Body Positivity: A Girl’s Body in American Society
In eating disorder treatment, we work with teens to increase their awareness and understanding of the things that have contributed to their eating disorders. For each teen, these things can be really different, but we often touch upon one common experience: the experiences and pressures particular to living within American society.
Females Teens Obsessed with Physical Appearance
American society began as a patriarchal society, which simply means men have been seen as primary authority figures in society. This then becomes part of how both men and women understand their identities and roles in society. Even though we are no longer living in the 1920’s, female teens in our eating disorder treatment program frequently relay struggles with feeling that their body and physical appearance are too important to their success in life. And I certainly agree with them.
There are internal reasons that their bodies have become so important, but there are also external reasons that reinforce this as reality. Both guys and girls in treatment have perspectives and thoughts on how women are portrayed in our society. They tell us about judgments that guys make about girls and that girls make about other girls. They will feel badly about their bodies after watching a TV show, seeing an ad in a magazine, or having the guy they like ask out the “skinnier girl”.
A Girl’s Self-Esteem and Self-Worth
A girl’s self-esteem and self-worth depend too much on how her body measures up to society’s expectations. Those expectations are unrealistic, impossible to attain, and at its core, reduce the worth of a girl to the dimensions of her body. We address these expectations, in part, by talking about them, asking teens to see when this expectation is being reinforced implicitly through advertising, friend’s comments, parent’s comments, negative self-talk. Society will not change in a day, but we work to help equip teens with the awareness and insight to begin to identify the unhealthy and impossible expectations society puts on them and their bodies.
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