The lingering crisis of eating disorders and body image

We've invited Lauren Farmer to join us again on our blog. Lauren is a newly graduated seminary student and a new transplant to Nashville. She doesn't come from a Christian background, so she offers a unique perspective to reaching girls who don't come through our doors with a heritage of faith. She loves to laugh, spend time with family and friends, travel the world, curl up with a good book, and drink Diet Coke.

She writes the following:

The topic of body image is nothing new among teen girls or those who work with them.  Discussions about body image and eating disorders among young women gained widespread media attention in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Attention only grew in the 1990’s and early 21st century as Oprah and other media outlets focused on the increasing prevalence of eating disorders among young women.  Consequently, many women began to better understand the difficult struggle that they and others were facing in regards to body image and were able to recognize the warning signs of eating disorders.  Soon, Kate Moss and her waify figure went out of style while “curvier” women like Beyonce, J.Lo, Jessica Simpson and Kim Kardashian began to grace the covers of magazines. And, so, many of us have held out hope that issues of body image and eating disorders would fade as newer, “trendier” issues – like cutting – unfortunately emerged.

Despite the increased awareness relating to body image issues and eating disorders, teen girls seem to be struggling as much as ever and, at least in my experience, at an alarming rate.  Perhaps I am just a bit more sensitive to the issue.  I struggled myself with anorexia for a little over two years during high school and had serious body image issues through my first several years of college.  Because of this, I know all the tell-tale signs of eating disorders.  I can tell you if a girl has body image issues in a matter of minutes. 

I’ve seen a lot of girls with body image issues of the years.  What I had not seen, until this summer, was how mainstream the issue had become. 

While spending a good part of my summer at youth camp and on mission trips, I encountered numerous girls who were struggling with body image and, in my estimation, were at high risk for developing an eating disorder.  What surprised me most, however, was not the number of girls that were dealing with body image but rather their attitude towards themselves and others.  If I could sum it up in one word I would call it “casual.”

For instance, one day at summer camp I came around the corner to hear a girl tell one of her friends that she had “thunder thighs.”  I quickly interjected that this girl did NOT have thunder thighs and that it was neither kind nor her place to say something like that to her friends.  The girl interrupted me and said, “It’s ok. It’s true. I do have thunder thighs!” And in case I still did’t believe her she held up her leg and started slapping her thigh saying, “See! Look at it jiggle!”  All the girls laughed uncomfortably and scurried off. 

On a mission trip several weeks before, I had listened to a group of 8th grade girls discuss carbs, proteins, and working out.  That's all they talked about on the way to the mission site. They debated which foods were the worst for you and all agreed that cabs would make them fat the quickest. 

I wish these were the only two stories I had, but there are many more.

Our diet crazed, image-based society is influencing our girls whether we like it or not.  However, we as leaders can’t just place blame on the media for the challenges and struggles girls today are facing.  We need to take responsibility for the role that we as leaders, mothers, sisters, aunts, and teachers play in the matter.  Many of us are still struggling with our own body image.  How can we expect our girls to accept themselves and their bodies as being fearfully and wonderfully made by their Creator when we ourselves are modeling the opposite?  The girls around us are learning from you and me. Off-hand comments about our new diet, needing to fit into an outfit, and another woman’s figure (the list goes on) do not go unnoticed. As girls hear our words and see our actions, they develop their understanding of body image. 

So this is my challenge to you:  take the time to examine your own heart and life in regard to body image. Be honest with yourself – How do you view yourself?  Do you have a healthy body image? Are there some areas that you need to bring before the Lord?  What type of role model are you to girls?  Are you being careful with your words and actions to portray to girls the truth of who they are as daughters of the Most High – fearfully and wonderfully made?  Spend sometime meditating on this wonderful truth…

For you formed my inward parts;
 you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
 my soul knows it very well.
 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
  intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them,
 the days that were formed for me,
 when as yet there was none of them.--Psalm 139: 13-16