The IU Recreational Sports department started its annual celebration of EveryBODY Week on Monday. Painted all across the doors of the Student Recreational Sports Center are motivational messages like “Smile, you look great today,” and “Be Strong Be Confident Be You!”
From Feb. 19-24, students are encouraged to appreciate and celebrate their bodies exactly how they are, avoiding any negativity about body image or personal appearance.
To begin the week, the IU Body Project group aired a documentary entitled “Embrace,” which follows the story of Taryn Brumfitt, the founder of The Body Image Movement. Brumfitt shared her journey with body image, her fluctuations of body weight and her happiness at each stage. Even when Brumfitt became a mom, pregnant and at her largest, she said she had never felt happier.
“Being pregnant was the best thing ever,” Brumfitt said. “I loved growing a baby.”
After having three children, Brumfitt said she considered the idea of having elective surgery to remove her excess fat and help her body return to its former shape and size, for a more youthful look. However, she decided not to follow through with it, after realizing what kind of message this would send to her young daughter about being confident and feeling beautiful in her own skin.
Instead, for 15 weeks, Brumfitt trained for a body building competition, getting herself back in shape without surgical modification. By the end of the competition, she had her bikini perfect body — but still wasn’t happy despite her transformation. To get her new body, Brumfitt said she had made too many sacrifices.
“Too much time, too much energy, too much obsession,” Brumfitt said. “This body of mine isn’t an ornament, it’s a vehicle.”
Brumfitt is one of thousands of women who feel their bodies are not good enough or do not meet societal expectations. The “Embrace” trailer opened with the statistic that 91 percent of women hate their bodies.
Sophomore Carolyn Simon, a director for the Body Project, said she joined the organization because of her own personal experiences and pressures to be thin.
“I personally have struggled with an eating disorder and body image and spent most of my life wanting to lose weight or change my appearance,” Simon said.
While Simon doesn’t think of herself in a negative way anymore, other women, as noted in the film, continue to struggle. Women of all different backgrounds feel the societal pressures and personal expectations to be thin, always trying to attain the highest level of beauty possible. The second half of the documentary featured a variety of speakers, including magazine editors, actresses and models sharing their experiences with subpar body images in their highly judgmental professions, entirely based on looks.
One Australian model, Stefania Ferrario, said she had seen some of her peers so desperately strive for thinness, they started eating cotton balls to fill up their stomachs. For added flavor, they would soak the cotton balls in Gatorade.
Some websites, like Thin Intentions, document more than 50 tips for women who want to live a pro-anorexic life. Some of these tips include drinking a shot of apple cider vinegar prior to eating to minimize fat absorption and eating in front of a mirror or naked if possible, to keep in mind your flaws and motivation for losing weight.
The documentary also discussed how women’s fears of being fat are starting to develop in young girls at earlier ages. A 2009 University of Central Florida study found almost half of their 3 to 6-year-old girl respondents were already worried about being fat.
“I started wanting to be thinner when I was in second grade,” Simon said. “To me, that makes me so sad, to think of myself as a second grader, when I’m 7 years old, that I need to lose weight.”
“Embrace” touched on the media’s influence on women’s interpretations of what constitutes beauty. Simon said she also thinks your environment and the role models you have surrounding you have a large impact on your personal perception. Since coming to college, Simon said she has realized what is truly important — and being thin isn’t everything.
“I think being beautiful is about accepting your flaws and your imperfections and knowing that even though you may have those, you’re still just as amazing a person that you could ever be,” Simon said.
