This week has been National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. While reading about it I found out about this great project called Operation Beautiful. Operation Beautiful is the most simple yet moving project I've seen in quite awhile. Basically the entire Operation Beautiful is to leave anonymous notes in public places that say encouraging things like "You Are Beautiful" or "We're Beautiful" just to let another woman know that she IS beautiful, she is valued, and you will make her day. And while this seems so simple that it doesn't need a Web site, it really does. If you think about it, how many times do you tell someone that you think they're beautiful? If you're like me, not very often. And as a young woman in her twenties its something I NEVER hear and its probably something that every woman should hear much more than we do.
Why is it that our society has become so far removed from real beauty? The women that you live with, work with, talk with are never beautiful but instead we have this irrational idea of beauty as stick thin, overly sex-ified, and nothing like reality. When did real beauty stop existing? Dove has begun a Campaign for Real Beauty where they are doing Self-Esteem programs for young girls throughout the world and that's a great initiative. However, if the ideas of real beauty are not encouraged after this self-esteem girls is there truly anything stopping these girls from losing that self-esteem as quickly as they found it?
I guess perhaps there isn't an easy answer for this. That until our society can leave behind the visions of "beauty" that do not include real women then things like this will have to continue just to allow some normal women to have normal body images and to avoid eating disorders. I just think its a sad moment for our society when SELF magazine states that 65% of women are affected by something that can be prevented.
To read more about National Eating Disorder Week click here:
Associated Content Article
National Eating Disorder Association
Why is it that our society has become so far removed from real beauty? The women that you live with, work with, talk with are never beautiful but instead we have this irrational idea of beauty as stick thin, overly sex-ified, and nothing like reality. When did real beauty stop existing? Dove has begun a Campaign for Real Beauty where they are doing Self-Esteem programs for young girls throughout the world and that's a great initiative. However, if the ideas of real beauty are not encouraged after this self-esteem girls is there truly anything stopping these girls from losing that self-esteem as quickly as they found it?
I guess perhaps there isn't an easy answer for this. That until our society can leave behind the visions of "beauty" that do not include real women then things like this will have to continue just to allow some normal women to have normal body images and to avoid eating disorders. I just think its a sad moment for our society when SELF magazine states that 65% of women are affected by something that can be prevented.
To read more about National Eating Disorder Week click here:
Associated Content Article
National Eating Disorder Association
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