American women are dying to be thin. Popular culture wages warfare on the female self-image with endless photos of skinny fashion models and get-thin-quick diet solutions. Women and girls are left with unattainable ideals of how they should look. Too often this bombardment leads to dangerous eating disorders that make women crave to be thin. The society then seeks to cure the skewed self-image by inflating self-esteem. Both assault and cure are focused inward upon self, when selfless humble grace taught at an early age could be the best cure.
With 12 Critics Choice Award nominations and four Golden Globe nods, the 2010 psychological movie thriller "Black Swan" calls to mind the great, yet subversive and insidious, problem of distorted body image among women across the nation. The media bombards us with images of skinny chicks as the ideal model for feminine beauty. Through starvation, overeating and binging and purging, girls and women of all ages engage in radically dishonest forms of food consumption that are self-abusive and potentially deadly.
In June 2009, Dove Beauty Products, a division of Unilever, launched the Campaign for Real Beauty (CRB). The campaign was launched worldwide in 2004 and includes advertisements, videos and workshops aimed at subverting negative female body image. The campaign celebrates the natural physical variation embodied by all women of all nationalities, colors, shapes and sizes. It aspires for all women to be confident and comfortable in their own skin.
As a well-researched and well-intended marketing campaign, CRB is successful; but as an antidote for anorexia, bulimia or overeating, CRB does not teach one tried and true cure for underlying low self-esteem. This cure can only be found in 12-step programs and our much-abandoned Christian heritage. This cure is humility, and its societal rebirth may begin the healing.
In “Black Swan,” the protagonist, Nina Sayers, played by Golden Globe winner for best actress Natalie Portman, is a ballerina who after fierce competition with rival dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) lands the main role in a New York City ballet company's production of Swan Lake. The demanding role is really two parts in one and physically requires an almost split personality in order to dance convincingly both the innocently pure White Swan and the dark, sensual Black Swan. The company's artistic director Thomas Leroy, portrayed by Vincent Cassel, claims Nina is perfectly cast as the White Swan, but must lose herself in the seductive Black Swan. In her obsessive drive to become the Black Swan, Nina engages in various self-destructive behaviors such as induced vomiting and psychotic hallucinations. The film reaches its frenzied culmination on opening night with Nina immersed in a crazed and vivid delusion. She embraces her own wicked incarnation so completely that she stabs herself with a shard from her own shattered dressing room mirror. Awash with evil she dances the final act as the Black Swan flawlessly. She then dies from the self-inflicted mirror impalement and murmurs, "I was perfect," as the audience continues to applaud.
“Black Swan” is a glimpse into the inner torment that women with eating disorders live. It is a mental and emotional roller coaster. Though rare, eating disorders are often symptomatic of other unseen psychological difficulties. "Lifetime prevalence estimates of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are .9 percent, 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent among women. Eating disorders, although relatively uncommon, represent a public health concern because they are frequently associated with other psychopathology and role impairment, and are frequently under-treated," according to a 2007 National Institute of Health Survey. While infrequent, an eating disorder is a manifestation of a deeper struggle that needs attention.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, the normal recommended calorie intake for a woman is 1500-2000 calories per day. Persons with anorexia nervosa combat a distorted body image by refusing to gain weight. The anorexic continues to feel hunger but denies herself, on average, 600-800 calories daily. Persons with bulimia nervosa wage secretive, cyclical, self-targeted battles. Most commonly, bulimics severely restrain caloric intake, execute an enormous food binge that culminates with induced vomiting or laxative abuse. A binge or compulsive overeater is characterized by uncontrollable eating and consequent weight gain. Elevated noshing is used as a way to cope with stress, emotional conflicts and daily problems. With their deadly potential, all three afflictions violate the Sixth Biblical Commandment of "Thou shalt not kill”—that includes self-destruction.
So Dove did their homework. In June 2008, they commissioned "Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem" conducted by StrategyOne, an applied research consulting firm. The firm worked in collaboration with Ann Kearney-Cooke, a psychologist and director of the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute which leads treatment of adolescents and adults with disorders emanating from body image dissatisfaction. The report found that seven in 10 girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up; and 75 percent of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking or drinking when feeling badly about themselves. Only 25 percent of girls reported high self-esteem.
In response to the report, Dove rolled out CRB, which it touts as a "Movement for Self-Esteem." With its buoying emotional appeal, CRB sells a lot of Unilever products. After all, Unilever is a money-making corporation. As a cure for injurious nutrition, CRB is sadly a mere salve which is in the end an ineffectual placebo for the distorted body image epidemic. The Dove CRB Website only once mentions "faith/religious practices," but is brimming with articles, features, videos, blogs, experts, discussions, tips, quizzes and advice to boost self-esteem.
However, self-esteem is ultimately self-centered and can cloak self-loathing or worship. Therein lies the problem. Self-worship or vanity (good or bad) breaks the First Commandment of worshiping only one God. When the focus is placed solely on the self, everything becomes heavily leveled on one's shoulders and the burden is not shared. Self-worship therefore, is not sturdy. A pyramid is built with a broad base and rises to a point on top; not vice versa. The polar opposite of egocentricity is humility.
Humility is derived from the Latin word humus, meaning soil. Soil, in this sense of the word, is ground or down to earth or well-rooted, not dirt. Humility does not imply self- neglect or allow for self abuse. The humble one understands that the world does not revolve around oneself. Self is not the only power. Effective twelve-step programs state, "(We) came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore sanity. (We) made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. (We) humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings."
These steps point toward God as the loving Creator of all healing. The greatest and most magnificent example of Christian humility is Mary, the mother of Jesus. "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word," she said, though afraid. Mary was not tormented by body image, but lived in humble service of The Lord. In accepting her role simply, she made the greatest mark this world has known for peace.
It is time for women to refocus on gentility and kindness, rather than competitive thinness. They must turn their energies and passions to create an inner beauty which flows outward. This renaissance of humility through Christian grace is the answer. Without it, women everywhere will never be able to free themselves of this destructive self-perception that eats its own and bears no fruit.
-Kelly Kathryn Llobet is a writer living in Baltimore, a veteran Navy spouse and a proud mother of five.
