Great news girls!
The Body Project Study which started in 2001 and is funded by the National Institute of Health has shown very promising results for young girls. In this project girls realized just how much the media has tried to promote the outrageous ideal that thinness equals happiness.
The girls critiqued this idea through writing and discussing with peers, and they realized that companies are benefiting by encouraging girls to be thin because they then profit from the sales of all the weight loss products out on the market. The girls in the study chose to counter this notion through their own small actions which they called “body activism.” Some of the girls slipped encouraging notes like, “Love your body the way it is” into diet books at bookstores, and some wrote letters to the maker of Barbie dolls, Mattel, and encouraged them to make their Barbie’s bodies more realistically proportioned. Other girls put up notes in their school’s bathrooms telling girls that they are beautiful and should be themselves.
According to the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology the participants in this Study reduced the risk of developing eating disorders by 61 percent! Also the girls continued to have a positive attitude about their body image even after three years of completion of the program. Because of the positive results of this study, sororities and other groups are launching similar programs.
Do you ever feel pressured by the media to be thin? What do you girl bloggers think about this Body Project? Do you think it was worthwhile? How would you feel if your school started a similar program?
The Body Project Study which started in 2001 and is funded by the National Institute of Health has shown very promising results for young girls. In this project girls realized just how much the media has tried to promote the outrageous ideal that thinness equals happiness.
The girls critiqued this idea through writing and discussing with peers, and they realized that companies are benefiting by encouraging girls to be thin because they then profit from the sales of all the weight loss products out on the market. The girls in the study chose to counter this notion through their own small actions which they called “body activism.” Some of the girls slipped encouraging notes like, “Love your body the way it is” into diet books at bookstores, and some wrote letters to the maker of Barbie dolls, Mattel, and encouraged them to make their Barbie’s bodies more realistically proportioned. Other girls put up notes in their school’s bathrooms telling girls that they are beautiful and should be themselves.
According to the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology the participants in this Study reduced the risk of developing eating disorders by 61 percent! Also the girls continued to have a positive attitude about their body image even after three years of completion of the program. Because of the positive results of this study, sororities and other groups are launching similar programs.
Do you ever feel pressured by the media to be thin? What do you girl bloggers think about this Body Project? Do you think it was worthwhile? How would you feel if your school started a similar program?
1 comment:
You're right, with so much pressure to be thin it can be difficult to keep a positive body image, especially during "bathing suit season."
The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt recently posted an entry on their blog about the problem of negative body image during "bathing suit season."
To read more, just go here:
http://eatingdisorder.org/blog/2008/08/08/suiting-up-for-battle-waging-war-on-negative-body-image-this-summer/
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