Yesterday Mamamia released some shocking new statistics highlighting just how alarming the body image crisis in Australia actually is.
In particular:
- Four out of five women said they were unhappy with how they look;
- Three out of five women said they felt negatively about their body EVERY DAY;
- More than 90% said how they feel about their body had prevented them from doing a particular activity in the past 12 months. These activities included going on a date, having their photo taken or going to the beach.
Our Psychologist Sarah McMahon discusses these statistics on the 7 Network’s The Daily Edition with Mamamia editor Jamila Rizvi. Here you can watch a bit of Sarah on The Daily Edition.
Jamila describes her particular concern that the results revealed that it is younger & younger ages that girls are beginning to express body dissatisfaction:
“One of the things that upset me was seeing the age that women are aware of how they look and that their appearance is something that matters to people is getting younger & younger & younger. Girls aged under 18 are saying ‘I was 6, 7 years old the first time started worrying about about my weight’ compared to women of my generation who are saying ‘I was 12, 13…'”
Mamamia will be following this up with a serious of weekly “Body Positive Challenges“& encouraging people to post photos of themselves. These cognitive dissonance style activities will enable an alternative narrative for what “real” women look like rather than the very homogonised images that we normally see.
“From tomorrow we’ll be kicking off a series of six challenges (a new one each week), which we would love for your to take up with the relish unique to this amazing community of women. All you have to do is check in on a Monday for information about the new challenge, snap a photo and upload it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest using the hashtag #MMBodyPositive or, email us at info@mamamia.com.au or, upload the photo directly in the comments section below. We will then collate all of the photos to create some truly beautiful galleries of REAL women…”
So what are the challenges?
- #1: My face without make up
- #2: The body part I used to cover up
- #3: What I’m proud my body can do
- #4: My post baby body
- #5: My face after excercise
- #6: The body shaming comment I wont let bother me any more
And so our questions to you…
- Are you willing to embark on these challenges?
- What other activities can you complete to broaden the script of how people REALLY look?
- How can you- or how do you- promote radical body acceptance?