The Dark Side of Social Media and Body Image: An Expert Opinion by Emily Lauren Dick

:
How can having a positive body image be more than just a superficial view of oneself?

Well, in this interview, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with a Emily Lauren Dick, the author of Body Positive: A Guide to Loving Your Body.

Join me in part one of this interview.

Connect with me, and tell me how your body image affects your day-to-day life.

If you enjoy listening to my podcast, please consider leaving a 5-star review and subscribing. And keep sharing episodes with friends and family and on social media.
 
  I appreciate hearing from you,
 

Thank you for your time and interest in this podcast! I invite you to leave a heartfelt review on whichever podcast platform you listen to. It does so much to bring exposure to the podcast and helps lift others up!

To leave a review, helping us spread the contents of this podcast- click on this link! Thank you!

Connect with me!

Website: In the Rising Podcast Website

Email: Bettina@intherising.com

In the Rising Pinterest:

In the Rising Facebook

Check out the Website: Fit after Breast Cancer

Transcript

[00:00:00] Bettina M Brown: Hello, and welcome to In The Rising Podcast. Do you feel that your hopes and your dreams are kind of shifted and you're not transforming them into achievements and into real goals that move you forward? Or do you feel like you're circling in a shame blame game pattern that really does nothing for any forward momentum, but just moves you in a downward spiral.

Well, if so, this is the podcast for you. My name is Bettina and I am a physical therapist and certified life coach, and so I really like to figure out what makes us tick and recognize that some of our pain is not physical in origin. I also like to preface, I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or counselor, and all of these ideas, if they're in my voice, are from my own opinion.

And for my own research and really spending valuable time with many people who shared their thoughts and their opinions as they were facing terminal diagnoses. And so with that, I love to start anywhere in someone's life and open our own eyes and my own included, and look at how can we change anything that we may regret one day when we no longer have the power, the ability, or even the desire.

To go backwards and change anything. So I also like to focus on what we can do to increase our self-esteem and recognize our self-worth. As it is, because that's the foundation of who we are. And though it does take, you know, people some time to get to know our personality, they tend to look at us and immediately make some sort of, judgment, Hey, look at our pink hair, whether or not we're balding, do we have crows eyes?

Do we or do we not have this hourglass figure? And on and on. And so having core value in ourselves is important, but also having body image positivity, it's also crucial. So it's time to get some deeper insights into my guest expert for body image. In the next two podcast episodes, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview an energetic woman and the author of Body Positive, A Guide to Loving Your Body.

I. Published by Familia, L L c. So this is a woman who is a body image expert and who's very, very committed to making girls and women feel comfortable in their own skin. She has an honors bachelor degree in of Arts in Women's Study and Sociology from Wilfred Lauer University in Waterloo, Ontario. Besides her educational background, her passion for increasing body acceptance, In Girls Is Palpable.

And Emily, Lauren Dick is the incredible person I speak of and this will be part one of our show. So, let's get started. So welcome Emily to In the Rising Podcast with Bettina Brown. Thank you so much for your time. Oh, thank you. 

[00:03:19] Emily Lauren Dick: Thanks for having me. 

[00:03:21] Bettina M Brown: And so how are you doing today? It looks like you are out promoting this wonderful work of art that you've produced, your book called Body Positive, A Guide to Loving Your Body.

[00:03:34] Emily Lauren Dick: Yes. Yeah, I'm, I'm having a great day. It's always fun to be able to spread awareness on this very important. 

[00:03:41] Bettina M Brown: subject. Yes, yes. So, I received a copy and my first impression, honestly was that I was blown away by the courage of the women and yourself to take photographs of themselves in everyday posture, wearing what they're comfortable in.

That could be a workout wear, a swimsuit, and it allows you to see their body. This is such a vulnerable position, but there's a lot of power and vulnerability as well. What made you come up with this idea? 

[00:04:13] Emily Lauren Dick: I. Well, you know, so often we are faced with stereotypical images of what ideal beauty is in the media and on social media, and I really wanted to provide an unedited sort of version of, of like a magazine that you would open, but with women that you could relate to.

So, the goal really was to find women who could represent a little bit of everyone who hopefully reads 

[00:04:40] Bettina M Brown: the book. I think you did. I I really liked the diversity that you presented with your book. There's just so you could see any woman, any friend, any parent in those pictures. And I, I really thought that was phenomenal.

Thank you. So, you talk about inspiration and fitspiration, and I'll be honest, I had never heard of those terms. Would you take a little time and explain the difference and how this. Can be affected by media and just in our everyday life. 

[00:05:15] Emily Lauren Dick: Absolutely. So thin inspiration is sort of taking things a little step further and it's basically an image of a thin woman or a thin body part, and it's usually accompanied with a slogan, promoting thinness.

So, these images are often used, by people who are, working within an eating disorder. But you'll see them online. You know, there's the famous quote, nothing taste is. Taste as good as skinny feels. And that's an example of a thin inspiration statement. And then it's put to, to different images of thin bodies.

[00:05:51] Bettina M Brown: Absolutely. And do you feel that this is something that's becoming more prevalent, or do you feel like that might have always been around? 

[00:06:01] Emily Lauren Dick: I think it's been around as long as it was accessible for people to create these images. You know, In the beginning, you might have taken out a picture from a magazine and put it on your wall.

You might have put some words to it or it might have just been the image, and that was sort of your inspiration for looking that way or losing weight. And now with social media and the, the ways that we use it now, we're, we're taking things a step further and the images are, are very prevalent especially for people, those who are actually seeking that type of encouragement out.

[00:06:36] Bettina M Brown: Yes. Yes. And that makes sense. That makes sense. So what I also found just interesting, I like the way you formatted the book. It was not just by chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, although that is there. Yes. I have a lot of quotes In your book. In there is one particular quote and this is it. The problem is that society has come to view this lack of diversity in size as normal.

[00:07:03] Emily Lauren Dick: Yes. Yeah. We’re so used to the way things are that we don't often stop and question why things are the way they are and who is profiting from the way things are and our situation, the way we feel about our bodies. 

[00:07:23] Bettina M Brown: I think you hit on a really strong point there. Who is profiting from this? Because there's always a gain for someone.

And is it really the woman herself or is it Yeah, for other people It's definitely not the woman. 

[00:07:37] Emily Lauren Dick: You know, it's really the beauty and diet industries that are profiting. They are multi billion-dollar industries that are profiting from, from our insecurities, and they're actually. Recirculating the, these ideals because it creates insecurities.

S,o it's, it's this really, this cycle that they're profiting off of. So, they continue to put that type of media out there and reminding society that you need to change your body to be happy, to be successful, and all of those things. 

[00:08:10] Bettina M Brown: And I think you hit on a point right there that you need to change something in order to achieve happiness.

[00:08:17] Emily Lauren Dick: Right. Yeah. That's the problem because, you know, we're so fixated on what's on the outside that we haven't been taught to remember what is on the inside and all the non-physical things that make us great people that we're kind, that we're smart, that, you know, we have aspirations to do good in this world.

But so often what we see first is, is the outer appearance. 

[00:08:45] Bettina M Brown: Exactly. Exactly. And I, I really love the quotes in your book, and I'm going to say one more because your quotes are not just like from a media standpoint, but from regular women. Yes. And there was one that I, you know, I really took my time with these and there was one that just made me actually stop myself and I wanted to get your opinion on it as well.

One of the women quoted. I appreciate my body for what it can do, not just what it looks like. 

[00:09:18] Emily Lauren Dick: Yeah. Like that, that is the best attitude to have. And, and it takes a lot of work to get into that type of headspace. So it's, it's really important to, to focus on, on comments like that because that's what's going to inspire young girls and so many of us to realize that there's more to life than the way we look.

[00:09:42] Bettina M Brown: Yes. And to recognize the blessings in what we can do. And my first thought went to being a mother, whether we choose to be one or not or have that opportunity, but to just be able to carry a child is unique to women. And there, there are some changes that happen when you have that and you know, that there's also that beauty and know that my body has been able to create another life.

And I think that's phenomenal to think about that and not just, I’ve got to get back in pre-baby shape. For example, abs. 

[00:10:14] Emily Lauren Dick: Absolutely. And I mean, whether you're a mother or not, your body is going to go through several changes. It's going to ebb and flow depending on where you're at in your life. And we need to embrace those changes and accept them as they come because we are so lucky to have these beautiful vessels to take us through our lives and, and make memories and experience things.

You know, we only have one shot at this, so, 

[00:10:41] Bettina M Brown: You are right. You're absolutely right. And sometimes at the end when we recognize we've not used that shot correctly, that's when we can get kind of sad about certain things and have more regrets. Right? It's better to learn it earlier. And I loved how you focus on getting to women and girls and so.

How do you feel that you can reach beside when you published a beautiful book? How do you feel that regular women can teach other women and, you know, the girls we're raising or, or girls were able to influence to appreciate their bodies? 

[00:11:19] Emily Lauren Dick: I think we really need to lead by example and stop speaking negatively about our bodies.

Whether we think those things or not, the example we put out into this world is extremely important and it plays a role in recycling these body image issues. So, it's really important to fake it till you make it or do what you need to do to really stop saying those things out loud. The other thing is we need to.

Take down the filters and not feel so pressured to appear a certain way when we're presenting ourselves online, because especially in this day and age, we're all more online and we are, we're sharing things about our lives, but we're, we're not necessarily sharing things that are real and. What that only does is it makes people compare instead of relate to each other.

And we feel when we consume this type of social media, we can feel really ashamed of, of what we look like. And so really sharing some of the real sides of real life is, is important in normalizing normal bodies. 

[00:12:28] Bettina M Brown: Yeah. So, this is just the first half of this powerful interview from Emily regarding body image and how important it's to have some positive body image.

Reflected in yourself and that you actually believe this. So in line with what I say every, every podcast show is that if this is something that interests you or you can tell this will be beneficial, go ahead and share, leave a review. It does so much to help promote the podcast and put this in the ears of those that can really make a difference for.

And until next time, let's keep building one another up!