Minnesota NOW Celebrates Love Your Body Day
6th Annual Love Your Body Day is coming Wednesday, October 15th, 2003
October 16 2002 is the 5th annual national Love Your Body Day: a day to celebrate all women's bodies and challenge the twisted beauty standards and harmful products promoted by the media and other industries that increase their profits at the expense of women and girls.
All women are naturally attractive. We deserve to love and enjoy our bodies exactly as they are: to appreciate their unique shape and texture and colors and sensations; to delight in their abilities; and to care for them in every respect.
Unfortunately, few of us are able to love our bodies most of the time. The advertising, entertainment, cosmetic, cosmetic surgery, fashion, and diet industries all work hard to make women and girls believe that our bodies are unacceptable. Did you know, the average model weighs 23% less than the average U.S. woman? We are constantly fed unrealistic, disrespectful, and unhealthy images and made to feel that we will be rejected unless we conform to those images, no matter what the cost.
And the cost is staggering. 80% of 4th grade girls are dieting. The dieting industry takes in $33 billion a year. U.S. women have 160,000 breast operations each year, costing around $3,000 each. Even though cosmetic surgery is the fastest growing medical specialty in the U.S., there are still no reliable studies or statistics on complications and deaths from these surgeries. As cigarette companies targeted women with advertisements that linked thinness and attractiveness with smoking, women's deaths from lung cancer rose 400% from 1960 to 1990. These are just a few examples of immense harm caused by the barrage of advertising and other manipulative images.
Raise awareness and start making changes on Love Your Body Day.
Here's what you can do...
Host a House Party: Invite your friend over to watch the video "Redefining Liberation", a provocative film about the advertising tactics of the tobacco, alcohol and fashion industries and their impact on young women. Have a discussion afterwards. National NOW will send a free copy of the video to anyone who hosts a party with a least five friends. NOW House Party
Show the film "Redefining Liberation" (see above) at your local school, place of worship, community group or cable access station. Set-up a group discussion or a teach-in about advertising in conjunction with the showing. (Video available from NOW for $12 including shipping, or free as indicated above.)
Join the National NOW Survey on Body Image: Let us know which ad or image or character (TV or movie) most represents an oppressive beauty standard? And tell us what you love - which ads or images are the most positive for women and girls? NOW Body Image Survey
Help Plan a Rally: Feminists across the country are planning actions that target television and movies, fashion and advertisers. What would be a good action in your community or on your campus? NOW LYBD Materials
Be An Activist Consumer: Tell advertisers, editors, TV and movie producers what you think of their negative or positive images of women. Ask your friends to do the same. MN NOW can supply you with "TERRIFIC" and "WRONG" postcards, along with a media list, that get the message across clearly and are simple to fill out and mail. ($1/pack of 10) MN NOW Media List
Appreciate Your Body: On you own or with friends, take some time to look in the mirror and admire your body. Notice that its a really good body and works well in many ways; and notice what you especially like about the way it looks and feels.
Commit to Healthy Living: On your own or with friends, learn about your body and how to meet its needs around: food/nutrition, water; exercise and movement; sleep and rest; posture and support; growth, hormonal changes and cycles; protection and healing from stress, illness and injury. Learn about the affects of environmental pollution, chemical use, and medicines an other health care products and practices. Help share information and organize so that everyone has the resources to live a healthy life. MN NOW LYBD Resource List
LYBD Media List / LYBD Resource List
You may also go directly to the NOW Foundation for more information.
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