Who We Are
We are strong, fierce, confident, beautiful women with stories to tell. More Than a Face is a website targeted at boosting the self-image of women of all ages, encouraging them to examine their own inner beauty. Browse the incredible stories of your sisters in Our Stories or submit your own here. Or look below to discover why we think self image is such a big deal.
Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable about using the word "beautiful" to describe themselves
80% of women believe that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but that they do not see it themselves (Dove Research, 15 Nov. 2013) "For girls as young as 12 and 13 years of age, viewing oneself primarily from the perspective of an observer and emphasizing features like “attractiveness” and “sex appeal” with respect to one’s body were related to higher levels of anxiety about appearance and feelings of shame" (Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, 15 Nov 2013) While 13% of Canadian girls (ages 10-14) are comfortable calling themselves ‘beautiful’, this number slides to 6% for girls ages 15-17 and to only 3% for women (ages 18-64); the percentage of girls who claim to be confident declines from 76% of girls 10-14 to only 56% of girls 15-17. (Dove Canada Research, 15 Nov. 2013) (Source , 15 Nov. 2013) An ad campaign warning against anorexia shows how women would look if they looked like fashion sketches
(Source, 26 Nov, 2013)
Amy Schumer's comic take on compliments (warning: explicit language)
“[We’re told] love yourself, but not too much. Be confident, but practice a style of humility this culture never requires of men. Believe in yourself, but never admit it out loud, lest you make another woman who doesn’t feel good about herself feel bad,” she says. “If you’re raised to think it’s arrogant to ever say something positive about yourself, it makes it hard to accept a compliment.”
“...we still live in a world that isn’t quite comfortable with women who do acknowledge their worth" --Renee Engeln, Psychology Professor at Northwestern University (Source, 29 Nov 2013) |
Our very own More Than A Face empowerment playlist!
A great video clip from the awesome documentary Miss Representation about self-image and reality TV.
(Source, 18 Nov, 2013)
Another fascinating video from Dove on how the modeling industry distorts our idea of beauty.
(Source, 18 Nov, 2013)
Another clip about Photoshop and body-image!
(Source, 18 Nov, 2013)
Self-objectification has also been repeatedly shown to sap cognitive functioning, because of all the attention devoted to body monitoring. For instance, a recent study by Yale psychologists asked two groups of women to take a math exam—one group in swimsuits, the other in sweaters. The swimsuit-wearers, distracted by body concerns, performed significantly worse than their peers in sweaters.
Fredrickson, along with Michigan communications professor Kristen Harrison (both work within the university’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender), recently discovered that self-objectification actually impairs girls’ motor skills. Their study of 202 girls, ages 10 to 17, found that self-objectification impeded girls’ ability to throw a softball, even after differences in age and prior experience were factored out. Self-objectification forced girls to split their attention between how their bodies looked and what they wanted them to do, resulting in less forceful throws and worse aim. (Ms. Magazine, 29 Nov 2013) |
Given this epidemic of low self-esteem and unrealistic body image, isn't it about time we celebrate real women? Isn't it about time we learn to love ourselves for what actually defines us, rather than what we see in the mirror? It's time for women and girls to stand up and explain why they're
More Than A Face.
More Than A Face.