FIGUREatively Speaking

Like I said, diversity doesn’t just happen. It isn’t the natural evolution you’d like it to be — you don’t one day just step into strong female characters in your books and wonder how the fuck they got there. You write them in. You put them there as author. None of this bullshit of — “Well, only if it serves the story.” Hello, you’re the DEITY CONTROLLING THIS PLACE. It serves the story when you jolly well say it does. You write the story. It does not write you.

JEZEBEL, Laura Beck

Last weekend, a group of San Francisco body positive activists wore their Sunday best undergarments, and stood proud and tall (and short) (and skinny) (and fat) in front of a Victoria’s Secret store. Their message? Love your body, even in the face of the photoshopped-to-hell-and-back photos we see in the media.

The group says they specifically sought out Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch because they “refuse to include more diverse bodies in their clothing design and/or advertisements.”

Hmm… maybe those companies could take a page out of Debenhams’ extra rad look book? Not only are they no longer photoshopping their models, they’re also casting a diverse array of models. You know, the types of people who actually wear their clothes. Crazy, I know.

Rebecca of XoJane sounds off on the fat-shaming, needlessly obnoxious internet meme - “Plus Sized Swimsuit Model Meme.”

She notes that it’s not in reworking the cruel captions and “taking back” the meme from our computer screens that we can combat this negativity; It is in leading compassionate, body- positive lives with one another:

“It’s hard not to “take back” this meme. It’s hard not to flood the internet with the same photo, only this time captioned simply as: human, beautiful, woman, model, etc. It’s hard, but I think it’s important not to. Instead I think the real power comes in our face to face interactions with each other, in treating each other well, in making it clear that our bodies are not available for judgement at the hands of others, or ourselves.”

Lindy West, JEZEBEL:

Remember back in February when the New York Observer’s Rex Reed called Melissa McCarthy a “tractor-sized” “obese” “hippo” in his review of Identity Thief? You know, because “film criticism”? Well, McCarthy has finally responded and, of course, her attitude is fucking great.

In a soft voice, McCarthy said her initial reaction to the piece was “Really?” She then asked, “Why would someone O.K. that?”

Taking the high road, McCarthy added, “I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate. I just thought, that’s someone who’s in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs.”

BODY POSITIVE CELEBRITIES FTW!

Suzanne Koven interviews writer and activist Even Ensler, best known as the author of The Vagina Monologues, about her new memoir In The Body of The World. The new book is the story of her cancer, but also of her art and her activism and of the project now closest to her heart: City of Joy, a haven and school in the Congo, for women recovering from rape and other trauma.

Read the full interview here!

The airbrush backlash is now well underway as Debenhams announces a ban on all retouched lingerie model shots. The store ‘wants to help customers feel confident about their figures’.

Olga stopped hating her body when she realized “that number doesn’t mean dick.”

Here’s Olga prior to this realization:

“When I received my one size larger jeans, I went at it again. Shifted, pulled, pulled, shifted. Nope. I asked for yet another size up. She came back with a larger size and another even larger size. Cut to me crying on the floor of the Urban Outfitters dressing room because even the extra pair she brought fit me like a sausage casing, the butt of the jeans squishing my cheeks into what resembled a generous cleavage. It was seriously one of the worst nights of my life.

“But I wasn’t crying because I may or may not have gained weight. I was weighing myself pretty regularly back then and knew how much I weighed at any given moment. I was crying because I couldn’t bring myself to even utter the size number on those jeans. The mere thought of having to buy clothes in that particular size made me cringe.”

And here’s Olga once she realized how arbitrary the numerical size is:

“If a piece of clothing looks flattering on you, who cares if it’s a size 2 or a size 12? If it looks good, wear it.

“And besides, you can always get it tailored (which I know could be expensive but so totally worth it). Fuck it. Fuck a size.”

Read her full piece here!