The Body Image Site for Every Body
By Sayantani DasGupta What if everyone was beautiful? No, I don’t mean inner beauty, prettiness that shines from the inside out. I mean, wide eyes, perfect noses, proportionate bodies, and symmetrical faces. The same approximate height, weight, skin color? Could making everyone look the same even the social and economic … [Read more...]
By Pia Guerrero Twelve years ago, I was doing social justice work through a community engagement project in a 10th grade class in San Francisco. The class consisted of kids from the Mission District and Bayview Hunter’s Point. Mission District at the time was a vibrant Latino community and a hot zone for gang activity. … [Read more...]
by Contributor Marianne Schnall, originally posted on Feminist.com Editor's Note: We've pulled from the vault this 2009 interview with Margaret Cho where she candidly talks about weight, beauty, body image and show business. Margaret Cho is currently starring in the new, critically acclaimed series Drop Dead Diva which … [Read more...]
By Sharon Haywood Aside from bikini season, late December and early January is the other time of year that we’re especially susceptible to feeling bad about our bodies. Special thanks to the media and the diet industry for ensuring we do by reminding us that we overindulged during the end-of-year festivities and we must … [Read more...]
By Kitty Cavalier Recently a friend told me she wants to love her body but she always feels fat. I dedicate this article to her. No woman is immune from "feeling fat." But notice we don't say, "I have fat on my body all the time." What we are describing is the FEELING of being fat. For every woman, the feeling of being fat … [Read more...]
By Jennifer Jonassen If you’re like me, you grew up with a very limited view of what sexiness is, of what sexiness looks like. I always found it perplexing that what was considered sexy was so narrowly defined. As a young girl, the women that surrounded me did not look like the so-called ideal and yet they were all partnered … [Read more...]
By Sharon Haywood Fifty-something-old Barbie[1] might be middle-aged but she sure doesn’t show it. When she was in her 30s, her manufacturer Mattel sent her for plastic surgery, not to maintain her youthful appearance, but rather in response to market demands to morph her into a more realistic-looking doll. In 1992, Barbie’s … [Read more...]
By Tami Winfrey Harris "Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window sign - all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. 'Here,' they said, 'this is beautiful, and if you are on this day "worthy" you may have it.'" - Toni Morrison, The Bluest … [Read more...]
By Valerie Kusler October is LGBT history month, and as the resident eating disorders geek here at Adios Barbie (perhaps I’ll upgrade myself to “specialist” after I finish my MSW), it got me thinking about how little I know about the connection between eating disorders and LGBT population. The default assumptions I’ve … [Read more...]
By Sayantani DasGupta The first young adult (YA) novel I ever read that had to do with body image was Judy Blume’s Deenie (1973). In it, 13-year-old Wilmadeen “Deenie” is the “pretty one” of the family, the one whose mother dreams will be a model someday. When Deenie is diagnosed with scoliosis and required to wear a … [Read more...]
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