Editor,
I am writing regarding Jessica Del Curto's series of articles on body image in the Daily Lobo the week before Spring Break. It would seem that the theme she's advocating was one of stasis - each installment continuously cast a bad light on anyone who went out and changed the way they looked.
For brevity's sake, I've enclosed one complaint about each article.
In response to why Amanda Dreyer had no one show up to her support group, I don't think shame was the reason. One need only take a brief survey of the people around New Mexico to see that obesity - not anorexia - is the problem. Rather than start an anorexics support group, why not one for people with the nation's No. 1 eating disorder?
Regarding cosmetic surgery, I found it telling that the author wrote about how trivial breast enhancement surgery is, yet spun it completely differently when it came to gastric bypass surgery. Gastric bypass may be a life-saving surgery - there's certainly risk of death in undergoing it - but it is definitely trivial. Torres didn't need gastric bypass. She chose it over diet and exercise. While I commend her for doing something about her weight, this was still taking the easy way out.
As a friend of mine eloquently put it: "I can always exercise to lose weight. I can't work out to make my breasts bigger." Short of quadriplegics and coma patients, no one is incapable of exercising. Some may lack the willpower, but this is a psychological problem that can be worked on.
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For the final installment, I was expecting a story on muscle dysmorphia, or some other compulsive exercising disorder. Instead, I was treated to a story on how people exercise in order to fit society's standards. The article eventually degraded into another story about bulimia and anorexia. I completely disagree with Murray's stance on how exercising to be sore the next morning is an incorrect way to work out. This depends entirely on the situation.
If someone's goal is to gain muscle mass, then this is exactly the type of resistance training he wants to do. It's a form of controlled damage that, when coupled with a diet high in protein, will stimulate muscle growth. It would have been more helpful if the article talked more about proper exercise.
For instance, if you are reading a magazine while on the hip adductors or abductors, then you are not exercising correctly. The point of resistance training is to push one's muscles and raise one's metabolism, not sit and relax.
Finally, the overall theme about ignoring one's outside appearance seemed pointless. Human beings are a highly visual species - about one-third of our cerebral cortex is devoted to vision. As such, appearance is always going to matter.
So rather than write about psychologists who constantly parrot the mantra of "It's what's inside that counts," maybe we would be better off with articles that talked about healthy ways to manage one's vanity, rather than deny it.
Jason Bourke
UNM student
