I just recently helped facilitate The Body Project at UCLA for students and its neighboring communities.
The Body Project, as described on the National Eating Disorders Awareness website, is a group-based intervention that provides a forum for women and girls to confront unrealistic beauty ideals and engages them in the development of healthy body image through verbal, written, and behavioral exercises.
"Research has shown when women/girls talk about the “appearance-ideal” (sometimes referred to as the thin-ideal, beauty-ideal, or cultural-ideal) portrayed in the mass media, and discuss how to challenge pressures to conform to these pressures, it makes them feel better about their bodies. One program that has repeatedly been shown to effectively reduce body dissatisfaction, negative mood, unhealthy dieting and disordered eating, is the Body Project."
The objectives of The Body Project include
1. Define the “appearance” ideal and explore its origin
2. Examine the costs of pursuing this ideal
3. Explore ways to resist pressures to conform to unrealistic standards of beauty
4. Discuss how to challenge personal body-related concerns
5. Learn new ways to talk more positively about our bodies
6. Talk about how we can best respond to future pressures to conform to societal standards of beauty
I wanted to dedicate this post to outlining the Body Project and its goals, but explore each of its objectives and the workshops myself and my co-facilitators have participated in as part of the program.
(unfinished)