In general female athletes inspire me, female dancers in particular. In dance, body types can be misleading. I say this because female dancers have bodies that are slender and lean or voluptuous and curvy. These female dancers have one thing in common, they are all incredibly nimble, strong, and languid all at the same time. I think a lot of people underestimate dancers, and believe it or not it is harder for female dancers to get jobs than male dancers. The pressure due to the lack of jobs takes its toll on the female athlete psychologically sometimes leads to dieting disorders.
I’m sure most of the athlete community here knows about the different eating disorders that occur in different sports. With men it may be to bulk up the muscles, and with women it is typically to lose a few pounds (or increase muscle mass). That is a prominent situation in dance as well. Our bodies are getting poked and prodded at daily, so it is natural to pick on ourselves. We do experience a need for perfectionism, anxiety, and a lack of self esteem. Sometimes the promoters of anorexia and bulimia are coaches, employers and teachers. I do think that some of the teachers/coaches are aware of that, and they should be ashamed of themselves. Besides the need to have certain attributes to perform in general, I think a lot of the pressure of looking a certain way in sports is due to an aesthetic promoted by the media. The media influences an athletic aesthetic as well as a general aesthetic. For me personally as a dancer, I know there have been times where I am not completely satisfied with my body ( even now there are little things I want to tweak), but I am happy that I have not undergone something that serious (like the female triad). I believe the problem of eating disorders has been under the microscope more but it is still a problem that affects the athletic and non athletic community.
D.McWatt
Kin339i M 7:00-9:45
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In high school, my wrestling teammates and I all experienced eating disorders. Although our primary goal wasn't to improve our body image, everyone on the wrestling team wanted to wrestle at a lighter weight than what they normally weighed. To accomplish that, we changed our eating habits in extreme ways. I chose to lower the amount of food I ate daily. The decrease in the amount of calories had an amazing effect on my weight. I would be able to drop ten to fifteen pounds in one school week in addition to practicing every night. Since I figured that this weight loss technique was working; I changed my entire lifestyle. Not only did I drop down to my desired weight, my body image had looked better because my muscles looked more defined. My coach even told me to go on a low to no carbohydrate diet. Now I know that that kind of diet is quite dangerous to the body. But I followed her directions, and my blood sugar became so low that I was unable to focus in school. I was so determined to drop weight that nothing else mattered. When time came to wrestle in a tournament, I made the weight that I wanted, but my body was weak, and my mind couldn't focus.
ReplyDeleteMany of us are self-conscious about the way we look. We'll do crazy things just to create our ideal body image. Athletes, like wrestlers and dancers, are worse because in both cases weight is an important factor. For dancers, it affects their appearance; for wrestlers, it affects their performance. Bringing about awareness of the various health issues of athletes, such as unhealthy weight loss techniques is important to learning how to change those ways into healthy ones.
Scott Shironaka
KIN 339i
M 7-945
I agree with this post as in seeing female dancers inspirational. Today's society is always aiming to force a certain picture on women and girls about the way they look or how they are supposed to look. The "pretty" image, the "perfect" body image. But if you're and athlete, dancer, active at all, you'll get the better body that appears after all your hard work. Why is it that society must put down strong women who have beautiful bodies because of their activities to only say to lose more weight? Women who are too skinny maybe have the higher part, but that does not mean that they are necessarily more healthier. We want strong and able-bodied dancers, not weak and super skinny ones. That goes for any sport, either way, an individual is going to bulk up, whether they become leaner or more muscled. Their weight will become higher on the scale only because muscle mass is definitely heavier than just fat muscle. And so you shouldn't always let the scale determine your rate of healthiness, because it depends on so many more factors. Such as your height and how much of your weight is fat or muscle. It's important to maintain a good balance of food and exercise, but not to chastise your body about stuff that seems "imperfect".
ReplyDeleteAs a gymnast before, I appreciated my gym in that they did not enforce a strict diet on us. We weren't the skinniest gymnasts out there during competition like the other gyms, but we were strong athletes. We enjoyed each other and our coaches and kept a greater attitude in my mind. Heck, sometimes after a good workout we just all went out to go eat pizza. Fun times don't matter when you can have a balance of good things and things that may not seem too healthy. All in all, what I ate didn't matter because I had the determination to work hard and sweat out my practices. But because we weren't pressured to hold a certain body figure or specific weight, I gained many more positive attributes with competing as a gymnast and everything else that came along with the experience. Then again, it just made me aware of what I thought was more healthy to eat on my own anyway.
Kristina D.
KIN 339I
This post really hits home for me on a lot of different levels. I have been dancing since I was three years old and have always been compared to girl after girl throughout my entire life. I have never been a "heavy" girl, yet for some reason always felt extremely fat standing next to the girl next to me even though we were probably about the same size. When i was fourteen years old I began starving myself just to lose more wieght just to be the smallest in my dance company. However, when looking around I continually felt fat. I got down to 87 pounds before anyone noticed. I would wear big sweatshirst in front of my family and always said I was full after two bits of food. I do not believe this is the coaches fault because it is very easy to hide these sorts of things when you are going through them. It wasn't until a friend of mine finally saw what I really looked like that I started to change my ways. I was always tired, never hungry, and soon could not even make it through a dance practice. This was an extremem wake up call that I needed to do something and quick. I had a lot of support behind me and luckely made it through without something worse happening to me. I am still dancing today and weigh a healthy amount. It is very important to remember never to look at the person next to you to compare, but to always single yourself out and ask how you truely feel about youself. I have been eating and exercising healthy now for six years and I have never felt better about my body! Never compare yourself to anyone. Look in your heart and love yourself for whoever you are!
ReplyDeleteS Slater
Kin 339I
7:00