Lena Dunham (whose book comes out next week and fingers crossed Ill be getting a review copy!!) speaking about body image in Marie Claire: As teenagers our bodies become a signal of how good we are or how much worth we have. I remember thinking, My bodys just a big neon sign broadcasting to the world that I have no willpower and I have no elegance. I think I radicalised my relationship to my own body in order to accept it. To make my body a prop in my work gave it a value I didnt feel it had before. Lifes too short for me to explain why its okay for me to naked on the show. Editing, I see my body sometimes looking thinner, sometimes looking fatter. And all the ways are okay to me. I love the part about how bodies are big neon signs broadcasting to the world that we have a lack of self control. That is EXACTLY how I feel about my body when my self esteem is at its lowest. Rather than being an indication of my superficial attractiveness (or lack thereof) its all about how much space Im taking up visually and what that supposedly says about my worth as a woman - not just that Im not thin, but that I am incapable of denying myself and shrinking my own matter in order to keep everyone else comfortable. This is why I think addressing anxiety about body image is so much more complicated than *only* targeting magazines and the fashion industry. It goes to the very essence of societal views of women and absurd notions of femininity and value.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 02:13:02 +0000