In every sport or art form, there will always be flaws. When these activities are seen as a future for a young girl or boy, it is likely for insecurities to arise. I am someone who is closely related to a dancer who has experienced the downfalls of being a part of this culture, and I myself, as someone very involved in sports since a young age, have faced my own demons in this field. Studies have shown that disorders among adolescents have started earlier and earlier, as the pressure and competitiveness increase in just the simple activity of joining a team.
Parents are out of the know and talk about how they are becoming less aware of when their child begins to compare themselves to those around them in their dance company, cheerleading team or softball team, to name a few. An 18-year-old ballet dancer educated me about how detrimental it is for our society to strongly focus on body image and neglect its influences on children. She defines the duration of her childhood, having to be put in front of a mirror every day, as a period when it was difficult to look at herself and analyze every little thing.
In my many years as a “team player,” working together toward a common goal taught me collaboration and communication skills. While my coaches encouraged a little “healthy competition,” they did not always instill much self-esteem. After interviewing the ballet dancer, I learned that this issue is also prevalent in much of the art world. Constantly comparing oneself to peers in how fast they can run, or how thin they look in a mirror, has a very negative impact on today’s youth.
Even more specifically, it is likely that eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia become instinctual and the “norm.” The young woman continued to mention that when she joined a larger and more well-known dance studio, the pressure was on. She claimed that her innocence was taken away in her dancing because of the countless days spent in the studio alongside her fellow dancers comparing how many carrots each of them ate. It is apparent that the parents of each child only fed into this behavior by competing with one another through their daughters.
I can recall, as a past athlete, this same culture adapted among my teammate’s parents. Carpools to each game became a time to look at one another’s stats from the last game, instead of peering over one another’s NV2s to view text messages. I remember hearing one of my friends from my high school basketball team harp on the fact that a smaller jersey size increases a runner’s speed. In retrospect, and as I read more on the way, I notice that sports are becoming less of something a child does in their free time and more a focus on the future. I notice how damaging the created atmosphere was and still seems to be. In order to decrease the rapid growth of society’s youth leaning toward mental health instances due to the 21st century’s focus on image, we must first hone in on the cause of this effect.