Mirror Image

Level: Grades 5 to 8

Overview

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In this lesson, students analyze their own body image and consider what they wish they could change. They discuss how smoking relates to body image, particularly for young women, and learn about the link between beauty and smoking.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:
an awareness of how they feel about their bodies
an understanding of how the media can pressure young people to be thin
an awareness of how the tobacco industry plays on smoking and thinness to market cigarettes

Preparation and Materials

Photocopy the following student handouts:

Procedure

Note to Teacher: Although this lesson focuses on the relationship between smoking and thinness in young women, it's important to note that more and more boys are also turning to smoking to reduce weight. Studies have found that boys aged 9-14 who thought they were overweight were 65 per cent more likely to think about smoking, or to try it, than their peers; and boys who worked out every day in order to lose weight were twice as likely to experiment with tobacco. (Source: Marcus, A. (1999). "Body Image Tied to Smoking in Kids.")

Individual Activity

Students complete the Mirror Image handout. Assure them that their answers will remain confidential, and that these sheets will not be collected.

Class Discussion

Why do we think we should look a certain way?
Where does our notion of an "ideal" body come from?
Why is there so much focus in our society on body image?
Who controls what images we see?
How does the ideal image of a woman?s body differ in other cultures? In other historic times?
How does smoking relate to body image for men? For women?
Why are teenage girls especially vulnerable to these ideas?
Do teenage boys feel similar pressures?
Why isn't smoking a good way to lose weight?
Ask some of the questions on Smoking and body image Q & As. Distribute copies of this sheet for the students? own reference.

Extension Activity

Have students collect magazine images that reinforce the North American "ideal" body image for women and for men. In small groups, they should make collages of these images and superimpose the words "Love Your Body, Not Theirs."