Dear Editor:

At first glance our campus appears pristine, with the image of Dallas Hall setting in the late Texas sun. However, not every element of our campus is as picturesque. Take a closer look around. The harsh reality is that many girls on this campus are suffering from eating disorders.

In some instances you notice immediately because the girls look like hunger victims on those infomercials asking you to feed the children for only a quarter each week. You’d like to think with all the wealth at SMU we could manage to feed an entire nation, let alone the anorexic girls here. In more confidential cases, girls skip meals or exercise until it becomes dangerous. Whatever way they chose to lose the weight, it has gotten out of control.

As a first-year, everyone worried about gaining the notorious freshman 15, but it’s sad to see that still girls of all ages are depriving their bodies of nutrients and longevity.

Perhaps the causes for these disorders are the result of something greater. Maybe it’s because girls feel the need to be socially accepted and fit in with their fellow peers. Therefore, if one girl develops an eating disorder such as bulimia, does the domino effect take place where everyone else follows her actions? It’s like the example your parents used to use when you molded under peer pressure – if your friends jump off a cliff, does that mean you’ll do it too? Or, maybe it’s the media that creates this craze to have the heroine sheik deathly thin look. If you ask me, I think it’s a true fashion catastrophe.

There are healthier ways to lose the weight. Try eating three balance meals a day and exercise regularly. Moderation is the key – nothing in excess. Then again, I guess that’s hard to conquer at a university that values vanity and praises perfectionism. We must step back and ask ourselves have we gone too far to become “beautiful?”

Lauren Helmuth
Sophomore communication major