RELATED COVERAGE: ‘You can be healthy at any size’
When I left the cinemas last week after watching crowd-funded documentary Embrace, one thought entered my mind.
Where was this film when I was in school, struggling?
My mind turned to friends who’ve had similar experiences. It turned to so many young girls and older women who too often ask others, ‘do I look okay’?
It’s as if we’ve been conditioned to believe how our body looks determines how good a person we are or can be.
But Embrace challenges this notion.
It focuses solely on females, but its message can relate to, and should reach, all genders.
Mother-of-three Taryn Brumfitt speaks to women from all over the world about their lived challenges and personal victories.
Each individual’s story is different, but a powerful theme runs throughout.
We need to embrace our body for what it does and what it can do.
We need to accept our body for how it naturally appears.
And when that happens, we find happiness, we feel content.
I have personally struggled with body image, with body acceptance, for a long time now.
But I left that cinema feeling invigorated; grateful for my body’s health and its strength.
Food should never be used as reward or punishment; appearance should never become a tool to measure a person’s qualities or traits.
Embrace doesn’t frown upon exercise or beauty, but it does frown upon the world’s unrealistic ideals.
The images that appear on magazine front covers; the photoshopped advertisements that promote the latest swimwear; the plastic manikins that flaunt this season’s fashion – these aren’t real depictions of women.
Embrace shouts this message from the rooftops. It doesn’t shy away from nudity and it doesn’t apologise for its somewhat confronting footage.
Instead, it teaches people to be comfortable in their own skin, to love their bodies for what they are.
After seeing the film, I spoke with the father of two daughters who organised the screening.
I spoke with a personal trainer who has experienced a mental and physical transformation of her own.
I spoke with a dietician and nutritionist who helps people reconnect with their bodies and have a healthy relationship with food.
Each of these people wished for the documentary to be shown to younger generations.
I hope fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles and grandparents will watch the film. And I hope they keep its message going so their sons, daughters, siblings, nieces, nephews and grandchildren will learn to love their bodies, regardless of shape or size.
For more information about the Embrace documentary or Taryn Brumfitt’s ‘Body Image Movement’, visit www.bodyimagemovement.com
If you are concerned about your own health or that of someone you know, support is available.
Phone The Butterfly Foundation support line on 1800 33 4673 or email support@thebutterflyfoundation.org.au
To contact Eating Disorders Victoria, phone 1300 550 236 or email help@eatingdisorders.org.au or phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.
