Us Women

"90% of British women feel body-image anxiety"

        (data taken from The Government’s Body Confidence Campaign)

As International Women's Day passed us by on Saturday 8th March a group I have co-founded with my friend Katie called Nous Les Femmes organised a Women's Day. We had talks, stalls, food, drinks and good company. Women felt great about themselves and despite me and Katie's lack of sleep and exhaustion from all the planning and setting up with our amazing team of helpers the atmosphere was positive and it feels like this is the beginning of something bigger! Guests have shown a keenness to help with future events. One lady stated that she has been "waiting for something like this for a long time".

Having had to research a little more in to this topic, I was soon reminded that there are major global issues which effect women simply because of their gender. These problems are a result of the perceptions we have of both genders and messages we have passed down from generation to generation and they are not going to just go away. According to the United Nations women website: “Women bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s poverty. Statistics indicate that women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, health care, employment and control of assets.” If we feed each other with the idea that women are of lesser value then men then we are contributing to the devastating issues that women face globally.

In the UK, along with issues of sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence (which happens to every 1 in 4 women) we have HUGE issues regarding body-image anxiety which leads to low self-esteem. This anxiety simply hinders our potential to create a more fulfilling life for ourselves and others. At five, children begin to understand other people's judgement of them. The medias portrayal of women and how we should 'be' further exasperates the anxieties children face regarding their self-image. The media's influence is something I have learnt about since I was a child and I am sure it is a conversation our parents had at one time in school. So then you sit and wonder has anything changed? In an age where we rely on social media, have more sophisticated ways of advertising is it getting better? Are we really progressing in the right direction? If children are growing up in a culture that praises beauty as something you can only see and bombards them with images of what that beauty needs to look like, we will be giving our children a very limited belief system. 

The media tells us what beauty should look like and yet all this does is get girls and boys comparing themselves to unrealistic media demands. Should children as young as 5 be feeling anxiety for how they look? Obviously this depends from child to child and as a teacher I know all too well that these anxieties are not only a result of the medias impact but passed down through the family or as part of a natural consequence of growing up. Having said that the media magnifies this pressure with a specific type of image.

Beauty is not only something you see but it is to be experienced with all the five senses. This is the only way we can identify whether we think something is a beautiful thing or not.

I have actually heard a man say that "but that's what we want to see" and I can not help but laugh at this. Seriously? I simply say this: You only think that is what you want to see because that's all the media has been feeding us with. We are programmed to think that the image we see is what we should like. Has anyone tried anything different? If so, how can we encourage responsible advertising? How we going to educate our children into understanding that beauty lies within? Although I have been highlighting the medias role in our body -image anxiety we need to start questioning what role we will play in creating a more confident society.

For whatever reason, women have been misunderstood, they misunderstand themselves and need to feel empowered in knowing that these ideas we have of each other are just that, ideas. However both women and men need to acknowledge the role they play in feeding these ideas in to the minds of the younger generation. Change will not just occur with women uniting and standing up for themselves but it will require the support of strong, educated men who can contribute to lasting changes and make the world a better place.We can make a difference within our families, our friendships, in our workplace and within the wider community when we begin to see how these issues relate to us in some way. 

Taking some responsibility in feeding each other with views of the opposite sex could be a first step. The idea that "women are not leaders" or "men are players" needs to change. If we continue to have these ideas we will simply live up to these expectations. What could be more productive to our time and beneficial for the next generation is if we get to know what it means to be a woman or a man, understand our differences and how we relate to each other and praise our strengths. A population that is less ignorant but more aware of their impact will not only reap in the rewards of contributing positively to our local communities but will also be a driving force to create global change.