Body Image Program
Standard
Participants will gain awareness of how sociocultural attitudes and the media influence the way we perceive our bodies and how these factors can have a positive or negative impact on self-esteem and emotional development.
Rationale
30%-40% of 9-year-old girls and 80% of 10- and 11-year-old girls are on a self-imposed, restrictive diet. Physical features of human bodies vary, yet we live in a society obsessed with a narrow culturally imposed standard of beauty. Through educational programs about the irrational ideas behind the "ideal" body image, individuals will be more able to accept their own bodies as unique and special.
Performance Indicators
As a result of Body Image Education, participants will:
- Examine the forces (culture, gender, family, peers, media) that contribute to a standard that people are encouraged to attain and how that negatively impacts body image
- Compare American body image ideals with those of other countries and how they have changed over time
- Examine the possible consequences of poor body image
- Identify strategies to acquire a positive body image
|
