By Courtney Martin at Feministing
To all you Love Your Body Day student organizers, concerned parents, thoughtful professors, activists, advocates, survivors, fundraisers, writers, artists, actors, and musicians. To all you radical grandmas, doctors, therapists, sick-and-tired boyfriends and brothers, nutritionists, and newsmakers. To all you feminists–young, old, and in between…
The time is now. Take back your body. Re-imagine the world.
I have been working my big, round arse off on the Endangered Species summit and I want everyone to know about it. Over a year ago, the amazing women of The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute got in touch to ask me if I’d be interested in spearheading a massive paradigm shift within the body image activism movement. I was flattered, a little freaked out, and sure that this was a worthwhile effort to pour tons of myself into.
Over the last year, I’ve collaborated with them, along with a couple of badass interns (go Shirley! go Alyssa! go Suzy!), on creating a truly international summit. The one in New York will go down on March 18th and 19th, and features amazing, diverse voices within the movement–from Jimmie Briggs to Jean Kilbourne to Julie Zelinger, from Jessica Weiner to Michael Kimmel to our very own Chloe Angyal. Oh, and yeah, of course I’m going to grab the mic from time to time.
Coolest of all, partner summits are going to launch in four other places around the world–London, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, and the newest addition, Sao Paulo. Each summit will be customized for each country’s particular context, but we’re all going to stay in communicado as we look towards the future of this movement on a global scale. The goal, ultimately, is to launch a comprehensive, worldwide campaign in collaboration with the leading organizations and individuals already on the front lines of this public mental health epidemic. This campaign will engage government officials, educational institutions, multi-national corporations, the fashion industry, and the mainstream media to join us in creating a new visual culture–one where the diverse, real beauty of women and girls is valued and magnified.
In any case, if you’re in the NYC-area, or can get yourself here by trains, planes, or automobiles, do it. Registration is easy and cheap, and I can guarantee that you’ll be part of a conversation that I truly believe is going to change the world. And besides, ask my friends, I throw a really good party.
Related content:
Endangered Species: Challenging Body Beautiful Culture
5 thoughts on “This March: The Body Image Activist Movement Leaps Forward Across the Globe”