The silent epidemic (dis)eased (re)presentation

If there’s one thing Duke has taught me, it's that beauty is only skin-deep. And if you really want to turn heads, you shouldn't let it get too deep.

Around Duke, we seem to have a lot of elephants in the room. And, as Duke students, we do a decent job addressing them. When it comes to body image, however, we ignore the elephant. We brush off these conversations and deny the influence it has on all of us. But there’s no denying the physical, mental and social toll body image has on members of our community.

According to a recent study by exercise physiologist Glenn Gaesser, over half of females between the ages of 18-25 would prefer to be run over by a truck than be seen as fat and two-thirds surveyed would rather be perceived as mean or stupid.

But body image concerns are not exclusive to the collegiate environment—they’ve seeped into our elementary schools, too. Slowly, the world of dieting is taking over childhood narratives.Time Magazine reports that 80 percent of all children have been on a diet by the time they have reached the fourth grade. Take that in. Rather than giving their bodies space for puberty and physical and mental development, 80 percent of 9-year olds are dieting to limit their body size. At 9 years young, dieting isn’t about portion control. It’s starvation.

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For both young girls and young women, recurrent dieting practices can lead to severe eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Despite this, the American College Health Association estimates that at least 44 percent of college women are dieting and 61 percent are exercising to lose weight. An estimated additional 10 percent of women are using laxatives, pills, or vomiting to attain their desired weight. A young woman with anorexia is 12 times more likely to die than other women her age without anorexia. So it comes as no surprise that anorexia is the third most prevalent chronic illness among adolescents, and the mortality rate for anorexia is higher than for any other psychiatric disorder.

Body image concerns are not unique to only females or young children. 27 percent of college men are dieting and 45 percent are exercising to lose weight. But losing weight is only one side one aspect to the problem. Studies show many college men suffer from muscle dysmorphia, a body image disorder that pressures males to ‘bulk up’ by gaining more muscles. Often both athletes and non-athletes who desire more muscles can be seen in the gym for several hours a week, taking in excessive lean meats and supplementing meals with protein.

These numbers should jolt us awake to the toxic environment that numerous industries are building for us. This desire to look a certain way is fed to us by many actors. The diet-related industry is a 50 billion dollar a year enterprise. Fashion models taunt us with their beautifully chiseled bodies, though they are thinner than 98 percent of American women. We look and admire, forgetting that their salary, their livelihood, depends on this unhealthy look, forgetting that this thinness is slowly destroying their organs, and forgetting the number of friends they have alienated in the quest to live this ‘thin life.’ Social media sites promote standards of beauty that are reinforced by ‘likes,’ ‘shares’ and ‘comments,’ though the backstory of the editing process never enters our timeline (but props to the several actresses who have blasted the magazine and entertainment industry for photoshopping their bodies!)

‘Healthy living’ isn’t about balancing your kale chips and carrot lunch with your afternoon workout. It’s about listening to your body—your entire body—and responding. What you eat—or don’t eat—has a direct effect on how you feel. In order for you to function at full capacity, that is, in order for you to think, read, concentrate, solve organic chemistry problems, memorize Shakespeare sonnets, research alternative energy solutions to our energy crisis and contemplate diplomatic and political strategies to human crises such as those in Ukraine and occupied Palestinian territories, you need to feed your brain the right nutrients. The brain’s energy source is glucose, which is converted from carbohydrates. Your brain also needs proteins and fats to build neurotransmitters, which are messenger chemicals that allow neurons to communicate (and as students, we need these neurons to constantly communicate). Not giving our bodies the nutrition it deserves is playing to our lowest form of living—as a mere human vessel—without allowing ourselves the confidence, energy and fuel it needs to attain our optimal potential in life.

As I reflect, I find that I often don’t ‘eat my own words.’ The Center for Disease Control may frown on the days where nothing will satisfy my hunger other than the midnight Ben and Jerry’s cone or the side of steak fries from the Loop, and that’s fine. We’re human. We can satisfy our indulgences every now and then. After all, being healthy is about being happy, too, right?

We’re also all different. We all can’t all look the same because inherently we are not. We should celebrate our differences as affirming, empowering reminders of our individuality (my extra long second toe is a daily reminder that I am, indeed, my father’s daughter).

Our bodies are created to bear blemishes, but our bodies also bear many blessings. Every day, our bodies work hard on the inside to produce the person we are on the outside. Rather than working to change our body, perhaps we should work on honoring, respecting and fueling it. Only then can we differentiate between the messages our bodies are sending us and the messages society is sending. You don’t have to take up less (or more) space to be worth more. Once we stop “fixing” our image, we are able to create bodies that inspire, empower, and excite us.

My advice: Embrace you. Own you. Love you. Rock what your mama gave you. Our culture—our younger generations—depend on all of us to change the health narrative.