Skinny…fat…you are you!

Boys or girls…We need to see people as themselves…not as what we “want” them to be. Be happy whther you’re a size 1, 4, 7, 12, or even a 25 xxl. You’re beautiful..and you should know it!

You should love the person you are.

When you love the person you are, you are not looking for others’ approval and you won’t take the comments from abusers, and instead you will stand up and say…I’m beautiful, and we’re done.

Stop this mental abuse of our kids which promotes domestic abuse and teen dating violence1

http://www.change.org/petitions/barneys-leave-minnie-mouse-alone?alert_id=nUuLHSQPpV_JrXiNWoCKq&utm_campaign=11899&utm_medium=email&utm_source=action_alert#share

This petition says:

Barneys plans to dramatically alter Minnie Mouse’s body – making her a 5’11 size 0 in order to “look good” in a Lanvin dress in the Barneys NYC window this holiday season.

There is nothing wrong with tall thin women. There is something wrong with changing a beloved children’s character’s body so that it looks good in a dress that almost nobody looks good in – adding to the tremendous pressure on young girls and women to attain photoshop perfection. The problem isn’t with Minnie’s body, it’s with a dress that only looks good on a woman who is 5’11 and a size zero.

That little girl who is going to become a 5’4, size 12 woman can’t just become a 5’11, size 0 woman when she wants to fit into a dress that was designed by someone who couldn’t be bothered to make a dress that looks good on someone who is not a model.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations for eating disorders in children younger than 12 years old rose by 119% from 1999 to 2006 according to a report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published in the journal Pediatrics.

According to sources cited on the non-profit National Association of Anorexia and Associated Eating Disorders website:

•47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.

• 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.

• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner.

• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat.

Girls have enough pressure to be thin, now the beloved Disney mouse of their childhood has to add to the message that the only good body is a tall, size 0 body? Enough already. Let’s give girls a chance to celebrate the actual bodies they have instead hating them for not fitting into a Lanvin dress. Then maybe enough girls will get together and demand dresses that look good on their actual, non-digitally altered bodies and designers will just have to become talented enough to design a dress that looks good on them.

We need to see people as themselves…not as what we “want” them to be. Be happy whther you’re a size 1, 4, 7, 12, or even a 25 xxl. You’re beautiful..and you should know it!

Daddy, What does a real woman look like?

Can you imagine hearing this question?

Can you imagine being a Mom hearing this question.

No…kids are probably not going to ask this question…because they believe that if it looks like a woman, it must be a real woman.

But with the wonders of airbrushing and Photoshop…it doesn’t have to be.  It can be one woman’s legs, another woman’s arms, another person’s head, etc, etc, etc…..but to the child that is a real woman. The woman has no lines on her face, no pores, no natural blemishes, no imperfections of any kind. She has no rolls, she has no pooch…she has been “made” to look like that.

To a young girl who is looking in the mirror with a magazine open comparing her new body to the body of the “girls” in the magazine…..

those are REAL woman,

those ARE the models of beauty,

those are what she WILL compare herself to.

This is a video made by a group of students.  I can’t put it any better, so I will let them speak to you….According to the youtube video description:

“Today we’re inundated with images of a false reality that concentrate on one ideal form of beauty. Altering images via Photoshop, ultimately exposes us to millions of images are not “real.” Our project takes a look at the dangers of the media, from Photoshopping to white-washing to an emphasis on an unattainable perfection. Collectively, the images in the media do not represent the diversity found in the larger population; not all women are tall, thin, white, heterosexual or young. And in real life, nobody is Photoshopped. Where are representations of “real” women?

“The advertising industry sells us images directly aimed women’s mounting insecurities. The for-profit consumer culture exploits these insecurities and rakes in billions of dollars each year. Ultimately, these images dehumanize, hypersexualize and disempower women.

“Having struggled with our own body image issues and eating disorders, we know first hand the amount of pressure the media can exert on women and the psychological and physical costs. We wanted to address the serious nature of these issues and focus on the importance of a healthy body image.

“Part of our video was inspired by our in-class project, the body collage that covered two walls from floor to ceiling with images of women in the print media. We were shocked to see the onslaught of these homogeneous all at once. This experience inspired our project as well as the Feminist Majority Foundation campaign, “This is what a feminist looks like.” Ultimately, our statement “this is what a real woman looks like” is a reaction to the exclusion of women in the mass media and the erasing of age, race and authenticity as a result of the standard industry practice of altering women that already reflect an incredibly small percentage of the population.

“The video is a mosaic of our own stories; our struggles with our own body image, our relationship with our bodies and our message of self-love.

The video: