|
|
Liz Dittrich
Director of Research and Outreach
My name is Liz Dittrich, I am the director of Research and Outreach for About- Face. I have a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and am particularly interested in accumulating figures and research facts for the campaign. I have extensively researched the topic of body image and the media, and also have knowledge and clinical expertise in the area of eating disorders.
I saw Kathy Bruin (founder of About-Face) speak at an event during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, in the Spring of 1996. What motivated me to become part of About-Face was Kathy' s action (the "Emaciation Stinks!" poster she'd created). It reminded me that there is something that we can do, we don't have to silently suffer, but there is a way to take action. So many women I know, all women I know, are fed up with the skinny, young, white, computer-altered "ideal " images of women that we are exposed to. But many of us still keep buying the magazines, go on diets, and berate our bodies and therefore ourselves. I wanted to contribute something, to bring about change, using something besides my academic project and clinical work, and started working with Kathy, for About-Face.
Many women are not only fed up with the ideal, but have also suffered because of it. Studies have shown that depression and shame are related to exposure to these "ideal" images. Just think how you feel when you read Vogue, Glamour or watch one of those MTV Beauty and the Beach segments. A process of body comparison takes place. The media" ideal" wins out, reminding us of our flaws and effecting our self-esteem. No, I can't prove that eating disorders are caused by these images, but where do women get the image of the ideal they are trying to emulate? The idea to be skinny, to starve themselves, or to throw up, in order to be likeable, successful? Eating disorders are a socially reinforced phenomenon. Just take for example a diet drug that was marketed under the name of Anorexx.
I feel very strongly about the limited ways women are depicted and believe that these depictions result in damaging effects. We learn about ourselves from our environment. At an early age girls are socialized, by parents, the media, peers and family, that their looks are a reflection and measure of their self-worth. Many comments are made about our appearance, we are praised for looking a certain way, for paying attention to how we look and maintaining our looks. Good looks draw attention. Parents may not always be conscious of these messages, and may even try not to foster this kind of link of self-worth and looks, yet many of the messages are unconscious. Girls are also influenced by role models, other females. They witness conversations of adult women who complain about weight gain, they witness their mother's dieting efforts and the mother's self-depreciating remarks as she encounters her image in the mirror. We are bombarded with messages that suggest that not only do our bodies and looks represent our self-worth, but our bodies are fundamentally flawed. Of course that effects our self-esteem.
The message I am most interested in sending is not that being skinny is wrong, but to recognize that there needs to be an acceptance of the variety of shapes, sizes, heights, colors, and ages women come in. The media has enormous power, and they COULD use it for the good, they could present us with realistic role models. With women who inspire us, who don't foster body fat comparisons, dieting ventures or dreams of cosmetic surgery. We want to see women who are not only presenting to us their looks as their only asset, especially not when the variety of looks is so limited.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be beautiful, but there is something wrong with today's standard of beauty. It excludes most women.
So join us in the revolution, notice how you treat your body, remember that the beauty ideal is flexible, raise your awareness ( check out our facts and recommended books), question today's standard of beauty. Let companies know that it's not your body that's "wrong" but that they are, by not including it. Boycott their products, call them and complain. Question research findings and myths about fat and fat people.
A quote that sticks in my mind is:
"If you talked to your friends the way you talk to your body, you'd have no friends". Let's change that.
Liz Dittrich has been involved with About-Face since the Spring of 1996.
|
|
