USA
Parents are outraged: the school advises schoolgirls to wear so-called shapewear
Young girls should wear shapewear for body positive image, says US school (icon image)
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A Mississippi school wanted to address the negative body image many young girls have. The solution: wearing shapewear.
At puberty in particular, most girls deal with their own body image and compare themselves with their classmates. In connection with film, television and social media, dissatisfaction often arises when it comes to one’s own appearance.
A school in the US state of Mississippi now wanted to counteract this – and their action was completely wrong. As CNN reports, the students are said to have received a circular in which parents should tick whether they would like to order their daughter shapewear so that she can be more self-confident about her body. Shapewear is figure-shaping underwear that conceals certain “problem areas” in women.
“Healthy literature” and shapewear against a negative body image
This action was made public by Ashley Heun, whose 13-year-old daughter is in the 8th grade of Middle School in Southaven. On Twitter, the mother posted the said circular with the title “Why do girls suffer from their body image?” Below the problems with the female body image are discussed. “We, the advisors at Southaven Middle School, would like to offer your daughter healthy literature on positive body image,” says the letter, among other things.
Stunned, Heun shared the letter on social media, writing, “I am appalled at the fact that they are trying to improve ‘negative body image’ by sending SHAPEWEAR home.” Other parents quickly joined her and agreed with her. “I had to read it a few times,” Heun confesses to CNN. “My first instinct was to go to school and yell at everyone I could find.” Her daughter, however, simply found the letter “stupid”.
Mother writes angry mail
“It’s hard to educate girls in this environment with social media, filters and Photoshop,” Heun continues. “You will be bombarded with images about the ideal body.” She then wrote the headmaster a long email and expressed her concerns about the letter.
“If my daughter were to beg me for shapewear, I would turn her down,” Heun wrote in her email, according to CNN. “Now I get that you ENCOURAGE her to wear them. I’m honestly amazed that a ‘counselor’ who is trained in child psychology actually thinks it’s a good idea,” the mother continued.
School backtracks
The headmaster then called Heun am to offer her a meeting that same day. He apologized to her and assured her mother that the advisors meant well. He also told her that the campaign had since been cancelled.
Source: CNN