If you’re a female athlete like me, you know the drill when it comes to wanting people to take you seriously (For everyone else: people tend to not take us seriously). That’s why, when the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the World Cup this summer, I was over the moon about the amount of… Continue Reading →
Does #ThighReading help or hurt body-positivity?
Thanks to the advent of social media, we live in a culture where it’s easier than ever to share parts of our lives with others. That’s great news for the body-positive movement, which has started using the Twitter hashtag #ThighReading as a way to celebrate realistic, unaltered depictions of women’s bodies. This trend began after a Twitter user… Continue Reading →
Fitbits and weight-loss apps: Healthy or obsessive?
In my day-to-day life, I’ve noticed a peculiar bracelet cropping up (the latest in a never-ending steam of weight-loss gadgets). This bracelet has the strange effect of making the wearer walk around a room in circles for minutes on end. “What is this sorcery?” You ask? It is known as a “fitness tracker”, sold by leading… Continue Reading →
Help! My gym is promoting unhealthy body ideals
My gym is doing some renovations. To make sure we’re all aware that the gym will be temporarily under construction, they’ve posted signs throughout the facility that list the planned renovations and depict a smiling woman in a hard hat. They posted one of these signs in the women’s locker room, and on that particular… Continue Reading →
“Fit is the new thin”: Is Instagram just another channel for eating disorders?
Instagram is one of the most popular forms of social media today, not just because of the awesome pictures, but because of the “community” — it’s sort of like YouTube, except you create your own world online in the form of pictures. Instagram gets a good rep partially because it seems like a great form… Continue Reading →
Pitch Perfect: fat-friendly, fat-phobic
I was excited to see the movie Pitch Perfect, based solely on my love of a capella and a single clip from the trailer. The clip shows Australian actress Rebel Wilson introducing herself as “Fat Amy.” “You call yourself Fat Amy?” another character asks, and she replies, “Yeah, so twig bitches like you don’t do… Continue Reading →
Hey, fat girl! Shrink!
Spas are supposed to be relaxing, luxuriating experiences. I have personally never been to one, but from what I hear, you get pampered, massaged, relieve stress, and the like. You know what I didn’t know was a part of the spa experience here in New York, where I live? Being told you’re fat. And that… Continue Reading →
Six Weeks to OMG You’re Totally Insane
As a New York City commuter, I am privy to a whole host of crappy advertisements that plaster the subways and buses of our public transportation system. Inevitably, this includes ads that try to entice me to buy all manner of junk food, watch a ton of terrible television, and buy the latest pop-health book…. Continue Reading →
Body-shaming hits Bollywood
Over the years, there have been some pretty glaring examples of other countries caving to western beauty standards. For example, in 1999, a Harvard study documented the outbreak of eating disorders in Fiji, a nation that favored fuller figures until the arrival of television (and U.S. programs like Melrose Place and Xena: Warrior Princess) in… Continue Reading →