Tag Archive for "Body Image"

Posts Tagged Body Image

Case of 11 year old girl shows we shouldn’t use BMI testing in schools to shame kids

An 11 year old girl in Florida was given a health assessment at school by the Collier County Health Department. The assessment included a BMI (Body Mass Index) test and the results came back that she was overweight. She was sent home with a letter that included the dangers of being overweight and stated she was at risk for being fat all of her life if no one intervened. Her mother was rightfully concerned about how harmful this practice could be to girls’ self esteem.

I, on the other hand, have some issues with how the story is being reported. Clips from the aired news story include Lily Grassow playing volleyball and being active in her average-sized body. Other shots follow ...

By Chloe Angyal • 10 years ago

Should we do away with beauty pageants?

Our girl Courtney Martin says yes. In the Times’s Room for Debate, Courtney calls them outdated, and says they perpetuate the harmful idea that success in the real world depends on a woman’s ability to be a very particular kind of beautiful:

Let’s face it: the most beautiful women you’ve ever encountered would be total losers in a traditional pageant. That’s because authentic, messy, transcendent beauty can’t be scored. It isn’t tamed, plucked, planned, premeditated or rehearsed. And people like Donald Trump, who owns the Miss USA pageant, are clearly not the purveyors of it.

Real beauty is about resilience: girls and women who have been through something and come out the other side with ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 10 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

Last night, a man was shot in the streets of New York in a hate crime marked by homophobic slurs. Bigotry kills.

A survivor argues that military sexual trauma should be treated as as national security issue.

Radio host Pete Santilli says Hilary Clinton needs to be “shot in the vagina.”

A proposed law to protect Afghan women was blocked by opponents.

This guy wants the government to pay women to date him.

On not being a “good” trans woman.

The Pentagon has established a process for trans vets to choose the gender listed in their records.

“Jokes can… validate prejudicial viewers and consumers in a way that defenders ...

Last night, a man was shot in the streets of New York in a hate crime marked by homophobic slurs. Bigotry kills.

A survivor argues that military sexual trauma should be treated ...

By zerlina • 10 years ago

NYC mayoral candidate, Christine Quinn, admits past struggle with bulimia and alcohol

In a very personal revelation Tuesday night, New York City Council Speaker and current candidate for Mayor Christine Quinn admitted to having a past struggle with bulimia for nearly 10 years. Quinn also admitted she is in recovery from alcoholism.

Via Talking Points Memo:

New Yorkers might have felt they knew about the personal life of Christine Quinn, the veteran politician seeking to become the city’s first gay and first female mayor.

But on Tuesday, Quinn disclosed a difficult piece of her past that she had kept private: She was bulimic for a decade in her teens and 20s, went to rehab for it at 26 and considers herself a recovering alcoholic to this day.

“I’ve always held the belief that the more ...

By Chloe Angyal • 10 years ago

Guest post: My old friend Ana

**Trigger warning**

This is a guest post from an anonymous Feministing reader.

You could say I’m a words person. Communications, in all forms, is what I’m good at, it’s what I gravitate towards. I’ll do the crossword puzzle over the Sudoku. Words to me are pieces to play with, tell stories with, pitch clients with. I’ve never had a connection to numbers, I didn’t mind math, with the exception of one number, one in constant flux, multiplying or adding or subtracting throughout my life.

Vogue published what anorexics would call probably the dumbest article of all time in its April issue. I’m paraphrasing here. It asked, “is anorexia for life?” I think, as a former anorexic (well, Ana is now a dull memory, but still with me, ...

**Trigger warning**

This is a guest post from an anonymous Feministing reader.

You could say I’m a words person. Communications, in all forms, is what I’m good at, it’s what I gravitate towards. I’ll do the crossword puzzle over ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

Princeton alum tells female students to hurry up and find a husband already.

Sandberg, Slaughter, et al. are advocating for a new feminism devoid of social justice.

In memory of Pastor Henry Enuta.

Duh: pre-viability abortions bans are unconstitutional.

Feminists don’t hate men–they just hate you, MRA dude.

Conservative justices thought this year was their last chance to fight same-sex marriage.

Check out the trailer from “Feminist: Stories from Women’s Liberation,” which won top honors at the 2013 L.A. Women’s Film Festival.

“Leaning in” in Iraq.

Bill Gates wants you to invent a better condom.

Rape is not a punch line, Rick Ross.

So what if Victoria’s Secret sells ...

Princeton alum tells female students to hurry up and find a husband already.

Sandberg, Slaughter, et al. are advocating for a new feminism devoid of social justice.

In memory of Pastor Henry Enuta.

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Teen boys also risking their health in pursuit of unattainable bodies

Great, so that basically makes all of us, right? The New York Times reports:

“There has been a striking change in attitudes toward male body image in the last 30 years,” said Dr. Harrison Pope, a psychiatry professor at Harvard who studies bodybuilding culture and was not involved in the study. The portrayal of men as fat-free and chiseled “is dramatically more prevalent in society than it was a generation ago,” he said.

While college-age men have long been interested in bodybuilding, pediatricians say they have been surprised to find that now even middle school boys are so absorbed with building muscles. And their youth adds an element of risk.

Just as girls who count every calorie in an effort to be ...

Great, so that basically makes all of us, right? The New York Times reports:

“There has been a striking change in attitudes toward male body image in the last 30 years,” said Dr. Harrison Pope, a psychiatry ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

The Wednesday Weigh-in: Lady Gaga’s Body Revolution Edition

After the media erupted with the usual bullshit over photos that seemed to show the pop star looking chubbier than usual, Lady Gaga launched a new project on her site called Body Revolution and posted photos of herself in her underwear with the caption, “Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15.”

Gaga encouraged her Little Monsters to post their own photos and “be brave and celebrate with us your ‘perceived flaws,’ as society tells us. May we make our flaws famous, and thus redefine the heinous.” And post they have–with stories of battling cancer, recovering from eating disorders, living with disabilities. But as Kelsey notes at Bitch, many of the comments–from both Gaga and her fans–simply assure ...