Every lamb we lose

Today is the beginning of the Women's Services and Resources annual Body Acceptance Week on the Brigham Young University Provo Campus. To kick off the week, the center is hosting "Mirrorless Monday," whose stated purpose reads:

Women's Services and Resources will host Body Acceptance Week through Friday on campus. The week will begin with "Mirrorless Monday," where the mirrors in the WSC will be covered to encourage students to not rely on appearance for acceptance.

Sadly, however, my personal experience with the commencement events have been bittersweet. As I multi-taskingly considered the various forms of acceptance I have at my disposal upon which to rely for acceptance, I entered the WSC second floor men's room and stopped in my tracks. The initiative to cover all mirrors in the restrooms had, indeed, been thwarted. I slowly moved toward the sinks to confirm the scene. I was right. An entire third of the mirror's protective cover had been carefully untaped, and was now hanging loosly from the wall.

I staggered slightly as I realized the implication. Sure, it could have been a mistake on the Center's part. Maybe they did not use enough tape to carry the weight of the veil. But even as I considered this, my heart sank as a fellow student exited one stall and approached the sink and mirror. He was a peer. He was a student, and a brother. Yet I watched as he looked himself straight in the eye, and walked out.

I don't know if he was the one who was so reliant upon his own image that he removed the veil, but I do know the hurt of knowing that even one lamb out of one-hundred who strays is a tragic loss.

In this Iblog post, my heart goes out to that anonymous brother who could not look away from what everyone else saw. I miss him, and hope he finds his way home. Fortunatley, this forum's purpose is twofold. Not only to call, but to reach out. Therefore, in a spirit of remembrance for the one lost I call out, "Please, BYU Women's Service and Resource center, consider other alternatives that will help each of us look past how we look. The current programs are noble, they do unimaginable good, but they could be better, stronger."

Please consider, for next year the following alternatives to "Mirrorless Monday" which I believe to be fool safe. Lets not loose a single lamb next year.

1) Turn each of us to Vampires. As extensively documented by Joss Whedon, vampires do not have reflections. PROS: No reflection = no reliance on appearance for acceptance; less material cost as large sheets of paper are no longer needed to block reflection. CONS: Vampires have no souls.

2) Veils. Veils have been a successful cure to body image issues ever since the Jahalian era of pre-Islamic Arabia. PROS: Not only will we not judge ourselves, others will be forced to rely on our personality to decide if we are ugly. CONS: Terrorism.

3) Remove Restrooms from Wilk entirely. No Bathrooms = No Mirrors = No body image issues. PROS: Reduced labor costs for Wilkenson Janitorial staff. CONS: Various forms of excretory ailments for a large percentage of BYU students, staff, and administration.

Remembering the Lost... - شكري

For more information on Body Acceptance Week (which, all humor aside, I support) and the Initiatives of the Women's Services and Resource Center, please visit their site: BYU Women's Services and Resource Center.