Posts Tagged Body Image

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 ...

Today is Love Your Body Day!

Love Your Body Day is a project of the National Organization of Women, which runs a Love Your Body poster contest every year. This year’s winner bears the message that “you are a masterpiece,” and you can send it to your body-loving friends as an e-card if you want. NOW is also running a blog carnival.

When we talk about loving our bodies, we often talk about loving what we look like. “Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror?” asks the NOW campaign.

There’s certainly something to be said for loving the way you look – and when you’re a woman in this culture, it’s easier said than done. But with all the focus ...

Love Your Body Day is a project of the National Organization of Women, which runs a Love Your Body poster contest every year. This year’s winner bears the message that “you are a masterpiece,” and ...

Halloween store’s “Anna Rexia” costume

Editors’ note: This product, which was originally created by Dreamgirl, is no longer carried at Halloweenstore.com as of October 2013.

Plenty of people take Halloween as an opportunity to dress in more revealing outfits (/costumes) than they would, say, to the office; there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! But it’s irritating that most of the costumes specifically for women, available at Halloween and party stores, catalogs, and the internet, are almost always revealing and often have the words “sexy” or “slutty” in the title. This upsets me because the costumes were designed by groups of horny Western men who ship their sexy ideas overseas for sweatshop workers to carry them out.

What makes matters worse is that the costumes are often based on stereotypes ...

Editors’ note: This product, which was originally created by Dreamgirl, is no longer carried at Halloweenstore.com as of October 2013.

Plenty of people take Halloween as an opportunity to dress in more revealing outfits (/costumes) than they would, say, to ...

Putting acceptance back in the body acceptance movement

Jessica Weiner, body activist and entrepreneur, wrote a controversial personal essay that came out last week in Glamour Magazine about her wake-up call surrounding her health and how it has been negatively affected by her own black-and-white thinking regarding body acceptance. (Interestingly, the title of the piece has just been changed to “Did Loving My Body Almost Kill Me?” at Jess’ urging to reflect that it is a question worth exploring, not a forgone conclusion.) Full-disclosure, Jess is a friend and collaborator of mine, someone I’ve known since my own book on disordered eating and perfectionism came out back in 2007. As such, I have some insight into who she is that I think really puts this essay ...

Jessica Weiner, body activist and entrepreneur, wrote a controversial personal essay that came out last week in Glamour Magazine about her wake-up call surrounding her health and how it has been negatively affected by her own ...

Fund the media you want to see in the world

I often say that if you want to see better media, you have to consume better media.

If we want to live in a world with fewer women’s magazines that enforce stupid, restrictive gendered behavioural norms, we have to stop buying women’s magazines that enforce stupid, restrictive gendered behavioural norms. If we want to live in a world without romantic comedies that shame women for being single and having careers, we have to stop buying tickets to see romantic comedies that shame women for being single and having careers (and maybe have Katherine Heigl commit to a five-year moratorium on playing the Uptight Career Shrew Who Needs A Charming Misogynist to Teach Her How to Love.)

Sometimes, though, we have to go ...

I often say that if you want to see better media, you have to consume better media.

If we want to live in a world with fewer women’s magazines that enforce stupid, restrictive gendered behavioural norms, we have ...

Attitudes are the hardest thing to tailor

I used to love shopping. It was a big pastime for my family, and many of my best memories as a kid are centered on the shopping mall.

But even when I loved shopping for clothes, there was always that really terrible moment in the dressing room that would stick with me for months after the incident. That moment when, after trying on many cute-looking things on the rack, none of them looked good on my body. None.

If I couldn’t find clothes that looked good, that fit my body appropriately, I knew what the problem was immediately. It was me.

If only I lost a little weight, if only my belly shrunk some, THEN I would be a perfect size whatever and ...

I used to love shopping. It was a big pastime for my family, and many of my best memories as a kid are centered on the shopping mall.

But even when I loved shopping for clothes, there was ...

Vicious cycles: mothers, daughters, eating disorders

Over the weekend, this postcard was posted at PostSecret. For those of you who aren’t familiar with PostSecret, it’s a long-running crowd sourced art project in which people put their secrets on postcards and mail them in. Pretty simple concept, really powerful results.

This card, which I have to assume was created by a woman, certainly isn’t the first one that has dealt with body image issues. As you can imagine, it’s a popular topic at the site because, well, lots of people have deep, dark, secret shit to confess about how they feel about their bodies.

But I was really struck by this one, because it serves as a reminder that insecurity about ...

Over the weekend, this postcard was posted at PostSecret. For those of you who aren’t familiar with PostSecret, it’s a long-running crowd sourced art project in which people put their secrets on postcards and mail them ...

Summer’s Eve thinks your vagina is powerful, really annoying, still dirty

During a drunken skinny dipping escapade in high school, my friends and I came up with names for our vaginas–ones that captured the unique personalities we felt they possessed. We christened them by shouting these names–loudly, at 3 in the morning, to our sleeping neighborhood–as we cannonballed off the diving board.

Somehow I never imagined my vagina was as fucking annoying as the folks at Summer’s Eve seem to think it is.

After pretty much everyone, including us, hated last year’s super douchey ad, the feminine cleansing product company is trying a different tack. Now, they’re urging everyone to “Hail to the V” in a new ad campaign they claim is “about empowerment.”

The campaign includes one series of ads featuring ...

During a drunken skinny dipping escapade in high school, my friends and I came up with names for our vaginas–ones that captured the unique personalities we felt they possessed. We christened them by shouting these names–loudly, at ...

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