Just something to think about....

To audition for the Radio City Rockettes there are strict guidelines for height:

between 5’6 and 5’10 ½

 

Although there is no “formal weight” requirement, all the female performers are below 135 pounds.

 

Many ballet companies in NYC want their dancers to be between 5’2 and 5’7 and their weight SHOULDN’T EXCEED 115 pounds!!!

 

Now, let’s look at height and weight for models:

Commercial Modeling:

FEMALE:

5'6 to 5'11

MALE:

5'9 to 6'2

Editorial / Fashion modeling:

FEMALE:

5'8 to 6'0

90lb- 120lb

MALE:

5'9 to 6'2

120lb- 170lb

Plus-Size modeling:

5'8 to 6'2

SIZE 10-18

 

 

LET'S BRING IT BACK TO REALITY BY LOOKING AT HEALTHY MEASURES:

 



 

 

www.models.com

(Among the agencies that use MODELS.com to look for new talent, you will find commercial agencies as well as some of the most exclusive editorial agencies like Elite, Ford, Marilyn, IMG or Next, which represent famous supermodels)

T. Bason, Personal Communication, February 17, 2013.

www.rockettes.com

Women or Objects?

 

 

This video, Killing Us Softly, discusses the sexualization of girls and women in the media.  Mass media productions strive to target adolescent girls and young women to portray the unrealistic idea of beauty that society expects women to obtain.  In many advertisements, models represent values, images, success, who we are/ who we ought to be, and most importantly the importance of how we look.  These advertisements make many of us want to obtain this unrealistic beauty, and when we fail, we feel ashamed and guilty.  The fashion industry gives us the vibe that sex sells.  We strive to be beautiful and thin to fit into the expectations that society has set for us.

Think of some of the retail stores you may shop in.  Now, visualize not only the body sizes of the sales associates but also their dress attire.  I have been working in retail since I was 18 and if there is one trend that I have noticed, it’s that sex sells.  In retail, your personal appearance is everything, it defines who you are.  Far too many times your sales do not reflect your knowledge on the product, but how you wear or present the product yourself.  I worked for a higher end retail company for four years and have witnessed the sexulization placed on the employees as well as discrimination towards customers “who didn’t look the part”.

 

The APA (2007) states that sexualization occurs when the following happen:

·         A person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior

·         A person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy

·         A person is sexually objectified

·         Sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person

 

Looking at certain activities/professions that we engage in; modeling, dancing, gymnastics, servers, retail, etc., it is apparent that sexualization happens, more often than not, in regards to appearance and behavior.  Sexualization can happen to both men and women, but it is far more prevalent among women in certain professions.  We need to train ourselves to look past physical features, and see a person for who they are.  Take for instance the modeling industry.  You are considered to be plus size if you are a size 12, but in reality size 10 or 12 is a pretty normal size.  We are sending ridiculous messages to both women and men about what real beauty is.  We are sending a message that you cannot be sexy/beautiful unless you fulfill these impossible requirements that society and the media portray as important.  Our priorities as a society are very distorted.  Instead of using so much negative energy to criticize every person in the public eye, we need to come together and focus on the individuals who are living and leading a healthy lifestyle.  

 

American Psychological Association. (2007). Sexualization of girls. Washington, DC: Eileen L Zurbriggen et al.

Media Education Foundation [challengingmedia]. (2010, March 12). Killing us softly 4: Advertising’s image of women [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PTlmho_RovY

What is your sense of worth?

What is it about our society that makes us so obsessed with our weight and being beautiful?  Of course we all want to be beautiful and desirable, but what and who defines those standards?  Sadly enough, there are messages everywhere about what beauty means in our society; and far too many of the messages are of negative context.

“Although many women have made considerable strides in the world of work, the prevailing ideology continues to assert that being attractive (read “thin”) enough to capture the right man is the real way to success”(Rothenberg, 2005, p.568).  We live in a society that puts a ridiculous amount of pressure on both men and women, to obtain a physique that is often unattainable.  We are trained to think that if we have this perfect body, we are going to have the perfect job, the perfect spouse/partner, ultimately, the perfect life.  But how do we come to have these perceptions? 

Throughout life we all have many interpersonal relationships (family, school peers, work peers, peers through extra- curricular activities, etc.) that mold many of our perceptions.  The socially constructed idea of beauty in different interpersonal relationships is one topic that I view to be important.  Our families are our first interpersonal relationship that we engage in and learn about life values.  In a story about Delia, her family puts a high value on being beautiful, thin, and desirable.  Her father installs the value to do whatever in life that makes her happy.  However, her mother pushes values on beauty.  At age 13, Delia became so obsessed with her weight that she became bulimic.  She was continuously reminded of her weight from her mother.  Although, Delia states that her mother was never verbally harsh with comments such as “you are fat”, her mother would suggest that she does not have desserts, or would slap her hand if she was about to eat “unhealthy” foods.  She was wrapped up in a world where she was taught that being thin helped her achieve everything and anything she wanted.  When she entered college, she was involved on the competitive cheerleading team where her focus on weight was continuously reinforced.   Her focus at school was no longer on her studies or having fun, but what, if anything was she going to eat.  By the end of her college career, she adapted to her mothers’ state of mind.  Delia no longer wanted to make a living for herself; she wanted to find a husband that would do that for her.  She gave in to the ‘Cult of thinness’.  She wanted to make herself desirable and beautiful so she could have any man she wanted (Hesse-Biber, 1996). 

From a young age, her environment and upbringing placed such a high value on beauty and being desired by a man.  As Delia grew older her values became reinforced by the activities and friendships she engaged in.  More often than not, a woman’s worth is often very sexist.  There is a high value placed on beauty and being thin in our society, and as adults, we need to learn how to portray positive body image to young children.  There is no problem in teaching children about healthy eating and exercising, but there needs to be a limit.  Throughout a child’s life there are going to be plenty of people (friends, enemies) that try to destroy their self-worth by picking on their intelligence, their performance, their height, their weight, etc.  A parent should go through hell and high water to build their child’s self-esteem and make them feel beautiful and/or handsome.  We need to teach our children that beauty comes in all different shapes, sizes and colors.  After all, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder and we all desire something different.

 

Hesse-Biber, S. (1996). Am I thin enough yet?. In P. S. Rothenberg (Eds.), Race, class, and gender in the united states (8^th ed.) (pp.587-594). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

  

Lets Hear It For The Boys

Young girls and women are not the only ones who are obsessed with their body image.  In todays’ society, admiring and continuously trying to reach unattainable body goals is on the rise with boys, girls, men, and women.  In the video you just viewed, is a young teenage boy who is a bodybuilder trying to get more muscular.  He describes this as muscular dysmorphia, (bigorexia) which is disorder where people feel they are too skinny and want to get bigger by gaining more muscle.  This epidemic is on the rise in young boys starting as early as middle school.  Young boys are trying to portray that “fat-free and chiseled body” (Quenqua, 2012).  Many young boys are going to the gym for several hours, every day of the week to achieve that stereotypical ‘bodybuilder look’.



Can we really blame young boys for trying to be super muscular?  If this bodybuilding epidemic is starting with boys who are in middle school, they are in the beginning of finding themselves, puberty, and in a very influential time of their lives.  But how do boys even know they want to be that muscular?  Television is crawling with examples of men with big muscles.  For instance, Jersey Shore and Jerseylicious portray “juice head gorillas” that get all the girls and can get what they want simply for the way they look.  Jersey shore and cast member Mike “The Situation” is a dead on example of a gym junkie.  Although it has been said that he takes supplements to help put on muscle mass, he has been dedicated to the gym to look how he does.  Let’s not forget commercials promoting supplements, commercials for getting that ‘ripped’ body such as P90X, and movies and documents with actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger.  What’s this all teaching young influential minds?

Quenqua (2012) states that many boys are starting to go to the gym hard; several hours a day, six or seven days a week.  They see their bodies changing, but not quick enough.  So what do they do? You got it, they start using legal supplements such as protein bars and shakes.  Many times, boys who get into bodybuilding do tamper with illegal supplements as well, such as steroids, after they stop seeing results from their protein supplements.  This is happening more often than not, that there has been a significant decrease in natural teenage body building competitions.  Many of the teenage bodybuilders cannot compete in these competitions because they are too “juiced” up.  Why can’t these young boys be happy with little muscle definition?  Why does our society make it so hard to be happy doing what we do?  If we say we are bodybuilders, society doesn’t believe it unless we live up to the stereotypes we created for that particular group.  Why can’t society just accept people for who they say they are? Why do we not feel comfortable if their appearance doesn’t match our perceived stereotype?   

Quenqua, D. (2012, November 19). Muscular body image lures boys into gym, and obsession. The New York Times, pp. A1.

 

Double Body Image

Athletes go through rigorous and intense training to become the best they can be.  It is no wonder why they are in such impeccable shape.  Many of us idolize not only their hard work and dedication, but also the shape they are in.  As we may stereotype athletes to have the perfect athletic build and wish we could have their body, athletes are doing the exact same thing; wishing for a different body.  They too struggle with negative body image due to the discrepancy between what they feel their body needs to look like as an athlete and what their body needs to look like as a culturally accepted female (Krane, Waldron, Michalenok, & Stiles-Shipley, 2011).  This is called the double body image.

"Ideal Thin"

In Krane et al. (2011) study, the researchers’ main focus was to look at the attitudes of college women athletes, and how they view their bodies as athletes in comparison to cultural expectations.  The thought of “the double body image” is quite interesting and makes sense after reading this study.  As an athlete, you take total pride in your body.  You are dedicated to working out and eating right not only so your performance is top notch, but also so your body fits the part.  When you are in season, training and practice come first; everything else is put on the back burner.  Krane et al. state, “The athletes we interviewed expressed pride and satisfaction with their bodies as athletes.  They worked hard to develop as strong, powerful, and skilled athletes” (2011).  As proud as athletes are of their body, they also become self-conscious when they are around their friends who are not involved in competitive sports.  This has a lot to do with what our society considers thin and beautiful.  When athletes are in their natural surroundings, being the sport world, their bodies are perfect.  Their bodies are toned and muscular and shaped in a way that is beneficial to their performance.  However, being out in the real world, they may be looked at as having “to manly” of a body.  Women strive to be toned but not overly muscular.  They do not want to lose their feminine look.  Social constructs lead us to view a ‘feminine look’ as being thin, lean, and toned.  In our society, if you are too muscular you lose your feminine look.  Athletes want the best of both worlds, to fit in and be accepted as both a women athlete and culturally fit female.



"Athletic Build"

One of the participants noted that she was feeling good about her body while she was in basketball practice, but when she was with her girlfriends trying on bathing suits for spring break she became uncomfortable.  She felt her friends had the perfect body, and she felt too muscular.  As she was feeling uncomfortable, one of her girlfriends commented on her ‘boyish’ figure (Krane et al., 2011).  It is no wonder that many athletes do not feel like they fit it with what is culturally accepted as being thin and beautiful.  But how do gain a balance between being happy with your athletic build and what is expected for a culturally fit female?  Is there really ever a happy medium? 

While many women in todays’ society go on extreme diets to achieve that ideal thin body, athletes achieve a close to perfect body the right way.  Many Americans turn to eating disorders, limiting calories, and extreme exercising to lose weight, or tone that flabby skin.  Athletes on the other hand work hard; they work out but also feed their bodies.  Do they pig out on junk food?  No, definitely not.  But they eat what their bodies need, what their bodies crave, and work out daily.

 

Krane, V., Waldron, J., Michalenok, J., & Stiles-Shipley, J. (2011). Body image concerns in female exercisers and athletes: A feminist cultural studies perspective. Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal, 17.

 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

From a young age, girls especially, learn that “thin is in”. That image is shaped by our parents, peers, media, and experiences. I have been involved with dance since I was six years old and even then I was informed of the ideal thin. It wasn’t until I was ten that I started not only judging my body, but the other girls’ bodies in my classes. As a dancer, you are in front of full length mirrors for multiple hours a day.  Instead of solely focusing on group formation, and making sure your own body is correctly aligned and in the correct position, you can easily become fixated on body flaws. I started looking at other girls and pinpointing all of their flaws; their thighs are too big, their stomachs aren’t flat enough, etc. I then started watching myself in the mirror and realized every visible and physical flaw on myself. I too realized that my thighs didn’t touch, my arms were not toned enough, my hips were to wide, etc.  It was then at age eleven I started my struggle with anorexia.   For years I had unrealistic body ideals that I felt I needed to strive to achieve.  Instead of having instructors who encouraged a healthy lifestyle, they too encouraged cutting back food/calorie intake as well as increasing intensive exercising.

            We all have body prejudices when we think of athletes.  How would you describe the perfect dancers’ body?  I always envision a ballet dancer as having “the perfect body”.  Every muscle and body part is elongated; legs, stomach, neck and arms to name a few.  The outside world thinks that dancers carry themselves with such poise, when really many of them are in a constant battle to maintain the ideal dance body. 

            There have been many studies done to pinpoint what really contributes to the influences of distorted body images among dancers.  While many dance schools and studios are now trying to promote healthy eating habits and positive body image, there is still the underlying factor of what is socially accepted in the dance world.  A former ballerina who used to dance with the New York City Ballet Company stated, “I was less than a hundred pounds even then….He did not merely say, ‘Eat less.’  He said repeatedly, ‘Eat nothing’” (Oliver, p. 21).  Her dance instructor did not care about her well-being, he cared about the image she was portraying on stage.  Like many dance instructors, they strive to have the best of everything; choreography, costumes, music, dancers, etc.  When dancing for such a big company, the image that is portrayed on stage silently speaks about what your company is about.  Dancers strive to be the best and do all they can to reach the potential that their instructors provide to them.  But how do you not let it go too far?  How do you find a healthy balance between a healthy weight and a weight that your dance company expects from you? In many dance companies, this is a struggle that dancers go through on a daily basis.

            Many dance studios and companies have wall to wall full length mirrors that help dancers self-monitor their movement.  However, the mirrors also allow room for dancers to critique every aspect of their body.  Oliver (2008) states “The mirror provides constant feedback about the movement and shape of our bodies.  Most people are drawn strongly to visual stimuli, so if a mirror is present, it may overshadow and proprioceptive feedback the dancers might receive...But unfortunately, they can also become a conduit for negative self-talk”(Oliver, p. 22).   Dance is an art that allows us to freely express ourselves through movement, but with a constant reminder of societal pressures such as body image, that we may be trying to escape, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment having to constantly monitor our bodies.

            As the American culture continues to obsess over beauty and weight, there needs to be an increase in the promotion of being healthy and happy.  In the dance world especially, I firmly believe that the instructors need to be more supportive and focus on the dancers’ body movement and potential to grow.  As a society, we need to learn to let go of our biases and realize there is potential for real talent no matter a person’s size, shape, or color.

 

Oliver, W. (2008). Body image in the dance class. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 79(5), 18-25.