All Articles by truth

Theresa Ruth Howard Dancer/Writer/Teacher Theresa Ruth Howard began her professional dance career with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet Company at the age of twelve. Later she joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Africa. She has worked with choreographer Donald Byrd as a soloist in his staging of New York City Opera's Carmina Burana, his critically acclaimed Harlem Nutcracker, as well as the controversial domestic violence work The Beast. She was invited to be a guest artist with Complexions: A Concept in their 10th anniversary season. In 2004 she became a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance. As a writer Ms. Howard has contributed to Russell Simmons’ One World magazine (art), and The Source (social politics), as well as Pointe and Dance Magazine. While teaching in Italy for the International Dance Association she was asked to become a contributor for the premiere Italian dance magazine Expressions. Her engaging, no nonsense writing style caught the eye of both the readers of Dance Magazine and its Editor in Chief who not only made her a contributing editor and has collaborated with Ms. Howard in See and Say Web-reviews. Her articles about body image prompted her to develop a workshop for young adult (dancers and non-dancers) My Body My Image that addresses their perceptions both positive and negative about their bodies and endeavoring to bring them closer to a place of Acceptance and Appreciation. She recently launched a blog by the same name to reach a broader audience (mybodymyimage.com) As a teacher Ms. Howard has been an Artist in Residence at Hollins University in and New Haven University in addition to teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount, Shenandoah, and Radford Universities, and the historical American Dance Festival. As a result of her work at ADF Ms. Howard was invited to Sochi, Russia to adjudicate the arts competition Expectations of Europe and teach master classes, and in Burundi, Africa where she coached and taught the Burundi Dance Company. Currently she on faculty at The Ailey School but also extensively throughout Italy and Canada. Ms. Howard's belief in the development, and nurturing of children lead her to work with at risk youth. At the Jacob Riis Settlement House in Queensbridge New York, she founded S.I.S.T.A (Socially Intelligent Sisters Taking Action) a mentoring program for teen-age girls where she worked to empower them to become the creators of their destinies. In addition she developed a dance program, which lead to an exchange with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Through her teaching and travels Ms. Howard began to observe a universal disenchantment and disconnection in teenagers that disturbed her, thus she set out to address it. Combining her philosophies of life and teaching, with the skills she garnered through outreach programs with diverse communities, she developed the personal development workshop Principles of Engagement: Connecting Youth to the Infinite Possibilities Within which gives teens a set of workable tools to increase their levels of success at tasks, and goals not only in dance, and all aspect of their lives. Theresa Ruth Howard is certainly diverse and multifaceted as an artist, and is moved to both write and create work; however she sees every student she encounters as a work in progress, and the potential to change the world one person at a time. The only was to make this world a better place it to be better people in it!

853 Articles
Uncategorized

What Does It Mean to Be ‘Beautiful?’

I thought that Dr. Diller’s article was very telling. What does it mean to be Beautiful and where do we [the average woman] fit into that and how much do our opinions matter? Diller discloses that the survey shows that the trend of “beauty” is skewing towards people of mixed race, after all “mixed” children tend to end up with what is considered to be the best of both of the worlds that have collided. I suppose that sounds good, but the idea still irks me a bit as I feel that the subrosa truth is that the blend makes it “better” the darker of the two might provided perm-a-tanned complexion, and the fuller lips that so many Caucasian women spend thousands of dollars to obtain and maintain, the lighter race makes sure that you are not too dark (as not to be mistaken for the pure darker race) and the ability to claim small portion of “White skinned privilege”. I always wonder if the people who think that “mixed” or “Bi-Racial” people are “more” beautiful can see the beauty in the individual Pure Races that produced them? Is that mixing a sort of upgrade? I think this also highlights Chimamand Adichie’s argument about the Danger of the Single Story, where the image of beauty is changing and broadening for most women the Magazine covers and media beauty icons have pretty much stayed the same over the years, I can name only three women of color who have held cosmetic contracts with consistency over the recent years Halle Berry, Queen Latifah and Beyonce (I may be missing a few but if I have to reach then…) This is an interesting read with information that will make you take stock of what you believe beauty to be, and then I ask you to stretch into the thought of WHY?…..

Hosted By Huffington Post

Vivian Diller, Ph.D.

Vivian Diller, Ph.D.

Is blonde and bubbly Jennifer Aniston your ideal of beauty? Or is it sultry Angelina Jolie, the woman Brad Pitt seems to favor? What about Serena Williams, America Ferrera or even Betty White?

According to CNN contributor, Alana Dawson, our beauty icons have become more diverse, a topic she wrote about after visiting the “Beauty CULTure” — an exhibit of more than 170 images by renowned photographers at the Annenberg Space in L.A. Aimed at getting people to question the influence of society on female beauty, the show left her asking, “What is Beauty and Who Has It?” She concluded that standards of attractiveness are rapidly changing — “from blonde to brunette, from fair skinned to deep.” Americans, she says, are ready to embrace beauty diversity.

Evidence for this trend was raised years ago, when Time magazine’s 1993 cover story featured a computer generated image that mixed several ethnicities which they declared was “The New Face of America.” Allure magazine offered support for this new trend when their 2011 Beauty Survey found “64 percent of all our respondents think women of mixed race represent the epitome of beauty.” Some respondents said they wanted darker skin, fuller lips and curvier bodies. According to Dawson, “that’s a far cry from 1991 when most Allure respondents chose blonde haired, blue-eyed Christie Brinkley as the ideal beauty. The all-American look today is much more of a hybrid.”

Having just viewed the Beauty CULTure exhibit myself, I left with a very different perspective — struck less by diversity and more by the ever-narrowing definition of beauty not just in America, but across the globe. I wondered if Dawson noticed how little variety actually graced the magazine covers posted all over the exhibit walls? In fact, when I looked up the recent history of American Vogue Covers , I saw that only 18 percent were non-white, and the average age was just 27, a similar ethnic and age imbalance on display at the Annenberg show.

I also looked more carefully at the actual survey conducted by Allure in 2011. It was designed to revisit the same question that they had asked their readers 20 years ago — “What is beautiful?” Among the two thousand men and women who responded, the majority said they were eager to see beauty icons who were more like them — of different color, race, size and age — a hopeful turn toward diversity. But upon a closer look, the survey reveals less “colorful ‘stats.

  • While 73 percent of women said that a curvier body type is more appealing than it had been in 1991, 85 percent still said they wish their own hips were narrower.
  • 93 percent of women said the pressure to look young today is greater than ever before.
  • In the 1991 beauty survey, men said women were at their most beautiful at age 31. In 2011, that ideal age had been reduced to 28.
  • 86 percent of men said that they wanted to weigh less as compared to 97 percent of women.
  • Women listed their top five appealing male attributes as a guy’s face, body type, smile, eyes and height (in that order). Men listed a women’s face, body type, breasts, smile and butt.

Please Keep Reading

Uncategorized

Reflections of the Week!

 

 

 

 
In Case you missed it , catch up now!

The Danger of the Single Story

Meet the Plus Model who Uses Padding!

Janice Dickinson at 24! Younger face same personality

6 Lies About the human Body

13 Mind Heroes- Great women in Technology

ABT’s Misty Copeland talks about being a Curvy Ballerina

6 year olds worrying about getting fat!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Uncategorized

Sticks and stones can break my bones and words can sometimes hurt me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever been criticized negatively about your body image? Did it hurt you deeply? I have been criticized negatively about my curvy hips and bust and it hurt me a lot to the point that I am scared by it. This article from Dance Magazine talks about this type of situation with 3 professional dancers and it touched me deeply because I can relate to the 3 professional dancers. I am sure all dancers (and even non dancers) can relate to this article on some level. This is powerful! Then check out what Mental Health Specialist Cortney Veazey says about the subject. It help. Also take a look at A Critique on Critics,  Check it out!

Hosted by: Dance Magazine

Written by: Kathleen McGuire

“When New York Times critic Alastair Macaulay wrote in his review of New York City Ballet’s Nutcracker that “Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many,” the dance world yelled foul. Ringer, a celebrated principal with NYCB, has graced the cover of Dance Magazine four times (as many as Balanchine great Violette Verdy), and recently starred in a fashion spread in Elle. The event, dubbed “Sugarplumgate,” left dancers all over the country looking at their own reflections wondering, If she’s fat, then what am I? Blogs and message boards on the internet lit up with emotional cries on Ringer’s behalf, but the call to arms was about more than Ringer as an individual. It was an opportunity to discuss the harshness of the criticism of dancers’ bodies every day. Overnight, Ringer became a symbol of poise in the face of criticism. Appearing in interviews on The Today Show and Oprah shortly after Black Swan’s unhinged Nina Sayers was thrust into popular culture, here stood Jenifer Ringer, the picture of class and maturity, to gently place our feet back on the ground.”

Continue

MR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uncategorized

Be careful what you say: Kristie Alley confronts Dave Letterman about Fat Jokes VIDEO


Words can hurt and they can also have a boomerang effect. Kirstie Alley was a guess on The Letterman show and took him to task about some jokes he made at her expense when she was on Dancing with the Stars. She came prepared pulling a list of them out of her decolletage. Ok Don’t mess with Kirstie

Uncategorized

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

Hosted by TED

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Award winning Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

You might wonder why I am posting this lecture, well first of all after read her Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus I became a fan of her work, that is why I watched the video. But as she spoke about being a little girl in Nigeria and reading British novels (the only available to her) and how this lead her to believe that the only people, characters that could be in books looked nothing like her, did not speak, dress or eat like her, so much so that when she stared writing her own stories, she wrote her version of those British people, not of her own it struck a cord. She had never read a story about an African so she at the age of 7 assumed that those people, her people did not have a place in literature. It put me to mind about the Danger of the the Single Body. The Size 0, 5’9 woman often pre-pubescent and airbrushed has become in a way the single the Single Body or Image that we as women, as a people have come to believe in. Adichie states so eloquently “Show a people as only one thing, as only one thing over and over again and that is what they become” This is how the standard of beauty was created. It is in a way a stereotype of sorts. Adichie says that the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. The image of “Woman” in the fashion industry and the media is dangerously incomplete If we as women do not look like the media’s prescribed concept of beauty we do not exist.She also says “The consequence of the single story is that is rob people if their dignity” and hasn’t that been the case for most women, we constantly feel inadequate and broken, not enough or way too much.

Uncategorized

A Plus Model Admits to using Padding…hummm

I thought this was interesting…..
MArquita Prig was one of the zaftig women in the now infamous vogue Italia plus sized editorial she now shares one of her trade secrets.

Hosted by Huffington Post

 

Marquita Pring, Plus-Size Model: Sometimes I Use Padding To Please Clients

We love Marquita Pring, one of the four curvy models who starred in Vogue Italia‘s now-famous plus-size editorial.

Women’s Wear Daily caught up with the native New Yorker, who revealed an odd secret of the trade: padding.

That’s right — the supposedly already oversized models sometimes feel the need to be even bigger. Says Pring, “I’m right in the middle at a sort of small [size] 14, high 12. So I pad sometimes since I’ve got clients who would prefer a solid 14 or 16.”

The process involves laying pieces of foam about an inch and half thick on the hips, securing the padding beneath the undergarments.

It may sound funny (WWD asks Pring incredulously, “Like football pads for your hips?”). But the practice reveals the strange demand for particularly big bodies that fit the plus-size mold, rather than the real bodies — big or small — that models already have.

Read the rest


Uncategorized

How Much is TOO Much: Pregnant And Pulling A Deuce, Because I Can

THIS is one of the reasons why I love the Jezebel.com. 

A while back I posted an entry about the new trend of Mommyrexia, mothers to be working to stay as thin as possible during their pregnancies. We have been seeing a great deal of this from celebrities during while carrying and then the great “post baby bikini body reveal”. Well Writer Tracy Moore wrote a hilarious essay about “Pulling a Deuce” Or hitting 200 pounds while pregnant. It is a great read- funny and honest, the best part is when she talks about why she ate the way she did, the way it felt- “good like a warm blanket” and her relationship to food during this period. It made me think of our discussions about disordered eating with Nutritionist Natalie Gauneshelli. I guess Moore has revealed that pregnancy can in fact create disordered eating patterns in expectant mothers due either to emotional stress and worry or the idea that you are “eating for 2”. It’s a great read!!  enjoy!

hosted my Jezebel.com

Tracy Moore — As I waddled into the 7th month of pregnancy, one day at work a friend/co-worker/mother of three came up to chat. As she eyed my growing heft, she pulled me aside and lowered her voice. “So…” she began with a smirk, glancing around quickly to ensure we were speaking privately. “You gonna pull a deuce?” Um, say what?

“A deuce?” I asked, confused. “Is that like…dropping a deuce? Because remarkably I have not been constipated at all this whole— ”

“No, are you gonna go over 200 pounds?” she asked.

“Ohhhhh,” I said, enlightened. “Wait — that’s, like, a thing?”

Apparently known only in some circles of pregnant women and the men and women who serve them (food), pulling a deuce means packing ‘em on while pregnant such that you reach a nice cement-like number that theretofore had not figured into your numerological inner narrative, much less your bathroom scale. Hit it or quit it — you just crossed over.

A normal and safe weight gain during pregnancy is 25 to 35 pounds (though if you are over 200 pounds when you get pregnant, you may in fact not gain a thing). This is a bit of sobering medical advice contrasted with the cultural pregnancy programming of buckets of ice cream, “eating for two” and “going apeshit on that buffet.” I had gone apeshit, apparently, and blew past that “normal and safe” number. Funny — it turns out “eating for two” doesn’t really mean two PEOPLE, but rather, eating for the appetite of a normal person plus one small, unhappy rodent.

Weight is, obviously, a relative thing; one woman’s healthy number can be another woman’s cross to bear. For me, with my resting pre-pregnancy weight was significantly below 200, this “deuce” seemed such a leap that I didn’t even consider it. Until, of course, my 8th month of pregnancy rolled up on a bitch and the checkup revealed I was already at 195 pounds. With an entire month still to go. Guess what? You gain even more weight at the very end.

Pregnant And Pulling A Deuce, Because I Can

Tracy Moore — As I waddled into the 7th month of pregnancy, one day at work a friend/co-worker/mother of three came up to chat. As she eyed my growing heft, she pulled me aside and lowered her voice. “So…” she began with a smirk, glancing around quickly to ensure we were speaking privately. “You gonna pull a deuce?” Um, say what?

“A deuce?” I asked, confused. “Is that like…dropping a deuce? Because remarkably I have not been constipated at all this whole— ”

“No, are you gonna go over 200 pounds?” she asked.

“Ohhhhh,” I said, enlightened. “Wait — that’s, like, a thing?”

Apparently known only in some circles of pregnant women and the men and women who serve them (food), pulling a deuce means packing ‘em on while pregnant such that you reach a nice cement-like number that theretofore had not figured into your numerological inner narrative, much less your bathroom scale. Hit it or quit it — you just crossed over.

A normal and safe weight gain during pregnancy is 25 to 35 pounds (though if you are over 200 pounds when you get pregnant, you may in fact not gain a thing). This is a bit of sobering medical advice contrasted with the cultural pregnancy programming of buckets of ice cream, “eating for two” and “going apeshit on that buffet.” I had gone apeshit, apparently, and blew past that “normal and safe” number. Funny — it turns out “eating for two” doesn’t really mean two PEOPLE, but rather, eating for the appetite of a normal person plus one small, unhappy rodent.

Weight is, obviously, a relative thing; one woman’s healthy number can be another woman’s cross to bear. For me, with my resting pre-pregnancy weight was significantly below 200, this “deuce” seemed such a leap that I didn’t even consider it. Until, of course, my 8th month of pregnancy rolled up on a bitch and the checkup revealed I was already at 195 pounds. With an entire month still to go. Guess what? You gain even more weight at the very end.

Like any rational being, I turned my wrath toward the Internet, where, per usual, my search for clear-eyed facts about what was happening to this no-longer-mine body yielded article after chirpy article admonishing that I shouldn’t be eating more than 100 to 300 calories extra a day. As if that were actually within the realm of possibility. Those 100 calories was two insultingly measly cups of carrots, and that I could bet my expanded ass they wouldn’t even be salted.

Nowhere did it report, for instance, the truth — that I’d been taken hostage by a food beast. That my hunger would, at times, make me cartoonishly ravenous.

It’s not like I was eating everything in sight since the second I’d felt the queasy uncertainty of pregnancy take hold. And I actually ate overwhelmingly better — more well-rounded, nourishing meals — than I ever had. But I did go easy on myself on the portions, and added dessert whenever the urge struck me, which turned out to be pretty much all the time. I had two snacks throughout the day as well. It helped me keep my energy up at work, but the snacks were such a frequent high point in my day that I’d begun to imagine giving birth and my baby being composed entirely of pepperoni slices, pickled okra, cheddar cheese cubes and Triscuits.

YOU SO HAVE TO CONTINUE

Uncategorized

Blast from the past Janice Dickinson at 24 talks about the reality of Modeling

1 Comment


Janice Dickinson was plastered all over my bedroom walls. I clearly remember this version of her face. I thought she was so beautiful and so not blonde for that time. I personally got a kick out of this and I thought I would share It seems that no much has changed in the world of modeling….

I love this mainly because it shows that she has always been a ballsy outspoken woman, who despite her antics (and over the top, sometimes inappropriate behavior) actually tells the truth about situations. In this clip you see the face that made her famous (she was just stunning) you see that her lips were always naturally full, and hear her talk about how she has to work hard to stay in shape!! She has maintained that physical discipline even now. She may have had a ton of work done- which she freely admits to but she still works to maintain her form.

Uncategorized

6 Lies About the Human Body You Learned in Kindergarten

I thought this was pretty interesting, I suppose that we constantly underestimate ourselves! The Body is an AMAZING organism, so much more then we often reduce it to (size, weight, shape, form) It is to be appreciated and respected for its wonder. Check this out it’s a cool read that I sense  (you’ll get that in a minute if you continue reading) you will enjoy and learn from.

Hosted by Cracked.com
By: Karl Smallwood, Eddie Rodriguez July 11, 2011


When we reach the age of two, we start to have a few questions about our bodies. At first they’re simple. ‘Will that toy fit into the wet hole in the middle of my face?’ But as we mature, the questions become more complex and too numerous for any reasonable human being to answer. It’s no coincidence that around this time, your parents ship you off to school where someone is payed to give you answers.

Unfortunately, many of the answers you get there are lies that seem specifically designed to make the world around you seem boring. Because how else are they going to get you to stop asking so many damn questions? For instance, you probably still believe …
#6.
You Only Have Five Senses

Sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing. Them there’s your five senses. Since kindergarten, you’ve probably been told that anyone who thinks she has a sixth sense is either a television psychic or M. Night Shyamalan. This original classification is widely attributed to Aristotle, so if you try to argue that there are more than five, you’re basically arguing with the guy who invented being smart.

And wannabe intellectuals have rocked the comb forward/beard combo ever since.

The Truth:

Scientists still aren’t quite sure of exactly how many senses you have, or what even constitutes a sense, but you’d be hard-pressed to find one who believes you have five. Depending on how they count them, they usually wind up with something like 14 to 20. The five you learned about in school were just the five most evident senses, aka the boring ones you could have figured out for your own damn self. The rest are far more interesting.

 

The Harvard School of Medicine lists six extra ones that are pretty hard to argue against. Close your eyes, then touch your nose with your index finger. How did you know which one was your index finger without looking at it? How did you know where your nose was? Did you smell your finger to your nose? Did your sense of touch somehow tell you what the air molecules you encounter along the way to your nose feel like? Nah, that’s proprioception, your body’s awareness of where it is in relation to itself.

Oh, yeah. We just dropped the H-bomb on you.

Maybe the most interesting one they left out is your sense of timing, which might seem like it’s only a sense in the way that fashion is a sense. But leading neurologists like David Eagleman think it’s the most important of all the senses, since it’s the thread that ties the rest of them together. An apple is just a series of different sensations without your sense of time telling you they’re all happening at the same moment. Still not convinced? Try staring at a white wall in a totally silent room. Your sense of time tells you how much of your life has been wasted because you didn’t take us at our word.

 

It’s also worth noting that this sense your kindergarten teacher failed to mention can operate like a freaking superpower. For instance, if you’re walking in the woods and a bear growls in the bushes behind you and to your left, the bear’s growl hits your left ear a millionth of a second before it hits your right. Your sense of time is able to pick up on that infinitesimal difference and allows you to perfectly triangulate the bear’s location behind you.

If you were only relying on your sense of hearing, you would only know that the bear is somewhere on the left side of your body. Your ears don’t swivel around like a dog’s, so you would have to turn and use your eyes to pinpoint the bear. A blur of brown and black fur would be the last sight you ever saw.

Read more

Uncategorized

We had Body Heroes here are 13 MIND Heroes!!! Meet 13 Powerful Tech Women!

I have often ranted about the choice of role models young girls and women have today. Earlier this week I posted an entry about 6 year old Eden Wood the Kiddie Pageant Queen who is retiring from the circuit to become a pint sized superstar.Then there was Mila Kunis in her underwear on the cover of GQ bemoaning how some women in Hollywood use their sexuality to get roles and not their talent. Well I was so please to find this gem that restored my faith in the possibility that women are more then their breast, bums, and hair weaves, and that there are beautiful and intelligent women on the planet that are powerful and successful and keep their clothes on. (Lord don’t let me see one of these women on the cover of Maxim in a part of too small boy short leaning over a laptop!) check them out and be inspired! They create and manage things that you might use everyday!

 13 Influential Women In Technology (PHOTOS)

Hosted by Huffington Post

Considering the pace at which technology is progressing, it’s important to highlight and recognize the key players in the field that keep innovation going. And while women have always been vital components of the tech world, their influence and authority are now being widely respected by peers all around the globe.

From entrepreneurs like Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss to media heads like Heather Harde and Chloe Sladden, women in tech are dominating the industry and deserve the proper recognition for their hard work and creativity.

In conjunction with Dell and Intel’s Women in Tech sponsorship, we take a look at 13 of the most influential women in technology today.

 

 

 

Jennifer Hyman is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway, a website aimed to help you find a wardrobe for all life’s occasions at 90% off retail prices. Hyman is responsible for all areas of the business including technology, fashion, sales, marketing, operations, customer experience, and people management.

 

 

 

 

The CTO for the Commander-in-Cheif, Beth Simone Noveck served as United States deputy chief technology officer for open government and led President Obama’s Open Government Initiative. She is a proven expert on technology and institutional innovation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound familiar? Caterina Fake is currently the Chief Product Officer at the internet site, Hunch. You might remember her as the co-founder of Flickr along with Stewart Butterfield in 2004. After Flickr was acquired by Yahoo, Caterina ran their Technology Development Group and founded Yahoo’s Brickhouse

 

 

 

 

Heather Harde is the CEO of TechCrunch. Prior to her position as chief executive officer, Heather spent a decade at News Corp dealing heavily in corporate development, strategy, and operating roles both in Los Angeles and New York. She is also part of the founding team at Fox Interactive Media.

 

 

 

 

A Google veteran, Marissa Mayer joined the tech giant in 1999 as Google’s first female engineer leading the user interface and web server teams. She now serves as Head of Key Area of Serving Ads and Information at Google. Prior, she served as Vice President of Search Products and User Experience as well as Vice President of Google Product Search.

 

For the full slide show jump here