With media being fraught with images of stick-thin female models and muscular men, the Women’s Center finds Love Your Body Day more relevant than ever.
Love Your Body Day’s main goal is to affirm that people do not need to change their bodies to live up to someone else’s ideals, said Sarah Tucker Jenkins, program coordinator for the Women’s Center.
“Our bodies are all very diverse, and it is unrealistic to believe everyone should be a certain pants size or have a certain type of hair,” Jenkins said. “It’s also boring to think that only certain types of bodies are attractive.”
Ashley Osborne, a student outreach coordinator at the Women’s Center and a junior studying strategic communications, is holding a discussion and potluck in the evening regarding natural beauty.
“This day is so important because the images portrayed in the media and in culture put so much pressure on men and women to look a certain way,” Osborne said.
Along with Osborne’s discussion of natural beauty, the Women’s Center is also holding yoga in the morning and panels throughout the day that discuss topics such as nutrition and safe-sex trivia.
Kendra Mathys, an intern at Counseling and Psychological Services, is holding a discussion called “Healthy at Every Size.” She will be discussing societal standards of beauty and the prevalence of body dissatisfaction, she said.
The speakers participating in Love Your Body Day are doing it out of the “kindness of their hearts” and the center expects to have about 100 people attend the event, Jenkins said.
“Although our culture defines a very narrow type of person as beautiful, we can also choose to reimagine what beauty means,” she said. “That’s part of the hope of celebrating Love Your Body Day.”
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