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The un-American weight-loss story

Once upon a time, there was a Milwaukee photographer named Julia Kozerski. At 25, she was classified as morbidly obese. She made healthy lifestyle changes and lost 160 pounds. And lived happily ever after as a weight loss success in her svelter shape, right? Wrong. Julia Kozerski began documenting her weight-loss journey in one of Continue reading

Stacy London makes owning up en vogue

As a harried mother of two who’s probably more poorly dressed that I’d like to admit, I can’t imagine anything worse than some snarky style savants publicly critiquing my wardrobe choices. Unless maybe the fashionista in question were Stacy London of TLC’s What Not to Wear. Yeah, I know the show is based on the Continue reading

Lady Gaga fights negativity with positivity, kicks ass

In a classy move, Lady Gaga has responded to the media frenzy surrounding her weight gain with positivity. On her social networking website, Little Monsters, she posted four candid, unedited photographs of herself in skimpy underwear, accompanied by these captions: “Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15” “But today I join the BODY REVOLUTION” “To Inspire Bravery.” “and BREED Continue reading

Objectification—it’s not just for women anymore!

I’ve found myself split before on the topic of male objectification, for the simple reason that men and women don’t occupy equivalent positions of power. When advertisers and filmmakers present women as sexual objects, those representations exist in a world where women are disadvantaged socially, professionally, and politically. Sexualized images of women contribute to an overall Continue reading

Thanks SO much for that 90-calorie brownie, Fiber One.

Oh, Fiber One. Like other popular snack manufacturers, you decided to take the low road in selling your [not-so-]tasty treats, and have tried to convince women that they can — horror of all horrors — break their diets and satisfy their sweet tooth with your desserts! Fiber One’s approach to selling their 90-calorie brownies isn’t Continue reading

Eating to live in Siberia

I recently returned from four months living and studying in Irkutsk, a large, beautiful city in Eastern Siberia. Since I usually live and study in Ohio, it was quite a change. The most striking thing about travel is how you end up learning more about the place you left than the place you’re in. There Continue reading

Body judgments begin… almost at birth!

One of the reasons I went to graduate school was because I wanted to gain a better understanding of why women and girls develop disordered eating behaviors, what makes them worse, and most importantly, how to prevent them. And more and more research is telling us what many of the media experts at About-Face and Continue reading

Geico’s new commercial makes it even more normal for popular girls to not eat

“It’s funny because it’s true,” is a common adage following the telling of many jokes. The familiarity of the characters in the latest Geico commercial, teenage girls, are likely to incite a lot of snickering for this very reason. Of course, despite these laughs that Geico hopes for (and likely will get), I’m worried about Continue reading

“Fat-Bottomed Girls” by Kim Selling in honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Guess what!? We’re now in National Eating Disorder Awareness (NEDA) Week, the aim of which is to ultimately prevent eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment. To celebrate, we want to show you a woman who really loves her body, and showing you how she talks. (A Continue reading

Sugar in the Raw delivers a sweet insult

Calorie-free sweeteners might sound great, but many of them are actually chemically altered, and all of them are contributing to the collective cultural goal to eventually subsist on, well…nothing. Given that, it came as no big surprise to me that one of these companies, Sugar in the Raw, has a new commercial that takes a swing Continue reading