"the other press llews ‘Section Editor: Eileen Velthuis — February 12, 2003 Cortney Pachet Central Bureau WINNIPEG (CUP)—Society is waging an “anti-fat” campaign, according to three speakers at the University of Winnipeg, and it’s hurting self-esteem and causing eating disorders. Speakers Elaine Stevenson, Ann McConkey and Tamara Robert, gathered with students to discuss eating disorders and the media’s influence on the percep- tion of beauty. According to Stevenson, the vice-presi- dent, and a founding member of Eating Disorder Association of Manitoba, 11,000 women between the ages of 14 and 64 suffer from an eating disorder. In August of last year, Stevenson's daughter, Alyssa, passed away after an 11- and-a-half-year battle with anorexia. “Our society is in the midst of an anti- fat campaign,” Stevenson read from an article in the Calgary Herald, noting that eileenv@telus.net Body Image Problems Sparked by Media Debate confronts “anti-fat” campaign 95 percent of diets fail and 35 percent of people who start off dieting develop eat- ing disorders. “Eating disorders have the highest mor- tality rate of all mental illness at 18 per- cent,” said Stevenson. McConkey, a dietitian at Women’s Health Clinic, a Winnipeg health clinic, cites weight preoccupation as being on a continuum, from occasional dieting to a cycle of constant dieting and even binge- ing and purging. “At the Women’s Health Clinic, we believe healthy people come in all shapes and sizes,” said McConkey. She empha- sized that when individuals lose weight and are praised, they often wonder what people thought of their appearance prior to weight loss. Robert, who works with street-involved youth and has developed programs in self- B Cc. esteem, anger management and conflict resolution, emphasized that many street youth are forced into an eating disorder, because they are starving. “You can't respect that which you don’t value,” said Robert. “How can we get to the point where we value ourselves?” All three speakers noted the importance of being critical of the media and writing to magazines, demanding they feature models of all shapes and sizes or refusing to purchase magazines with size zero mod- els. Several years ago, an ad campaign for the NBC sitcom Friends displayed the three female leads on a billboard above the words “cute, anorexic chicks.” Although the ads were pulled after a series of com- plaints, Stevenson believes the damage was already done. “The media is turning something that is unhealthy and making people strive for this,” said Stevenson, stressing that the media perpetuates a notion that people must be thin to be happy or successful. Robert believes it’s essential to change the way we think about our body image and ourselves. “I can't wait for society to accept me, because that’s never going to happen,” said Robert. McConkey cites self-respect as an essen- tial part of maintaining a healthy body image. “My value as a human being will never be tied to the weight on the scale,” said McConkey. Stevenson believes people need to learn to value individual for who they are, not how they look. “People matter, people count, not size, shape or colour.” ileen Velthuis ews Editor On January 28, Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection Joyce Murray announced a Inew model for funding provincial parks, hich includes new fees for park users. The new funding system was partly creat- ed by the Recreation Stewardship panel, hich was created by the Ministry in May 2002 to make a recommendation to the province regarding park funding. The panel submitted their recommendations to the The parking fees will go towards mainte- nance of the parks. Parking fees alone are estimated to bring in $2.5 million, which Murray says will offset current upkeep costs. The change in cost for hunting and fishing licences is expected to bring in an additional $4.5 million. There has also been discussion of new serv- ices in select parks, such as kayak and canoe rentals, snow shoeing, and rock climbing Lac STHETIC 3A LON FOR HEAD TO TOE ESTHETICS & ELECTROLYSIS Sz. Spa... Est. 1991 © Licensed Fatheticians ® Derina-Technician ® Nad Technician Ministry on November 29, 2002. Under the new system, which is based on British he panel’s recommendations, instruction—but nothing definite yet. Speculation of new services do nothing to make local student Laura Gravel feel better © Electrologist ¢ * Aromatheraptal a stu d ent © Retki Master i .. olumbians will be paying more to use their provincial parks. Murray announced that nightly camping fee increases will range from $1 to $3.50, so campers will now be paying $9 to $22 per night depending on the park. Hunting licences will increase an average pf $25, and fishing licences an average of $19, depending on the type of licence. Park-use fees in provincial parks, also eferred to as day-use fees, will be imple- ented in the form of pay parking at the park sites. The Ministry has decided to start h pay parking system at 28 of the most pop- lar provincial parks in the Lower Mainland hnd southern Vancouver Island area—at a ost of $3.00 to $5.00 per day. Some of the nffected parks will include Golden Ears, ypress, Seymour, and Rathtrevor Beach. about the new charges for using parks. Gravel feels that paying taxes should be enough. “T think it’s horrible,” she said. “We're com- mercializing nature...as British Columbians, the parks do belong to us and we shouldn't have - to pay any more than we already do for them.” Murray was quoted on January 29 as say- ing that “If you go and spend a day at a park and swim, hike and use all of the facilities, you don’t pay...this is a model that will put those services on sound financial footing and keep them in public control.” Increases in the cost of hunting and fishing licences will begin in April 2003, and the remainder of the increases and new costs will x ~ LABORATOIRE OR RENAUD - Tel: (604) 942-2990 (24 hour voice mail) __ _ Fax: (604) 469-6664 e-mail: lasstheticsalon@hotmail.com ee or visit: www.tri-biz.com/lasstheticsalon go into effect May 1, 2003. page 3 ©