The Washington Post's publishes a blog called "ON FAITH" in which prominent voices from different faith communities discuss issues of faith. Yesterday, the posting was written by a guest writer named Michelle Lelwica, professor of theology at Concordia College. She has written several books on the topic of faith and body image in women and girls. She was responding initially to the picture posted above but also addressing the fact that it should be people of faith who are on the front lines of the ever-growing body image problems that american girls are dealing with. There are enumerable issues that people of faith should be on the front lines of but are not. This one, however falls very close to my heart. After years of working at a girls boarding school, i had the opportunity to get to know many girls dealing with these exact issues with pictures just like the one above taped on the wall over their beds. How can people of faith be a voice in the lives of these girls to encourage them that they too are made in the image of God. I can not do the entire posting justice, so here is a snip-it.
"There wouldn't be much to worry about if models stretched to such slender and surreal proportions were a rarity in our society today. But images like the one Ralph Lauren produced are part of a ubiquitous iconography that young women look to as they search for ways to define their worth and understand their purpose in the world. This iconography belongs to a broader network of beliefs, myths, rituals, and moral codes that encourage women to find "salvation" (i.e., happiness and fulfillment) through a thinner body. I call this "The Religion of Thinness," for it has many of the features of traditional religion, even though it fails to deliver the salvation it promises and sadly shortchanges the spiritual needs to which it appeals."
For the rest of the posting please see This Link
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