Presently, increased disordered eating incidences and dissatisfaction of body images on daughters have been attributed to the contribution of parental commentary about weight, size and the general image of the body. Parental commentary on encouragement to either control the weight or size is associated with a strong predictor of body dissatisfaction. I will focus on my own body image in relation to parental commentary, with emphasis on what I wish my parents would have said or done. As an implication, then I would encourage a healthy body image within my family members.
The articles, How to Help Your Daughter Have a Healthy Body Image by Gail Saltz, MD and When Your Mother Says She’s Fat by Kasey Edwards, highlight the unprecedented pressure that daughters have to go through. This is because of the pressures put to them by their own family members on comments that emphasize beautiful and sexy bodies rather than focusing on important issues such as profession. Beauty and body have unfortunately been considered as an excellence factor on daughters. Thus, it is significant to focus attention on raising healthy and happy daughters to cope with the challenges associated with eating disorders and a seriously distorted body image (Edwards, 2013). Unfortunately, I had to undergo the same pressure that many of the women and girls have faced. Growing up in a family of three siblings, two boys and me, I had to contend with the pressure bestowed upon by my family members, that my mother and I had to strive to look stunningly beautiful before my father and the two boys. This ultimately represented the expectation of the rest of the world for the girl child. I later developed a hatred for my body, with an attitude likewise to my mother that I was ‘fat’ and needed to lose weight. Thus, I developed bad eating habits, starving myself to a point that I was almost developing Anorexia nervosa if it were not for the intervention of health counselors in my mid-high school years.
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I wish that my mother had earlier stuck to the idea of how beautiful her body was and not let dad’s comments and those of my brothers polarize the self-belief. To me, her feelings towards being uncomfortable, unaccepted, and less appreciated for what her body would allow her to do, slowly crept in my being, which negatively affected my morale as a daughter. I would wish that my family had complimented how beautiful we were as women in the household. Dad's support to my mom for whom she was and his encouragement to me on matters of brilliance, academics, profession, and overall excellence in life would have instilled confidence in me (A-Z, T., & Image, 2019). As such, I would have adopted a healthy lifestyle and encouraged self-expression, thus, positive living no matter the shape, weight, or size of the body.
If I were a parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle, I would encourage my family members to develop a healthy body image. First, I would encourage resilience to the daughters of the family so that they can learn to cope up with the comments or even when they see because of the commentary that they do not possess a perfect body. In this regard, I would have instilled a sense of toughness so that the comments do not get into their heads and jeopardize their healthy body image (A-Z, T., & Image, 2019). Second, as a responsible parent or guardian, I would ensure that my girls are exposed to sexualization in a limited way so that the obsession to have great bodies like the Kardashians does not enter into their heads. Instead of sexual obsession, and sexual topics, I would emphasize on intelligence of the brain, rather than beauty of the body. Most importantly as a mother, I would ensure that girls learn from me as their model so that the feeling of comfort and appreciation of one’s body becomes the core of what our varied bodies would allow us to do.
References
A-Z, T., & Image, E. (2019). How to Help Your Daughter Have a Healthy Body Image . Child Mind Institute . Retrieved 1 November 2019, from https://childmind.org/article/how-to-help-your-daughter-have-a-healthy-body-image/
Edwards, K. (2013). When Your Mother Says She's Fat - Role Reboot . Role Reboot . Retrieved 1 November 2019, from http://www.rolereboot.org/life/details/2013-06-when-your-mother-says-shes-fat?fb_action_ids=10151525052661964&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151525052661964%22%3A460281804067371%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151525052661964%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
