Lady in her Hat

Yesterday I was expecting to be busy most of the day with appointments - Tuesday is my teaching day - but two of my clients canceled, leaving me with the whole day to paint.  Quite a treat!

I worked on Lady in her Hat.  I'm enjoying this piece so much.  The colors are so light and airy - perfect for the burgeoning Springtime!  The model looks so coy and playful.  It's fun to paint because of that.  I haven't gotten to her hands completely - they'll be a bit complicated because I can't see them well in the photo - they're kinda blurry.  And the hat!  Boy!  It's quite complex with lots of Mylar shreds in it.  I'm going to have fun with that!  It was also challenging painting her hair because it's so light - somewhere between platinum blond and white.  it was interesting trying to get it to stand out against her beautiful pale skin.  That'll be something I'll work on refining once I get a layer on the whole thing.

Today I worked on my book when I wasn't too tired to do a thing.  I've been reading through surveys you wonderful women have returned as well as emails I've received and webpages I've copied from over the last couple of years.  I'm categorizing them as I read through them then will put them in the proper folder.

I've just arranged to go on a Silent Retreat the week of April 5 for 5 days, so that'll be a great opportunity for me to start putting pen to paper.  I'm excited to have the time away from internet and any other distraction.  I'm not disciplined when it comes to the internet!

Lasting Impressions IV

Since everyone else has shared, I guess it's only fair that I share things people said to me which left lasting impressions as well.

I was raised by a dad who was as loving as a man can be, but he definitely had a prejudice against fat (probably because he was inordinately skinny himself).  He told me frequently as a child to hold my stomach in or I would end up with an ugly belly.  In high school I got into the routine of doing 100, up to 200, sit ups a night to try to flatten my stomach.  I realize that my stomach will never, ever be flat, no matter what I do.  God did not make me that way, any more than he gave me black hair or purple skin.

My siblings were both very thin by nature and are younger than I am, so to goad me when we were kids, they'd sing to me: "Fatty, fatty, two by four, can't get through the bathroom door."  I had the perception that I was fat even though, from looking at pictures, I can see that I wasn't.  I was a normal sized child with a somewhat protruding belly.  I was flattened by their teasing though.  I wish I'd had the self-assurance to get right back in their faces and tell them to shut up - or whatever other childish epithet might have worked!  Instead, I carried the belief that I was overweight into my 20's or 30's.  The reality was that I was 5'6" and weighed 118 most of that time.
 

When I was pregnant, I was embarrassed to be seen by my dad because my stomach was so fat.  Somehow I didn't think that he'd know the difference between pregnant and fat.  The first artwork I did was of pregnant women.  I think it was an attempt for me to come to terms with my pregnant body and to claim its beauty and sensuality, to love that overly huge belly with its extraordinary life-giving capability.

Later dad told me that once women have babies, they get fat, so I'd better do whatever I could to not let that happen to me.  I did because his opinion mattered so much to me.  Six weeks after my oldest child was born, I started doing aerobics 3 times/week and continued until 3 days before my second child was born.  A bit immoderate, if I do say so myself.

In high school, one of my friends, a boy, told me, "Martin, [his nickname for me], you sure do have a cute butt!"  Ever since then, I've felt cute and sassy as I walk, knowing my butt is cute!

As a young woman of 23, I was entering into the world of mothering and childbirth as my older women friends became mothers.  The husband of one of them was flirting with me in a way that was uncomfortable to me - I didn't like the way he leered at me - but one thing this man said to me stuck with me in a good way - he told me my hips are perfect for birthing babies.  Before that I had felt a bit uncomfortable with the size of my hips which are womanly, so for him to say that put things into a completely different perspective.  It led me to feel positive and hopeful about giving birth, empowered that I would be great at it.  That expectation and affirmation proved true.  I'm grateful for his comment - that one, at least!

A friend of mine told me she hates big aureoles then pointed out that I have very big ones.  Until that moment I hadn't particularly known what aureoles were or that mine were larger than anyone else's.

Mostly I was raised to be pretty oblivious to things of the flesh - I didn't wear a lot of makeup or worry much about how I looked or obsess about pimples or flat feet or whatever - thunder thighs, a fat ass, tiny breasts, too-long fingers, crooked nose - thankfully I didn't get a lot of messages about things that were wrong - or right - about me.  I felt pretty most of the time and believed that my beauty came from within.  I felt beautiful when I smiled and still believe that's true.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I started thinking much about how I look because I started gaining weight.  I have put on 15 pounds in the last 10 years, and I don't feel good about it.  My doctor told me that "women of a certain age" start putting on weight and there's very little that can be done about it.  I'm not yet willing to accept that, nor the inevitable decline into pudginess and invisibility which seems to happen to many 50+ women.  I've spent a couple of several-month-long stints at the gym and am about to start another one.  I like building up my strength and feeling more muscles, but it doesn't help me lose weight.  My stomach now has a roll of fat above it below my breasts.  I am not impressed.  I don't like it.  I guess I'll see if I can whittle it down a bit again.  (Why?  Because I feel bad about getting "fat", no matter how aware I am, no matter how many affirmations I say, no matter what, I am judging myself for how I look, much to my chagrin!)

Of course all of the above are some of the myriad reasons that I'm passionate about women's body image.  I'm trying to heal the negative messages I've gotten, and I'd love to help people become more aware of what they're saying so other people don't get hurt by insensitive, unconscious statements much less by consciously cruel comments.  I think if I had been more secure about how I looked/look, I would have been impervious to what others said about me (though perhaps not my family's comments - who can be immune to those?)  If I had realized that I am not my appearance, none of it would have mattered anyway.  But those are difficult things to become aware of as a teenager.  Heck, they're hard to realize and KNOW as an adult.  I'm still working hard to stay ahead of my own self-judgments and to feel consistently good about myself.

It's a lifelong journey.  I guess I'll just keep on keeping on til I'm there...  Thanks for joining  me for at least this segment of it.

docucopies won't print the catalogue

I've been so busy this last week, I've barely had time to write here.  My focus is split because there are several things I'm working on:

the catalogue for the show

my newest piece, "Don't Mess with Me!"
checking out the company which wants to license some of my artwork
tutoring at school again and trying to pick up some new clients
working out so I enjoy my body
being with Chris when he has time
several meetings this week
marketing a new art class which starts next Thursday
framing work for the show
laying out the artwork for the show

It's a LOT for one week - no wonder I'm feeling a bit fragmented!

So - progress report -
I sent the catalogue in to Docucopies.com.  It took 4 hours to upload all the files.  Tedious, to say the least.  The next day I got the following email from them: 

Hi Susan,


We do apologize for the inconvenience, but we will be unable to print your orders. It is a company policy that we do not print nudity, whether it is a painting or photo. Again we do apologize for the inconvenience.

Ashlee Anderson
Docucopies.com

THAT was a bummer!  I ranted and raved for a while about it then realized there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it other than find a new publisher, and FAST!  Of course I have a lot of ethical stuff to say about it, and of course it feeds into my project very effectively - what is our society about if a company won't publish a catalogue celebrating women and their bodies and supporting positive body image?? 
 
But pragmatically I had to act quickly to get the catalogue printed in time for the show.  I went to a local printer, Uptown Color.  They do a fabulous job, they're professional, they print nudes, they're local.  The only reason I didn't go to them right away is because they charge somewhat more than twice as much for the catalogue which makes the price a bit high for folks to buy.  But they're good, and they're willing.  So I'll be spending $825 plus tax for the catalogue.  I sure hope I sell out the copies of them!  I picked up the proof Friday.  It looks good but the colors are off, so I have to try to fix them somehow.  I haven't been able to figure out how to calibrate my monitor, but the colors are consistently too yellow, so I'll take that into account and try to adjust accordingly - however that is!
 
It will be done in time for the show.

It's been a helluva week! Scoliosis, graduation, surgery, wisdom teeth, all at once.

Dear Readers,

So sorry I haven't been posting for a while...  it's been VERY busy around here!  I haven't painted or drawn or even considered doing it for over a week.  Today I'm starting to feel the itch again, but not quite enough to want to scratch it.  So here's the deal...

I tutored intensively for 2 weeks leading up to exams, very little time off, very much brain power needed.  I drove myself pretty mercilessly as is my wont at this time of year.

Silent retreat.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Return from retreat into more stress.  My 18-year-old, Dylan, needs to have spinal surgery for pretty severe scoliosis which has just been diagnosed recently.  We've spent the last month gathering information, going to appointments for yet another test, talking to very wonderful doctors, then getting together to try to make the best decision possible about when to have the surgery.  Dylan had been making very exciting plans to go to China this summer with a friend - he had gotten so much figured out - where to stay, how to get there, what to do while there (teach at two different schools as well as learn Chinese, then travel whenever possible), how to pay for it, etc., etc.  Then this stupid operation began to seem necessary sooner than later.  The recovery time is at least a month of fairly strong pain, more of discomfort and not being able to carry more than 8-10 pounds at one time.  His spine is tilted at about 70 degrees and looks somewhat like a question mark.  Unfortunately it hasn't stopped descending, nor will it until it is stopped.

So Dylan's dad and I had to make some tough choices - deny Dylan the trip to China or let him go?  Have him get the surgery as soon as possible or delay it until Christmas vacation when he might not have sufficient time to recover completely before school starts again and during which time he might get worse?  We spoke with the orthopedic surgeon, a geneticist to see if he has any genetic issues, the neurologist who's operated on him before, and a cardiologist.  He's had an MRI, a CT scan, an echocardiogram, x-rays, not sure what else, and he still has to have an MRA, a meeting with the anaesthesiologist and the surgeon again.  In the midst of it all, he lost a weekend when he got his wisdom teeth pulled - all 4 at once.  AND he was a senior in high school, so he was taking his AP exams and doing final projects and going to the prom, then having final exams, and finally, this past weekend, graduating with honors!  My darlin' boy!  He has dealt with it beautifully.  He is so aware and conscious and clear-headed.

We finally made the choice that he needs the surgery this summer - no China.  It's just too hard to wait and not know if it's getting worse every day, and we want him  to regain full mobility as much as possible.  The surgery will be complicated due to surgery he had on his spine when he was 10, but we're praying for great results.

So why would I write about this on my blog?  Well, it's about body image, isn't it?  And having issues like scoliosis affects body image, for sure.  Dylan said he didn't even really notice that he had scoliosis until he found out that he did, and now he's aware of it all the time.  My daughter read fashion magazines as a young and maturing teen, fully aware of the marketing job they were doing, and is more sensitive than not to wanting to look a certain way to fit the "look."  We're all affected by what we know.

When I was growing up, I was hardly aware of my body, except for the period of time when my siblings taunted me with, "Fatty, fatty, two by four, can't get through the bathroom door" (though I actually wasn't fat - I just wasn't in the 3rd percentile for body weight like they were). As an adult, I hated my stomach, but otherwise didn't think about my body.  I was thin enough - actually, I was underweight and didn't know it.  I had so little awareness of my body.  It wasn't until I gained weight to the point where I was beginning to enter the "normal" weight range, that I started having any body issues to speak of.  Now, as I enter my 50's and my metabolism is slowing down, I'm exercising more and slowly but surely putting on pounds.  I feel bad about it most of the day when it enters my consciousness.  It really sucks.  I can hardly bear to think what women who are overweight must think of themselves.  So much pain around our bodies.  Is is possible to just love them unconditionally?  To accept them as they are?  To get them repaired when needed (as my son will do), and love them just as they are all the time?  I don't know how to achieve that.  I have so many expectations of how I should look and such distortions about how I actually look.  I probably wouldn't recognize my own body in a line-up of bodies without heads - I'd probably figure myself for 30-40 pounds heavier.

Where on earth does that come from????  Why are we so wretched to ourselves?  Such searing searching....

A friend shares her experience with anorexia and body image

Below is an exchange of letters between and acquaintance and me about the blog entry I wrote when an organization turned down my offer to teach a workshop on body image.  This woman went through a bout with anorexia as a young woman and speaks very clearly about her process - how she got there and how she got away from it.  She also has some wonderful insights about body image and nudity in today's society.  I thank you, C.,  for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Hi Susan,

I was reading your blog article [about the organization which was uncomfortable allowing me to give a workshop on body image and show pictures of nudes as part of it]  and can completely see your frustration. It's inspiring to see you offering your project to the world, and just as inspiring to see the challenges you face--not because I want there to be challenges for you to fight against, but because it is exactly those challenges that show you are hitting on some really important life-changing issues.

I think I have some insight to share with you. Though the insight isn't exactly clear for myself ;) As a child I was extremely shy and very modest. I was one of those kids that wasn't fat, but was chubby. Not extremely nerdy, but definitely not in the "popular" crowd. So strange these labels when we think of them now... but then I hit puberty and though I was embarrassed to be one of the first with tampax for some reason or other I became much more outgoing. In high school, though, I definitely spent time hugging an eating disorder close to me--I'd try to eat the least possible and then when I did eat I'd undergo 150 jumping jacks and an intense workout I'd designed for myself. But then I completely left all of that and now eat basically whatever I want. Health is the most important thing. Not image. Exercise because I love it and it makes me feel healthy mentally as well as physically and eating natural foods that nourish and sustain me--and the allowance that I love candy and sweets so I don't obsess over them as a bad guilty thing. What does all this mean and how does it help you? Looking back I try to analyze what has changed throughout my life. Now my body is my body, it is a part of me that functions in a practical way for me to achieve my dreams--in the times I felt self-conscious about it I felt self-conscious because I didn't have control. Probably over a number of things. Whenever we feel we don't have control over ourselves fear creeps in...this could happen, this could happen, and I'm helpless to stop it...

I think it is a feeling administrators and school officials have over students--they need to control what is exposed to the "future minds of America." They only think of nakedness as connected to sex, not of self. But to teach abstinence doesn't help...it only leaves information in the dark that could be used in the dark! One of my friends spent some time in South Africa and she was amazed by the female perception of their own bodies. After someone commented on her "tiny skinny white legs," she asked one of the locals what they loved about their body the most. "My thighs that are strong and can carry me across the village, my breasts that enable me to feed my babies, and my arms that help me to lift." When we have a sense of self, a sense of purpose, a need for our own flesh that is when we appreciate it the most. And until we have this need, this other purpose for our bodies in nudity other than what's considered a negative in most education systems--sex--people will be terrified of displaying the naked body. Too bad people still don't understand that to say no or to withhold evidence (such as your paintings) doesn't work--human nature always wants to do what it is told NOT to do. If your paintings were allowed and the images were readily discussed there may actually be some progress...that's my two cents. Hope it wasn't too confusing and perhaps a bit helpful.

peace and strength,

C.

Susan Singer March 24 at 8:57am

C,

I'm curious about how you were able to leave your eating disorder behind. How did you become conscious of it and decide to make other choices?
I think what you're saying about allowing yourself to love candy and sweets so you don't obsess over them is SO healthy!

I think you're touching on something really important when you talk about control and being out of control. It does seem like a lot of body issues have to do with control. Eating disorders seem to be about people wanting to have control over something, and their bodies are about all they can manage given their life's circumstances.


I'm also finding that a lot of the fear about nudity seems to be boiling down to the fear that kids will run out and have sex (be out of control) if they see naked bodies. It's an absurd connection to my mind, but it seems to be prevalent. I understand that when boys (and girls probably) look at porn they tend to get turned on and probably do want to have sex, but the naked body is not necessarily porn. There is a strong distinction. I don't think any of my paintings are porn. They certainly aren't intended to be! But I think that fear that people will get out of control is at the base of negative reactions to my paintings.


I love what the South African said to your friend. That's wonderful. How incredible it would be if we had such dominant thoughts about our bodies here.

Susan .

C. April 5 at 11:11am

Susan!

[...]It's funny, I had not thought about the time I was basically anorexic in a very long time. But speaking about it brought up emotions I didn't know existed around the subject. I think I often looked back on it as a silly and unfounded behavior and a part of my past that didn't quite make sense. It still doesn't really make sense to me and I think that's how I overcame it. So much energy went into watching what I ate, freaking out about if I did eat something I "shouldn't have" that I think I just got tired of it. I came to the conclusion that my body is not built to healthily be the skinny [shape] some of my friends were and I became uninterested in being in any environments that would judge my natural shape and size. An outward struggle of what I think each human undergoes inwardly as they more fully become themselves and confident in who they are and what they have to share with the world. So I guess I don't have an actual story to share about my struggle because I think I finally just made a conscious choice to release the worry. Maybe it's ironic that my theatrical focus now is teaching movement and how the body can be manipulated to create different characters...

My performance friend was telling me the other day that there are two categories in the school systems that have the most funding: bullying prevention and nutrition. Your class fits perfectly into the latter! There has to be a way to get around this whole nudity hoopla...like in Europe where the drinking age is lower, alcohol abuse happens less frequently. If children were exposed to nudity, especially in a non-deprecating, non pornographic way, they just might feel more comfortable with and less likely to abuse their and other's bodies.

C.

Advertisements and sexy women

I was looking through Dwell Magazine the other day and noticed that the ads for household products are as sexy as those for clothes which are in Vanity Fair, and both of these genres of ads portray women exceedingly differently than I do.  Can you figure out what the ad on the left is trying to sell?  Where does your eye go?  What is it you'd like to buy/have when you see this ad? 

I immediately noticed the woman's legs and hair since they offer the greatest contrast in the picture.  And I want to be her, getting up on a beautiful sunlit morning, having such a gorgeous picture window next to my toilet (uh, do I really want a huge window next to my toilet?).  Anyway, she's beautiful.  Her legs are perfect.  Her hair is perfect.  Then I wonder what I'm being sold.  Oh, bathroom fixtures.  But they look plastic and cold and uncomfortable, and I have no interest in a bidet - I never have been able to figure out what they're for anyway, but now magazines are trying to sell those, just like they're working on selling outdoor kitchens, as if we need a $15,000 "room" outside to cook in, when most of us don't use the perfectly wonderful kitchen we have indoors already.

So this ad makes me feel inadequate because my legs don't look like that; I don't have or know how to use a bidet; my bathroom is much smaller than that; I wonder if my husband wishes I looked like that.

This next picture is supposed to be selling a red sofa, I think.  But all I can see is the pretty woman with cleavage perched uncomfortably on the sofa, hanging up pictures on a line.  I can feel my stomach contract with tension because that's how I would feel if I were perched like that on a squishy sofa with my high heels off the edge.  It seems like it would be much easier to stand up and hang up the pictures, but then, of course, the sofa wouldn't be as noticeable.  Why is it necessary to have a pretty woman in the picture at all? 

This is what I mean when I say that sex is used to sell things, and that the media is giving us a warped sense of how women should look.  The next two pictures are much more obvious.  They're from Vanity Fair and are for clothing.

How many women do you know who are that skinny?  With legs that long?  I think the picture has even been distorted to be longer than it should be.  And look at those shoes.  Unless you're a ballerina with experience en pointe, how could you even think about walking in them?  Your feet would be damaged in an hour.  Her look is provocative and discomforting.  I feel like she is saying, "Come hither, but when you do I'm going to cut you to shreds." 

This last picture I think is very beautiful compositionally.  I love the curves and the light and the dark, the waves and colors.  I think it's truly beautiful.  But besides that, it is again a rather unrealistic vision of how women really look.  How many of us curve like that with our eyes closed in seeming ecstacy with our hair blowing in the wind and our lipstick glimmering sexily with no panty line or bra line showing through such a skin-tight dress?  It is very appealing to think I would look like that if I wore that dress, but I have a feeling there aren't all that many women it would look so good on.  So looking at her, I could again feel inadequate that I don't look like that and probably never will again, if I ever did.  I don't know if grey hair blows in the wind like that.

I heard on NPR that as women age, they would have to exercise 60 minutes/day to not gain weight.  I guess that explains why there's middle-age spread for most women in the US these days.  Not too many people spend that much time exercising, I don't think.

great quote

We're having a great conversation on Facebook today addressing the question of what is so threatening to people about the naked body.  One of the participants posted the following quote which made me laugh outloud because I perceive it as so true!

"Take off all your clothes and walk down the street waving a machete and firing an Uzi, and terrified [American] citizens will phone the police and report: 'There's a naked person outside!' " (Mike Nichols)

And here's a picture I found on Google when I googled "Naked man with machine gun."  Notice who actually has the guns!

What is it about the naked body that freaks people out so much?

Can someone please tell me what it is about the naked human body that freaks people out so much?  I'm serious.  I really don't get it.

A couple of months ago I volunteered to lead a workshop for some inner city youth about women's body image.  I was thinking I would show some slides of my work and prompt a conversation based on that about bodies and body image.  I would also show slides from art history like the ones I've had on this blog before - you know, Rembrandt, Manet, Picasso - people who get paid big bucks for their work so are presumably acceptable to society.

The first response I got from the coordinators is that they were going to have to think about it because the workshops would be held in a church.

Excuse me?  Is there something in the Bible which forbids nakedness?  Maybe there is and I don't know about it, because that does seem to be a strong force against nudity.

I wonder what it is that makes people try to keep their children from seeing naked bodies with the force they'd use to keep them from being run over by a speeding train.  It's as if breasts or penises or bellies could corrupt them and turn them into sex workers.  Or an image could rape them.  I really don't understand.

One of my tutoring students who is 18 and reads my blog all the time (you know who you are!) talked to me about this the other day.  She said, "Ms. Singer, you just don't understand.  Maybe you lived in Europe too long.  People just don't want to see naked people."  I told her I'm aware of that, but I want to know why.  What is it that makes nudity so threatening?

Seriously.

We all have bodies.  We generally keep them covered up.  Some of that has to do with trying to stay warm if we live in a cool or cold climate.  But it seems to me that as soon as it's possible to do so, people (especially teenagers) strip down to as little clothing as possible.  Just look at these two pictures of girls on the beach.  To me, these girls are sexier than the models I paint.  They are out to attract attention (or so it looks to me), especially the one girl, as opposed to the two who just seem to be walking.  It occurs to me that wearing just a little bit of clothing, in just the right places, is more provocative than seeing everything.

People I know who have been to nude beaches say there is a certain fascination at first - you have to gawk because you're getting to see what you've never been allowed to look at before - but pretty soon you realize that it's not really all that interesting.  There are people of all sizes and shapes there, hanging out all over the place (pun intended!).  The image I have here from a nude beach in France is not very much more revealing than the one of the two girls walking down the beach.  What is it about the butt cracks that make people get so freaked out?

In Europe, people worry about their children watching movies repleat with violence - they're worried that all that killing might give the kids the wrong impression of how to be in the world.  They don't get uptight about the kids seeing bodies.  After all, what could a naked body do to harm them?  How is nudity a bad message?

The reason I'm so up in arms about this today is that a different coordinator for the same youth conference contacted me today to ask what I was thinking about doing for my workshop.  She is familiar with my work and my values and beliefs.  She said that the conference is being held in a church and that they would risk losing their right to hold the conference there if I were to show my work as part of my workshop.  And the organization might lose their grant funding if anyone complained and the word got back to the funders.  Has it now become against people's ethics to discuss the human body in all its beauty?  Or to show authentic flesh?

My intention in volunteering to do the workshop was to work with girls who may not have had a chance to think much about this topic - loving their bodies.  They, like all of us, are most likely bombarded by images of women who have attained an ideal set by the media but unattainable by the vast majority of females on this planet - 6 feet tall, 130 pounds, ribs showing, long straight hair, caucasian features, small breasts, slender hips, no butt.  So these girls, most of whom are African American, have to contend with images of beauty which they can NEVER hope to attain. No way, no how, not in this lifetime.

So what if I were to show them pictures of real women?  What if they were to see naked women with real hips and breasts and rolls of belly and scars?  And what if those women were also beautiful?  Not in the conventional sense perhaps, but fundamentally gorgeous because they feel that way.  Where else will I be able to find images of beautiful women who don't conform to media's standards?  How else can I show them examples of beauty that differs from the norm?  (I found the image above when I googled heavy black woman - she hardly looks black - her skin is so light, and her hair is so straight - what message are these girls getting?)

Sure, I can have them go through magazines and find pictures of things they find beautiful and put them on one board, then pictures of people that are ugly (if there are any other than the "before" ads for losing weight in your belly), then talk about their perceptions and where they may have come from.

But this restriction to not show them my work or any nude bodies keeps me from being able to do the most important part of the workshop.  I need to show them what beauty CAN BE besides all these frail rail-thin creatures.  I want to show them what a real body looks like.  How many of these girls have ever even seen a naked body other than their own (if they've even had the courage to look at that?) or maybe their mother's.  And what are the chances that they have the message that those are beautiful?  I don't have any paintings of African Americans, unfortunately.  I need some models so I can expand away from beautiful caucasian (and one gorgeous Indian) bodies so I can have more examples in many skin colors.  But I believe that seeing women's bodies as they really are is powerful.  Even if I were just to show breasts and hips and butts, divorced from the bodies.  Girls need to see REAL bodies, not unflawed airbrushed plastic! 

So I'm up in arms today.  I'm confused.  I'm perplexed.  I'm energized.  I want things to be different. 

And I really need someone to explain to me what it is about the human body that makes people so damn uncomfortable.  Because I no longer get it.  I just can't see the other side of this issue anymore.

excellent article about body image

My brother sent me a terrific link to a website with a lot of research about women's body image.  I found it fascinating.

http://www.lilithgallery.com/feminist/anorexia/Anorexic003-EatingDisorders.html