Body Image and Advocacy

As some of you may know, Australia has enacted a new code of conduct that promotes positive body image among young people. With the help of the government, Australia will fund an organization that provides training and workshops to improve self-esteem and body image, and will create a reward system for companies who develop body-friendly advertisements. In addition, they plan to implement a "body image friendly" symbol that is to be placed on advertisements that promote positive body image.


Unfortunately, the United States does not have this type of initiative, but we can still work together to improve and promote positive body image. There are many ways that Jane and John Q. Public can make their voices heard. When we see advertisements, whether positive or problematic, we can write letters to the companies that developed them and letters to the editor of publications that printed them. We can even use our own "body image friendly" (or not-so-friendly) symbols by placing stickers on articles or advertisements that promote positive or negative body image like those that The Renfrew Center Foundation developed. In fact, we can even create our own stickers by purchasing blank stickers from office supply stores, writing quick and easy-to-read messages of praise or (constructive) criticism on them, and placing them where we see fit.


The main goal is to make your voice heard. Yes, corporations have an incredible amount of power of the images and words we are exposed to and it might not feel like a letter written from "little old me" will make a difference, but it does! That's how the National Eating Disorders Association got FX to pull their show Starved - by writing letters and working with the show's major advertisers to cut funding. And, if nothing else, doesn't it make you feel better to talk back to negative messages you've been receiving?