Please take my survery for class 10 questions! -RESULTS-

Hey thank you again for everyone who participated in my survey! I turned in my paper and I got an A+ on it and my teacher loved it. Here is the paper for those of you who were interested in the results! thanks again

Brittany Long

Experimental Assignment

For my Experimental Experience I decided to focus in on body image and weight. I decided to do the experience where I would wear a name tag with my weight on it for the whole day. I really hesitated on doing this because I’m not a very thin or confident girl when it comes to weight. But in the end I decided I was going to break the silence and get people talking about their weight. My plan was to write my weight on a name tag then go around campus and ask people to join in, and put their weight on a name tag as well. At first I was embarrassed to show everyone on campus my weight openly, because usually I try and hide it. My friends were shocked to see that I weighed 202 pounds. They told me that I didn’t look like I weighed that much and they thought I weighed much less. This made me feel a little better but I was not sure if they were just being nice or really felt that way. After I explained what I was doing I asked them if they wanted to participate and speak out with me and put their weight on a name tag as well. But not to my surprise they all declined my offer. Even though they are all much smaller than me they still felt embarrassed and uncomfortable to tell me their weight. They eventually did tell me their weight after we got into conversation about some of the reason, why we as women feel uncomfortable talking about our weight. Some of their reasons we discussed were embarrassment, shame, the feeling that others will judge them, and how the topic of weight has become a topic considered taboo.

After we talked I really wanted to understand more about this topic. I started having tons of questions that I wanted answers to. I decided to make a survey one that was online and one where I would ask people in an interview type style. The questions I asked were…

1) 1)How much do you weigh?

2) Have you ever lied to a person about your weight?

3) Do you fill the need to lose weight? If so how much ?

4)Do you feel comfortable with your weight right now?

5) 5)If you look in the mirror do you like what you see?

6) If a friend asked you how much you weighed would you tell them?

7) If a friend thinner than you asked how much you weighed would you tell them?

8) Do you feel most 16-25 year olds look up to models in magazines?

9) Do you feel models in magazines are at a healthy weight?

10) Have you been diagnosed with an eating disorder before?

11) Do you feel pressured to lose weight? If so by whom? (choices: Peers, Media, Parents, Doctor, Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Friends)

12) What don’t you like about your body?( choices: arm, stomach, thighs, legs, breast, lip, butt, nothing, or I love everything about my body)

I was actually really surprised about the outcome of my survey. I asked about 25 people in interview style and I got 100 people to take my online survey. I was surprised that most women who took my survey online said they would feel comfortable telling people their weight and felt comfortable telling me online, but when I asked people face to face they were more hesitant to tell me their weight. I wasn’t surprised that both groups answered yes to lying to others about their weight. Everyone I asked in person said they have lied to someone about their weight before, and online 67% percent of people said they lied. When asking the question to why they lied, most said embarrassment or the feeling of being judged.

Another response that surprised me was, do you feel you need to lose weight, and do you feel comfortable in your weight? Only 8% of people who took my survey felt they did not need to lose weight at all, and the average person said they felt they needed to lose between 10-20 pounds and only 58% felt comfortable with their weight right now. These results are so shocking to me that most of us have such low respect for our bodies! One response that saddens me deeply was out of the 100 people who took my survey 63% responded to not liking what they see in the mirror and only 34% said they did. It actually really mad me sad that so many women hated their bodies. I feel that women are one of the most important people here on earth, we bring life into this world which is the greatest miracle we could ask for, yet we all hate the very instrument that allows us to do that. So why are women hating their bodies? From the data I collected most women hate their body’s because of the pressure from the media. The majority of people felt the media makes them feel negative about their bodies. 75% of people answered yes to looking up to models but 87% felt that models in magazines are not at a healthy weight. So my question that never got answer was why? Why do we look up to models but yet know they are not at a weight that’s unattainable? Why do we do that to ourselves? It’s heartbreaking that women are so hard on themselves and their bodies.

I did however get a few people to put their weight on a name tag as well. I was very nervous to go up to people and ask them these questions, and then ask them to participate. I do think it made other women comfortable to see my weight and how I am heavy, and if I can do it so can they. I had one girl who participated who weighed 234 pounds and said she feels so empowered to share that with me. I was so surprised and it made me feel good to know some women really liked my assignment. I feel I made a little dent on campus getting women to start talking about weight and body image.

I’m very glad I got this opportunity to do this project and get this experience. It’s made me more aware that I am not alone in my body issues and that other women feel the same way. On the other hand it made me aware that we as women need to do more things to celebrate our bodies. We need to take that power away from the media and give it back to ourselves. To treat our bodies like the miracles they are and celebrate their beauty.

I know before I did this assignment I was one of the girls that hated their bodies. I felt that I needed to lose weight and being thin was the only way to be considered beautiful. I was obsessed with dieting and picking out things on my body that I need to change. But now after talking to other women about this topic I realized we all feel this way and we all need to take steps to ending this way of thinking. I know I can’t change the world over night but I can start by changing myself. I’m going to stop obsessing on losing weight and being thin and just get healthy, emotionally and physically. I am going to comment my friends and peers on how beautiful they look rather than join in on bashing our bodies. I feel that if more women started speaking out and taking down these walls on body image women would be a lot happier. I also feel the power is in our hands to change the media. If we start liking natural ads, with average size models, we can slowly start changing the way media advertises to us. The media shows us what we want to see, so if we want to change that it needs to start with us. I hope in the future I can slowly start changing the way my friends and family view their bodies and that they would pay it forward to their friends and family and eventually will be on are way to changing the world!