Wellness Center launches new body positivity campaign

A new public health campaign is asking students to reconsider something most of us do without thinking: commenting on each other’s bodies.

“Your Body Is Not a Group Project,” launched by the Wellness and Body Care department, is bringing that conversation to campus this spring through a series of casual drop-in events in the libraries.

Behind it is Alicia Reif, a clinical psychologist with Counseling and Health Promotion, who says the goal is straightforward: get people thinking more intentionally about how they talk to themselves and to each other.

“‘Your Body Is Not a Group Project’ is a public health campaign really meant to focus on the narratives that we have around our bodies, how we think and relate to our own bodies, how we think and relate to everyone else’s bodies and the way we exist in our culture,” Reif said.

The campaign, she explained, grew out of a desire to challenge how openly we criticize and shame each other’s appearances, and to get people thinking more intentionally about those habits.

The campaign is making its way into campus libraries with a Popcorn in the Libraries series: a relaxed, no-pressure event format designed to get people talking about body image without it feeling like a lecture or a therapy session.

There is a session at Clemens Library on March 5 from 12:30-1:30 p.m.

The choice to hold these events in libraries was deliberate. Reif said she wanted to bring the conversation to where students already are, away from anything that might feel formal or intimidating.

“The libraries are a really great place to interact with students,” Reif said, adding that the goal was to open up conversations that “don’t feel clinical or behind closed doors.”

Reif encourages students to sit with some of those bigger questions.

“Think a little bit about how you talk to yourself and how you talk to each other about our bodies, and how we’ve decided what bodies are acceptable and what bodies aren’t,” Reif said.

For anyone who wants to go deeper, she welcomes students to reach out to the counseling center directly.

Reif said if you’re on campus and you find yourself free on March 5th, it’s worth stopping in and bringing your complicated feelings about diet culture or gym culture.

According to The Wellness and Body Care department, this campaign is quietly making the case that things could actually be different.