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In Breaking News: Kim Kardashian’s Butt is real Yawn…


Ok so Kimmie K has pulled a Tyra and x-rayed her butt to prove that she doesn’t have implants. Well ok so we can all sleep better at night knowing that Bin Laden is dead and Kim’s butt is real.

Here is where I stand:
I have to say that Kim and Khloe have helped to create a new space for curvy women to be looked at and considered sexy (in marketing- ’cause we know that in the real world the badunkadunk is truly an asset) what troubles me about Kim is the amount of work on her face that she has had done at such a young age. I can see a nose job ok you don’t like your nose, but using fillers when there is nothing to fill yet (smile lines not lips) or botox before you wrinkle I think that it speaks to a level of obsession. Even though she is a highly accomplished business woman, somewhere she thinks that all she is – is her body (in my opinion – for The Good Wife fans!)
Let’s re-track:
Remember when her sex tape came out and she had to rebuild her image, but Momanger Kris booked her to do Playboy naked…Then the whole time she whined about not wanting to be seen “that way” as she stripped down hung copious strings of pearls around her neck and bit them between her teeth. She kept saying that she was more than her body and wanted to be known for more than that yet she never opted for the cover of Business Woman Today, she was always ass out on somebody’s cover. Once again she chanted her mantra of “I don’t want to be just a body” then posed nude,for the cover of W Magazine, then cried saying “Oh My God I can’t believe this happened again” What is she taking her clothes off while having a black out? It happened again because you did it again, you can’t play victim when you signed a contract to collect check.

I write this to say that where I do think that Kim and her mother Kris are incredible business women, they might have dug their souls a hole. Making your living so intensely from ones looks is not in and of itself is not a bad thing, but when you become a slave to it – that is. When you are afraid to age before you actually are, when you start preventative measures that leave you looking like your own wax figure in Madame Tussaud’s museum, when everything hinges on the physical, so much so that your scruples and morals are clouded, blurred or compromised, When every and any aspect of your life is show and tell, and on sale. When you have to be on in any and all public moments it can take a toll. Everyone fades, all great beauties have their heyday it’s a natural cycle. The ones who can go quietly into the “night” fair much better (physically and psychologically) than those who go kicking and injecting- I mean screaming. Kim I’m glad you booty is authentic, my question is how deep does that authenticity go- and I’m not talking about anything that an x-ray or MRI can catch… You are enough just the way you are.

As an Example- I give you
71 year old actress and still great beauty she was one of the ’70 it girls, fashion and beauty icon- she was a Kim..

Ali Mcgraw!! checkout her Oprah Show appearance, where she talks about self obsession…

My body is not meant to be HIDDEN. Deal with it.~Fluvia Lacerda


You may not know her but Fluvia Lacerda was named Best Plus Commercial Print Model of the Year by Full Figure Fashion Week.

“The fact that I won this award is a major deal and I’m very passionate about my work, mostly because I feel that I represent the body image of many women,” said Lacerda. “I’m not only a healthy woman, but one who wears a size 18 and am confident about it.” ~The Frisky

The Zaftig model with Measurements of: 43-35-48” / 109-89-122 cm. has got it going on and not beacuse she is beautiful but because she reps hard for her set. Here is an excerpt from her blog where she sets the record straight about “skinny jeans”. One of the things that comes across is the fact that she is not only comfortable but confident about in and about her body, and can articulate it.

Fluvia~in her own words…
I’m your typical fiery Leo and as one I suppose a rant would be the ultimate motivator to drag me back to my blog. So bare with me on this rant.

Lucky Magazine big #fail this month. On page 44 the headline for “DEWDROP” also known as “most of us, women with curves” states: ” Your curvy butt and thighs can make skinny jeans a drag. Instead, choose hip-skimming dresses and flashy necklaces that draw the eyes up”.

Now, I personally have an issue with this whole “slimming” claims, primarily because I find it offensively FALSE, insulting to my intelligence and also… well, lets get to the rest of the whys:

1– I’m a BIG chick, with big curves and that’s that. If you intend to feature a fashion story to curvy plus size women do it right, understand the target you’re aiming to, don’t just slap some half assed quality story for the sake of just doing it. We’re no longer willing or wanting to wear baggy clothes (no, really!), which means we don’t have issues with been FAT like past generations did (you do know that plus size consumers are fat right? No, you’re not selling to sizes 8, 10, sorry to burst your bubble…). Curvy plus sized women today KNOW that they can look elegant, cute or sexy, we have finally learned to be happy with ourselves, for real! We actually like flaunting our curves, this hiding business is OLD, boring and annoying.

2–Clothes won’t magically make me look as if I’m 4 sizes smaller, that’s just a fact. I don’t know how many times I have said that out loud. In front of cameras. To designers. At events. At photo shoots. Yes, I won’t shut up about it, get it together people, seriously!! Sadly I see that some still perceive women to be 1– too dumb to buy these tag lines or 2– so blindly obsessed with looking thin that any of those key words will make them run to the shop and buy those clothes? Hmm, yeah, might be the combo of both… not me though, thanks.

You KNOW you want to read the rest so get the rest after the jump!

I think she just may be the Body Hero of the week

Vogue Editors Chatting? What’s THAT Convo about?

Vogue Editors Anna Wintour (American) and Franca Sozzani (Italia) What do you think that conversation is about?

Anna Wintour “That was a nice stunt you pulled, putting chubsters on your cover. Were you trying to encourage women to eat! You’re Pazza! but I hope you’re happy, you single handedly unraveled the fashion industry, if models get fleshy, it’s the end of fashion as known to modern man”

The Price of Louboutins- outrageous
The Price of the look on Franca Sozzani’s face- PRICELESS

Read Franca Sozzani’s Blog post to see what they are really talking about

Meet Makeda …In Her Words

My Name is Makeda N’wabunkozi Marguerose Roney;

My Name is Makeda N’wabunkozi Marguerose Roney;
I am 16 years old and live in Harlem, New York. I began my dance training when I was 6 years at Dance Theatre Of Harlem. At 14 years old, I made the decision to go to boarding school for dance and attended the Walnut Hill School in 2009 . I enjoyed the school, but it wasn’t for me. So this year I began home schooling. Presently, I am a homeschool student and am on full Fellowship at The Ailey School.

Basically I am a pretty normal teen-ager, I love eating food, going on facebook , taking bikram yoga and having fun at the beach. I also have issues with my body, with injuries as well as image. For the past 2 years I have been getting constant injuries that has been pulling me back in my dance career. I had stress fractures in both of my second metatarsals (the second toe), groin strains, calf strains and I am just now slowly overcoming a back strain after not dancing for 2 months. I am a dancer so no matter how much I try to avoid it, body image will always be one of my main concerns because it has to look a certain way, and do certain things but I am also a teenager so there is pressure there are well. As a female dancer body image is always a concern. As I got older (and started filling out more) my body started to become an obsession. It was always the main thing on my mind and I couldn’t enjoy my life. Always watching what I ate and working out like a mad woman. I started to drive myself crazy! I am just now starting to learn how to respect my body and love my body the way that it is. Its something I have to work on in my mind everyday, but practice makes perfect and I believe that everybody should work on that too. We should all love our bodies (Its the only one you’ve got!) and stop abusing our bodies because we are not pleased with our image.

I want to free the people’s perception of how we see the world and the way we move in it. Some of the more honest and subtle images in the world are the most striking and convincing. I want to use dance as a visual tool that provokes, sustains informs the future of our world.
MR

Meet My Body My Image’s Summer Intern Makeda Roney!!


Makeda N’wabonkozi Margurose Roney
Last summer I was sweating it out in Bikram (yoga Harlem Holla) and every day that I was there, so was this little Chocolate nugget. I could tell by her comportment that she was dancer, there was a discipline in her practice that I recognized, it was that certain thing that dancers acquire from years in the dance studio and preparing for recitals, learning how dance in lines and patterns. It is an ability to mentally and physically focused, as well as listen and move at the same time. She had the markings. I watched her for a long time before I approached her. I asked her if she would like to participate in a interview about Bikram yoga. I told her that I was interested in her perspective because she was so young, dedicated (she practiced at least 5 times a week) and disciplined. She said yes.

Later she auditioned for the Ailey School’s Junior Division and was awarded a Fellowship, it was then that she became my student. When she took her first Pointe classes with me I was not surprised that her work ethic and focus in the dance studio, as it echoed that of her yoga practice. Unfortunately before Spring term’s end Makeda suffered an injury, she was unable to complete the semester and could not perform. She was unsure if she would be recovered enough to participate in the Ailey School Summer intensive (which is intense) and that is when I thought to ask her to work with me on the blog.

I had come to know her as a deeply thoughtful, and inquisitive young woman with an opinion and a point of view. I applauded the support she lent her fellow dancers when in crisis, and was awed at her self confidence and possession in taking a leadership role amongst her peers when she was essentially the “New Girl”. The duality of our relationship allowed me to have interesting, and sophisticated conversations with her about art, dance, technique, teaching skills, friendship, and of course the body. She was perfect for the position. Thankfully, she is healthy enough to dance this summer but, as driven as she is, she as taken on the internship as well. I am so excited to be working with her!

Makeda with be creating her own posts on MBMI so when you see MR and the foot of a post it was her idea her voice and perspective. She will also be contributing a weekly column to In Your Words I can ‘t wait to hear what she has to say!!

There is an interesting duality to our relationship as I met her in a social setting and only after became her teacher.

Shedding: Is your stress induced weight loss trying to tell you something?

Contributing writer Jessica Danser- Shwartz shares her personal story of how when life gets to stressful the weight start to come off. Sounds like a problem you wish you could have? Wait just one second, when you can’t eat because of worry, stress, grief, or heartbreak those first few pounds might be seem like an inconspicuous benefit, but when you are melancholy, lethargic, and not feeling well because your body is not feed well the way you look is not so important. When the weight loss becomes too significant and you start to look sickly being thin it can make you more worried. Jessica asks the questions why is this happening? and what can she do?

I emerge from the dressing room holding a cute little vintage strapless gown, dejected. “Does it fit?” the salesgirl asks pleasantly. “Too big,” I reply. “Story of my life lately.” “Well,” she jokes, “look on the bright side, you could have the opposite problem!”

There is a part of me which glows at this comment, a part of me which loves being the littlest, the leanest, the thinnest I have ever been. I think this body image comes from my background in ballet– I don’t read fashion mags or follow celebrities, and most of the women I most admire and find beautiful are big-boned, thick, muscular women of color. Yet there still is something validating about my seemingly endless weight loss, like I’ve uncovered a secret that other women would kill for, started to do effortlessly what others ceaselessly struggle to achieve.


Here’s the catch: what is making me lose weight is not some fabulous regimen of diet and exercise or some strange genetic mutation– I’ve lost over 10 lbs (a lot for a person as small as I was to begin with) in the past 4 or 5 months due to stress. I am the opposite of a stress eater, numbing my pain with Cheetos and chocolate. Negative emotions such as anxiety, sadness, frustration, and anger kill my appetite, and at times seem to also speed up my metabolism so that whatever I AM eating goes straight through me. This then becomes a vicious cycle wherein my low blood sugar and lack of energy due to not getting enough nutrition to get through the day make me irritable, irrational, and teary. But when I sit down in front of a plate of food my stomach ties up in knots so I can’t get down more than a few mouthfuls.

Even as I secretly preen a little when people comment on my weight, hearing a friend who is giving me a Pilates lesson comment that I am so thin she feels guilty giving me an exercise class is disturbing. I want to break this cycle, get back up to a size 2, stop being able to see the bones in my sternum and having knees so bony they are constantly covered in bruises. I want to stop looking like I’m a kid wearing my mom’s clothes. I want to have a butt again. But how do I make myself eat when I feel too stressed to, make myself cook when I feel too tired to, make myself have real meals instead of munching on fruit and nuts all day when I don’t feel hungry???

My friend Theresa Ruth Howard, who writes the blog My Body My Image about female/dancer body image, says this: “The body is an organism that reacts and response to internal and external situations. Your body is direct reflection of your life circumstances, and right now it is stressful and shedding in a way. I don’t know that you can ‘do’ much about that. You are eating as well and as healthily as you can, when you can but it seems like you might just have to wait for this period to pass. I make the association to your weight loss as a letting go – you in your life might need to let go and surrender. Your body will be restored when your life comes back into balance again. Worrying about it will certainly not help.”

I don’t have a great answer as to what to do about this problem, and as I write this I am hoping that the stresses I have been experiencing will start to die down so I can start to resume a more normal life, eating regimen, and weight. But one thought has occurred to me. As I accept my 103 lb body and its reduced energy level, I am going to try to look at eating as an activity to nurture and care for myself, and make it a priority to take time several times a day to stop what I am doing and feed myself. Rather than trying to force myself to overeat to gain back the pounds I’ve shed, I am going to look at eating the same way I might look at attending a yoga class or getting a massage, a gift to myself and a reminder that I, and my well-being, matter and deserve my attention and care.

I’m going to ignore the subversive voices in my head telling me that my stress-related thinness is a good thing, ignore the opposing voices telling me I no longer look good with fewer curves, and remind myself that my body is a vessel and an instrument– for my art, for my health, and for my soul. And I’m going to try to get back to the JOY of eating, not just the physical necessity, and remind myself that enjoying food, even when there are other things to focus on which seem more pressing, is my right as a human being.

Theresa’s suggestion I might be in the process of shedding things is admittedly a bit terrifying to me– as a person with strong attachments and a bit of a controlling streak, letting go is not my favorite activity. But perhaps what I am beginning to let go of here is the part of me which allows outside circumstances to get me so upset that I neglect my own health and happiness. It seems to me that this is a common occurrence in women– this tendency to focus so much on something external, whether the needs of others or the standards of society, that we cease to listen to the inner voices which alone can guide us to our best selves. It is this powerful voice within me I plan to listen for at my next meal.

Is 6 years old too young to be worried about getting FAT?-Video

ABC News and Good Morning America filed a report about a little girl from Houston who is concerned that her tummy is too fat, and wants to lose weight, she has also been teased by schoolmates about her tummy. Clearly this causes concern with her parents,especially since as per her pediatrician is well with in the normal weight and height for her age. Taylor is not alone. More and more little girls are overly aware of their weight. Aware is one thing worried is another thing.

And just where do you think that they are getting these ideas? hummmm now let me think for a sec….Where o where could it be?

Watch your Words
Mother’s watch your tongues, teacher’s watch your words, Aunties and sisters take a moment to think about what you say when children are in earshot. When we talk about our bodies and what we don’t like about them, when we talk about gain weight, losing it, or dieting children hear that. Daddies and uncles talking about who is “hot” or talking about women’s body parts in front of daughters and sons resonate, and are remembered. When we make an off handed comment about other women being, fat, skinny, or ugly children are observing and learning. We as the adults inform them, children hold no judgements of their own, it’s not until they hear the we talk or react to things that they then learn the way they are supposed to think of things and how they are supposed to feel. That’s why it is so important for us as adults to get ourselves together, to get our heads together, because our children must be lead. You know the biblical phrase “The sins of the Father shall be visited upon the son” well our issues get passed on to our children, either they adopt them or they repudiate becoming the mirror opposite.

Another interesting thing that we have to look at, and deal with is the lack of balance we experience in this country surrounding weight and food. On one had we have the issue childhood obesity which our First Lady’s Let’s Move is working to address, and on the other we have young girls worried about being, or getting fat. Both ends of the spectrum stem from an unhealthy relationship to food, and body image. When children as young as 3 are being effected it should tell us adults that we have to pull it together.

Would you like to contribute to My Body My Image?

Every one has a body story, if you would like to share yours just email your submission to theresaruthhoward@mybodymyimage.com and join the discussion!

I want to hear your body issues and how you deal with them
What bugs you about how the media portrays the female image?
What do you think about the fashion industry and the female form?
Have you discovered a way to accept appreciate, and respect your body? well share your tool with others!

It’s all In Your Words!

Heidi Montag: Still an example of Exactly what NOT to DO!!!

hosted by Fitperez:
Former Hills Reality Star Heidi Montag reveals:

“I’ve been working out from, like, 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. for two months now. I’ve been working out really hard because I had this pool party and I was like, I have to be in shape. And I was actually a lot overweight. It was the most I’ve ever been because I’ve kind of been in hiding eating pie with my husband and puppies, so I needed to get back in shape.”

Wait, is that even possible?

Montag says she worked out 14 hours a day in order to get in shape for a pool party. Apparently she had put on a considerable amount of weight she had gotten to 130 pounds and is now 103.

First of all we know that she is not the sharpest tool in the shed and clearly has body image issues considering that she had 10 plastic surgery procedures all at once just a few years ago which rendered her almost unrecognizable.

I mean if her husband Spencer was not glued to her side we would have had no idea it was her! She later admitted that she regretted the surgery. She dropped of the scene for a while and then emerged once on the Tyra Show where she was noticeably fuller. We all know that Heidi one half of Speidi is all about shock so this could be about getting press, but either way it’s ridiculous, unhealthy, and unsustainable.
This is exactly what not to do ladies and gents take note!!!

Perhaps she should have a sit down with Zooey Deschanel!!! or better yet she could find something better to so with her time, something that might actually help others or better yet help herself…Just sayin!

Zooey Deschanel ‘doesn’t work out to be skinny’


I love “inde” girl Zooey Deschanel, not only does she have the cutest sense of style but her dry demeanor and dead pan countenance gets me every time. She is beautiful but not typical, by Hollywood’s casting she is the “Other” girl not the blonde beautiful girl, or the bombshell rather the dark haired sidekick with the sense of humor. I came to really like her when she did 500 days of Summer, but what really makes me a fan is what she says about being “thin”. In an interview with Self Magazine she was asked about her concept of working out to be- or stay skinny here’s what she said:

“That’s so boring, and it seems like a depressing goal for a modern woman,” Deschanel said. “I work out to be healthy and because I like it.”

That’s the idea, modern women are so much more than our bodies!!!. If you workout and take care of yourself because it makes you feel good then you might actually feel better about yourself regardless of what you look like in that moment. I think that sometimes we are so concerned about the “pay off” or the “end game” that we don’t experience, let alone enjoy the process, and the t’ruth is – everything is about the process. Life is about the process. When we have a goal, be it a body goal, or a career goal when we reach it, it’s done! (then we have to set another one) but the moment of arriving at the goal is just that a moment. Think about it you spend 4 years in high school and the graduation is all of and hour and a half, you flip that tassel and it’s done! If you spent the 4 years thinking about that moment when it comes and passes it tends to be anticlimactic. Do the things that you love and love the things that you do!
Check out 3 Pearls!