Students look at image

Students, staff and faculty came together this week to get information out to the campus and community during Body Image Awareness Week.

Curt Hill, SUU counseling services director at the Wellness Center, said the image project was a success.

"We had a pretty good response at times," he said.

Hill said Slim Hopes, a short film, was shown Tuesday.

The video featured Jean Kilbourne, a leading researcher in the field of mass media.

Kilbourne has done research in the field of media effects on body image and relevant topics were discussed in her film, Hill said.

In the film, Kilbourne said $33 billion is made from the diet industry each year, 50 percent of American women are on diets, 75 percent of women think they are overweight, 80 percent of 10-year-old-girls are on diets, 11.3 percent of college women are on diets and the number-one wish of American girls is to lose weight and keep it off.

"Advertising doesn't cause eating problems, of course, any more than it causes alcoholism," Kilbourne said. "Anorexia, in particular is a disease with complicated etiology, and media images probably don't play a major role. However these images certainly contribute to the body-hatred so many young women feel and to some of the resulting eating problems. It provides fertile soil for (eating disorders) to take root in and create a climate of denial in which these diseases flourish."

Hill said he also thinks the media has an effect on body image.

"Some people don't want to make this link, but I'll make it," he said. "I think the increased sexualization of women's bodies in our culture is a big piece (of eating disorders)."

Lola Milliron, a junior communication major from Portland, Ore., said she thinks the media has over-sexualized ads and other aspects of the media in that women featured in ads are digitally altered to make their breasts larger and waistlines smaller.

"(Ads) screw everyone up," she said. "Images like these don't exist."

The media plays a large role in the effects ads have on body image, Milliron said.

"I think there is a big impact," she said. "Society has changed because (people) are surrounded by so many negatives."

According to the Social and Clinical Journal of Psychology, research has been done that demonstrates heavier models are as effective as thin models.

Emma Halliwell and Helga Ditmar have both been published in the Social and Clinical Journal of Psychology and said, in the article, they think models' sizes are irrelevant.

According to the article Halliwell and Ditmar wrote, "Advertisements (are) equally effective, regardless of the model's size. This implies that advertisements can successfully use larger, but attractive models and perhaps avoid increasing body-focused anxiety in a large proportion of women."

Milliron said she thinks plus size models can be just as effective in selling and in advertising as thin models, but she said plus size models are usually just average size people.

Statistics are also growing regarding men and eating disorders, Hill said.

According to the National Institute of Health Web site, an estimated 35 percent of people with binge-eating disorders are men.

America's culture needs to change to better the future, Hill said.

"We want you to be smart and we want you to do all of these great things, but how you look is the most important determinant of your worth, in our culture," he said. "That's something that's happened subtly in the last 20 to 30 years."

It is important to be comfortable and come forward if you think you have an eating disorder, Hill said.

"The more it becomes socially acceptable to talk about, the more choices it gives people to make decisions about their life, Hill said."