Guide promotes body image understanding

Still passing up those Sweet Street desserts at Stouffer because of concern about the infamous "Freshman Fifteen?" Eating a salad at Commons sans dressing after stepping on the scale this morning? Is the imminence of summer increasing your early swimsuit-season anxiety? If so, members of the student health education group Guidance for Understanding Image, Dieting and Eating have a message for you this week -- You're Worth More Than Your Weight. According to College senior Vanessa Lacoss, a member of GUIDE's executive board, the purpose of the group's awareness week is increasing campus consciousness of issues related to eating and body image. "We're trying to focus on getting all people -- especially women -- to not equate body image with self image," she said. "Our goal is to raise awareness, to make people aware of the effects of body image in their daily lives." Programming aimed at accomplishing this goal begins today, with a display in The BookStore window of books on body image by University President-elect Judith Rodin and other women authors, Lacoss said. Events are also scheduled through the remainder of the week. On Tuesday at 7 p.m., "The Famine Within" -- a film about body image and the pressures placed on contemporary women to be smaller than what is healthy -- will be shown in the sixth floor lounge of High Rise North. An open nutrition workshop will take place on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Student Health Education Office, located in room 310 of Houston Hall. On Thursday, a film focusing on students' attitudes about body image, eating and workout habits -- produced by former GUIDE coordinators and University alumnae Deb Enegess and Angela Ferrari -- will be shown at 7 p.m. in the HRN sixth floor lounge. Lacoss said GUIDE has been working on this first-ever body image awareness week -- which takes the place of the Peer Health Education Week -- for about a month. "[Body image] is such a prevalent issue, the more people that could be made aware, the better it could be," said College senior Arinn Sunshine, who also serves on GUIDE's executive board. "Sometimes, [GUIDE] gets lost in the other student health groups, so we wanted to make our own stand," she added.

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