Spring Break
Speaker lectures on women's health, displays misperceptions in media
Shaun Boutwell
Issue date: 3/24/05 Section: News
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Norsigian's lecture, "The Media and Women's Health: Sorting Fact from Fiction," marked the 25th anniversary of the Women's Studies Program at URI.
"We don't often tune into the ways in which we get manipulated," Norsigian said. "And that is why I think media literacy is so important."
Norsigian first talked about the origins of Our Bodies Ourselves, a nonprofit, public interest women's health education, advocacy and consulting organization. Norsigian helped start the group in the early 1970s following a women's liberation workshop held at Emmanuel College in Boston.
"These were college educated women who knew nothing about women," Norsigian said.
They soon made it their goal to gather as much information about women's health and bodies as possible, which eventually led to the best-selling first edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves in 1973.
Norsigian devoted a significant amount of time discussing the effects of falsely marketed drugs toward women.
"Right now we are facing a number of drugs that are being marketed misleadingly," she said. "The risks we assume are there may not be there."
Norsigian urged people to be cautious when reading about actresses and models that promote certain drugs or hormones as their "beauty secrets" in magazine articles because they are often paid spokespersons for the product.
In regards to the issue of false advertising, Norsigian said, "The problem with this whole issue is that we don't discern it."
She mentioned many organizations nationwide were upset over some of the ads, including one group in particular that tried to get them banned.
"We were surprised because they are conservative," Norsigian said. "But they looked at the evidence and said, 'This is not consumer educated. The benefits are exaggerated and the risks are downplayed.'"
Norsigian discussed the dangers of silicon use for breast implants and the influence of reality shows emphasizing the necessity for physical attractiveness.
"Extreme Makeover and The Swan ... all of these shows suggest you aren't good enough and you need to change your bodies," she said.
