Women In His Image

On April 22, 2008 the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued the following news release:

Three Out of Four American Women Have Disordered Eating

Sixty-five percent of American women between the ages of 25 and 45 report having disordered eating behaviors, according to the results of a new survey by SELF Magazine in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

An additional 10 percent of women report symptoms consistent with eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, meaning that a total of 75 percent of all American women endorse some unhealthy thoughts, feelings or behaviors related to food or their bodies.

Check out the True Campaign and how they are working to set women free from this cultural epidemic that leads to chronic dieting, severe depression and self-hatred.

I encourage my readers to visit the True Campaign website created by Constance Rhodes of Finding Balance. Make comments!

Not many people know this, but I have been taking bellydancing classes. My closest friends and loved ones would probably chuckle if they knew this…or at least ask me, “what are you thinking??!?” I am actually finding bellydancing to be not only fun and great exercise but also some seriously good therapy for a person recovering from a lifetime of disordered eating and body image issues.

My teacher is a lovely woman (mid-50’s maybe) who has a background as a ballet dancer but has been doing bellydance for over 20 years. I will never forget in one of the first classes she encouraged everyone to “let their bellies hang out” and, by completely relaxing the stomach muscles, we would find that the bellydancing moves would be much easier and feel more natural. She called out to us, “I know what you young girls are doing! You are like most western women and you are trying to suck in your belly even while exercising!”

She was right. I was guilty. I have exercised for years and unfortunately have spent too much time noticing the flat bellies of the women exercising around me, comparing myself to them and usually wishing my stomach was flat and taught instead of its natural rounded state. I’ve spent countless hours talking myself into appreciating my rounded stomach and hips because they are reminders of my fertility and femininity… right??

Ah, the liberation of letting it all hang out! I have now discovered the positive reinforcement of hearing the coin belt wrapped low around my hips “ching” as it should while I do a thigh shimmy or a double Mayan hip roll. In bellydance there is praise for the ample woman in all her glory!

Final note from a Christian woman who endorses and encourages modesty: Bellydance is something I began doing only with the approval of my loving husband. Bellydancing is not inherently sexual, but instead is an art form that women in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe have been perfecting for centuries. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Western culture tends to sexualize most forms of dance and perceive a dancing woman as sexually provacative.  Have you seen many movies come out of Hollywood in the last decade about dancing women that don’t portray them as young, scantily clad, and trying to attract a man?

And with that, I will do a walking hip shimmy away from my soapbox.

Some of you may be familiar with the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty.” I became aware of it through their print and TV ads over the last few years featuring real women with real bodies smiling and (I think) happily thumbing their noses at the “ideal” ultra-thin supermodel type. We all know the type…we’re assaulted with it regularly by the magazine rack in every grocery store aisle in every supermarket in every city across America.

Little did I know all of the wonderful aspects of this Campaign! I think Dove is taking the issue of positive self esteem for women and girls to a new level in the advertising industry. There are links for Moms and mentors, information on “real beauty” workshops, short films about body image and self-esteem, and lots more.

Check out the powerful video at the link below. In the words of Kathy, my aunt/friend/sister in recovery who sent me the link: “This is a really powerful message. Especially if you have a daughter or ever were a daughter.”  Right on!

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home.asp

Ugh. I am so incredibly disturbed by this. How many headlines in the national press can be devoted each day to the undeserved, irrational, misdirected criticism of Britney Spears’ body?

This is a young woman who has given birth to two children in a short span of time. She is one female entertainer out of many who performed at the MTv Video Music Awards. Yes, she is a public figure and apparently that makes her life open to the unrelenting criticism of the media and the general public. Does Britney deserve this? Does any woman who chooses a life in the public eye deserve this? Does any woman in any walk of life deserve this?

I have no trust in the entertainment media. I am just acutely aware of the millions of girls, young women, and yes even adult women who are out there reading these criticisms of Britney’s body and comparing her body to their own. These are women and girls who many times are not aware of the bias they are secretly building against themselves in their own minds day after day as they view the millions of images of “perfect” women’s bodies provided so generously by the American media.

I rest in knowing that we are women created in God’s image and this image has nothing to do with the shape, fitness, or firmness of our human bodies. In fact, the Hebrew word for “image” used in Genesis 1:26-27 comes from an unused root word meaning phantom, illusion, resemblance, or a representative figure.

Sisters, we are in essence phantoms and illusions of Yahweh on earth. Praise God.