The last Body Image Warrior for today is Mara Glatzel who writes the blog Medicinal Marzipan. This essay tackles an important question that sometimes gets ignored in all of our big talk about body image and acceptance: What happens when “love your body” feels way too out of reach? Mara proposes another idea — body neutrality — which seems like a pretty good place to start if full on body love feels too hard and overwhelming.
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When you read how Elissa Stern of Dress With Courage feels about her stomach, you’ll know why I am maybe over-relating to her work right now. I also enjoy that she describes herself as a “Fashion blogger, freelance writer, vintage enthusiast, thrifter and cheapskate.” Yes. All such good things to be.
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Rosie Molinary is another new-to-me writer (she’s not all new — she’s written several books — I am just filling a lot of gaps in my body image knowledge this week!) and I’m loving that she found inspiration in a Nike ad, of all places. And then took it way beyond where the good people at Nike might have expected.
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I’ll admit it: In the past, I’ve been a little snooty about fashion blogs. See also: My Pinterest angst. See also: I’m a giant hypocrite on both fronts (because I love fashion blogs and Pinterest). And: I was just plain wrong. DeeDee Robinson, who writes Decoding Dress, would be one of the bloggers who set me straight on that. She posts outfits and she writes about why we wear what we wear. And she is so smart.
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I discovered Caitlin Constantine of Fit and Feminist via Monday’s Body Image Warrior Autumn, (see how this blogging community thing works? love!) and was immediately hooked because Caitlin’s take on all things body is, in fact, fit and feminist. That might sound simple but it so isn’t. In many ways, “fit” has become the new “skinny,” as in, yet another unachievable beauty ideal. Caitlin has no interest in that. She’s all about fitness as a way to realize your own personal power — which means recognizing when those beauty standards are getting in the way. (See this awesome post on why the scale is our new glass ceiling for the case in point.)
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This afternoon, I bring you Margarita Tartakovsky. Over on her blog Weightless, you’ll find thought-provoking interviews with psychologists, researchers and other folks out on the front lines of ED recovery and treatment, as well as beautifully-written inspiration and advice. This essay would be a lovely example of the latter.
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Body Image Warrior Week via AlreadyPretty
Today’s Body Image Warrior is Patti Gibbons of Not Dead Yet Style. This is one Warrior whose blog is new-to-me this week and I’m so delighted to discover it, mostly because in her blog bio, Patti says, “we are not dead yet, let’s enjoy every sandwich.” Yes. I love sandwiches. Oh, she’s also a self-described “crazy cat lady,” and ummm, I can relate.
Anyway, today Patti is debunking one of the biggest Beauty Myths of them all: Your Body and Problem Areas.
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Well, hello there, and welcome to National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.
According to NEDA, “The aim of NEDAwareness Week is to ultimately prevent eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment.”
Last year, I kept my NEDAwareness Week participation pretty simple and just made sure to post the NEDA helpline info. That seems rather useful, actually, so I’m going to do it again:
www.NationalEatingDisorders.org
Toll-free Helpline: 800-931-2237
But it also didn’t seem like quite — enough. So I was super excited when Sally McGraw of Already Pretty invited me to participate in Body Image Warrior Week, a blogosphere event she created to bring the body image blogging community together and coincide with NEDAwareness Week. Here’s what Sally says about it:
Both as a means of supporting NEDA’s work during awareness week, and as a way of introducing you to a group of amazing women who fight hard against body image oppression through their own words and work, I decided to coordinate Body Image Warrior Week. Throughout the course of this week, you’ll read posts from inspiring writers who have chosen to share their stories and wisdom, both here and on other participating blogs.
One important note: Body image issues are not synonymous with or necessarily the root cause of eating disorders and nor are we out to make that case.(In fact, Autumn over on The Beheld is making the opposite point rather brilliantly today. But they are intertwined in some pretty thorny ways. And since beauty and body politics are what we know — as opposed to, say, the genetic and physiological causes of eating disorders — talking about body image seems like the best way we can help this week.
So here’s the first BIWW post, from the wonderful Autumn! I am so excited to post a piece of Autumn’s writing here because I have adored her work for ages now (and she was kind enough to feature me on her blog awhile back and I’m beyond fashionably late at reciprocating the hospitality!).
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Another quick one. Sorry guys, Horace was back in town for most of last week, though I think he finally packed his bags today. But even with his nonsense, I couldn’t wait to get online and thank all of you who donated a Solidarity Dollar (or more!) to the Billboard Project.
Because Ragen reports: “Exactly a week and a day after we started the Georgia Billboard campaign we have 1010 donors and $21,721.20. Enough to launch a good campaign in Atlanta.”
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Just a quick one to say that the STAND Campaign’s Billboard Project is thisclose to its fundraising goal — and y’all can totally help us get there by donating a buck. Yes, just a buck! Or more, of course. But they need 217 more donations to unlock a $5,000 matching grant, so right now, it’s all about the Solidarity Dollars.
Here’s the scoop from my girl Ragen Chastein of Dances With Fat fame, who is organizing this awesomeness:
Read more...Support All Kids Billboard Project Update
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