CAMBI

cognitive awareness of media and body image

[icambime-blog]

I was watching "Skins" and all the teenagers are stick thin and do drugs. It bothered me because my morals don't align with their eating and drug attitudes and I felt like I was maybe weird for abstaining and eating healthy. I am average body weight, and I feel huge when I compare myself to people in this show, but in reality none of my friends or people in my life look that way. I cambi me because NOBODY looks like people on TV! Thanks for reminding us of that :)

[icambime-blog]

so I'm not serena

I watched Gossip Girl last night because my friends always talk about it at lunch, and I have been told I look like the actress who plays Serena. I was disillusioned when I thought to myself that she was much more attractive than I could possibly be, and I started to see that compliment as comparative and underhanded mockery. I am blonde too so I see where the comparison came from, but it bothers me that these girls that are meant to be my age are shown to be so much more womanly and skinny than we realistically are. And they are always wearing nice clothes, it makes me feel like I can never measure up to these supposedly “average” new york students.

I am 5’2 and though it bothers me when I compare myself to these characters, I accept that and I am actually growing quite fond of it. I know I can continue to enjoy Gossip Girl if I remove the idea that I should change how I am to copy something that is not real. So I want to say I CAMBI myself and I won’t let the image shown in media make me think less of my value and role.