Women’s Health Matters is a monthly series presented by the MWO’s Women’s Health Task Force.
This month, the Women’s Health Task Force presents beYOUtiful Workshop: loving our bodies beyond body image and beauty sickness. Alhamdulillah, our bodies have been created to be strong, restorative, and beautiful. As our bodies change, it can be hard to see these qualities in ourselves, though. Join us on Saturday, June 17th from 3pm - 5pm at the Hub for a spa experience and clinical perspectives about the importance of loving our bodies and the dangers of negative body image and beauty sickness.
Renee Engelm, Ph.D. explains that beauty sickness is what happens when women’s emotional energy gets so bound up with what they see in the mirror that it becomes harder for them to see other aspects of their lives. It starts surprisingly early, as soon as young girls are taught that their primary form of currency in this world involves being pleasing to the eyes of others. Although we hear the most about beauty sickness in young women, it’s a malaise that affects women of all ages. You can’t simply grow out of it. You must break free with deliberate intent and perseverance.
Beauty sickness is fed by a culture that focuses on women’s appearance over anything else they might do or say or be. It’s reinforced by the images we see and the words we use to describe ourselves and other women. Those who shame women for their appearance feed beauty sickness. Those who praise girls and women only for how they look do the same.
Beauty sickness hurts. It contributes to and finds a ready home in the depression and anxiety that plague so many women. At a practical level, beauty sickness steals women’s time, energy, and money, moving us further away from the people we want to be and the lives we want to live. It keeps us facing the mirror instead of facing the world.
If you’re a woman, there’s a good chance you’ve felt beauty sickness. If you’ve ever thought about staying home instead of attending an important event because you didn’t think you looked good enough, that was beauty sickness. If you’ve found yourself distracted during a meeting because you were comparing your body with that of another woman in the room, that’s beauty sickness. If you’ve ever decided not to go swimming with your children because you couldn’t imagine facing the world in a bathing suit, that’s beauty sickness. If you feel short of time and money, but still spend plenty of both trying to push yourself closer to our culture’s beauty ideal, you can blame beauty sickness. If you want to stop worrying about how you look, but keep getting pulled back to the mirror, then you know what beauty sickness feels like.
The NEDC describes body image as a combination of the thoughts and feelings that you have about your body. Body image may range between positive and negative experiences, and one person may feel at different times positive or negative or a combination of both. Body image is influenced by internal (e.g. personality) and external (e.g. social environment) factors.
When a person is able to accept, appreciate and respect their body, they may be described as having a positive body image. This is not the same as body satisfaction, as you can be dissatisfied with aspects of your body, yet still be able to accept it for all its limitations. Positive body image is important because it is one of the protective factors which can make a person less susceptible to developing an eating disorder.
A positive body image is associated with:
Higher self-esteem, which dictates how a person feels about themselves, can impact on every aspect of life and contribute to happiness and wellbeing.
Self-acceptance, making a person more likely to feel comfortable and happy with the way they look and less likely to feel impacted by unrealistic images in the media and societal pressures to look a certain way.
Having a healthy outlook and behaviours, as it is easier to lead a balanced lifestyle with healthier attitudes and practices relating to food and exercise when you are in tune with, and respond to, the needs of your body.
Join us along with our Women’s Health Task Force Community Awareness Coordinator, Shelly Hassanali-Sunanon LME RN BSN, to learn more about body image and beauty sickness. This workshop takes place in person and will include a spa experience and activities. Advanced Registration is Required. Click below to sign up.
For more information about this event or to get involved in our Women’s Health Task Force, email Alyssa@mwo-orlando.org