As I enter my fourth week at TCU, I still can’t help but be amazed by this place. Good friends, interesting professors and an abundance of school spirit leave no doubt in my mind that I made the right selection in choosing this university.I also love all of the pretty girls around here, and I thank the good Lord every night for blessing my otherwise mundane existence with such splendor.

As the crowded passages of the University Recreation Center will attest to, it is no secret that female students at TCU take great physical care of themselves. However, a high emphasis on body image can often spin out of control.

In my short time here, I have already begun to hear some unsettling rumors swirling around.

Ten percent of females will suffer from an eating disorder at sometime in their lives, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Statistically speaking, about 500 females currently attending TCU have had, have, or will develop an eating disorder at some point in their lives. While most women afflicted with such ailments receive recuperative treatment and therapy, a considerable number wait until it’s too late.

The atrociously high number of American females suffering from eating disorders demonstrates the impossibility of achieving the ideal body image that society imposes upon women. Such an unachievable vision of perfection breeds an unhealthy obsession with looks that threatens to compromise the concept of true beauty.

Even from an early age, the undeserved burden of perfection is placed on women. As children, they are given a Barbie doll to play with. It becomes ingrained in their psyche that in order to marry Ken and be a successful doctor/lawyer/astronaut like Barbie, they must also have large breasts and a small waistline.

Guys, on the other hand, spend all of their formative years on the Nintendo, controlling the adventures of some fat Italian plumber named Mario. Apparently, all men have to do to save the day and get the girl is become a European with a mustache.

Ladies, if there’s anything that I can stress about this whole situation, it’s that you don’t need to fret as much about your looks. I know this might seem like a fallacy, but guys care about looks a lot less than you think they do. A smile and a good sense of humor will take you much further than booty shorts and eyeliner.

As I mentioned earlier, our current “bikini babe” culture threatens to destroy the concept of beauty as we know it. Beauty is not how well a girl fills out a swimsuit; it is something much deeper than that.

Beauty is not just a sight to see, but rather an effect that enraptures you in every aspect of a person.

Supermodels are not beautiful. Movie stars are not beautiful. Everyday people are beautiful.

Beauty is not something that can be bought in a store or earned at the gym; it’s something that comes naturally from within.

So go ahead girls, keep doing what you’re doing. Exercise, eat right and take good care of your bodies. Just be careful not to take it to the extreme. A man should like you for who you are, not for your appearance. Trust me, despite things we might say, we’re all pretty good guys underneath.

David Hall is a freshman news-editorial journalism major from Kingwood. His column appears every Tuesday.