Sports and Body Ideals
As body-positive parents, we’re all about encouraging our kids to find sports and types of movement they love. But falling in love with sports can sometimes come with extra baggage. We’re thinking particularly of sports cultures with a strong emphasis on appearance and aesthetics. Think dance, figure skating, ballet, gymnastics — where success and performance is traditionally tied to having a particular body type.
Does your daughter love a sport that tells her — explicitly or implicitly — that her body needs to look a certain way for her to succeed? Does she feel pressure to change her eating or exercise habits to mold her body into an ideal, or feel horrible if, no matter what she does, she can’t achieve it?
Appearance pressures from sports can lead to unintended negative consequences for body image, disordered eating, and overall psychological health and wellbeing.
The good news is that you can take steps as a parent to buffer against those risks.
On the Ashlyn Lee blog this week, we wrote about how to support your daughter when she loves a sport that has strong body ideals. Head over to read our post here.
Topics we cover include:
The many benefits of youth sports participation
The downsides of sports that come with strong body ideals
A shift in perspective from “there’s something wrong with me” to “there’s something wrong with this expectation”
Helping your daughter to build critical thinking and identify “the real problem”
Celebrating and supporting body diversity in your sport
Encouraging your daughter to listen to her body
Working to make systemic change as a parent