To the editor:

I recently had the opportunity to read some of the articles on your website and while they were generally well written, one article in particular caught my eye.

The article entitled “Concert Promotes Aiding Women Deal with Body Image” was over all an important issue to address and thus the event was understandably appropriate. However, the quote: “It is said that American adolescent girls are more fearful of gaining weight than they are of cancer, war or of losing their parents’ was put out of context, causing eye brows to be raised. In including such a quote there is a danger of misleading readers in one of two ways.

1. If healthy American adolescent girls are stating that they are more fearful of gaining weight than they are of getting cancer, or being vicitmized in war or losing their parents, then this may mean that they are not consumed with self-image, but that they simply feel that the other incidents are less likely to happen in the eyes of a teenager and thus there’s no need to worry about it. For example, if someone were to ask me: are you worried about a bomb hitting your home or losing $50 today, I would point to the latter simply because in my eyes it is more likely to happen. It is not because I value money over my life.

2.Because no context is given of what kinds of American teeanage girls said the quote or how many were asked what they fear most and what percentage said gaining weight, one is left having to draw their own conclusions. Do ALL American adolescent girls believe this? Are they ALL “ill” or obssessed with their image due to media and other exogenous factors?

In short (or maybe not so much), the intro to the article is unclear with respect to the urgency of the issue, though the event itself seemed to be informative for DU spectators.