This weekend, the National Organization for Women (NOW) is hosting their annual conference. This year, the theme is “loving our bodies, changing the world.” We decided to look at a variety of viewpoints regarding body image this week, in honor of the upcoming conference.
- Shelby Knox talks about her struggles with body image
- Starre Vartan responds to Knox by objecting to labeling “rounder” women “real,” due to its “othering” of healthy and in fact, real, petite women
- Dove narrowly defines “real beauty” as “flawless skin” and “not too curvy, not too athletic”
- Kelsey Wallace describes what it is like to be a model in an ad that uses “real women”
- Australia will begin a new initiative to encourage healthy body images
- A 2008 study showed that self-identified feminists view women regardless of weight as more attractive than non-feminists. Unfortunately, both feminists and non-feminists tended to view women in the “underweight” BMI category as more attractive than their normal-range counter-parts.
- Ms. Magazine blog reflects on the 2010 Academy for Eating Disorders Conference
NOW’s conference will include a summit on health and body image issues as well as “fabulous feminist speakers,” a wedding in celebration of marriage equality, dynamic workshops, and political strategizing. The conference will be held July 2-4 in Boston, Massachusetts.
