East Tennessean

Issue date: 3/3/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Amber Schlobohm/East Tennessean Kelly Johnson runs on a treadmill at the CPA to help stay healthy and fit.

ETSU students have been challenged to focus more on what makes them beautiful and not what other people want them to look like. Speaking yesterday during the marking of "Eating Disorder Awareness Week," the coordinator of outreach programs at the Counseling Center, Kim Bushore-Maki, urged students to believe in themselves and not live in the shadows of other people.
"Let's focus on what makes us beautiful," she said. "Don't think of what everybody wants you to look like, as you are beautiful inside and out."
Bushore-Maki, who gets much pleasure in helping people look at themselves and appreciate their bodies the way they are, said that the time has come to forget fashion magazines and make-up shows.
"The media, through magazines and different make-up shows on television gives contrary pictures and information of what real people look like, she said. "Most of those pictures are air brushed, and they distort your mind, making you hate yourself when you look in the mirror."
She said research shows that fashion magazines have a negative impact, especially when you look at them and start comparing yourself to the models in the magazine.
Bushore-Maki noted that our society puts a great deal of emphasis on body image. Most advertising and media industries play a significant role in equating certain physical images with happiness and desirability in order to sell their products.
"Most of those magazines show pictures of supermodels, she said. "Most of them are artificial, and you don't have to look like one, as most of them have either had plastic surgery or their bodies air brushed. They are not natural, and most information is false."
Media images help create cultural definitions of beauty and attractiveness and are often acknowledged as being among those factors contributing to the rise of eating disorders.
Statistics show that an average American woman is 5-foot-4 and weighs 114 pounds, while an average American model is 5-foot-11 and weighs 117 pounds.
Most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women.
Eighty percent of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance, and that is why 9-year-old children who are overweight have fewer friends, are less liked by their parents, are doing worse in school, are less content with their appearance and want to be thinner.

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