Recently, I was scrolling through posts on Facebook and I saw an interesting take on body image featuring a woman breaking some serious social norms — all for body positivity. The woman went onto the sidewalk with only her body, a sign, and a blindfold. She had taken off her garments and was almost completely nude. The sign said, “To support self-acceptance, draw on my body.” This was such a change in a world where media downplays internal beauty and promotes “the model” image– whatever that is. After watching the video, I was intrigued. From there, I found two more love your body campaigns.
(Photo courtesy of http://www.bodylovewellness.com/)
This one was long but also rearranged my whole perspective on how I looked. Dove began a campaign where they asked a facial artist to draw portraits of women. The catch? Their sketches were based solely on how the women described themselves, not from their own observations. Then, the artists produced sketches based on other women’s descriptions of the subject’s appearance. In the end, the woman saw both sets of drawings. The result? The photo of the woman describing herself looked worse because women judge themselves too hard and don’t realize how beautiful they truly are.
The first was definitely an eye-opener. A woman with beautiful, long red hair wanted to show the world that loving themselves is more important than anything else. She walked onto the sidewalk with a pair of scissors and razors and held a sign that said something along the lines of, “support me by cutting off my hair.” I thought this was such an intense but powerful way of promoting self-esteem– I would never be able to do something that drastic.
(Photo courtesy of https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/)
Since it is “Love Yourself Week” at Ohio University, here are a few things I do when I feel low self-esteem:
- I have this huge vanity mirror in my dorm and every morning I walk up to the mirror and I find one thing that I really like about myself.
- I really like getting dressed with loud upbeat music that I can jam out to when I get ready because it makes me feel better and helps me wake up.
- I smile at everyone because it always makes me feel better.
If none of these tips and tricks work, it’s Love Yourself Week, which means tons of fun activities and special speakers to help boost body image and self-awareness.