Think of one thing about your body that you love.
If you are like many of the people who visited the C of C chapter of the National Organization for Women’s “Love Your Body” poster signing in October, then you probably couldn’t.
“A lot of people were like ‘I don’t like anything about my body … I don’t want to write anything down.’ They were searching to find anything about themselves that they liked,” says NOW secretary, senior Leigh Dekle.
To counter this negative response, NOW wanted to create a publication in which the C of C community could talk about one of the biggest issues that doesn’t get much discussion: body image.
“Women’s issues aren’t really heard,” says senior Rachel Reinke, who is responsible for laying out the book. “We’re not as talkative because we’re silently hating our bodies.”
“The Look Book” is the brainchild of several members of C of C NOW, who describe it as a collective effort.
“The majority of our campus is female,” says NOW president senior Aasha Foster, finding inspiration for the project from Grinnell College’s “Riots Not Diets.” “Just by virtue of being a female myself and understanding … everything we think of in terms of our bodies and ourselves.”
According to Dekle, over the past few weeks NOW has been accepting multi-media submissions from students, and even a professor, about any body image issues they might have or have had.
“I wrote mine about wearing glasses,” says Dekle. “There are things you might never have heard of someone having a problem with. It shows the full spectrum of body image issues.”
With the media constantly bombarding the college population with impossible ideals of beauty and physical perfection, “The Look Book” presents its own versions.
In one photograph, “You can see the back fat of one of the girls who submitted … and she’s OK with it,” says Foster.
The contributors remain anonymous, which is partly why there were at least 20 entries. Or maybe there were so many entries because, as Reinke points out, there isn’t really an outlet here for women to talk about body image.
“There’s such an emphasis on being healthy and skinny, especially on this campus, although I don’t know if being skinny is necessarily healthy,” says Dekle.
“The Look Book” creators want to show people the different faces of healthy, no matter what pant size, or even hair length or color. Its creators are optimistic about it being well-received by the campus, and hopeful that it will be used as a way for people struggling with body image issues to realize that it’s normal, and that they aren’t the only ones struggling.
Keep a look out for “The Look Book,” which is due to hit campus April 23.