{"id":8476,"date":"2016-08-26T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=8476"},"modified":"2016-08-24T14:24:56","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T18:24:56","slug":"body-acceptance-takes-whole-new-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/08\/body-acceptance-takes-whole-new-level.html","title":{"rendered":"Body Acceptance Takes on A Whole New Level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3925\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2013\/01\/girl-in-mirror-300x236.jpg\" alt=\"girl in mirror\" width=\"300\" height=\"236\" \/>Renee is like most teen girls. She struggles to accept her body. Obsessed with concerns about weight, beauty and comparing herself to others, she regularly finds ways to disparage her body. \u00a0But her most recent issue takes body acceptance to a whole new level. And I will warn you, this is R rated.<\/p>\n<p>Renee is considering plastic surgery&#8211;on her genitals. According to the America Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Renee is not alone. This group has witnessed an 80% increase in the number of girls under the age of 18 receiving genital plastic surgery. The numbers have been so concerning that\u00a0the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has issued new guidelines for doctors performing this and breast surgery. One of those guidelines is to screen for body dysmorphic disorder, a psychiatric disorder in which a person obsesses on a perceived body flaw and feels distress. In this case, the flaw is imperfect or ugly and disgusting genitals.<\/p>\n<p>You may wonder, why\u00a0would a young woman feel ashamed of her genitals? The answer has to do with shame. And the source of that shame has to do with the impact of porn on the thinking of young women and men. With porn so available and watched by so many, girls and boys are able see what the &#8220;perfect&#8221; or &#8220;desirable&#8221; gentitalia is supposed to look like, at least according to porn\u00a0stars. Then when they compare their bodies to those of porn stars, they feel they don&#8217;t measure up. Thus, we have women who\u00a0think they must\u00a0correct their\u00a0defect through plastic surgery, and men evaluating women against this &#8220;ideal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s all quite disturbing-too much information and objectification of women. This sets the stage. Women want \u00a0to please men by correcting some distorted image they have of their bodies. And men, whose ideas of beauty and desirability are\u00a0shaped by\u00a0viewing pornography, react to the what they see and desire. \u00a0 You can imagine what this does to intimacy.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, body acceptance doesn&#8217;t get better with surgery. Rather, we need a surgery of the heart in which women see themselves in the image of God and stop comparing themselves to others, especially porn stars. Here again, we see\u00a0the fall out of the impact of pornography and the destruction it brings to people&#8217;s lives-shame, feeling ugly, not good enough&#8211;so much so that young women are willing to surgically change their most private parts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renee is like most teen girls. She struggles to accept her body. Obsessed with concerns about weight, beauty and comparing herself to others, she regularly finds ways to disparage her body. \u00a0But her most recent issue takes body acceptance to a whole new level. And I will warn you, this is R rated. Renee is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913],"tags":[2179,460,3589,1953],"class_list":["post-8476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-couple-relationships","tag-body-acceptance","tag-body-dysmorphic-disorder","tag-genital-surgery","tag-teen-girls"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Body Acceptance Takes on A Whole New Level<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/08\/body-acceptance-takes-whole-new-level.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Body Acceptance Takes on A Whole New Level\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Renee is like most teen girls. She struggles to accept her body. Obsessed with concerns about weight, beauty and comparing herself to others, she regularly finds ways to disparage her body. \u00a0But her most recent issue takes body acceptance to a whole new level. And I will warn you, this is R rated. Renee is&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/08\/body-acceptance-takes-whole-new-level.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-26T10:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-24T18:24:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2013\/01\/girl-in-mirror-300x236.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Body Acceptance Takes on A Whole New Level","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/08\/body-acceptance-takes-whole-new-level.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Body Acceptance Takes on A Whole New Level","og_description":"Renee is like most teen girls. 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Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. 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