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This call for work from Paradigm Shift deals with body image in the media and cultural terms. -arvan

Call for guest blog, video, and graphic art submissions in preparation for Paradigm Shift’s next event:

BODY TYPED short films on perfection

Screening & Discussion Featuring

JESSE EPSTEIN, Sundance award-winning Filmmaker

BODY TYPED is a series of short films about body image, media, and cultural identity that will be combined to make a feature documentary. The films use humor to raise serious concerns about the marketplace of commercial illusion and unrealizable standards of physical perfection.

WET DREAMS AND FALSE IMAGES
When Dee-Dee the barber learns about the art of photo-retouching, he may never look at his “wall of beauty” the same way again.
Short Subject Jury Award, 2004 Sundance Film Festival

THE GUARANTEE
A dancer’s hilarious story about his prominent nose and the effect if has on his career.
Best Short Film, 2007 Newport International Film Festival

34×25×36
A look at mannequins, religion, and perfection.
SXSW, Full Frame, True/False, National PBS Broadcast on POV

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18th at 6:30 pm
Just outside the Feminist District
The Tank- 354 West 45th Street (between 8th & 9th Ave.)
Subway: A,C,E to 42nd Street/Times Square

Cost: $12 students/ pre-paid, $15 at door
BUY TICKETS NOW- LIMITED SEATING:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/117245

Facebook invite: http://bit.ly/cofvXX

Submission Deadline- August 22
Use these prompts as guidelines for submissions; essays, poetry, and artwork in all forms accepted:

- the effect of stereotypes on bodies

- body image and health

- expectations that friends and family have of our bodies

- how appearances intersect with gender and sexuality

- the portrayal of bodies in the media

- body empowerment

- social acceptance versus personal acceptance

Submit responses to blog@paradigmshiftnyc.com Please include how you would like to be credited (name, anonymous etc). Video submissions- please submit YouTube private link. Email subject line: Your Name- Blog post- 3/30 Event.

ParadigmShiftNYC.com content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

I found Joy through Happy Bodies today.  Check out their blog, for sure.  I watched this video and think Joy is onto something here.  The first two-thirds of it are solid enough, with treatments of friends, families and strangers and the impact they have on our lives.  However, the last part of this video goes right to the heart of how we view ourselves and the impact we have on our future with the choices we make right now.

Check out her blog (now on our blogroll) and other site here:

http://fatrantblog.wordpress.com

http://www.fatrant.com

http://www.myspace.com/joynash

Photo by Eric Francis.

So there I was at this beyond-gay party in a high-rise apartment with Manhattan as the landscape, stalking her by scent. Watching her move around the room, tracking this succulent critter and enjoying the subtlest details of her existence.

I felt amazingly, solidly sexually centered in myself. I recognized the feeling, rooted in an orgasm a day before, seeing myself with Jane on the line. She was listening, holding open the space of absolute approval of my submission of self-to-self as I faced a mirror. We do this for one another. I dropped into place, then. My soul settled into my hearth. I took that feeling with me: my sense of self-approval.

I don’t remember how or when, but next I was leaning against the island kitchen counter, facing the city, while the waiters plied their trade: hand-manufactured those cute crab salad cones and so on, and bustled off into the giddy environment of the soiree and passed around the treats. You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties.

And then, though I don’t know how exactly, I was face to face with Maggie. That was her name.

Rachel over at The-F-Word.org is looking for a media contact to help support and advocate for fat rights.  If this matters to you and you have the desire to participate, please contact her. -a

By Rachel

As the media contact for The Fat Rights Coalition and a personal blogger who writes on issues of eating disorders and body acceptance, I field lots of public relations requests from media outlets worldwide, from international luminaries like CNN and The New York Times to small town papers looking to make a local connection on a larger issue.  I’ve participated in some of these public debates in the past, but because I am a journalist myself, I have made the decision to limit my involvement to helping my fellow journalists out behind-the-scenes and referring them to other activists who will speak on the record. And that’s where you come in.  I’m making what I fondly call my Big Fat Rolodex so that I can easily and quickly refer future media requests to the right activist or field professional. 

While I am looking for professionals like social workers, doctors, researchers, professors, lawyers, health care workers, therapists/psychologists, nutritionists and fitness experts etc… I am also looking for anyone with personal experiences with eating disorders (who don’t mind sharing details of their disorder), weight-based discrimination and fat rights activism.  If the Fatosphere has taught us anything, it’s that the personal is indeed political.

If you’d like to be included as a potential media contact, please send the below information in an email to Rachel (at) the-f-word (dot) org with “Media Contact” as the subject.

• Real name, first and last

• E-mail address

• Phone number (optional)

• Region: state and country

• Website address (if applicable)

• Available for: Radio, TV, Print

• Area(s) of interest: i.e. fat rights, eating disorders, health, nutrition and fitness, legal issues, fat studies

• Relevant credentials: (certifications, degrees, affiliations, personal experience)

Friday, December 4, 2009
8:00pm - 11:00pm
Re/Dress NYC
109 Boerum Place
Brooklyn, NY

Published by NYU Press, The Fat Studies Reader is a milestone achievement, bringing together fifty-three diverse voices to explore a wide range of topics related to body weight. From the historical construction of fatness to public health policy, from job discrimination to social class disparities, from chick-lit to airline seats, this collection covers it all.

Hi everybody,

I'm starting a beautiful cunt project...  Basically, on every Thursday, I will post an anonymous picture of someone's pussy. In the hopes of showcasing the multitude of infinite and beautiful differences that are found in female genitalia.  And in the process foster self-acceptance and put an end to "does that look right?" "is that normal?" and things of the like.

Now, of course to do this, I need some brave souls to send me a picture of their vag.  I'm hoping to put a first one up on Thursday.

If you would like to participate or if you know someone who would, you can send me an email and a picture, which should simply state your age, vaginal health (meaning explain any scars, operations, tests, etc), and your reproductive history as well as any other pertinent information you feel like sharing.  That can be anything from a pet name to your feelings and thoughts about your vagina.

The pictures can be of your pussy with your lips spread, or closed and at rest.  Optimally both would be good.  Just don't send me anything overtly sexual, meaning I don't want any picture of cock and pussy action or vibrators and the like.  Just your pussy please.  

Also, only over 18 years old pussy, please.

You can send any submission to my email address: olgawolstenholme@gmail.com and you don't even have to tell me who you are.  Use your dummy email account for all I care.

Have yourselves a cunthappy day,

Olga

http://cuntlove.wordpress.com

Codename: Lucille

I didn’t take my cameras out of my bag till I had a really good reason to, and that reason was Lucille.

This is her modeling codename and it’s taking a little getting used to; I know her by a different name. It doesn’t really matter. As one trippy boy who was an astute scholar of the occult announced one evening, Lucille was the embodiment of Venus on the playa.

There was something blissful and as-if-I-were-dreaming about this girl, with her floods of red hair and unabashed openness about sex. Young (23 years old), gorgeous and a delightful mix of sweet and salty, she seemed to be around Poly Paradise every time I walked into the main tent, though her real home was a dance-themed camp across the street.

(NSFW image in full post)

Plus-size Brazilian model, Fluvia Lacerda, stars in '16', a short film that challenges the stereotypes of beauty currently set by the film, fashion, and advertising industries. The film is a departure from the norm, as Lacerda is a size 16, rather than the usual size 2.

"Today women think they must fit unachievable molds in order to feel beautiful and sexy", says Lacerda. "As a curvy woman I have always felt sexy under my skin and this film carries that very message, a message I hope will open people's minds with regard to how diverse beauty can be.

Jean Kilbourne continues her groundbreaking analysis of advertising’s depiction of women in this most recent update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series. 

In fascinating detail, Kilbourne decodes an array of print and television advertisements to reveal a pattern of disturbing and destructive gender stereotypes.  Her analysis challenges us to consider the relationship between advertising and broader issues of culture, identity, sexism, and gender violence.  Kilbourne uses over 160 ads and commercials to critique advertising's image of women. 

A study guide and handouts for this video are available online.

Sections:

Does the beauty ideal still tyrannize women?

Does advertising still objectify women’s bodies?

Are the twin themes of liberation and weight control still linked?

Is sexuality still presented as women’s main concern?

Are young girls still sexualized?

Are grown women infantilized?

Are images of male violence against women still used to sell products?