Taryn Brumfitt first made a broad impact online with her response to Maria Kang’s controversial “What’s your excuse?” image. Then she quit her day job to focus on her growing mission, the Body Image Movement. The Body Image Movement is “on a quest to redefine and rewrite the ideals of beauty.” It aims to do this… Continue Reading →
Mature models show the beauty of aging
Word of the day: “Gerascophobia.” It is commonly defined as the abnormal and persistent fear of growing old or aging. Also known as modern American culture. It’s no secret that the media idolizes youth. As women age, Botox, plastic surgery, and a generous dose of Photoshop are purported as the recipe for immortality. If you’re… Continue Reading →
Beauty doesn’t need to be bliss
Let’s stop redefining beauty and start redefining what matters. Celebrating “real beauty” once or twice a year with a size 10 cover model or a star without makeup in order to sell more magazines or make noise around an ad campaign has been a growing trend. Dove kicked it into overdrive with their Real Beauty… Continue Reading →
I cringe every time a woman is called a “girl”
We hear it all the time in TV and movies: Women being called “girls”. Someone saying, “Hey, you should meet this girl” while referring to someone in their 30s, or, “The girls are here” about women in their late 20s. It’s happening so often that it’s even put in the titles of TV shows without… Continue Reading →
“The world’s ugliest woman” teaches us how to be beautiful
Beautiful. Resilient. Inspirational. Lizzie Velasquez. Lizzie was born with a medical condition that only two other people in the world are known to have—she has no body fat. As a result, she has never weighed more than 64 pounds and has to consume small meals every hour. When Lizzie was in high school, someone posted… Continue Reading →
Does this name make me look fat? (Why “fatgirlism” needs to stop.)
At Thanksgiving this year, my aunt said I shouldn’t go by “Beth” because it’s “a fat girl’s name”. And before that, when a family friend named his kid Maddie, my brother cringed and said, “I can’t believe he named her that—it just sounds like a fat-girl name!” If you’re appalled and confused by these judgments,… Continue Reading →
Powerful Pantene commercial sheds light on sexist labels
“Don’t let labels hold you back.” This is the slogan of a new Pantene campaign that encourages women to disregard negative sexist stereotypes and live their lives with confidence — and, if you’d prefer, awesome hair. However, “Be Strong and Shine” is no longer just an ode to Pantene hair products. The message is powerfully… Continue Reading →
If they can see it, they can be it
Geena Davis is fed up with the way women and girls are portrayed in movies. Outraged at the lack of female characters in the kids’ movies she watched with her young daughter – and worried that her daughter would grow to have limited aspirations from a lack of on-screen role models – Davis founded the… Continue Reading →
Did the Media Fail Women in 2013? Ask The Representation Project
The newest viral video making its way around my Facebook feed is, “How the Media Failed Women in 2013,” a sobering three-and-a-half-minute compilation of media moments that drive one point home: the representation of women in the media isn’t changing fast enough. [media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswJ4kO9uHc”] “How the Media Failed Women in 2013” recaps the highlights and… Continue Reading →