Welcome to CBI [Culture and Body Image].

This first edition of the zine focuses on girls of

Caribbean heritage and how their culture and

the American media play a role in shaping

their body image. The zine features profiles of

girls from different back ground discussing

their body image, facts about culture and body

image and the effects of media on adolescent

girls, a celeb comparison and a highlight about

building self esteem. The aim of this zine is to

tackle the predominant images of beauty that

exists in this country by highlighting the

differences in beauty across culture, in this

case Caribbean cultures, thereby showing that

there is more than one image of beauty.

Females need not have negative feelings about

their size, color and physical features nor

engage in self destructive habits related to

body image.

Sanya-Kay Johnson.

From Eve Ensler‟s The Good Body, a play that

addresses why women of many cultures and

backgrounds perceive pressure to change the way

they look in order to be accepted in the eyes of

society.

Read more:

http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwo

m/goodbody.html

General Stereotypes about the body image of

Caribbean Girls.

***These comments are not made to offend anyone,

just to bring light to the stereotypes often applied to

people, sometimes mainly as a result of the media.

I think Black women in general are

stereotyped as having the best

bodies (shapely) especially island

women.

Trinis: always look mix- like black

and something. Trinidad is one of the

most well know in the Caribbean for

having a variety of mixes.

Haitians: Many look like pure

Africans. More than 90% of the

population is black, the remaining

are mixed or of other races.

Guyanese: light skin, short,

thick Indian looking women,

with nice body and wavy

looking hair.

When I picture Jamaican girls,

unfortunately I picture girls

like those from Pasa Pasa:

They have the big lips and nice

big bums and weave with all

sorts of colors.

Bajan- usually medium height, have more hips

than butt, overall nice bodies.

St Vincentian- brown skin and have amazing

shape.They supposedly emulate other women

of the Caribbean, especially Jamaican.

Puerto Rican/Dominican: short,

tan (brown skinned), curly hair,

thick curvy bodies

Fact however is…

Black and Caribbean people come in all

shapes, sizes, colors and hair textures

Haitians are just like any other Black ethnicity,

we come in many shades. Haitian society

comprises of people of African, French, Taino,

Spanish and even small pockets of Lebanese

ancestry. The majority of the population has

African ancestry, with some people also

possessing mixed French, Spanish and Arab

blood.

The Jamaican motto says: OUT OF MANY,

ONE PEOPLE. It emphasizes that we are a

country made up of diverse cultures, we don't

have one single look; we have variety.

Profile#1

Arielle

My Body Image

I came here to the U.S. when I was 9 years old. I was

slim because back home everyone‟s active, and there

was hardly any fast food, just KFC and it was not in

the same magnitude as in the US. Those who were

overweight back home were usually older.

Coming here to the US and seeing all the different fast

food places, I began to indulge, and with the winters,

which rendered me less active, I started to gain weight.

It bothered me and caused me to have weight issues. At

my biggest, 205 pounds, is when I realized I needed to

do something to change. My self esteem had really

decreased because I was never a big person, and so I

felt unlike myself.

The first time I went back to St. Vincent after gaining

the weight, there was a lot of ridicule; “Oh my gosh,

how could you let her gain all that weight.” Parents

were usually blamed for how their children looked.

People were shocked by my weight gain because they

were comparing me to how I looked before.

This past summer when I went back home after losing

some weight, I felt more accepted. I received a lot

more compliments “Oh you look so nice.” It made me

feel good.

My own image of beauty is that healthy is

beautiful, not too skinny and not obese-

though in some culture bigger is better, for

ours, I think that looking healthy is what‟s

beautiful.

The beauty in me

I think my curvaceous body adds to my beauty. I

might want to lose a little more weight her and

there, but I like my body. I also think my eyes are

beautiful; I get a lot of compliments about them.

Where does my self esteem come from?

I believe self esteem is an inner thing, but the

external look, getting compliments and such

definitely helps to enhance what is felt inside.

If you‟re living in St. Vincent and all your friends are

active, you strive to maintain a fit physique; you don‟t

want to be the odd one out. Like if my mom ran into

her friends now, the first thing they would say is “Oh

you gained weight!” and it‟s not to be malicious, it

just happens to be a conversation starter- which points

to a difference in culture because I doubt a person

here in the U.S. would go up to another person and

start a conversation by commenting on their weight.

How do you relate to the beauty image in the U.S.?

I am not influenced by what I see in

advertisements really. I don‟t relate; I don‟t

find that image of beauty [tall, skinny white

blonde, blue eyes] to be attractive. It doesn‟t

measure up with my standard of beauty;

though there is no universal standard of beauty

because what is seen as beautiful varies from

culture to culture.

I think there are girls out there who don‟t have

their own standard of beauty and so their

standard becomes what they see and what they

are told and so they‟re measuring themselves

to that and striving to be like that and its sad.

• A majority of girls (59 percent) reported

dissatisfaction with their body shape, and 66 percent

expressed the desire to lose weight. (American

Academy of Pediatrics)

• A mother‟s weight, body image, attitude, and health

habits are strong indicators of whether her daughter is

overweight, satisfied with her body, and physically

active. Girls look to their mothers for advice on

healthy living. (Girl Scout Research Institute)

• Although about two-thirds (65%) correctly identify

themselves as being either normal weight or

overweight, one-third of all girls have a distorted idea

about their weight. (Girl Scout Research Institute)

• A recent analysis of studies examining body

dissatisfaction, eating disorders, and mass media

found that participants with body dissatisfaction issues

were more adversely affected by media stimuli using

thin models than participants without body

dissatisfaction issues. In addition, participants below

college age were more adversely affected by the

presentation of such media than participants aged 19

and older. (International Journal of Eating Disorders)

Girl Scouts

http://www.girlscouts.org/research/facts_findings/bod

y_image.asp

Facts

Body Image

A girl's body image is not only determined by her

self-perception but also by the perceptions of others.

For majority of girls, looking healthy, means being

accepted by peers for presenting a “normal”

appearance, rather than actually maintaining a

nutritious diet and being physically fit.

Statistics

• African Americans have different attitudes about

weight, body size, and attractiveness than Caucasians,

with overall less drive for thinness and greater

acceptance of larger body proportions. (Psychiatry

Journal)

Profile#2

Christal

I growing up but I was what you‟d describe as

chubby. I always looked around and noticed I

was the biggest out of my cousins and I used to

feel uncomfortable.

However as I got older, I also lost a little weight

so I felt better.

My self-esteem has definitely improved over the

years because with the gradual weight lost I

started realizing that this is me and I'm not going

to have another body so I better take care of this

one to the best of my ability.

To me beauty, although it sounds like a cliché, is

in the eyes of the beholder. What one person may

think is beautiful another person may not. Some

people find certain things beautiful compared to

others, maybe like a big nose on a person or big

breasts.

The most beautiful thing I think is my skin color

like you have to love who u are many ppl start

bleaching their skin to be lighter skinned but

that's because media portrays white to be

successful mainly.

psu.edu

Facts

Twenty years ago, models weighed 8% less than

the average woman. Today, they weigh 23% less

than the average woman.

The average American woman is 5‟4” tall and

weighs 140 pounds. The average American

model is 5‟11” tall and weighs 117 pounds.

If Barbie was a real woman, she‟d have to walk

on all fours due to her proportions.

One out of every four college aged women has an

eating disorder.

It is estimated that 40-50% of American women

are trying to lose weight at any point in time.

Americans spend more than 40 billion dollars a

year on dieting and diet-related products – that‟s

roughly equivalent to the amount the U.S.

Federal Government spends on education each

year!

toothpastefordinner.com

graemethomasonline.com

Almost half of all women smokers smoke because

they see it as the best way to control their weight. Of

these women, 25% will die of a disease caused by

smoking.

In 2007, there were about 11.7 million cosmetic

procedures performed in the U.S. Ninety one percent

of these were performed on women.

A study found that 53% of thirteen-year-old

American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This

number grows to 78% by the time girls reach

seventeen.

Sources

National Institute on Media and the Family

About Face: Facts on Body Image

National Organization for Women

Girl Scouts

Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Statistics

Did you know…

The media industry has a bigger impact on women

across racial and ethnic boundaries than is thought.

These industries [weight loss, medical, and

advertising] all insist that white and thin is beautiful

and that fatness is always a dangerous problem in

need of correction. The popular notion that some

communities are less influenced than others has meant

that women of color in particular have a hard time

being taken seriously when they have eating

disorders. A black woman suffering from an eating

disorder says:

After all, don't black people prize wide hips and

fleshy bodies? Isn't obesity so prevalent in our

communities because it is actually accepted? Don't

black women have very positive body

images?...Anorexia and its kin supposedly strike

only adolescent, middle- and upper-middle-class

white girls...Women like me are winging it, seeking

out other sisters with the same concerns, wondering

if we are alone on this journey.

The above is an exclusive excerpt from the "Body

Image" chapter of Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New

Century.

http://www.feminist.com/resources/ourbodies/body.ht

ml

An Untitled Poem

By Kadeen Jones and Sanya-Kay Johnson

My rich chocolate skin

Is resilient against the sun‟s rays

But not tough enough to withstand the snickers

Ripping apart my fragile ego.

My wooly untamed hair blows wild

Like my spirit

I won‟t be stopped.

Yet they can‟t accept that;

And they continue to tear away at me.

Then place me in a box I can‟t even fit in.

My shapely body is far from modelesque

Dieting, eating disorder or plastic surgery to get that ideal

shape,

Scrubbing and bleaching to wash away the dirt

Contacts to get those colored eyes,

Eyes that will never see me for who I really am.

To the weight loss, medical, beauty and advertising

industries,

I am a project.

A project which they have provided everything to replicate

this beauty image

And yet, something is still missing.

In my quest to achieve perfection and be received

I have lost myself.

Who am I? What am I?

I am a black girl.

That kinky-haired, dark-skinned, plump girl.

I have big lips, a big nose, thick thighs and a big bottom to

match;

And I should be proud of it.

This is the body I was blessed with and it is beautiful.

Facts about Body Image and Culture

In a study of 2,379 black and white 9- and 10-year-

olds, 40% of the girls reported wanting to lose

weight, with no significant difference between

black and white girls on this measure. [Schreiber et

al., 1996]

- One hypothesis is that the more acculturated

(assimilated into the mainstream popular

culture, which is mainly white) a woman is, the

more she will experience body-image

dissatisfaction. The more a person is pressured

to emulate the mainstream image, the more the

desire to be thin is adopted, and with it comes

an increased risk for the development of body

image dissatisfaction and eating disorders.

Increased social, vocational, and economic

opportunities are available to women of color who

can conform to the dominant, white culture's norms.

Women of color thus may become vulnerable and

will conform to pressure to be "perfect" in the

context of upward social mobility. This perfection

may be pursued by shaping one's body to fit the

mainstream culture's female body ideal. [Root,

1990]

A study examined disordered-eating behavior and

attitudes among high school Hispanics, Native

Americans, and whites in the United States. Rates of self-

induced vomiting and binge eating were significantly

higher for the two minority groups, even when

controlling for weight. The study concluded that the rate

of disturbed eating behavior is at least as prevalent

among Native Americans and Hispanics as it is among

white adolescents. [Smith and Krejci, 1991]

In a study of 9,971 female self-reported dieters,

unhealthy eating attitudes for women who diet (such as

binging and purging) were similar across ethnic groups,

again suggesting that eating disordered behavior is not

simply a white woman's problem anymore. For all racial

groups, self-esteem was rated highest for times when the

subjects' weight was lowest. [Le Grange et al., 1998]

Studies are showing that ethnic minority groups are

reaching parity with Caucasians in body image and

eating disturbances, suggesting that ethnicity does not

appear to protect against the broader sociocultural factors

that foster body dissatisfaction among adolescent

females. [Shaw et al., 2004; French et al., 1997]

About-Face facts about EATING DISORDERS and

DISORDERED EATING

Facts by Marcella Raimondo, MPH

http://about-face.org/r/facts/eatingdisorders.shtml

What I like about Kim Kardashian?

She is beautiful! Kim embraces her curves. She knows

she will never be the stick thin girl. She reminds me of

myself to some extent. We are both the type of people

who won't hurt a fly. I also like that she was able to move

on from a poor decision and was able to turn it around for

the better. She is also very business savvy, as well.

How I compare to Kim?

The same way as Kim, I‟m never going to be the size 0

skinny girl, so what?

How do you relate to the beauty image in the U.S.?

I don't relate to the beauty image of today. I‟m not a size 0

or 2 and I don't have blue eyes or the blonde hair. Real

women have curves and that I consider beautiful.

Beautiful is not about size, hair color, nor eye color.

Beauty lies within oneself, within one's heart.

What I think is beautiful about myself?

My personality. I‟m very laid back and down to earth.

I‟m all about helping out other people.

How do I build my self esteem?

I believe I have a very strong self esteem. I like to look

good so I do my share of work to maintain that. If I like

how I look or if I‟m comfortable with myself, I don't care

what anyone has to say.

Positive Celeb comparison:

Leidy and Kim Kardashian

How do you define beauty?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

“I don't think u can 'define' beauty really,

because it means different things to different

people.

Some people rather the external, physical

beauty, while others are more drawn to the

internal beauty of a person.”

“By dictionary definition: beauty is a

characteristic of a person, place, object, or idea

that provides a perceptual experience of

pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction.”

“Beauty does not really exist, it is composed

of a combination of appearance, sounds and

smells that we perceive as beneficial to our

health or well-being.”

“Beauty is a cultural creation that has been

extremely commercialized. There‟s this idea

of an „ideal beauty‟ which is a being which is

admired, or possesses features widely

attributed to beauty in a particular culture.”

Developing Positive Body Image

keithkarabin.com

“Beauty cannot be identified universally and

uniquely, meaning, a single object cannot

appear as beautiful to one and all, under all

circumstances and under all possible states of

mind.”

The point:

- Beauty cannot be define or it doesn‟t have one

definition, and so girls need not subject

themselves to the media‟s portrayal of beauty,

but rather find the beauty within themselves.

Make a change and build self esteem

Body Image March 2005

Body

image is “not so much our actual appearance or how

we seem to others, but our own internal view of how

we look, how we think we appear to others, and how

we feel about our looks.”

The more physically active girls are, the greater

their self-esteem and the more satisfied they are with

their weight, regardless of how much they weigh.

Similarly, inactive girls are more likely to be

dissatisfied with their appearance and perceive

themselves as overweight. Eight-three percent of

very active girls say that physical activity makes

them feel good about themselves- Girl Scouts.

Besides physical activity (and proper diet) there are

additional ways for females to be healthy physically

and emotionally and adapt positive body image; and

they all have to do with education (information and

motivation).

Fathers play an equally influential role in shaping

their daughters' self-image.

- "A daughter learns how to relate to men by the

way she relates to her father," says Carleton

Kendrick EdM, LCSW, social worker and co-

author of Take Out Your Nose Ring, Honey,

We're Going to Grandma's.

- That's why it's critical that fathers check what

they say to their daughters about their physical

appearance.

Being bombarded with countless media images of

thin female models and actresses who look

beautiful by modern American standards; girls may

have a tough time arriving at what it means to have

a healthy body image. Hence some experts say it's

better to show girls what a healthy body image

means rather than to tell them.

Girl Scout Research Institute recommendations are:

- Give “health” social relevance. In order to

become a priority in girls‟ lives, health and

healthy habits need to be framed not as ends in

themselves, but as a means to achieve ends that

are socially significant to girls of all ages,

ethnicities and backgrounds.

It starts mainly with parents:

- Parents, both mothers and fathers, need to realize

the power they hold in affecting the body image of

their girl children.

- Experts suggest that parents' energy is better spent

getting their daughters to look at and think critically

about the unrealistic way the media portrays girls

and women.

- "Co-viewing [the act of parents watching TV or

viewing the Internet with their daughters] allows

parents and their daughters to talk about those

patterns of [physical] representation," says Renee

Hobbs, EdD, associate professor of

communications at Temple University.

- "Mothers play a tremendous role in their daughters'

self-assurance and potential to develop eating

disorders," says Elissa Gittes, MD, a pediatrician in

the division of adolescent medicine at Children's

Hospital of Pittsburgh.

- As mothers are a girl's first and, often, most

influential role model, girls take to heart what their

mothers say about bodies: their own, their

daughters, those of strangers and celebrities. They

notice when their mothers exercise

obsessively, diet constantly, or make derogatory

comments about their own appearance.

whatismykarma.com

- Embrace a holistic definition of health. Girls

believe being healthy has many components

and dimensions. Health messages need to

acknowledge what is important to girls and

help them address the issues in their lives:

stress, peer pressure, feeling good about

themselves and feeling safe.

- Demonstrate positive outcomes that result

from healthy behaviors. To motivate girls to

make better health choices, the positive

outcomes that result from healthy behavior –

higher self-esteem, reduced stress, and

increased energy for school and extra-

curricular activities – must be clearly

conveyed. Helping girls draw connections

between their choices and the impact of those

choices on their short and long-term health in

ways that are meaningful to them can help

instill healthier habits.

loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org

Acknowledgments

Thank you

Arielle Kirby

Christal James

Leidy Ramos

Kadeen Jones

Hasani Ferguson

Tasha Clarke

Jason Joseph

Woody Sanon