Operation Beautiful | Program combats negative body images with positive messages
Lethbridge College students climbed on the scale recently and looked down to see their weight. Instead, they saw statements such as, “today, I honour my body. I love myself and I treat myself with respect.”
The modified scale and mock “life-sized” versions of Barbie and GI Joe were part of Operation Beautiful, an annual college event designed to encourage staff and students to celebrate their natural size.
Erin Musick-Neily, a personal counsellor at the college, said she often works with students bothered by body image issues. Common triggers include relationship stress and being uncomfortable with personal weight, shape and size.
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“We seem to have this notion that there’s this perfect version of self that exists, so people really struggle sometimes when they don’t feel like they’re meeting that ideal version,” said Musick-Neily.
Though she works primarily with young adults, Musick-Neily said body image issues affect people of all ages and both genders. Such issues are often more closely associated with women, but men also struggle with expectations of building six-pack abs or a more muscular build.
Dissatisfaction with body image can come from many directions and it can start early in life, Musick-Neily said.
“Early messaging that we get growing up is a really important influence. Are we getting messages from our parents that are accepting and positive and affirming in terms of body shape and size, or are we getting messages that are a judgment or negative?”
Another major factor is media portrayal of models and television and movie stars, most of whom are tall and slender. Musick-Neily said they represent a narrow version of beauty.
The average model is 5’11” and weighs 117 pounds, she said. The average Canadian woman is 5’5” and 140 lb.
Barbie, arguably the most popular doll in the world, wouldn’t be able to walk upright or swallow and breathe at the same time if her proportions were embodied in a real woman. GI Joe would be seven feet tall with biceps as big as his waist.
Heather Ponech, a registered provisional psychologist with the Edenbridge Holistic Center in Lethbridge, is an expert in the treatment of eating disorders.
She applauds programs such as Operation Beautiful because they emphasize health and the fact that people can be healthy at their natural size.
“What is health?” Ponech said.
“If you ask a whole bunch of people what health might be, they’ll think it’s exercise and eating healthy food. There’s nothing about any other type of health that we can engage in, as far as healthy relationships, emotional health, spiritual health. It’s just about diet and exercise.”
A poor body image doesn’t necessarily lead to an eating disorder. Ponech said many factors might lead in that direction, but dissatisfaction with current body size is often part of it.
Operational Beautiful is one way she thinks preoccupation or worry about body image can be brought into perspective.
“It needs to be done at a grassroots, media, community level, promoting health at every size.”
Musick-Neily had similar advice.
“A lot of times, just some information about what’s actually happening can be helpful,” she said, such as pointing out the alterations in photos of movie stars and asking people why they think their ideal weight is different from what they actually weigh.
“For example, if I as a young female think that I should be blonde with blue eyes and I should be 120 lb., if that’s my version of myself, I might not know where that came from.”
She encourages people to focus on what they like about their bodies. During the week of the Operation Beautiful promotion, she encountered people who couldn’t think of any positive physical attributes about themselves.
In those cases, she suggested they focus on function.
For example, people who don’t like the look of their legs could instead consider the mobility their legs offer and the ability to dance, walk and run.
“We can appreciate the things our body can do for us instead of being angry with it for the ways we think it’s failing us.”
Ponech also suggested that people give more critical thought to the images they see in the media and be less critical of themselves.
“Is there a way that we can be more gentle with ourselves and others?” she said. “If we stand in judgment of ourselves, often times our judgment will go external, to other people.”
That can lead to criticism about other people’s appearance.
Accepting and celebrating natural size is not the same as ignoring health, said both counsellors. However, people should be able to enjoy food without guilt, while listening to their body’s cues.
Lethbridge College wrapped up its week of body image promotion with comfort food Friday, which offered macaroni and cheese, meatloaf with mashed potatoes and other food people often think they shouldn’t eat because of potential weight gain.
- 25 years ago, the average female model weighed eight percent less than the average woman. Today, the average model weighs 23 percent less than the average woman.
- In 1972, 25 percent of women were dissatisfied with their weight. In 1996, 56 percent were dissatisfied. For men, the figure was 15 percent in 1972 and 43 percent in 1996, according to a Psychology Today survey.
