Soapbox's Feminist Winter Term

Today I was thrilled to do a workshop on body awareness at Amy Richards' and Jennifer Baumgardner's Feminist Winter Term.  This amazing program gives savvy, passionate students and professionals a platform to come together for a week of feminist powwow.  Yes!  It's these sort of groups and events that help negate cynicism and feelings of futility.

And you can jump in at their Feminist Summer Camp (or of course, next year's Winter Term).

Dear Victoria's Secret, get your paws off my feminism

Alright.  Victoria's Secret has really outdone itself this time. 

It's bad enough that this corporation promotes narrow ideals of beauty and sexiness that have horrible consequences on girls' and women's self-esteem, self-image, and co-ed relationship expectations.  But, in recent years, they've gotten hip to the fact that lots of us are sick of our bodies being chopped into scrutinizable bits by ads, and they've begun co-opting our media literacy efforts.  

 

First they featured the "Love Your Body" ad campaign, which twisted the Dove and other non-profit messaging intended to help women love their bodies and see themselves *apart* from commercial standards.  Now, they're touting the "Incredible" bra, which is advertised with a play on 70's bra-burning feminism: "Burn my old bra! This one's incredible!"  They may as well say, "Burn that old-fart, unappetizing sexism!  The coy, submissive woman is back!"

These 'clever' marketing techniques not only confuse public awareness while they poke fun and delegimitize the serious public health issues involved in low body image and sexism, but they go one step further in reaffirming and promoting the oppressive norms bra burning and self-acceptance initiatives try to combat.

I'm tired of living in a culture where women are taught to compare themselves to each other, to be jealous and competitive over men, and to never feel perfect or deserving enough to inhabit themselves fully.  I'm tired of living in a culture where women feel they must be like porn stars to make male partners happy, where the freedom to be sexually active has been usurped by the same old corporate interests, and male-pleasing, porn-performance promiscuity inserted where empowered fulfillment and true intimacy ought to be.  It's hard enough to get out a message celebrating uniqueness and real, personal beauty over the din of dollars and cents accumulating, without that same commercial monster using my cause...for their own profit, yet again.  Way to add insult to injury!

My panties certainly ARE in a wad.  Hm.  Maybe that'll be their next tagline.

Press release: NewMoon.com’s “Beautiful Girls” Raise the Value of Inner Beauty

Spreading the word...! 

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:              


Girls Fight Harmful Beauty Messages:
NewMoon.com’s “Beautiful Girls” Raise the Value of Inner Beauty

Flashing zits on a virtual face seek to convince girls to retouch “unflattering” Facebook photos so no one will “gawk at them.” Relentless media and marketing tell girls that their looks are far more important than their minds, spirits, or talents.

Girls have had enough.

Now, girls are fighting back with NewMoon.com’s “Beautiful Girls” campaign. Starting today, through June 30, anyone worldwide can honor a girl or woman for her inner beauty: her accomplishments, passion, creativity, compassion, and all the other things that make up a wonderful person by completing a brief nomination form at www.newmoon.com.

Starting May 1, all the nominees will be featured in the Beautiful Girls section of NewMoon.com: the safe, ad-free, creative community made by and for girls. This powerful campaign counteracts unhealthy messages like those at PicTreat.com, where “face detection & correction technology … can smooth out skin, remove skin flaws….

PicTreat is just a new example of the age-old messages that led 90 percent of the teen girls questioned in a 2009 Girl Scout Research Institute study to say they couldn’t measure up to “beauty” standards.

“Stuff like that makes me furious,” says Nneoma Igwe, 13, of New Moon’s Girls Editorial Board. “We girls know that what we do, think and care about is more important than how other people think we should look. With this year’s “Beautiful Girls” online event, and our What Is Beauty magazine (in bookstores May 1) we tell the world what really matters!”

New Moon Girl Media Founder Nancy Gruver says, “For 17 years, New Moon has believed in the power and beauty of girls being themselves. This year, we’re in the leadership group convened by the American Psychological Association and Girls Scouts of the USA to support H.R. 4925 the Healthy Media for Youth Act. Girls need it desperately.”

According to the American Psychological Association, three of the most common mental health problems among girls — eating disorders, depression or depressed mood, and low self-esteem — are linked to sexualization of girls and women in media.

Gruver says, “But there’s better news among the thousands of New Moon girls: when asked to define beauty for the May-June issue of New Moon Girls magazine, our members tell about their inner beauty shining out in creativity, courage, and compassion; the only beauty that can keep them feeling happy and fulfilled. “

Anyone can nominate someone (even themselves!) to be a New Moon Beautiful Girl—just go to www.newmoon.com/form/11/beautiful-girl-nomination and fill out the simple entry.

Then look for that girl’s first name on NewMoon.com in May, June and July.

“After all,” Nneoma says, “Real Beauty isn’t about how we look. It's about who we are and what we do.”

New Moon "You Are Beautiful" ecard

From the wonderful girls' media company, New Moon: "This is just for fun and just in time for Valentines Day. Let people know they are beautiful just being themselves."

Create your own "You are Beautiful" ecard and make someone's day!

NY Times: The Triumph of the Size 12s

...as usual:  great that we're expanding (no pun intended) our notions of beauty, bizarre that size 12 is considered "large."

Read the NY Times article here.

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Mixed messages from Victoria's Secret get customers coming and going

Glad to see that Victoria's Secret has picked up on the fact that women should love their bodies...but not glad that their skinny, super-sexualized models help set impossible beauty standards that make women feel like crap about their bodies.  When a company that objectifies women's bodies to sell their product comes out with a "love your body" contest, I'm highly skeptical.  Appearing socially conscious is a great marketing move, is it not?

Today (and every day I hope) is Love Your Body Day

Today is Love Your Body Day!  Here's the deal (official press release from NOW):

For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906


Unrealistic Images of Women Make Love Your Body Day More Important Than Ever

October 15, 2009

For years now, advertisers and fashion magazines have airbrushed photos to turn models into the latest beauty ideal. Women and girls are constantly bombarded with these artificial images -- fantasies they can't possibly live up to in real life.

This Photoshopping of models and celebrities has really gotten out of hand lately. Self magazine felt the need to digitally slenderize singer Kelly Clarkson before putting her on the cover of its "total body confidence" issue, even though Clarkson has said that she is comfortable with herself just the way she is. Model Filippa Hamilton recently revealed that she was fired by Ralph Lauren for being too big, despite being a size four. Hamilton is the same model who appeared in a Ralph Lauren ad that was so aggressively retouched that she appeared emaciated and completely out of proportion.

If models can't catch a break, how can the rest of us hope to have a healthy self-image? Starting at younger and younger ages, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and a preoccupation with appearance plague women and girls, sometimes with disastrous results. "In my teenage years, I was hospitalized for anorexia," said eating disorder survivor and NOW Action Vice President Erin Matson. "I remember a fellow patient winning a modeling contest while she was on a pass from the hospital. The only way to end the glorification of unhealthy beauty stereotypes is to stand up proudly for real women's bodies."

That's why the NOW Foundation is celebrating its 12th annual Love Your Body Day on Oct. 21. This campaign is a giant shout out to the fashion, beauty, diet and advertising industries: No more fake images! Show us real women, diverse women, strong women, bold women. And to the women and girls who are targeted by messages telling them that the key to success and happiness is manufactured beauty, we say: It's okay to "Be You" -- the true you is beautiful.

Many different kinds of Love Your Body events will be held across the country on Oct. 21. Contact the NOW Foundation to learn more.

More Information:
Kelly Clarkson Photo Retouched to Make Her 'Look Her Best', Janet Mock People Magazine
Size 4 model: I was fired for being too fat -- Former Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton is 5' 10" and 120 pounds, Today MSNBC

Fat Talk Free Week

What are you doing for Fat Talk Free Week?

Plus Size Models Get Naked for Glamour Magazine

Today's Examiner has an article about Glamour's plus-size model spread.

Interesting step...and maybe one day we can stop calling "50% of women in this country wearing a size 14 (the average size of a plus size model)," plus size.

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German women's magazine to ban professional models via Feministing

Reposted from Feministing:

Lately, Europe seems to be eons ahead of us regarding their recognition that the fashion and media having a significantly unhealthy effect on women's body image. The latest is Germany's most popular women's magazine's announcement of their intention to omit professional models from their pages in an effort to combat unrealistic social beauty standards:

The editor-in-chief of Germany's bimonthly Brigitte told reporters that, starting next year, the magazine will feature a mix of prominent women and regular readers in photo spreads for everything from beauty to fashion to fitness.
Andreas Lebert said the move is a response to readers increasingly saying that they are tired of seeing "protruding bones" from models who weigh far less than the average woman.
"We will show women who have an identity -- the 18-year-old student, the head of the board, the musician, the football player," Andreas Leberts said in Hamburg, where the magazine, published by Gruner+Jahr, is based.

I like this sentiment; we should humanize models not just as "more realistic" subjects of voyeurism. I just worry these kinds of efforts (cough, Dove, cough) often end up having some contradicting issues to contend with - like if the new magazine's campaign consists of shaming underweight women, that's not very productive either.
Either way, it's interesting to see how fast the efforts to combat body image issues and eating disorders are spreading among the fashion and media industries on one continent, while others (ahem) seem to be at a standstill.

Posted by Vanessa - October 06, 2009, at 10:14AM | in Body Image , International

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Why does this "Anna Rexia" Halloween Costume even exist?

Why on earth does this Halloween costume have to refer to anorexia? It just looks like a skeleton to me. X-Rays, Zombies, bones--all that is ghoulish enough to fit with Halloween.

The description for this costume is the worst part: "If Anna Rexia doesn't want to put it in her mouth there is nothing you can say to change her mind. You can stop trying to sell her on the point that there aren't any carbs and it's all protein because Anna Rexia just doesn't want anything to do with it. Make no bones about it this girl is as disciplined as they can get. Anna Rexia costume is anything but bare bones! Costume includes headband, choker neckband, removable "Anna Rexia" badge and ribbon tie belt. If you're starving for attention, this costume will be sure to put you on top of the world."

It seems that the prevalence of anorexia has turned it into a common cultural fact, so part of our collective consciousness that, as with ads, we're almost immune to how serious (and unnecessary) it is.

Gross. And not in that fun Halloween way.

Fat Talk Free Week

Passing on word from the AED:

"Join AED and Delta Delta Delta in supporting Fat Talk Free˙ Week (FTFW), a five-day awareness campaign to challenge and begin to reverse the prevalent and damaging pursuit of the "thin ideal" by women of all ages.

The goal of FTFW, October 19-23, 2009, is to shed light on an underground and pervasive thought cycle practiced by many women by demonstrating how "fat talk" can damage self-esteem and set strong patterns of unproductive behavior.

The approach and interventions promoted during FTFW are based on the Reflections: Sorority Body Image program, a peer-led body image program developed through the joint efforts of AED members Carolyn Becker and Eric Stice and the Delta Delta Delta organization. The AED has endorsed this program as a model for community-based collaboration and the effective integration of research and practice. Reflections is active on 34 college campuses nationwide.

Interested in hosting your own FTFW event? Click here for details. 

Visit the Reflections Web site for much more, including tips for promoting positive body image, and more details on Fat Talk Free Week.

Academy for Eating Disorders
111 Deer Lake Road, Suite 100
Deerfield, IL 60015 USA
+1-847-498-4274"

Parents' role in fomenting kids' eating disorders

What do you think about this take?

http://www.channel3000.com/education/21154458/detail.html

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France Mulls "Health Warning" for Fashion Photos

...and more fashion and health intersection...  France mulls over the idea of slapping "health warning" labels on digitally-altered photos of models.

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London Fashion Week stylist resigns over designer's decision to use size 14 models in show

via dailymail.co.uk

My reactions:
1. Hooray, someone used normal sized women to display fashion!
2. Ick, women on the runway still look like mannequins. Who cares what size we are when we're still objectified and obsessed with looks?
3. Who is this dude who resigned and what is *that* about?!
4. Why isn't the headline "Fashion Designer Uses Normal Sized Models"? Is the fact that that's *not* news, good news? Have teeny steps actually been made in an altered public consciousness? Or is there no attention being paid because nothing has changed and no on cares about a drop in the bucket?
Lots of mixed feelings here, folks. Help me out.

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More positive talk from Glamour

The buzz from Glamour magazine's photo of a "real" woman continues... The model herself as well as Glamour's Editor-in-Chief talk about their reactions and hopes for women on the Today Show:

Women Love Real Body Photo in Glamour Magazine

Women recently responded with thrill, relief, joy, and love upon seeing a photo of a real woman--with a stomach, ooh aah--in Glamour Magazine.  While you all know that I have my qualms about the mixed messages fashion mags send out ("love yourself"/"you're not good enough"), I am very happy to see this reaction.

If real women expect themselves and other women to look like, well, real women, our problems with hating our bodies and feeling physically inadequate would literally be over. (That would leave so much more time for enjoying and taking part in, well, real life!)

It's refreshing to me that Glamour readers didn't respond with "Ew, yuck!" to a photo of a real human body, but rather, "That's beautiful! We want more of that!" And I'm also excited that this photo was outside of something organized like the Dove Campaign for Beauty...perhaps our efforts to expand into healthier, more realistic notions of beauty are seeping into popular culture. (Albeit slowly, but still--I'm an optimist!)

Please give more positive feedback to Glamour editor, Cindy Lieve, who blogged about this positive outpouring. After all, editors publish what sells, and if the public demands more un-photoshopped images, we just maybe could get them.

Mixed messages don't get more confusing than this

I just came across a Fox newsflash about a Shape Magazine article, called "Country's Leading Ladies Discuss Body Image, Confidence and Jessica Simpson!"

In this piece, Martina McBride, Julianne Hough, and LeAnn Rimes talk about their concern for young women who base their beauty ideals and self-esteem on "what they see in TV or in magazines." They also talk about how hard it is to maintain self-confidence and be a star under scrutiny.

But wait, yup, their photo on the cover of the magazine shows them in bikinis, looking teeny and flawless (next to other cover article headlines about losing weight and looking good). These women are famous because they are *musicians,* yet their appearance is just as important to their success as a model's. While they recognize that being ostracized over appearances can be really hurtful, they also contribute to the social norm that being worried about 'being beautiful' is important: “I’m 26 and I’m still a little self-conscious about my looks," Rimes admitted. "When I was a kid, I had psoriasis over 80 percent of my body. Luckily, I’ve found a medicine that helps control it, but I never know when it will stop working or if I’ll have to deal with it again. It’s still a struggle, but as you get older, I think your perspective changes."

So while the stars try to be candid and encourage women to feel confident, they are simultaneously icons on the front of a magazine who fall into the same shape and size as the prescribed ideal.

Is there any way for celebrities to break out of this mixed messaging? Is there any way for everyone else to stop our collective obsession with looks?

Bingeing on Celebrity Weight Battles

From the NYT Fashion & Style section...

Bingeing on Celebrity Weight Battles by Jan Hoffman

The tagline is: "The dieting sagas of the stars might be more frustrating than inspiring to overweight women"--and I'd add, to everyone, regardless of size. These stories are meant to inspire health but they promote self-loathing and an unhealthy obsession with appearance. How can we encourage a healthy weight for heart care, diabetes, etc. separate from unhealthy cultural standards of beauty?

Selling Chips to Chicks

Frito-Lay's latest ad campaign is based on women's guilt about eating--and sadly, it was designed with women in mind, in order to appeal to women.

Advertising generally plays on our insecurities (and tells us to buy things to fill those holes or shortcomings), and the usual "guilt-free" commercial tactic often used for yogurts and snack foods is plaguing enough. But making a cutesy website of gabby cartoon women with men-focused personalities and back-stories seems to me to show just how far off-track we've gotten.

Who knew that eating junk food could bring such little fun? I mean, if we're not eating for the enjoyment of salty, crunchy, bad-for-you-ness, can someone tell me why we'd be eating chips at all? Revamped health-food-colored packaging and accompanying cartoons about women waxing their bikini lines does *not* make me want to buy or eat chips.

Frito-Lay tried to max out on demeaning stereotypes of women and our culture's guilty obsession with food and appearance--so not cute. At all. Hmph.