Beauty Pressure

In doing research for an article on teens and body image, I've been poking around the Web site for Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty (which, incidentally, has gotten me to buy way more Dove products in the last few years since it rolled out the campaign). Honestly, watching this video made me thankful I don't have a daughter. But then I started to think about my sons and how they will eventually see all of this crap too, and how it will be my job to counteract as much of it as possible so that it might not seep into their pores and shade their views of my entire gender and its collective worth.

I want them to grow up to love and appreciate and honor and respect all women, not just the size 2s. And if I want them to do that, I'd better start leading by example and learn to love myself. Because they will see every time I frown into the mirror, and they will overhear every tearful conversation I have with Chris about a bad haircut or a flabby tummy.

They will see these images everywhere they go, but for the next several years they'll return home each night to me, the woman who will in many ways help them define what a woman is — the good, the bad and the (NOT) ugly. I've got my work cut out for me.