Category Archives: Uncategorized

Benoit Swan Pouffer Artistic Director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Tells ALL (Video)


I have been wanting to have an in depth conversation with Swan (as he is affectionately known)for a while now. Since his taking over of the company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has quickly risen to the be “The company to dance for”. Part of the reason has been the innovative and eclectic choreographers Pouffer has brought in to set work as well as his diverse, highly trained and versatile dancers. I was eager to pick his brain about what he looks for in a dancer and how he feels about the body. I also wanted to ask him what all of you young dancers want to know “What does it take to dance for Cedar Lake, What does he look for!”

I was so highly impressed with his sensitivity and thoughtfulness. Often when people become directors they, in the midst of trying to run the company forget what it was like to be on the marley. When Swan speaks of his dancers (or dancers in general) he still sounds like a dancer, he is sensitive and empathetic to how vulnerable dance makes you, he still understands how stressful the striving for perfection and the need to be what someone else wants you to be. He encourages, celebrates the individual.I encourage all young dancers to watch these clips and listen carefully he gives great advice and tips whether you want to dance with CLCB to not.


for more information on Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and upcoming performances check out cedarlakedance.com

What Does It Mean to Be ‘Beautiful?’

Hosted by Huffington Post
Vivian Diller, Ph.D.

Psychologist, author of “Face It,” speaker on issues about beauty and aging.

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.

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Re-connecting with your Authentic Self to Re-define your Perception of Beauty

Our Mental Health Specialist Courtnay Veazey inaugurates the New Year with advice on how to find and reconnect with our authentic selves in a way to build our own standard of beauty independent from the standard set my advertisers and the beauty industry

A magazine that I have recently fallen in love with is Vogue. The past few issues have featured actresses that I admire (Emma Watson, Rooney Mara, Meryl Streep), well-written articles about culture, fashion, and the arts, and beautiful photography. While Vogue is a joy to read, it is can also a detriment to my body image if I allow it to be. The beautiful photography that I love are mainly advertisements for fashion houses featuring women with flawless skin, pearly white teeth, and size zero. I notice the skin, teeth, and pant sizes because those are the things that trip my “I feel ugly and unworthy” switch.

My skin is not flawless thanks to acne breakouts, a scar from my childhood bought with chicken pox, and its tendency to be oily. While my teeth are straight thanks to braces, they are surely not the color of pearls thanks to my coffee addiction, my size zero days disappeared after I stopped dancing and gained twenty pounds in college. Most of the time I am okay with these things because they are part of my humanity. However, my comfort with them and myself begins to deteriorate when advertisers (both in print and visual media) remind me that because these “flaws” I do not meet their ideal standards of beauty.

Just to make a point. I have a recent issue of The Oprah Magazine sitting beside me as I type. Here are a few messages from advertisers:

“If you have dry skin, meet a life-changer.”
“Life puts the wrinkles in. Now nature helps take them out.”
“Thicker, fuller hair is yours.”
“Instantly transforms dull, dry skin into beautifully radiant skin.”
“Our new vision of skin perfection.”

According to these messages, the only thing wrong with my life is dry skin, and if I hydrate, everything will be perfect. Dry skin ruins your life and must be instantly transformed. Wrinkles must be removed. Thin hair is a no-go. The only standard for beautiful skin is perfection. A lot of people accept these messages as truth and thus are unable to see and accept their bodies as beautiful because they fail to meet the standard. This is when Vogue can be a detriment to my body image, if I start to believe that to be beautiful is to be perfect.

Why does perfection equal beauty? As I listen to clients’ stories in the therapy room, I find that their reality, their grime, their brokenness is what makes them beautiful because it is all those things that make them who they are. Also, their desire to accept all aspects of themselves makes them beautiful. I have never looked at a client and thought to myself, “You know, if your skin were more radiant, then I would like you more and feel emotionally closer to you.” If I wouldn’t say that to a client – or a friend or family member (because I do not hold a standard of perfection for them to be “beautiful” “valuable” or “loveable”) then why would I say that to myself? Essentially, when we allow advertisements to dictate standards for our body image and thus self-esteem, we are telling ourselves, “You know, I would like myself better if I had clearer skin or whiter teeth or a smaller butt or….” How sad. Is it really true? Why do we so often direct those sorts of statements to ourselves? Think about it, if you wouldn’t say it to a friend, for whom you care, appreciate, and value then don’t say it to yourself. (Easier said than done, I know. I struggle, too.)

We need a new truth to tell ourselves. Let’s call it the truth of Authenticity. Authenticity is living fully in your true being, and embracing yourself as you are, inside and out. There is something powerful about knowing, and owning whom you are (mentally, emotionally, and philosophically) and accepting and honoring it. Our body image and self-esteem is intertwined. Think about it. When we don’t feel good about our bodies, we tend to not feel good about who we are as human beings. The opposite is also true. If we feel good about whom we are, then we tend to feel good about our bodies. When I remember that I am more than my  body’s physical appearance, and reflect upon who I am as a total person – artist, photographer, counselor, wife, lover, friend, daughter, etc. – and what I have achieved, I feel intelligent, valuable, worthy, loved, accomplished, sexy, strong, confident, and beautiful. These are elements of my authentic self. I am not my skin. I find that the more I connect to and express my authentic self, the better grasp I have on my personal standards (for my body) and lean less in default to those set by advertisers. I love my body. To create a personal standard, you must be in tune with and accepting of your authentic self, because knowing who you really are, and the value in it self empowers you to maintain an independent opinion regarding what makes you (or anyone else) beautiful.

Re-connect with your authentic self if you haven’t already. I say re-connect because I believe we are born with this authentic self that exudes honesty, confidence, and energy. Think about how honest children are. They always share what’s on their mind. They don’t censure. Over the course of our development we experience situations that cause us to believe that honestly expressing ourselves is not the “right” choice. Children are often scolded for speaking their authentic thoughts because though true to them they might be hurtful to someone else, thus they are taught not to say such things, to be nice, to have “tact” so they/we begin to hide that honesty and realness. The Question is: How do we re-connect? Re-claiming and re-connecting with this honesty is a constantly occurring, lifelong process that is as vital to our lives as the breaths we take. Dr. Poonam Sharma, a licensed psychologist in San Antonio, TX, suggests asking yourself the following questions to help you re-discover your authentic self:

-Who am I when no one else is around? What am I thinking? What am I doing?
-Who am I when others are present? What do I present to or hide from others when I interact with them?
-What is most important to me? (Not to my family, my friends, my significant other, but to me.)
-How does my behavior reflect my values?
-How do I typically express my true feelings? Do I keep them to myself? Do I journal? Do I become angry? Do I verbally share them?
-When do I feel most comfortable showing up as myself? Where I am? What I am doing? Who is surrounding me?
-When do I have a tendency to run and hide? Why? (Personally, I hide my true feelings when I assume that my response will disappoint someone. I am such a people pleaser because I feel good about myself when others think of me in a positive way. I hate disappointing people.)
-What price do I pay when I’m not real?
-When do I feel energized?
-If I could be myself all the time, what would my life look like?

Take time reflecting upon and answering these questions because intimately knowing your authentic self is the only thing that will empower you to view the surreptitiously persuasive messages sent by advertisers as what they are – forms of persuasion that involve a ridiculous amount of computer re-touching. You define you. No one else – especially advertisers – deserves to have that privilege.
Excerpt from Jean Kilbourne’s Killing us Softly

The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Season Roundtable Series 2011: The Actresses


This was so inspiring, the intellectual and artistic discussion is fascinating and inspiring. Where this may not directly seem like a part of the body image topic, I would say that the MIND is a part of the issue and I think that when you hear what these women have to say about their process, the characters they play, and their perspective of them you will find that it is all part and parcel. There are a few moments that stood out for me:

Charlize talks about her intention is to get people to empathize not sympathize with her character in Young Adult and Monsters, which sparks an interesting discussion about human nature and how we as humans have a need to not believe that the worst (in terms of behavior the example of Hitler is used) does not–could not possibly not within us… (17:00)

Viola talks about not liking to watch herself on camera (45:00), and Michelle talks about trying to look at the monitor and running away and trying to figure out why teh male actors found it east to use the monitor as a tool and she couldn’t and dropped the gem of a revelation that it is said the camera is thought to be “the male gaze” and therefore women feel the responsibility to look a certain way (51:33)

It is about an hour long but all through it there are wonderful statements about process and getting inside characters. I have always what I call an acting approach to dance so I totally related, I thought some of you might as well! enjoy!

Award contenders Glenn Close, Charlize Theron, Carey Mulligan, Michelle Williams, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer sit down for a candid conversation with THR’s executive editor, features Stephen Galloway and news director Matt Belloni.

Like The Beautiful and Bald Barbie Page on Facebook!

My Body My Image Follower Robert Moore tipped me off to this. I think this is a great idea, everyone has a right to see beauty in themselves, especially little girls who might be suffering from conditions that set them a part from their peers. Help to get this doll made!!

Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let’s see if we can get it made

Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let's see if we can get it made

We would like to see a Beautiful and Bald Barbie made to help young girls who suffer from hair loss due to cancer treatments, Alopecia or Trichotillomania . Also, for young girls who are having trouble coping with their mother’s hair loss from chemo. Many children have some difficulty accepting their mother, sister, aunt, grandparent or friend going from a long haired to a bald. Accessories such as scarves and hats could be included. This would be a great coping mechanism for young girls dealing with hair loss themselves or a loved one. We would love to see a portion of proceeds go to childhood cancer research and treatment. Let’s get Mattell’s attention! emails can be directed to baldbarbie@gmail.com
Click to Like Fan Page

Light & Fit 2011 Online Video Spot ‘Cheers’- Erika Hand sounds off- “The women in this ad seem psychotic”

My Good Friend Erika Hand found this video yesterday and it rubbed her the wrong way, I asked her to share her thought about it. Now you might already be familiar with Erika, she is the woman who loaned us her gorgeous legs and feet for the video demo on how to correct hyper-extended legs She is the one I shared my early feeling about the piece I was working on at the time Not Fat Not Thin:The Murky Middle Ground of the Body Image and her voice became a part of the essay. She is a dancer who lives in the murky middle ground and though very beautiful and long she has some of the same body images as the rest of us. Two of the reasons I love her (and love talking with her) is because she is a critical thinker with a wicked sense of humor. My type of gal!!! here is what she found and her thoughts on it!


I can’t tell whether I am going to laugh or cry. The women in this ad seem psychotic.

First of all who sits around a table in a well lit country club atmosphere after shopping toasting over their yogurt? Anybody?

I think my jaw dropped when I heard “Here’s to my pants not leaving marks on my waist at the end of the day!” Anyone who has worn skinny jeans knows how good it can feel to peel those suckers off at the end of a long day. And now, thanks to Dannon Yogurt, I have one more reason to beat myself up which I never even thought of, the otherwise “invisible” marks that are imprinted on my body from my clothes.  I don’t know about you, but my clothes leave marks. Even my bras. What the hell am I going to do about that? Sometimes when I wear long johns under my pants the inseam will leave a small indentation that usually goes away naturally. So what am I to think now- my calf is too fat?

The next time I take off my underwear and see a imprint in my skin, at least now I know I can turn to Dannon yogurt for solace.

On top of that, the creepy Stepford Wives meets Twighlight vampire vibe is totally weird. It seems more like a mockumentary than a real ad the way they are acting like what they are saying and doing actually makes sense.

Out of curiosity I looked at the Nutritional Information for this lovely product. Included in the 14 ingredients- aspartame.  80 potentially cancer causing calories. Hey ladies, let’s get rid of our extra weight and potentially get cancer instead!

Erika Hand

Response to Jean Kilbourne: women in advertising By John Wright

Jean Kilbourne was last Weeks Body hero for her work on the subject of the image of women in advertising. While researching her I stumbled upon this Article by John Wright debunking some of her theories. John Wright is a radio broadcaster, filmmaker and polemical writer. His daily radio show can be heard locally on 1380am and on the internet. He works with Hemet Productions and Guardian Pictures producing films. This website brings together some audio, video and various articles written since 2003 relating to libertarianism, politics, culture, ethics, religion, music, general philosophy, science, technology and movies. I found it very interesting and so I thought I would bring it to you to get your opinion.

 

 

 

 

Hosted by John-Wright.net

This is my response to a lecture by Jean Kilbourne, made into a video documentary called ‘Killing Us Softly 3′ on the subject of women in advertising. She’s since produced another called ‘Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture’ and is a regular speaker at universities on these issues. The lecture she gave focuses on […]

This is my response to a lecture by Jean Kilbourne, made into a video documentary called ‘Killing Us Softly 3′ on the subject of women in advertising. She’s since produced another called ‘Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture’ and is a regular speaker at universities on these issues.

The lecture she gave focuses on advertising and the role of women. Everything she says is delivered warmly and with wit, and she generally comes across as very likable. However I found her message objectionable on many levels. Here are some of the main quotes from the lecture and my responses.

KILBOURNE: “The first thing the advertisers do is surround us with the image of ideal female beauty, so we all learn how important it is for a woman to be beautiful, and exactly what it takes.”

RESPONSE: How does Kilbourne know these are ideal women? Doesn’t she think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Or, as I suspect, does she know that the beauty of these women is in the eyes of a vast majority of beholders, and used by advertisers for that reason? After all, she describes them as possessing “ideal female beauty”. What advertisers are doing, of course, is using models they feel will be attractive to most viewers; that’s all.

In other words, the answer of which came first, the “ideal female beauty” in our minds or the advertising depicting it, is of course that we all have an innate idea of what attracts us to females in the first place, and advertisers merely exploit it. Researchers know precisely what this idea consists of in terms of hip to waist ratio, symmetry, skin complexion, walk, etc.. It turns out that these things are mostly objective rather than subjective standards of beauty, according to research, and the closer one’s partner approaches perfection, the more attractive we will usually find them.

It therefore is not the fault of advertisers that we have this idea, and I find it difficult to fault them for making use of it. (If my money were at risk promoting a product the sales of which I hope will make me a living, I wouldn’t want them using models depicting unattractive people, and I don’t think you would either. I however do accept that they don’t need to be perfect: it seems to me that advertisers would benefit from using more real women commercially.)

KILBOURNE: “Women’s bodies are still turned into objects, into things… [images show a perfume bottle shaped like a female torso].”

RESPONSE: Because we have this innate idea of what is beautiful about women, we create things which celebrate it. They are nothing more than a depiction of something beautiful, in the way other ads will use beautiful landscapes and others beautiful homes.

KILBOURNE: “Turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step towards justifying violence towards that person.”

RESPONSE: What she’s saying is that women being objectified in general can lead to violence toward them. I’m sure that’s true. But that doesn’t make a torso-shaped perfume bottle wrong, even slightly, nor any of the other products or art pieces which celebrate the female form.

KILBOURNE: “Most often the focus is on breasts….”

RESPONSE: Because men find breasts attractive, and many men find a fuller bust attractive. If this were not the case, advertising would not have an interest in portraying it. That is why, before advertising ever began to feature the bust, art did the same thing.

KILBOURNE: “Then we’re told to wear uplifting bras … imagine if men were supposed to play this game … Wonder Jock, the strap for the bulge you’ve always wanted!”

RESPONSE: Two things to say here. First, “supposed” is the wrong word; women who wear uplifting bras want to be attractive by possessing what is widely considered beautiful (such as a fuller bust). Nobody is “supposed” to do anything; advertising exists to sell products which women are free to ignore. Second, men are, in fact, the target of the exact kinds of ads she implies they’re not! ‘Male enhancement’ pills claim to create the “bulge you’ve always wanted”. Deodorants, cologne, cars, watches and other status symbols are marketed to men for the improvement of their general attractiveness to partners. How is Kilbourne missing this crucial point? And it’s a point that extends to the rest of what she’s saying. Her paranoia about advertising to females is grossly ignorant of the myriad advertising which draws upon precisely the same opposite points to males, a fact which destroys her basic premise.

KILBOURNE: “We all learn very early on that our breasts are never okay the way they are.”

RESPONSE: Well then you all made the very grave mistake of assuming that advertising was trying to teach you. Advertising is a proposal, an argument: ‘You lack this; we can provide it.’ A sensible person will either ignore the proposal completely or consider it, reject its premise, accept its premise but not its conclusion, or find the product it’s selling and consider whether it would fulfill a need. Fundamentally, advertising exists to sell products and services, and what “we all” need to “learn” is to understand its role rather than imagine that everything it says is true. Frankly, if a woman thinks a suggestion that her breasts are not perfect the way they are is true because a company wrote it in a print ad, she has bigger problems with learning than with advertising.

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Barbie Mom At it Again- Gives 7yr Old Daughter Voucher For Liposuction

This whack job again? She already gave her a breast augmentation voucher for her 7th birthday… I wasn’t even going to post this but… All I’m saying is that this has to be for publicity because it’s just crazy. You could just teach her to eat properly and exercise, but no, let’s just prepare for the worst, you will have to have fat sucked out of you. Where the hell is Child Protective Services when crap like this makes news. Like I say you need a license to drive you should need a license to breed! if you can stomach it read this:

hosted by beautyhigh.com

I don’t know about you, but when I was 7 years-old all I wanted was a “My Size Barbie” for Christmas, but I guess Poppy Burge already has a real size Barbie in her mom, Sarah Burge, so she asked for the next best thing – liposuction. Surprisingly enough, she got it.

Her mother, a boasted plastic surgery addict, gave her daughter a voucher for liposuction as a gift after she had already given her a boob job voucher for her seventh birthday.

Burge has already been under fire for her extreme tactics, but she finds “nothing wrong” with what she is doing.

“She asks for surgery all the time. She wants to look good and lipo is one of those procedures that will always come in handy,” she said. Wait, she is SEVEN isn’t she?

“I see these vouchers as investing in her future – like saving money for her education.”

Like saving for her EDUCATION? If she is not playing it up for the press then someone should come and snatch that baby from her so fast it will make her look like she had a facelift! Stop the madness, this is not funny.