Week 3: Body Image

This week in my Healthy Sexuality in Marriage class (SFL 376), we discussed the impact that body image has on our sexual satisfaction. That class discussion led to various conversations with my husband and sisters about the self-esteem and body image challenges we've experienced over the years. 

Here are my thoughts so far...I strongly believe that parents play a major role in helping their children establish positive self-esteem. However, I've realized that despite a parents' earnest efforts, children will be influenced by what they consume in the media about beauty and attractiveness. I feel that both my mom and dad did an excellent job at using words and body language to help me and all of my sisters feel that we were beautiful. However, especially during my adolescence, I still felt insecure about certain physical attributes. 

So, how do we deal with this?? Well, I'm really hoping that Professor Coyne will help me answer this question by the time this semester ends. But I think one thing I can definitely do is make sure my children interact with and observe people who love and appreciate their bodies. I can be one of those people for them. I can make sure to say things I love about my body, I can encourage them to love their bodies. I can make sure to point out ways the media sends negative messages about body image and beauty. 

Here is one of the videos my SFL 376 professor showed our class to get us engaged in the discussion on body image. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT! 




Comments

  1. Sydney RasmussenSeptember 25, 2020 at 4:57 PM

    Thanks for your thoughts Gwen! I've seen the #likeagirl video many times, and yet every time I watch it I feel a lot of emotions about the way we as a society have been conditioned to view girls/how girls should view themselves. I also thinking making it a point to teach your children to love and appreciate their bodies (function over appearance!) is a really awesome way to cushion them against the many, many criticisms the world (and media) will throw at them.

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  2. AbrielleTolmanSeptember 27, 2020 at 7:19 PM

    I took that class last semester and it was AMAZING! I remember feeling the same way about how media really does affect us and our thoughts. It really made me think about how I wanted to treat media when I have children of my own. I love your thoughts on this! - Abrielle Tolman

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  3. Jaclyn PerkinsSeptember 27, 2020 at 10:40 PM

    I absolutely love this! I love how you said that one of your goals is to be a mother who is a positive body influence! that is also one of my goals and I definitely don't think that it is talked about enough! The media really does have an influence on body image and I think its super important to practice that love to yourself, not only for yourself, but for you children! Yesss be that example!

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  4. Erin SpencerSeptember 29, 2020 at 6:15 PM

    I love this, and I'm so glad that we're a generation of people who will really think about how we are raising our children in a media-centric world. I so agree that media is harmful to our self-image. I hope we can learn in the class how to minimize those effects. I love the idea of someone else's comment... function over appearance. It's so so important that we teach our children that, especially our girls. We are not objects, we are people!!!

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  5. UnknownOctober 11, 2020 at 10:51 PM

    Thanks for sharing Gwen! I think it's really interesting how women are portrayed in media. It's so hard to filter those ideas out of the media. I think parents really have to make a concerted effort to foster healthier ideas. I hope that with each successive generation this will become less and less of a problem now that people are starting to acknowledge this issue.

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