In Reply To:
I danced for a year when I was six so the only "pressure" was to look cute in our little sailor outfits...
but I am suprised that your daughter found swimming to be such a "healthy" environment. How can you spend so much time in a swimsuit and NOT feel so many eyes on what you look like? I became severely anorexic in high school... it started swimming. I don't remember so much wanting to be thinner (that came later) as being unhappy with my race times and somehow thinking that not eating would help. Like if I were smaller I would swim faster? I don't know what flawed logic I had. Or maybe it was being unhappy with myself and not eating as 'punishment.' It was more likely a way to control something when I was swimming my little tail off every day and not getting any faster (and that cycle got worse when I pretty much stopped eating).
The skewed body image came much later for me but I still feel it. Watching local college championship meets, I was surprised at how 'big' some of the girls looked (then again maybe that's just my skewed perception) but they are fast as hell. My roommate is a D1 swimmer. She always tells me "I wish I were skinny as you." My reply to that is usually, "I wish I had your 200 fly times." I know logically that swimmers aren't thin [well as thin as runners] but I still fight that... anyway, I STILL feel "fat" in my swimsuit sometimes. It's annoying as hell. Yesterday AM I ran and thought I looked too thin in the shorts and tank top I was wearing. I went to the pool in the afternoon and when I put my swimsuit on, "where did being thin go?" it didn't help that we had mirrors in the bottom of the pool yesterday so you could see a couple of your strokes as you swam over them... :P
I have gotten to the point where I can look at models and know I don't want to look like that, they have no muscle. Quite frankly I'm not sure how they manage to WALK and I bet I could out swim/run/bike them and that's more important. And I've come to realize how airbrushed photos in fashion magazines are... they look SO fake if you really look. Those don't bother me. The body image stuff I have trouble with is tri photos, actually. Like race pictures of top triathletes... and how lean they look and how thin. Then I feel un-thin.
Oh, I definitely think that there can be pressure to "look" a certain way for swimmers. I just think that the pressure is more from within oneself than it is from teammates and coaches. This didn't happen at my daughter's studio, but the word on the street was that some of the studios required periodic weigh-ins for the KIDS! Swimmers can be awesomely fast and not be "skinny," but dancers are pressured by their teachers to look a certain way. Realistically, gaining 5 lbs. probably won't affect your swim times much; however, it can be devastating for a dancer. Also, when you're dancing, you're always on display. When you're swimming, you're protected in the water and not so exposed. And those mirrors on the bottom of the pool ARE NOT skinny mirrors, LOL! I think the water reflects on them in the most unflattering way. And you're supposed to be looking at your stroke, not your thighs! ;-) ;-)
So much of body type is genetic. Certain body types tend to perform better in certain sports, and have different strengths within those sports. Intellectually it's easy to understand, but it's very difficult to internalize.