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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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Is a little flaw a bad thing?

Here are some photoshop before and afters.
The thing that I find interesting is that barring color and light correction, some of the photoshopping that is done is completely unnecessary. They take a small ripple out here, a bump there, an inch or so off of a waist that was slender to begin with, taking everything to an extreme, so much so that it creates an unobtainable ideal for women to strive towards. When the women on the covers of magazines in their natural state (ironically in full a hair makeup and lighting ) still need to digitally augmented and “corrected” then aren’t we are all in trouble.

Penelope is just lovely naturally and took a great photo to start. Now besides the color correction I can understand and perhaps that stray hair, but did they have to get rid of her lines of expression, are they that horrible? and they made her ribcage, and waist just a smidge smaller, so slight that really they could have just let it be?

It’s just crazy how they completely narrowed Jessica Alba’s body, her waist is clearly even smaller, to what end? They adjusted the light around her breasts to accentuate them even though they are already pushed up to her neck. and reduced her thighs. When you first look at the photoshopped image it looks normal but when you really look, it is completely out f proportion, especially the left side of her body. If you look at it too long she starts to look crazy! (I don’t now if these are the same photo, because the focus of her eyes is different, it could be 2 different photos from the same session)

Cameron already has a great body, even though she is thin, she is strong and lean, yet once again for some reason her the line of the bone of her pelvis was offensive and had to be erased. That’s not even fat that’s the indentation muscle makes!

Avril Lavigne looks pretty much the same, so why not just leave it be, what is this concept of making something “Perfect” or “Better” when it was perfectly find to begin with?

I don’t know who this woman is but actually I like the unretouched photo better, even the color, they did touch-up under her eyes, which does look “better” I thought that the before was fine, what is wrong with looking human?

This one is just crazy! they completely reduced her. Her torso is smaller, as is her thigh, they put a curve in her back, added hair, well damn I just she didn’t even have to show up to the photo shoot!
Clearly this is a woman who works out and takes care of her body, but still has bit of a pooch, which by the way is supposed to be considered “sexy” but they just smoothed out her whole stomach, gave her a tan, and changed the color of her bra and panties. Ok they did a good one by taking out the shower water which made it look like she was peeing, so we can’t be but so mad.

Ok when I saw this I was shocked! I was like, that is amazing, all these years I was thinking that Madonna wasn’t aging, I mean I know she has support from a procedure or two (no judging just acknowledging) but this was just way more than I was ready for. I mean this is art, now. But know I kind of understand why Madonna might not think she is not aging either! If you are 50 and kept seeing pictures of yourself looking a flawless 25, you might begin to believe that you really do look that way too… this explains a lot in Madonna’scase, love her but let’s be real you look fabulous for your age but you are still your age, and there is nothing wrong with that!!! And there was nothing wrong with the first sets of any of these photos!!! Damn you photo editor leave us alone, stop messing with our heads!

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These First Ladies are #1

C’est Beau Bellisima!!!

These are the posteriors of the First Ladies of France and Italy, and you have to admit they are working the fashions Herve and Loubie), the stairs, and a whole lot of people’s nerves. I LOVE IT ladies!!!

The First Ladies of France and Italy
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Beauty and the (Media) Beast

By Layla Revis-Vice-President, 360 Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

We’ve all heard that ‘sex sells,’ but we rarely think twice about it. In fact, it’s one tired cliché we’ve actually grown up believing. Unfortunately, for marketers and consumers worldwide…
We’ve been lied to.

And while there’s no denying that Britney Spears sold records in great part due to eroticized expressions of virginity, research has shown that the higher sex content in an advertisement, the lower the brand name recall. In fact, a study conducted by Steadman found that brand-name recall was significantly lower in sexual advertisements than non-sexual advertisements. Still, we continue to tell our clients and our kids that same played out line.

The real question is this: what does this mean when it comes to perceptions of beauty and the body for women and men today?

In 2004, with the help of Ogilvy, Dove launched its famous ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ after conducting a global study of beauty. The study confirmed that the definition of beauty had become impossible to attain. Dove found that only 2 % of women described themselves as beautiful and, when it came to body image and weight, women from all countries were unsatisfied with themselves. However, an overwhelming 81% strongly agreed that “the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can’t ever achieve” and 75 % wish the media did a better job portraying the diversity of women’s physical attractiveness, including size, shape, and age. With women making up roughly 50% of the world’s population and influencing or buying 80% of products sold, companies ignoring what these women say and feel can be a costly mistake.
Dove’s response was to develop “Evolution,” a viral video with unprecedented success; viewed by more than 300 million people globally. Dove and Ogilvy won countless awards, including two Grand Prix Cannes Advertising Awards and a Grand EFFIE, which honors the most significant achievement in marketing communications. In the first six months of the campaign, sales of Dove’s firming products increased 700% in Europe and the United States. In the first year, global sales surpassed $1 billion.

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Dance Studio, Uncategorized

It’s Not About Being Good, It’s About Getting Better

I love this Article as it goes to the root of what we talk about here. The concept of Being Good (perfect) and Getting Better (realizing that you are fine the way you are but there is always growing to do) can be the difference between feeling worthless and not enough, which can lead to self abusive behaviors, and feeling some level of peace with who and what you are. If we as women (people) could grasp this concept and rewire ourselves out of this all or nothing , black and white perception that many of us operate out of we could really being to shift into a healthier and more productive space and then- actually get proactive in a healthy way towards—­getting, and being better.

By Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D.
Motivational psychologist and author

3 Ways to Show Your Kids That It’s Not About Being Good, It’s About Getting Better

Understanding why some children dig in and work hard when faced with something new and challenging to learn, while others get anxious or give up, has been a focus of research in psychology for decades. Most people assume it has a lot to do with intelligence, but that’s surprisingly wrong. No matter how high your I.Q. is, it says nothing about how you will deal with difficulty when it happens. It says nothing about whether you will be persistent and determined, or feel overwhelmed and helpless.

The goals our kids pursue in the classroom (or on the playing field, or anywhere else, for that matter), actually tell us a lot about how they will cope with difficulty. The biggest differences arise between kids whose goals are about being good versus getting better. Where being good is about proving how smart you already are, getting better is about developing skills and abilities — about getting even smarter.

Studies show that kids who see their goals in terms of getting better — who see a less-than-perfect grade on a math quiz as a signal to try harder, rather than as evidence of “not being good at math” — benefit from this outlook in many ways. They find classroom material more fun and interesting, and process it more deeply. They are less prone to anxiety and depression than their be good peers. They are more motivated, persist longer when the going gets tough, and are much more likely to improve over time.

But as parents and teachers, how can we try to encourage our kids to see challenges in the classroom as opportunities to get better, rather than be good? Most children resist being told outright what their goals should be. Tell a student that she should focus more on learning than proving that she is smart (something I have actually tried as a college professor, by the way) and she will rightly point out that she is being graded for her work, so she has to care about how well she performs.

So it’s often much more effective to take a less direct approach. Using these three proven methods, you can provide the subtle signals and cues that encourage your kids to, often unconsciously, hone in on the right motivation.

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Guilty (but forgivable) Pleasures, In Your Words, Uncategorized

Levis’ Cuve ID- Are the Bold’s bold enough and is the Supreme- Supreme

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This was a long time in coming but well worth the wait. My Body My Image’s investigative Reporter Taylor Owen Ramsey (Finally) gets the Skinny on Levi’s Curve ID

Making Jeans that both fit the body and the gender binary.
Levi’s, the eponymous jeans maker, has created a line of women’s jeans called “Curve ID” that are meant to fit different types of women’s bodies based on the level of curve they have in their bottom half. I, a quite happy curvy woman, was intrigued by this idea for two reasons. First, being a woman with a very curvy body makes finding jeans that fit well undeniably difficult and Levi’s new line proposes to fit my body perfectly. Second, I was interested in these jeans as a one of many cultural mediums through which to explore the commodification of women’s bodies. These two reasons for my interest In Levi’s Curve ID campaign are inextricably linked. Let me explain why, starting with the experience of exploring these jeans myself at Levi’s biggest NYC location.

When you go into the big Levi’s store in Times Square, you’re immediately bombarded by the Curve ID campaign. Does the waist gap in the back of your jeans? You’re a Bold Curve. Is the waist too tight? Slight Curve. If the signs get confusing, not to worry because a sales rep will rush up to you offering to measure you for your own Curve ID. The measuring tape will be pulled out right in the middle of the store and based on several measurements of your waist-hip-booty ratio (on display for all), you will be categorized as either Slight, Demi, Bold or Supreme Curve. Throughout the women’s section of the store, jeans are divided by style and then organized within that style section based on the different Curve IDs. The boot-cut section, for example, has a boot-cut style in every Curve ID.
On the surface and at first glance, this seems like a delightfully refreshing campaign to make a better fitting jean for women’s bodies. And for the most part, this line of jeans does just that; it copes with some variation in women’s bodies, even if only in a very minimal way. However, there are several reasons to be critical. Firstly, the reason women’s jeans don’t fit in the first place is because, unlike men’s jeans, they have been designed to fit mostly as close to the body as possible. They are generally low on the hips, hug the thighs and cling to every curve of the butt. They are meant to put women’s bodies on display. It is simple logic that the tighter an item gets, the less likely it can deal with the variation in human bodies. Women’s jeans are not only designed to fit close to the body but they are cut in the shape that society deems the ideal female shape. If you don’t fit it, there’s something wrong; you’re too far from the acceptable norm. Thus women are in a constant battle to find jeans that they can get on, let alone that fit their shape or they risk feeling bodily deviant. As a result, many women’s magazines devote pages to women’s battle with jeans in the dressing room.

Men’s jeans, however, and despite the recent popularity of the hipster skinny jean, are meant to be worn comparatively loose, accommodating any variety of male body shapes. There tends to be a myth that women’s bodies, as opposed to men’s, are endlessly variable and need “accommodation” and “accentuation” of the finer points and de-emphasis of flaws, whereas men’s bodies are neutral. Of course this isn’t true. Men’s bodies must vary just as much as women’s; genetics doesn’t understand gender constructs. The logic of the endless variety of female bodies and the neutrality of the male follows what feminist theorists sometimes call the male gaze. Women are often treated as commodities meant to be displayed to male watchers/gazers/consumers. Thus, every curve must be accentuated and every flaw hidden so as to attract the greatest number of viewers. The characteristics of the male gazer body are generally unimportant, at least compared to the woman’s body being gazed at.

Of course women play a gigantic role in this schema through the constant monitoring of both their own and each other’s bodies and their active engagement in the constant adorning and decoration meant to emphasize the “sale” of their attractiveness to the viewer. Even at the Levi’s stores, all the female employees were assigned an extraordinarily large pin to wear on their shirt identifying their Curve ID for all to see. I asked one female employee if she had to wear it and she unhappily replied “yes.” While the Curve IDs provide women with some limited variation in their jeans options, the pins remind us we must still categorize our asses into a category or risk deviation once more. The stream of consciousness flowing through the store was palpable. “Is her ass like mine?” “Will my ass even fit an ID?” “What if I am measured and I am too big?” “Is Slight or Bold curve better?” That employee’s ass is perkier and she’s a Supreme Curve. I am a slight curve. I wish I were curvier.”

So after all of this, what has Levi’s done here? They’ve made some nicely fitting jeans, albeit jeans that still fit squarely into a body-oppressive paradigm. Moreover, it should be added the jeans only go to a size 33 in the store. The average woman in the U.S. is a size 14-16 and larger than Levi’s biggest size. For a jean meant to cater to curvy women, it seems silly to make jeans in this size range given that really curvy women are probably bigger than a 33. Finally, the models for these ads until recently have been generally white women that don’t appear to be curvy in the way say Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce or even plus-size model Crystal Renn is/was.

Thus, there is some expected racial norming built into the campaign. So what’s a woman like me to do? I’ll admit I bought two pairs. They just fit so damn well.

****side notes
If you’re curious, I was measured and was told exactly what I expected, that I was a Supreme Curve. And I’ll admit, I bought two pairs of jeans. I bought one pair of “skinny” jeans in Supreme Curve. In fact, the blue ones I bought and am wearing in the photo

are the exact size and style the Supreme Curve model is wearing in one of the Levi’s ads below.

I also tried on the Bold Curve in the black straight style and they fit just as well.

I have my shirt lifted in the pictures so you can see that the jeans do what they are supposed to do: they don’t gap and aren’t too low in the back for women with J-Lo bottoms.

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Airbrushing shouldn’t define women’s image

Does this dress make me look fat?

The statement is overused and cliché, but it is popular because it is true. Many girls around the world struggle with body image. Going to lunch with the girls or going on a dinner date with that special guy can’t be just a fun time. They watch what they eat as though their life depends on it. That dessert that looks good on the menu or that hamburger that looks juicy and delicious are forbidden items.

If they do consume the delicious-looking food, they won’t be skinny. They won’t look like those girls on the front of People and Vogue.

They won’t look fake.

Let’s face the facts, ladies. The way women look in magazines and on billboards isn’t real. The photos of these celebrities are edited and airbrushed to make women look skinny and flawless.
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It’s All about Aubrey O’Day: “I’m an Emotional Eater

before

now

Here’s the thing, I was never a Danity Kane fan, nor was I an Aubrey O’day fan, but I had followed her antic on the gossip outlets. When I saw that she as the next d-list star to get a reality series I was like “Well okay” but I am in the process of watching the first episode and what hooked me is the fact that she has admitted to being an emotional eater. Clearly she has put on weight, she can’t be more than 5’4 and so even 5-6 pounds will read so 10-15 is a major shift. The thing that I am finding interesting are the comments that the men she has hired to be on her team make about her body. Johnny Wright who she has brought on to manage her speaks the truth in terms of what her antics have done to her reputation, and does say we have to get the music on track but the conversation immediately goes to getting her body back. Then before her dance rehearsal Gil her choreographer mentions that that she has packed on a few. She replies “Well, I thought that being thicker was good now a days” and he retorts “Maybe in another country.” The hardest moment to watch (and the most offensive)and when her rehearsal doesn’t go as smoothly as it has in the past he tells her that he can even look at her…
later she tells him that “It’s not easy being anorexic all the time- I want to enjoy a meal” Gil tries to say that the control that she felt when she was in Danity Kane- that kept her under 100 pounds was “discipline– She says- “But I wasn’t Happy”

The first thing that vocal coach Doc Holliday says to her is that she has a bit of Bumptibump implying that she is thick—but he likes it.

Interestingly when it’s not brought into question she seems fine with the fuller figure, she get’s dressed for a red carpet event and there are no scenes of her feeling like a fat pig conversely she looks confident and self assured. However when talking business she is well aware that her fuller form is problematic, and is constantly reminded of that fact by those on her team.

There is another observation that I find interesting is that there are no women on her team….hmmmmm

She seems like a genuinely nice girl, she is authentically talented but got caught up in the “celebrity” whirlwind, and even says that the “celebrity” stuff was paying more than the talent stuff. I can’t say that I am hooked on All about Aubrey yet and it’s clear that the “angle” of the show hinges on her weight, but I am interested to see her process of dealing with her body as that relates to the music industry.

By Lee Brown
Aubrey O’Day broke down in tears over her battle with her weight after being told she is ‘looking a little hefty.’

With new show All About Aubrey, the star has allowed reality TV cameras to follow her as she tries to relaunch a music career after being ‘fired’ by Diddy from Danity Kane.

But the star, who called herself ‘an emotional eater’, admits to finding the pressure of looking skinny too tough to handle after her choreographer, Gil Duldulao tells her she is hefty and needs to lose ’10 to 15 pounds’.
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Another article from Media Life Magazine