New Thing of the Week!
Body Love Buttons ($5 for a 5-button set) are the perfect accessory to celebrate yourself! Series 1 has an argyle motif, and Series 2 has a classic tattoo art style.
Tag: body acceptance
Why Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” Video Makes Me Uncomfortable… and Kind of Makes Me Angry
So this video started going around my facebook today, with about a dozen of my female friends sharing the link with comments like, and “Everyone needs to see this”, and “All girls should watch this,” and “This made me cry.” And I’m not trying to shame those girls! I definitely understand why they would do so. And I don’t want to be a killjoy. But as I clicked link and started watching the video, I started to feel a slight sense of discomfort. I couldn’t put my finger on why that was, exactly, but it continued throughout the whole thing. After watching the video several more times, I have some thoughts…Â
I agree with a lot of this assessment. When I saw the images in the campaign, it was without context and I thought it was an example of how witness testimony is unreliable when it comes to sketch artist representations (maybe still a valid point). But when I saw later it was about how women describe themselves as “uglier” than other people see them, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe some of these women describing themselves weren’t being harsh on themselves, but describing wrinkles they actually had and just weren’t ashamed of them while people describing them are being more polite. Seeing some of the photos of the actual women, they look more or less right in between how they described themselves and how other people described them. I wouldn’t call their self descriptions ugly, and I think to do so… just reinforces the beauty standard.
People draw me a lot. I love it. It’s lots of fun. But some people draw me thinner than I am, they take away the moles, the creases and lines of my face, the length of my nose. And some of it is just a style that simplifies things, but I know some of it is fear of offending me by drawing me with what they see as negative qualities but what I see as part of my face. It makes me sad sometimes that people think they’re going to offend me by portraying me… looking how I actually look. Never be afraid to draw every single line in my face, every single roll of fat, small boobs, occasional double chin, moley moley moley skin, all of that stuff, because it’s gorgeous to me. I don’t need Dove telling me I’m being harsh on myself when I feel more free than I’ve ever felt.
Some of you just. Aren’t. Getting it.
If you call yourself “body positive”, it is imperative that you do NOT:
- make fun of fat bodies
- make fun of thin bodies
- make fun of muscular bodies
- make fun of bodies without a lot of muscle
- make fun of breasts or nipples
- make fun of penis length or girth or shape or color
- make fun of labia length or color or shape
- make fun of genitals that weren’t assigned at birth
- make fun of freckles or moles or acne
- make fun of rashes or redness
- make fun of clothing choices
- make fun of haircut or style or color or texture
- make fun of piercings or gauges
- make fun of tattoos or scarification
- make fun of stretchmarks or cellulite
- make fun of “bad” teeth
- make fun of birth defects
- make fun of food choices
- make fun of makeup applications
- make fun of the lightness of skin
- make fun of the darkness of skin
- make fun of physical disabilities
- make fun of mental illnesses
- make fun of fat rolls
- make fun of visible ribs
- make fun of self harm injuries or scars
- make fun of lots of body hair
- make fun of the lack of body hair
Basically, just don’t shame anyone else’s appearance. Ever.It’s okay to have a preference (or 2 or 3 or 50.) It’s not okay to insult people who don’t match your preferences. Especially if you plaster “BODY POSITIVE” and “SELF LOVE” Blingee’s all over your page.This is the most important thing you’ll read today.
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“Body acceptance” is the most terrifying two words I think I’ve heard any young person say. It essentially boils down to, “Extremely arrogant”. No, really, it does. To say to yourself, and the world, “My body is just absolutely fine as it is, it needs no work whatever, I am perfect. I am great” is so arrogant, it blows everything else out the water.
I’ve never met an athlete, or someone who does sports, who’s said: “You know what? That’s enough training. My body is great. That’s all the muscles I need.”
How terrifying is it that people out there are so complacent and scared of exercise that they’ll actually come up with a philosophy so they can say: “fuck it, fine as I am.”
I cannot imagine looking at myself and not wanting to keep an edge. I just can’t do it. How could you say, “Well, I did sweat as I walked up those stairs” and then follow up with, “Well I guess that’s fine.”
Just…how…
Body acceptance does not mean ” I give up”. Body acceptance does not mean “I’m never ever ever going to do anything to change my body again”. Body acceptance simply means that you accept your body. It’s right there in the name. Body acceptance means that you will love your body unconditionally, no matter the changes that occur. It’s not vanity, it’s not conceit and it’s not giving up.Â
Body acceptance has nothing at all to do with exercise. Surprise, I accept my body and I still exercise. I don’t see why what another person chooses to do with their body is any of your concern and why it terrifies you so much. Thinking you can dictate how another person should feel about their body or treat their body is arrogance.Â
So here’s what I’m thinking you REALLY meant to say ( Ya know, since we’re boiling stuff down) : How dare people be comfortable with themselves? Fat people are disgusting. How could they even try to stop hating themselves over not having a perfect body, even though these ideals are completely unrealistic and unobtainable? I do not realize that another persons body is none of my business. I do not care about your struggle and I think your acceptance of yourself is stupid even though it quite possibly has come out of years of mental abuse and degradation at the hands of a society that photoshops the men and women that are supposed to be “perfect”.Â
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The new Body Love Buttons are now in stock! Click through to see this set, as well as the previous set of BLBs. You can buy them in packs of five, or mix and match to your heart’s content. <3
I will have these for sale in the Dealer’s Room at WisCon this weekend, as well as the other items in my online store!
(And I’m also taking slogan suggestions for the next series. I have a few ideas already, but it’d be awesome to hear from others, too!)
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[Image: Five button designs in tattoo-inspired script/designs reading: Death Fat, Fat Butch, Rack of Doom, Fat Femme, and Fat Life.]
I’ve finally completed the second series of Body Love Buttons! These are tattoo-inspired, and I will have them for sale at WisCon this weekend. ^_^
I’m going to sleep on these designs and look at them with fresh eyes tomorrow before I start assembling them, and then I’ll soon add them to my online store for purchase.
Comics and the Human Body: April 28th in Dearborn
FPA Moderators Megan Rose Gedris and Alex Heberling will be at Penguicon in Dearborn, Michigan on Saturday, April 28th, giving a talk called “Comics and the Human Body.” Comics are notorious for some pretty atrocious art when it comes to body types, but that’s just the surface, and there’s a wide range of creators drawing a wide range of body types. Come hear us talk about the very very good and the very very bad when it comes to bodies in comics. We’ll also be doing some quick tutorials on some different body types.
And please reblog this with good examples (both really good and really bad) that you think we should discuss!
If there’s interest, I’ll get into my skivvies for a real life fleshy fat demonstration!
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I’m kinda getting tired of people building up chubby girls by tearing down skinny girls. It’s one of those backhanded comments a lot of my art gets, and I’m tired of people saying stuff like “Finally! Someone drawing HEALTHY women!” or “Yay, women with REAL curves!”
Speaking as someone who is overweight and healthy… fuck yooooooouuuuuu, you’re not doing us fat girls favors by being shit to skinny girls. Body acceptance doesn’t work that way.
I get this a lot whenever I put up my fat lady fashion drawings at conventions. On the one hand, I know that the girls who rave about them to me and complain about “everyone else drawing stick women” are just glad for the representation and seeing someone drawing something different, but at the same time I’m always cringing a little inside. A convention where I’m working my artist alley table is not the best place to conduct teaching moments about NOT calling other women sticks, so I often just have to smile, say thank you, and move on to the next customer.
hate your body? reverse brainwash yourself with tumblr
spam your dashboard with pictures of people that look like you. track tags for what you’re struggling with: “fat acceptance”, “natural hair”, “freckles”, “transgender”, “body hair”, etc. follow people who post about your specific concerns. make your own FUCKYEAH tumblr.
even if it’s uncomfortable at first, the more exposure you have to it, the less insecure you’ll be about it. eventually you will OWN it & start living in a happy self-love bubble. then, when confronted with backwards ignorant bullshit from other people, you’ll be laughing in their faces, not crying at home.
this might be old news to some, but i know a lot more people that could benefit from this. i think of tumblr as a customized magazine full of shit you’re selling to yourself – just make sure you’ve got the right message.
Body Positive: Why I Endorse Fat Acceptance
Body Positive: Why I Endorse Fat Acceptance
In my blog I use Fat Acceptance and Body Acceptance interchangably because to me they mean the same thing. But I’ve heard the term Fat Acceptance specifically criticized for a number of reasons (mainly based on ignorance of what it actually means – e.i. associating it with feederism or thin bashing).
The reason I associate myself to Fat Acceptance specifically, however, is because it goes a step further than many media generated Love Your Body type Campaigns. These will tell us that it’s okay to maybe be bigger than a model and that every body can be beautiful. (Even if they don’t necessarily SHOW us that – I’m looking at you, Victoria’s Secret) They’ll tell you to love your curves and that it’s more important to be healthy than to be skinny. But they won’t tell you it’s okay to be fat. That, they would say, is too far, is promoting obesity, unhealthy lifestyles, etc.
People say fat acceptance is “too extreme”, but it’s exactly as extreme as it needs to be. It shocks a lot of people and frankly they need to be shocked. They need to be made uncomfortable. They don’t deserve to be coddled into thinking their old paradigms about weight and health and beauty are acceptable because they aren’t.
Fat acceptance is a branch of the body acceptance movement that includes ALL body types, yes but says with clarity exactly who that includes. It says if you’ve got a BMI requirement on your type of acceptance then it isn’t acceptance at all.