Students gather at the first Body Project workshop.
The Body Project, a student organization dedicated to recognizing and addressing body ideals on campus and in the media, has introduced a workshop intended to illuminate body image issues within communities through a discussion based forum. The first part of the workshop was held on January 24.
Choate alum Katie Taylor designed the workshop, which encourages healthy living and moving away from the thin ideal. Students brought the workshop to campus about six years ago, explained Body Project leader Zara Harding ’18. She continued, “We have our cabinet meetings with Ms. Charlotte Davidson, who is one of the counselors in the health center, and she knew about the program, and she has basically been running it with the Body Project and cabinet members for six years. She presented it to us and then asked us if we wanted to participate, which of course we did.”
The workshop is formatted to stretch over a four-week period in which participants work to appreciate their bodies and recognize unrealistic and unhealthy ideals, with the help of student facilitators. Harding stated, “We are planning to do it again next year.”
The Body Project’s meeting topics range from eating disorders to the thin ideal. Harding elaborated, “The workshops are a series of activities, and future workshops will cover what to do when confronted with fat talk or when someone makes a certain comment to you, and learning how to deal with these issues as they come up in daily life.”
Roshni Surpur ’20 appreciates that the facilitators of the session are very welcoming. She said, “The Body Project is such a great workshop. It is another opportunity at Choate to hear others’ opinions about a very controversial topic: body image. In addition to hearing others’ opinions, it helps to know that you are not the only one questioning body image and to know that you have a community of people that feel the same way.” She continued, “The exercises we have done are eye-opening and something new for me.”
“I really liked how open everybody was and how I felt that it was a good community in which I could say anything. I thought that everyone was really supportive, and we all had a common understanding of how we wanted to overcome the thin ideal,” said Body Project newcomer Lily Ding ’20. “I’m looking forward to the next three sessions and sharing what I learned with the rest of the Choate community.”
Harding, a project leader, added, “The workshop is a way for the people in our community to challenge the way that they have been thinking about body image and the way that we are taught to think about body image. We also discuss the features and the social norms that we are almost forced to conform to. It is a method to take ourselves out of that mindset and to start to love ourselves.”
