Girls as young as seven are learning to dislike their own bodies because they have seen their mothers standing in front of the mirror describing themselves as fat or old, new research shows.
The OnePoll survey found that seven out of 10 women said that their child had seen them engaging in “negative body language habits” such as standing in front of the mirror with their hands over their belly to hide any bulges. A third of the women admitted that they had seen their child had copying their actions.
But a significant number of mothers said they had no idea that words they use to describe their own body image could have an effect on children around them, especially girls.
– John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor
via Young girls ‘mimicking mothers’ body image fears’ – Telegraph.
Disliking what we see in the mirror has long been the curse of being a mother to young girls. What we say to ourselves, consciously and sub-consciously, impacts the mind-set of our daughters. Unfortunately, many of us don’t realise what we are saying.
We have to learn to love ourselves, and be positive in order to not contribute further to the already dreadful messages women and young girls are being sent daily. It is hard, if you have grown up with a negative self-image, and “hating” your body, to not pass this on. But we must try, we must do better, and we must turn this attitude around if we are to help the next generation of girls to believe in themselves and to love themselves. Being healthy is a choice we need to make – healthy in our minds and healthy in our bodies. Wanting to improve is not something which needs to be seen as a negative, but saying we’re fat and talking ourselves down is unhelpful. Saying I can do better, acknowledging what we’ve done well, is important for everyone’s mental health.
One way to relieve the pressure on this issue would be for women to rid their homes of women’s magazines. .
In my experience as a 26 year old woman it is almost unacceptable to be able to tell others that ‘I love myself’. You get branded as being ‘stuck up’. Why is it ok to talk ourselves down, to pay our bodies out to tell our friends how dissatisfied we are with ourselves, to body bash- but not ok to compliment ourselves? Often when a woman says she hates a part of her body all her friends join in, in telling what parts they hate of their own body (I can’t talk for the men out there, but I am sure it happens to them too).
Now my body is not perfect by media standards, but it is perfect to me and I am perfectly happy with it. If you don’t like the way I look that’s your problem, not mine.
Whenever my friends start to bodybash- I ask them to stop and instead compliment themselves. It feels strange- but only because it rarely happens. We need to normalise it.
So even if you don’t have children, lets start talking about ourselves in a positive light. Spread the body love.