Do you know what your tweener reads in one of her favorite magazines. The content might surprise you. Tweeners are exposed to adult messages about sexuality and parents need to pay attention. Dr. Linda talks about this in her brief Mintle Health Minute.
Tag: body image
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Losing Pounds or Your Money?
Sandy is typical of someone trying to lose weight. When she opens her medicine closet, weight loss products abound. There is a cream to rub on the thighs to make cellulite disappear. So far, not much has disappeared. Three herbal products promise to make fat melt away. Nothing has melted yet. There are more creams, more vitamins, more supplements. I had to ask how much Sandy paid for all this stuff. She didn’t know, but at an average price of $20.00 a product, the money was significant.
Sandy is not a stupid woman but she hates being overweight. Always hoping the next product will make good on its weight loss claims, she willingly lays out the cash. Now she has a closet full of weight loss products and hasn’t lost a pound. She’s frustrated and feels misled by false claims.
Closets like Sandy’s exist all over America. Yes, people are ultimately responsible for buying weight loss products, but the weight loss industry needs to regulate itself much more than it does.
Partnership for Healthy Weight Management is a group comprised of people from industry, public advocacy organizations, government agencies, scientific associations and academia. Its mission is to provide sound guidelines for achieving and maintaining healthy weight. It, like other groups, has published voluntary guidelines designed to help consumers compare products and services.
The former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher said, “…with the profusion of products and services available to assist them [consumers] in these efforts [weight loss], consumers must be adequately informed of what realistic results, risks and costs they can expect from using these products and services.” The problem is that consumers are not always informed.
A coalition of the Partnership wants mainstream media to demand proof of advertising claims before they accept ad copy. The intent of this and other similar strategies is to create media responsibility. Nice idea, but the dollars speak louder than voluntary responsibility. Call me cynical, but I have little faith that media will do the right thing.
Look to consumer advocacy groups for information. You might find what you need to make an informed decision. However, there are still a number of products claiming to do what they ultimately can’t. My advice is to steer clear of the “it’s too good to be true” products because they probably are. Instead, find hospital-based, university-linked programs that have a commitment to scientific discovery and data. Follow the research before you jump on a bandwagon. Otherwise, you’ll have end up like Sandy with a closet full of wishful thinking.
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Say NO to Cultural Pressure to be Thin
It’s that dreaded moment. You slip off your shoes (that’s at least two pounds), your jacket (another pound), your watch (few ounces) and step on the scales. You don’t want to look because you know you are retaining water. Besides, the doctor scales are always off a good five pounds. Then, the nurse loudly announces the number as if it’s no big deal. You wish it wasn’t but it is!
No matter how emotionally healthy we are, we still obsess about our weight. What woman doesn’t want to lose another five pounds? How many of us lie about weight on our driver’s license? Weight matters, especially to women. In fact, 75% of us think we are too fat.
Few of us look like the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models yet we spend billions of dollars on weight loss products and magical cures for obesity. Why are we so consumed with dieting? One reason is the media. We are bombarded by images of glamor and beauty constantly-TV, movies, magazines, and advertisements. Even standing in line at the grocery store, we stare at tabloids promising to melt the fat from our thighs like wax.
With all our emphasis on thinness, 34 million Americans are overweight and 11 million suffer from eating disorders. The average American woman is five feet four inches tall, 144 pounds and a size 12. Compare that to the average model, five feet eight inches tall, 110 pounds and a size two. When you look at the model and then in the mirror, it’s easy to be depressed.
The cultural pressure to be thin is so intense that nine-year-old girls are dieting and teen plastic surgery is on the rise. Thousands of dollars are spent on shaping, cutting, stapling and lopping off parts of the female body. Girls and women are highly influenced by media images and the media knows this.
So how can you resist the million-dollar brainwash of the media all around you?
Become outraged. Speak up about the negative effects media has on women and girls. Write letters to editors of magazines and tell them we’ve had enough.
· Remember media pictures are often airbrushed and computer altered.
· Listen to your daughters as they talk about their bodies and unrealistically compare them to the Barbies in their rooms. Correct their thinking to a healthier view of the female body.
· Refuse to be a part of the cultural obsession with thinness by complaining about your looks, comparing your body to glamour types and constantly dieting. It is one thing to take care of your body and another to obsess about looks.
· Stop waiting to be thin. Work on the total person now.
· Recognize that true beauty is inward, not a manufactured facade. God looks at the heart. Our bodies are mere temples that will pass away some day.
· Don’t fall in love with products that promise you happiness. Only a relationship with God brings true happiness. There is no magic product or pill.
· Expose yourself and your daughter to healthy images of women and girls.
· Determine to be healthy. Focus on good eating habits and nutrition.
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Is Beauty the Beast?
“I never thought about how magazines influence my feelings about my body. I look at the models and sometimes read the articles. I’m interested in fashion and want to stay in style. But lately I’ve been obsessing on different body parts. It seems no matter what I do, I don’t look like the models I see. I’ve been feeling depressed. My mom is worried because I started dieting. She says I’m not fat.”
Many teens I see in therapy struggle with body image disturbance. Their bodies become their enemies—not good enough to win them acceptance or popularity. They falsely believe that a “killer” body is the key to love.
Adolescence is a time girls reorganize internally while trying to conform externally. Their style has to be uniquely their own while conforming to a certain look. Girls are acutely aware of the physical appearance of other girls. Comparisons abound and are not limited to peers. The glamorized icons of pop culture set the standard. It is easy to feel less than perfect.
Despite all the efforts of the women’s movement, girls still give others tremendous power over feelings of self-worth. Those who don’t have good self-esteem and lack self-worth are particularly susceptible to negative pressure from peers and media.
While parents still constitute the single most important influence in the life of a teen, media influence. For many teens, media fill in the gap. For teens who don’t have strong parent connections, media become the teaching parent. Teens try to imitate attractive models whose photos have been airbrushed and computer altered. When they don’t match the glamorous photos they regularly stare at, dissatisfaction with the body results.
Early on, girls learn the lesson that appearance matters. This message reinforced by magazines and other media is internalized and often leads to preoccupation with beauty and the perfect body. Salmons et al, (1988) conducted a school survey of children ages 11 to 13 years. Most girls worried about the shape of their stomachs and thighs. Other studies have documented the preoccupation of young girls with dieting despite the fact that they aren’t fat.
Our culture says perfect bodies are to be worshipped. The American body has been glamorized to idol proportion. But parents can influence daughters to accept their imperfect bodies. Try these suggestions to help correct those distortions:
· Educate your daughter about the use of computer altering, make-up, hairstylists and airbrushed photos in magazines. Teens need to know most people don’t look like those photos without a lot of extra help.
· Compliment your daughters for things unrelated to beauty and looks.
· Moms, don’t criticize your own body for its imperfections in front of your daughters and stop your endless dieting.
· Help your daughter find her true identity in Christ by filling her with the Word so she finds her identity in Christ.
· Work on the internal parts of her character development. Inner beauty goes a long way in life and doesn’t fade with age.
· Limit exposure to unhealthy media images as much as possible.
· Show your daughter how to maximize her physical appearance without becoming obsessive and spending hours on make-up and hair. Good grooming differs from obsessing.
· Talk to daughters about the dangers of body image disturbance as a precursor to eating disorders.
