It's Time To Stop The 'Skinny Sweepstakes'

By: Allyssa Milan

Posted: 6/9/08

Recently, Psychology Today published an article titled "The Skinny Sweepstakes." It addressed the competition between women who strive to be considered more physically attractive than the rest. The article talks about how these competitive behaviors, ingrained at a young age and continuing into adulthood, have led to an eating disorder epidemic, especially on college campuses. The competition we face in our daily lives should help us grow by challenging us. Instead, competition seems to be hindering our growth as individuals. Our behaviors have become extremely unhealthy for the mind, body and spirit.

According to the article, dieting is "a competitive sport with a gold medal going to the thinnest, a triumph of the cultural ideal for appearance that almost every American girl will unwittingly internalize by middle school."

This is an alarming call for a reevaluation of, and more discourse on, the root of problems like eating disorders, which inevitably result from broken self-esteem. Our cultural norms and values are causing people to be at war with their appearances, and at war with each other over whose appearance is superior. What needs to be addressed even more is the fact that these battles begin so early for far too many people.

In elementary school, we are too busy sharing crayons and spreading cooties, but once middle school hits, for most people, the happy world we once lived in becomes vicious, small and judgmental - a microcosm of what we will likely face once we are released into the so-called "real world."

During those tender teenage years, our bodies are changing rapidly, our hormones and emotions are going hay-wire, and we are beginning to taste a more mature social life. It is then that we also first become much more aware of popular culture and how we are supposed to fit within it. It becomes a part of our daily lives. Advertisers even seem to target teenagers more than any other age group. Everywhere, we are bombarded with images of the "ideal" body type, products we need to look and feel our best and clothes we should buy in order to feel better about ourselves. The way we acclimate ourselves into society is quite literally by buying our way into asystem that seems to hurt us more than it helps.

So what does all this lead to for middle-schoolers? From what I have seen, heard, learned and experienced myself, there is terribly cruel ridicule and social exclusion for those who do not fit the "norm," caused by incessant personal comparison of the self to other people, feelings of inadequacy, loss of self-worth, eating disorders, depression and suicide - all before we graduate from high school. Those seem to be just a few side-effects of the appearance-obsessed, materialistic culture that is being imposed on young, impressionable minds. It is a terrible cycle that cannot continue if we want to live in a healthy world.

When at any other point in human history have kids - let alone adults - lost their identities in comparisons not only to their peers, but to widespread, unrealistic, airbrushed images of half-naked 5-foot-10, 110-pound models? When else in human history have we been told repeatedly that we need this brand of clothing or this kind of car in order to be accepted as a worthy member of society?

Mainstream culture - whether directly or inadvertently - makes people feel inadequate and convinces them to keep buying into it in order to feel worthy. On top of everything else we deal with concerning our friends, families, school, professions and relationships, we only add stress to our lives and put more pressure on ourselves to fit images that have been created for us in order to prove ourselves worthy.

As the next generation of adults, we need to be especially conscious of the false reality of the images constantly bombarding our minds, the minds of the younger generation and eventually the minds of our future children. We need to cut ourselves off as best we can from the blind and superficial belief that the products we buy, the clothes we wear and the way we look defines our self-worth. Furthermore, we must be aware of the consequences that could arise if we do not do so - another generation of depressed, carb-obsessed, broken people.

The first step toward getting past this problem is to acknowledge that it is a problem that starts early on. This is partially due to parental irresponsibility. It was said in the Psychology Today article that kids are socialized by television, the internet and their peers, rather than by caring, demanding and mentoring adults. We, as consumers and as the future parents and role models of society, need to reject the negative, unrealistic images, and reject the idea that we can buy our self-worth. We must demand more positive, empowering images of men and women and support positive role models and companies that do not profit off of people's negative self-esteem. Most of all, we must be positive role models ourselves by improving ourselves physically, intellectually and spiritually, and for our own sake, rather than as a way to compete with and prove our worth to other people. A cultural shift can only happen if we demand it, and if our collective individual paradigms focus on the former, rather than the latter.

Staff Columnist Allyssa Milan is a 7th-semester sociology major. She can be contacted at Allyssa.Milan@UConn.edu.