my body campaign T-shirt”]

UHS i [heart

Wear UHS’s I <3 my body T-shirt on the 10th of every month.

Dates for your calendar:

Dec 10 – Thurs

Jan 10 – Sun

Feb 10 – Wed

Mar 10 – Wed

Apr 10 – Sat

Have a good Winter semester!

from:  http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/05/can-a-female-av.html

Can A Female Avatar Be Too Thin?

“Thinspo” and “Pro-Ana” are terms associated with a deeply disturbing Internet-based subculture that promotes anorexia as a lifestyle.  (For “thin positive” and “pro-anorexic”, respectively.) The mortal danger involved cannot be understated, for as Janelle Brown noted in a landmark Salon article on the phenomenon, the disorder kills 10 percent of its victims (almost all girls and young women), and condemns a third of them to suffer lifelong ailments.  Which is why a new screenshot-sharing group called “Thinspo!”, which is restricted to images of thin avatars, has caused so much strife among Second Life’s fashionista community.

“I heard about it early last week,” reports Tenshi Vielle of Shopping Cart Disco, “because a good friend of mine is recovering from a bought of eating disorder and the invitation [to join the group] rather disturbed her.”

For several reasons, I won’t link to the Flickr group in question; for one, its particulars aren’t as relevant as the reaction to its existence.  It’s provoked a storm of heartfelt outrage among Second Life’s massive fashionista community, as evidenced by this SLUniverse forum thread, and the extended reader comments on Tenshi’s post.  “I have nothing against people with thin avatars (my own is thin),” Stephanie Misfit writes there, “but the promotion of skeletal avatars as a pro-ana message is appalling and socially irresponsible.”

This may all seem strange, seen from one angle, because these are not photos of real models, but virtual world avatars, on a platform where alter egos can be anything, from cyborgs to birds to works of art.  No one’s raised as much objection over the promotion of death commando avatars, so why so much concern over the size of women depicted in 3D graphics?

At least two reasons, I think:

This is yet another example of the “your avatar is you” effect that makes virtual worlds so compelling, documented in academic studies that show how our avatars follow our real world rules of personal space, and how being an attractive avatar actually boosts our offline self-confidence.  Philip Linden often tells the story of a Resident he knows who lost weight in real life by gradually decreasing the size of their avatar, for encouragement.  The concern here is how a Thinspo group may provide darker inspiration.

The other reason is more socioeconomic:  Second Life’s fashion industry, quite possibly the largest sector in the metaverse, often follows the trends of its real world counterpart.  And just as the fashion industry of Italy and New York has been rocked by controversies over thin models, the drive to design thin has made its way into SL.  “I don’t know which is sadder,” writes Jessayne, “that those [Thinspo] pics are kind of commonplace representations of the bulk of the avies I see lately, or that in order to FIT some clothes, especially boots and prim skirts, you have to have an avie that thin.”

As in the real world, there’s also a societal pressure to be thin in Second Life, perhaps even moreso, since body shapes are voluntarily chosen.

“You can get seriously harassed in SL for not having single digits on the belly slider,” Penny Patton writes.  (SL avatar sizes run from a 0-100 scale.) “I’ve got my belly set to 32, and my hips at 63, and I’ve been called fat.”  (I profiled Penny last year.)  “I’ve had people walk RIGHT up to me in a crowded club in which I was working,” writes Rose Barthelmess, “just to say, ‘Holy shit, you’re a fatso.’”

In the end, this may be the unintended benefit to a Second Life Flickr group promoting anorexia– the dawning realization that the community will have to confront the cultural trends that almost made it inevitable.

To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.  TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery. This Friday (To Write Love On Her Arms Day) is a day where anyone can write the words love on their arms, to support those who are struggling, trying and recovering. On this day, support the cause by just writing love on your arms. If others ask why you have love written on your arms, explain tell them you are supporting to write love on her arms day, and how it’s increasing awareness for a non profit organization aiming to help depression and its consequences through hope and community.

This is the Facebook page for the TWLOHA Facebook event

The TWLOHA Facebook page itself
The TWHOLA homepage for more information about its origin, story and vision.

The myspace page that started it all.

And a couple short youtube videos about the organization and the movement…
Move Community Conference

TWLOHA on NBC Nightly News

Heavy and Light
For those interested in the areas of mental health, behavior change, and/or community organizing

TWLOHA has several (unpaid) internship positions in the spring and summer with their headquarters in Cocoa, FL.

As many of you may have seen, the most recent Moosejaw email advertisement is incredibly insensitive and offensive: http://bit.ly/2xXq1c. The add has a picture of a young woman posing in Moosejaw apparel behind bars and encourages people to “swing by the store” to get a “free Jail Activity Book” including games like “design your own prison tattoo” and “don’t get shanked in the shower fun maze.” While I know that Moosejaw has been known to be “edgy” in ad campaigns, this completely crosses the line.

While I understand that their target market is rarely effected by racism, poverty and broken US criminal justice system it is important to remember that the system they are trying to profit from destroys families, communities and our schools. Michigan spends more on our criminal justice budget then it does on education.  Moosejaw’s attempt to profit off of this dark reality is in really poor humor.  Not to mention the horrible human rights abuses that are happening in Michigan prisons around sexual assault of women prisoners by guards or the lack of medical treatment for sick and elderly prisoners or the fact that Michigan is one of only a handful of states that sentences children to die in prison.

I have been in touch with Moosejaw managers and explained that I have been involved in outdoor wilderness education for years and they will no longer get by business or that of my friends of colleagues until they end this campaign and apologize for the offensive ad. We have already received some postive responses from the Moosejaw Creative Director saying that he appreciates our comments and they have already made some changes, including the removal of some shop signs and changes to online and email campaigns. Since the campaign just started Monday, it is incredibly important that we act quickly to tell Moosejaw how we feel.

Please help to make more change. I encourage you to call your local Moosejaw store and share your thoughts and to post the following message on the Moosejaw Mountaineering facebook page (or your own original message based on the information above):

I am very offended by your recent ad campaign: http://bit.ly/2xXq1c. Your insensitive attempts to profit from the tragedy of incarceration in this country is appalling. 2.2 Million people sit behind bars today, wasting taxpayer dollars and destroying peoples lives… Read More, a situation that is far from cute or humorous. I am an outdoor enthusiast who has used your products in the past, and until you end this campaign and apologize for your insensitive and juvenile characterization of a very real tragedy, you will not receive my business.

Thank you!

Amit

Birmingham store:248.203.7777

Ann Arbor store: 734.769.1590
–
Amit Weitzer, Consultant/Organizer
Campaign for Justice
2966 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201
Mobile: 248.672.5426
Email: aweitzer@mijustice.org
Website: www.mijustice.org

Campaign Headquarters:
403 Seymour, Suite 201
Lansing, MI 48933

Their goal: Get a major magazine to publish an issue without airbrushing or photoshopping the models in any of the features or the cover.

If the magazine fulfills the campaign’s goal, the thanks: If this objective is met, then Buy at least two copies of the magazine.

Ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point? Well this campaign uses the tipping point in its action. If you join the campaign, you pledge to take action, but only if the campaign’s objective is met. This way, you know your participation will make a difference.

She mentions the common agreement that “something has to be done about the waning weight of models.” It’s a viscious cycle of blaming many sources for this problem: modeling agencies, photographers, fashion designers, magazines, Hollywood, advertisers…

Women in society tend to respond to these thin models by wondering if the model’s style would fit themselves, or by resentful anger toward the model for her looks.

Belinda feels that being resentful toward the models themselves is wrong.  From a public health point of view, blaming the individual ignores more “upstream” or fundamental factors are really causing this skinny model phenomenon.  Simply because women in the general public see the model as the epitome of unhealthy nutrition and extremely low weight, this individual model was only shaped by her employer and society’s demands.

To change the body type norms in modeling, we need to focus on the fundamental factors mentioned earlier.

To combat the repercussions on girls and women’s health, Belinda feels that we need to focus on self-esteem, self-efficacy, and personal control.

Here’s what on the website:

This video puts less emphasis on the before/after comparison and more emphasis on the detailed process of retouching.  Nearly everything on this woman – skin and eye color, breast size, makeup, and wispy hairs are retouched.

We’ve shared a lot of information about photo retouching, so I hope that you aren’t bored of it!  I am continually surprised by how much retouching is done on photos that influence our body images for ourselves and women in general.