Posts Tagged Body Image

Is Facebook enabling eating disorders?

A new survey has found that Facebook might be enabling eating disordered thinking and behaviour.

The survey, conducted by The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore, suggests that the omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent social media site “is influencing body image and hyper-awareness of body size.”

The CED surveyed 600 Facebook users between the ages of 16 and 40 nationwide. Fifty-one percent of respondents reported that “seeing photos of themselves and others makes them more conscious of their body and weight.”

Some more sobering stats from the survey:

51% of respondents said that seeing photos of themselves make them more conscious about their body and weight.

51% agree that they often find themselves comparing their life to that ...

A new survey has found that Facebook might be enabling eating disordered thinking and behaviour.

The survey, conducted by The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore, suggests that the omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent social ...

Why YOU are beautiful, full stop.

Originally posted on jocelynthemaster.blogspot.com.

So here’s the thing. This picture that’s been circulating around Facebook…

…is BULLSHIT. I know that not everyone who has posted this has been all “OMG THIS IS SO EFFING TRUE LOVE YOUR BODY <33333333″ and that many people have used it as a jumping-off point for more critical discussion about fat shaming and such, so if you did post this, please don’t think that I’m personally criticizing you. I just felt the need to jump in on this discussion. Because I get that SOME PARTS of this message need to get out there. I understand that Western society needs to understand that the average woman is a size 16, not between a size 4 and ...

Originally posted on jocelynthemaster.blogspot.com.

So here’s the thing. This picture that’s been circulating around Facebook…

…is BULLSHIT. I know that not everyone who has posted this has been all “OMG THIS IS SO EFFING TRUE LOVE YOUR ...

Wednesday Weigh-In: Pubic Hair Edition

According to the Atlantic, it’s time for another trend piece about pubic hair grooming habits. There’s some interesting history there, although its conclusion–that some young women, especially white college students, are waxing it all off these days–is probably pretty obvious to most real young people. It should also be noted that the answer to that alarmed question in the headline, “Has Pubic Hair in America Gone Extinct?” is, “no, it hasn’t.”

The author cites a new study as evidence that “more women lack pubic hair than ever before.” And while that’s no doubt true (although there haven’t been a lot of studies on this topic in the past to compare to), what the researchers themselves actually concluded was that ...

According to the Atlantic, it’s time for another trend piece about pubic hair grooming habits. There’s some interesting history there, although its conclusion–that some young women, especially white college students, are waxing it all off these ...

Vintage Sexism: “You can’t afford to be skinny” edition

The vintage ad above was posted at Retronaut as part of a series of similar ads this week. It’s a good reminder that our current beauty standards, which promote weight loss and thinness, are actually pretty recent. It wasn’t so long ago that skinny was a considered a bad thing, and gaining weight to be curvier was what was being marketed to women.

Another ad after the jump.

The vintage ad above was posted at Retronaut as part of a series of similar ads this week. It’s a good reminder that our current beauty standards, which promote weight loss and thinness, are actually pretty recent. ...

Jenn Pozner and Melissa Harris-Perry’s class talk reality TV

Yesterday Melissa Harris-Perry’s Tulane class had a Twitter chat with Jenn Pozner about reality TV and the messages it’s selling us about race, gender, class, our bodies and sexualities, inspired by Pozner’s book Reality Bites Back. Zerlina dropped knowledge in the chat as well.

You can read the whole conversation at the hashtag #RealityBitesBack. Here’s few highlights:

Victoria’s Secret:

@MHarrisPerry: My mouth is agape as student describes to me the opinion that Victoria Secret models are heavy.

@JennPozner: Victoria Secret fashion show? An advertiser’s wet dream. Literally. Hour long product placement Clothing size and body image: @amymmmmmkay: every time a woman has curves, she’s labeled as #exotic. it’s only okay ...

Yesterday Melissa Harris-Perry’s Tulane class had a Twitter chat with Jenn Pozner about reality TV and the messages it’s selling us about race, gender, class, our bodies and sexualities, inspired by Pozner’s book Reality Bites Back. ...

Love for the nation’s only plus-size vintage clothing store: Fat Fancy

I had the serious pleasure of visiting Portland Oregon for the first time earlier this fall. There are many fun things to report about that city, but my favorite by far was a little store tucked away in downtown Portland called Fat Fancy.

I had heard about the store from friends and quickly ventured over to check it out. I was greeted by a super-friendly worker (who I later learned was the co-owner). They quickly explained that Fat Fancy has their own sizing scale, one that was identified with a sign on the wall. I don’t remember the names of the categories offhand, but basically they relabeled all of the clothes in the store into four size categories that had ...

I had the serious pleasure of visiting Portland Oregon for the first time earlier this fall. There are many fun things to report about that city, but my favorite by far was a little store tucked away ...

Norway considers disclaimers on retouched ads

Norway’s equality minister is pushing for advertisers to begin disclosing when their billboards have been retouched. The goal is to create “warning labels” that will help consumers, and particularly young people, distinguished between digitally altered images and unaltered ones.

Making the connection between unrealistic images of women’s bodies in advertising and poor body image in young women, equality minister Audun Lysbakken called for a dialogue between the advertising industry and the government to create new standards around this issue.

Lysbakken said hundreds of thousands of young girls endured eating disorders while living with a distorted self-image obtained partly by hopeless comparisons with “cleaned-up” beauty ads. Women’s rights groups in North America and in Europe have long allied with psychologists and sociologists ...

Norway’s equality minister is pushing for advertisers to begin disclosing when their billboards have been retouched. The goal is to create “warning labels” that will help consumers, and particularly young people, distinguished between digitally altered images and ...

Body Positive

*Editor’s note: May be NSFW

Our first assignment for the Women Filmmakers class I’m taking at Hampshire College was to create a short slideshow about an autobiographical event that shaped how we construct ourselves with specific attention to gender.

My friend and classmate, Dot, produced a wonderful piece about body positivity.  Dot’s piece about body size and normalized images of desire is an honest, frank and candid narrative of the need for positive acceptance of all body sizes.  I could go on about how wonderful this short piece is but her work can and does speak for itself.

*Editor’s note: May be NSFW

Our first assignment for the Women Filmmakers class I’m taking at Hampshire College was to create a short slideshow about an autobiographical event that shaped how we construct ourselves with specific attention to ...

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