and limiting.
The Western culture’s image of beauty is defined by white skin, long straight hair, round blue eyes and a toned thin physique. So unless you are a white, American-born, upper middle class, heterosexual woman you probably don’t fit this beauty ideal. And yet, it is permeating nonwhite cultures, affecting those of us who are from different sexual orientations, races, and ethnicities. African-American celebrities such as Janet Jackson, Toni Braxton and Oprah Winfrey have conformed to this mainstream (White) popular culture.
But conforming to the dictates of Western cultural standards of beauty can have disastrous results, developing into disordered eating behaviors, body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem. Body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem can set the stage for eating disorders which in turn may become a means to cope with sexism, homophobia, and racism.
Conforming to this beauty ideal can also be a source of stress for those of different races and ethnicities as they may try to navigate between two distinct cultures. A student may wonder whether her voluptuous buttocks, favored in her South American culture, is accepted on her New England college campus.
Men are not immune to the barrage of these culturally defined media images, and much like women, worry about their appearance. Disordered eating, supplement abuse, compulsive exercising and excessive bodybuilding are attempts by men to conform. Magazines like FLEX and Men’s Fitness dictate the rights and wrongs of physical appearance.
Our physical appearance is in part, a kaleidoscope of all who have come before us, representing our heritage, our culture, and our history. Our physical appearance has a lot to do with how we take care of our bodies. We have a choice to embrace our different sizes and shapes or conform to arbitrary images. Singer and actress, JLo has done the former and as a result is revered for her guitar-shaped body and curvaceous buttocks.
You too can learn to appreciate body diversity. Check out the Web sites below and look for the upcoming Body Image Workshop being offered on campus. Free nutrition counseling services are also available at Health Services. Call 862-3823 for an appointment or stop by Health Services, room 249.
More informational links about Body Image:
- Adios Barbie: www.adiosbarbie.com/
- Beyond Hunger: www.beyondhunger.org
- Body Positive: www.bodypositive.com
- Center for Media Literacy: www.medialit.org
- Dads and Daughters: www.dadsanddaughters.org
- Daughters: www.daughters.com
- EDReferral.com: www.EDRefferal.com
- Emme Collection: www.officialemme.com/
- Girl Power: www.health.org/gpower
- Harvard Eating Disorder Center: www.hedc.org
- Healthy Weight Network: www.healthyweight.net
- Hugs: www.hugs.com
- I am Beautiful: www.iambeautiful.com
- New Moon Network: www.newmoon.org
- We Insist on Natural Shapes: www.winsnews.org
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