For three years, Carolyn Becker, associate professor of psychology, has been working with Delta Delta Delta, a leading social Greek organization, to expand the sorority body image program from the Trinity campus to Tri Delta chapters across the country.

Now, both Professor Becker and Tri Delta will take their message of a healthy body image to an even bigger audience – all women across the nation.

Tri Delta, with partners that include the National Organization of Women, the National Eating Disorders Association, and Seventeen magazine, will launch a national campaign to discuss the need to combat “the thin ideal.”

At the center of the campaign will be the issue of “fat talk.”

 “Fat talk is basically all of the seemingly innocuous things that women say on a regular basis that reinforce the thin ideal and contribute to women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies,” said Dr. Becker.

Things such as “Do these jeans make me look fat?”  or “You look great! Did you lose weight?”

While the campaign will not be officially announced until mid-October, Tri Delta shared some of the highlights of the project, which include a video that will be sent by e-mail and a special Web site that will be updated daily with information on the importance of developing a healthy body image.

Tri Delta will also use the campaign to announce that the body image program,  developed by Professor Becker and which is now known as Reflections, will become available to other sororities and professionals working with college students across the country.

Professor Becker is enthusiastic with the phenomenal growth of the program which began with the six sororities on the Trinity campus.  She credits the strong organizational skills of sororities – both at Trinity and at Tri Delta chapters – as well as their developed leadership structure for making the body image program a success for college women.

“Sororities are highly organized to help people. They have the ability to make a difference.”

© 2008 Trinity University