This week's Hot Topic Tuesday is a video and soon-to-be book that has frequented my Facebook newsfeed over and over in the past week. Jade Beall is the photographer who took the pictures seen in the Beautiful Body video and she is currently working on a book by the same name. Her hope is that by showing women's natural bodies (specifically the bodies of mothers) that women will embrace their own bodies as beautiful. Here's the video if you haven't seen it...it's definitely worth a watch.
I love the concept of the video and Jade Beall's goal is an admirable one. My question is, in a society that is youth-obsessed, where there is a cream for every wrinkle and stretch mark, a diet for every perceived extra pound, and a surgery for every unwanted lump, bump and line, can women truly get to a place where they love their bodies...stretch marks and all? Further to that, will women watch this video and feel better, worse, or the same about their bodies..will this be yet another tool that women use to compare themselves against?
What are your thoughts???
Happy Tuesday:)
I hadn't seen that video before. I don't know what I think.....it's an interesting concept and a lofty goal, but I don't know how looking at other women's bodies will make me more comfortable in my own - I think it may just lead to more comparisons. "At least my _____ isn't as _____ as hers...." sort of things. I also think there's a lot to be said for modesty, and there's no reason a woman should need to have a nude picture plastered all over books and videos to feel beautiful and valued. Isn't that the same issue from the other angle?
ReplyDeleteHowever, to have different body shapes and sizes represented in the media is definitely a goal we should have as a society, but I don't think that can be done by a book or a viral video, because when we look at magazine covers and blockbuster movies and billboards, we still see the same photoshopped images. Change needs to start with moms like you who will teach their daughters to love their whole selves, and to be more concerned with their inner adornments than outer.
Great insights and I agree...I think learning to love our bodies needs to start at home with us teaching our daughters the importance of inner beauty all the while modelling ways to embrace the beauty of our physical selves. That is, however, another very lofty goal:)
ReplyDeleteI also feel compelled to add that lessons in healthy body image aren't just for girls...I think they are equally as important for boys to learn.
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