photo: lisakristine.com
Beyond The Myth of Mirrors
According to recent research, 58% of all 13-year-old girls struggle with body image. By age 17, these numbers jump to 78%. Additional studies estimate that up to 65% of women and girls suffer from eating disorders. This begs the question: Where is real beauty found?
Using photographs, stories and film from around the world, this presentation transports audiences to remote cultures across the globe and introduces them to wise and powerful women who know that their beauty exists beyond the mirror.
Places such as the Micronesian island of Satawal, where mirrors don’t exist. Yet, women throughout their lives perceive themselves as sensuous and beautiful — even into their late 90s.
In this thought-provoking presentation, Dr. Lindsey offers her unique perspective, as a former Miss Hawaii and now as a cultural anthropologist. She examines how Western media dramatically shapes the global conversation about beauty. In Bhutan, for example, women who traditionally defined beauty as sturdiness are dieting for the first time due to the influx of media from the West.
This compelling presentation invites audiences to get comfortable in their own skin. By exploring current definitions of beauty and challenging values that are based on false measurements of worth, audiences are able to understand that real beauty exists — not in the external reflection of mirrors but in the internal recognition of what is true, lasting and magnificent.