Recently PETA put up a billboard in Jacksonville, Fla., that said “Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian.” Next to the lettering was a drawing of a plus-size, bikini-clad woman — meant to represent, apparently, the epitome of the overweight, unsightly woman who should be hiding indoors. The billboard was quickly replaced.
For years now, advertisers and fashion magazines have airbrushed photos to turn models into the latest beauty ideal. Women and girls are constantly bombarded with these artificial images — fantasies they can’t possibly live up to in real life.
For over a decade now the National Organization for Women Foundation’s Love
Your Body campaign has put countered the unrealistic beauty standards, gender stereotypes and sometimes harmful images imposed by media and advertisers with a simple but powerful message to women and girls — Love Your Body. On October 15, we celebrate another year in our campaign to educate and encourage women and girls to say no to negative stereotypes and yes to awareness, health, and a positive body image.
October 18 marks the tenth anniversary of the National Organization for Women Foundation’s Annual Love Your Body Day (LYBD). For the past ten years, the Love Your Body Campaign has promoted healthy body images for women and girls through creative actions and consumer education. The campaign calls for women and girls to be in control of what makes them feel healthy and comfortable with their bodies, on their own terms and not based on unrealistic images promoted by advertisers and the mass media.