Today ASU wraps up its celebration of Body Pride Week, a series of events aimed at encouraging students to develop a healthy body image.
How fitting, then, that Wednesday saw the premiere of cycle eight of "America's Next Top Model" feature two plus-size contestants out of the 13 appearing on this season of the show.
Granted, plus size models tend to be size 12 or 14, while plus sizes usually begin at size 14, but Diana and Whitney are much more representative of the average American woman, who is approximately 5 feet 4 inches, weighs about 145 pounds and wears a size 11 to 14.
Cycle eight is the first in "America's Next Top Model" history to feature more than one plus-size model, and my hope is that they remain on the show for several weeks, providing the primarily young female audience of the show with positive role models.
For all the lectures and programs that ASU puts on to promote body pride, the school will never come close to having the impact that popular culture and media have on body image.
The average fashion model is a size zero to two, making her thinner than about 98 percent of American women, and most other celebrities aren't much larger.
Surrounded by such thin women in film, music, television and other media sources, we soon are conditioned to accept tiny as normal, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary in our own bodies.
According to a 2003 survey by Teen magazine, 50 to 70 percent of healthy six- to 12-year-old girls believe they are overweight.
We all know what unhealthy body perception can lead to: a variety of unhealthy behaviors associated with the desire to lose weight, including skipping meals, over-exercising, laxative abuse and sometimes more serious disorders like anorexia and bulimia.
The number of Americans, both male and female, suffering from such disorders is staggering.
While Spain and a few other countries around the world have demanded that models have a healthy body mass index to be able to participate in runway shows, the United States government has done little to address the problem of body image in society.
Instead, improving the psyche of America's teenage girls has fallen on the shoulders of Tyra Banks.
In 1997, Tyra graced the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition at about 130 pounds.
Ten years later, Tyra's weight has fluctuated, as have her comments regarding contestants' weight in the years her show has been on the air.
Tyra now places herself at a happy 161 pounds, and this is the first season of the show to feature more than one token plus-size model.
It's also the first season that I haven't heard her say anything negative about the women's body shape. In fact, Diana, who sits at 6 feet 1 inch and 199 pounds according to an Internet report, had her proportions described by Tyra as perfect.
Certainly, "America's Next Top Model" will not change the world. I don't expect to wake up tomorrow and be greeted as a 170-pound goddess.
I haven't forgotten the recent hullabaloo surrounding photos of an unsuspecting Tyra sporting a bikini and some extra pounds - photos that were accompanied by degrading headlines in a half-dozen tabloids and countless Web sites.
But I do believe that Tyra's response - that she is happy with herself and still feels sexy - coupled with the healthier models competing in this cycle of the show may have some small effect on teenage girls and their perceptions of their own bodies.
A small victory is a victory nonetheless, and until more outlets of U.S. media and culture begin celebrating the average American woman, I will celebrate Tyra, bizarre and kooky as she is, as a pioneer and a hero.
Reach the reporter at: hanna.ricketson@asu.edu.
