The shift from negative to positive

The internet provides a whole other place, world, environment where images are seen, messages are sent and communication occurs. On myspace and bogging websites there are people speaking up about body image. Here we can view a more immediate shift from negatie to positie ideas about body image and beauty.


REVOLUTION OF REAL WOMEN™
This movement is for every one of you who has, in one way or another, been negatively affected by the societal quest for perfection and beauty. Ever felt you weren't thin enough, good enough, athletic, tall, short, curvy, sexy, smart, wealthy, or PERFECT enough?
Ever felt the need to conform to images of beauty that the media portrays as "Real"? We are for every individual who is ready to join a new Revolution for Women who demand to be respected and celebrated for who and what we are -- no matter what.
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Our Bodies Ourselves




http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=56305960

These books and website are devoted to empowering women with information. Here you can get tons of information and see an excerpt from Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues." There is also a commical video by Joy Nash. "I'm fat and it's ok, it doesn't mean I am stupid or ugly or lazy or selfish- IM FAT! Diet and exercise are vital, but if you do those things and you still aren't thin, your life is not over. American needs a new way of thinking" You can check out her myspace page and what she has to say here: http://www.myspace.com/joynash



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I’m Good Enough for Me, recounts one woman’s personal journey to self-acceptance. After years of struggling with her own body-image demons,author McCarley recognized the flaws were not hers. Instead, she realized society’s unrealistic standards of the “ideal” womanly shape and size were unhealthy and unattainable for the average female. Rather than surrender in shame by failing one crazy fad diet after another, McCarley turned the tables and launched a revolutionary new way of thinking about herself. I’m Good Enough for Me! is an inspirational invitation to accept and embrace yourself, regardless of your age, shape, or size, for being uniquely, wonderfully you. Changing your perspective of yourself, your self-worth, and your place in this world is the key to learning how to be good enough for yourself and even better for those you love.



She has a myspace page dedicated to the book. Here you will find music, videos and messages related to the shift in body image. There is one video in particular that I enjoyed viewing, it puts images and text together to help make sense of the negative body image affects on women. It asks questions like: When did it become cool to not like how you look?

We see this unrealistic image of beauty and it causes us to feel so negatively about who we are. It blows my mind that people give into this image and will turn to dangerous, unhealthy, painful, ineffectie solutions.


I wish we could decide for ourselves what is beautiful and go about being so in a healthy natural way. With hopeful, alternative, questioning messages and images on the rise I think we may see a shift. But will it ever stop? It wont stop with out a start, have you started to change your unhealthy negative, self destructive, controlled views or youself? TRY IT -YOU decide what is beautiful,



YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!









Size... does it matter?



SIZE EIGHT?

Try......

Size Ate
One woman's search for the perfect fit. Written and performed by Margaux Laskey directed by Steven Mcelroy. How many of us have thought that things would be better if we could just be the perfect size 8? 10? 12? The perfect ... whatever? Size Ate, chronicles this futile quest for measured perfection and in a unique blend of monologue, poetry, and song illustrates the often opposing internal and external forces that drive us to obsession, addiction, and ultimately, something like self-acceptance and self-love.
Her story starts with a slim fast diet "step mom invites her along, like a trip" that her parents encouraged. She then experienced loosing her hair, stopping her menstrual cycle. In her family it was a competition, her parents were proud.
It is humorous, and that what makes is so relative and accessible to people. The reactions from strangers, the people she is reaching are most important. The goal is for the play to serve as a outreach, a vehicle, a catalyst of change, for people to talk about this. To think about their own issues and how they might be doing this themselves.
"Projections come up throughout the play, many of them are images from the world, advertisements that remind us all the time. When it comes up in the context of the play you think my God she's thin. "- Director
"For me size eight has come to represent a philosophy of life. It's like we are all size eights, it's this infinite size, we are all capable of so much. that's why i like eight you turn it on it's side and it becomes an infinite symbol, we are all capable of anything."- Margaux
People like this! Here are some comments and reactions-
secretunderwhere
I made a blog about this video and your website and a friend I'm not particularly close with messaged me. She told me how she has problems with bulimia and that this video is a step for her to something better. It opened up a dialogue that would never have happened. Thank you for opening eyes and minds, including mine.
stripperemmers
yo come to my middle school in California i have an eating disorder and this looks like it could help me
ksimm0423
wow come to Washington! I am a recovering anorexic and will take all the support i can get. You are doing a wonderful thing!
hm i can't believe i haven't actually commented here... well, your work is fantastic, and so incredibly important, you are really changing people's lives by sharing like this.

gigibranch
love this! great...i love it that you put yourself out there. this is so many of our life story. thank you for your courage.
Marg also has a blog!!! Check out what she has to say and keep updated on Size Ate!

"life is too short to be little. - benjamin disraeli"



Here she comments and posts daily. She has an entire section of posts and links to body image related topics. One in particular that you may recognize is to "love you body". At their website there is lots of information on the topic and suggestions as to what you can do!http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/












Artist: Jenny Saville





Jenny Saville

is a high profile artist. Her paintings are very large in size, her subjects which are usually nude women, often herself, are also huge, massive and bold. Jenny prefers to work from photographs rather than from real models yet the flesh looks so real. Her use of line and composition provides for plenty of movement, illusions and extreme foreshortening. She has been recognized as one of the most thought provoking and technically accomplished talents of her generation.

Many of her paintings confront perceptions of beauty and femininity.

In 1995-96 she did a photographic collaboration series, Closed Contact, with fashion photographer/filmmaker Glen Luchford. This show in particular confronted and challenged conceived notions of feminine beauty. This collusion of the two artists mimicked the collusion of the art and fashion worlds.


After having observed the operations of reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, Saville was eager to express the violence and anesthetized pain of this experience in her own work. The paintings captures the full range of color, tonality and topography of live flesh. Distortions confront and coerce the viewer into an examination of one's own body and ideas of beauty held within.


These images offer a unique experience for the viewer. The discomfort is complicated. It is triggered partly by our sense of what a "normal" female body should look like. In Jenny's painting the body is transformed. It is spread and expanded beyond what is embedded in our minds as beautiful or normal. In a solo show Territories held in 1999, her work again questions societal obsession with an idealized, almost robotic, image of the female form. By portraying these "images of extreme humanness" that are so out of place in an anxious culture obsessed with eternal youth and beauty, Saville confronts the very essence of what it means to have an active mind in a decaying, dying body.


Although her work may be difficult to interpret for viewers, if they pay attention to how the work feels they should not have any trouble unwrapping the meaning and inspiration behind it. Artists have the power and freedom to provide us with images and messages. Jenny Saville is painting images that we do not normally see. Here painting heighten awareness and consciousness. The viewer can not escape the implications of their physical being, they force us into new habits of perception. In this society obsessed with an unrealistic body image, Jenny has made a consistent, credible statement as a contemporary female artist in response.


Resources/Articles:
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville

You ARE beautiful, Break free from the pressure!


Through my journey on this blog I am overall hopeful for change in our visual culture and ideas about our bodies. I can not however ignore the amazing amounts of people who are unhappy with how they look. Here are a few comments from people on various blogs and websites I came across. It amazes me how someone can be so unhappy due to their appearance.

"I am a teacher but my student don't really like me cause of my face and skin. My eyes are too big and also my nose. I really love my student but my student don't love my because of my face. What shall I do??? Please help me...."

"My name is Maria.I would like to be one of the Swan Girls.I work for a Aesthetic Place but I don't feel I match there. I work 2 jobs and when I get home I just want to go to bed,my body is big,(235 pounds)and I need some help to be in the size I used to be before having my daughter.Can you help me?
Is hard for me to feel well with myself because all my friends and family are skinny, I need Help...."

**These people are asking and looking for help in the wrong places, it has to come through awareness, consciousness and changes with in. Learn to love yourself! Here is some one's response, he's got the right idea.
" sounds like you live around people who need to grow up (I'm not talking about the children). Listen, some people say that you need to love yourself despite what others say-and I agree , you should. The person you are inside is forever-learn that person and love than person, not who others see. But, if your looks really bother you, slowly try to change them. Nothing drastic, your skin can be improved by drinking more water and a better diet, teeth-if you have health insurance, get invisible braces. As for your nose, if you REALLY want to, get a nose job with a LICENSED plastic surgeon. I know you said you don't have much money, then I would save up for these 'improvements'. Some people might judge you for wanting to change the outside-but some people aren't you. Try to only be around people who LOVE U FOR YOU, and others, just ignore. Regardless, be proud of yourself whatever u look like. "GB




Beauty and fashion secrets, you've got um! Do not go looking elsewhere for them, do not give into the messages in our visual culture.


Break free from the pressure to fit the unrealistic ideas of beauty make up your own ideas, change your thoughts!!!




Changes in the media

As a culture, I believe that we are all aware of the images, but we are not aware of how they make us feel and the deeper thoughts connected to the messages. The issues seem to be a dismissed because the messages and images are so obvious and widespread. Some females are affected directly, have eating disorders, get plastic surgery or have very low self esteem. Others brush it off, or internalize their feelings.


Media activist Jean Kilbourne says the real tragedy, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards. This "effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate." 2008 media awareness network.


We need to remember that and continue to consider how these images are affecting us. More importantly we must be open to talk about and express how they make us feel. We can no longer hide it. The images are getting out of hand.


There have been some changes in magazines, companies and countries. Some magazines now pledge to not do touch ups on photographs, others pledge to not include models less than 25 years of age. The company of Dove has made a campaign pledging for self-esteem. France has made a new law pledging to stop anorexia!









  • Magazines are changing their looks.










  • DOVE ~ Campaign For Real Beauty, The self-esteem fund!



The site has many films that hit home on the topic. One film Onslaught shows a little girl, then flips to all the images we see in our visual culture: the beauty ads, plastic surgery, diet pills etc. The thought of a young girl who does not think about these things being bombarded by all the images, how her world might be flipped upside down, her idea of beauty distorted, her self esteem torn up. This is very scary and it is happening as we speak.



In the film Evolution we see a model go through transformation, application of makeup and getting her hair done. This is a big enough change already. Then we see the photograph go through changes: her neck is extended, her eyes made larger, shoulders made smaller. Then the image is placed up on a billboard in public. This isn't even a real person anymore. We all know that touch ups get done to most photos but are we reminding ourselves of this constantly?



Dove is also famous for their advertisements with real women. They are very inspiring and dove is still held in high respect. Why can't the rest of advertisers and the fashion industry get on this ban wagon?
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/













  • French Fashion Industry Signs Charter to Promote Healthy Body Images



French outlaw excessive skinniness - Spotlight


The charter was instigated by a working group named: Anorexia and Body image. The formal move is a first step. The law says to punish those people or organizations that help to propagate unhealthy body images. This is a start.





Foundations and organizations designated to eating disorders have been pushing for regulations and these type of changes for quite some time. These changes are occurring slowly and sporadically. A company like Dove gets their message out to millions of people, some of the other laws however go unnoticed. These improvements are heightening awareness and consciousness and offering alternatives. Artists and fellow bloggers are also adding to new positive body image.

Anaylze: Where are we getting the messages?












EVERYWHERE!!!!


The images and messages are so powerful because they are everywhere. Magazines, movies, television, drug stores, billboards, newspapers, books, clothing, like I said EVERYWHERE!



The visual culture is filled with "beautiful people" this ideal image, this unrealistic image. Where did all the good average people go? They're passing you on the streets, our friends, our family, our peers. Why don't we look to each other instead of looking to these plastic airbrushed faces.


Chances are you wont see an average person in an advertisement trying to sell something, however some magazines, companies and even countries are trying to make a change. I do not want to spend much time and effort discussing issues, images and message we are already aware of and bombarded with, even though we are still affected. I am interested in seeing some of the changes occurring and some of the positive messages being sent.







Awareness: The Message and The Effects



"We don't need Afghan-style burquas to disappear as women. We disappear in reverse by revamping and revealing our bodies to meet externally imposed visions of female beauty."

-Robin Gerber, author and motivational speaker.

I really love this quote. It is so true, it makes me wonder: are we truly aware of the effect the body image messages have on us? The images are there, we are bombarded from all over. The message of external unrealistic visions of beauty is being sent. It is the reaction to and effect of the messages and images that worry me. We as women are disappearing by changing our outward appearances to meet an unrealistic idea of beauty. Yes unrealistic, just consider some of the ways we go about obtaining this beauty; the effects of the messages: plastic surgery, starvation, anorexia, bulimia, injections. Sure you might get noticed, but it will be for the wrong reasons making your true self invisible in the end.

We know the images are there and the message is being sent. We also know that the ideal image we see in our visual culture is unrealistic, that real women do not look like that. The awareness is there, or is it? It still effects people on a deeper, unconscious level. Some people give in.
They go to great heights to obtain "beauty". The rise of the cosmetic/plastic surgery industry is unbelievable! It seems like the a normal thing to do. You can now hear commercials on the radio for local plastic surgeons and see full page ads in magazines for gaunted financing for plastic surgery ...."Doctor's Say Yes!" http://www.doctorssayyes.net/) *image on right is from their website .


Television shows like The Swan and Gene Simmons Family Jewels make it appear more acceptable too. Executive Producer Nely Galan said Stiles (winner of show in 2004) worked the hardest and "emerged a gorgeous woman, who I know will be very successful in life." I wonder why she will be successful in life, I sure hope not because of her "better" looks.
The swan goes under the knife- Before and after shot of contestant.

The Swan takes "ugly duckling" contestants and transforms them into "swans" physically, emotionally, and mentally. Women with low self esteem looking to feel good about themselves are disappearing as a team of specialists take over and make decisions controlling how she will look. In opinion article 'Swan' Ugliest Reality Show Yet, David Cross writes:


Television shows such as "The Swan" and "I Want a Famous Face" inadvertently teach people that it is acceptable to change their body so others will be more happy with the way they look. Every time I've seen a show dealing with cosmetic surgery I always hear the patient say, "I'm doing this so I can feel better about myself." But isn't it true in most cases people undergo the procedures so others will look at them differently and not because a stronger jaw line would help them sleep better at night.

On the Gene Simmons show; here a celebrity gets work done, perhaps to keep their fans satisfied and the tabloids quiet. He and his wife got plastic surgery together. Their children who are in their teens reacted with wonder of what their parents would look like and why they were doing it. When Gene and his wife came home from the hospital in pain and bandages, their daughter broke down in tears of helplessness.
Gene with his son, bandages on and after surgery with pockets to capture the draining blood. Yum!
This brings up the issue of how plastic surgery effects children, not to mention your other family, significant other, friends and coworkers. When a parent (or person) is so unhappy with them self and "needs" to get plastic surgery to fix it, what kind of message does this send? It is bad enough when a mother passes on her negative body images and unhealthy eating habits to her children. Again it has become so mainstream that there is a children's book, the first of its kind ever to exist, called: My Beautiful Mommy by Michael Salzhauer M.D.. The book is designed to explain to children what to expect when their mom is getting plastic surgery. On the website he recommends you read it to your children at least three times throughout the process to calm their fears and "help your family sail easily through the plastic surgery experience." I doubt that any plastic surgery experience is easy sailing.

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