Body Image Revolution: How?

Came across this thought-provoking article:  Being plus-size in a skinny world and decided we just had to share it. 

Good news: In America, plus-sized ladies are gradually gaining acceptance. 

"In some ways, I do feel the industry is starting to promote a larger variety of bodies, but if you pick up a Vogue or Elle, you'll find that the magazine is still full of rail thin models. I think there is a lot of talk of change in the film and television industry, which is wonderful, but the modeling industry is a bit behind and is still promoting unhealthy body types.” 

In the article, well known plus-sized model Crystal Renn shares her honest thoughts regarding being plus size in the industry where most other girls are stick thin and her struggle with her own body image. More importantly, she mentioned that she is glad that the media in USA is starting to move towards promoting the  acceptance of bigger body shapes, even if it's taking baby steps. However she is concerned about how unhealthy body types continues to be promoted in the modelling industry.

I agree that the mass media, modelling industry and the famous corporate brands should put in a conscious effort to send out more consistent messages. I recently came across an article that challenges the notion of only thin should be considered beautiful, and how we should stop thinking in terms of size when we talk about beauty. What upsets me is at the very next page, a weight loss advertisement featuring a slim woman stands out to me. How are we magazine readers supposed to think and react, what message should we be bringing home? Definitely food for thought. 

Back to the article: Renn also brings up the need for a body image revolution. The 'real world' is made up of beautiful women who comes in all body shapes and sizes. As much as a huge change do not come by easily, I urge all of you reading this to join me in the movement to integrate a more diverse definition of beauty into our culture and society today.

Hey, embrace your full curves, you're beautiful. :)

I'm Beautiful Because..

Made by BiB

Big Girl You're Beautiful!

PS: The Embed Code is not working, so please click "Watch On Youtube" for a larger/full
screen!

Big Girl (You're Beautiful) is an upbeat song performed by Mika, featuring plus-sized ladies in the official music video.

Mika wrote this song to support his mum who's big size and had been prejudiced against. 

A great song that celebrates big girls, Big Girl (You're Beautiful) encourages them to love their bodies and curves as they're all "in the right places"!

The lyrics "Walks into the room, feels like a big balloon" accurately shows how intimidated and pressured many plus-size girls feel all the time when they step into a room full of petite girls. They feel self-conscious, as if they stick out like a sore thumb. The lyrics follow up with  "I said, "Hey girls, you are beautiful"" like a vote of confidence, saying "you don't need to be so worried, you're beautiful as you are". The lyrics also encourages big ladies not to lose hope in love, as some men simply love curvy and plus sized-women!

So ladies, whenever you're feeling insecure about your bigger-than-average size, just listen and dance along to this song!

However it's being pointed out by some netizens that this song might make thin girls feel a little bad about their bodies. I don't think that's the purpose of this song. Mika simply hoped to show some support and love to bigger girls who thought they can never be beautiful. We all come in a variety of shapes and sizes, whether you're naturally big or thin, we should all embrace our bodies as long as we live healthily. 

Cheers to a healthy body image!

Gone Gaga

Wearing a Meat Dress, Arriving in an Egg, Creating a Perfume that Smells Like Blood and Semen (what?!). What else have lady Gaga done to surprise us?

"Did Mama monster eat one of her little monsters?"

For once it wasn't Lady Gaga's outré costume that dropped everyone's jaws when she appeared in a concert. 

In September last year, Lady Gaga put on about 30 pounds to be nearly twice the size she used to be. She received criticism from various quarters of late for gaining weight. Yet she insisted that she "really doesn't feel bad about it."

She attributed her fuller figure to her Dad's NYC eatery, Joanne Trattoria. "It's so freaking delicious, but I gain 5 pounds every time I go," the pop star lamented. "I love eating pasta and pizza."

A personal history doesn't help. She has battled anorexia and bulimia in the past, and weight issues run in her family. Usually, her gruelling performances offset any high-calorie intake, but Gaga took a 5 week break from her Born This Way tour sometime during July and August. She also went on a vacation with her boyfriend, so it was said that she didn't have a chance to stick to her usual diet. 

In response to the uproar over her weight gain, the diva started the 'Body Revolution' movement on her social networking site (www.LittleMonsters.com)  to "inspire bravery", "celebrate perceived flaws" and "breed some compassion". 

Don't you just love Lady Gaga for being a role model on body image issues? 

Let Beauty Shine from Within

Simple gif made by BiB

Xoxo, from BiB team

Confessions of Plus-sized People

Society makes big people feel bad about being large. The natural reaction is to play into this feeling, and truly be embarrassed.

  

For example:

 1. A self-conscious middle-aged lady would buy five or six donuts and feel like the clerk was disgusted with her; so she would lie and say she bought them for her kids.

2. Sean's friends would try to get him to go to the gym to get in shape. He didn't have the courage to tell them he was large because of his genes, not because a lack of exercise. He also has a fear that the fit and slim people at the gym would throw weird looks at him. So he'd usually make excuses and say he's busy.

3. My overweight uncle broke a chair in his friend’s house when he was was sitting on it. His friends thought a fat person breaking a chair was hilarious. My uncle laughed along with him; he was too embarrassed to tell his friend that the problem was with his chair, not him.

But... why do they have to do these?

Plus-sized/Overweight people do not have to be weak in the face of society. They do not have to succumb to the standards and unfair judgements of the society. 

We should encourage them to

Eat what they want.

Say how they truly feel.

Take it slow and lose weight the healthy way.

And finally, learn not to feel embarrassed or ashamed about their own size.

Let's all not be fatist and try to dominate their lives.

A message for all Plus-sized people:

Declare Peace Not War on Your Body!

According to a poll conducted by seventeen, 90% of teen girls feel anxiety or stress about some part of their looks when getting ready in the morning. 

Ever said something harsh like this about your body?

It's not just on days when we're feeling hormonal or bloated- we are always at war! It's us against our bodies. Sometimes you feel like you've 'won'- by putting together an outfit that conceals all your 'flabby arms , your 'thunder thighs' or other body parts you feel conscious about. Even so, we're focused about one thing- whether we look okay or too fat in our dress. It's exhausting. And most of the time we fail to realize how badly obsessed we are. 

Let's sign the Seventeen Body Peace treaty today and pledge to love, accept and be at peace with our bodies, and not let our size define who we are. 

http://www.seventeen.com/health/tips/body-peace-pledge

http://www.seventeen.com/health/tips/body-peace-pledge

http://www.seventeen.com/health/tips/body-peace-pledge

Because life is too short to be fighting a battle with ourselves and our body all the time. 

I want you to write this down on post-it note and put it somewhere you can see everyday:

Beauty isn't just about my looks. It's my amazing personality and my energy that creates a whole, unique package. 

On a final note: you're beautiful and don't let anyone tell you otherwise :)

Tracy Turnblad, a Big Girl with a Big Dream

Hairspray is a popular Musical movie released in 2007. An adaptation of the stage musical Hairspray, itself an adaptation of the non-musical John Waters film of the same name, it revolves in a town in the '60s.

Hairspray is definitely not your typical musical. With good looking cast,co-ordination, wonderful music score, and not forgetting the brilliant surprise by John Travolta, there is something else that makes Hairspray more memorable and impactful than other musicals. Nikki Blonsky plays Tracy Turnblad, a rather overweight girl whose only dream is to be on a local Baltimore teen dance program. While her father (Christopher Walken) tells her to follow her dreams, her mother Edna (John Travolta in drag) reminds her that she doesn't look like the girls on that show. After impressing the show's host, great Tracy earns a coveted spot on the program. With her talents and personality, she soon becomes a popular addition to the cast. But Tracy earns the wrath of the prettiest girl in school who obviously grew jealous of her success. The girl's mother happens to be one of the operators of the program, which potentially spells trouble for Tracy's future in the program. But that doesn't stop her. 

Tracy's visit to detention hall opens her eyes to the racial tension on the show, as does the budding relationship between her best friend (Amanda Bynes) and an African-American boy named Seaweed (Elijah Kelley). Thus empowered, Tracy attempts to integrate the races on her favourite program.

All of us would agree that Hairspray is a feel-good and fun musical but besides that, there is so much we can learn from this movie and the lead character. 

I absolutely love Tracy for her cheerful deposition, energy, and ability to put her head high despite people trying to bring her down. In a world that has become preoccupied with pencil thin, size zero figure, it’s refreshing to bump into a character who does not allow her body size to stand in way of her ambition. She is proud  of who she is and is not ashamed of body size. After Tracy goes on to becoming an outstanding dancer on a popular TV show like she's always meant to be, she doesn't stop there. She uses her newfound celebrity status to fight racial segregation that's widespread in her home town. Here she displays another admirable trait- her courage to fight for what she believes in.

Tracy also finds love with one of the lead dancers Link Larkin, which reminds us that big girls have an equal chance at love. 

Certainly inspiring, it's a must-watch if you haven't.

In our society today, many young women develop low self-esteem from being too hung-up about their looks and size, consequently failing to reach their full potential in life. Hairspray teaches us that everyone pursue our dream despite our size, background and all the things that don't matter. So to the big girls out there: 

Never let your 'extra baggage' hold you back from living your dream. 

Tracy is beautiful  not because of her appearance, but her vibrant personality, kind heart and BIG dreams.

Striving to be Beautiful

I want all of you to ask yourself this: "Can you remember the last time you felt beautiful? "

Over the years, our society's definition of beauty has become simply unrealistic. The mass media and many corporate brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Zara are responsible for portraying beauty as perfection; setting standards that are obviously unattainable for normal people like you and I.
That's the very reason why we never seem good enough in the eyes of society. Every now and then, we can't help but compare ourselves with the models who have flawless skin and a figure to die for- which left us feeling demoralized and perhaps, inferior. In fact, so many of us have unknowingly fallen into this vicious cycle of the obsession with obtaining the unattainable. You're probably one of the victims of societal pressure if you find yourself saying yes to one of these:

Can't forget the mindless comment your friend made about your jelly belly? Finding out that you've put on a kilo thrown you into a foul mood for the entire day? Refused to leave the house because you just can't face people with your bloated face? 

This obsession can be very damaging to our self-esteem and health as a whole. I firmly believe that beauty can and should come in many forms. It’s time for a change.

Let’s look at the big picture.

From the study conducted by Dove, only 4% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. The findings also revealed that anxiety about looks begins at an early age. In a study of over 1,200 10-to-17-year-olds, a majority of girls, 72%, said they felt tremendous pressure to be beautiful.

Imagine a World Where Beauty is a Source of Confidence, Not Anxiety

The Dove^® Campaign for Real Beauty was launched with one of their aims to debunk the stereotype that only thin should be called beautiful. The campaign incited a worldwide discussion about the need for challenging the common perceptions about beauty, which is narrow and biased. In one of the phases, the following advertisement was created, featuring women that our society would consider plus-sized. This serves as an agent to inspire and educate bigger women to feel good about themselves and encourages them to develop a healthier self-esteem and ultimately, feel beautiful.

To put it simply, striving towards beauty should be about feeling confident, not anxiety.

As women (thin or big alike), we should all stand up for our right to feel beautiful, instead of allowing the unrealistic societal standards to define us. The deeply-rooted societal-norms will not change easily. But so what if we have the above average size, so what if we wear size 16, so what if people call us fat? Forget about getting a nod from the society. It won't matter if you don't let it. True beauty should come from confidence and character. 

So smile because it makes us beautiful. 

Bea-YOU-tiful

What comes to your mind when you hear the word 'beautiful'? 

Our perceptions of beauty and body image are mainly shaped by the media.

It's always 'in' to be thin and this is being repeatedly reinforced by countless advertisements and reality shows such as America's Next Top Model. Media often sends out the message that thinner women are more pretty, beautiful, respected and even  more successful. Bigger sized women are thus often influenced to feel bad and inconfident in their body. Often, they become victims of various forms of discrimination. 

Despite people celebrating plus-sized celebrities such as Queen Latifah, it's impossible to ignore the fact that size discrimination is still rampant today. Undesirable characteristics such as lazy, slow, clumsy and even ugly, are often associated with bigger people. 

Do you remember Ursula the Sea Witch from Disney fairytale The Little Mermaid? 

Fat, Ugly, Evil. Does it bother you that Ursula is one of the few fat Disney Characters, and her role as a villain reflects society's discomfort with bigger sized people?  

How should plus-sized ladies deal with these negative stereotypes?

Do they really have to go to the extent of starving themselves to become stick thin so they can be beautiful and more respected by the society?

People around you would say they want to go on a diet or start hitting the gym regularly because they are 'getting fat'. You hear this so often that you probably don't think much of it; it's only normal to want to be in shape. But it strikes me as being discriminatory- as if being big is a taboo. This only highlight how deeply-rooted in our psyches being 'thin' or having some sort of ideal hourglass figure is. 

In fact, plus-sized ladies are fighting the pressure from society everyday, to fit into  the stereotypical perception of beauty. This is a constant struggle between being happy with themselves, or to change to get acceptance by the society. Many of them give in to the pressure, and develop a poor body image overtime. 

But that shouldn't be the way, it's unfair if only thin women are considered beautiful. 

Of course, this biased perception of beauty will not change overnight.

But it's time we tell the world that we should stop thinking in terms of size when we think about beauty.

Big or Thin, we're all beautiful, and bigger women deserves to feel beautiful as much as slimmer ones.
Yes, beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.
Let's encourage plus-sized women to carry themselves confidently today, and let their beauty shine through from their hearts.

To all big/plus-sized women out there: 

Chin up, YOU're Bea-YOU-tiful because YOU love YOUR body.

Big Is BeaUtiful. :)