After Michelle Obama's powerful Democratic National Convention speech this past week, lets revisit another glorious speech the first lady delivered last year regarding women's empowerment and the importance of education. There's really nothing more to say; she delivers her message that fits our purpose beautifully.
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One of the most hidden yet prevalent battles today is fought by everyone of this generation; we are all child soldiers at war against the Kim Kardashians and Alexis Rens of the world, who are unfairly equipped with photoshop, genetics, popularity, and plastic surgery that render our weapons of self confidence and acceptance useless. And we keep on losing. According to the renowned Dosomething.org, 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies, 59% of girls under 11 have resorted to dieting in order to lose weight, and 11.3% of teenagers have used unhealthy doses of diet pills. Eating disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa occur to every 1 in 100 girls- that number skyrockets to 1 in 4 girls when involved in a physically orientated sport such as ballet or gymnastics. While the pressures of the media have obviously contributed to an increased obsession to be thin, there's a lot more to it than that. With around six billion people in the world, and a mere ten million of them suffering with some type of disordered eating (.18% of the overall population -- less than 1%), the media obviously doesn't cause everyone to develop Anorexia, Bulimia or Compulsive Overeating. Due to the complexity that extends far beyond just body image and food, eating disorders have the worst recovery rate of any mental illness, with less than 60% of women making a full recovery- and that's being generous. The bleak truth is that eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of any physcological illness, including depression. Media is a major factor influencing the prevalence of eating disorders. It's not hard to believe in a era where self esteem is equivalent to waist size: size zero. According to feminist Margaret Atwood, modern day eating disorders can now be more attributed to political culture than physcologial factors. When women and girls are entangled in the complicated relationship with consumerism, the beauty industry, and patriarchy, body image is proven to be more negatively connoted and eating disorders to increase. By empowering women to objectify themselves less and prioritizing intellect over image, a sharp reduction in eating disorders is expected. Women and girls must be taught that from their first breaths, the perpetuating idea of equating beauty and popularity to self worth is invalid. This is obviously easier said than done due to the Big Brother like appeal of models and catwalks that are plastered throughout television, magazines, social media, and even clothing (that's for you Danny). However, a start would be to teach girls that the real models they should aspire to be are women like Malala, Ellen Macarthur, Sheryl Sandberg, Emmeline Pankhurst, Mary Wollstonecraft, Joan of Arc, Josephine Baker, and Maya Aneglou (how many of those women do you know). We need to reshape society's constricting and burdening image of women that is preventing our generation from advancing because we are too busy worshipping Kim Kardashian as the messiah of today's age. view our website that focuses on body image and awareness for eating disorders, "Transparent Mirrors" |
Our Blog's PurposeInforming you on global crimes and issues, as well as progress, women endure and accomplish today. Want to be featured on our blog?We'd love to hear your story. Contact us to be featured.
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December 2016
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