News

“Be Comfortable In Your Genes” Film and Fashion Show

March 8, 2006 - As many as 10 million American females and 1 million males are troubled with an eating disorder, a statistic that has been rising every decade since 1930. Even more individuals “struggle with body dissatisfaction and sub-clinical disordered eating attitudes and behaviors,” according to the National Eating Disorders Association. In fact, 80% of American women are unhappy with their appearance.

The National Eating Disorders Association established National Eating Disorders Awareness Week nineteen years ago to encourage women to be comfortable with their genetically specific body size and shape and to realize that not everyone can conform to the mega-thin idea of beauty that flashes across television screens and magazine pages.

For the Psychological and Behavioral Health office at Cabarrus Family Medicine, National Eating Disorders Week kicks off a series of month-long events intended to educate and celebrate women of all different shapes and sizes.

Dr. Cheryl Masters, clinic director of Psychological and Behavioral Health, cites the growing prevalence of eating disorders: “While eating disorders are generally thought of as a teenage to early adult disorder, we are seeing much younger (pre-adolescents) and much older (40-50 year old) women presently for treatment. The disorder appears to be spreading to both the younger and older ends of the age spectrum.”

But women with eating disorders are not the only ones to struggle with body image. It is an issue that touches most women in our society,” Dr. Masters continues.

Probably the most striking example of body image difficulty is in women with Anorexia, where a woman may lose to a weight of 70-80 pounds and still perceive herself as “fat.”

Similarly, women who have been overweight as children or young adults, and lose weight to assume a normal weight range, often still view themselves as “overweight.” And women free of weight concerns generally wish to be thinner and view themselves as heavier than ideal.

“Body image is a phenomenon that is bred in our culture and shaped by several factors, including the media. This is why we invite women of all ages, shapes, and sizes to join us in taking a look at this issue,” says Dr. Masters.

The theme for this year’s National Eating Disorders Awareness events is “Be Comfortable in Your Genes,” which has inspired a jean fashion show to be held at Cabarrus Family Medicine the evening of March 28. The event will be cosponsored by Sears, who will provide the clothing for the show.

Throughout the week of March 20, Cabarrus Family Medicine will have “graffiti” jeans available in their Concord lobby for women and girls to write a response to the question, “How do you feel in your jeans?” “This question is meant to make people think about their body image and whether it’s a positive or negative one. Our idea is to get women talking about how they really feel about their bodies and to free themselves of these unrealistic expectations,” explains Dr. Masters.

According to a message from the National Eating Disorders Association, “Too often individuals struggle against their natural, genetically influenced size just to fit into that pair of ‘skinny jeans’ in the back of their closets. Fighting your natural size and shape can lead to unhealthy dieting practices, poor body image and sometimes eating disorders.

“While you can adopt a healthy lifestyle and aim to be fit for your particular body type, you cannot change your genes. We want everyone to start feeling comfortable in their genes by wearing comfortable jeans.”

The graffiti jeans will be modeled on March 28 by girls and women of all ages and sizes, all who will openly and honestly declare their jean size in front of a captive audience. The style of each jean will be described by a Sear’s representative, and a quote will be read from each pair.

The fashion show event will begin with a special showing of Dr. Jean Kilbourne’s film Slim Hopes: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness. In this video, Jean Kilbourne offers an in-depth analysis of how female bodies are depicted in advertising imagery and the devastating effects of that imagery on women's health.

Addressing the relationship between these images and the obsession of girls and women with dieting and thinness, Slim Hopes offers a new way to think about life-threatening eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, and it provides a well-documented critical perspective on the social impact of advertising.

Information will also be available on related Cabarrus Family Medicine services, including nutritional counseling, psychological and behavioral counseling, and metabolic testing. A demonstration of a resting metabolic test will show how many calories are needed in order for the body to function daily.

Girls at younger and younger ages are worrying about dieting and their weight. A recent study showed that 42% of first to third grade girls want to be thinner and 46% of 9-11 year old girls report to be dieting “sometimes or very often.” Even more striking is that 51% of 9 and 10 year old girls report to “feel better about themselves” if on a diet, which shows an early link between dieting and self-confidence.

To get the attention of young girls and teenagers, Cabarrus Family Medicine is also organizing a “Body Image and Media Awareness” poster project with local schools, to be on display in conjunction with the film and fashion show. Students will be asked, using women’s magazines, to find ads and representations of females that are both realistic and unrealistic. They will then create a poster to show how unbalanced these depictions are.

Dr. Masters says, “Hopefully this will help girls see how prevalent the pressure to be thin really is and how unrealistic our culture’s expectations are. When people are more aware of what is out there, they can be more conscious of what they allow to influence them.”

If you would like to attend Cabarrus Family Medicine’s “Be Comfortable in Your Jeans” Film and Fashion Show on March 28 at 6:30 PM, please make a reservation by calling 704-721-2499. Admission is one pair of gently used jeans that, whether too small or too large, is no longer a realistic size for your body. There will be a “Great Jeans Giveaway” to replace one of these pairs of jeans.