Post by Trublu on Nov 3, 2007 18:48:45 GMT -5
Hargitay delivers message to women
By SALLY FRIEDMAN
Burlington County Times
MOUNT LAUREL — Her message was unmistakable: Women need to care for themselves, especially if they are also caring for others.
Delivering that message in spirited remarks yesterday at the Burlington County College Enterprise Center was Mariska Hargitay, the actress who stars in NBC's “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”
The occasion was the third annual Virtua Health Women's Health Symposium, which attracted more than 500 women from the region who gathered for a day of sessions on everything from metabolism and knee replacements to loss of sex drive and spider veins.
Screenings, smoking cessation education, sun damage assessment and other health-related issues were also available to participants who also enjoyed a show of fall fashions.
But for many the highlight of the day was a chance to hear Hargitay. The actress, who plays NYPD detective Olivia Benson in the Special Victims Unit, revealed that she had her own struggles with deep and sometimes immobilizing insecurity.
“I lost my mother when I was only 3, and it left me with lots of terrible fears about being a parent myself,” said the actress, daughter of actress Jayne Mansfield and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay.
“I always felt that others knew how to do the very things I didn't. And I didn't know how to change that,” Hargitay told the audience. Married to actor Peter Hermann, whom she met when he appeared on the show, she became the mother of a son last year at 42.
The Los Angeles native spoke of her late father's high expectations for her, and how she battled him over his insistence that she excel. His constant advice that she believe in herself even when she didn't initially left her angry, she explained, and then grateful.
“It took me a long time to get there, and to believe my own self-talk,” she said. “I had to minimize my self-battering, and that's not easy.”
But after the rocky decade of her 20s, Hargitay forced herself to go on despite the frequent humiliation of auditions in which she was often compared to her late mother, a striking blonde. “ "Why aren't YOU blonde?' they would ask me. You're not very sexy...sweetie, fix your teeth, and what's with that name of yours?' ''
Her persistence ultimately paid off, initially with small roles, and in 1999 with her role on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”
“The show is the most rewarding experience of my life. I feel as if I'm doing something that matters,” said the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress.
Several years ago, Hargitay started the Joyful Heart Foundation for survivors of sexual assault after an avalanche of mail from viewers who described their own ordeals, often kept hidden for years.
“I've learned more about sexual assault through the show than I ever knew before, and I now understand that souls get shut down and the lights go out for many of these women. They've been robbed of something precious, and it's hard work to ever feel free again,” the keynote speaker told her symposium audience yesterday.
Audience questions included concerns about how victims of sexual assault end up feeling guilty themselves.
“Patterns in sexual assault can go very deep and be very confusing,” said Hargitay, who has done work on a documentary called “Unsafe” which is geared to raising workplace consciousness about sexual assault and domestic violence.
A dramatic moment came yesterday when an audience member introduced herself as a survivor of sexual assault who had finally been healed, and who was planning to marry soon. The audience broke into loud and sustained applause for the young woman.
Hargitay spoke of her deep commitment to work towards healing victims through her foundation, which uses swimming with dolphins as one of its approaches to help “open souls” shut down by degrading assaults. One in four women, she noted, have experienced some kind of sexual assault in their own lives.
“She was wonderful!” said Audrey Henderson of Glassboro, who had traveled with a friend, Anita Steinbeck, to attend yesterday's event. Henderson works with mentally ill patients at a mental health center.
“My work is so draining, and it felt wonderful to give myself a day like this,” said Henderson. “The thing I'll take away with me from the seminars, and from hearing Mariska, is that you have to learn to love yourself or you can't love anyone else.”
October 14, 2007 6:52 AM
By SALLY FRIEDMAN
Burlington County Times
MOUNT LAUREL — Her message was unmistakable: Women need to care for themselves, especially if they are also caring for others.
Delivering that message in spirited remarks yesterday at the Burlington County College Enterprise Center was Mariska Hargitay, the actress who stars in NBC's “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”
The occasion was the third annual Virtua Health Women's Health Symposium, which attracted more than 500 women from the region who gathered for a day of sessions on everything from metabolism and knee replacements to loss of sex drive and spider veins.
Screenings, smoking cessation education, sun damage assessment and other health-related issues were also available to participants who also enjoyed a show of fall fashions.
But for many the highlight of the day was a chance to hear Hargitay. The actress, who plays NYPD detective Olivia Benson in the Special Victims Unit, revealed that she had her own struggles with deep and sometimes immobilizing insecurity.
“I lost my mother when I was only 3, and it left me with lots of terrible fears about being a parent myself,” said the actress, daughter of actress Jayne Mansfield and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay.
“I always felt that others knew how to do the very things I didn't. And I didn't know how to change that,” Hargitay told the audience. Married to actor Peter Hermann, whom she met when he appeared on the show, she became the mother of a son last year at 42.
The Los Angeles native spoke of her late father's high expectations for her, and how she battled him over his insistence that she excel. His constant advice that she believe in herself even when she didn't initially left her angry, she explained, and then grateful.
“It took me a long time to get there, and to believe my own self-talk,” she said. “I had to minimize my self-battering, and that's not easy.”
But after the rocky decade of her 20s, Hargitay forced herself to go on despite the frequent humiliation of auditions in which she was often compared to her late mother, a striking blonde. “ "Why aren't YOU blonde?' they would ask me. You're not very sexy...sweetie, fix your teeth, and what's with that name of yours?' ''
Her persistence ultimately paid off, initially with small roles, and in 1999 with her role on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”
“The show is the most rewarding experience of my life. I feel as if I'm doing something that matters,” said the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress.
Several years ago, Hargitay started the Joyful Heart Foundation for survivors of sexual assault after an avalanche of mail from viewers who described their own ordeals, often kept hidden for years.
“I've learned more about sexual assault through the show than I ever knew before, and I now understand that souls get shut down and the lights go out for many of these women. They've been robbed of something precious, and it's hard work to ever feel free again,” the keynote speaker told her symposium audience yesterday.
Audience questions included concerns about how victims of sexual assault end up feeling guilty themselves.
“Patterns in sexual assault can go very deep and be very confusing,” said Hargitay, who has done work on a documentary called “Unsafe” which is geared to raising workplace consciousness about sexual assault and domestic violence.
A dramatic moment came yesterday when an audience member introduced herself as a survivor of sexual assault who had finally been healed, and who was planning to marry soon. The audience broke into loud and sustained applause for the young woman.
Hargitay spoke of her deep commitment to work towards healing victims through her foundation, which uses swimming with dolphins as one of its approaches to help “open souls” shut down by degrading assaults. One in four women, she noted, have experienced some kind of sexual assault in their own lives.
“She was wonderful!” said Audrey Henderson of Glassboro, who had traveled with a friend, Anita Steinbeck, to attend yesterday's event. Henderson works with mentally ill patients at a mental health center.
“My work is so draining, and it felt wonderful to give myself a day like this,” said Henderson. “The thing I'll take away with me from the seminars, and from hearing Mariska, is that you have to learn to love yourself or you can't love anyone else.”
October 14, 2007 6:52 AM