In today’s society, we are constantly bombarded with images of beauty. Or what the media and mass producers want us to believe is beautiful or desirable. How do we, as parents and role models encourage our children and those around us to see past that and accept who we really are?
What makes us beautiful is not what we look like on the outside. It what is inside our hearts that make us that way. Our beauty is in how we treat those around us, the respect we have for ourselves and a willingness to accept our genetic makeup and make the best of it.
As a parent and role model, I find this a very difficult thing. I have days where I don’t feel good enough, but yet put on a facade because I don’t wish for my girls to doubt who they are.
I really like where Dove is going with this. Their website www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca is going in a direction that I support. They use real women for their models, and encourage us to accept who we are.
With eating disorders on the rise, in girls and boys, we as role models need to do something. We need to encourage our kids that they need to eat healthy and make good choices when it comes to diet and sleep. The media has such an influence on them that it really scares me sometimes.
This is yet another reason in my opinion that Kung Fu is really good for kids and adults alike. We do not have the pressure to be thin in order to perform well, as all Kung Fu requires is to be fit. And a person does not have to be thin to be fit. And just because someone is thin, does not mean they are fit. Kung Fu encourages us to be the best we can be, without specific measures that are unattainable, but to simply be healthy. Eating right, sleeping enough, exercising, and being aware of our world around us.
I personally would love to see more companies move in the direction that Dove has. We can make a difference in our homes, and our communities, and by leading by example we can overtake the negative images the media puts out there.
1 comment:
I know a thing or two about raising two girls myself. I agree with everything you say here and would like to add one small thing that I feel strongly about.
We can’t keep our kids from the media 100% nor should we necessarily, but we can certainly downplay the importance of it and make it a much smaller part of our children’s lives. I think if we teach our children that T.V. is for entertainment and information but that 99% of what’s on it is either biased or trying to sell us something maybe we can help break the power that this stupid box of wires has over our society. The scariest thing about the media is that a very small group of people with specific interests have a very large influence over the rest of us. In general, our idea’s and opinions about places we have never been, people we have never met, events and even facts that we have never even read about are formed by people who are masters of spin.
This is why Sifu Robertson’s concerns over net neutrality are so justified, the internet is our last true stand against the few controlling the many, it is the only real place left where individual and the independent press and media can really be heard with so little restriction. This is partly why media moguls like Rogers are so threatened by it, they should be, T.V. as we know it will not exist in 10 or 15 years.
Mostly I just hope I can instill the idea in my kids that there is so much more to life than being plugged into something (T.V., internet, MP3 player, etc.), which is why Kung-Fu is so important, it helps us all see that life needs to be lived – not watched.
P.S. If you are familiar with the Dove campaign you have probably seen this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U if anybody reading this has not seen it do yourself a favor and watch it.
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