Western Front - 1997 February 4

              TUESIMY
Mutia has come
to tell you a
S t Q r y - pages
Vikings get
in Hawaii Page 8
^WESTERN FRONT
Western Washington University Volume 99 Issue 7 Bellingham, Washington
Kickin' the old bag around Panelists to women:
reject beauty myth
Front/Christopher Luczyk
Karlsten Carlsen plays footbag in Red Square Monday.
By Amy King
The Western Front
Women need to become active creators of
their own body image, said Lynne Masland of
Western's Public Information Office in a panel
discussion Monday night in the Library
Presentation Room. Four panelists empha­sized
women's roles in defying stereotypical
images of beauty in the discussion titled
"Reflections of Ourselves: The Origins of
Body Image."
One way to strengthen body image is
through a technique Masland called re-imag­ing
and re-imagining, which involves creating
a mental picture of empowering images.
"Images are the alphabet of a new story,"
Masland said. "The imagination is the inner
vision of what we want our lives to be."
The presentation also outlined the various
ways women have been depicted throughout
artwork, advertising and media. The accompa-ning
slideshow included traditional artwork
which presented nude women as distorted fig­ures,
reflecting a society that objectified
women's bodies.
"This idea is art as a kind of voyeuristic
activity," Laura Crary-Ortega of Western's art
department said. "When you're looking at. a
body in art... the art is telling you how to look
at it." Women have not always had such nega­tive
images of their bodies because the stan­dards
of society were more realistic. Momi
Naughton of Western's Art Department said in
Hawaiian society, "the bigger the woman, the
more highly they were considered."
In American culture, however, the Barbie
Doll-image that women are taught to strive for
is self-defeating because it is physically
unachievable, Barbara Collamer of Western's
psychology department said.
This unattainability can manifest itself as
eating disorders.
"Conservative estimates indicate that 5 to
10 percent of all postpubertal girls and women
suffer from an eating disorder and many more
struggle with negative body image," according
to Candice Wiggum of Western's Counseling
Center. "Successful prevention of eating prob­lems
requires community efforts to improve
self-esteem and to challenge the narrow defin­itions
of beauty that are so pervasive in our
culture."
In order to combat these negative effects,
Western is hosting a variety of events focusing
on creating healthy body images during Body
Pride Week, an event sponsored the Seattle-based
non-profit organization, Eating
Disorders Awareness and Prevention.
"The focus is not on eating disorders but on
something positive: body pride," Wiggum
said.
Body Pride Week continues with an interac­tive
body image workshop, "From Loathing to
See Myth, page 4
Black History Month
starts with dancing
By Kimberly Vincent
The Western Front
Students of many races and
colors gathered with the African-
American Alliance Saturday to
kick off Black History Month in
the Viking Union Main Lounge.
The presentation featured
Ocheame, an African-dance
ensemble. The theme is
"Celebration of Youth."
The night began with a reading
of "A Poem for Thought," which
reflects the pride that African-
Americans need to take in them­selves.
. Dressed in traditional clothing
and surrounded by drums and
other musical instruments, the six
members of Ocheame began their
program of dances and narrative
with the "Yam Festival of the
Twins," a dance that celebrates
the birth of twins in a village. The
dancers used water and leaves to
celebrate the coming year.
Dancers flung water from the
leaves and danced, drummed and
sang up and down the aisles1 of
the lounge.
The dancers talked about the
slave trade, during which tradi­tional
instruments were taken
away from African-Americans.
They would instead make table-tops
and window panes covered
with skins which could be used
as drums. Ocheame performed
using these disguised instruments
and sang a song about missed
loved ones mixed with African
and English language.
Members of the audience lis­tened
to an explanation of the
Kalimba, an African musical
instrument, and then joined in on
the chorus of a story told to the
music of a Kalimba.
At the end of the program,
everyone was invited to dance
along with the members of
Ocheame.
By Aleesha Towns and
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