identity

Filed under: Campaign Watch

Quoting uncoverostomy.com:

“Uncover Ostomy is an online awareness campaign shaping a positive conversation about the ostomy in social media spaces. We will be sharing positive stories and thought provoking images—dare we say sexy?—to spark this conversation. We invite you to share your comments and ideas on this website, on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter and every where else you spend time engaging other people online.”

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Filed under: Themes, The Skinny on Fat

Quoting Erin Matson’s truly beautiful editorial for minnesota.publicradio.org:

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“I remember flipping through fashion magazines disinterestedly as a girl, never realizing the extent to which Photoshop could be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

We have all come to expect that photos of models are airbrushed in advertisements and fashion magazines. It’s a fact—one that’s all too easy to swallow and throw back up.

Recently, Ralph Lauren fired size-four model Filippa Hamilton, allegedly for being too large. This story is an outrage in itself. She is, by the standards of the World Health Organization, underweight.

What made me want to burst into tears was far worse: A dramatically Photoshopped Ralph Lauren ad that surfaced in Japan after she had been fired.

I know all too well that the modeling and fashion industries love to portray women who struggle with eating disorders or have been digitally altered to dangerously unrealistic standards, and they do it with dramatic glamour.

While I was dying of anorexia during my late teens, I was recruited by modeling agencies three times. One of the times I was hospitalized, a fellow patient climbed on stage at the Mall of America to win a modeling contest while on a day pass, her hospital bracelet flopping off her wrist as she waved to an applauding crowd.

Recently, Self magazine ran a “total body confidence” issue and digitally slenderized singer Kelly Clarkson before putting her on the cover, even though she has said that she’s comfortable with herself just the way she is.

Women and girls are watching, and the results aren’t pretty. Eighty-one percent of 10-year-old girls are afraid of being fat, and an estimated 10 million … CONTINUE READING THIS WONDERFUL ESSAY

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Join the National Organization for Women’s “Love Your Body” campaign

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Read Irked posts tagged “body image”

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Filed under: Themes, The Skinny on Fat, Interviews

Six years ago, Crystal Renn was an unknown size-0 model who moved to New York from Clinton, Mississippi, to make it big. She struggled with her weight for years, however, and finally made the bold decision to switch to plus-size modeling. Now a healthy 165 pounds, she is the highest-paid plus-size model in the world, having graced the covers of American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and appeared in Dolce & Gabbana ads. The 23-year-old recently talked with TIME Magazine about her new book Hungry, her size-0 modeling days and walking the runway for Jean Paul Gaultier. Here are the highlights:

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Filed under: Uncategorized

Via GimpGirl’s Twitter feed comes this powerful poem:

“Disability is art,
pain,
beauty,
difference,
understanding,
humbling . . .

Disability is diversity.
It is everyone.”

—Bethany Stevens

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Join the community at gimpgirl.com

Follow GimpGirl on Twitter

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Read Irked posts tagged “disability culture”

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Filed under: Books & Book Reviews, Interviews, Irked Videos

Jeff Bell is a renowned author, speaker, and radio news anchor. His first book, “REWIND, REPLAY, REPEAT: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,” was published in 2007 and quickly established Bell as a leading voice in the mental health community. His story has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, DETAILS Magazine, and The New York Times, for which he was commissioned to write a feature that ran internationally in 2008. He has appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, on The Infinite Mind programs, and on Good Morning America Radio. In addition to being a National Spokesperson for the International OCD Foundation (found at ocfoundation.org), Bell, whose new book “When in Doubt, Make Belief: An OCD-Inspired Approach to Living with Uncertainty” was recently published, currently co-anchors the afternoon news at KCBS Radio in San Francisco.

Jeff was recently interviewed by Peter Hartlaub, Pop Culture Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. Here are the highlights:

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Filed under: Themes, The Skinny on Fat

Quoting Laurie Toby Edison and Debbie Notkin, writing on their always-engaging Body Impolitic blog:

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“We’ve been thinking about the story of Alex Lange, which was in the news earlier this month . . . [The Rocky Mountain Health Plans insurance company] didn’t change its mind because it thinks it was wrong: it changed its mind because Alex’s dad works in television.”

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*If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s a blurb/video that explains the details. And click here to read Laurie and Debbie’s full post.

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Read all Irked posts tagged “body image”

Read all Irked posts tagged “Laurie Toby Edison”

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

Brent A. Gifford aka “The Great Blindini” is what they call a Master Magician. He’s been performing reality-bending, sleight-of-hand magic all across North America for more than three decades.

But here’s the kicker: Blindini started performing magic shortly after he went blind, at age 12. He was intent on proving that he could “do anything a sighted person could do. It was the most ‘visual’ thing [he] could think of doing…”

Furthermore, The Great Blindini thought up one of the funniest taglines EVER to promote his act.

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Find out what it is…after the jump!

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, Stuart Baker-Brown, Irked Videos, Campaign Watch

A movie trailer spoofing horror films, being shown in theaters in Britain and online, was launched a couple months ago to challenge the stigma surrounding schizophrenia. The segment is part of the “Time to Change” campaign run by British mental health charities Mind and Rethink, and funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief.

The films have been launched nationwide to coincide with a poll by research firm YouGov, which reveals more than a third of people believe schizophrenics are violent.

Oh yes, did we forget to mention that the campaign stars none other than…MR. STUART BAKER-BROWN!!!

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Filed under: Uncategorized

World-record-setting Paralympian sprinter Aimee Mullins, as you know from our last post, is a bilateral amputee—i.e. both of her legs were amputated below the knee. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run.

Aimee said some truly tremendous things during her TED Talk.

But this quote in particular, this hilarious and delicious nugget of a sound byte, is so off-the-wall funny that it bears repeating…

“From an identity standpoint, what does it mean to have a disability?
Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do.
Nobody calls her disabled.”

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Another time, being interviewed by Mavian Arocha for Aventura Magazine, Aimee was asked “What quality do you lack that you wish you could attain and embrace?” Not missing a beat, Aimee ran with the generic line of questioning and dryly responded: “Besides being able to bend my ankles? Jeez, this is hard.”

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Filed under: Irked Videos

In this wonderful TED video, filmed in February ‘09, Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs—she’s got a dozen amazing pairs—and the superpowers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height … Quite simply, she redefines what the body can be. [via]

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What to watch next:
TED98 – Aimee Mullins on running

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Then…

Visit AimeeMullins.com

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Read all Irked posts tagged “prosthetics”

Read all Irked posts tagged “bilateral amputee”

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