Many things impact our perceptions of our own body. Sociocultural influences, cognitive behavior, as well as our upbringing are just a few of these factors. During college, separation from our family, new living situations, and the stress to succeed academically can negatively influence our body image. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, most eating disorders develop around the time we are in college. In school people constantly surround us, and their actions can affect our own. Relentless negative body talk and judgment from others on how much/what you eat can make you more conscious of youself. Many of us are too worried about what we think our friends think of your bodies.
I asked several female college students how school has personally impacted their body image.
“How do you think college affects a females perception of her body? Do you think your own idea of body image has been affected by attending college?”
Lindsey Douglas:
Being in a college setting can seriously affect a female’s perception of her own body. Being surrounded by so many females in one setting of all different shapes and sizes can be both detrimental and empowering. For me, I struggled with body image growing up in high school. Seeing beautiful girls who were skinny and didn’t watch what they eat was really hard for me because I am someone who always has to watch food intake and exercise regularly to maintain a strong body image.
Since college, I have focused on being healthy rather than skinny. I owe a lot of that to the knowledge I have learned in my Athletic Leadership classes and own personal research. However, as someone who has been through that feeling of never being good enough, college can be such a difficult setting for females. I think it’s time we stop comparing ourselves to other females, and start realizing that healthy and beautiful looks different on everyone.
Kate Cram:
I know my idea of body image has changed. I can’t pinpoint it to an exact cause but I feel like being in a sorority hasn’t helped. They in no way push for us to fit a certain image, but it’s hard not have your body image impacted by looking around and seeing all these beautiful people when you’re this bigger 6 foot tall chick. Honestly though, I feel like in the past two years my body image has been impact more from events outside of college, so yeah while I’m in college it’s changed but I wouldn’t blame it on college.
Lauren Waters:
College has improved my body image. In high school, so many people are concerned with superficial qualities about people, and about themselves: what clothes they wear, their weight, whether or not their makeup looks good. But when you come to college, with a higher level of education comes a higher understanding of what makes a person unique and valuable. That can positively affect a person’s body image because they realize that a number on a scale or the presence of a pimple doesn’t define them. It’s what you do with the body and mind that you’ve been given that gives you value.
Geneva Hutchinson:
I would say high school affects it more negatively than college – that’s a time when I personally had negative perceptions of my body. But in college, I think my perception has become more positive just because college is a much more free and accepting place.
Jo Abbott:
I definitely think college affects a female’s perception of her body. You’re constantly around so many female peers that makes it easy to compare whether you realize you do or not. My own idea of my body image has definitely been affected– in a double-sided coin kind of way. On one hand, my personal body image has greatly improved, because the atmosphere in college is so much less judgmental and more welcoming. It’s an open environment to feel comfortable in your own skin– both metaphorical and literal. Like, I own bikinis now. That’s a thing that’s very new. But at the same time, I’m around same-aged females literally all the time, many of whom are insanely fit (which I mean, kudos by the way, for having that type of motivation and time), and it’s hard to be consistently submerged in that environment and maintain a positive body image for yourself if you don’t have that fit body.