Over at Sociological Images (www.contexts.org) there was a recent posting that made my head spin a bit. Click here to check out their post comparing photos of celebrities in the 90s and photos of those same celebrities now.

It’s pretty shocking to see the different a decade makes. Not only are these female celebrities ten years older, but they’re also much, much skinner. I think the article does a great job of explaining the pictures and I thought it might be worth a look. There’s been news talking about keeping models from starving themselves into their next pay cheque, but celebrities also rely heavily on their bodies to sell themselves to media; we should look at what their job requires them to lose too.

Jessica Hagy put up another great comic called “True For Boys and Girls.” Take a look.

http://thisisindexed.com

In the comments for the comic, several people also pointed out that the circle B should actually be partially out of the A circle, as the cultural definition of beauty is often patently unachieveable by anyone. It’s outside reality. I definitely agree with this, but love the comic even as it is. I wonder if I’ll ever run out of these?!

I’d like to also say a big thank you to all the girls I got to meet at the Calgary Women Centre summer camps. They were a great group and I’d definitely help out again next year.

This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say.

There’s a woman in Florida who’s started Operation Beauty, in order to help people feel better about themselves. She encourages people to write down a positive message on a post-it note and putting it in a public place, like a public bathroom mirror. The site ( here ) shows examples of these notes all over the place and I think it’s an AWESOME idea.

I love annonymous compliments, notes or pick-me-ups so I’m totally behind this idea. The founder is trying to target the inner dialogue of women in relation to their body by reminding them via post-its that “you are beautiful” or “Smile, because you’re enough.” This definitely gives me hope that there are people out there taking steps towards a healthier beauty ideal! Check out Operation Beauty for pictures and the full story!

A topic I think I under-addressed in my book is the importance of mothers to set a good example for her daughter for body image.

I just came across a website for a book that encourages mothers to work around their own body image issues to help their daughters develop a body-positive attitude. The book “You’d Be So Pretty If… Teaching Our Daughters to Love Their Bodies — Even When We Don’t Love Our Own” by Dara Chadwick is definitely needed. I haven’t read the book myself, so I can’t say that I love it, but I love what I’ve heard and so I’d definitely be interested in checking it out. I may not be a mother, but I think all women have an obligation to those younger than them to teach them how to be women; the same goes for men and boys.

It’s really hard for women to send a good message to the younger generation when they’re stuck poking their own thighs with a pained look on their face, though. Unfortunately, that negative message of hating your body – and specifically the body that a mother has passed on directly to her child – is sent easily and usually accidentily. It’s super important to be aware of it and to make an effort to be the role model that girls need. Even when you’re trying to work through your own issues. Moms have a tough gig, I know, but that’s what makes them awesome.

What if the beauty and fashion industry acted like they knew that their choices affected how people view beauty and fashion and did the right thing?

Wonderful, wonderful things.

This is the hopes of those women running the blog: 5 Resolutions

I love their “mission statement’ of their five resolutions to transform fashion and beauty industries. In sum, they are:

1. Educate Our Audience

2. Educate Ourselves

3. Take Responsibility

4. Take Action

5. Stay Connected

Check out the link to see how what these five points really meet and learn about how the fashion and beauty industry SHOULD be behaving.

Feminism. I stumbled upon the the blog http://the-f-word.org and I’m loving it. From a quick read, it looks like this feminist blogger has a history of anorexia and is now a vegetarian who at least some of her time looking at issues from a feminist perspective.

For example, this entry talks about a Self article that addressed the repackaging of diets as “health plans” or “cleasing” rituals. However, often this ritual fasting is truly just an excuse to find a way to APPEAR to be both healthy and unhealthily skinny. This conflicting desire is yet another example of the opposites presented to girls and women to achieve. Check out the article and the blog for more.

The Women’s Centre of Calgary is running week-long FREE day camps for girls 10 -12 and one week for girls 12 – 14. They’re set up to teach girls about challenging gender roles, stereotypes and anything that makes them feel less powerful through games, activities, crafts and speakers. It’s educational, but also fun at the same time. Plus, it’s groups of about 15 girls, so it’s not a huge operation. I’m going to be spending my Tuesdays there this summer, talking about body image, being yourself and a little about activism. Hopefully, my part of the camp will be entertaining. As I mentioned, the camp is completely free, they provide lunches, and it’s at the Calgary Women’s Centre. For more information, call 403-264-1155

Here’s another spoken word piece, this time a little bit of a harsher edge, but it has an important message nonetheless. Again, there is some very strong language here and some more mature themes, and while I don’t think it interrupts the meaning of the piece, it might not be appropriate for everyone. Viewer discretion advised for this rant about how women and men are being taught that one body standard is best and how that affects the women he loves. Here’s Rafael Casal with his explanation of “Why twelve year olds think skinny is a compliment…”  in his slam piece called, “Barbie and Ken 101.”

Rafael sends the message fast and relentlessly: walk out on Barbie and Ken 101.

So, this morning, I was on Global television (channel seven?) at about 7:15 AM!  There is going to be no where left to hide from me at this rate. It was a lot of fun, despite getting at up at 5:00 in the morning. I think I’ve nearly used up my fifteen minutes of “fame”, though, so don’t worry. It should be safe to turn on your televisions again tomorrow.

In other news, all the Calgary Chapters/Indigo/Coles SHOULD have my book now. It might not say so in their computers yet, so check the Teen Lifestyles or Local Authors section for it before you believe the system, but they should be there, at LEAST at most of them. I know for certain that Macloed Trail has quite a few copies in their Teen Lifestyles section because I brought them there myself, so don’t be fooled! They’re there, I promise.

Finally, summer’s started, school’s almost over, and there’s several weeks of wonderful potential. Enjoy it!