Bay Area About-Face supporters, we hope you will join us as we join forces with Marilyn Wann, author of the book Fat!So?, for an action that will put a positive spin on our culture’s obsession with its scales.
(Like this Yay Scale? Join us to make your own or click on the photos to buy one!)
Part 1: Make Your Own Yay! Scale
Thursday, July 24th at 6:30 pm
Western Addition, San Francisco
(location given upon RSVP — e-mail action@about-face.org)
Dinner will be provided
Ages 13 and up welcome
Click here for details
What’s a Yay! Scale? It’s a standard bathroom scale that is re-worked into a positive tool that, instead of focusing on the weight of the user, compliments her on how wonderful she is. Don’t you want to see “amazing” instead of a number on your scale? We thought so!
Then there’s…
Part 2: Throw Your Weight Around
Saturday, July 26th from 10am-2pm (at least)
Union Square, San Francisco
(Northwest corner of Powell and Geary, across from the St. Francis Hotel)
All ages welcome
Click here to read a newspaper story about how this action works
Click here for details
E-mail action@about-face.org BY SUNDAY, JULY 20 to let us know you’re coming to one or both parts! (You need not come to both!)
Let your friends know! We can’t wait to see you there.
July 22nd, 2008
When Lorrie A. appeared on cosmetic-surgery reality show “The Swan” back in 2004, she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. Now she’s scarred and damaged. Have a look at her (very short) interview on E! News from Sunday:
About-Face took action around “The Swan”’s airing. The result: We sent in about 500 letters to Fox, the production company, and everyone else involved who we could find. Of course we didn’t hear back from them. We wish we’d been wrong about the show’s effects: More and more women feel they are inadequate enough to take a risk like cosmetic surgery, and the women on the show were harmed — just take Lorrie’s story.
What do you think? Was Lorrie duped by the show, or was she simply making poor choices at rock bottom?
(And by the way, please be compassionate and civil — Lorrie is a real person who may just be reading your comment.)
– J.B.
P.S. If you want to take action with us again, check out the below posting about our Yay Scale action on Saturday the 26th in San Francisco.
July 22nd, 2008
Recently we came across an honest, enlightening account of a mother and daughter’s experience with eating disorders, and we thought you should know about it. Distorted, a book by Lorri Antosz Benson and her daughter Taryn Leigh Benson, chronicles the experiences they respectively shared while Taryn was battling eating disorders as a teenager.
Distorted is an honest and holistic account of what happens when a loved one is struggling with a disease. I’m keen on emphasizing the word disease because this was the first time I deeply understood the fact that an eating disorder is a disease. It may play out differently than alcoholism, but the common link is that both alcoholics and people with eating disorders are consumed by their addiction.
The book is made up of journal entries submitted by the mother and daughter as they live through their experiences. This helps the reader understand the full impact of the disorder and how it affected the lives of everyone involved. Taryn’s entries recount the time of her disorder, and go in depth to explain her battle, the amount of time, energy and focus she put into her disorder, and how she covered it all up to keep it from her parents and her friends. The entries by Lorri, Taryn’s mother, account for the sadness, helplessness, and struggle the family faced and how the family was affected by Taryn’s disease. In great detail, we hear how she, as a mother, did everything possible to research and find solutions to help Taryn and how she coped with watching someone that she loves spiral downward. The reader is able to experience the transformation of both of these women. Through various methods of treatment, therapy, and personal conviction, Taryn finally gets to a place when she realizes she wants to survive and to treat herself well, and Lorri realizes that the only way Taryn will get better is if she wants to. The reader is able to see Lorri struggling with this concept in most of the book.
It was powerful to see the honesties (and dishonesties) of emotions unfold in the book. There is a moment when Taryn returns from her first eating disorder facility. Her parents hope she really is okay and has recovered, and her younger sisters, being more naïve and hopeful, think she is “cured.” However, as the weeks pass, the family begins to see familiar patterns and see Taryn’s drastic mood swings. One entry made by Lorri is particularly powerful for a mother to admit and feel:
“As I a saw my other two girls suffering, it was hard not to feel resentment towards Taryn. Although I intellectually knew she was also hurting, emotionally I hated what her inability to cope was doing for the rest of us. And of course, I couldn’t confront her, although my instincts told me to. I could hear the party line playing in my head. ‘She is harder on herself than we could ever be.’ So I journaled.”
While we have heard of stories in the media about girls with eating disorders, some simply sensationalistic, Taryn and Lorri’s account is real and sincere. This book is great for anyone to read who is recovering from an eating disorder and for those whose loved ones are dealing with one.
To buy the book, click here. Amazon.com gives About-Face a percentage of the proceeds from sales from our web site.
- A.J.
July 21st, 2008
Is it just me, or is the term “sex sells” getting as old as the phrase “surf’s up?” CNN, being the intellectual news source that it is (ha!) reported on something quite relevant. Yes, they did a short piece on bikini-clad baristas in Seattle, Washington. Apparently, these baristas are making double and triple the usual tips because they are wearing bikinis while brewing coffee instead of um…clothes. The coffee kiosk is located across from the needle landmark Seattle is best known for.
(Click the photo to watch the video on CNN’s site.)
The first thing I felt while watching this news clip was a distinct chill. The second was an extreme sense of irritation. I thought back to my family vacations as a child and wondered how I would have felt as a little girl seeing two young women in bikinis selling their, ahem “merchandise” (pun intended). How awkward would that be, especially if my parents were around? I would wonder if that is what it meant to be a woman — that in order to double my income, I would need to “flaunt it.”
And can we bring it back to the weather? What happens when it rains? Do they accessorize with Ugg boots to keep warm? Does someone make Ugg pasties for these poor girls? It all looks pretty gloomy in the video clip.
I could go on about the continued sexualization of women. I could also comment on the body types of these women. Would they receive less tips if they were 15 pounds heavier? Does the employer discrminate against applicants based on their sizes?
Instead, I am going to encourage action. If you live in Seattle and you know the coffee stand this news story is referring to, write or call them. Tell them to put clothes on their employees! Write to your local government’s tourism department and file a complaint. What is the real attraction to Seattle? And if you’re traveling to Seattle, please don’t encourage it by going to this stand, unless you’re going to take a stand.
–A.J.
July 14th, 2008
We’re so much more than a blog and a web site! And our last volunteer meeting, on June 25, was a success! We hatched a plan: an action that takes on our culture’s obsession with weight. We’ll be teaming up with Marilyn Wann, author of the inspiring book Fat!So?, to make and demonstrate Yay Scales. You don’t know what a Yay Scale is? Here are three hints: There will be crafts, there will be a public challenging of the status quo, and hopefully, there will be media coverage. Come to the July 16 meeting to find out more and get involved!
Date & time: Wednesday, July 16, 6-9pm
Where: Western Addition, San Francisco (exact location will be given when you RSVP by e-mailing us)
Not into the whole “taking it to the streets” thing? We do lots of other activities, so there are many more ways to do great work with us.
The full announcement:
(more…)
July 8th, 2008
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