10/12/2005

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

SRU WOMEN’S CENTER TO JOIN IN ‘LOVE YOUR BODY DAY’ OCT. 19

     SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. –  “Love Your Body Day” is being staged to raise awareness and self-esteem as part of a daylong program sponsored by the National Organization for Women and observed at Slippery Rock University on Oct. 19 with sashes as a way of helping women show a positive self-image.

      The day is focused on women's health and positive self-image, including ways to counteract dangerous behaviors, says Jenett Moyer, graduate assistant in SRU’s Women’s Center. She points to increased numbers of women undertaking dangerous health behavior, including severe dieting, bulimia and anorexia as well as increased tobacco usage and unnecessary plastic surgeries.

     Campus events for the day include making sashes at the Women’s Center located in Strain Behavior Science Building, with a specific session set for noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Women’s Center. Sashes will also be available from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Oct 18 at the SRU HealthFest set for the Robert N. Aebersold Student Recreation Center as part of the center’s “Women's Health and Positive Self-Image” information table.

     The final activity will be a 7 p.m. showing of the videos “Hollywood Smoke and Mirrors,” which explains how some women and girls are dying to fit the images seen on television and in films and featuring interviews with actress Tyne Daly, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, activist Dolores Huerta, author Urvashi Vaid and others, and "Redefining Liberation," which tells how advertising, particularly from the tobacco, fashion and alcohol industries, affects women's body image, health and self-esteem.  The second video features appearances by former NOW President Patricia Ireland, author Gloria Steinem along with former top models, community activists and young feminists.

PN, WPN, PGN, PR

WomensCenterSash.kes.doc