Love Your Body Day Set for September 20

by Sevaun Palvetzian, Publications Intern

Last summer NOW traveled with the Lilith Fair festival, distributing information on issues important to women and girls. Here, Texas singer/songwriter Anna Egge signs the Love Your Body petition at NOW's booth. Photo by Rebecca Farmer.

Feminists across the country—mark your calendars now for the third annual Love Your Body Day, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000. Organized by the NOW Foundation and part of its Women's Health Project, Love Your Body Day is an opportunity for activists to speak out against images of women that are harmful, dangerous, offensive and disrespectful. The advertising, tobacco, fashion, cosmetic and diet industries are profiting from women's and girls' dissatisfaction with their bodies, and this is our chance to fight back.

Please join us in raising our voices in opposition to beauty standards that are unrealistic and unhealthy, and in breaking down stereotypes that discriminate against people based on size and appearance.

"Women and girls are literally dying to fit the images they see on TV and in magazines," said NOW Foundation's Education Vice President Elizabeth Toledo. "The Love Your Body campaign is an important tool in the preservation of our lives and self-esteem."

Of the many ways to get involved, here are just a few ideas from last year's actions:

Host a house party and watch the "Redefining Liberation" video.
Write letters or collect signatures for a petition to send to magazines and advertisers whose ads are offensive to women and girls.
Organize a workshop at school, the library or a women's center on body images, self-esteem, nutrition and health.
Hold a news conference or a speak-out to publicize concerns about eating disorders, cosmetic surgery and lung cancer in women.
Give awards, good and bad, to local merchants who present women in positive or negative ways.
Perform a play, have a poetry reading, put together a collage, get creative!
Join the poster contest (see below).

Your Poster Could Be the One to Say "Love Your Body"

As part of the Love Your Body Campaign 2000, the NOW Foundation will select one entry to represent the third annual event. We are looking for creative responses to the onslaught of negative images that impact women's health. Use this opportunity to take on advertisers like the tobacco industry that equates smoking with liberation, glamour and thinness, or the fashion industry that promotes waif-like and surgically-enhanced images of women. Posters can be graphically compelling or simply use a dynamic message. You can check out last year's winners online at www.nowfoundation.org.

The winning poster may be distributed nationwide and featured on the NOW Foundation web site. Winning entries will be exhibited at the National NOW Conference in Miami, Fla., June 30-July 2. The Grand Prize winner receives prize money plus a trip to Miami to accept the award at the National Conference. A total of four cash prizes are awarded.

The contest deadline is May 1, 2000. For more information on the Love Your Body Campaign and how to enter the poster contest connect, to www.nowfoundation.org or call 202-628-8668 ext. 117.

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