The image is everywhere. Lindsey Lohan dazzles the paparazzi with protruding shoulder blades; billionaire Mary-Kate Olsen flaunts hollowed-out cheeks; ads selling everything from trendy jeans to LSAT prep courses depict happy, successful and-above all-thin individuals. The message is clear: Thin is still in, and being slim will make you happy.
Liberated Bodies, a newly formed campus club, aims to dispel this and other body-image stereotypes formed by media and pop-culture forces. The group has declared tomorrow McGill's first Feel Good Day, and its members will be on campus handing out inspirational messages, candies and coupons for hot chocolate and biscotti at Café Delifrance.
"We just want to make people feel good about themselves," said Zak Miller, vice-president external. "We're promoting healthy body images and also trying to raise awareness about eating disorders."
On Feel Good Day, students can drop by Café Delifrance to redeem their coupons and stay for music, movies and other activities Liberated Bodies execs have planned. Miller stressed that the event is open to everyone, including faculty and administrators.
After Feel Good Day, the club plans to offer workshops at Residence halls to inform students about unrealistic body images and to educate all genders about the dangers of eating disorders.
"We want to go to the Residence halls because that's where the problems can start," Miller said. "It starts where there are new pressures and new anxieties."
Cindy Bois, a nurse at the Eating Disorders Unit in Student Health Services, also cited Residence life as a risk factor in the development of unhealthy eating habits. "Eating disorders start during stressful periods, and being away from home for the first time is stressful," she explained. "Students can also be influenced by new friends and roommates who maybe have an eating disorder, and then they don't know what normal eating is."
Bois was quick to point out that eating disorders are a problem everywhere, not just at McGill, and are not exclusive to university life. Multiple factors cause people to develop unhealthy attitudes about food, she said, arguing that Western culture in particular encourages girls to equate thinness with happiness and success.
"If you look at the media, the slim girl looks happy and healthy, and the heavier girl looks depressed and unhappy," she said. "In the media, being thin is the source of happiness, and girls start thinking that if they're not thin they can't be successful."
After seeing many of his friends suffer from eating disorders in high school, Miller was surprised to find that there hadn't been a club like Liberated Bodies on campus until recently.
"I was surprised to find out that this was new," he said. "There's so much pressure out there and it starts so young. Liberated Bodies is about unraveling these myths and making people self-aware."
