About Face: Young women talk back to the media
File this one under inspirational.
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Good work happening here! My favorite line is at the beginning: "I put 'Me For Sale' because I couldn't figure out what she was selling."
Yeah bay area, representing!
With all of the conflicting studies about the influence, or lack thereof, of the media, I like the approach of simply asking girls how magazines, ads, tv, etc shape their world view and image of self. Brilliant.
This is great! Girls need to know that they don't have to be what the media tries to shape them into. Being comfortable with yourself is courageous and wonderful.
In addition to body image, it's important to realize that we also don't necessarily need to *act* like the media says we should (and I'm not just talking about the "act sexy while being pure" bullshit). For example, I'm a loud, opinionated, wacky, silly, smart person, and while I'm usually proud of that fact, I'm sometimes scared that I'm too opinionated, too loud, too silly because that's what the media tells me. I sometimes feel like I'll never have real friends or a relationship if I don't "tone myself down." You know what? That's BULLSHIT. I am who I am, and I need to embrace it. I'm a firecracker, and if some people can't deal with it, it's *their* problem, not mine.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
This is absolutely amazing. I'm showing this to my co-workers, the Women's Educational Center I work at has a "Love your body" week and this would be amazing to do! Thank you for posting this! =)
Thanks a ton everyone! I'm the director of About-Face and I love the outpouring of support. Kristy, we're happy to give you info on how to do the action in your own area. You can head on over to our web site at www.about-face.org to learn more or to donate a few bucks.
Something I wondered about: how did they make sure nobody wrote negative comments on the silhouettes?
I don't mean to rain on the parade, but for some of these young women loving their size is just setting themselves up for a multitude of health problems - diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, increased risk of many cancers. Every young woman should like herself, but she should also build a healthy lifestyle. The time to start paying attention to nutrition and exercising regularly is when you're young, which I have learned to my dismay. Instead of teaching them to talk back to the media, why couldn't they be encouraged to see the connection between heavy consumption of the media and a sedentary lifestyle. Such an approach would encourage young women to turn off the media altogether but get up and out and moving, and this would decrease negative messages, increase esteem and build a healthy body image at the same time.
I wish there was a way to subtract points so I could down-vote this comment. Without fail someone always feels the need to bring up "health" as a reason for why women should not be allowed to feel proud of their bodies.
People are far more prone to taking care of themselves, eating healthy foods and exercising when they feel good about themselves. Self-hate is neither necessary or helpful for creating a healthy lifestyle.
It is becoming more and more apparent with recent studies (and the use of common sense) that weight is no indicator of health. Regardless of that fact, however, your suggestion is offensive. Are you saying that fat people don't deserve to like themselves because they are unhealthy? Should people hate themselves because they aren't healthy? The excuse many people use to hate fat people is "it's unhealthy." Even if that was the case, it is an absurd and snobbish way to treat people. An unhealthy person deserves your respect as much as a healthy person. I can't remember the author of this quote, but it's always stuck with me: "You can't hate people for their own good."
Do you really think that any single one of those larger girls has never before heard of the risks currently associated with being fat? Has it never occurred to you that they may actually be doing their best to be healthy in the bodies they've got, rather than trying to force themselves into a shape that they may not actually be able to achieve? And even if they aren't getting tons of exercise and eating a hyper-healthy diet, even if they are "just setting themselves up for a multitude of health problems" by being the size they are, that doesn't mean that they deserve any less self-respect or comfort in their own skin than the healthiest thin person in the world.
Zian,
There's nothing more unhealthy than yo yo dieting!
Or anorexia.
Or bulemia.
And nobody ever died or went to the mental hospital because they were fat - but plenty of folks (mostly women) have gone to both of those places thanks to eating disorders.
So ease way back on that fatophobia, Zyan!
Zyan -- You're not raining on the parade at all. In fact, in the Take Action program in the video, we discuss healthy behavior with the girls and the importance of it while still thinking about the question "what does physical perfection really mean?" To your point about turning off the media altogether: we can't avoid media's effects anymore -- it's not about just turning off the TV or computer. It's everywhere, so our approach is to teach them how to look at it in a critical, health way instead of just absorbing the messages. I appreciate your saying "for SOME of these young women" but as all the studies are concluding recently, size is not an indicator of poor health. One can be very thin and be more unhealthy than a larger woman. We don't know what a person's food or exercise habits are just by looking at that person. So why not advocate self-acceptance, whether there's room for improvement (also totally subjective) or not? - Jennifer, Exec. Director, About-Face
While I do agree that it is important to be healthy the reality is that most young people--not just young people!--are not. I've struggled with my weight my entire life but only now that I'm 35 have I realized that I am a beautiful human being who "matters." Yes, I need to lose more than just a few pounds and would love to, but in the meantime should I hate myself? I think that's the point of this project: don't wait until some magical and maybe non-existent time in the future when you're a size 4 to start living. My horrible body image and relationship with food was passed down to me from my grandma through my mom and my aunt and my sister. My grandma is in her 80's and still pining for the day when she's going to look like a supermodel. She is a healthy old lady but will not be happy until she fits society's definition of beautiful.
btw--the About Face website has a great gallery of advertising offenders. I recommend checking it out.
I think there should be a way to promote healthy living without making it seem like the goal is to be someone's babydoll.
Basically the idea is this: Health does not equal thinness. Plus if we all had good self-esteem, wouldn't we also be inspired to do good things for our bodies while speaking out to systems that destroy us?
Basically the idea is this: Health does not equal thinness. If you want to learn more about this concept, go to the ASDAH web site. Plus if we all had good self-esteem, wouldn't we also be inspired to do good things for our bodies while speaking out to systems that destroy us?