BVNW’s REbeL hosted a guys panel today in the little theater. Seven male students and two male teachers answered questions about body image that students asked anonymously at lunch last week.

According to REbeL sponsor Carolyn Potter, the idea for the guys panel came up at a meeting about Be You week. She said the club wanted to have a day dedicated to men and somebody suggested the guys panel.

“We wanted to pick some guys that hopefully would reach out to different groups and that people look up to,” Potter said. “We picked [them by] thinking ‘Who would have a good perspective on body image?’”

One of the students on the panel, junior Peter Hartman, said he thinks having the guys panel was a good way to display another side to the issue of body image.

“You can only represent that perspective so much without actually having a guy,” Potter said. “We really wanted it to be an authentic representation of what guys thought.”

Assistant band director Adam Lundine, another member of the panel, said he thought the panel went well and the people on it had good insight.

“These guys talked a lot about how confident they are in themselves and how to achieve that confidence,” Lundine said. “I think the more confident you are in yourself and your own strengths, the more successful you can be in different areas of your life.”

Potter said the primary goal of the panel was to show that body image affects more than just women. She said that although REbeL would like to have male members join the group for a new perspective on body image, the purpose of the panel was not to promote REbeL.

Hartman said the guys panel was a good opportunity to share a different side to body image issues. He said he hopes to see the group grow in that aspect.

“I think it’s a good cause,” Hartman said. “I think REbeL is a good group to get gender stereotypes trimmed down and to not have gender stereotypes, I don’t really agree with that. They should have both sides of gender stereotypes.”