Body image is an important factor that impacts one’s leisure choices other than the traditional or societal view. It could be a negative or positive impact, depending on how one perceptives it. The positive imparct could be an encouragement for someone to do something that brings a better outcome. For example, an overweight girl could be encouraged to choose outdoor activities or go to the gym to lose weight and have a better body shape, or people with good body appearance will feel confident to choose public activities for their leisure choices. However, I think there are more negative effects of body image that can prevent or constraint one from leisure choices. An overweight or below-average weight girl may findeel uncomfortable or self-conscious to swim at a public swimming pool because they are worried about what to wear, how they look like, and what people will think about. Moreover, it could lead to a decrease in enjoyment and lack interest for leisure choices.
We can see evidence of body image in the “Calendar Girls”; the women do not feel appropriate to take nude photos because they are no longer young. It doeis not only how they see themselves, but also the other people and the society. Particularly, the photographer who ran away in the middle of the interview, after knowing the women wanted to take nude photos for the project and people laughed at them when they saw their nude photos. The people’s attitude towards the Calendar Girl reflects how the societal view impacts their perception. For most people and the societal view in general, a “right look” or a beautiful body is curved, sexy, attractive, and young and, of course, these attributes could be found on young women but not on older women. Social discomfort and judgment can prevent people from doing what they want to do, and especially, it results in low self-esteem and low participation. Posing nude is not an easy thing to do, even for young women, and the Calendar Girls did a great job on their nude photos. In comparisong to the beginning of the project, most of these women felt hesitante and inappropriate to do that, but they felt proud of themselves and have a better perception about their self image, as a result.
Other limitations that society and public opinion have on women’s leisure choices are gender roles and stereotypes of physical activities. Women are expected to spend more of their time more at home, taking care of the family, besides work aindg. fFor that reasons, women do not have enough time for their leisure. In addition, the society and public opinion limits girls or women to participate in physical activities or sports that are considered inappropriate because these activities are for men.
The recreation therapist can design a program that helps people improve physical activity, social interaction, behaviors, and knowledge regarding leisure choices, to have optimal outcome. This program is for everyone, regardless of gender identity, so that everyone will have a better attitude towards others and lead to positive change in public opinion. Along with that, the program can also help people maintain well-being or gachietve better health through exercise and healthy diet from, thatus people will have a better sense of their image.