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An ephemeral drawing is one that is created to be destroyed. It addresses the relationships between medium, subject, and significance.
over it is the documentation of an ephemeral art piece that talks about overcoming disordered eating through the creation and consumption of a cake with a scale drawn on it with icing. Though its narrative is deeply personal, the experience is nearly universal in our image-obsessed culture with its narrow standards of feminine beauty.
Liz Acosta is a photographer, writer, artist, cyclist, and activist in Los Angeles. With a degree from the University of Southern California, her work is primarily focused on questions of the body and its relationship to gender, sexuality, and performance. She blogs at www.happyland2007.com and will be joining the Feminist Fatale family as a blogger in the near future.
Whatever your stance on goddesses is, as a woman, you can’t deny the power of that statement.
“The cervix is the seat of the goddess.”
I’ve been practicing what is known as The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power with my teacher, Nita Rubio, for 5 years and I’ve had more than a handful of powerful moments in the sacred, female-centered space she facilitates (one of the few spaces in which the “male gaze” is not present). Revisiting my battle with my body after giving birth has been rough to say the least. Instead of basking in my body’s ability to create, sustain and give life, I’ve resorted to full blown body bashing and self-loathing. To hear Nita state, “the cervix is the seat of the goddess,” as I moved into a full body meditation immediately shifted my perspective on my body and my relationship to my body (at least for a few moments) and gave me something to ponder long after class was over that Tuesday night.
In that moment and for several following, my anger, disappointment and frustration was mixed with a sense of gratitude, reverence and respect. Too often we view our bodies as an object to manipulate and control. When our body doesn’t live up to some of our wildly unrealistic expectations, we engage in negative self-talk and equally destructive body practices. The internal critical dialouge and punishing rituals we engage in to force our body to do as it is told is nothing short of an abusive relationship with ourselves.
How would we and how can we treat our bodies differently by shifting our perspective on, our image of, and our relationship to our bodies, bodies that carry us through the world, allowing us to experience life in all its good and bad?
Whether or not you abide with goddess worship, or have a clear understanding of feminist spirituality and the place of the goddess in that tradition, the idea that the cervix is the seat of the goddess, establishes (or re-establishes) a sense of wonder about our physical forms. Instead of seeing our bodies as taken-for-granted physical vehicles, our bodies become a source of magic and beauty.
When I look at my son’s body, see it work, watch it develop, I am in awe. It is pure perfection, beauty, a miracle. I don’t remember the last time I felt that way about on my body. Is my body any less miraculous because of my scar and the extra pounds I’m currently carrying? According to images and messages in the dominant culture the answer is an unequivocal, yes.
Listen, I haven’t reached total body enlightenment. I’m still grappling with the negative fat talk in my head. But, Nita and my son reminded me of the beauty that is me and when I believe it again whole-heatedly, I will truly be whole, truly at peace.
I love the sentiment and spirit behind Operation Beautiful. It feels good. You feel good and you can make others feel great.
Leave an anonymous post-it note in a public place for another to see with a positive affirmation. “You’re beautiful.” “You’re perfect just the way you are.” “We love to see you smile!”
If you’ve never participated in these small (and powerful) acts of love and kindness do so in honor of National Eating Disorders Week (which is this week). There’s no better time to help boost the collective self-esteem of girls and women. As Operation Beautiful’s founder states, negative self-talk (which she coins Fat Talk) is destructive. How many times have you stood in the mirror criticizing yourself mercilessly? Think about the emotional, psychological, and physical consequences of consistent “fat talk.”
You’re fat. You’re ugly. Your belly is so gooey. Your ass sags. Nobody will ever love you with those extra pounds.
Repeat. Daily.
That’s an abusive relationship, one that can leave huge emotional gashes.
Imagine stepping on the subway or riding a cab and there’s a note telling you you’re beautiful, sassy, sexy. You’re wonderful just the way you are. Trust me, I speak from experience, these positive affirmations add up. It may sound hokey at first but, eventually, you begin to see yourself and others as fantastic. As is. No additives or fillers needed.
So, get yourself a post-it, scrawl down some words of love and leave it for another to see. Don’t forget to take a picture and send it in to OB.
Lani’s recent post on Christina Hendricks’ curves prompted me to point out that the public scrutiny of and derogatory comments about women’s bodies (celebrity or not) is referred to as bodysnarking.
Miss Jay says that social-networking sites mean teenagers now focus even more on how they look. “I know girls who have entire photo albums just of their face at different angles. On the flip side, the unflattering photos can’t just be tucked away somewhere. They become the basis for publicly displayed ridicule,” she says.
It sounds a lot like the way we treat famous people. “The conventions that a lot of these celebrity magazines use have trickled down to everyday conversations,” says Claire Mysko, the author of “You’re Amazing! A No Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self.” She mentions celeb sites like PerezHilton.com, TMZ.com and photo-rating site HotorNot.com that obsessively scrutinize people’s flaws and assets.
“I remember sitting at a restaurant with a friend who made a comment to me that the waitress shouldn’t wear shorts because of the way her body was shaped,” says Sharon Lamb, co-author of “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketer’s Schemes.” And few women seem immune from being the objects of such scrutiny — from people of both sexes. New York magazine columnist Kurt Andersen, commenting on the political prospects of Hillary Clinton, noted that she has a “Wal-Mart shopper’s bad hair” and a “big bum.”
Bum, however, is just the beginning of the bodysnark lexicon. Jezebel’s Ms. Holmes, who has worked at InStyle, says that 10 years ago people would have looked at you weird if you used such now-common and harshly descriptive words and phrases as “pooch,” “muffin top,” “fugly,” “cankles” (fat ankles and calves that lack definition) and “whale tail.” Also, she notes: “In the ’90s, magazines weren’t really publishing unflattering photos. Today we have been trained to look for the potentially mockable thing, whether it’s of a celebrity or of someone we know.”
It seems counterintuitive, somehow, that ugly pictures sell magazines. But according to Ms. Holmes, stories about celebrity weight-loss with before-and-after photos now fly off the shelves.
As the article notes, bodysnarking as sport among women along with fierce competition is nothing new but the rise of social media has propelled this mean-spirited and hurtful pastime to epic, and public, proportions.
And the impact of this public body hazing has tangible consequences. Women and girls understand at a gut level that their bodies are public property and not entirely their own. They understand and expect people they don’t know to survey their bodies, dissect and comment on their appearance. This creates an incredibly vulnerable place to be inside one’s own skin. That vulnerability tends to breed insecurity and insecurity too often leads to dangerous, costly and time consuming body practices.
The next time you feel compelled to call a stranger or your best friend (!) a “skinny bitch” or comment on the size of her ankles, remind yourself that these comments aren’t benign and that we have the ability to create change in our lives and the lives of other women at every moment. Ultimately, this creates cultural change and, perhaps, that shift will foster a healthy, happy environment for our bodies and minds.
Check out Jezebel and Claire Mysko’s pieces on the hypocrisy of women’s health/fitness magazines and the problem with body image role models of celebrity status. Mysko states:
Whenever an actress or pop star comes forward to talk about her struggle with an eating disorder or poor body image, I say a little prayer that she will find true health. I also hope that she’ll speak responsibly about recovery and self-acceptance. Unfortunately, I’m usually disappointed.
The fact is that getting over an eating disorder (or the murkier but more common problem of disordered eating) involves getting away from an obsession with weight, and that’s darn near impossible to do if you happen to be a celebrity–a job that requires you to go on the record about your exercise and diet “secrets†if you want to stay on the publicity train.
As the Jezebel piece notes:
The hypocrisy of women’s “health” magazines becomes fairly obvious just by looking at their covers. For example, this month’s Self magazine features one cover line, “Be Happy And Healthy At Any Size” tucked below a much larger cover line:
“3 Easy Ways To Lose Weight.”
What seems common knowledge to the cultural critic, the sociologist and the person recovering from disordered eating or an eating disorder is often less obvious to most. And one of those things is that magazines hailed as health magazines or gyms euphemistically called “fitness” or “health” (yeah, right) clubs are more about aesthetics and profit. I mentioned this in my December 2008 post:
I’ve known for years that gyms are not health clubs. As Lester Burnham declares in American Beauty, he works out “to look good naked.â€
Equinox Fitness is quite candid about it’s true aim with it’s tag line “It’s not fitness. It’s life.â€
Our culture increasingly sends contradictory and mixed messages. An ad for ice-cream you can indulge in on one page and an ad for diet pills on the next. While many celebrities are applauded for speaking frankly and candidly about their fight against a distorted body image and unrealistic expectations in the industry, their venue (magazines, television) overshadows their message with a plethora of insecurity boosting themes. Their voice is lost in the cacophony of voices whispering “you’re too fat” or “too flabby” while whispering “eat,” “indulge” (Haagen Dazs tagline “the longer lasting pleasure”) and “enjoy” in the other.
Rebecca Romijn was photographed and applauded for being back in shape mere weeks after her pregnancy and giving birth to twins. In a recent interview, she told Extra! that she lost 35 pounds in about 3 weeks by breastfeeding.
Romijn’s close to losing the 60 pounds she gained during her pregnancy and get this…She’s done it without a workout plan. “I think within the first three weeks, I took off like 35 pounds without doing anything!” Okay, almost anything. “I haven’t been able to work out that much because I have twins. It’s impossible to get back into a regular schedule.” So, what is her secret to dropping the pounds? “Breastfeeding is the very best diet I’ve been on. It’s amazing. It’s like you have to eat 5,000 extra calories a day or you can’t produce enough food for them.
Breastfeeding burns approximately 500 calories/day and women lose approximately 1-2 pounds/week. Salma Hayek is the only celebrity that I’ve heard speak honestly about pregnancy, baby, weight gain, weight loss and breastfeeding.
I wrote a similar piece in October when the tabloids were printing pictures of Angelina Jolie 11 weeks after twins.
“I was so sick all week…but (giggling), I lost ten pounds.”
“I’d rather die thin than live fat.”
It’s strange, frightening and altogether not too surprising that girls and women rejoice in weight loss that results from illness and disease. Most girls and women understand the serious side effects of chronic yo-yo dieting, diet pills, colonics, laxatives, drug-use and over exercise as the torture devices du-jour to pursue insane degrees of thinness. But, the stakes are high and, as a result, too many take the deadly gamble.
Images of thinness have gotten more extreme and a female’s value is wrapped in a stick-thin frame no matter what else she does. If you’re independent, successful, professional, intelligent and you’re not thin (and attractive, with thin being a means to being considered attractive in this culture), you’re not as valuable as you could be being all those things. And. Thin.
So, when the FDA announced yet another diet pill being pulled off the market, I’m wasn’t at all surprised and I don’t think anyone else is either.
Government health officials are announcing the recall of popular weight loss pill Hydroxycut, after reports of liver damage and other health problems.
Food and Drug Administration officials said Friday the manufacturer of Hydroxycut has launched a nationwide recall of the dietary supplement, used by people trying to shed pounds and by body builders to sharpen their muscles.
Hydroxycut is advertised as made from natural ingredients. It accounts for about 90 percent of the market for weight loss supplements, with sales of about 1 million bottles a year.
Dietary supplements are not as tightly regulated by the government as medications. Manufacturers don’t need FDA approval ahead of time before marketing their products.
I mean, who are we kidding? It’s not like there isn’t a history of harmful side effects linked to the use of diet pills resulting in recalls. Think Fen-Phen in 1997.
I don’t think the manufacturers are surprised. I don’t think the FDA is surprised. I don’t think the general public is surprised. I certainly don’t think the users of Hydroxycut are surprised. I mean, really, anytime a pill claims to have the ability to help you lose weight with minimal lifestyle changes such as changing one’s diet significantly and exercising regularly and being able to help you lose wight and/or tone and sculpt your body, you have to take pause. That’s just weird. And wrong.
Haven’t we learned that there’s no magic pill or quick fix for anything? Are we still that obsessed with immediate results and instant gratification that we have ignored the lessons of the past and what our common sense tells us?
Maybe. But, when the stakes are high logic goes out the window.
Thinness and the pursuit of thinness, no matter how toxic, is glorified in our culture. In fact, the toxic pursuit of thinness and the vile and disturbing results create fascination and stokes the flames of infatuation.
Just this week in Us Magazine’s print version there is yet another article focusing on Lindsay Lohan’s skeletal figure and the claim that she proudly uses Adderall. Us Magazine’s online version provides the reader with a slide show of Lohan’s “weights ups and downs.” Last week, Star Magazine ran a similar piece focusing on Lohan’s break-up and subsequent weight loss.
Lohan’s weight loss can’t be attributed entirely too her break-up when you consider the sea of images that glorify the cult of thinness and advertisers provide various instruments, pills and potions to make the mirage appear real.
Hydroxcut’s recall is predictable. Lohan’s severly thin frame is predictable. The media’s response is predictable.
And, I have no doubt, a new pill will replace Hydroxcut in the same way Fen-Phen was replaced and the cycle will continue until there is some honest dialogue.
Until then, girls and women will put their health on the line for an outrageous aesthetic that is pandered to the masses.
Laura Ingraham slams Meghan McCain for her weight and Meghan McCain fires back on The View. I am digging Meghan McCain. Focus on what she has to say, not her ass.
…still won’t be good enough, as Us Magazine reminds readers with it’s first 2009 cover proclaiming “2009’s Diets That Work!” This is followed with captions that announce the disappearance of Britney’s “belly fat” and the fifteen pounds Beyonce dropped. But, it’s not just about celebrities.
It’s about YOU!
“How stars get instant results” which means that you can, too, if you buy these products and behave the insane ways described in this “special” issue with a “28 page bonus.” Some of the advice? Don’t eat carbs after 6. Leave half of everything on the plate (and, what, throw the rest away?). Do leg lunges while you brush your teeth.
2009’s first cover strikes an eerie resemble to, yup, 2008’s diets that work and it’s 23 page bonus. In fact, when I looked at all the covers of Us Magazine for 2008 via their slide show I found almost 20 covers that mentioned dieting, make-overs, and body image at least once. Note: the slides are not complete images and may not show the diet/body reference For complete images of all 2008 covers click on the slide show link above.
