Belly Wisdom

Whole body wisdom comes from the belly center. Relax and allow your breath to fill and nourish the life fire at your core. Listen to what you know is true: Life-changing love and power are unleashed when you accept yourself exactly as you are!

How much do I LOVE this body love goddess? “Belly Wisdom” is one in a series of clay images from Bell Pine Art Farm. They offer over thirty images in clay that mark and celebrate the many passages, sacred rites, transitions and connections encountered through life.

If this picture isn’t enough, then check out this companion text:

The old saying is wrong: It’s not that “Inside every fat woman there’s a thin woman screaming to get out.” The reality is that inside EVERY woman, there’s a FAT woman trying to get out and breathe, relax her belly center, undo her pants, let her thighs roar with thunder, and her breasts feel the breeze! One that wants to be accepted just as she is. Can you imagine what power and love would be unleashed if that were so? We would no longer be held back. The world would be saved! It makes my heart leap.

So, if you want to ‘let your thighs roar with thunder,’ add Belly Wisdom to your art collection. Purchase her at

http://www.bellpineartfarm.com/home/bp1/page_68_22/belly_wisdom.html.

I love Project Runway, and in fine Project Runway fashion, this week’s challenge of styling drag queens is supposed to be the “difficult” body challenge of the season. In the past, this challenge included styling family members of the designers, thus dealing with “real” bodies, and designing for women who had lost a lot of weight.

In past episodes, I was always annoyed with the way the designers whined about having to deal with big, female bodies. You’re fashion designers, for God’s sake! Design! You can make a dress out of corn husks but you can’t make a big girl look good?

So, this week you’ve got a runway full of big girls, and I didn’t hear one whiny complaint about being stuck with the big body. They talk about being “way out of my comfort zone,” but no one is being a whiny baby (as I’ve seen in the past). Of course, Korto, the designer who is most comfortable with size diversity, was responsible for the biggest body, so she didn’t act like styling “Sweetie” was the end of the world. And, she got raves from the judges on the design.

So, it’s easier for designers to style for “faux” big girls than it is for them to style for “real” big girls. I remain baffled.

(Photo:Robert Maxwell)

Dara Torres, still an Olympic contender at age 41, has been touted as the “physical ideal for mothers, women at or approaching middle age, and just women in general.’’ While it gives me great pleasure to see a 40-something female athlete achieve at an Olympic level, I find the notion that her body is the physical ideal for “women in general” a little extreme, even in this age of extremes in body image. And why does the media always make body image a competition: ‘See, since this woman is ripped and lean at 41, you should all be ripped and lean at 41.’

This woman is clearly a professional athlete, and as such, devotes her entire life to working on her body. According to the New York Times, Torres spends $100,000 a year on support staff alone–coaches, trainers, etc.–to compete at an Olympic level. For $100,000 a year she’d better have an athletic body!

I’ve read two very interesting articles in regard to Dara Torres as a body and fitness ideal for women:

1. Dara Torres: The New Beauty Myth, at The-F-Word.org is a great commentary on what goes into sculpting a body the likes of Torres”–working out is her full-time job.

2. Olympic Abs vs. Simple Fitness, in The New York Times, which suggests another candidate for female “physical ideal”: 80-year old Estelle Parsons, weights in hand, who maintains a diverse, physically active exercise regime and is still going strong.

(Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times)

I think that both of these women are amazing. Why does there have to be an “ideal” at all? How about finding what’s “ideal” for the individual? As women, we can celebrate Dara Torres (and Estelle Parsons) without feeling diminished by our own bodies.

If you’re reading this post, you’ve probably noticed the lovely, leather-clad (yep, that’s a leather dress–sizes 1X and 2X) model peeking around the corner of the sidebar to the right. I’ve been experimenting with placing advertising on the site, and when I saw this skyscraper banner for Hips & Curves, I just couldn’t resist featuring it. And when I saw the full-size image below, I was completely captivated.

I’ve always loved Hips & Curves. How can you not love a company that greets you like this:

You’ve come to the right place if you are looking for intimate apparel and plus size lingerie in the newest, sexiest and hottest styles. We believe your gorgeous curves are made to be flaunted, caressed, adored - and adorned - in the latest and greatest plus size lingerie styles.

They have a tremendous selection of styles from bridal to bad girl, and they even feature extended sizes. I love sexy lingerie, and this is definitely the place to go if you’re feeling a little naughty.

But, there is more to this particular ad than just a hot leather dress. The model in this photo is absolutely stunning. I love the power of her pose, with legs for days and real-looking thighs (I have thigh issues). Hips & Curves is using the tag “Provocatively Powerful” on their home page, and I would say that this model fits the bill. She’s in no way plus size, but when was the last time that you saw anything other than stick thighs in a bathing suit or lingerie ad? Not that there’s anything wrong with stick thighs, but they aren’t the only thighs that deserved to be photographed.

So, enjoy the glamazon. And if you want to buy that leather dress or just want to check out Hips & Curves, you can click on the ad or on the picture below.

She’s keeping it curvy–hope you’re keeping it curvy, too.

Corset Leather Dress - $ 129.95 Corset Leather Dress. Leather corset dress has boning for shaping and support, lace-up back and detachable garters.

The blurb for this episode says: “A tall beauty hopes to gather confidence and live out her dream of performing a sexy tango.”

While I could write volumes about each episode of this show, three points really stand out in my mind:

1. Grae likes her body only when she doesn’t know it’s hers.

Grae’s attitude illustrates that body dissastisfaction has very little to do with actual body appearance. She has nothing but good things to say about her body when she thinks it belongs to someone else. Why are we so unkind to ourselves?

2. Body loathing keeps Grae from being fully engaged in the world.

How many of us think that we are “too fat” to try something new, or to pursue our dreams? What about her body would make Grae think that she couldn’t dance? Let’s quit hiding and get out in the world and claim our space and our dreams.

3. It’s all about confidence.

I love the moment in the electronics store, with Grae’s picture on every screen, when the cute guy approaches her and tells her that her body is fine, that all she is lacking is confidence. And her transformation is really based on gaining confidence, even more so than getting a makeover.

Keep it curvy, Grae!

I’m so glad that “How to Look Good Naked” is back on for Season 2 (full episodes available online). I applaud the honesty of the women who appear on the show for revealing the depth of the pain created by body loathing. And I applaud the program for being one of the few (if not only) shows on television to feature a variety of female body types in a positive manner. How beautiful are the models in Kelly’s mirror exercise? Gorgeous, curvy women portrayed in a favorable light? Yes, please, may I have some more?

And how stunning is Kelly in her sexy, black lingerie?

As for the second season of the show, I like the changes, especially the move to hour-long episodes. I also like the addition of the catwalk–I hope that this is a regular feature. This allows for a more in-depth exploration of the impact of body loathing on the featured women’s lives.

In the first season, every time I would watch this show I would find myself wishing for the nude photo shoot. Now, I want to walk the runway in my undies and high heels!

Thanks to Kris Shock at EDIN Atlanta for sending me the information on this FREE body movement workshop in Atlanta on July 21, 2008. The workshop looks amazing, and I love the FLOW tagline: Love Yourself, Move Your Body, Live Free.

Writing with the Body: Words and Movement
Monday, July 21, 2008
7-8pm
EDIN’s Decatur office:
124 Church Street, Decatur, GA 30030
*free

Join FLOW Training for a workshop
combining gentle movement and writing.
Drawing or coloring is also an option.
Practice tuning into your mind-body connection.
Let your body and your heart speak.

*Bring your journal and yoga mat.

Connect with your body, connect with yourself, connect with others. FLOW Training offers a variety of fitness training and workshops focusing on connecting the body, self, breath and community. For more information:

FLOW Training
404.210.6752
carolineflow@gmail.com
www.mybodyflow.com

*For more information about EDIN (Eating Disorders Information Network), please visit www.myedin.org

Rachel at The-F-Word.org mentions the movie Disfigured, a movie about women and weight (on DVD July 29). Disfigured is the story of “an unexpected friendship between two women - one obese, the other anorexic.” (If you are interested in whatever happened to the winner of the first season of the biggest loser, definitely read Rachel’s article.)

The movie materials describe this friendship as “unexpected”–the perception being, as the fat girl says in the film, “I’m your worst nightmare.” In the past, I’ve thought it myself: even though thin and normal-weight women who suffer from eating disorder, well, suffer, at least they’re not fat. I never held bad feelings for thin women, but I may have minimized their pain.

Thus, the movie begins with Darcy (the woman with anorexia), seeking to join a Fat Acceptance group because she feels that she is fat. And she is refused admittance to the group.

Coming from the point of view of a woman who has always been larger than the norm, there have been times that I have said (in jest), “If I didn’t have low-blood sugar I would have been an anorexic,” as though anorexia is a condition to be desired, rather than a debilitating disease. Later in the film, Lydia (the larger woman) asks Darcy for “anorexia lessons.”

Thanks to my exposure to the stories of women with eating disorders (mostly through the blogosphere) I’ve learned that language that minimizes anorexia or bulumia is as insensitive (and offensive) as “No fat chicks.” And the more you compare the experiences of women around issues of the body, the clearer it becomes–we are all the same under the skin.

I look forward to seeing how this movie treats these and other issues relating to women and weight.

Have hot pink Post-Its, will travel. (See earlier article: Body activism works to reduce the “thin ideal”)

I’m leaving “You are beautiful” notes on mirrors everywhere.

What have you been doing in the name of body activism? I’d love to hear about it.

I am always trying to challenge myself regarding my own comfort level with my body (thus my foray into a women’s nude yoga class–a story for another time). So, at the end of swimsuit season last year, I decided to buy myself a cute, skirted bikini.

I’ve wanted to wear a two-piece swimsuit since, well, forever, but I’ve never had the nerve. However, when I saw a version of this cute INC International Concepts suit in a size 16, I took it to the dressing room to try it on.

Even under the cold flourescent glare of the fitting room lights, the suit looked cute. I liked the cut and the skirt was just the right amount of flouncy. I took it on and off several times, and each time I liked it on more than the last. The thought crossed my mind: this suit is meant for tall, lean, size-16s, not 5′5″ size-16s. But, I let that thought go, and bought my first bikini.

I took the suit for a test drive at the complex pool last season when I figured that no one would be around. I was pleased.

But the real test came this weekend, at our homeowner’s association pool party. Did I have the nerve to wear my (not so)-itsy-witsy-teeny-weeny black-and-white skirtini in front of all my neighbors? Could I sit in a lounge chair by the pool with 30 other people?

I rarely feel self-conscious around clothes and public settings. If I like how I look, that’s good enough for me. So, I screwed up my courage, put on my cute sarong cover-up, and headed to the pool. My reaction when I arrived really surprised me: I couldn’t bring myself to remove my cover-up.

I had the following dialogue with myself:

Just take off your cover-up and get in the pool.

But, I don’t know if I’m ready to be known by my neighbors as “the fat girl in the bikini?”

Didn’t you make peace with the whole “fat girl” thing a long time ago?

Yes, but, remember what they say on “What Not To Wear”: You may not care what you look like, but the rest of us have to look at you.

Anyone offended by you in a bikini by the pool can avert their eyes. Just take off the sarong and do it.

So, I did. And no one screamed out in disgust or ran in horror.

And how did I look in my bikini?

Curvy me in a bikini, do I dare? I did, and I do.

I was watching The View today (ouch!) and the topic of Princess Beatrice and her size “normal” body came up (doesn’t Beatrice look great here!). Everyone on the panel lamented the pitiful state of media images and declared that, as women, we need to quit buying into the whole thing. Then Whoopi quoted a study in which 56% of women reported that they would rather have cancer than be fat. Joy Behar kept commenting on how “sick” that attitude is and how warped our cultural notions are around fat and body image. Yet, in the same breath, she mentioned that she was going to an acupuncturist that same afternoon to try to control her appetite, because if she didn’t quite eating she could get “bigger and bigger.” To her credit, she admitted:

Just because I criticize doesn’t mean I’m not a victim and a perpetrator.

This perfectly illustrates the results of the study in my previous post: even though women are better educated than ever on the myth of the thin ideal, we buy into the message even more so than a decade ago.

You can see the segment in it’s entirety at http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/index, Hot Topics 5/7 - Healthy Women. (Be patient: the quote above occurs at the end of Part 3.)

If you watch this segment, or if you’ve already seen it, I would love your take on Whoopi’s statement at the end of the topic on body image and dieting. Whoopi is/was the spokesperson for a weight loss program, and her current diet is a regular feature on The View. What did she mean when she said that she didn’t care about her weight until someone talked to her about getting paid? Is she saying that the only reason she diets is for money? I didn’t get it.

I wasn’t surprised when I saw yet another article on the negative impact of media depiction of ultra-thin actresses and models on body image; however,  the findings of  researcher Shelly Grabe and psychology professor Janet Hyde describe a sweeping analysis of 77 previous studies involving more than 15,000 subjects that reveals:

“We’ve demonstrated that it doesn’t matter what the exposure is, whether it’s general TV watching in the evening, or magazines, or ads showing on a computer,” says Grabe. “If the image is appearance-focused and sends a clear message about a woman’s body as an object, then it’s going to affect women.”

The effect also appears to be growing. The researchers’ analysis reveals that, on average, studies conducted in the 2000s show a larger influence of the media on women’s body image than do those from the 1990s, says Grabe.

“This suggests that despite all our efforts to teach women and girls to be savvy about the media and have healthy body practices, the media’s effect on how much they internalize the thin ideal is getting stronger,” she says.

In the past several years, I’ve been excited to see media consumers becoming more educated as  to how to deconstruct media messages and media images.  Dove has deconstructed images of beauty–Tyra Banks has pulled the curtain back on modeling.  Sadly, even though we know that the images that we see are not only unrealistic, but that often they are unreal, we are still impacted.

Or, let me change the “we” to “I”–I know that these images are plastic and manipulated, but I still feel the gut punch of the current standard of beauty.  Sometimes I find the mental and emotional fight to be exhausting.  But, I refuse to give up.  I want to love my body, to embrace my beauty, to be grateful to my body for allowing me to enjoy the fullness of life.

[Quote Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008, May 12). Sweeping Analysis Of Research Reinforces Strong Media Influence On Women's Body Image. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 25, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/05/080512163828.htm]

It is no surprise to most of us to read that body loathing has become the norm for American women, with the majority of women in the U.S. expressing dissatisfaction with some part of their body; however, Denise E. Laframboise, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Hartford, says that at least half of all American men are now experiencing body image dissatisfaction.

The Hartford Courant.com features an interview with Laframboise on therapies for treating body image dissatisfaction. This is an informative interview on body image; however, I was struck by the 50% number for men and negative body image. I find that when I speak to groups of both women and men, there is always at least one man that expresses concern over his body image. Laframboise associates this trend with college-age men; however, I’m hearing men of all ages who are suffering with body concerns.

Here’s a quote from the article:

There is lots of evidence that body-image distress in men is increasing. … There’s a real spike in college-age men. For some reason, those younger men are just getting bombarded by media images that are really unrealistic.

In research, we get about half of the men (who are distressed with their bodies) expressing the same things as women: I need to lose weight. The other half of men are very different; they want to gain weight, bulk up, become more muscular.

I hear the “I need to lose weight” from guys a lot. What are you hearing?

And to the guys out there: how are you dealing with the pressures around body image?

Congratulations to Whitney on becoming America’s Next Top Model (I wish I had a picture of her in that pink Versace dress from the finale). My favorite line from tonight’s episode comes courtesy of the make-up artist preparing Whitney for the final runway show:

You’re the first juicy booty to make it to the runway.

All season long, Whitney has been referred to as the “plus-size” model. Tonight Tyra corrected that term and said that she was the “full-figured” model. Whitney has curves, but she’s neither plus-sized or full-figured. Still, I’m glad a woman with a more ”average” sized body will have a chance to be in the media as a representation of beauty. I’ll be curious to see what kind of media coverage she receives as the first full-figured winner.

Here is an art project that makes my heart sing:

The Human Mozaïk chose to sing the praises of curves and of round bodies by inviting women from across Canada aged from 18 to 50 years old to lend their forms to semi-nude photography and to unique artistic creations inspired by their curves. Each model’s curves and roundures were interpreted by different artists according to their respective styles, techniques and medium.

The Mozaïk~Curves project is also a collection of testimonies, poems and affirmations. The texts are written by the models, courageous women who become natural, artistic, proud, beautiful and intelligent. This is an original, colourful and inspiring project shedding a positive look on women’s curves and roundness!

http://www.artmozaik.com/Curves.html

I love the beautiful, sensual, artistry of the project. It is fascinating to see how various artists interpret the same photograph. The artists of the Human Mozaïk do a fabulous job of demonstrating the beauty of curves no matter the size or shape. I love seeing this diversity of female bodies portrayed side-by-side. Not only do these images move me, they make me want to see myself portrayed in such an inspiring and empowering way.

See the website for information on ordering the book (US $45) . I’m definitely getting one.