By ELISSA RATLIFF
Seventy-one per cent of young girls feel a pressure to be beautiful. Eight out of 10 women say they dislike at least one aspect of their body.
That’s a lot of negative issues surrounding a woman’s body image. Where does it come from?
Role models. And not the celebrity kind.
Mothers, grandmothers, carers, close family friends – it all impacts.
That’s why this video – from Dove, the creators of many a beautiful viral video about women’s body image and body confidence – have another question for you.
What’s your beauty legacy?
The mums in this video write a list of what they don’t like about their bodies.
They talk about how they don’t like their legs, their arms, their eyes, hips, bums… the list goes on.
But that sometimes, just sometimes, the daughters love things about themselves because they’re just like mum’s.
Watch it:
Self worth and beauty is an echo. And your voice echoes louder in your daughter’s head than any other.
The Butterfly Foundation’s CEO, Christine Morgan, says that mothers should remember these things when they’re talking about their bodies:
– Be kind to themselves. Be kind to their bodies. Walk the talk.
– Do their best to always speak kindly about their own body, shape, size and appearance and also the shape, size and appearance of others.
– Avoid criticising their appearance in front of their children (this includes photographs).
– Challenge beauty ideals and stereotypes and encourage your daughter to do the same
– Be media savvy. Remind yourself of, and talk to your children about the tricks and strategies that are used to create the images we see in media
What beauty legacy are you passing down?
The Dove Self-Esteem Project has reached over 14 million young people with self-esteem building programmes and is committed to reaching 15 million by the end of 2015. Dove is committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety, and the Dove Self-Esteem Project delivers self-esteem education to young people (primarily girls) aged 7-17 years through lessons in schools, activities for mentors, online resources for parents and partnerships with youth organizations around the world.
Top Comments
Since having my first daughter 12 years ago (I now have three) I have always been very conscious of promoting positive body image and never putting myself down or discussing my insecurities in front of my girls. I've always made comments to them like 'I love my body because it does wonderful things for me every day and it made you". Having said this, I have never liked my legs - I accept them more now and have learned to live with them but I still don't really like them. What's interesting is despite (on purpose) never ever allowing my girls to know this my eldest who has THE most gorgeous lean legs (clearly from the other side of the family - not mine!) thinks her legs are FAT. She is very self conscious of them and struggles to find clothes she is confident in as a result. This same child developed anorexia at age 11 - she is thankfully now 100% physically healthy again (we are still working on her emotional health) but it still astounds me that despite my best intentions that she has ended up feeling that way about her strong, smart, clever and beautiful self. Yes there are other factors eg. she is a perfectionist, high intelligence, very competitive and there is a family history of OCD but it would seem the lack of body confidence has also developed due to subliminal messages that surround her - whether it be in the playground at school or in the media (which she has limited access to) - it is scary what our girls pick up on and how impossible it is to avoid - we are almost powerless to stop it. I agree with everything that is said above and from what I've experienced I would say it's not enough to just hide how we really feel about ourselves, we need to change how we feel about ourselves and believe it.
Can I be smug? I have always spoken positively about my body in front of my daughter, so I just asked her after watching this "is there any part of your body you don't like?" She gave me a wtf look and went back to her littlest pet shop toys. She's 8.
So it works!