My Humps: The Body Peace Project
Seventeen has launched the Body Peace Project, “aimed at changing the way young girls view their bodies.” Three celebrities have signed on: Fergie, Brittany Snow, and Ashlee Simpson. According to IMDB news:
The trio want teenagers to stop obsessing about the shape of their bodies. Editor in Chief Ann Shoket launches the year-long project to help girls with unhealthy body image issues in the new issue of the U.S. teen magazine. She says, “So many girls feel awful about themselves.” Snow, who recently revealed she suffered from anorexia and bulimia, is desperate to help young girls who are struggling with the same issues she struggled with as her acting career took off when she was 16.
Here is my knee-jerk reaction. Brittany Snow, I get: she battled bulimia and presumably has something to say about eating disorders. Also, she was in Hairspray so, free pass from me. Ashlee Simpson plastic surgeried her face out of all recognition, sending what I would call the exact opposite of a message of acceptance. And Fergie… well, at least she has lovely lady lumps. Still, how about celebrities who don’t fit the perfect Hollywood mold? Celebrities of color or size? I think that would promote inclusivity and positivity better than Ashlee fucking Simpson. Don’t you?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Eating Disorders, Hairspray, Magazines, Media, Movies
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Fergie? Oh, puh-leeze. Doesn’t one of her songs talk about how “all the boyz are lookin’ at my (uhhhhhh!)” and she’ll be “up at da gym, jez wurkin’ on my fitness?”
I know gym-going isn’t something for the hot alone, but, c’mon. We all know what fergie’s getting at.
I’m with you. I don’t think your knee-jerk reaction is all that far off. It’s a great idea, but I think they maybe need a wider variety of people working for acceptance.. And not someone like Ashlee Simpson who evidently didn’t feel she could accept herself as she was before.
Adding: Unless Ashlee starts giving “confessions of my nose job and why it was a stupid thing to do” interviews.
I’m gonna give Ashley Simpson the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she realizes the plastic surgery was a mistake?
You’re completely right, though, I’ll believe this whole thing when they actually involve some variety, not just a bunch of already conventionally attractive, white, skinny, famous girls, not that their voice isn’t valid. It just seems to be the only authentic next step.
Oh come ON. Are we supposed to take this seriously? Gimme a break…
Oh, I’m sorry, did I sound cynical there? :x
If this does end up in the magazine, I hope it’s next to a section entitled ‘How to get your body in perfect snow bunny shape!’ or ‘How to make that guy yours!’
It’s not just about body image. It’s about the advice that they give, the lifestyle they promote. And, as I recall a lot of the readers are a few years under ‘Seventeen’ and I just don’t know that it’s a shining example of how to love and accept the body you have at that age.
I’d rather see them change their whole attitude throughout the magazine………instead.
If they do add some people of color and size, it’ll probably be Queen Latifah and America Ferrara. It’s all just lip service with no real substance.
If Seventeen wanted to truly promote “body peace,” they’d either moderate or remove the pseudo pro-ana forum on their own messageboard.
These guys have some cool T-shirts for those of us who are not (and don’t want to be) size 0!
http://www.cafepress.com/proudtobefat
Usually it irritates me when people give lip service to body image. When I was a fat teenager I always assumed that good body image was for thin girls, not for me. I translated it in my mind as “realistic body image,” which was for me knowing without a doubt that I was a big fat monster. So…maybe they need a new phrase. It’s all very well for thin (white) girls to talk about having positive body image but fat or normal weight girls won’t take that seriously at all, or at least I would not have.
I would be looking for Queen Latifah but then, I suppose they need people that teens relate to, who that is a teenager is a good role model? I don’t know of any overweight tv stars etc in that teen era??
When I was a teen there was the Facts of Life with some cool chubbies but not today, they are all makeup’d to the extreme, fake hair, the list goes on.
I totally agree about Ashlee Simpson but I am willing to cut Fergie a little slack. In every article I’ve read about her, she stresses that she works very hard to be the size that she is. Usually when the paparazzi catches her out, they get photos of her exercising in baggy pants and sweatshirts. In several of her songs, she references exercise and fitness and The Makeup Song is all about wanting a guy who loves her for more than her looks. (Sorry, I do like Fergie Ferg.)
Maybe it’s not as good a message as resisting conformity altogether, but it’s a lot more honest than Christina Aguilera at 15 years old and all of 85 pounds saying, “I constantly eat the shit out of Burger King bacon double cheeseburgers!!”
Ashlee might not act on the sort of attitude she wants young girls to have, but it explains why she wants to be a part of something like that. She seems to have major self-esteem issues, and just knowing something like that is wrong and not wishing it on other people doesn’t solve your own problems.
Fergie has done much much more to her face than Ashlee, anyway, so why are the hypocrisy?
God how Seventeen makes me want to choke them. If they want to change how girls view their bodies then get some models who don’t look like junkies for goodness’ sake! I hate magazines that do that; want to show you that you don’t have to hate your body while showing you a size 0 model who’s collarbone is her only accessory. Give me a magazine that showcases people of all sizes and color. Now that would be something for me to cheer about.
When it comes to teenage stars who don’t fit the thin stereotype, I can only think of a couple: Jordin Sparks and the young woman from Hairspray, Nicole Blonsky.