The advocacy committee of Vitality, a Hillel-sponsored health and wellness initiative, held a meeting about media and the female body image last night, which touched upon topics ranging from Disney movies to stay-at-home fathers.
Senior Rebecca Plofker and sophomore Rachel Taplinger facilitated discussion among the women gathered in the lobby of Richardson Hall.
Before the talk, Plofker and Taplinger showed a clip from Disney's 1950 cartoon movie "Cinderella," followed by a clip of a preview for an episode of Fox's "The Bachelor." Both scenes, the attendees agreed, were responsible for reinforcing stereotypes that led to the objectification of women.
The clips showed "the evolution of how women are portrayed," Plofker said
"Or lack of evolution," added Taplinger
The clips were followed by statistics relevant to how women relate to their bodies. According to these statistics, 80 percent of women feel depressed about their bodies, and women are three times as likely as men to be on a diet.
Discussion participants agreed that the disturbing trends represented in the statistics were related to media portrayal of women.
Children's movies were discussed at length. According to Plofker, "Mulan" was the first Disney movie to portray a "strong female role model" - and it was a financial failure. "There's definitely the market for" portrayals of weak women," she said.
Through a series of discussion questions, participants said that more positive fare for children is available on public television.
Participants agreed that prime time television is dependent on the portrayal of female characters as sex symbols.
"Even shows that are supposed to have positive female role models have skinny girls prancing around," Plofker said.
Discussion then turned to how the participants were dealing with body image while at school. The consensus seemed to be that for Tufts students, who are used to working hard and getting good grades in high school, body image might receive the same obsession as studying for a test.
Body image at Tufts is "less of an image problem but more a control problem," Plofker said. Social norms also dictate feelings about body image. "If you're hanging out with a group of people only eating celery, you're not going to feel good about yourself," she said.
One participant asked if health outreach groups in a country where obesity is on the rise should be concerned more with poor body image or unhealthy weight gain. Taplinger stressed that true health involves a balance.
"It's more about healthy than being thin - being able to enjoy yourself and not going to an extreme," she said.
The discussion ended with the leaders urging participants to share their knowledge with others who did not attend the meeting.
"A lot of times it's like preaching to the choir," Taplinger said. "But now you guys can be resources."
