Body Image Activist, Eating Disorders mamaVISION

Meet Sophie Watson.

Quite a lovely, 14 year old girl isn’t she?

(She would be lovelier without those freckles though, don’t ya think? But at least her tattooed eyeliner, eyebrows and lip liner makes her otherwise shallow features stand out).

“I am happy. I just look a lot better, Sophie says.

“I like it now that it is always there and I don’t need to bother with it every morning.”

Her mother, a demented beauty therapist (that’s a new one), said she gave permission for the make-up treatment, according to BBC News.

“I think she is old enough to be making these decisions with support from me. It wasn’t something we looked into lightly. When you say she has had her make-up tattooed on it sounds really shocking. But actually it is done very subtly,” she said. “It’s done to enhance her features, it’s not done to change her, to make her look like somebody else. It’s not done to change the way she looks.”

Really? And removing her freckles is going to do what exactly?

Child charity the NSPCC criticised the move and said girls should not be treated as “sex objects”.

The media is crying foul on this because “the danger is that a growing climate of sexualization encourages a view of girls as sex objects,” according to a spokeswoman for the Children’s Charity NSPCC said.

I get this, but first and foremost this is an issue of self esteem.

Girls are being made to feel they should “enhance” themselves physically at younger, and younger ages. What’s next — breast implants before their breast even start growing??! Toddlers strutting around in high heels?

“All children should be valued for their abilities and talent. They should be free to grow up as children. Sadly, we have reached a point where many children get distressed because they think they don’t look good. For some vulnerable children, this can even lead to mental health problems.”

Ya think?!

If you have a mother, like this obviously deranged one, avoid her advice at all costs. SHE is the one with low self esteem, and she is trying to make up for it through you. Don’t allow your mother’s issues become YOUR issues –whether is about weight, looks, height, style, whatever.

A healthy, loving mom should encourage you to dress how you want to dress, explore what you want to explore, and talk to you point blank about societies sick obsession with beauty.

If she doesn’t, that’s what I am here for.

Don’t believe the hype.

mV

XOXO

PS The BBC news article refers to Sophie’s two “illegal” body tattoos. For the record, I support this aspect of self expression. Sure, 14 is young, but I believe that forms of personal self expression such as this is one of the best ways to grow self esteem…you should try it — NOW.

How are you expressing yourself today?

Do you take risks with your clothes — wearing styles that are outside the norm, painting a streak in your hair, or plastering pins on your backpack that speak your mind? What about talking about things that are not “cool,” like reading, orchestra, or drama club? BE YOU BABY!

PSS Today, I have a henna tattoo on my wrist to go with my Buddha bracelet, black nail polish, and peace sign toe ring. The pin on my backpack says “I’ll have Cafe-Mocha Vodka-Marijuana Latte to go, please.”

Thanks for Sharon for sending me this story tip! Do you have a tip? Send to mamavision@gmail.com

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Here is a lovely video showing a dance troupe of 7 YEAR OLD GIRLS strutting around on stage to Beyonce’s “Single Lady’s” tune.  They not only imitate Beyonce’s hip thrusts and humping actions, they’ve got the full on lip pout come and get me look.

A) Who picked the song “Single Lady’s” for these children?

B) The outfits. Someone had to MAKE those outfits since to my knowledge Victoria Secret is not (yet) selling size 8 for girls.

C) The dance. These kids are great, you can see it when they actually twirl and jump, so why the need to turn what should have been a once in a lifetime opportunity into a fiasco should haunt them their whole lives.

D) Will the parents of these darlings please step forward and tell us what in gods name do you think you are teaching your daughter besides 1) I am a sex object 2) I am a sex object 3) I am a sex object.

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Who the hell is this pro-ana chick?

CRYSTAL FRICKIN’ RENN.

Yes, Renn, the PROUD plus size model and author of Hungry. Renn said she was stunned when a photographer for a charity fashion shoot gave her a digital slim-down (and heroin chic eyes no less) that prompted a flurry of questions about her body image.

The photos in question, shot by photographer Nicholas Routzen, show a suddenly svelte Renn in a tank top benefiting Fashion for Passion, a charity that funds arts education for children.

“When I first saw the pictures, I have to say I was absolutely shocked. I think I sat in silence for a good five minutes,” Renn said today on NBC’s “Today” show. “I don’t think it’s an accurate portrayal of my body in any way. I’m a size 10, and that is more like a size 2.”

Renn wasn’t the only one who did a double-take. The fashion blogosphere jumped into overdrive, comparing “before” pictures of a healthy looking Renn at the photo shoot with the drastically trimmed “after” shots. The contrast between the two is especially evident at Jezebel.com, where readers traced Renn’s original frame and superimposed it on her whittled-down one.

“It’s striking to see how much she’s been downsized all over — from the shoulders to the hips to the thighs,” Jezebel wrote.

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I remember when I first started blogging, an athlete who was training for the Olympics wrote to me for advice. Here was a girl who had worked her entire life to get to where she was, but she started to realize she didn’t want it anymore. But she couldn’t just –quit, could she?

Her parents would freak.

Her dad would disown her

Who knows what her coach would do.

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I love to find hidden blogs, those focused on body image and eating disorders, they are like little gems just waiting to be discovered. I found Patricia,  the blogger of Beutiful, because she posted on a comment here about her blog. If you enjoy her poem below “Raisins, I highly recommend you go check it out, and sign up for her upcoming newsletter here.

AND, lets do something new,  please post your blog URL so I can find you, I’ll add you to my blogroll, and if you would return that favor that would be great!

XOXO, mV

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Raisins

Yea. I used to look in the mirror. Naked. Hoping. For perfection. Yea. I used to eat raisins all day. I used to want to be everything you wanted and never thought about anything that I wanted. I didn’t know. All I knew was that that mirror had better say “perfect.”

I saw the way you loved models. And celebrities. I saw the media. I saw the fitting room, how my body could not look “right.” To feel guilty for eating, to feel guilty about one pound, to feel anything at all, just to be “perfect.”

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Original t-shirt on Perez Hilton site

This Jezebel story about Perez Hilton typical of a blogger with no integrity what-so-ever…or so I thought.

Perez was found to be  promoting pro-ana merchandise on his site. But after being called out on it, the shirt didn’t disappear, it was instead revised with the text shown on the next page.

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This is a picture from Bergdorf Goodman‘s website. They depict the 19-year-old model Inna Pilipenko in clothing from Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen’s brand  The Row.

This is sick ok?

Not sexy. Not pretty. Not anything but totally sick.

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It seems “eating less” is cool these days according to Urban Outfitters. I guess it’s their hip and trendy response to the whole “obesity crisis” but perhaps they should ponder the repercussions of placing this shirt in their stores modeled by a pale skinny chick (that kind of looks stoned).

Irresponsible as hell.

On their web site, this is how they describe the product;

“Eat less or more or however much you’d like in this seriously soft knit tee cut long and topped with a v-neck.” Perhaps they should have printed all of that on there.

Whatever.

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Hi Gang! I was asked to participate in a study for the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge regarding Eating Disorder Memoirs. The survey is quite interesting, and it only takes a few minutes, so if you would like to be a part CLICK HERE.

If you do take the survey, please leave me a comment here, I am curious to see how many of us will take it.

As I went through the survey, the main thing that struck me was how many eating disorder memoirs there are! I would guess there are over 50 on the list. I found that I have not read very many (probably because I spend so much time on this blog and elsewhere on the web communicating with people on the subject).

I would also be curious to know how many of these books you have read….5, 10, 50?? Maybe its time to write your own!

mamaV

It takes two seconds, please, please, please! http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition

Check out the video — I STAR IN IT!! (well, kinda). I am in it for about 1 second in the beginning, but then I am the very last person shown…I discovered this totally randomly.