Girl Scout troop analyzes women’s health, beauty
By Amy Neff Roth
Healthy Living
Magazines and TV screens are filled with images of tall, thin – often skinny – models and actresses.
Many grown ups worry that children will think this is the way women are supposed to look. But only a handful of women are capable of looking like these models and actresses, and even fewer can be so thin and still be healthy.
To take a look at what girls think about beauty and health, Healthy Living talked to fourth and fifth graders in Girl Scout Troop 909 at their meeting place in Trinity Lutheran Church in Utica.
Eight members participated, including: fourth graders Charlotte Arcuri and Alyssa Clayton, and fifth graders Tiffany Canter, Selena Santana, Katie McEwan, Emma Thompson, Katherine Elacqua and Dominica Witt.
The girls looked at photos of nine women and rated each, on a scale from one to 10, for beauty and for health. For the most part, the girls rated a woman’s health and beauty with similar numbers, suggesting that they think health and beauty go hand in hand.
There were two exceptions to this, though – both photos of women being physically active.
One photo showed a woman lifting a piece of firefighting equipment. Her toned arms showed beneath a sleeveless shirt. The girls rated her, on average, a 9.5 for health, their highest score for any of the women. But they only rated her 3.8 for beauty, placing her seventh for looks.
The girls’ second choice for good health was a photo of a woman throwing a shotput (a sport in track and field). The woman has short hair, an athletic build and a determined expression on her face. She earned an average score of 8.9 for health, but only a 5.4 for looks.
For beauty, the girls’ two favorite photos featured celebrities: singer Rihanna (8.4 for looks, 7.5 for health) and “Ugly Betty” actress America Ferrera (7.4 for beauty, 6.6 for health). They came in fourth and fifth for health.
A curly blonde-haired model in a bikini earned third place for both beauty and health, with an average of 7.1 for looks and 7.8 for health. One girl described her as “way too thin,” though.
While Ferrera is not skinny, for the most part the girls criticized women who looked overweight and also gave lower scores to older women. A pretty, young woman in a bikini – with the figure of a plus-size model – earned an average rating of 5 for beauty (fifth place) and 4.9 for health (seventh place). One girl wrote that her stomach is too big and another said she’s “trying too hard to stay thin.”
Photos of a middle-aged, mom-like woman (4.8 and 5.1) and an older African-American woman (2.8 and 4.8) came in sixth and eighth for looks, although “Mom,” who is thin, actually scored slightly better than the plus-size girl for health, coming in sixth. The older woman came in eighth for health.
The girls gave their lowest ratings for both beauty and health to an obviously overweight woman with her hair scraped back from her face and a large stomach bulge showing beneath her clingy dress. She earned only an average rating of 2.3 for beauty and 2.6 for health.
About Troop 909
Utica Girl Scout Troop 909 members are well versed in the basics of a healthy lifestyle. The troop participates in a program called Healthy Living.
The fourth- and fifth-grade girls in the troop learn about eating healthy and about lifelong fitness, said troop leader Natalie Zumpano, who is the reach-out specialist for the Girl Scouts’ Foothills Council.
As part of lifelong fitness, the girls participate in eight fitness activities, such as swimming, hiking and horseback riding, Zumpano said.
Each girl must bring an adult on each excursion, promoting family bonding through fitness, she said.
There’s more to exercise than just walking or running, said Emma Thompson. You can get fit playing games in the backyard, she said.
“You can have fun and still get exercise,” she said.
“Dieting, naturally, won’t help you be healthier. It’s only going to make your health badder,” said Dominica Witt.
Unless a doctor suggests dieting, it’s not healthy because you might not get enough nutrients, she said. Girls in the troop learn instead how to choose healthy foods, eating only snacks chosen by a dietitian.
“You shouldn’t eat the same thing every day for a week because if
you eat the same thing too
much … it’s really bad for you,” said Charlotte Arcuri.
You need variety so you get lots of different nutrients, she said.
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