Mercedes+Balfour

Dealing with body image issues can be difficult and emotional in the real world. Many people have such severe body issues that they turn to abuse, neglect, and destruction of their own physical bodies. According to Cash (p. 7),”body image affects our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in everyday life”. When people are upset with themselves, they can handle their issues in many different ways. Some individuals seek therapy, consult with their friends, join self help groups or try to resolve their issues with an alternate form of positive therapy. But however, there are others that inflict bodily harm as their method to cope. There are multitudes of ways by which these individuals inflict damage, for example some cut themselves, and others may take drugs or drink alcohol to escape their pain, while others develop psychiatric blocks in the form of obsessive compulsive disorder or eating disorders. Through this class I have found that there is an alternate “life” available to us that many of us do not know about, or in which we choose not to participate. This alternate realm could and does provide help with the many problems that some people experience in real life. This virtual world is called Second Life. You can sign up for Second Life for free and create your own avatar and interact with other avatars. An avatar is a computer image that you create using the tools given by the program. You can choose to create an avatar that looks just like you do in real life, or you can change the avatar to look like your favorite celebrity. I feel like the avatar then becomes an expression of yourself and the user has the ability to change the avatar into multiple versions depending on their mood. In fact in Second Life you can choose to be a person or an object. The avatar that you create becomes a visual representation of you in Second Life and you can live out your days in that virtual world as the person you have always wanted to be. You can even name your avatar anything you desire. Beauty, by definition is different for everyone and you can create your avatar according to your standards. While building your avatar you can customize any feature you want from the face shape to the amount of lipstick you want to wear. The following questions may cross your mind while you are in the process of creating: What influenced your avatar’s body, hair, and clothes? Why did you build your avatar the way you did? Do you like your avatar’s body? How does your avatar affect or reflect your self-image? Do you think that the avatar helps or hurts people’s body image? Second Life has many places for you, as an avatar, to visit, explore, and learn. Just like in the real world, there are some extremely beautiful places with immaculate scenery, heavenly music, posh places to relax and you can converse with the “beautiful people”. There are also some dark and heinous places in Second Life that you can visit if you are not worried about the people you will encounter. It is almost a utopia of sorts because you are free to do whatever, wherever, and go whenever you want without being judged. In Second Life you can do things that you cannot do in real life either because it is humanly impossible to or because it is not allowed or prohibited. In doing this project I used my own avatar to gauge body image and age and how it relates to my own personal feelings about body image. I built my avatar to my own personal standards of beauty and youth and what I would like to look like if I were able to design my own body. It’s sort of like playing God for a bit because you are truly your own individual avatar in Second Life just like you are your own physical individual in real life.  As adolescent girls, we are flooded with body images that consist of individuals that are thin, tall, beautiful, and waif-like. These models and celebrities wear “fashionable” clothes, makeup, perfume, and hair products and this in turn greatly influences our want or need to buy them. These influences may make you feel as though you are connected to that celebrity because you are wearing the latest jacket designed by Gwen Stefani or the perfume advertised by Fergie. They drive the cars we wish to have, they date and marry equally beautiful men, star in top films, do commercials, and strut their stuff on the red carpet. Most of these terribly famous women are beautiful, rich, high-class, and extremely thin. Walk into any grocery store and take a look at the magazine display, there on all of the covers you will find beautiful models, celebrities, and singers. On every other cover there is at least one article that proclaims its magic ability to “help you lose those last ten pounds”, or to” keep the weight off”. According to Garner, et. Al, (1980, p. 147) there is evidence that pressures to become thinner have intensified over time, and that is has been found that “Playboy centerfolds and Miss America contestants became significantly thinner between 1959 and 1979”. These women that we see on the magazine covers, on television and in print commercials are constantly being scrutinized for their weight, hairstyle, clothing, and their relationships both in the press and on TV for the world to see. Altabe & Thompson, (1996), point out this alarming trend by relating the image portrayed in the media to body image disturbance that is occurring. Because of this pressure, many females ranging from teenage girls to adult women strive to emulate these celebrities. Our society continually pounds into our brains that being thin and beautiful equals success and happiness in life. This is a common goal cross culturally to which everyone strives: to be happy and successful. This trend can be traced even in our junior high and high schools where it is the pretty, thin, and popular girls that every other adolescent girl strives to imitate. According to Fallon (1990, p. 701) social pressure is the force that drives an individual’s need to “conform to body shape standards”. Your high school years, as your parents told you, are supposed to be the best years of your school life. You get to compete in sports, act in plays, join the band, go to homecoming, and possibly make prom queen! Speaking from my high school experience, I do not know if I would make it if I had to repeat it. Not only are you competing with everyone else to fit in, but you are also trying to stand out. You want to be thin, pretty, popular, and to fit in while still keeping your own personality. In my experience it is the time in one’s life when you are most vulnerable to yourself. In high school my friends and I tried not to eat junk and took diet pills to stay “thin” even though we were probably at the thinnest weight we would ever be, we still thought we were fat. We were definitely influenced by the women we looked up to and admired; celebrities.  In Second Life there are no diet pills, gym memberships, and expensive days at the hair salon or plastic surgeries to be had. You simply click the button and create who you want to represent you in Second Life. It’s important when you are experiencing Second Life to look at the other avatars around you, I guarantee you, and you won’t see many if any overweight avatars. The people that I have met there and observed are all what I would consider attractive; that says a lot for how body image in Second Life impacts the creation of the avatar. I think that now at the age of 32, I am still struggling with my body image and the image I portray to others. I am constantly trying to stay at a certain weight and feel guilty if I go over that weight. I am terrified of being “fat”. Even though I am currently overweight for my frame and height, I do not think that I am considered fat to the outside world. I know that I am responsible for the body that I have now and need to take better care of it. The avatar that I have created I am pretty happy with, but I think she could be better. I chose Mercedes’ hair based on the fact that it is similar to my natural hair color mixed with some highlights and it is the length that I am trying to get. I feel that Mercedes is pretty, has a great body shape, and is taller than I am in real life. I am still looking for longer hair for Mercedes because I am currently working on growing my hair out and am envious of girls with long hair. I think that Mercedes represents my desired body image while reflecting certain parts of my real life body and features. My real skin tone varies from an olive color in the winter to a warm brown color in the summer. I color my hair all the time so if I could find some highlights for Mercedes for free I would add those to her look. I like the outfits that I have so I can be flirty in my dress or wear my jeans and my halter style top which is really a top to a dress. I bought some over the knee boots in Second Life which I love and actually just bought in real life too. After seeing the boots on Mercedes it actually made me want to buy some in real life. I found some at a store that look just like the ones Mercedes has and purchased them. I wasn’t sure how they would look on me but decided to go with it and I feel completely sexy when I wear them. I feel that Mercedes feels more confident with hers as well. While existing in Second Life the short amount of time that I have, I see other girls in my class and at other outings and am envious of their hair, clothes, weight, and height. It is so crazy because these are the things that I and other women around me do to each other. We are constantly judging, accessing, and sizing each other up. We are always striving to look better, be thinner, have better clothes, and longer hair. Who can look the best?  From my experiences in Second Life I do feel that the avatar has helped my body image. Personally, my avatar makes me feel pretty even when I am not feeling pretty in real life. I now understand what it means to be connected to your avatar. I really like my avatar Mercedes she is pretty cool and I do sometimes feel like I could look better in real life to mirror Mercedes more, but that’s the beauty of it all. I can look like myself in real life and if I feel like it I can change Mercedes to look more like me. REFERENCES: Altabe, M. N., & Thompson, J. K. (1996). Is there a body image self-schema? //Cognitive Therapy// //and Research, //20(2), 171-193. doi:  10.1007/BF02228033  This article reflects how much the media influences our bodies and body image. It discusses how what we see in the media shapes what we perceive as the proper body type. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Cash, T.F., & Pruzinsky, T. (2004). Body Image: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice. New York: Guilford Press. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This book describes that the way we think and feel about our own bodies can influence our behaviors. That it is on our mind and can affect our daily actions. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Fallon, A. (1990). Culture in the mirror: Sociocultural determinants of body image. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In T F Cash & T Pruzinsky (Eds.), //Body images: Development, deviance, and change.// New York: Guilford Press. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This talked about how again we are pressured by our own society imprints a certain body image into our minds and makes us want to conform to that. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Garner, D. M., Garfinkel, P E., Schwartz, D., & Thompson, M. (Eds.). (1997). // Handbook of // <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">// <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Treatment for Eating Disorders (2nd ed). //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> New York; Guilford Press. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This book talked about all kinds of eating disorders and how that over time as we became more body conscious so did women on TV and in magazines. The cause of this overwhelming need to be thing was eating disorders. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Real Life and Second Life Body Image and How It Affects You **