A panel of women involved in the body positivity movement discussed the role society plays on how women and young girls view their bodies at Monorchid Saturday about.
Babe Council, a local organization that held the panel, is an organization that educates and empowers women to be become better community members and encourage more community involvement.
The panel was moderated by Anjuli Morse, founder of Babe Council and featured Ashley Law, an eating disorder advocate and host of “Why Arizona” podcast; Kelly Zaragoza, a counselor at Zaragoza Counseling and co-host of “Bull-‘ships” podcast; Stephanie Hennick, a marriage and family therapist at Zaragoza Counseling and co-host of “Bull-‘ships” podcast; and Cauley, a local artist who is currently represented by Monorchid Gallery.
During the event, attendees were able to shop at Antoinette Cauley’s pop-up and view her exhibition “Ain’t Nobody Prayin’ for Me.” While working on the collection she began questioning how hip-hop and pop culture plays a role in society’s views on women and how women view themselves.
Attendees wrote encouraging words to themselves for a self-love activity. They also wrote letters to representative Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, and house speaker Russell Bowers (R) to ratify the equal rights amendment in Arizona.
Zaragoza said children, typically between the ages of 8 to 10 years old, start to have an idea about how they want to represent themselves in this world. She also said they don’t have the ability to connect that maybe social media is altered, which causes them to put pressure on themselves.
According to research conducted by nonprofit gropuCommon Sense Media, nearly 48 percent of 13- to 17-year-old girls said they wish they were as skinny as fashion magazine models.
The ladies stressed the importance of parents having a conversation with their children about the importance of self-love and accepting themselves.
Morse said growing up, her mom hated her own body, so she grew up hating her own body as well. She said she would look at images of women and feel like she needed to look like that.
Common Sense Media also said 5-to- 8-year olds who think their mothers are dissatisfied with their bodies are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their own bodies.
Hennick said she grew up in a family where many women around her didn’t like their own bodies, especially since many of them were bigger than she was.
“In a sense, it was like is there something wrong with me, why do I not fit in with the other women in my life?” said Hennick.
Approximately 91 percent of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape, according to DoSomething.org
Law, who developed anorexia and bulimia at a young age, said in her third year of cheering for the NFL she had weight goals that needed to be met. She said she remembers one day during practice stepping onto a scale backward because she didn’t want to see how much she weighed.
After practice, she received a paper from her coach saying that she needed to lose weight, or she couldn’t dance at the game.
“I had to work through a lot of image base things, said Law. “It would be summer, and I would be wearing long pants and a baggy sweatshirt because I didn’t want anyone to see any part of my body because I was ashamed of the shape of my body.”
One and a half percent of women suffer from bulimia nervosa in their lifetime, according to the National Association of Anorexia Associated Disorders, a non-profit organization that focuses on eating disorders in the United States,
“Finding my power is what really helped me step into accepting myself and loving myself and realizing that nothing that’s on the outside of me could ever compare to the beauty that is inside of me,” Cauley said.
Valeria Gonzales, a caseworker for the state of Arizona, said she went to the event to get information from professionals and other mothers so she can steer her 11-year-old daughter in the right direction.
“I’m definitely trying to enforce having respect for yourself … I want (her) to know how beautiful (she) is and I say that to her every single day,” said Gonzales. “Somebody out in the streets is going to give her this attention … but maybe it’s not in such a positive way.”
Contact the reporter jpbeltra@asu.edu.
