By Angelia Roggie
Features Editor
In an age of skinny models and tiny sizes, women constantly compare themselves to each other.
According to the Media Awareness Network’s website, 50 to 70 percent of girls at a healthy weight believe they are overweight, and research indicates 90 percent of women are unhappy with their appearance in some way.
But one Bonaventure student is on a mission to change that with her new campaign, “You are beautiful just the way you are!”
Brittany Feldmeyer, a senior resident assistant on second Doyle, reaffirmed this attitude by inspiring her residents to appreciate their own special beauty.
“I would sit and just listen to people talk about all of their imperfections and how their legs were too fat or their stomach wasn’t skinny enough,” Feldmeyer, a psychology major, wrote in an email. “I started getting flustered and just wanted to go up to every girl and tell them how beautiful they are.” Feldmeyer eventually found herself asking a key body image question.
“God made you the way you are so that you could be different; why are you trying to be the same as someone else?”
Feldmeyer created her program, appropriately titled “Love Your Body,” by using pictures of various resident assistants on campus showcasing their own beauty along with the message, “You are beautiful just the way YOU are!” below each photograph.
“I figured it would make more sense for girls to see pictures of girls that they see every day — real-life girls that are showing their real-life bodies, no photo editing involved,” Feldmeyer wrote. “These are girls that are comfortable with their body and know that everyone is shaped differently.”
She posted the pictures between her residents’ doors, and underneath each one she encouraged them to see her bulletin board, which addressed misperceptions of beauty and facts about beauty around the world.
“On the bulletin board near my room, I have pictures of Chinese foot binding, neck rings, corsets and pictures of what ‘beautiful’ used to be, which was thicker or bigger women,” Feldmeyer wrote. “I pointed out eating disorders are just as absurd as these other rituals done around the world. There is also a lot of information about why women feel like they should be skinnier and ways to think healthier about your body.”
Chasity Perkins, a sophomore history major, said she hopes Feldmeyer’s program pieces will affect her floor.
“This is a powerful topic, and it is not discussed very often, and to see somebody putting effort into promoting self beauty makes me smile, because so many people on our floor are gorgeous and they don’t realize it,” Perkins said. “Hopefully, this program will help them to see they are.”
Feldmeyer said she blames the media and fashion industry for women’s unhealthy views of their bodies.
“The media puts all these images in our heads and makes us think that we need to be just as skinny as all of these models to become beautiful,” Feldmeyer wrote. “Shopping doesn’t help either; go to a women’s clothing store, everything is so little,” she wrote.”I think that women today do need a push to believe they are beautiful because so many things discourage us. Everyone needs someone to remind them that, ‘It’s not that we don’t fit the pants, the pants don’t fit us.’”
Christina Stankewicz, a sophomore history major, praised Feldmeyer’s program for its drive to make women see their true beauty, rather than what society is telling them to look like.
“Her floor program helps celebrate how beauty can be seen in any individual, and it helps serve as a reminder that everyone possesses beauty and that society shouldn’t necessarily tell us what beauty is,” Stankewicz said.
Feldmeyer wrote that with her campaign, she hopes to promote an appreciation for all forms of beauty among others.
“I think that everyone deserves to know that someone thinks they are beautiful,” Feldmeyer wrote. “And think about it, how great does it feel when someone randomly complements you on something? It feels great. So I compliment people, and I think that everyone else should do the same.”
roggieac10@bonaventure.edu
