The documentary Embrace chronicles the journey of the Body Image Movement’s founder Taryn Brumfitt from being a “body hater” to a “body lover.”
The Women’s Center is partnering with the Biopsychosocial Examination of Eating Patterns Lab to present the documentary. Embrace will be shown Thursday evening in Schoonover Center.
Embrace explains why girls feel negatively about their bodies and what they can do to change their outlook. Brumfitt’s movement combats excessive photoshopping, media influences, weightism and sensualization. She filmed the documentary to get more people talking about body image.
The Women’s Center chose to show Embrace as part of National Eating Disorders Association week because it is about “body positivity” and “self-acceptance," Shelby Martin, a graduate student studying psychology, said in an email. “It’s about standing up to society’s critical standards and recognizing that health and beauty come in all shapes and sizes.”
“We construct our identities through our bodies,” Kelly Choyke, a graduate student studying media arts and an instructor in media arts and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said.
People won’t ever be pleased with how they look if they are “constantly striving” for a better body, Rebecca Cherry, a senior studying psychology and president of the Positivity Project, said.
The media has a big impact on people because the people seen in films and television look “beautiful, normative (and) ideal,” Choyke said. When people don’t see their representation in media, they begin to value themselves less.
Daisy Howard, a junior studying exercise physiology and president of OU Running Club, said people have posted Instagram photos that show what they look like with their stomach sucked in or flexing compared to when they are relaxed to debunk themselves.
Younger people can be more vulnerable to “body dysmorphia” because they’re still trying to find their “sense of self,” Choyke said.
Cherry said there are research studies that point to a higher chance of kids being dissatisfied with their bodies if their mom dieted or talked negatively about her body. She added that this was only if they were already at risk of these insecurities.
Other body positive advocates have done their part in helping people feel better about themselves. Howard said a woman on Instagram named Kelly Roberts thought anyone could run in a sports bra and now there is the hashtag “#sportsbrasquad” under which women of all sizes post pictures of them running in their sports bras.
Cherry said intentionally changing the way someone’s body looks, such as magazine photos, is detrimental because we’re conditioned to believe this is what people really look like and it becomes what is expected.
“That is really important, to surround yourself with people who also appreciate their bodies and are not judging other people for their bodies,” Cherry said.
