Rizza Body Image Case Studies

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics Report in 2013, the average age of women having their first child is 26 years old. Rizza had her first child when she was in her late 20s. She is now thirty-five years old with three children. Before agreeing to do the interview, she mentioned that this is the first time she is ever going to talk about her body after giving birth to her first child. When she was in her early 20s, she was only 120 pounds but when she had her first child, she gained thirty pounds and with that, she couldn’t even look at herself in the mirror. Rizza thinks that she is “fat” and she looks unattractive. She laughed about it while saying, “Why do I even care about how my body looks when I’m already a mother and have no one to impress?” However, after

saying what she has said, she paused for a while and continued, “Hmmn ... I’ll take that back. I think that our external appearance matters, well at least for me because who doesn’t want to look good?” She then said that she used to love her body but not anymore after gaining that much weight. Rizza does not like how she has excess body fat in the abdomen area because she could not wear fitted clothes for when she does, her flab or baby fat shows and that disgusts her. She was then asked if there is something that she likes about her body; she said none because everything changed. She shared that she does not have time to take care of her body because she has to put her husband and children first before herself. She has been struggling with feeling insecure about her body but she could not talk about it to anyone because she said that everyone around her thinks that it is just normal to have that kind of body after having children. The biggest cause of her body image concerns is what she sees in the media: skinny, young girls with toned bodies.

In Women’s Studies, we covered about body politics in the 1970s. During that time, exercise becomes so popular for women for the reason that they were encouraged to become more toned and muscular. She described a perfect body by saying that a perfect body is a slender body with toned muscles, long legs, small waist, big bust, and wider hips. Even though she thinks that she is fat, she did not go to the gym to exercise or to lose weight because even if she wanted to, she still does not have the freedom to do so because of her busy schedule. She was also asked if girls of today have a good body image and she responded, “I am thirty-five right now and if I don’t even feel good about my body, I think that girls younger than me are struggling with feeling insecure about their body as well.” With those words, she added that younger girls tend to compare themselves to other girls more and therefore they try to achieve the body that those girls have and that is where they start feeling more insecure about their body when they could not reach that

goal.
In today’s generation, we expect more women to be self-conscious about their weight or their appearance. Kara is a college student who seems to have a great body; however, she shared many of her insecurities about her body. She was asked how would she describe her body and she said that her body is average. She added that the only time she feels comfortable about her body is right after she exercise and when she knows that she did not consume less or more than 1000-1500 calories. Though, there are times that she does not feel comfortable especially when she sees a girl who has a better body than her. Kara’s confidence depended on what she wears. She is not confident when she wears shorts because she has a small legs and thick thighs, ugly toes, and dark knees. Kara mentioned that she does not hate her body completely but she does not love it either. She likes her body because it is healthy but when she looks at herself in the mirror, she just sees an average body type and because of that, she is not satisfied with her body. She stopped for a little while while looking straight ahead and finally said, “I have to work on it!” Like most girls and women want these days, Kara wanted to have a flatter stomach. Is it because those who have a flatter stomach can feel confident wearing trendy clothes nowadays such as crop tops? Maybe it does have something to do with choosing the clothes that they want to wear but do not have the confidence to do so. As the trend changes, more and more girls and women feel insecure or is self-conscious about their body. Models or television personalities are trend setters and it is easier for them to influence girls and women. Despite of the things that she mentioned about the parts of her body that she does not like, she likes that her height is good and that she is within the normal size and healthy (BMI wise). Kara seems to lack in confidence when it comes to her body, so she was asked if there is someone who made her more feel insecure about her body. Unlike Leonora whose son is the one who criticized her body, Kara’s ex-boyfriend said that she was fat and with those words he said three years ago, it still affects her until today because whenever she thinks about it she thinks that it is true. She can vividly recall the words her ex-boyfriend told her three years ago. In this generation, some girls and women stress too much on appearance . When asked about the importance of appearance, she said: