2012 Love Your Body Campaign – Health, Rights, Dignity, Equality
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: February 20, 2012
WUNRN
2012 LOVE YOUR BODY CAMPAIGN
NOW Foundation’s Love Your Body Campaign is
partnering with the National Eating Disorders Association for NEDAwareness
Week: February 26 – March 3, 2012.
Love
Your Body: What’s It All About?
Every day, in so many ways, the beauty industry (and the media in general)
tell women and girls that being admired, envied and desired based on their looks
is a primary function of true womanhood. The beauty template women are expected
to follow is extremely narrow, unrealistic and frequently hazardous to their
health. The Love Your Body campaign challenges the message that a woman’s value
is best measured through her willingness and ability to embody current beauty
standards.
Where
do these standards come from?
Advertisements, magazine covers and fashion spreads that:
- present unrealistic, unattainable beauty ideals for
women; promote the pursuit of physical “perfection”
- manipulate images of women to make them look thinner
- manipulate images of women to make their hair, skin,
teeth, etc. look more “aspirational” (a term used by the beauty
industry that actually means “unreal”)
- present only a narrow range of women, leaving out women
of color, women of various shapes and sizes, women with disabilities,
older women, women who don’t conform to gender norms, etc.
- continually invent new “problems” with
women’s bodies and faces that can be “fixed” by spending money
on a product or procedure
- present women as sexual objects that exist for male
pleasure or to signify male status
- present girls as sexual objects at younger and younger
ages
- reduce women to isolated body parts
- create images that merge women’s bodies with actual
products for sale and consumption
- style and pose adult women to look like girls;
style/pose young girls as adult women
- style and pose women to appear passive, subservient to
men
- glamorize the appearance of fragility, hunger,
substance abuse
- glamorize violence against women
TV shows and movies that:
- cast mainly white, young, conventionally
“beautiful,” thin, heterosexual, gender-conforming, non-disabled
women
- fail to include any racial or ethnic diversity amongst
characters, or cast women of the wrong race or ethnicity for the character
they are playing
- fail to include LGBT characters and/or those whose
appearance deviates from commonly-accepted gender norms
- fail to include any characters with disabilities or
cast non-disabled women to play women with disabilities
- cast younger women to play opposite older men far more
frequently than the reverse
- cast women of color, larger women and other women who
deviate from the norm not in lead roles but primarily as sassy sidekicks
without narratives of their own
- promote the concept of the makeover, where women’s
“flaws” are fixed
- promote cosmetic surgery as a normal, even expected
rite of passage for girls and women
- promote the rating of women by appearance
- associate “unattractive” women with negative
characteristics and behaviors
- normalize violence against women through frequent
portrayals of women as victims
- promote women and girls as weak and in need of rescue
- portray women mainly as the wife or girlfriend of the
hero
- pigeonhole women into roles limited to “getting
the guy,” while male characters are given interests, abilities,
adventures beyond romance
- depict women and girls as silly, shallow, mindless
Music videos and web content that:
- include women only as sexual objects
- celebrate exaggerated depictions of
“femininity”
- endorse gender, racial and other negative stereotypes
- glamorize and normalize violence against women
Clothing, toys, video games and other products that:
- promote outdated stereotypes for girls and boys
- portray girls as bad at or adverse to math, science,
technology
- depict girls as focused on appearance, shopping and
attracting boys — characteristics that are conveyed as shallow in
comparison to pursuits typically associated with boys
- depict boys as naturally and unavoidably loud, violent,
out-of-control
- push pink on girls, while boys are offered toys and
costumes in a wide spectrum of colors (except pink!)
- sell girls the princess myth and boys the warrior role
- promote weddings, motherhood (not to mention
princesshood) as the ultimate goals for women
What’s
wrong with all that?
Routine objectification and sexualization of women in the media and other
cultural institutions can lead to anxiety, shame, self-disgust, undermined
confidence and discomfort with one’s own body.
Research supports that sexualization can lead to eating disorders, low
self-esteem and depression — three of the most common mental health disorders
in girls and women, according to the American Psychological Association (APA).
Sexualization can result in self-objectification. The APA found that
self-objectification can diminish the ability to concentrate and be attentive,
resulting in poor performances in areas such as math and logic.
The APA directly links self-objectification with diminished sexual health
among adolescent girls. Sexualization can affect how women and girls perceive
their femininity and disrupt a girl’s ability to develop healthy sexuality — a
crucial aspect of well-being. The sexualization of women also impacts men and
boys and their ability to have healthy, intimate relationships.
In society in general, the sexualization and dehumanization of women can
contribute to sexist attitudes, sexual harassment, domestic violence, rape, the
demand for child pornography and sex trafficking.
The under-representation of women of various races and ethnicities can have
a negative impact on the self-image of women and girls of color and on how
others see them. Because our society’s beauty ideal is often personified by
white women, the dominant template is even more out of reach for women of
color.
Studies show that “television watching is related to lower self esteem
and higher levels of disordered eating for girls and young women of all races
and ethnicities.”
The near invisibility of women with disabilities and women who do not fit
conventional gender stereotypes can lead to these women devaluing themselves
and society in general viewing them as unnatural or abnormal.
What
can we do?
Help spread the word about the hazards of the media’s narrow beauty ideals
and sexualization of women and girls. You can start by forwarding this page to
friends and family and linking it on Facebook, Twitter and other social media
sites.
Put your own thoughts about body image and media objectification into words
on Facebook, Twitter, your own blog, for class, in letters to the editor —
anywhere and everywhere!
Take
action using the many ideas featured on the Love Your Body site.
Talk back to advertisers, members of the media, retail outlets and companies
when you see images and products that make you mad.
Urge advertisers and all media to embrace positive, healthy, inclusive
portrayals of girls and women. Thank them when they DO use affirming, diverse
images!
Make a pact with your friends and family to stop judging your own appearance
by the media’s narrow beauty standards and to avoid evaluating how others look.
Model an attitude of self-acceptance and love, especially in front of young
children.
Encourage educators to incorporate media objectification and body image
issues into health and comprehensive sex education classes.
Encourage educators, community centers and other local resources to create
extracurricular programs that help girls feel powerful and smart rather than
focusing on their appearance.
What’s
the pay-off?
More women and girls feeling unashamed, confident, proud.
Less stress for women and girls over appearance — jumping off the beauty
treadmill can be freeing, relaxing and even healthier.
Less money spent on beauty products, diet gimmicks, spray tans, cosmetic
procedures and the like means more money to save, spend on education, donate to
good causes, start your own business — areas more likely to produce a
positive, long-term return on women’s investment.
More time to focus on family, friends, school, work, hobbies, athletics,
politics, community, personal fulfillment, spirituality, etc. — pursuits that
are more likely to offer true fulfillment.
More time to build for the future, develop skills that will last.
Less judgment of others creates a less hostile environment and a better
chance of identifying new friends and allies.
A society that celebrates all people — regardless of size, age, skin color,
ethnicity, ability, gender identity, etc. — is a more productive and
harmonious society.
Wiping out narrow beauty standards, superficial gender stereotypes and the
portrayal of women as a sexual commodity will help erode sexism in other areas
and advance our goal of full equality for all.
Categories: Releases