Body Image and the Media

This is a video I made originally for one of my education class’ end of the year project.  However, my sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon, supports Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.  At the end of February we help my college, SUNY Cortland, organize Body Appreciation Week and during the exhibit showing throughout the week we are supposed to have a video playing in the background for students, peers, and community members.  So, we decided to show this video.  I am honored to have made something that is showing for a school event.

Body image is something I am very passionate about.  I know many people, including myself, who have suffered or are suffering about their body image.  Through society’s “thin ideal” (the idea that the thinner you are the more beautiful you are) being shoved down our throats, we have created an epidemic plaguing the minds of young women and even men.  Beauty is something that should be decided on our own, not decided through the media and society.  If you find curves beautiful, good for you.  If you find skinnier girls beautiful, good for you as well.  However, society constantly shows us that “thin” is the ideal through their advertisements, billboards, commercials, and model selection.

It is hard enough being okay and accepting yourself and society does not make it any better.  Well, here you go!  Watch it, enjoy, and let me know your opinions!

This is the quote playing in the video.  Read by Audrey Hepburn (another idol of mine) and written by Sam Levinson.

“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.”

Definitely a quote to live by and remember, in my opinion at least.