Women’s Center focuses on love, appreciation during eating disorders awareness week
Rachel Arehart
Antelope Staff
The Women’s Center observed eating disorders awareness week Feb. 27 through March 3 by focusing on body positivity. Body positivity promotes love and appreciation for one’s own body and appearance, while recognizing that outer looks are not important.
Bailey Bond, the graduate assistant at the Women’s Center, decided to focus on body positivity during eating disorders week to get to the root of the problem before eating disorders develop.
The Women’s Center, along with Active Minds and the American Association of University Women (AAUW), held an event in the Nebraska Student Union on Wednesday, March 1 promoting body positivity and self-love, handing out information and educational materials associated with eating disorders.
“Body positivity is being happy and comfortable in your body.” -Jon Langdon
Bailey Bond, the graduate assistant at the Women’s Center and AAUW advisor, said, “We wanted to take a new stance on body positivity which is where a lot of those issues stem from that lead to eating disorders.
“Although we have a lot of educational and informational resources on eating disorders, we wanted to do something more interactive, which starts at the root of the problem with how we see our bodies.”
The organizations tabled together in the union, using dry erase boards to encourage students to write what body positivity means to them, and then to post those thoughts through social media.
Jon Langdon, a sophomore business education major from Clarkson, said, “To me, body positivity is being happy and comfortable in your body. I believe it is important to acknowledge this day to bring awareness that everyone is beautiful and that nobody is perfect.”
Students came up with their own quote following, “I am body positive because…” Meaningful phrases such as “Beauty isn’t just skin deep” and “We see the beauty in others” were written, as well as humorous ones, including, “I love my dad bod.” Langdon wrote “Because my body isn’t anyone’s concern” on the dry erase board. Pi Kappa Alpha members wrote “Nobody’s perfect” on the board.
Langdon participated in the event as a member of AAUW, where they gave out personal compliments to students walking by.
“My favorite part of the day was giving out the compliment cards and seeing everyone’s faces light up,” Langdon said.
