by John
Stevenson
In my
April 19 column “You Won’t Believe This One,” I described the removal of a
scale from the gym at Canada’s Carleton University. A student complained that the presence of the
scale triggered her anxiety, presumably by reminding her she is not winning the
battle with her BMI.
The
column described backlash and ridicule of the scale’s removal. One student acerbically suggested banning
mirrors because they could be equally distressing. Well, it turns out that no trigger for
emotional trauma (whether real or imagined and no matter how frivolous or
dubious) is to be overlooked or discounted.
Thus the facetious suggestion to ban mirrors has come true.
Sabrina,
an idealistic student at Laguna Hills High School, replaced mirrors in the
girls’ restrooms with “signs of affirmation.”
Girls who look in the mirror see, instead of their reflection, messages
like “You are beautiful” and “You are enough.”
Apparently the school had a “What if…..Week,” each day having a specific
theme, one being “What if we showed more love?”
Sabrina, who made and posted the signs, told ABC News (this made the
news) “I put the signs in the bathroom the night before so students would see
them throughout the next day.” So her affirmation-instead-of-mirrors
effort was planned to last one day.
Sabrina’s
project was certainly well-intentioned.
She wanted to make other girls feel loved and valuable. But she overlooked that mirrors serve a
purpose. Girls don’t want to go through
their school day with hair askew, spinach-teeth, cockeyed pussy hat, or smeared
mascara. A “you are beautiful” feel-good
message does not help a girl to make it so.
So
along comes an adult who might help Sabrina understand this. Chelsea, the school’s activities director,
told ABC News that Sabrina had “made it her goal for the semester to spread
positive messages around campus.” She
also said that student reaction had been so positive that there were no
immediate plans to take the signs down.
As the
adult in this scenario, activities director Chelsea---in addition to praising
Sabrina’s desire to raise other girls’ self esteem---might also have helped her
to understand that mirrors serve an actual purpose by reflecting reality and
allowing people to make needed adjustments.
Well,
it turns out that Laguna Hills High was not the only, or even the first, school
to experiment with removing or covering mirrors. A couple of months earlier, a dorm at
Bucknell University covered its bathroom mirrors during “Self Love Week” and
“Eating Disorder Awareness Day.”
The
signs said: “Trust us you look great.
Take a break from the mirror today and be good to yourself and your body,
regardless of appearance. Know that you are much more than how you look.
Celebrate your inner beauty today…” and so on.
How this promotes eating disorder awareness is unclear. It would even seem to promote unawareness.
I claim
no expertise in this area, but it would seem logical that eating disorders are
serious problems which require medical treatment or psychological intervention
and cannot be wished away by covering a mirror with a message of affirmation
and self love.
At first
glance, removal of the gym’s scale and covering mirrors with signs of praise
may seem silly or frivolous. But in fact
both acts represent the denial of reality. Denial is in vogue on today’s campus and is
being enabled---even encouraged---by school administrators and teachers.
Administrators
and teachers tend to promptly give in to student demands and to the mindset
that uncomfortable truths should be ignored, dissenting opinions should be
silenced, and “safe spaces” should be provided.
These adults---in loco parentis---should be providing a dose of reality
rather than reinforcing its denial.
In the
world beyond graduation safe spaces are in short supply. And denial will prove to have been an unhelpful
lesson with unfortunate consequences.
