Each and every day, women across campus are worrying about their clothes, makeup, and most importantly, their bodies. The media is constantly telling women that they need to make improvements. This product will make you thinner! This product will make your skin silky smooth! No one is ever telling women just how beautiful they really are.
On Oct. 22, an organization on campus set out to do just that. The Love Your Body Day Fashion show was held by Sister to Sister Peer Mentors – a campus organization that focuses on improving the female body image by creating group discussion with sorority women. Under the advisement of Dr. Deanne Zotter, this organization allows these 50 women involved to break out of their Greek affiliations and the typical, self-conscious mold. The overall goal is to take the messages they learn in this class back to their chapters and mentor other women on how to celebrate themselves.
The fashion show featured four women from each of the eight sororities that currently participate in Sister to Sister and two from another body-loving campus organization, BODYpeace. Each woman modeled a body part she loved about herself for reasons other than appearance- something based on its functional aspects.
The audience featured other sorority women as well as fraternity men supporting their fellow strong-willed friends.
“It was a nice reminder to be more positive and love yourself. I think that everyone felt better after leaving the fashion show,” Shoshan Hosmi, a sister of Phi Mu, said. “Love Your Body Day is a refreshing thing to see. It’s so common to see how to fix your body but then you realize you could just be celebrating the greatness that you already are.”
Lauren McKeown (Delta Phi Epsilon) and Jaclyn Sterman-Soroko (Phi Mu) were fabulous emcees for the event and along with President of Sister to Sister, Angel Myers (Phi Mu); the event was an uplifting way to spend the evening. Different videos shown from body positive companies, such as Dove, highlighted the difference between the negative ways that we see ourselves as opposed to the positivity we have when we are asked to describe others. As a peer mentor of Sister to Sister, my main concern is that we are aware of the message that we are putting out to young girls today. We want our future women – our sisters, cousins, and children to celebrate themselves with confidence and love.
The night included breathing exercises and taking a moment to really relax – something that college students rarely get to do.
“I learned that you have to love your body and not strive to look like anyone but yourself,” said Samantha Simon, sister of Alpha Sigma Tau. Women and men alike left Sykes Theater with a new outlook on themselves – a positive one that they will hopefully pass on to their fellow students on campus.
Molly Beitman is a fourth-year student majoring in nutrition. She can be reached at MB795243@wcupa.edu.
Fri. Apr 26th, 2024
