During the last years, serotypes have been widely
spread by the mass media, resulting in many people not feeling comfortable with
their bodies anymore. In general, we find TV shows in which beautiful (which
means being very very slim and young) women and men appear. Due to this, many
people are becoming less comfortable with their bodies (and I am one of those,
I must admit). Every day, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we generally tend
to point out our “defects”, those parts of our bodies that we would like to
change because they make us feel bad with ourselves. However, there are people
who still believe that being beautiful is not related to what we look like, but
to how we feel with our own image.
Jubilee Project is a group of people who started a
campaign in order to raise awareness about the importance of accepting and
respecting ourselves. They recorded 50 people (children and adults), and asked
them only one question: “If you could change one thing about your body,
what would it be?”.
What amazes me the most about the people’s answers is
that when adults are asked what they would change in their bodies, they answer
almost instantly. All of them point out the parts of their bodies which they do
not like at all. Some of them just say what they would change, while others
explain that they have been laughed at because of their physical appearance. On
the other hand, when the same question is asked to the group of children,
instead of making reference to the parts of their bodies they do not like, they
say that they would like to have a mermaid tail, or shark teeth, or wings,
among other answers. Evidently, when talking about physical appearance, adults
and children have different points of view.
After having watched the
video, I started thinking about the fact that our speech is full of
stereotypes. Whenever we talk about others we call them as “la gorda”, “el
petizo”, “el narigón”, etc. We are all the time making references to others’
physical appearance, as if our body is what determines us and what makes us
what we are. Sadly, we do this without thinking how our comments can negatively
affect children’s perspectives and opinions.
When I heard the answers of those children I became
aware of how pure human beings are at childhood. It seems that growing up is
closely connected to filling our minds of judgements and prejudices. I do not
understand why we do that.
We have to struggle every day in order to get rid of
the discriminatory speeches we (sometimes unconsciously) spread. Leading by
example is the best way to instil respect and acceptance in our children.
Besides, we should consider that, even though we believe that children have a
lot of things to learn from adults, they also have a lot to teach us.
I would like to end this post with this nice quote:
- Confortable: 50 people 1 question (video file). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0tEcxLDDd4#t=196
