The National Organization for Women Foundation announces its 14th annual Love Your Body Day to take place on Wednesday, Oct. 19. NOW Foundation launched the groundbreaking Love Your Body Day in 1998 to promote positive images of women and girls in the media and offer an alternative to unrealistic and harmful standards of beauty. Body image remains a relevant issue affecting women’s health and well-being, with broader implications for the status of women in society. Studies show that 80 percent of women are dissatisfied with their appearance and the National Eating Disorders Association indicates that 10 million women in the U.S. suffer from eating disorders.
“Just this week, Dr. Pepper began promoting a diet soft drink ‘for men only’ with a ‘no girls allowed,’ sex-segregated Facebook page that shows men playing sports, racing cars and shooting things such as red lipstick and pink bows,” said NOW Foundation Education Vice President Erin Matson. “The drink has 10 calories as opposed to Diet Dr. Pepper, which has zero, communicating a message that even 10 calories are too many for women. This Love Your Body Day, we join women around the world in saying, enough! Cut it out.”
This year will mark the first NOW Foundation Love Your Body Day blog carnival, in which writers and bloggers from a diverse array of perspectives will join in and speak out in favor of self-acceptance and against images of women that are harmful, dangerous and offensive.
Who: NOW Foundation, writers and bloggers from across the Internet
What: Blog carnival on topics relating to women’s body image issues
When: Wednesday, Oct. 19
Where: On NOW’s Say It, Sister! Blog at now.org/blog
Topics for the blog carnival will include eating disorders, dieting, cosmetic surgery, colorism, gender stereotypes and media influences. For more information or to participate, please visit: https://now.org/news/blogs/index.php/sayit/2011/10/03/announcing-lybd-blog-carnival.
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