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Body Image and Creative Expression
It isn’t just about “looking good” or eating
disorders; body image relates to our identity, and how we
think about and accept ourselves, which directly or indirectly
affects how we access the awareness and emotional energy we
need for creating.
Body image issues can be particularly visible
in entertainment, which provides most of our icons and role
models..
Some highly talented actors such as Emma Thompson
seem to revel in roles with unusual looks, such as her character
in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and as a governess
with frightening features in "Nanny McPhee.”
In her film Carrington (1995), she appears with
rather short hair, dressed “mannishly” and Thompson said she
did not feel any loss of femininity dressed that way, but
rather “lots of freedom, complete freedom. When I went to
university, I shaved my head, wore little wrap glasses and
butch overalls, because I didn't want to be trapped in femininity.”
That “trap” can affect many talented actors.
Katherine Heigl [tv series “Grey's Anatomy”] said she is “grateful
people think I'm beautiful or sexy, and I suppose it's better
than the alternative, but I do try to fight it a bit so it's
not all people see me as. And I'd love to one day be in a
position where I could choose a role to showcase my creativity
versus just my bra size." [imdb.com]
But apparently many film and television producers
don’t think much beyond the thin sexy blonde stereotype when
casting lead roles.
Toni Collette ["Muriel's Wedding" and "The Sixth
Sense"] said in a recent LA Times interview she doesn’t “understand
why you have to look like a model to be a successful actor.
This is going to sound offensive, but for female actors there
is a uniform of being you are meant to aspire to. There's
this new batch of younger women who all look the same: the
same rail thin body, the same blond hair - it's like they
all go to the same hairdresser. It's kind of scary, and not
the kind of image you should be putting out. What audiences
and I respond to is what you can't see, what can't be fully
explained. What's between the lines, unseen."
Not that a lot of us don’t appreciate thin blond
women, particularly those with talent, depth and passion,
and thankfully there are women in film and television of other
body types. Though not nearly enough.
That may be the fault of casting directors and
writers, as well as producers. Emily Procter, who played Detective
Calleigh Duquesne on the tv series CSI: Miami, and Ainsley
Hayes on The West Wing, said in a 2003 interview, “It’s so
nice after 10 years as a blonde actress in Hollywood to have
people let you do smart things.”
The light-skinned cheerleader look so prevalent
in fashion and cosmetic ads, films and tv, must continually
be impacting girl’s and women’s [and also men’s] sense of
what body images are desirable.
According to the Eating Disorder Referral Organization
[EDReferral.com], most 10 year olds are afraid of being fat,
and half of 9 and 10 year old girls feel better about themselves
if they are on a diet. Over 90 percent of women recently surveyed
on a college campus had attempted to control their weight
through dieting and 35% of "normal dieters" progress to pathological
dieting.
But even without having an eating disorder,
many talented women - and more and more men - spend a great
deal of time and money on appearance enhancement: about $124
billion on medical treatments related to obesity, and $1.8
billion on diet books, and there were nearly 12 million cosmetic
procedures performed in 2004.
For all teens, body image issues can be difficult,
but especially for gifted and highly sensitive people. Annette
Revel Sheely, M.A., a counselor at the Rocky Mountain School
for the Gifted and Creative, notes in an article that highly
gifted people “tend towards a more androgynous style. As children,
gifted girls and boys are more similar to each other than
they each are to their non-gifted, same-gender counterparts.”
But this can become a real problem in adolescence,
she notes: “When gender roles increase in social importance,
androgynous highly gifted teens are often subjected to harassment
in school.. because they don't fit neatly into the gender
norms of our culture.”
Another basis for harassment and negative attitudes
is being overweight, according to the often unrealistic standards
promoted in films and magazines. According to some sources,
the average woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140, but the average
American model is 5'11" and weighs 117. Most fashion models
are thinner than 98% of American women.
In a Ms. magazine article [The Dialectic of
Fat, by Catherine Orenstein], psychotherapist Susie Orbach
[author of the book Fat Is a Feminist Issue] comments, “How
many hours are spent by accomplished, capable, intellectually
interesting women in being frightened of food, then decorating
or denigrating their bodies? Is the gym really about health?”
So the question is, how much of your personal
resources of time, money and energy are you putting into body
image enhancement, beyond just staying healthy and reasonably
attractive? Maybe more of those resources could be used for
developing your creative talents.
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About the Author:
Douglas Eby writes about psychological and social aspects
of creative expression and achievement. His site has a wide
range of articles, interviews, quotes and other material to
inform and inspire: Talent Development Resources http://talentdevelop.com/
Article Source, click
here.
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