Spring 2006 by Artemis

ARTEMIS spring 06

Beauty the

issue

front cover: Jasmine Baker [left] and Sarah Snyder

EDITOR’Sletter applied chic makeup. I was still in the huge-swoopsof-mint-green-eye-shadow phase, but I treated teen beauty magazines as my Bible. I thought if I only followed their advice and bought the makeup and clothes they advertised, I would one day be as gorgeous as their models.

I remember one day in the fifth grade while I was waiting for ballet class to begin, I looked down and noticed the fine hairs on my legs poking out through my bubblegum pink tights. I was mortified. Instead of focusing on my fancy twirls and graceful leaps during class, I was stuck on the thought that all of the older girls didn’t have hairy legs and I still did. That night I shaved my legs for the first time. Running my hands over my silky smooth skin, I felt more womanly and beautiful. Like most girls, I was taught a narrow view of beauty. In junior high, my piles of Seventeen magazines showed me that pretty girls were stick thin with shiny hair and accurately

It took me years to figure out those magazines had it all wrong. I have huge feet, glasses and bony arms— and that is OK, regardless of what Cosmopolitan tells me. Beauty doesn’t come in one height, weight, shape and color. We can’t all have blindingly white teeth, perfectly tanned skin, big boobs and size four waists. That doesn’t mean we are not beautiful. Some women and men become so transfixed with this false image of beauty that they develop disorders like anorexia and compulsive exercising to try to attain the perfect image. Too many people stitch their self-esteem into their new pairs of expensive jeans, instead of finding their inner beauty. I hope after reading The Beauty Issue you will come away feeling refreshed inside our beauty-driven world. I hope it makes you feel good about yourself, because that’s what is important.

Enjoy, you beautiful readers! Erin Roof Editor

2 10 12 16 22

breaking beauty stereotypes

to shave or not to shave

manly and metro

it’s a nip/tuck world

killer workouts

tableCONTENTS of

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story Jackie Mantey photos Amy Mitten Across America, children on playgrounds can be seen carelessly running, jumping and laughing. Freckles are cute and lipstick is something for mom. Every girl is a pretty princess. Then something happens. Suddenly, those freckles become the enemy and the dreams of white ponies and playground kickball are replaced with tanning packages and boob job saving bonds. In a society where bleach and bulimia run rampant in Hollywood and beauty ideals are unrealistic, many beautiful women are not buying into the expectations. They are embracing those characteristics that separate them from the rest of the pack. And after the struggle of acceptance, they are ﬁnding happiness at the ﬁnish line. The wrapping doesn’t matter

breaking

Beauty stereotypes

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Danielle Flickinger, a senior psychology major, has broken more than one stereotype of beauty. The Chi Omega sorority sister, Kappa Phi Chaplin and Vice President of Circle K deals with breaking stereotypes every day. She rolls right over them.

Jasmine Baker [left] and Sarah Snyder are the new antiCosmopolitan supermodels.

Flickinger has hypotonic cerebral palsy which is characterized by a disruption of motor skills, with symptoms such as spasticity, paralysis or seizures. This means all four extremities are affected which has lead to numerous surgeries. She has very weak eye muscles and vision. Her best accessory is her bright red wheel chair.

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She can be seen around campus going to her various activities and classes with a smile and a wave. That smile, she says, is one that she has learned to wear. “I have scars all over the lower part of my body. I came to terms with it during adolescence,” she says. “It is a part of who I am, a part of my story. Am I going to reject that part of me?” As a symptom of her condition, Flickinger has limited vision in both of her eyes. She says she needs to rely on other senses to help her view the inner beauty of a person – the most important aspect of beauty and one that is often overlooked. “I get stereotyped because I am in a wheelchair. But just because I can’t see very well doesn’t mean I can’t see beauty. It is a presence and is projected by conﬁdence,” she says. “Besides, you shouldn’t always have to see beauty. I think disabled people have a richer essence of what beauty is.”

Just because I can’t see very well doesn’t mean I can’t see beauty.

Beauty, to Flickinger, is a lot like a gift.

“It’s like a present. It can be wrapped beautifully, but what is inside is worthless,” she explains. “The problem is, people don’t want to tear off the paper.” The self-proclaimed pioneer says she often deals with negative reactions to her cerebral palsy, especially when shopping for clothes. “Sales associates are surprised when I say I want clothes. They look at me like, ‘You’re in this wheelchair anyway,’” she says. “But, I still want to look dignified.” Flickinger could be described as dignified in personality, as well. She finds it easy to laugh. Her courage to stand up to these assumptions is that of a hero.

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than that standard,” she says. “But recently I’ve kind of been at peace with my own body. I think that it’s partly growing up and then also realizing that it takes too much energy. It’s unique. It’s my own. I don’t ﬁt the mold.”

She says the idea of “typical beauty” is one that needs to be demolished. “Unfortunately in this culture, image can be everything,” she remarks. “Body image is so ﬁckle and placed with such emphasis, but it is simply the wrapping.”

Soul Searching

Get off that scale!

Women of many ethnicities have a different kind of struggle when it comes to accepting their beauty.

Beautiful women are skinny.

Stephanie Samuels, freshman theatre studies major, is proud of her African-American heritage. But she says it is difﬁcult for many women of color to ﬁnd themselves beautiful because of the faces that stare from television sets and magazine covers.

This stereotype is one Jasmine Baker challenges every day, instead of worrying about her weight. “Being beautiful is inside and how you carry yourself,” says the sophomore preparatory nursing major. “But little, skinny people are nothing but twigs.”

“Society puts in our minds that blonde hair and blue eyes is the only way to be beautiful,” Samuels says.

Self-described as “F.A.T.,” Fabulous And Thick, Baker says the media causes a lot of problems for young, impressionable women who look to magazine models and actresses for an example of beauty. She would like to see an end to these unrealistic standards. “People look at that, and then these girls who are already skinny are making themselves even thinner,” she says. “They have a size 11, size 14 as plus size – that’s not plus size!” Pressures from society, culture and family are all inﬂuential in a woman’s self-image. While it is possible to ignore nearimpossible expectations, it can be hard to let everything go in one ear and out the other, Sarah Snyder, sophomore fashion design major, says. “I think it is almost impossible to be unaffected by these messages,” Snyder says. Snyder describes herself as of average weight and height and says she also had to ﬁnd pride in her weight. “I feel pressure to constantly worry about my body in comparison to others. Now I feel that it helps to separate myself from that. I’ve always been bigger or more curvy

But she doesn’t accept that image. “I think everyone should keep themselves original,” Samuels says. “I have been an outcast before, and it is the worst feeling ever. We should not judge by outer appearance.” Danielle Flickinger shops her heart out.

Samuels says the number of dark-skinned women is underrepresented I think everyone should in Hollykeep themselves original. wood. Beyonce, Ashanti and Halle Berry are stars, but they are all light-skinned. Samuels says it is hard when famous black women, such as Beyonce, change themselves to look more like the “blonde hair, blue eyed” stereotype. “If you look at her, she has gone from a chunky darkskinned girl to being skinny with more and more blonde hair and lighter skin,” Samuels says. Martha Cutter, English and women’s studies professor, says

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder With so many pairs of eyes out there, it’s easy to wonder exactly what the general consensus is. What really makes someone beautiful? compiled by Alexis Misko photos Leslie Cusano

even though women of other races feel a lot of pressures to look white, ideals have improved. “I think it’s gotten better even since the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement,” Cutter says. “I wish the media was little more open to having very dark-skinned fashion models, though.” The Black is Beautiful ideology deﬁnitely helps, Samuels says, but it is a common misconception that all AfricanAmerican women are comfortable with themselves and their weight. “I don’t think race has anything to do with it,” she says. “Black women and white women struggle with image just the same.” Counteracting the Ideal

“I ﬁnd beauty in things that other people always don’t: authenticity, a beautiful piece of music, or walking at night.” — Beth Piwkowski, graduate student of library sciences

“Beauty is extremely personal. Everyone doesn’t have the same idea of beauty. It’s something that captivates you and consumes all of your senses. It’s a calming feeling.” — Ezra Ferguson, Kent resident

A campus study is analyzing the image, construction and deconstruction of idealized beauty in advertisements. Elaine J. Hall, assistant professor in sociology and undergraduate coordinator, Alyssa Lyons, senior psychology major and Jessica Burke, graduate sociology student, are co-authoring the study. Through the course of two academic years, the team is doing a content analysis of pre-existing advertisements. While studying advertisements from seven magazines targeted at teens, they select ads with at least one body or body part. The goal is to decipher the psychological impact of the advertisements and how they affect the standard view of beauty. “[In] adult magazines, you will find a lot of objectification, or women as sexual objects,” Hall says. “But, the objectification of women in teen magazines is more about idealized beauty. They sell the image of it and then the women’s magazines objectify it.” In the study, which started out as Lyons’ honors project, they have found that 74 percent of the 575 ads they’ve collected apply to enhancement of some kind — makeup, clothes, hair or weight.

“The most surprising thing I have found so far is the lack of ads for weight loss products,” Lyons says. “But maybe the appearances of the models serve as a hidden ad for weight loss.” If the ﬁnal results end up being like the pilot test, Hall says she expects to ﬁnd that idealized beauty is shown in more subtle ways. For example, one advertisement has children dressed up as doctors. It is one she describes as “good, but with subtle undertones of gender differentiation that eventually leads to a stereotypical idea of what is beautiful.”

“Natural beauty is more attractive than fake. If everything about [a woman] is not real, she’s not beautiful.” — Steven Davic, senior international relations major

“There is a good mix of race and gender, and the doctor is a girl and some boys are the nurses,” Hall explains. “But if you look closer, the girl is wearing all pink – stethoscope, name tag. The color connotes continued gender differentiation. It is a good advertisement, but there is something else going on.” Most of the objectifying and negative images of women can be found in high fashion magazines and Cosmopolitan, Hall says. The team expects to find that the magazines’ audiences who see the sexual objectification of women will not so easily recognize the objectification of idealized beauty. “I think people need to know that advertising isn’t straightforward,” Lyons says. “There’s a lot more going on in an ad than the selling of a single product. Sometimes it can have a dramatic impact on people, especially vulnerable and malleable young adults. I hope the results can be used to help show what is actually happening in advertising.” The fairly standard image of beauty is what Hall describes as European-American — thin, young and with asymmetrical facial features. In their findings thus far, the team says they have found more blondes than comparable to the real world.

[Beauty is] “presence, or the way a person handles situations, good or bad, and how they can relate to the people around them, friends or strangers.” — Jenna Roman, sophomore in educational interpreting

Hall says there’s something inhuman about these models. Perhaps the audience forgets the wonders of the airbrush. “Their skin is ﬂawless, and I don’t mean no lines, I mean no pores,” she says. “They tell us that to be beautiful, you need products.” When the study is ﬁnished next fall, the three members will be writing a book about their analysis and they hope to make a difference in the way women look at advertisements.

[Beauty] “is being comfortable with your body and who you are. A lot of people don’t think that.” — Jessica Naples, freshman prejournalism major

There are two steps, Hall outlines, to breaking the stereotyping in advertisements. The first is to include the study of this in women’s college education. “We can’t counteract something if we don’t know what it is that we are fighting,” Hall says. The second is to incorporate the findings into everyday life and in the context of society — starting with younger generations.

“A woman is beautiful if she has a nice shape. She has to be muscular, but not too much. She can’t wear a bunch of makeup either. She must be in good health.” — Hibi Ki

“You see [a mold to ﬁll] in toys, nicknames, teacher-initiated activities. Such a big message is hard to resist,” Hall says. “We need to look at: How does this image affect the larger social context? The image doesn’t determine, but rather creates an environment where there will be certain types of women.”

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“A nice smile is very, very important.” — Peggy Kao

SHAVE orNOT toSHAVE

Women give insights into their hairy decisions.

story Brindi Bays photo illustration Amy Mitten

arms, we wax our eyebrows, some women bleach areas, and then there is...down there.

showed me proof by pulling up their pant legs, some revealing up to a week’s worth of hair.

The first signs of body hair removal go back to the cavemen era, when they used extremely sharp flint blades to shave. Ouch! But the first signs of women shaving came from about 4000 to 3000 B.C.. Women made their own creams with various dangerous ingredients, such as arsenic, quicklime and starch. About 500 B.C., women started using a type of tweezers to pluck their eyebrows. In the late 1600s women were known to shave their foreheads, then came the armpits in the early 1900s.

However, I did come across a few I’ll shave if I know I’m who were relucgoing to wear a skirt... tant to even talk or get lucky. about shaving. Some explain talking about it is dirty or weird. Other women explain how it is against their religion to shave. Some say they just don’t want to.

The May 1915 edition of Harper’s Bazaar featured a model wearing a sleeveless evening gown that exposed, for the first time in the press, her bare shoulders and hairless armpits. The same year, Mack Sennett became the first movie maker to show the feminine armpit in a non-pornographic film. In Sennett’s Mabel’s New Hero, also known as the Bathing Beauty shorts, he had the women shave their armpits. No one really knows why he did it, but shortly after, Wilkinson Sword company launched its advertising campaign urging women to shave their armpits because the hair was “unhygienic and unfeminine.” Razor sales skyrocketed.

It’s Friday night and I am almost ready to go out. It is time for my last minute ritual before he comes over: nails polished... check, makeup on...check, hair perfect... check, stunning outfit...always, shaved...? I reach down and rub my leg. Yep, there’s stubble. I run to the bathroom, grab the shaving cream and razor, and pray I won’t cut myself. I stop. Why do I need to shave my legs? Do I really have to? What really started this whole female shaving frenzy in the first place? We shave our legs and under our

Women began removing pubic hair during the 1960s, thanks to the increased popularity of the bikini. Once women started shaving their bikini lines, the fad for less and less hair down there became increasingly popular. All this information made me wonder. Do women shave under their arms because it is “unhygienic?” Do they shave because they want a nice bikini line? I decided to find out for myself. Some women I spoke with were completely open on the subject of shaving. Most were happy to point out the reasons they shaved. A few even

Lauren Schuck, sophomore sports management major, says she always shaves under her arms. “Not because I believe it’s ‘unhygienic,’ it’s just uncomfortable,” she says. “It irritates my skin if I don’t shave. But in the winter, I don’t shave as much.” Schuck says she never really thinks that women are supposed to shave. Justine Paolone, sophomore fashion merchandising major, says she also rarely shaves in the winter. “The hair keeps my legs warm,” she says. “But, I’ll shave if I know I’m going to wear a skirt. . .or get lucky. Guys don’t want to feel up on some girl’s legs if they have hair on them. That’s dirty.” Hmmm. . . From what I can tell, some women shave because, in society’s eyes, that’s how it should be. Others do it because they feel it is more attractive. Some shave once the hair gets too long and others because their boyfriends like the shaven look. Most women shave because it is what their mother taught them to do. Some do because they might “get lucky” before the night is over. Other women don’t because they just don’t want to. So now I find myself asking the real question—to shave or not to shave?

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MANLY

& metro story William Schertz

photo illustrations Leslie Cusano

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Max Dubinsky show he’s not afraid to wear a tie.

It was not so long ago that I was sporting JNCO Jeans clothing with flame and dragon insignias embroidered up and down my pant legs, too-bigto-fit shirts with tribal designs and the infinitely popular military style hair cut. My appearance never used to be a huge issue, but recently that has changed. I have moved on to tighter fitting, dressier shirts, boot-cut jeans and khaki cargos, more expensive hair products and a better hairstyle to go with them. I try to keep myself more clean-shaven than usual, I care more about how clean my skin is and I find myself sifting through an occasional Details magazine for fashion tips. I am not alone. All over the country, social standards are changing. Where the male stereotype used to involve a gruff man, dressed in flannel and sporting a generous supply of body hair, the new male standard is of a man who is not afraid to follow more traditionally feminine practices. “What is changing is the deﬁnition of masculinity,” says Linda Arthur, textile and design professor at Washington State University. “Since the mid 19th century it has been deﬁned as ‘not feminine.’” Recently, though, that definition has been altered to account for changes in attitudes toward men’s styles, she says. “Now it’s becoming more acceptable to pay attention to your appearance if you’re a man.” In 1994, the term “metrosexual” was coined by British author Mark Simpson to describe this new generation of men who pay attention to fashion trends, use a variety of beauty products and shave their body hair. Essentially, metrosexuals are men who exhibit traditionally feminine characteristics both through their fashion sense and mannerisms. David Allen, sophomore economics major, says

he takes pride in his appearance. On a typical day, Allen wakes up in the morning, showers and then fixes his hair with his Garnier Fructis fiber gum. He says he spends about 15 minutes picking his outfit, which is normally comprised of American Eagle OutfitWhat is changing ters gear, and then shaves is the definition of and uses Nivea masculinity. lotion on his face to keep his skin from becoming dry. “A major influence for me is just the idea of trying to look my best, whether that means I go to the Recreation Center, or use facial scrub or pay a little extra for that shirt I have to have. I always strive to look my best,” he says. While Allen says he has no problem with the term “metrosexual,” many males who fit the pattern tend to be turned off by the phrase, preferring terms like “preppy” instead. According to Arthur, this is not always an accurate synonym. “Preppy is a style of clothing, and not all metro’s dress preppy,” Arthur says. “Metrosexuality isn’t that clearly defined. With the term “metro” there is a stereotype that has developed, and people who are using that stereotype don’t really know what it is.” The stereotype Arthur speaks of is the general misconception that metrosexuality is often equated with homosexuality. Some men, like Nate Falvo, fear being associated with homosexuality. “That’s kind of a touchy subject,” says Falvo, junior fashion merchandising major.

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Falvo says he pays attention to fashion trends and tries to stick with what is in style, but he does not like the term “metrosexual” because of the negative connotation it carries. Allen says he feels that males who are wary of the term “metrosexual” are insecure and fear homosexuality. “I think men steer clear of the phrase “metrosexual” because they are homophobic,” he says. “I am not homosexual, but I am not a homophobe. If someone thought I was homosexual, I wouldn’t take offense to it. I would just explain to them the situation.” Christian Wong [top] and Nate Sargent show they are mad about metro styles.

The development of metrosexuality in the United States has been a gradual one, stemming from a changing American culture. “We communicate more non-verbally now then we did 20 years ago,” Arthur says. She notes that 30 percent of communication in the 1980s was nonverbal (appearance based), but in this new, fast-paced millennium, that percentile is up to 70. Where appearance was once largely a primary focus for women, men are also now becoming increasingly objectified, Arthur says. Television shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that focus on male image have become popular and magazines such as Maxim, FHM and GQ have devoted more page space to ideal-looking male models dressed in the latest fashions – something traditionally exclusive to women’s magazines. “I think women are fed up with having to look good and being forced to date guys who don’t take care of themselves,” Allen says. “I agree with women that say if they have to make themselves look good, they should be able to demand a guy who makes himself look good.”

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NIP

it’s a

TUCKworld story Leslie Schelat I want to look normal. In her head, Melanie would say those five words to herself, always wondering why she didn’t look like other girls. Until she was 18 years old, Melanie, junior business management major whose name has been changed, wore a 32 AAA bra, which was essentially a training bra. “I couldn’t fit in clothes,” Melanie says. “I was completely flat.” At the age of 18, Melanie did what an increasing number of Americans are doing: she had cosmetic surgery. The number of cosmetic surgeries rose eight percent from 2003 to 2004, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. An overwhelming majority, 87 percent of those surgeries, were performed on women. These women, like Melanie, are taking advantage of the fact that no matter what their perception of beauty is, if they don’t like the way they look, there are ways they can change it. When Melanie was 11, her mother had implants because she wasn’t pleased with her breast size. A cousin also had implants to correct under-developed breasts. So, by the time Melanie was about 15 or 16 and beginning to wonder why her breasts weren’t growing, she started seriously thinking about getting implants.

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Since she had experienced the same emotional distress, Melanie’s mom understood her daughter’s problem. She had thoroughly researched the

procedure and was happy with the results. On June 19, 2003, Melanie had her own surgery. The entire procedure took two hours. Melanie chose to have her tear-drop shaped implants placed under her chest muscles to give her breasts a more realistic look. They were inserted through three-inch incisions under her breasts. This type of placement also requires the cutting of the patient’s back muscles in addition to making the incision for the implant. Implants can also be placed on top of the muscle and patients can avoid incisions under the breast by having the implant inserted through the belly button. “I went from a 32 AAA to a 34 C,” Melanie says. “When I got them done, they were up to my chin. I felt like I had a semi [truck] on my chest. I couldn’t breathe.” Following breast implant surgery, Melanie was instructed to leave her surgical bra on for one week, but she was uncomfortable. “I took it off the day after surgery,” Melanie says with a laugh. She says that she was on a lot of pain medication and didn’t move out of her parents’ bed for a week. “It was excruciating pain,” Melanie says. “I couldn’t sit up. But I knew it was something that would make me happy in the end.” The only negative aspect of her surgery, Melanie says, is that she had it at a young age. According to the Breast

Implant Task Force, a joint venture of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the life span of a saline implant is 10 to 20 years. Many women will have their implants replaced at some time. In addition, the implant will lose about one percent of its volume every year. In Melanie’s case, her implants initially held 200 cubic centimeters of saline, the liquid equivalent of 40 flu shots. Almost three years later, roughly 194 cubic centimeters are left. The saline that is lost from her implant is actually absorbed by her body. Because saline can be absorbed by the body without harming tissues, saline implants are used more often. “Saline is much more safe,” Melanie says. “They don’t look as natural, but if your implant were to pop, it’s not a poison.” If the implant was to rupture or Melanie decided they had deflated too much, she can have the implant removed. In fact, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that in 2004, 70 percent of implants that are removed are also replaced. But rather than having to have a deflated implant replaced, Melanie can have them refilled. “There’s a valve in my boob,” she says, laughing. Her implant can be refilled with a needle through a valve on the bottom of her implant. Confidence counts Not everyone agrees with the rising popularity

of plastic surgery. Senior psychology major Brittany O’Brien says she does not support people’s decisions to get cosmetic surgery for anything other than health reasons.

O’Brien, who has a generous sprinkling of freckles herself, said she had always been self-conscious due to the peppering of pigmentation on her skin.

“I think it mainly comes from always wanting to be a feminist,” O’Brien says. “And part of being a feminist is wanting to love yourself unconditionally.”

“She had this huge, conﬁdent smile on her face,” O’Brien recalls. “There’s nothing more beautiful than that conﬁdence.”

This unconditional love is something that O’Brien herself did not always possess. “I saw this girl,” O’Brien says, describing a past family vacation at the beach, “she was covered head to toe in freckles and she was wearing a bikini.”

Another smile that contributed to O’Brien’s stance on cosmetic surgery is that of her little brother. He has a rare craniofacial syndrome, which required a plastic surgery procedure to treat the disorder. “I look at him and him having a smile of conﬁdence on his face represents beauty for me,” O’Brien says. She added that, to her,

physical beauty isn’t beauty–confidence is. Self-worth to women is often measured in terms of beauty, which O’Brien says she does not necessarily see as a bad thing, until the emphasis is placed specifically on physical beauty. “It kind of cheats women,” O’Brien says, “because they often spend so much time and energy trying to impress others that they are not aware of their own strengths and weaknesses as women.” O’Brien says that one of her friends made the decision to have a breast lift because she thought it would boost her low self-image. “She had low self-esteem before, and still does,” O’Brien says. “It’s even more of a disappointment.” Is plastic surgery the right decision? John Thottam, the doctor who performed Melanie’s surgery, is the only surgeon at his private practice on Higbee Avenue in Canton. He has had his practice there since 1978. One of the reasons Melanie felt comfortable going to Thottam was because she says he made sure patients wanted the procedures for more morally correct reasons, not just because they wanted bigger breasts to be strippers. Thottam says that sometimes people who want to have cosmetic surgery probably are not thinking through the process. “They want to have cosmetic surgery because they want to look like someone else, or maybe someone else told them they should,” he says. Thottam says he discourages patients who tell him they would like surgery for those reasons. “You have to be of sound mind,” Thottam says. “You don’t want to think that cosmetic surgery is going to change your life.” For this reason, Thottam says he likes to know that his patients want the surgery for their own benefit.

“It has to be something you want for yourself,” Thottam says. To Thottam, whose interest in plastic surgery began when he was in medical school, this personal benefit is the true reason why people should get cosmetic surgery. “It builds confidence because they feel they are not born with the right genes,” Thottam says. “This will help them feel more self confident in their life.” The numbers are going up People seeking this increased confidence are one of the reasons Thottam feels the number of cosmetic procedures preformed has increased in the last several years. “I think one of the reasons is that patients are becoming more and more self assured that if they don’t like something, they are able to change it,” Thottam says. Another factor that Thottam attributes the increases to is the media.

It has to be something

“I have to say some you want for yourself. of the TV shows we’ve had had an effect of people’s thinking,” Thottam says. “There’s no stigma anymore.” One of these TV shows is Doctor 90210, a reality show about a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. It follows the doctor from consultation through recovery with various patients. Another example, Extreme Makeover, follows some patients with more severe problems, such as cleft palettes, and other men and women who are looking for a life-changing makeovers. These people often have numerous dramatic procedures followed by new ﬁtness and beauty routines.

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Despite the pain, risks and recovery time, Melanie doesn’t regret her decision to have breast implants. “They way I carry myself is different,” she says. Looking at her before surgery and after surgery photos, Melanie can see a difference in her posture. The pain was worth it to “My shoulders weren’t even conﬁmake me feel normal. dent.” Now, although she knows what a difference the implants have made to her self image, Melanie doesn’t let the surgery, or her

new bust, go to her head. “I don’t think, ‘Damn, I’m sweet ‘cause I got my boobs done,’” Melanie says. “I honestly don’t think about them. I accept them as mine.” Melanie says her surgery was something she did for herself and her conﬁdence. “The pain was worth it to make me feel normal,” she says.

their teens and twenties. Among the disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are most common However, statistics show occurrence of anorexia and bulimia in ages ranging from six to 76 years. Occurrence of eating disorders in male and females differ greatly. Females make up 90 percent of those with eating disorders, mainly due to the societal importance put upon female body image. Males comprise 10 percent of eating disorder victims. Although the occurrence of eating disorders is much less than that in females, both genders have similar causes. Dieting can be a trigger, as well as professions that require thinness, such as modeling, acting and other image heavy jobs. Because the socio-

cultural pressures tend to mainly target women, eating disorders have been labeled as a “women’s issue.” This belief not only stigmatizes the disorder, it also results in the poor research done on the male experience of the disorder. Bulimia and anorexia often occur simultaneously. More than 50 percent of those who suffer from anorexia nervosa develop bulimia. Anorexia has also been linked to other disorders. Depression, suicide, and self mutilation are also commonly occurring disorders among victims of anorexia and bulimia.

Ryan says, “Check out the Artemis Web site, http://studentmedia.kent.edu/artemis/”

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Statistics from http://www.anred.com/stats.html and http://www.learnwell.org/anorexia.htm compiled by Elizabeth Tussey

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Eating disorders are most common in individuals in

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Allie says, “I hope you love reading Artemis as much as I loved designing it!”

story Joanne Bello photo illustrations Lauren Anderson Exercising is the best way to guarantee a great physique and a healthy body. But some women are starting to use exercising as a means of getting more than just a good figure. Compulsive exercising is becoming a growing problem among women-- and the effects are more than just good abs. “I hate my body,” Mykenzi says. “My belly doesn’t get flat no matter how many sit-ups I do. I have flabby underarms. My ankles are too skinny. My thighs are too big. My shoulders are uneven and I hate them.” Mykenzi asked that her real name not be used because of her problem.

KILLERworkouts

Mykenzi is like many young women in this country who are dissatisfied with their bodies. The difference is, she goes to extreme lengths to fix herself to conform to what she views as society’s perfect thin woman. Mykenzi uses over-exercising to try to get her perfect figure. At 5 foot 6 inches, Mykenzi weighs 120 pounds. According to Kristen Jones, a nutritionist and a physical trainer, the average person should be exercising no more than 60 minutes per day, three times a week unless training for an event. The exerciser should be switching targeted areas of workout each day. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, weight loss should be about one to two pounds per week for a period of six months, with the subsequent strategy based on the amount of weight lost. “A diet that is individually planned to help create a deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories per day should be an integral part of any program aimed at achieving a weight loss of one to two pounds per week,” the Department of Health and Human Services says.

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Mykenzi spends two hours, ﬁve days a week in the gym working out. Some days she does a short abdominal workout, but she always makes sure to get in her cardiovascular workout.

head. She has done this routine so often that her body is trained to handle the long distance running. She can run up to three miles in 28 minutes.

“It’s my way of getting rid of stress and staying thin,” Mykenzi says. “When I get on the treadmill and put on my headphones I just go to a place I love. It’s just treadmill and me. I go for miles.”

Mykenzi says she was an overweight child who ate anything that wasn’t healthy. In the tenth grade she decided to start losing weight. Her obsession with her body led her to take a dangerous curve on the road to a healthier lifestyle.

Mykenzi hops on the treadmill and begins to run at a full speed. She doesn’t even start off with a jog to warm herself up. She does her workout every morning at 7:30 a.m., except for Mondays and Wednesdays. “As soon as I walk into the gym all of my worries are left behind me. All I want to do is focus on running, until I can’t run anymore.”

All I want to do is focus on running, until I can’t run anymore.

If she can’t make it to the gym on a particular day, Mykenzi will go running outside instead. It doesn’t matter what the weather is like. She will run in the rain, snow or sun. She says she like’s the treadmill better than she likes to run outside. She can even calculate the speed at which she is running because she has spent so much time on the treadmill. “I am usually running about 6.2 miles per hour when I run on the treadmill and when I’m outside,” she says. “I try to keep my pace the same outside as I do on the treadmill. It’s not a full sprint, but I’m not leisurely jogging either.” Sometimes when Mykenzi runs, she runs until she makes herself sick. Then she has to stop. Sometimes she gets close to throwing up, but walks around the gym for a few minutes to try to prevent it.

“I eat all the right food. I work out constantly and it’s as if I do nothing at all. That’s what makes me go to the gym all the time.”

“I went from being chunky sophomore year to being borderline anorexic my junior year of high school,” Mykenzi says. “My family caught my eating disorder before I needed to be hospitalized. They made me talk to a psychologist and they made me start eating. I gained ten pounds back after that.”

After her workout, Mykenzi will try to eat something small to make herself feel like she is staying healthy. She will try to eat things like yogurt, a banana or a granola bar. It is the only food she will eat until dinnertime unless on a particular day she can’t make it without eating a small lunch.

Mykenzi says her eating disorder stemmed from her ex-boyfriend cheating on her. The two had been dating for two years when she found out he was cheating. She wanted to get his attention, so she chose to lose weight. At the height of her anorexia, Mykenzi weighed only 90 pounds.

“I think people can see that I have a problem and that I am obsessed with exercising, but I can’t help it,” she says. “I love doing it and I can’t stop myself from wanting to go all the time.”

“I thought it was the end of the world,” she says. “I was really depressed. I couldn’t control him breaking up with me, but I could control [my weight].” According to psychologist Ron Iaboni, women who feel like they have to over-exercise can also suffer from a common mental disorder called Body Dysmorphic Disorder. “This disorder makes a people believe their bodies are inadequate,” he says. “It is like looking through a fun house mirror. They are really skinny, but when they look through the mirror it shows up that they look really fat. It’s a distorted body image.”

When she gets off the treadmill, she walks over to a different machine and works out on that one. After a short stay on another machine, Mykenzi will return to her beloved treadmill and run some more, hoping to get to the special place inside her

According to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc., Body Dysmorphic Disorder affects about two percent of people in the United States and affects males and females equally. About 70 percent of the time the disorder affects people before the age of 18.

Mykenzi says she has good days and bad days when it comes to her body image.

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“The bad days make me not eat,” she says. “All I can think about is when the last time I went to the gym was and I’ll make myself workout harder than I normally would. If I have to, I’ll run until I get sick just so I can feel like I had control over how my body looks.

Mykenzi acknowledges that images of women in movies and magazines are what make her have such a negative body image. “Television makes women obsessed with being skinny,” she says. Mykenzi says she feels that women have been trained to see beauty in only one form: the super skinny and super tall mold. Even though, realistically, only a small percentage of women look like supermodels, those are the only types of women who are being shown as being beautiful on TV, Mykenzi says. The modeling industry also effects women’s body images, Iaboni says. “Supermodels are creating one image and the average women’s image is a completely different one,” she says. “Women think, ‘This is what I’ve got to look like,’ and they use extreme measures to get it.”

Side-effects from over-exercising • • • • • • • • • •

Decreased concentration Feeling lethargic Sleep disturbance Increased thirst Decreased appetite Gradual weight loss Loss of menstrual cycle Heaviness in leg muscles Decreased immunity Gastro-Intestinal problems, particularly diarrhea

Mykenzi says she realizes she may never be on the cover of beauty magazines. “I guess I’m going to have to realize I’m never going to be a supermodel,” Mykenzi says.

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