Fitting someone else's image

By Michelle Murphy

Senior Sally Reynolds is 5-foot-9-inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. She has the striking good looks and long defined legs that most women dream about. But Sally is so dissatisfied with her body that she often refuses to look in the mirror. Sally is not alone. Statistics show that as many as 80 percent of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance.

"Seriously, sometimes if I eat a lot and my belly is expanded, I'd rather not see that in the mirror," Reynolds said. "I just don't want to feel fat."

These sentiments run rampant among college women, and often residence in sorority or other all female houses, fosters a sense of competition that can increase poor body image and disordered eating.

"Some studies report that up to 30 percent of college students have bulimic behavior," said psychologist and Wellness Center Director Jeanne Zeamba. "Developmentally, college students are in a personal identity crisis. It means that there's a lot of competition being fostered at this time period, and living in an all female house kind of ups that ante."

Alyssa Florendo, a 5-foot, 118-pound senior, agrees. "I live with eight beautiful girls. Seriously, people outside of the house look at our group picture and ask how we're all so hot. I don't want to be the fat, ugly one in the house. I've got to keep up!"

Cowell physician Lauren Salaices says that these feelings are not uncommon. "I think that this is an age where appearance is very important, and people can become very self conscious and self critical," Salaices said. "There's always some girl somewhere who's the epitome of all the guys' fantasies. She doesn't necessarily have an eating disorder, but due to amazing genetics she has this long, lean body and guys fawning all over her. Women in this age group may want similar attention and start becoming more self-critical of their body and try to make changes to get a body type that is not realistic."

Florendo says her disordered eating habits began after observing and subsequently emulating an attractive roommate's tendency to eat only small snacks consisting of low or non-fat foods. She dropped 20 pounds in just two months. She is among a number of college women in her position. Studies show that 91 percent of college females attempt to control their weight through dieting. Further, 35 percent of those "normal dieters" have been shown to progress to pathological dieting, and 20 to 25 percent of those develop eating disorders.

Living among such a high degree of controlled eating, some students, otherwise confident in their bodies, begin to feel frustrated by the pressure for perfection.

"My house is terrible for my body image," said Liz Erickson, a 5-foot-7-inch, 135 pound senior. "I never feel badly about my body until I get here and then all of a sudden I'm worried about what I'm eating and what I look like and how I stack up next to the other girls. I mean, if they're looking at themselves and thinking they're fat, when they're obviously smaller than I am, I wonder what they are thinking about me."

These concerns about physical appearance can be even more pervasive within sorority systems.

"There are stereotypes about what you're supposed to look like as a woman in a sorority," said Zeamba. "There can be some high pressure."

UCLA Gamma Phi Beta alumna Lori Shaffer, 24, agrees.

"I felt pressure to be thin," she said. "I also felt pressure to be beautiful and brilliant. While in a sorority, you are told you are representing the sorority 'at all times.' You are advised to look especially good while you were wearing your Greek letters. While the pressure to be thin is always there for girls, the pressure is heightened in a sorority because you have so many more attractive females to compare yourself to."

Shaffer's impressions are not unique. Although former UC Berkeley Delta Gamma member Julie Blodgett, 25, never felt pressured to lose weight, she said there was "much emphasis on physical appearance" within her sorority and many girls who lived in her sorority house felt a "tremendous" pressure to be thin and several were bulimic.

According to former Alpha Phi president Kelli Cronin, sororities at Santa Clara attempt to safeguard against problems by booking speakers related to eating disorders every other month. While sorority members here could not comment on the issue due to national charter rules, Shaffer said that having speakers just isn't enough.

"Sororities attempt to promote a positive body image among its members," Shaffer said, "but I think the underlying agenda is that sororities want their girls to be pretty and skinny, because somehow in this day and age, skinny seems to translate into wonderful and fabulous. Body image is a huge issue in sororities because your worth is somehow measured by your weight."

Though pressure can be increased for sorority members, their desire for physical perfection is not unique.

"It is an issue pervasive in every aspect of our society," Shaffer said. "Media, television, and fashion magazines hold an impossible standard for girls to live up to. One negative aspect of a sorority is that it's an all girls club that embraces that image and forces its members to look good at all times."

The pervasion extends beyond sorority ties, however, and many unaffiliated women also feel pressure to look and behave a certain way. Zeamba says that perpetuating this pressure is a choice.

"Women need to challenge themselves to stop talking about food and eating all the time," she said. "We can't always be saying, 'Oh look at that perfect body' or 'Oh, I need to go and work out for five hours after this cookie.' Comments and compliments do not have to revolve around physical appearance."

Reynolds, who now lives with a group of women less concerned with food that make her feel better about her body, agrees. "I'm beginning to realize that if you choose the right peer group, and live with people who are truly friends, they won't just see you as a body, but as a whole and valuable person instead," she said. "That's what's really important, anyhow."

Editor's note: Sally Reynolds, Alyssa Florendo and Liz Erickson are pseudonyms to maintain anonymity.

û Contact Michelle Murphy at (408) 554-4546 or mdmurhpy@scu.edu.