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Every morning students go through the same routine. They wake up, get out of bed, and walk into the bathroom. It is here that their daily ritual is performed, and not only in the morning, but countless times everyday.
They look in the mirror and examine their faces and bodies. They put every inch of themselves under the scrutiny of a mirror. And mirrors don't lie, right? What they see is what others see. Wrong. What some students see is not necessarily their true reflection; according to the Women's Resource Center, societal expectations of what is beautiful have altered their perceptions. The mirror has been clouded and distorted in an effort to attain impossible standards.
How much of this reflection is simply an image of what students think they should look like? Is it possible to reclaim a healthy body image again, or is a healthy body image, in reality, a myth?
"The media seems to have increasingly portrayed thinner women as the norm of beauty," said Jennifer Tilghman-Havens, director of the Women's Resource Center (WRC).
"And I do think that women have therefore felt more pressure to fit that norm. Not coincidentally, the pressures on men have also increased as media images of men have changed over the years. The range of what is a healthy weight and size is actually much broader in reality than what is generally portrayed in magazines, TV shows, and movies," she continued.
Although it seems simple enough, many women find it extremely difficult to be comfortable in their own bodies - especially in today's world. Surrounded by a culture that screams thinness equals beauty, women are presented with an impossible ideal body image everywhere they turn. From current beauty and fashion trends, magazine articles, movies, TV, celebrities, and even our family and friends, thinness has become an obsession. Thinness now equals beauty. Beauty equals acceptance and love.
"It is definitely an unhealthy lifestyle we try to lead," said Craig Dorsett, CSOM '06. "We eat too little, work out too much, all the while trying to fit 'the image.'"
Amy Blais, A&S '05, works at the WRC and helps students deal with body image problems.
"I think it comes mostly from the media culture, these unrealistic ideals that we're constantly surrounded by, whether we're looking for it or not," she said. "From my experience working in the Center, I think it is one of the biggest issues people come in to discuss. It is a pretty large problem on our campus."
The journey to attaining acceptance and love from others is a long one. Today, there is increasing pressure to attain this impossible ideal. Fulfilling these unfeasible goals of beauty, however, are for the most part physically impossible for many bodies. As a result, American food, cosmetic, and weight loss industries have all increasingly thrived on this obsessive fad, as more and more people devastate their health and body image.
Our society's obsession with thinness has grown from a woman's uncertainties to a full-blown multi-billion dollar business. A variety of businesses have taken advantage of a woman's insecurity with her self-image and have developed various ways a woman can improve her body, the quicker the better. Commercial weight-loss programs, such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, dieting pills, self-help books, and plastic surgery all provide new methods for a woman to lose weight and sculpt the thin, slender body she desires.
As a result, more and more women are coming to believe that to be successful and happy one must first be thin and beautiful. Many women believe that their sense of worth is determined by their ability to attract a man, which depends on her ability to be thin.
"There is a movement towards consumerism," said Blais. "We let a lot of [those messages] dictate a big part of our lives. But the issue isn't just that there are books and pills on the market, the issue is deeper than that."
Throughout history, various body image ideals have enforced impossible standards of beauty. The flappers of the 1920s promoted a slim boyish figure, greatly increasing cases of anorexia. The corset of the Victorian era tightly clinched a woman's waist to the ultra thin trend at the time, and later, girdles of the 1950s made the desired hourglass figure possible.
In 1959 the introduction of Barbie, with her exaggerated breasts, impossibly long legs, nonexistent hips, and tiny waist, promoted these unattainable body ideals to young girls, distorting body image at younger and younger ages.
Today we are equipped with new strategies to achieve the shrinking waistlines that society has deemed beautiful. Exercise and dieting have become a way of life for many. Joining weight loss programs, taking diet pills, and reading self-help books are other methods employed by women to get thin.
For those who do not have the patience but have the money, plastic surgery has become an acceptable alternative to more natural methods. The natural body has been lost in a culture that glorifies a slim woman as healthy and beautiful, and obesity as bad, ugly, and a moral failure.
"Personally for myself I like to stay fit, but I think society makes you feel pressure to be thin," said Katie Giblin, A&S '07. "People go to the gym so they can fit into their jeans on Friday night, not to feel healthy. It's not staying in shape or feeling energized which is the best part about working out anymore. I work out so my body looks good for myself but also half the time so others think it looks good too."
At an institution like Boston College, distorted body images and an obsession to be thin can be seen in the student body. Forced to live in a "semi-closed" college environment, social pressures are heavily amplified.
Without parental figures present to provide healthy meals and monitor nutritional intake, these young adults are left to decide what is good and bad for themselves.
"In high school, your body is going through changes, and when you get to BC, these changes come to fruition, and your world changes," said Maureen O'Dea, LSOE '07.
"All these changes happen at once, and it is easy to focus on your body's changes because you don't want to focus on anything else, like how your friendships are changing or how your relationship with your family is changing," she continued.
This often leads to an increase in weight, the feared "freshman 15," after which students begin to diet or exercise heavily to lose the extra pounds they have put on. Their focus becomes centered on obtaining an "ideal" body image that will offer them acceptance in society and attention from members of the opposite sex.
"I used to never work out but as soon as I started gaining weight in college I freaked out because I knew people would look at me and say, 'look at her, she's gained weight.' I feel like it is no longer about what we feel about ourselves, its more about what others see when they look at us," said Giblin.
Women often resort to extreme measures. Eating disorders have become a solution for many. Anorexia nervosa is a common eating disorder characterized by extreme obsession with food, starvation dieting, and severe weight loss.
Bulimia is another eating disorder that is four to five times more common than anorexia, but far more difficult to detect. Bulimia is exemplified by compulsive binge eating followed by purging through self-induced vomiting, exercise, or the use of laxatives.
"It is important to appreciate all the looks of the human body," said O'Dea. "I distanced myself from people who focused on their image. It can be dangerous here at BC because when you're around those people it is easy to slip into that mindset and focus on how much you eat and how much you exercise."
"A negative body image contributes to many problems on campus, like eating disorders and self-esteem problems," said Blais.
Both anorexia nervosa and bulimia cause extreme defects to a person's physical and emotional health. Despair, self-loathing, guilt, depression, low self-esteem, and an inability to conduct normal relationships are all results of eating disorders. Captivating their victims, eating disorders allow their prey to feel empowered by their sickness often times they represent the only source of control the person can find in her daily life.
"I've heard a lot of conversations about people skipping classes to go to the Plex, or stressing about meals that they've had. "I've heard conversations in elevators and just around campus. But it feels like it's a problem that goes undiscussed," said O'Dea.
In today's world, women are inevitably under various forms of pressure. Not only must they constantly prove themselves as competent, intelligent individuals in the workforce, they must also strive to attain an impossible body "ideal" set up by society.
Thinness has become a virtue that every woman seeks to attain. In reality, it has become an obsession. In order to be accepted by society, be happy with one's self, or feel worthy of any attention, some women feel they must fulfill this unfeasible thin requirement first. If they don't, they are labeled fat, ugly, or unhealthy, and unworthy of any praise, and are just to be pitied.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but unfortunately eyes have been distorted with every glance taken in the mirror. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
"I definitely think it is possible to have a healthy body image in today's world," said Tilghman-Havens. "Many women make intentional choices about which magazines they pick up, which shows they choose not to watch, and what they talk about in conversation with one another, because it leads down a negative road where women feel like they have to be self-critical just to fit in."
The WRC offers resources for those who seek to escape the pressures of society, including a program called HOPE, which discusses body image, eating concerns, and healthy living. It meets Thursdays at 3 p.m. and is open to all female students.
"In any kind of relatively homogenous environment, pressures to conform tend to be high, but if you look around campus, you'll notice that there are women and men of all shapes and sizes at BC," said Tilghman-Havens.
"My ideal campus would be one where both women and men would accept themselves and others for their character and giftedness, not for their appearance. BC seems to be moving in that direction. I think having a healthy body image means accepting yourself as you are - flaws and all, and I believe that's what each of us are called to as human beings."
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