A few years ago, my sweet, happy niece was hospitalized with an eating disorder, which damaged her life far beyond its physical effects.
After months of treatment, she joined the Youth Council on Eating Disorders for support. The group began to look how they could save other young people from a similar fate. What developed was a series of presentations for schools and social groups.
They met with kids as young as 10 years old and talked about being comfortable in your own skin and learning to love and accept yourself. Most of all, they talked about the lies that the media perpetuates about beauty.
We all know that the big advertisers airbrush and re-design photos to create physically unachievable images. Legs are elongated, waistlines nipped in, wrinkles smoothed out, and discolourations erased. And we’re outraged.
We tell our youth to be themselves and to have confidence in the beauty within. But do we really believe it?
The media promotes skinny women and buff men while we claim to take the high road. But more and more I’m seeing that road … erode.
The media didn’t tweet from inside the beauty salon as Britney shaved her head and then questioned her sanity as it was happening.
The media didn’t tell people to grow old gracefully and then attack Ashley Judd for looking so much older and puffier on her new TV show than she did in Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy and Twisted … 10 years ago.
The media didn’t call Jessica Simpson fat or Courtney Cox too skinny.
Or did they?
Because with the growth of Twitter, Facebook and even the comments section after every news article, social media has become a veritable powerhouse. We are the new media and have we got opinions to share!
Of course, we have a right to those opinions. But are they really as important as we’ve made them out to be? We’re so busy remarking on Christina Aguilera’s thighs, we can barely hear the music. Instead of getting the weather report, we’re measuring the length of the presenter’s jacket.
We like the power of being heard by millions, regardless of what it is we’re saying. And we’ll say anything to keep it going. So we fling out our judgements without the benefit of facts or tact.
In fact, many of the comments flying through the Internet are more harsh than anything found in traditional media.
And our remarks are often the springboard for further formal media coverage on websites, print and even Entertainment Tonight.
So we’re not only playing with the monster, we’re feeding it. And after years of blaming the media for warping society’s sense of beauty, what do we tell our youth now?
Because although the media may have started the problem, we have become a partner in it.
