Last week, the Ohio Kappa Chapter of Pi Beta Phi collaborated with UC’s Women Center for an amazing event promoting positive body image called "Love Your Body Week."
Many women struggle with body image. While many women start to struggle with it during their middle school and high school years, it tends to continue through the college years as well. During this day and age, we often get an “ideal perfect body” image shoved onto us through social media, TV shows, and movies. Being in college is hard enough, with classes and working and all the other extra-curriculars that one may be involved in. The last thing any of us needs is to have the stress of making our bodies look just like the so-called "perfect, ideal body image."
It’s no secret that there is a very specific "perfect body type" here in the United States. Pick up the latest health magazine or watch the latest Rom-Com. We are taught at a very young age that being skinny is being beautiful. We are taught that having extra weight is unattractive. However, once we get older, guys begin to contradict themselves and what they want. They ask for big boobs, but a tiny waist. They want a big butt, but small thighs. They want you to be curvy, but not too curvy, because then you won’t have the flat stomach and small waist. Let me tell ya, it is not easy to be confident in yourself when you can’t figure out what the hell is considered "attractive."
On Monday, October 17th, Pi Phi kicked off "Love Your Body Week" with the Women’s Center by holding a tabling event outside Tangemen University Center. From 10:00AM to 2:00PM, young women were encouraged to look at themselves in a mirror and write on that mirror what they love about their body.
On Tuesday, October 18th, Pi Phi and the Women’s Center welcomed Virgie Tovar as their keynote speaker for "Love Your Body Week." Virgie is an activist and author, as well as an expert on fat discrimination and body image. She is a "recovering dieter," and struggled with body image for time before deciding that her happiness was more important than making others happy with her body. Personally, this was my favorite event that the week brought. She was confident and entertaining, joking about how she loved her body as a child because of the extra weight it had.
Along with these two events, the LYBW committee gave third year, Renee Marinez, a specific project to do. Her job was very simple, but very impactful. She was to take pictures of things that she found beautiful and record the reactions of those she recorded when she revealed her project to them. When she posted the video, the reactions were priceless. Each woman had a similar reaction, some kind of gasp with an, “Oh my word that’s so sweet!” A couple women looked as though this was the first time someone had told them they were beautiful. Shoutout to you, Renee, because this probably made someone’s day 1000 times better. (I know it made mine!)
Throughout the rest of the week, the Women’s Center brought many more opportunities for body positivity. On Wednesday, they held a screening of Suited, a documentary produced by Lena Dunham and many others that focuses on accepting difference and living confidently in your own skin. Thursday, they held another tabling event called “International Body Image.” This event brought awareness to different cultures and their idea of what an ideal body image is.
As someone who has struggled with body image, this week brought more than just awareness. It brought strength and confidence. After listening to Virgie Tovar talk about her struggles growing up and how important body positivity is, I realized that society’s definition of beauty is so unrealistically skewed. We have such a terrible habit of shaming those who don’t fit our narrow-minded version of beautiful, whether that means they are too big, too small, or too curvy.
It’s time to stop body shaming. It’s time to stop caring about other people’s bodies and start caring about our own. The more we focus on our own body positivity, the better off our society will be.
