Study guide Just Women, Summer 2009

Transcription

1 Study guide Just Women, Summer 2009 Introduction Welcome to Just Women! We hope this leader s guide will help you plan meaningful study sessions using the Summer 2009 issue of the magazine. The focus of this issue of Just Women is women and body image how can we learn to love ourselves, body and soul? Ask any American woman what she thinks of her appearance, and you will likely hear a laundry list of things she doesn t like. We are too fat or too thin. Our hair is too curly or too straight. We have too many wrinkles and gray hairs. Our breasts aren t full enough. Our thighs are too big. And on and on it goes. How can we learn to accept the bodies in which we live? How can we care for ourselves, body and soul? How can we block out the media messages about feminine beauty that bombard us every day? And how can we foster healthy body images in our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and friends? In the Summer 2009 issue of Just Women, you ll hear from women like you who have faced and even overcome their body demons. You ll find practical, user-friendly advice on leading a healthy lifestyle. And you ll learn about women who are fully embodying the spirit of Christ as they work to make a difference in their world. At the end of this study guide, you ll find a list of books on women and body image that might be helpful in your study. Preparation In prepare for the study sessions outlined here, make sure you have a sufficient number of subscriptions to the magazine, so that all members of your group have their own copies. If you need more, go to and click on Subscribe in the right column. Then read through the Summer issue, focusing especially on the articles on body image on pages 6 11 and You should also read Body & Soul (pp ) for ideas on making time and space for taking care of yourself and your body. Ask your group members to read the same study materials before your first meeting, so you ll all be ready to participate in the study.

2 Session 1 Supplies Bibles, the Summer 2009 issue of Just Women, an assortment of women s fashion magazines Opening prayer FOR THE GIFT OF BEAUTY For the gift of beauty that takes us by surprise in unexpected places For the pleasure that attend the renewing of our bodies with food and rest For friendship that holds back loneliness and discouragement For a universe that can in part be known that richly rewards our knowing For a moral order to life that plays fair with us For pangs of conscience that keep us human and make our world more humane For contributions from those who have lived before us and made possible this present hour and tomorrows worth preparing for Receive now our wonder and our gratitude, O Thou good Giver of it all. Amen 2 P a g e Prayer by Hunter Beckelhymer, appearing in Winged Words: Prayers for Common Worship & Common Life, edited by G. Philip Points, Thomas V. Stockdale, & Sandhya R. Jha. Copyright 2006 by Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago. Reprinted by permission. For more information, go to:

3 Icebreaker Ask group members to look through the women s fashion magazines and choose pictures of women they think are beautiful. Compare notes and see if there is much diversity in the images they chose? What do they consider beautiful, and why? Scripture focus Ask someone in the group to read aloud Genesis 1:27 and Psalm 139:14. Ask another person to read Sarah s story in the article on pp. 7 8, and Courtney Stanton s story, Learning from the Psalms on p. 9 of Just Women. Questions Choose several questions to guide your discussion today: Sarah Renfro describes being six feet tall, weighing 127 pounds, and wearing a size 4 and still being too heavy for her modeling career. Look back at the photos you chose from the fashion magazines. How much would you guess the models in those photos weigh? How does that compare to women you know in real life? Have you struggled with your weight? What diets, exercise programs, or other weight-loss regimes have you tried? Did you feel healthy while you were on those programs, or deprived? Did you feel successful? How many times a day do you compare yourself to images of women in magazines, on billboards, and in advertisements? Who in your life will support you in your efforts at building a healthy lifestyle? What scriptures can you turn to for help in dealing with your body image? What can women in the U.S. do to challenge unhealthy images of beauty in the media? Closing prayer Offer your own closing prayer, or invite a group member to do so. 3 P a g e

4 Session 2 Supplies Bibles, the Summer issue of Just Women Opening prayer A PRAYER FOR ROOTS O God, what are you calling me to become at this stage in my life? More gentle? More open? More receptive? More patient? More peaceful? More contented? More grateful? Here in this quiet place can I sense the power of your nudging and your encouragement. You want me to become, to grow, to move ahead. I sense you are calling me to enter a fresh and liberating stage of my life. I am anxious for you to show me the shape of that new stage. Yet I know I must enter it in trust. Sometimes far too often I feel that I have lost my moorings. O God, how I yearn to return to my roots. I yearn to be in touch with something real, something permanent. I yearn to feel connected to the well-springs of life. God, I pray that you will give me a connecting point with you. Loving God, before I take the next step, I need to know that I am rooted in your life, anchored in your grace, and centered in your spirit. I need to be both forgiven and restored. I need to be freed from my fears. I need connectedness to things good and holy and eternal. I need you, O God. Grant me your Spirit. Give me a part of you. Connected to you, O God, I can skip, not limp, into the next stage of my life. In Christ s name I pray. Amen 4 P a g e Prayer by Edward H. Kolbe, appearing in Winged Words: Prayers for Common Worship & Common Life, edited by G. Philip Points, Thomas V. Stockdale, & Sandhya R. Jha.

5 Copyright 2006 by Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago. Reprinted by permission. For more information, go to: Icebreaker Ask group members to reflect on times when they felt good about their bodies, strong and powerful. Were those times when they were very young? When they were pregnant or nursing? When they were caring for others? Do they feel good about their bodies today? Scripture focus Ask someone in the group to read aloud 2 Corinthians 4:26 and Genesis 1:31A. Ask someone else to read Katherine Willis Pershey s story, By body can, on page 7 of Just Women. Make sure group members have already read Sharon B. Fields story, The letter, on pp of Just Women. Questions Choose several questions to guide your discussion today: Some women say they feel beautiful when they are pregnant. Other report feeling fat and unattractive. If you have had children, how did you feel about your body while you were pregnant? As we age, we often move from a focus on what our bodies can do to focusing on what they can t do. What could you do when you were younger that you cannot do today? What can you do now that you could not do when you were younger? As the Baby Boom generation has aged, we ve seen more images of older women in the media. Are these images helpful? Or do they simply perpetuate unrealistic standards of what is acceptable? When you are faced with an illness or an unwelcome change in your body or health, who in your life can you turn to for support? Who will love you just the way you are? Closing prayer Offer your own closing prayer, or invite a group member to do so. 5 P a g e

6 Session 3 Supplies Bibles, the Summer 2009 issue of Just Women Opening prayer FOR A GREATER MIRACLE In an age of miracles, O God, we come to you in search of miracles. When humans circle the moon and job in the vacuum of space, when distances collapse and speed becomes commonplace, when human hearts are transplanted and medicines work wonders, we come to you, O God, in search of a greater miracle. We come because this is an age of anxiety, because we suffer loneliness and fear, because day after day seems meaningless, because hatred, discrimination, and killing still take place. In an age of miracles, O God, we come to you hungry for a miracle. Grant us today the miracle of Forgiveness; speak to us of the miracle of Love; amaze us this hour with one great reminder: God so loved the world that his only son he gave, that those who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Amen Prayer by Dan B. Genung, appearing in Winged Words: Prayers for Common Worship & Common Life, edited by G. Philip Points, Thomas V. Stockdale, & Sandhya R. Jha. Copyright 2006 by Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago. Reprinted by permission. For more information, go to: 6 P a g e

7 Icebreaker While society in North America has made great strides in the past decades toward becoming less racist, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and others still face unfair biases on a daily basis. Ask group members to reflect on how those biases still play out in the world today. Scripture focus Ask someone in the group to read aloud Galatians 3:28 and 1 Corinthians 6: Ask another person to read Maureen McCrae s story, Growing up different, on p. 8 of Just Women. Questions What prejudices do you still see played out in the media today? Do we see more positive or negative images of African American and Hispanics? What about Arab Americans? Asian Americans often are portrayed in the media as studious, cautious, and meek. Are those biases as damaging as the negative images we ve seen in the past of African Americans? Why or why not? Maureen s story reflects her experience as an Asian child adopted by a white family. Today, thousands of baby girls are adopted by American families from China. Do those children face the same stigma today that Maureen experienced? Some social workers advocate against inter-cultural adoption, arguing that children adopted outside their own ethnic/racial background have a hard time finding self-acceptance. What do you think? How diverse is your home church community? Do you ever venture into worship services in churches whose memberships are racially or culturally different from your own? Closing prayer Offer your own closing prayer, or invite a group member to do so. 7 P a g e

8 Additional ideas 1. Spend one session on the Woman-to-Woman Worldwide Program study material on pages and of Just Women. Refer back to the Winter 2009 issue for background information and a map of Bosnia. How can you help to raise awareness in your own community about the situation and needs in Bosnia? Ask your group to take a special collection for Week of Compassion s Build-a- Village program. Imagine if in your own town, Protestants and Catholics began warring against one another. What could you do to be a peacemaker? 2. Spend a session reading and discussing Tanya Tyler s article, Ministry helps exploited women find new friends, new life, on pp. 4 5 of Just Women. What is your image of women in the sex industry? How can your group reach out to women who have been sexually exploited? How much do you know about slavery in the twenty-first century, both around the world and in North America? Go to and click on Human Trafficking Break the Chains for more ideas. Suggested readings Here are some readings you can use to accompany the Summer 2009 issue of Just Women. Body image Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher & Ruth Ross (Riverhead Trade). Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search for Self by Sara Shandler (Harper). The Body Myth: Adult Women and the Pressure to Be Perfect by Margo Maine & Joe Kelly (Wiley). 8 P a g e

9 Resurrecting Eve: Women of Faith Challenge the Fundamentalist Agenda by Roberta Mary Pughe & Paula Anema Sohl (White Cloud Press). Bodylove: Learning to Like Our Looks and Ourselves A Practical Guide for Women by Rita Freedman (Gurze Books). Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth about Women, Body Image, and Re-imagining the Perfect Body by Leslie Goldman (De Capo). The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (Vintage). Human trafficking / sexual exploitation The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today by Kevin Bales & Ron Soodalter (University of California Press). Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara (Columbia University Press). The War on Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed by Anthony M. DeStefano (Rutgers University Press). Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone (HarperOne). Bosnia Bosnia: A Short History by Noel Malcolm (Pan Books). The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia by Michael A. Sells (University of California Press). Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maass (Vintage). 9 P a g e