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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!

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Should we Tell Little Girls that they are “Cute”?

I think this is an interesting question taken on by Lisa Bloom in her article How to Talk to Little Girls on
the Huffington Post
Personally I take the same stance as Bloom, there is a part of me that always refrains from calling little girls “adorable” or “cute” even if I think they are. When I see little boys very rarely do I crouch down and tell them how handsome or cute they are right off the bat. With girls I always feel as though if a comment about their appearance is the first thing that I say to them it will send the wrong message about who they are and what is important. Not that being beautiful is a bad thing (hellllo) but the way they look is not who they are, nor is it the totality of their complex being. I think that it perpetuates that sexist stereotype that little girls are made of “Sugar and spice and everything nice” that they are doll-like things to be dressed up, stand quietly, bat their eyelashes and smile demurely when told that they are lovely. I’m not saying that little girls should not be complimented on their appearance, but perhaps it should not be the first thing out of our mouths when addressing them, not only because it says that looks are the most important thing, but also – what happens when someone doesn’t say that they are cute? Children are highly aware of things like that. I know that I was.

From a young age I was a gatherer of adjectives, one’s assigned to me and I was even more acutely aware of the adjectives assigned to others . I was the proud owner of a “cute” or two in my youth, they were short lives years as I grew quickly and my adjectives began more to describe what it did (dance) then what I looked like, (tall, strong) in the dance world my physical attributes were also categorized and assigned, I was Theresa with the “legs and feet”. My adjectives may have been accurate, and even positive, I was “crazy, funny, and smart” but I was painfully aware that I was not “beautiful”, “cute”, or “pretty” and those are the only words that I wanted to attached to me.
I think this is a topic, and a way of being that we need to think about, and address because it is a very real and important issue that has long term, lasting effects.

How to Talk to Little Girls
By Lisa Bloom Author of ‘Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World’
Hosted by The Huffington Post
I went to a dinner party at a friend’s home last weekend, and met her five-year-old daughter for the first time.

Little Maya was all curly brown hair, doe-like dark eyes, and adorable in her shiny pink nightgown. I wanted to squeal, “Maya, you’re so cute! Look at you! Turn around and model that pretty ruffled gown, you gorgeous thing!”

But I didn’t. I squelched myself. As I always bite my tongue when I meet little girls, restraining myself from my first impulse, which is to tell them how darn cute/ pretty/ beautiful/ well-dressed/ well-manicured/ well-coiffed they are.

What’s wrong with that? It’s our culture’s standard talking-to-little-girls icebreaker, isn’t it? And why not give them a sincere compliment to boost their self-esteem? Because they are so darling I just want to burst when I meet them, honestly.

Hold that thought for just a moment.

This week ABC News reported that nearly half of all three- to six-year-old girls worry about being fat. In my book, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, I reveal that 15 to 18 percent of girls under 12 now wear mascara, eyeliner and lipstick regularly; eating disorders are up and self-esteem is down; and 25 percent of young American women would rather win America’s Next Top Model than the Nobel Peace Prize. Even bright, successful college women say they’d rather be hot than smart. A Miami mom just died from cosmetic surgery, leaving behind two teenagers. This keeps happening, and it breaks my heart.

Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. It sets them up for dieting at age 5 and foundation at age 11 and boob jobs at 17 and Botox at 23. As our cultural imperative for girls to be hot 24/7 has become the new normal, American women have become increasingly unhappy. What’s missing? A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments.
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Woman With World’s Biggest Natural Breasts

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Meet Norma Stitz.

Née Annie Hawkins-Turner, the 52-year-old for Atlanta, Georgia, has the world’s largest natural breasts (as reportedly confirmed by Guinness) — 102ZZZs. That’s 3.5 feet of cleavage and each side weighs in at 56 pounds.

Hawkins-Turner made headlines on Thursday after appearing on UK’s “This Morning” to talk about her assets with hosts Phillip Schofield and Jenni Falconer.

On getting her first bra when she was 10:

“I don’t know what size I was. I was just big. The only thing I remember about those bras is they were cotton and they stuck out just like footballs and that’s when I knew I was different. Kids are some of the worst people in the world when it comes to picking on people. I was teased a lot.”

On her daily routine:

“When I go out of my house I have to think about what my day is going to be like and who is going to attack me today. Every day someone teases me that doesn’t know me. They make fun of me and there’s no reason. I’m human like everybody else.”
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Body Hero of the Week: Lynne GreenBerg Author of The Body Broken

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If you have been following My Body My Image then you are well aware that the basic principles of the philosophy we hold are based in Acceptance, Appreciation, and Respect for our bodies. Our bodies and the perspectives we have of them are deeply personal and subjective, what we see when we regard ourselves (or others) and how we feel may make no sense to outsiders but it is for better or worse our personal truth, and very real. There is a saying “It’s a fact that you feel but feelings aren’t facts” Others see us and make assumptions about who we are and how we “must feel” about ourselves based on how we look, dress, our comportment and our actions. What you see is never all that you get, there is always something more, deeper, that personal truth.

This what I discovered when I met Lynne Greenberg the author of The Body Broken a memoir that tells of tale of a life of broken bones, a matrix of doctors, specialists, tests, and surgeries that to this day have not eradicated the chronic pain in her head. Through her physical ordeal which began with a car crash when she was 19 years old that left her with a broken neck, the results of which revisited her later in life with an unabated searing pain down the center of her head, she has not merely learned, but has become the embodiment of acceptance, appreciation and respect, for the body, both it’s fragility, it’s resilience, and it’s endurance. This is why she is our BODY HERO of the Week

One of the other things By Body My Image strives to do is to elasticize the concepts of the way we think about our bodies, not only in their size and shape, or beauty but in the respect for the wonder of the functionality of the body as an organism. Involuntarily our hearts beat, our lungs expand and contract oxygenating our blood, we have an internal healing system of white blood cells, we have senses that take in information and inform, warn and give us the ability to experience pleasure and yes pain too. We take such things for granted as we move through our lives until something goes awry. Instead we get caught up in the way we look, the type of clothes we wear and their size, the length of our hair, the size of our hips, noses, or lips. We lose sight of how blessed we actually are to have our health (the rest is mud). This is not an admonishment, not at all, it’s more of a reminder for us all, myself included. When we can put things into perspective, and prioritize what is of importance we can be kinder, gentler, and more compassionate with ourselves and empathetic towards others. This is what Lynne’s story did for me, it grounded me.

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I came to know Lynne through the Ailey School 3 years ago where her son Ben was a student in my class. I quickly dubbed him “Prince Ben” as he put me in mind of an animated Disney prince, with his classic handsome features not yet matured, wavy sun-streaked blond hair, chiseled jaw, and easy going surfer dude demeanor. He’s the boy the girls secretly swoon over. He had a lightness about him, there was no gravity to his person, he wore the air of a young boy who had lived a charmed life, where birds tweeted and landed gently on your shoulder. Birds don’t poop boys like Ben. When I met his mother for the first time it was during a parent observation week. I was delighted to meet her, After all I just had to meet the Queen of this fair Prince. She is a petite woman with the same sun-streaked hair and classic features, she was surprisingly young and cool I could hardly believe she was old enough to have a 13 year old son. I could see where Ben got it from. In my mind it confirmed what I thought I knew, he was charmed boy from a charmed family, who led a charmed life, but I was only half right, there is always more to the story, you just have to keep reading.

Just last week I was speaking with Ben about dance stuff when he told me about his mother’s book and her story. I was awed. I had seen this woman numerous times and never had a clue that all the while we were speaking this smiling engaging woman was in pain. She is always in pain. When he told me about her physical journey, of how she used to be a dancer and even after the car crash she danced in college (it was in fact a part of her rehabilitation). He spoke of the year she was interned to her bed unable to work (she is an associate professor of English at Hunter College) or mother her children (Ben and his younger sister Lilly). He told me of the surgery that stabilized her neck but left her with limited mobility, yet did not alleviate the pain, and how in spite of that she loves to surf, and mix it up with her kids. There was no question in my mind that this woman’s story was something that needed to be a part of this forum. I am humbled and honored to make Lynne Greenberg MBMI’s Body Hero of the week and her memoir The Body Broken (Random House) our Must Read for this summer!

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Reflections of the Week

Do Body -Positive Blogs Really Promote Acceptance?

Film Examines Touchy Intraracial Biases Based on Skin Tones

Fitting into the Latest Styles by Makeda Roney
Introducing Body Hero of the Week Fluvia Lacerda
50 Reasons Why YOU are Beautiful
3 Pearls: Steps to Recovering your Sense of Self
Levi’s Curve ID, are the Bold Bold Enough and is the Supreme Supreme by Taylor Owen Ramsey
Take the Body Image Quiz

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Canadian Model Coco Rocha talks Body Image

Coco Rocha (22) has made a name for her self in the modeling industry not just for her face but because when at 21 and a size 4 she wasn’t getting booked for runway because when was “too big” she rallied back. Instead of starving herself to please designers and booking agents she decided to stand her ground stating “If I want a hamburger, I’m going to have one. No 21-year-old should be worrying about whether she fits a sample size.”

She became very vocal on the topic of barely there models, and vocalized a salient point, models are usually prepubescent
14-15 year olds who have yet to grow into their womanly frames, and when the curves do come the work tends to wane.

“A lot of people don’t take into account the vulnerability of these young girls,” Rocha explained. “They are children. Point closed.”

She even began a blog to talk about the fashion industry from the inside, and topics like this.

She was recently honored by Fashion Delivers, for her charity work for Strut for the Cure and sat down with the Huffington Post for an interview here is a excerpt where she is talking about body image:

 

 

Hosted by Huffington Post

HP: Has there ever been anything for you personally that was controversial or negative that made you speak up?

CR: Yeah, I think there was that, a while back, when they had mentioned that I may have been too big for the runway and took it out of context, and I was kind of upset and felt like, you know, here was the chance for me to explain something to you and you’re taking it way out of proportion. I got to say my opinion and it did even better. My blog turned into a huge phenomenon. I kind of thanked the person for getting it wrong so that I could actually say what I needed to say.

HP: In that regard, I know you’ve previously felt pressured by the industry about your size. Do you think the fashion industry is getting better with the weight talk?

CR: It gets better for those who talk about it. So when I talk about it, people realize, “She has a voice, she’s going to say something, so maybe we should worry about that and worry about Coco’s needs and wants instead of how she looks.” But the girls that don’t say much, it probably still could be hard for them. But for me, personally, I’ve made it better for myself. So I wish I could do it for all the girls and maybe one day we all can do that. But I think it really is up to the girls to stand up for themselves and have that courage to do it, and it will all be okay.

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Fluvia Lacerda on her reasons why…

“The best result out of all the hard work I have achieved is knowing that I have liberated the minds of so many women who have struggled with a negative body image their entire lives.”

Fluvia Lacerda

This is why she has been our inspiration for creating the Body Hero of the week. I have enjoyed hunting down pics and quotes from Fluvia because I have learned so much about her, and it just kept getting better and better.  She will be hard to top that’s for sure. It has truly been my pleasure to feature her and introduce her to those of you who may not have known about her. Give one last salute to Ms. Fluvia Lacerda a True Body Image Hero!


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Do Body-Positive Blogs Really Promote Acceptance?

hosted by Jezebel.com

 

— You’ve probably heard of pro-ana websites, the online communities where people with eating disorders swap dieting tips and post “thinspiration” images. Now there’s another type of website that’s purportedly the antidote to all that. In the past few years, people have started posting images of themselves on body-positive websites. The intention is to promote acceptance, but, as with most topics having to do with our bodies, the sites are still problematic.

Today Refinery29 ran an interesting article that takes a tour of these body-positive online communities. There are several sites that celebrate larger women specifically, such as “Curve Appeal“ and “Big And Better,” but one of the most popular, “Stop Hating Your Body,” focuses on people of all sizes. Annie Segarra, 20, who started the blog in October 2010, says it now has more than 32,000 followers.

The posts, which are mainly from young women, each feature a self-portrait along with a message about her struggle to love her body. Most are full-length shots of the girls in bathing suits or underwear, but anything goes: In the photos the posters are nude, totally clothed, or showing only one body part. There are even some men baring their bellies. The accompanying stories are heartbreaking, and not just because it seems like every girl in America grows up hating her body. Some posters share intimate stories on topics including eating disorders, self-harm, and abuse. Every post ends with the phrase “BE BRAVE: JOIN THE REVOLUTION.”

It’s a hopeful message, and the girls say they’re becoming happier with themselves from reading other posts and seeing what the vast majority of women actually look like. But there’s also a concerning element. Most posts include the poster’s height, weight, and sizes, and experts say this sends mixed messages. From Refinery29:

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do you feel that way about what we do?

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Body Hero Fluvia Lacerda’s Personal Parisian Style

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Trench coat is by Jean Paul Gaultier for Target, black long sleeve is by Dorothy Perkins, leggings by Biluzik, shoes by Zara.

my girlie look…….

look 2: Feeling too romantic, thx Paris!Dress, oversized cardigan and shoes by H&M

out for dinner…..

look 3: Got a chance to see my friends and hang out at my favorite neighborhood (where I always stay while in Paris!) Montmartre.Oversized cardigan by H&M, grey silk blouse by Forever 21, jeans by City Chic, shoes by H&M.

ready for meetings….

look 4: I had a few meetings with clients and wanted something practical and fun.

Blazer by H&M (their size 16 is pretty generous!) t-shirt by Forever 21, leggings by Biluzik, shoes by H&M.

night out….

look 5: I lucky to have my husband in Paris at the same time as I was there, so we enjoyed a few romantic evenings together…

The wrap dress is by Forever 21 and the boots are by Zara.


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