Lowry Mall came alive Thursday with celebrations of the annual Love Your Body Day, where several on-campus organizations came together to promote healthy body image and encourage positive self-esteem.
The Women’s Center partnered with the Love Your Body Committee to host the event, where T-shirts, buttons, informational pamphlets and the Love Your Body ‘Zine were available to any student who stopped by.
“Love your body day is every fall,” Women’s Center coordinator Suzy Day said. “We come out on campus, and we have activities where people can brag about how awesome they are. Often we aren’t surrounded by positivity, and this gives people that opportunity.”
Day said the event allows students to recognize their strengths and break out of the negative views of society.
“This event is important because we are surrounded by a culture that doesn’t always value everybody,” Day said. “This gives people that chance. (Students) are excited to get resources and get started. It’s a radical act to love your body in today’s society.”
According to the Love Your Body website, the movement’s slogan is “Lovin’ yourself for the person you are and in the body you have right now.”
Sexual Health Advocate Peer Education, the Counseling Center, the Craft Studio, the Wellness Resource Center and the LGBTQ Resource Center all participated in the event.
The Craft Studio produced posters at the event that students could pick up. Students could also produce their own buttons to wear, or pick up pre-made ones if they were running short on time. Volunteers at the event gave out T-shirts on the hour, which Day said often ran out in minutes.
Pamphlets covered issues ranging from eating disorders to sexual health, offering a range of information for different issues faced by students.
“This is one of my favorite days because it really applies to the entire Mizzou population,” Day said. “We really look at (the issue) broadly. It’s not just how you feel about what you look like on the outside. It’s also mental health, sexual health, physical health and all the pieces that make up an individual. There’s always a different issue that resonates with each person.”
LGBTQ Resource Center coordinator Struby Struble said the event aims to help students realize they have support on campus.
“There’s so much negative body image,” she said. “We’re the prime age group in media and advertising, so we have higher expectations to fit. It can be really validating to have Mizzou at large value who you are and your body shape and size.”
Struble said much of the poor self-esteem in today’s society comes from the images promoted by the mainstream media.
“The media does a bad job,” she said. “The body shapes and sizes and colors that are shown are so narrow that we don’t have images that match our real bodies. (This event) acknowledges that the views the media has are not real.”
Information and activities offered at the event encouraged open conversation between pressing issues facing college students. Struble said her own experience with negative body image gives her a personal connection to the event.
“As a woman with a nonconforming gender expression, I don’t fit what a woman is supposed to look like,” Struble said. “It took time and work to have high self-esteem. Being positive about my body has made me more successful and have higher self-esteem all around.”
