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Fashion show to inspire comfort with body image

March 16, 2006 – It’s gutsy. For average, everyday women to stand on a stage and announce their jean size to the public isn’t something most females would be willing to do.

But 14 female employees of Cabarrus Family Medicine will do just that on March 28.

“Be Comfortable in Your Genes,” a film and fashion show, is designed to empower women to be comfortable with their own realistic body image.

For the Psychological & Behavioral Health office at CFM, the show is part of a month-long series of local events, and also kicks off National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

The National Eating Disorders Association reports that 10 million American women suffer from an eating disorder and 80 percent of American women are not happy with their appearance.

But it’s not just about eating disorders, said Cheryl Masters, a psychologist at Cabarrus Family Medicine’s Psychological and Behavioral Health.

“Most women are unhappy with their body image,” Masters said. “But women come in all shapes and sizes and we need to respect that.”

Masters defines body image as a combination of a person’s mental image of what they look like and what a person sees in a mirror.

A changing society has greatly led to a changing image of what the perfect body should look like, Masters said.

In the late 1800s, the body image to strive for was what would now be considered overweight. A plump wife was a status symbol for a man because it meant he had plenty of money to feed her well.

"Standards of beauty have always been set by the upper-classes of society,” Masters said.

Today a young, skinny woman is a status symbol because that is the current ideal of beauty. That’s because wealthy people can afford personal trainers, personal chefs and plastic surgery, Masters said.

The average American model is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 117 pounds. But the average American woman is actually 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds.

"That creates a problem in terms of self-esteem,” Masters said. “If you can never reach an ideal, how does that make you feel?”

For many, reaching that ideal will never be possible.

“Models are incredibly tall, have broad shoulders and are hipless,” Masters said. “Most of us aren’t designed to fit that mold.”

The question is, how can women have a healthy weight for their body type and still feel good about themselves?

During the show, Masters said audience members will not only get to see how standards of beauty have changed in history, but how standards are different today across different cultures.

During the week of March 28, women are invited to the lobby of Cabarrus Family Medicine in the Copperfield area, where “graffiti jeans” will be available. On the jeans, women and girls may write short answers to the question, “How do you feel in your jeans?”

“Our idea is to get women talking about how they really feel about their bodies and to free themselves of these unrealistic expectations,” Masters said.

The jeans will be modeled at the fashion show, where the “real women” will tell the world what size they are wearing.

By Barbara Jones, Independent Tribune