All teachers and staff members are tasked with the responsibility of fostering a positive learning environment for their students. Whether that be allowing students to go for walks when they feel anxious in class, asking students what they did over the weekend, or opening up office hours for students to ask questions, a major part of teaching is creating a space for students to feel comfortable in. However, this comfortable environment can begin to crack as students and teachers delve into more sensitive subjects. Body image is not always an explicit topic in our classes but it tends to come up far more frequently than we may realize. A simple comment on a character in a book’s described appearance, the analysis of the human form in an art piece, or even a seemingly harmless joke about the body stirs up the discussion of body image in the minds of students. Discussion of body image can be incredibly triggering to some students leading to body dysmorphia, unhealthy eating habits, and mental health issues. Considering how quickly a discussion of looks can turn into one of body image, it seems that avoiding the subject of bodies all together could be beneficial at PHS.

Gym and health classes contain a large majority of the insensitive discussions surrounding body image that happen in school. It is understandable that a class that is intended to encourage health and fitness would bring up the body as a topic, but these discussions are often not handled particularly well. Each year as the holidays come around, our gym and health teachers remind us not to eat too many carbs over the holidays and to make sure we walk off the extra calories. While these reminders to students before the holidays can be helpful, they can also be incredibly triggering. They also fail to take into account the fact that dieting and weight loss may not be healthy options for some students. These comments also perpetuate a harmful norm that weight loss is the ideal solution to body image issues. By idealizing this solution, teachers continue to push that assumption on to students creating even more harmful standards through which students assume they should view themselves.

Insensitivity to body image discussions are oftentimes unintentional, speech rooted from previous stereotypes regarding specific body types. For instance, art teachers’ comments on the ideal body figure in sketches, discussing what they think is a “good” or healthy figure or, teachers undermining student’s knowledge on certain “healthy” products because they don’t look fit; these are all instances that one may come across. The idea that weight was an indicator of status comes up in every single history class at least once. However, pointing such a fact out in reference to a historical figure in front of students living in an environment without those body standards can harbor internalization and self comparison. Even the media that teachers chose to show to students can be harmful by implicitly pushing body image standards and harmful norms. It is important to make use of a diverse array of representations to ensure that students do not feel singled out or pressured by the implicit displays of body image in the classroom.

Although a comfortable learning environment does stem from our teachers, maintaining respect between students, especially surrounding body image, is the key way to ensure that students feel good in their own skin. Walking through the main intersection at PHS makes every student privy to hundreds of harsh comments, jokes, and implicit ideas that can be incredibly harmful to mental health even by stirring up harmful ideas in students’ heads. It is important that students take even a second to think about the consequences of what they say and how things could be interpreted. In a perfect world, we would eliminate all comments about others’ appearance including compliments on clothing or hairstyle as those comments bring attention back to the body rather than highlighting the merit of those around us. However, this kind of respect between students stems from our teachers leading by example by eliminating harmful comments and opening up the more difficult conversations surrounding body image in a sensitive way.

Going forward, our teachers should put a greater emphasis on sensitivity surrounding body image. Before a sensitive lesson, teachers should give students a trigger warning and allow students to leave the room if they are struggling with a certain subject so long as they check in with her before the end of the period. That reflects a level of trust and mutual respect between the teacher and their students. Additionally, Teachers should also work to include greater representations of all body types so as to not push harmful body image standards on to students. We must speak cognizantly about body image — no one knows what another person can be going through and what even back-handed compliments can trigger.