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Love Your Body Month - October
 

 

The 2009 Be A Better You: Love Your Body Month Committee:

·         Mary Buchwalder, M.D.

·         Judy Caruso

·         Becky Cook, Ph.D.

·         Amy Edwards

·         Sariana Garcia

·         Theresa Gilbert

·         Mary Helme

 

·         Kate Henry

·         Kristen Mc Kee

·         Kathleen Molnar

·         Carlos Stewart

·         Pattie Waugh

·         Michelle Whelan

 

 

“Looks, girls learn early, collapse into a metaphor for everything else. They quickly become the defining criteria for our status and our worth. And somewhere along the  line, we stop believing in the power of our minds and our bodies.”
                                                                                                                                     
    - Susan Jane Gilman

Primarily girls are told by advertisers what is most important to them is their perfume, their clothing, their bodies, their beauty. Their “essence” is their underwear. Girls of all ages get the message that they must be flawlessly beautiful and, about all  these days,  they must be thin. Even more destructively,  they get the message that this is possible, that, with enough effort and self-sacrifice, they can  achieve this ideal. Thus many girls spend enormous amounts of time and energy attempting  to achieve something that is only trivial but also  completely unattainable."
                                                                                  
- Jean Kilbourne, From the book: Can’t Buy My Lov
e

2008 Love Your Body Month focuses on self-acceptance and health matters

 Page          According to the National Organization for Women (NOW) Foundation, 80% of women in  the United States are dissatisfied with their appearance. This boils down to only one out of every five women having a positive body image. To counter this, the UD Women’s Center has dedicated the entire month of October to building a positive self image. The theme, Be a Better You: Love your Body Month will focus this year on prevention.  The Women’s Center and other UD departments are sponsoring many events on campus to inspire women to take comfort in and love their bodies.

                  
Two book reads are taking place this year the first, Prime Time: The African American Woman's Guide to Midlife Health and Wellness by Drs. Gayle K. Porter, MD and Marilyn Gaston, PhDBrown Bag Lunch discussion will be held in the held in the Women's Center on October 22 at noon.  The discussion will be lead by Dr. Mary Buchwalder, Director of the Health Center. The second book Picture Perfect by Jody Picoult is a popular novel being used to discuss a look "inside" a domestic violence relationship with the discussion being lead by Becky Cook, PhD of the UD Counseling Center and Pattie Waugh of the Women's Center. This discussion is also a brown bag lunch event at noon on Oct. 23 in the Women's Center.

               
Taking place all month will be a series of Brown Bag presentations. 

On October 1st AND 8 the webinar "WorkSmart: Pay Negotiations for Women" will be held at noon in KU 222 this two part series is being offered by the National Women's Law Center with a follow up discussion from our own Human Resources  Department explaining the UD Process.

On Oct 13 Human Resources is again joining the Women's Center to provide a special Adoption Information Panel.  This brown bag is noon in KU 211.

The Professional Office Personnel will also hold their own brown bag on Oct 14 in KU 310 with a discussion of Self Esteem lead by Becky Cook of the UD Counseling Center.

The Wellness Program Brown Bag Bio-Identical Hormones is Oct. 15 at noon in KU 310.  This topic is being presented by Dr. Rebecca Glaser.

The Women's and Gender Studies Program's CRWG topic for October "Redefining the Maternal: Tori Amos and the Mother without Child."  Will be presented by John McCombe from the Department of English on October 17 at noon in the Women's Center.

The RecPlex is presenting "Love Your Strong Body: The Value of Strength Training for Women" on Oct. 29 at noon in RecPlex meeting room B.

The Human Resources department is presenting a Ceridian Program called Relax the Body/Calm the Mind on Oct. 30 This brown bag is back by popular demand so if you missed it the first time, make sure you plan to attend this year.
                 
     
                
Residence halls are also joining in on “Be A Better You: Love Your Body Month” by offering many different programs. Students are encouraged to attend floor programs and talks about healthy cooking, healthy eating, relationships discussion, Spa nights, etc. Students are encouraged to talk to their RA for a schedule of these programs.

Two other programs are The Elisa Project Dinner on Oct. 13 at 6:00 pm in Barrett Dinning Room.  The Elisa Project dinners are a nationwide Eating Disorders event honoring "Elisa"  who died of Anorexia and raising awareness of this disorder.  The other program is a panel discussion "Women In Politics Forum" Oct 30 6:00PM in Roesch Library's Gallery Space.  The Forum will discuss all aspects of women in the political areas from media influence, and women candidates to working within political parties.  Both the College Democrats and Republicans will have women on the panel.

  Check out the Women’s Center’s website for a complete calendar of Love Your Body Month events.  (www.womenscenter.udayton.edu/ calendar)

  •  Pattie Waugh, Be A Better You: Love Your Body Month Committee Chair

Love Yourself, Invest in Yourself

                 As a woman, I am very much aware of the social pressures placed upon women to uphold a standard of youth, beauty, and motherhood.

                As a psychologist in training, I am also very aware of how these social expectations of women can have a very detrimental effect on women’s self-worth and overall  happiness. As a feminist, I can envision how things could possibly be different through  consciousness raising and  providing support through sisterhood.

                 Many people believe that the social expectations for women to be young and beautiful and also mothers are fading. I would argue that many of these expectations have simply taken on a different form. For instance, many women can look and see how restrictive and oppressive corsets and girdles were to the women who were expected to wear them. The popularity of these items has decreased, but with their decline there has not been a decline in a thin ideal.

                I truly feel as though thong underwear is the new corset of the day. If you think about it, the increasingly shrinking undergarments leave women feeling as though they must be able to wear them and look sexy doing it. The same expectations are present with thongs as with corsets— to be attractive and to be thin.

                Overall, the social expectations of beauty are still constricting women even if it is not in the literal sense. Women do not experience these expectations in isolation and it may be helpful to begin a dialogue with other women in our lives about how these expectations make us feel. During Love Your Body Month, it is especially pertinent that we begin to talk with other women about our own bodies and how we can begin to feel proud of our bodies, as well  as of our womanhood. Loving one’s body can be difficult at times but it is important that we  provide ourselves  time each day to truly invest in who we are. These do not have to be large grandiose investments. They can be as simple as learning a new word each day or as complex as teaching yourself to play an instrument. I

                I propose that we, as women, begin to support ourselves and each other in loving ourselves as well as loving our bodies.

  • Birthany Pawloski, Psychology Trainee, Counseling Center