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Self Image and Sexual Health
by Heather Boerner, 06.19.07
"I was irresponsible. I never thought about the consequences because it was happening to my body, not to me." |
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When Natalie Campbell-Ybarra, 24, got her first bra in second grade, she was just an average tomboy who favored baggy jeans and loose T-shirts. She was totally unaware of how other people saw her.
But after getting that bra, everything changed. She suddenly felt that she wasn't just a kid, but "the girl with boobs." She became self-conscious about people seeing the outline of her bra through her shirts and felt horrible when kids teased her, asking her if she stuffed her bra. "Why would I do that?" she remembers thinking. "Why would I want this?"
Somewhere along the way, she said, she lost touch with her body. She lived in it "and I knew it was mine" but she wouldn't touch her breasts and didn't look at herself in the mirror.
"It was surreal because it was my body but it wasn't me," she says. "I felt removed from the whole situation."
Soon she moved desks to the back of the class and became painfully introverted. She refused to do oral reports because she would have to stand up in front of everybody. She had a hard time concentrating. She stopped playing jump rope with the other girls. Her grades started to slip. She felt depressed and hated her body. As a teenager, she says, all the teasing and assumptions from people who thought she was older or more sexually experienced than she was finally got to her. She started having sex - and not good sex, either. She didn't enjoy it.
"I would have unprotected sex, multiple partners," she says. "I was irresponsible. I never thought about the consequences because it was happening to my body, not to me."
The Task Force
Campbell-Ybarra's story may seem extreme, but it's not, according to a report recently released by the American Psychological Association. The report, issued by the association's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, analyzed research on girls and what happens when they are sexually objectified and found that those who felt alienated from their bodies and felt their appearance was the most valuable part of themselves were also more likely to experience a number of poor health effects. Those health effects include:
- low self-esteem
- impaired thinking
- poor motor coordination
- depression and shame
- poor sexual health, such as not using condoms
- decreased physical activity
- increased compulsive behavior, such as smoking or eating disorders
Little of the research so far shows that objectifying girls sexually is directly responsible for these ill health effects, says task force chair Dr. Eileen Zurbriggen, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. But she says the correlative evidence — that is, the strong relationship between objectification and all these health effects — makes the task force "pretty confident that objectifying girls sexually does cause these ill health effects."
If what Zurbriggen suspects is true, the story is that three major mental health problems girls suffer from — depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders — could all be alleviated by working to stop the objectification of girls.
"It's almost like a smoking gun of some sort," she says. "It could help across the board."
Moving Forward
To improve girls' lives, the task force made a number of recommendations
- Improve school media literacy programs to help both girls and boys challenge the sexually objectified images of girls and women in the media and advertising.
- Provide comprehensive sex education.
- Encourage girls to find ways to reconnect with their bodies, such as sports, meditation, or walking.
- Encourage increased research on sexual objectification, especially of young girls.
Back to Basics
For her part, Campbell-Ybarra has found a way back into her body, and her health has improved because of it. After becoming pregnant four years ago, Campbell-Ybarra says she started to appreciate her body and learn what it was doing. She was able to look at her body in the mirror again.
"I had sex before I got pregnant, obviously, but I didn't enjoy it until I got pregnant," she says. "I know a lot more about my body now. I'm more in tune with it. I know why my weight fluctuates. I feel things now. Like when I get angry, my heart beats faster."
To younger women still dealing with objectification, she says the key is to "own your own body," and adds, "don't try to live up to what other people are projecting on you." |
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