I live just outside of Boulder, one of the thinnest cities in the United States. I also will have a teenage daughter in ten years who could easily fall prey to the incessant and unrealistic (and American-made, primarily!) cultural standards of beauty. How do we achieve it? What if we don't? What happens when we lose it? Who will love us? What is self worth?
I am a big fan beauty and I find it in almost everything and everybody. I try to create beauty in all my relations, and I generally feel beautiful. I think my family is beautiful. And so -- admittedly -- there are times when I have a hard time understanding that other people don't see beauty surrounding them, or the beauty that IS them. I can name a million reasons why this might makes sense, given the old broken patterns that are still hanging around, but I recognize my choice in the matter, and I feel committed as a parent to send messages of a personal and unshakable beauty, inside and out. I know, too, that the first step is to live it. Which is why it's easy for me to commit to self-care (for me yoga, meditation, time alone, good food, my ladies, time with my husband...it can be anything for anyone) because that's largely how you get to the place where it all makes sense. You court, and eventually live from, your deepest and most settled places.
Last night I met Boulderite Diane Isreal at a holistic nutrition class I'm attending. Diane conducts weekend women's workshops, and said that when asked what their goals were the groupwould name two: how they could fit in smaller jeans and how they can help their daughters not get eating disorders. This very unfortunate irony was a huge catalyst for the creation of her (story on) film "Beauty Mark".
http://www.beautymarkmovie.com/default.html From BeautyMarkMovie.com:
Beauty Mark is for anyone who has ever felt invisible because they didn't conform to our culture's impossible, unhealthy, abnormal beauty standards. This courageous film examines popular culture's toxic emphasis on weight and looks through the eyes of Boulder-based psychotherapist and former world-class triathlete Diane Israel-- who tells her own story while interviewing other champion athletes, body builders, fashion models and inner-city teens about their experiences relating to self-image.
This deeply personal and funny film asks some tough questions ... How do our families influence our relationships with our own bodies? How do popular culture "standards" get inside of our hearts and heads? In what ways can sports actually make us sicker instead of healthier? Former champion athletes, including David Scott, Ellen Hart Pena and Brenda Maller share their stories while notable luminaries such as playwright Eve Ensler, author Paul Campos and cultural critic Naomi Wolf provide their insights.
An elite runner and triathlete until age 28, Diane won the Pikes Peak Marathon and several other major races after settling in Colorado in the early 1980s. She retired from competition after collapsing from anorexia (sometimes called "athletic bulimia", a disorder many athletes suffer from, but which few experts knew anything about at that time). Diane went back to school to become a psychotherapist and is now a professor of human development at Naropa University, a counselor and the co-owner of a women’s fitness center. She continues to run, but strives to live her life at a less frantic pace.
---
My comments: While not all the issues will pertain to you, you will probably recognize someone in the film. The subject matter and, to a large degree the theme, of "Beauty Mark" are personal and specific, but the message is massive and accessible. It's a call to action for us to find peace in ourselves just the way we are, and teach and share peace. We are being called right now by SO many sources, at every given moment, to live our truest selves, and stand in our our individual, specific beauty.
And many of you have seen this, I imagine. It's a Dove "evolution" video advertisement for their Real Beauty campaign.
We're all finding our way home. Who can you remind is beautiful today?
About the nutrition workshop, which I have been appreciating on many, many levels -- thanks Ann!:
Ann Gibson - Sustainable Living & Functional Nutrition Coach
Exquisite Living - Simple * Sustainable * Blissful
Phone: (303)993-4359
www.ExquisiteWellness.com
Phone & In-person Consultations Available
2 comments:
Thanks for posting this--I'm looking forward to watching the film when it is available. I spent much of my upbringing dealing with conflicting messages about beauty and health, body image and athleticism. I can only hope that I'm doing some good by being a positive role model for the young women and men I know or work with and by teaching them how to critically read what they see and hear in the media.
Of course you're doing some good...and I for one thank you!
As the world becomes a better place, I'll tell my kids it's your doing...tee hee.
But yes: it all adds up, don't you agree? And it usually starts small and personally.
Post a Comment