In the first of a series of monthly posts on Huffington Post, Lynne Featherstone outlines the case for changing perceptions of body image, and the success of the campaign so far:
Every day people are confronted with images of the ‘perfect’ body that just don’t reflect the diverse society we live in. These unrealistic images set an impossible standard, potentially damaging self esteem and crushing confidence.
We need to challenge this culture of conformity and widen the definition of beauty to include all ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities. And we need to help people recognise that their value goes beyond just their physical appearance.
You can read the post in full here.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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2 Comments
To share a suggestion that I heard: –
That as we are at Brighton for Conference in September, and as Brighton has a public ‘clothes optional’ beach, that conference reps might take part in a body image fringe event …. Well it will depend on what is on the main agenda and whether such a ‘fringe’ event might support the campaign. Would MPs take part? what would the press make of it..?
There is a big difference between the media’s aesthetic of hairless chests and hipless girls, and where the centre of the range of people’s tastes lie.
To see an example of public (as distinct from media) taste, you can look at http://www.sexymp.co.uk – which asks the public to pick between pairs of MPs; the site then constructs a ranking order. The public’s order doesn’t slavishly follow age or weight or anything of the standard media criteria but it is also clearly not random, so beauty as a partly objective quality clearly exists (for example no prizes for guessing the top-rated Lib Dem MP).
My question is then, if you educate people more about realistic definitions of beauty, (leaving aside the positive impact on eating disorders) does that really help confidence, as you still end up with someone being the Steve McCabe (Labour) at the bottom of the list, knowing they are considered less attractive by the rest of society, don’t you just change the identity of that person?