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EMPOWERED EMPOWERED Body image plays an important role in the lives of adolescents and is heavily impacted by society and parental figures. BY CO-PRINT-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MADELINE HAMMETT & COPY EDITOR KATE MCCARTHY Fat. Skinny. Chubby. Bony. Overweight. Underweight. These descriptive words have shifted in their connotation to become shameful words in our society rather than what their intended purpose was: scientific and informational. These words and phrases have taken on a life of their own as they are now used by society to criticize, attack, and break down the way different bodies are viewed. “The definition of body image is really important because if you are using positive body image as something to live up to, then that becomes just one more thing to do.” Nutrition Therapist and Eating Disorder Dietitian Corrine Dobbas, MS, RD said. For teens it feels like ‘if I don’t love my body then I am failing’.” Positive body image is not believing what society claims to be the ideal body and trying to become that. Positive body image is fluctuating and something that takes time, it is important to love who you are as a person too, according to Dobbas. “Having a positive body image doesn’t mean you wake up and start loving your body every moment of every single day,” Dobbas said. “It is being caring and compassionate and kind with yourself in those moments where you feel less connected to your body.” Hereditary body image is a very difficult thing that many families struggle with. It is often accidental when motherly and
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fatherly figures impose the way they view and feel about their body onto their children. Despite its accidental nature, it is something that happens much more often than not. Body image is a difficult topic to bring up and address in families despite its prevalence in many homes, especially homes where teens reside. “The way that family members talk about bodies has a really significant impact on the relationship that teenagers have with their own bodies and food,” Dobbas said. When key figures in the home view their bodies as lesser than, restrict food, choose to go on unhealthy diets or avidly work out without refueling with proper nutrients, children will naturally follow those same tendencies at an earlier age. This tendency to follow as they have seen is only natural. Though this may not be the intent, interactions in the homes such as those above can lead to eating disorders in children, parents or both. “If you have a parent who is constantly talking about how their body is bad or is making comments about other people in larger bodies that are negative then there is going to be great risks as a teen,” Dobbas said. Eating disorders come in many shapes and forms of internal and external scrutiny and are not a linear battle. More often than not, they are not easy to see from the outward appearance of a
