With bikini season in full force here at the University of Arizona and summer right around the corner, it’s time to talk about body image. The media envelops the minds of young women with unattainable standards of the “ideal body.” This portrayal of a so-called “healthy body” is often below the standards of what is considered a truly healthy body weight. This sends the message to women that if you don’t obtain this “ideal body,” you must be unhealthy. This distorted way of thinking leaves a void of satisfaction in one’s appearance that will never be fulfilled.
According to www.nationaleatingdisorders.org, women with a distorted perception of their body have higher tendency to develop eating disorders, feelings of depression, isolation, low self-esteem and obsession with weight loss. This dissatisfaction can be influenced by several external factors, including other people and surrounding environment. Attending a university with more than 50,000 undergraduates alone exposes us to women of all shapes and sizes, thus tempting us to feel the need to compare ourselves to anyone with a smaller waist, thinner thighs, and better figures no matter how healthy we are – especially when much of our weekends now-a-days are spent lying by the pool in our bathing suits exposing the parts of our body we fear the most.
Educating and empowering young women on college campuses is essential to their academic success and personal wellbeing. In a survey of 185 female college students done by National Eating Disorders Association, 58 percent felt pressure to be a certain weight. In addition, 83 percent dieted to lose weight and of that, 44 percent were already of normal weight. The “Reflections Body Image Program” here at Arizona promotes positive body image for young women on campus. The 2011 program helps women rid their minds of society’s unrealistic body image standards through a variety of structured discussion, activities and exercises led by peer facilitators.
Charlotte Musgrove an Alpha Phi at the University of Arizona chose to be a facilitator for Reflections because after being a participant herself and experiencing the “powerful and life changing” effects of the program she learned how to important it is for women to “embrace a healthy lifestyle and learn to feel comfortable in their own skin”.
“Reflections Body Image Program” is designed for and with sororities not only to help participants gain confidence and leadership skills, but also to meet fellow Panhellenic sisters. Participant and facilitator feedback has been excellent and more than 400 Panhellenic women have come together to embrace healthy ideals, rid themselves of body and embrace the wonderful things life has to offer aside from appearance and weight.
Also an Alpha Phi here at the University of Arizona, Arianna Searles reveals that her experience as a participant in the Reflections program gave her the support she needed to “feel more comfortable in [her] body”. She further explains that she “looks at [herself] differently after learning how essential it is not to focus on societies idolized perception of how women are supposed to look and rather respect the body you are given”.
With that being said, Ladies, we must take the vow to neglect these ridiculous standards of “body image” that the media constantly antagonizes us with, and rather accept the body we were given and embrace the beauty of it by making healthy lifestyle choices. Bikini season’s got nothing on us now!