The latest trends may motivate fashion-forward Boston University students to spend more time at the Fitness and Recreation Center instead of the dining hall, but BU students disagreed whether Commonwealth Avenue’s collegiate inhabitants suffer from poor body image.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Corey Smetana said she has noticed poor body image mostly among female students.
‘The girls here are very insecure,’ Smetana, who works out six days a week, said. ‘I tend to see a lot of that.’
Women suffer from eating disorders at a higher rate than men, Student Health Services Director of Behavioral Medicine Margaret Ross said. There are nine anorexic women for every man suffering from the same disorder, and binge eating disorders such as bulimia boast about two to three affected women for every man, she said.
Women seem to have a special vulnerability for food issues and body image problems, perpetuated by the unrealistic standards set by the media, Ross said.
‘There also seem to be genetic, family and other interpersonal reasons,’ she said. ‘But for most women in America and the developed world, media is the greatest cause of these issues.’
But men are not immune to poor body image. The Psychology of Men and Masculinity journal published a study in 2007 that found the more images of idealized male bodies college-aged men were exposed to, the worse they felt about their own bodies.
CAS sophomore Peter Caradonna, who goes to the gym almost daily, disagreed.
‘I personally feel that BU has a very good body image, and I feel most people at the gym are there for the right reasons.’ Caradonna said.
Other students said although BU students seem to be healthy, eating right and exercising, people are still insecure.
‘Everyone is too self-conscious,’ School of Education freshman Phillip Kim said. ‘We are still young and each have a fast enough metabolism to get away with eating whatever we want.’
But BU nutrition professor Paula Quatromoni said students should be aware of what they consume because nutrition is the key to any students’ health. Students who think they are eating enough may not be eating enough of the right foods to stay healthy, she said.
‘I think BU students are very lucky to have a food environment on campus that truly supports their ability to make healthy choices,’ Quatromoni said. ‘Thanks to programs like Sargent Choice, there are plenty of healthy choices in the mix.’
CAS sophomore Abby Bonnice said discussing personal body image with others is still a social taboo, and many men and women do not enjoy talking about it.
But CAS freshman Rachel Bennett said although some talk about body image is taboo, she thinks girls are very open about disliking their bodies.
‘I think all girls complain that they are fat at one point or another,’ she said. ‘But rarely do you hear it from boys.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
