x-post from LJ

If you heard about a body image fair, a gathering with booths and workshops and activities in support of loving your body, would you want to attend? How much would you be willing to pay? What kinds of workshops would you like to attend? What kind of businesses would you like to know about in terms of their being supportive of your positive body image and treating your body--and you--with respect?

I've been thinking about creating a business directory of businesses that pledge to honor women of all sizes, colors, abilities in terms of their body type, and perhaps even issue a certificate if they host an awareness raising class around these issues. That led to thinking it would be a cool thing to have a body image fair where the business owners, health practitioners and others could network with prospective customers as well as have workshops for women on a variety of body image related issues, such as self defense, assertiveness training, health and exercise, etc. I thought we could have seated-massage booths, henna art, clothes and jewelry designed for large women, etc., and end it all with entertainment, if I could get Fat Lip Readers' Theater it would be perfect.

Of course there are a lot of things to consider, how to structure the relationship with businesses that have booths and advertise as sponsors, where to do it, advertising money, etc.

I'm not sure how much the whole thing would cost. But it would be incredible, garner a lot of pubicity for my services and create an enthusiastic market, enable me to gather names and contact info of interested customers for future events and workshops, and generally jump start the positive body images of all the women in my area. I believe I can enlist the assistance of a woman at my workplace who does marketing and has organized events similar to that before, who does freelance consulting.

I'm also trying to figure out what kind of logo to use for the body image part of my related businesses. What says body image to you? I know someone who used an image of a woman who was half nude but facing away, looking like she was in a despairing mood. I think I'd rather focus on the "after" stage where the woman is now happy with her image, or show acceptance of a variety of body types. When I was involved with the body image task force I had the idea to take the varied size goddess images we used on our flyers and make them into a t-shirt. I wonder if I should use something like that?

I would really appreciate feedback!

Body is a vehicle for lifetime. Some may have a little larger vehicle, some smaller, but vehicle it is nonetheless and should be treated with love and respect. Enjoy the ride.
I think that your own spiritual understanding will help you develope an idea for the logo.

Great idea, Tapati -- good luck brainstorming!


I would attend, but the word "loving" would put me off a bit. Respecting or liking would be better words for me. But it might be a cultural difference, I believe North Americans tend to use stronger words than North Europeans.

I would probably not attend if the event were sponsored by some commercial, non-alternative cosmetics producer. The Body Shop (UK), on the other hand, would be attractive because of their approach to nature, sustainable development, and their simplicity in packaging their products.

How much I would like to attend would depend on how it's organized. At a medium-size event I would be willing to pay an entry fee of, say, equivalent of three lunches, plus many of the services offered could be paid for separately. General public talks could be for free. I would like to be able to pay for, say, half an hour's individual consultation. I would like activities in small groups -- 5-7 people. These group activities could be offered for a fee, a reasonable one for me would be an equivalent of an hourly wage in low-waged jobs.

I would feel too self-conscious to attend a workshop if it started right away as a workshop. I would not want to open up that much. I would however, be happy to attend a talk, fill in a questionnaire assessing my own body image and relationship to my body, have a five-minutes break and then have an option of attending a workshop after that, which the same audience.

I would be interested in being videotaped and having others discuss what my body language conveys. I would be thrilled to do the same for others.

I would be happy to have someone guide me in exploring in what ways I can be nice to my body and communicate with it better. Small things I do every day that are good; what do others do? is something important missing?

I have a conflicted relationship to some aspects of my body -- some of them visible, others more private -- and I would be happy for a chance to, in a safe environment, express these and get feedback. (For example, I firmly believe I look ugly in most kinds of winter hats. I see an ugly head when I try on a hat and look in the mirror. My husband says I look cute. I need a third opinion, but not a casual one! Is there absolutely nothing to my sense of looking ugly? Etc.) There are some kinds of clothes I would "never" wear. I would like to be challenged on those.

Aging would be a good topic. One's worst fears about our body aging, can we do anything to address that attitude?

Another good one would be ways of expressing suffering through the body. Girls who cut themselves are an extreme example, but are there harsh things we all do to our bodies to express our frustration or to punish ourselves?

My body is pretty average and I am not overweight. But if I were, or if I had any other visible feature that is looked down upon, I would like for someone to lead a seminar asking us questions, for example, do I know other persons with a similar "handicap" that I find physically attractive? What is it that makes them attractive?

A visualization workshops, imagine oneself as a ...tree? ...animal? ...car? Why? Can we act it in front of an audience? If we could say something to our feet, hands, or belly, if they were individuals who could hear us, what would we say? what would they answer? what kind of individuals are they, what is their character? (Caution: these kinds of exercises should be led by someone with some kind of psychology/counselling education. Otherwise they may cause harm or hurt feelings.)

The link between our bodies and nature out there. Air, water, sunlight, sounds and smells, do we do anything that makes us feel harmonious -- like walking, picking blueberries, horseriding, biking, sunbathing, walking in the snow? Any physical activity we loved as children?

I would love to hear a talk about someone who has done research analyzing the covert messages about body image conveyed by the clothing, cosmetics, and movie industries.


Recreation and exercise of various types. Kept as human as possible. I hate workout machines, big gymnastics halls, etc.. I would love to learn, for example, simple sequences I can do at home. Stretching for the office. Self-massage, for example touching one's own face to ease stress.
Clothing, but not mainstream mass-produced stuff. I have dreams of Medieval- or Celtic- styled clothes (think Mists of Avalon, or Curse of the Nibelungs, or Lord of the Rings of course). Would like to buy such stuff and would be willing to pay a lot. But would also love to attend a workshop with clothes designers and stylists where one can express such dreams, test what one would look like, get tips how to make clothing or where to buy it.

And so on...

1 10ve fat ch1cs... they 1ay /0re eggs

Massage tables and reflexology foot massages are a must! I would also include other spa items like whirlpools or special baths.

Getting to use this for a reduced price a some kind of fair of sorts would also be great advertising for vendors and body work professionals.

I would easily pay $50 for a day of luxurious pampering - even if it was sponsored and attended by many.

Booths can also sell lots of nice scented things - soaps, creams, body wash, powders, perfumes, etc..

Also include natural fibre clothing vendors and small businesses that cater to plus size and real figured women.

How about a sewing workshop? Given that even when I had a thin body I could not wear half the stuff in the stores, I have started to sew and alter patterns to fit MY body. Having clothes that fit and feel good make me feel good!

Just some thoughts.

I think it is a great idea Tapati and I wish you the best success!

A woman with raised arms in celebration comes to mind - like a female chaitanya deity of sorts. Definitely a logo with an "after" stage woman - although you might use the "before" stage as part of advertising.

I second Dhyana's suggestion about the fantasy and historical costume clothing (made perhaps into more everyday wear!). There is this fantastic store in Sherebrooke that sells stuff like this . It is absolutely gorgeous. I would love some of this in my super size.

This past sunday, I debuted my newly made pink print 100% cotton dirndl dress. It fit me perfectly and I felt good about myself in such a comfortable garment. I made this because I was so sick of the unnatural fabric and impractical styles offered in the RTW market.

What was really amazing is that all the little girls in the church came up to me to tell me how much they loved my new dress. Kids don't care about fashion dictates (at young ages), and they look more at what is truly feminine and beautiful. I felt great in that dress and I am going to make more of them with slight variations.

I am also looking to make some Byzantine re-creations to perhaps wear for special holidays. For Christmas, I am going to make another dirndl, but add a
Scottish touch by making the skirt part out of my clan tartan. This will celebrate 2 of my family heritages - Scot and German. I had been looking for a long time for RobRoy check (McGregor despite THEM!) and found a large beautiful bolt of it for a good price. I can't wait to make it.

Our McGregor tartans:
http://www.clangregor.org/tartan.htm

Wow, thanks for all of these ideas and enthusiasm. I can't address them all tonight; I had a long dental appointment today and the anesthetic has worn off. I had to compress 3 things into one appointment while I still have dental coverage. ouch.

But one thing I do want to quickly address: loving vs liking or respecting your body. In a culture where many women actively hate their bodies I think it is my job to help them learn to love their bodies. I think this is entirely possible! What's more I think it's necessary. But I'll elaborate on that later. I'm off to take some pain meds...

Preyo--wish I could sew. Ironically it often costs more to sew now than to buy off the rack, or so my sewing friends have told me. I flunked sewing in home ec, alas, so I probably won't be finding out. Your dress sounds really cool--could we get a picture at some point?

Speaking of fashion, this woman will customize her necklaces or size them to fit if needed. I just bought something from her:

http://www.mermadebaubles.com/

I found her through a necklace she named after the original Tapati, mother of Kuru.

I flunked the sewing unit in home ec as well! Then again, that was back in the mid 1970's and everything was polyester! Ugh!!!!! My dislike of the fashion facists (who are currently still stuck in the 70's) pretty much forced me to learn some years back. The key is lots of patience and readyness to tear out and redo mistakes. You cannot be in a rush - and that was my problem for so long.

Also you have to really know your measurements and be willing to alter the patterns. You also want to make sure to make a test garmet with some cheap muslin fabric first to make sure the pattern fits and to do all of your alterations on the muslin. The muslin also allows you to see whether you really want to go through with the pattern. If you get cheap patterns, then it isn't such a waste if you decide not to sew it after the muslin.

The dirndl dress I made was actually made from an old dress of mine that had become worn beyond repair. It was a ready to wear dress that I bought some years ago at Catherine's. Out of all of the dresses that I ever had, this one fit perfectly - even when I had large variations in size. So what I did was take apart the seams and make a pattern from the old dress - marking the darts and what not with pins and fabric marker. This worked like a charm and is actually one of the best ways to sew. So now I have this master pattern from my old dress and can make variations on it - i.e. skirts, jumpers, shirts, etc.. The dirndl is a dream for a full figured woman. Current fashions are all princess seams which do not work on me at all off the rack and require serious alteration of patterns to make them work at home - and they still aren't particularly flattering for my body. Even if I were a size 10 they would still be awful.

The trick to sewing on the cheap is to wait until patterns go on sale for .99 or $1.99 instead of their usual $12 -20. If your pattern is about $15 and the fabric near $9.99 a yard, sewing is no bargain. But I get patterns under $2 and cotton fabrics under $5 a yard (usually about $1.99 or $2.99!). Even silks are under $8 /yd. where I live. I am luckly to live near a large city where there are fabric discount stores that have material for a fraction of the cost at regular stores like JoAnns or Hancock. The material is of much better quality. JoAnn's is a Polyester fest and expensive to boot. I can get real silk, cotton or wool for a fraction of the cost of the fake poly stuff at my local discount. I don't think I would sew if I were at the mercy of the chain fabric stores.

My dirndl cost $0 for the pattern, $3 for the notions and 10 for the fabric. The total cost was about $13,not including labor. Labor is important to consider! Still, I ended up with the garment I wanted. If I factored labor, this would be a $200 dress!!!!!

Another tip - the worst part of sewing for me is the pattern cutting. I found using a ruler with slots for the pattern wheel to be guided really helps me trace the pattern correctly. Sewing is the easy part. You know those "2 hour" patterns? The small print will tell you that is 2 hours of sewing time. The cutting, heming and other bits usually take me about 4-6 hours in addition for a "quickie" pattern. So it is very labor intensive.

Patience, my friend, patience!

I failed miserably at every class that involved doing any useful task as opposed to sitting around all day writing nonsense. Woodshop, Drawing, Computers, Science Labs and more. The only reason I passed Home Economics is because my mother took pity on me and did the final project for me (sewing a pair of shorts). As for the body workshop I think it should somehow incorporate dance classes. Dancing is like the final taboo. No matter the size there tends to be a sense of self-conscousness and shame that goes along with doing it. I can't think of a better way to overcome the body and humilation that is either related to it or not.

I vote for belly dancing!!!!

I definitely want to have belly dancing if I do a body image fair. We do have large size belly dancers in our area and some really supportive teachers. Even if I start just doing the classes I was thinking of inviting various people to meet the students and talk about what they have to offer, and dance teachers would be among those I ask.

But I gotta get business cards first off.

We have in our village a group of very round and beautiful belly dancers that often perform for fetes and fairs like the one held on the riverbank last weekend. Everyone always hoops and cheers when they shake their stuff in their outrageous costumes.

I don't believe there would be one of them under a size 16; just a guess as I don't know much about dress sizes.

We are blessed with a very artistic community in our little shire.

I just found out about this group that promotes dance for all sizes: http://www.bigmoves.org/

I hope this idea spreads! How cool!

When I was taking other dance classes nextdoor there were belly dance classes given by three different teachers. Two of them were young with workout bodies. The third one was an old over weight lady from Egypt and dressed in jogging clothes. The classes started out with no one going to the old lady I figure because they imagined she is no good judging her appearance. But as time went on her classes started to get over packed and I went to see what the fuss is about. This lady was truly amazing and on top of that teaching technique that could help you in so many other areas even the way you sit and walk. I ended up going to the other classes out of curiosity it was the biggest waste of time. It goes to show dancing does not have to be about looking a certain way. There are people ashamed to dance for these reasons even though they like to.

Watch out there is a lot of shaking around with stomach exposed and veils that tries to pass off as teaching Middle Eastern dance on the strength of exotic paraphernalia but you don't really learn anything. Of course if the point is to just have fun that is good though I think dancing is underestimated when it comes to all the other areas it can help. There was a study they found that dancing is surprisingly the most beneficial form of exercise you can do and part of that was because people who dance rarely develop memory-loss diseases compared to people who don’t.

I'm glad you have such a group to inspire women with what they can do. Actually belly dancing was not originally only for Hollywood thin women. It helps to have an actual belly to shake!

Tapati since you are interested in gender and queer studies you may be interested in the controversial dancer Maud Allan:



The head in that picture is the severed head of John the Baptist.

QUOTE

Maud Allen was a notorious performer who starred in the stage performance of The Vision of Salome around the time of Oscar Wilde. Her career began in 1903 in Vienna, where she choreographed and performed dances to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, and Felix Mendelssohn. One critic said, "London has never seen such graceful and artistic dancing. It is of a magical beauty; but the magic is black and the beauty is baleful and insidious."

In 1918, she was accused by British member of Parliament of being a member of the "Cult of the Clitoris." From late eighteenth-century through into the early twentieth century, one of the most consistent medical characterizations of the anatomy of the lesbian was the claim of an unusually large clitoris.

Not only was the clitoris associated with female sexual pleasure separate from reproductive potential, but lesbians were assumed to be masculinized, and the supposed enlarged clitoris was one signifier of this masculinity. In presenting lesbians' bodies as less sexually differentiated than the norm - it was inferred that they were atavists - throwbacks to an earlier evolutionary stage and thereby "degenerates." It was held that progressive differentiation of the sexes was one of the hallmarks of evolutionary progress. An enlarged clitoris or the inference of deviant genitalia was also given as the signifier of black women's sexuality and of nymphomania. Lesbians, black women and nymphomaniacs were all grouped together as possessors of a 'primitive' sexuality...

END QUOTE

I admit that the first time I watched them strut their stuff, I was slightly embarrassed, but once I got into the rhythm and the happy spirit I really enjoyed their performance.

They have an Egyptian teacher and while I wouldn't know a traditional belly dance from a Hollywood spoof, I am always impressed at the amazing way their hips - and everything else - gyrates and wiggles.

..."Cult of the Clitoris" Yes, heaven forbid we find our clitoris and figure out what it's for!

She sounds fascinating, one of the original uppity women. Without all of the brave women of that era we would have no modern feminist movement. They had so much to break free from.

---

Homer, there are various traditions of belly dancing and in some of them the women are more clothed and men also dance in this style, with swords and things. There's a troupe on the west coast that always goes to ren faire to perform this traditional style. They are about as modestly clothed as devotee women, with veils over their lower face. Their dances also tell stories, as Indian dances do.

The women are of all sizes in this troupe. I just love to watch them all.

One of the logo suggestions on LJ was that I start with the large sized goddess figures that are so popular, and inside that one have progressively smaller proportioned figures. At first I was concerned it would invoke the "inside every fat woman is a thin woman screaming to get out" saying, but I think if it were done well with recognizable goddess figure outlines it might work well.

Under the logo I picture this:

Body Image Solutions
Celebrating Every Body

(centered)

I'm thinking the business cards and ads should be in color and the logo should be some warm color, maybe a magenta with rays of energy radiating out like sun rays.

I LOVE your slogan! I'm not sure about the fecund goddess with the smaller proportioned ones inside. My immediate reaction reading this was the same that you mentioned - thinking that it was a thin woman screaming to get out.

What about many female images - including the goddess figured ones - all lying down but arranged in a circle with their heads towards the center and their hands joined? In otherwords a real plethora of body types/races/cultures/etc./etc. that come together in one circle. (actually maybe a shiny full silver moon can be in the center!)

That's a cool idea! I was trying to imagine other ways of incorporating the various goddess figures but everything I imagined seemed too busy for a small business card.

Today I ordered a bunch of books for use in designing my body image classes and then I ran across this delightful web site for radical cheerleaders with some great, body positive cheers:

http://radcheers.tripod.com/RC/id1.html


fabulous! cara and aimee
Your not my ideal, Your hips DON'T SET THE SCORE
'cuz sticks and bones ain't what I'm striving for!
Flippin' thru VOGUE, WHAT A BORE !!
Ladies, PLEASE Ladies Let's EAT More!
I got BOOTY in the back and alot UP FRONT!
My secret is......... I EAT Lunch!
Now I'm feeling Healthy And ready to RIOT
against those demands that i need to DIET!
I WILL TAKE UP SPACE AND LOVE MY SIZE
CUZ FAT AND FABULOUS IS ON THE RISE!
Fat and fabulous is on MY THIGHS!!!!!

I heard Jackie Guerra say this the other day and just loved it:

Soy gordita pero soy sabrossa (I'm chubby but I'm yummy.)

who is jackie guerra?

An actress and comedian who recently published a book. I saw her on Tyra's show the day I got back from my trip. She had the gastric bypass surgery and lost a bunch of weight, but she is still very supportive of fat women's right to be free of harassment and to have a positive self image.