Make Health the New Object of the Game

Make no mistake, women and girls are finding it difficult, often times impossible to break through the barriers of self-limitation, fear and shame. Females have learned from each previous generation that the suppression of feelings, desires and dreams is necessary to make it in the male-dominated world. The majority of today’s women have learned from their Grandmothers, Mothers, Fathers, advertising and the media that women are in-fact second-class citizens born to be objectified. Women fall prey to several myths and thus seek to cope by developing dangerous patterns of behavior; eating disorders to attain the “thinness body ideal” for example.

Women lead lives of multiple roles (daughter, wife, mother, friend, co-worker, etc.) and when given the new windows of opportunity for advancement in the realm of sports, careers, politics, etc., the overwhelming list of what is possible to achieve seems to outweigh the need for rest, positive relationships and realistic goal setting. Self-worth, self-respect, self-love and self-esteem are lacking and are sending the world’s women into spirals of depression, anxiety and disordered eating patterns. Our realistic perceptions of what is beautiful and what is healthy in regards to body weight and shape have been grossly distorted by the media.

Our culture has placed an unusually high value on external beauty placing unnecessary pressure on females (males are also starting to come under attack). Teaching young people (males and females) about how to cope with stress, how to maintain a healthy body and how to treat not only others, but our own selves with respect. If these steps in the right direction are taken, the world will be a happier, healthier place.

Food & Mood

From the moment we are born into the world as females we battle low self-esteem, stereotypes and the overwhelming world view that as women and girls we just aren’t good enough. Despite the best efforts of our friends and family who might love us unconditionally, negative thoughts and attitudes about body image daily trip us up as if we were tip-toeing over land mines. Playing duck and cover from advertising ads that play up our insecurities and target our lack of confidence then blow it up like hand-grenades is all out warfare for our identity.

Magazines and television programs constantly feed us unrealistic versions of what women and girls should be: skinny, blonde, large breasts, and perfectly happy being objectified and starving. The fact is, women and girls are not perfectly happy, and what they are starving from is a lack of empowerment, guide to proper nutrition and a healthy self-esteem that links to their own core beliefs, not what others think they should believe about themselves.

Too many cases of female depression, anxiety and disordered eating are related to body image and weight. Women and girls are dissatisfied with themselves, their bodies in particular and why? Would they be dissatisfied if normal body shape, color and personality were fairly portrayed in the media and in our own homes?

The truth is that the world is not fair, but we can be to ourselves. The world may take its sweet time in electing female world leaders, or distributing equal pay for equal work, but in the meantime it is the responsibility of all women to encourage, support and foster in one another positive beliefs in our own self-worth regardless of our size, shape, color or class. Demand to not be demeaned, controlled or dominated by exploitative advertising that is completely harmful.