Sunday, January 30, 2011

Real Beauty Dictionary

January 30th, 2011
 Before February begins and we discuss our first topic of the month, I thought it'd be helpful to include some definitions. These definitions will hopefully make it easier to see exactly what this blog is all about.

Anorexia - The loss of appetite or the refusal to eat in the attempt to lose weight.
Beauty - The personal quality found in a person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind. Beauty comes in both a physical and nonphysical form, yet our current society seems to dwell on the physical side of beauty.

Beauty Myth - The misconception of what a person (in this blog we'll primarily discuss how it pertains to women) is supposed to look like. Along with it comes the idea of a perfect body.

Body Image - How you see yourself and how you think others see you.

Bulimia - A disorder characterized by binge eating followed by self-induced purging due to guilt.

Eating Disorders - Disorders characterized by the disturbance of eating patterns. These disturbances do not only include or limit themselves to overeating and characteristics of anorexia and bulimia.

Media - A source of information that targets not always world news, but also personal or celebrity news. Media sources include newspapers, magazines, websites, and television programs.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Hello, My Name is Beauty Myth

10 Facts About Body Image For Both Men and Women
  1. Twenty years ago, models weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, they weigh 23% less than the average woman.
  2. The average American woman is 5’4” tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5’11” tall and weighs 117 pounds.
  3. If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.
  4. About 7% of 12th grade males have used steroids in order to become more muscular.
  5. If GI Joe were human, he’d have larger biceps than any bodybuilder in history.
  6. One out of every four college aged women has an eating disorder.
  7. It is estimated that 40-50% of American women are trying to lose weight at any point in time.
  8. Americans spend more than 40 billion dollars a year on dieting and diet-related products – that’s roughly equivalent to the amount the U.S. Federal Government spends on education each year! Almost half of all women smokers smoke because they see it as the best way to control their weight. Of these women, 25% will die of a disease caused by smoking.
  9. In 2007, there were about 11.7 million cosmetic procedures performed in the U.S. Ninety one percent of these were performed on women.
  10. A study found that 53% of thirteen-year-old American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen.

The campaign for real beauty starts here.
The "beauty myth" is a common misconception of what both women and men are supposed to look like. These regulations stem from our surroundings, primarily media. And although magazines and companies, like Dove, have been working to fight this myth, women everywhere still feel the need to be the perfect woman. My question, though, is who is this perfect woman? What defines a body as being perfect anyways? By perfect, what do you mean?

Perfection is one of the many things that doesn't exist, yet it remains in our everyday lives, rooted far into our souls. Perfection doesn't exist as a single being, but as many. Being perfect isn't living by dangerously high standards, but by living. Unfortuantely this myth that has consumed society prohibits just that. It kills.

After having read the previous facts for the first time, I was shocked. This summer I spent a little time in a workshop titled "the Beauty Myth." It showed some light to a topic that I hadn't openly discussed in years. Her statistics were shocking to say the least. 32% of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders want lose weight. This statistic among others is what life has come to.

Regardless of the fact that I am still working to find a collaborator for a larger project, this blog is the first phase of the campaign for real beauty. To the beginning of a great battle against the beauty myth.

-Becca

(The 10 Facts About Body Image For Both Men and Women - http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-body-image)