Topic One Body Image By Alicia Hibberd

I remember the first time I found out what a bullimic was. I wondered to myself what would make a person eat until they would throw up. It was not until I reached the age of 17 and my body started to change: my hips got bigger, everything I put in my mouth seemed to add an extra kilo. Luckily I had a mother who suppported me and explained to me that this is all a normal part of becoming a woman, other wise I could see how a young girl could easily go down to the road to starving themselves or purging. I really felt that the Hobart Women's Health Centre page would get across to women that they really are beautiful the way they are. As an Advertising student myself I believe that the advertising campaign would work really well, and get across a strong message that women are beautiful the way they are, there was also a sence of humor in the advertising, which I think is very important in such a serious topic. What I was a little concerned about is how young the girls in the advertising was, as I was not aware that the problem affected girls so young. I loved the section on dieting because I have watched my mother for years try hundreds of different diets and none of them work. Luckily she has taught me that eating healthy is the way to go. But it still amazes me today how many women (and young girls) think that starving themsleves is the way to go. A friend of mine would lie to me and tell me she was eating while I could see that everyday she was losing weight. Today she has serious metabolism problems because she was anorexic many years before. This is why I really feel that the Womens Health Centre sight is fantastic, because by targeting young girls perhaps they will instill self-values early. Although the Gurl web sight took a different approach I still think that it would be effective. The sight looks at the funny side of life and has a bit of a laugh. I feel that with body-image it is good to have a bit of a laugh sometimes, as we often take ourselves far to seriously, and I think that is where half the problem is. We all think and talk about the issue SO much that the issue will never go away. Don't get me wrong I do feel that it is an important issue, it is just that if we stopped focasing on the 'skinny' women SO much then the normal women would not feel so bad.

In conclusion, I believe that we need to focus on our insides (our personalitys). Even though many out their try to tell us we are beautiful the way we are, none of us ARE EVER going to be totally happy with our body image, and if we focus on inner self and work on making our inner-selves more beautiful we can't go wrong.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000