I would like to follow up on the letter about the Gainesville Health and Fitness ad from last week. The attention that has been brought to this issue could not come at a better time.
In one week, UF will join other universities, communities and individuals across the country to raise awareness of the dangers of eating disorders during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2009.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association, approximately 10 million women and 1 million men are engaged in a life-and-death battle every day with an eating disorder. These are serious illnesses, not "choices" whose causes are multidimensional and complex.
Ads like the one run by Gainesville Health and Fitness feed into the insecurities of both women and men. They portray unrealistic standards that are impossible to achieve. But they do more than that, these types of ads trick us into believing that when we have a body like the one they show, we will be happy.
Regardless of the product being sold, the perfect body is equated with absolute happiness. But I can tell you, as I am sure the young woman who wrote the original letter last week can attest, that no matter how much weight we lose, happiness does not come with a number attached.
We have cultivated a society that places an incredible amount of importance on physical beauty and thinness. Consequently, we see people starving themselves and using compulsive measures to rid their bodies of nourishment in their search for "the perfect body." This vicious cycle leads to feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness and isolation that are difficult to escape.
I commend the young woman who has taken a stance against the images and ideals we are confronted with on a daily basis.
She eloquently illustrated how ads like these can contribute to the development of eating disorders, body image issues and disordered eating problems. The good news is that we do have the power to change things. We have the power to stand up to the media, to corporations, to our friends and to our families and say enough is enough.
The beauty of being human is that everyone is unique. We come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.
It's time to celebrate the qualities that make us unique, rejoice in our diversity and find the beauty in each of us.
