It seems like everywhere we look, we're faced with a picture of a skinny model with perfect hair and makeup, wearing the clothes that are "perfect" and portraying how to be "perfect." The constant exposure to images like these have proven to be critically damaging to the self esteem of many people, specifically girls and young women. In an attempt to look like these models, and therefore look how our media and society has deemed "perfect," many girls begin to hate their own bodies and looks. This can even result in eating disorders, rapid weight gain or loss and an overall sense of dissatisfaction with one's own body.
This is what two psychology professors were noticing when they decided to create The Body Project. The Body Project is a "cognitive-dissonance-based body acceptance intervention that was designed to help adolescent girls and young women resist sociocultural pressures to conform to the thin-ideal and reduce their pursuit of thinness." That's a loaded definition.
What this program does is it helps young women and girls identify the backwards logic of fashion media when it comes to body image. The program has the participants identify and learn about the "thin ideal" currently used in media and marketing, typically portraying a model of an unhealthily low weight with professional hair, make up, and editing. Many women have been trained and told to believe that this is what all women are supposed to look like and that they have to try to look like that, even though it is extremely unhealthy and impossible. So, through The Body Project, women are guided to critique the "thin ideal," therefore allowing them to see the issues with their own actions and with attempting to pursue the outrageous expectations set by the media.
The program runs once a week for four consecutive weeks, with hour-long meetings. Luckily, Counseling Services and the Health and Wellness Office are bringing The Body Project here to Stonehill. It will be Feb. 2, 9, 16 and 23 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m, and if you're interested, email wellness@stonehill.edu. This is truly an amazing program and has been proven to be extremely beneficial and uplifting for girls and women.
