Cheap wine and blogging, my favorite pastime! Will I regret this in the morning? Probably not. Here goes!
I found this amazing comic a while back which I've nominated as the outline to the outline of my thesis only in pictures! As someone who loves and lives off potatoes, this encircles my life right now. It speaks to me.
I found this amazing comic a while back which I've nominated as the outline to the outline of my thesis only in pictures! As someone who loves and lives off potatoes, this encircles my life right now. It speaks to me.
Anyway, I was always non-publicly conflicted whilst creating all the fiberglass Ladies. Of course I'm all about diversity of bodies, love all bodies, accept all bodies, don't listen to the media and all that.
But I struggle to identify with any of this love and accept thy body business myself. Seriously people, there are bigger things in the world to worry about than whether your body is acceptable/worthy/whatever. Am I privileged because I had an upbringing that was never body focused? Definitely
When I was making the Ladies, I felt that I myself should have been on some journey to loving my body. But I wasn't. I'm not. I never will be. I neither love nor hate my body. It's a tool that assists me in doing things. Sometimes those things are amazing and sometimes stupid. This body is purely my vessel for moving through life at this time. Sure, I get pissed off when my back gets sore from sitting too long/lifting things I shouldn't. I should probably do some more yoga. Or something.
Does my apathetic attitude towards body positivity make my previous art projects slightly fraudulent? No. They resonate with people and highlight problems with the current range of mannequins available. (Don't try to convince me that plus sized mannequins are any better, because they are well and truly not) As I'm someone who collects mannequins I see faults in what's currently on offer. A wider range of body types in mannequin form is exactly what's needed. And they are pretty fucking wondrous. Not to mention a massive achievement (in killing my brain cells) I'm not against body positivity but I do think there is far too much pressure put on people to go through some quest to be positive about their bodies. Bodies in my view are an accepted fact of being a person. If nobody engaged with any of the crap the media discharges regarding fixing flaws, defying wrinkles, what you can and can't wear based on what fruit you're shaped like, they'd stop spouting it because it'd stop generating a profit.
The constant barrage of love thy body that's slowly taking over my various social media feeds is getting pretty fucking tiring. #bodyposi seems to be the latest cool hashtag to use. This drives me insane. It seriously sounds like your target audience is a bunch of giggling tweens. People regularly make hashtags whole sentences long, so why can't full and complete words be used for a two word hashtag? I'm starting to think the whole body positivity movement is just another guise for companies to sell stuff
Do I follow too many people/groups/organisations whose primary concern is body positivity? Are too many of these groups just taking the easy route and posting (or re-posting) content concerning only bodies? Or is the current state (of my experience) of feminism too centered on the body? There are bigger issues; why do people think feminism is no longer required because (to them) equality has been achieved.
So many questions.
But I struggle to identify with any of this love and accept thy body business myself. Seriously people, there are bigger things in the world to worry about than whether your body is acceptable/worthy/whatever. Am I privileged because I had an upbringing that was never body focused? Definitely
When I was making the Ladies, I felt that I myself should have been on some journey to loving my body. But I wasn't. I'm not. I never will be. I neither love nor hate my body. It's a tool that assists me in doing things. Sometimes those things are amazing and sometimes stupid. This body is purely my vessel for moving through life at this time. Sure, I get pissed off when my back gets sore from sitting too long/lifting things I shouldn't. I should probably do some more yoga. Or something.
Does my apathetic attitude towards body positivity make my previous art projects slightly fraudulent? No. They resonate with people and highlight problems with the current range of mannequins available. (Don't try to convince me that plus sized mannequins are any better, because they are well and truly not) As I'm someone who collects mannequins I see faults in what's currently on offer. A wider range of body types in mannequin form is exactly what's needed. And they are pretty fucking wondrous. Not to mention a massive achievement (in killing my brain cells) I'm not against body positivity but I do think there is far too much pressure put on people to go through some quest to be positive about their bodies. Bodies in my view are an accepted fact of being a person. If nobody engaged with any of the crap the media discharges regarding fixing flaws, defying wrinkles, what you can and can't wear based on what fruit you're shaped like, they'd stop spouting it because it'd stop generating a profit.
The constant barrage of love thy body that's slowly taking over my various social media feeds is getting pretty fucking tiring. #bodyposi seems to be the latest cool hashtag to use. This drives me insane. It seriously sounds like your target audience is a bunch of giggling tweens. People regularly make hashtags whole sentences long, so why can't full and complete words be used for a two word hashtag? I'm starting to think the whole body positivity movement is just another guise for companies to sell stuff
Do I follow too many people/groups/organisations whose primary concern is body positivity? Are too many of these groups just taking the easy route and posting (or re-posting) content concerning only bodies? Or is the current state (of my experience) of feminism too centered on the body? There are bigger issues; why do people think feminism is no longer required because (to them) equality has been achieved.
So many questions.
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