Media Advisory

TO                         Features Editors and Education Reporters

FROM                     UAF Women's Studies Program

SUBJECT                Panel Discussion, Video Viewing on Healthy, Harmful Body Images

LOCATION              Noel Wein Library on Wed., April 14; Farthest North Girl Scouts Council Building on Wed., April 21;
                              Southside Community Center on Tues., April 27

DATE & TIME          Tuesday and Wednesdays in April at 7.p.m.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Women's Studies Program will sponsor three panel discussions and video viewings throughout April to discuss the impact of images in today's mass media which affect the development of adolescent girls. Each presentation will include a 35-minute video followed by a panel discussion.

The video is based on the bestselling novel "Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls" by clinical psychologist Mary Pipher. In her book, Pipher says that bombarding young girls in the mass media with images of impossible beauty, unhealthy slenderness, overt sexuality, and expensive designer clothing makes it hard for adolescents to build up a healthy self-image.

These themes will be the subject of a panel discussion during the presentations. Panel members will include: UAF Women's Studies Chair Joy Morrison, UAF assistant professor of education Jordan Titus, Mary-Lou Canney with the Resource Center for Parents and Children, Ginny Fuerst with Fairbanks Counseling and Adoption Center; Valerie Demming with the Fireweed Counseling Center; Beth Corven of Family Focus; and several teenage girls from the Fairbanks community.

CONTACT: Associate Professor Joy Morrison, UAF Journalism Department, (907) 474-6245, or via email: ffjfm@uaf.edu

JCS/4-8-99/99-063ma