Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Harriet Brown, author of Feed Me: Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight and Body Image, and assistant professor of magazine journalism at Syracuse University -- which just happens to be my alma mater! Brown has launched a new body image project called Project BodyTalk and she wants to know what you think about your body. Read on for more about this fascinating project:
Q: What inspired you to create Project BodyTalk? What do you hope participants will gain from taking part in this project?
A: I was inspired to do this based on my own experiences and on the experiences of many women I’ve talked to around these issues. I write extensively about food and body image and eating disorders, and my latest book is an anthology of essays on the same subject. So I’ve been talking to women about this for years now. I also teach magazine journalism, so I am keenly aware of the way bodies (especially women’s) are portrayed in media. The impossible ideals are relentlessly pushed down our throat on all platforms these days.
Q: When you speak with students about body image, what surprises you most?
A: What surprises me most, still, is how widespread and prevalent body dissatisfaction is. It has very little to do with what I think of someone else’s body; often a student looks gorgeous to me, but she still struggles with distorted body image, feelings of worthlessness, etc. And I guess I’m surprised, though I shouldn’t be, that things have gone backward in this regard since I was a teen. The pressure is worse, and the relentlessness of the images is far greater. But somehow I hoped today’s young women and men would be less vulnerable.
Q: Tell me about your own body image legacy. If you could go back and speak to your 13-year-old self about your body, what would you say? What might you say to your 35-year-old self?
A: Good question! I’d tell myself that I was not fat, that my body was strong and sturdy and beautiful (When I look back at photos of myself, I see that I wasn’t, in fact, fat. Not thin, either—in the middle). I’d want to get myself started at 13 listening to positive body image messages. I’m afraid at that age I bought the party line — that thin was beautiful and not-thin was ugly; that depriving yourself made you a better person, as well as making you thinner; that food was the enemy. Alas. At 35, I was embarking on my own body-positive journey. I’d tell myself, keep going!
Readers who would like to take part in Project BodyTalk can send an MP3 or MP4 file to Brown at hnbrown@syr.edu.
Dara, I love your question about "what would you tell your 13-yr-old self about your body?" Brilliant.
Posted by: NeverSayDiet | 12/02/2009 at 02:41 PM
Thanks for posting this, Dara! I'm going to share it with SU mag journalism major daughter!
Sandy
Posted by: Sandra Beckwith | 12/02/2009 at 04:05 PM
Sandra, I think your daughter is in my editing class--Jessie, right?
Posted by: Harriet Brown | 12/05/2009 at 05:15 AM