NOW-NYC's Love Your Body Day Held every October, Love Your Body Day is a fun celebration of healthy body, mind, sex and soul. Join us in our countdown to this exciting event by following positive buzz in the media about women and their health, bodies, and sexuality!
Sex & Body BuzzStudy Finds Condom Use Is Increasing
The Selling of the Female Orgasm
Transgender Rights Mean Letting People "Dress Like Ewoks"
American Apparel Not Interested in Your Plus Size Dollars Plus-Size Lingerie Ad Removed from Web After Censorship
Anorexia, Bulima Definitions Hinder Treatment, Study Says French ELLE Magazine Launches First-Ever Plus Size Issue Size 16 Mannequins at Debenhams
For Obese People, Prejudice in Plain Sight Lesbian Teen Sues to Hold Prom at School Researchers Conclude Cosmetic Labial Surgery Equivalent to Female Genital Mutilation Body Typed: A documentary on the "ideal woman"
Advertisements Promote Labial Surgery, British Researchers Find Faults
From Salon's Broadsheet, Kate Harding's article, "Your Vagina is Ugly," addresses the popularity of labial surgery, an operation meant to make women's genitals look younger and "more attractive." However, a British research group recently reported that cosmetic labioplasty is about as dangerous as female circumcision, and that "Advertisements promote labial surgery as easy answers to women's insecurities about their genital appearances -- insecurities that are fuelled by the very advertisements that prescribe a homogenised, pre-pubescent genital appearance standard for all women." The surgery, which restores women's vaginas to what has been described as a prepubescent 13-year-old's anatomy, has perfectly healthy women believing that their own adult bodies are inadequate.
 Body Typed
This documentary, from New Day Films, is the third installment in a triology of films, including "The Guarentee", and the Sundance winning film "Wet Dreams and False Images." "Body Typed" examines body images created by the media and entertainment industry from quirky perspectives and revealing angles. As we are taken inside a Mannequin factory in California, we see how industry has intentionally attempted to create the "ideal woman," believing that since there are no perfect women in the real world, they should reproduce them in a factory, instead. See this New York Times preview and op-ed, and purchase the DVD here.
 FDA Approves Gardasil For Boys
October 16, 2009
USA Today reports that the FDA has approved Gardasil for boys ages 9 through 26, a vaccine that has already been approved for women to block four strains of HPV, some of which can cause cervical cancer. While men are unlikely to experience symptoms or effects of HPV, though cancer is a possibility for both men and women, even men who experience no symptoms at all put women at risk. 6 million people are currently infected with HPV, most through sexual contact. Even with the men's Gardasil, however, protection is expensive (about $400 for the vaccine, even with private insurance), and many people are unaware of it.
Should There Be a Law to Label Retouched Photos?
In France, a proposed law would require retouched photos to state that they have been altered. While it is no secret that advertisements and fashion photos are more than often digitally retouched, many are concerned about the effects of passing off near perfect, and impossible, body images as real. With teenage eating disorders rising, many think that labeling is a necessary step in order to combat some of the negative body images that have become so prevalent in Europe, as well as in the United States. Magazines argue that all art is open to interpretation, and a law requiring labeling would "compromise artistic integrity." However, given this recent issue of Self magazine, a health magazine that features an article on "Total Body Confidence," as well as a retouched photo of a slimmed-down Kelly Clarkson, it seems hard to believe that publications value artistic merit over viewer manipulation. Read more in this MSNBC article. 
The Sexy Thing About Spanx
October 13, 2009
A funny and honest article from Sarah Hepola in Salon addresses some of the less appealing aspects of looking good. Spanx, the control-top underwear that's "three parts miracle one part torture," might be functional, but underneath our clothes the contraption is certainly not attractive. After an unexpected make-out sesh, Hepola gets over her fear of being caught wearing Spanx, realizing that "the sexiest stance is the one in which we are just OK with our bodies, our flawed, occasionally lumpen, odd and fascinating bodies, and we don't scramble to turn out the light every time a moment heats up, we don't ruin the fragile friction of a sexual connection because we are too busy hiding underneath covers."
 Photoshop Blunder!
October 9, 2009
In a recent photoshop catastrophe, a Ralph Lauren model's head appears to be of wider girth than her pelvis. Only when confronted by a blog post on Boing Boing, entitled "Ralph Lauren opens a new outlet store in the Uncanny Valley," did Ralph Lauren acknowledge the digitized slimming and trimming, claiming that it was only a mistake (as well as copyright infringement on behalf of Boing Boing!). What goes unrecognized all too often is the fact that many models that appear on billboards or in magazines have gone through the same digital disfigurement process, and yet somehow slip past the radar; this gives the illusion that what we are seeing as we flip through the pages of a fashion magazine, is reality. Read about Ralph Lauren's attempt to shutdown criticism on Salon's Broadsheet.
New Female Condom Now Available
October 7, 2009
Approved by the FDA in March, the new female condom has officially hit U.S. markets. In response to past compaints, the new version is made of a new, thinner, material, is less likely to squeak during use, and is about 30% cheaper than the original.
Female Health Co, the company that produces the condom, stated that that the condom "is an important development in efforts to deliver affordable access to woman-initiated HIV prevention in the United States and around the world." The company hopes to win over the American market. Watch this video on demand and distribution and read more on the Feministing website.
 Germany's Brigitte to Ban Professional Models
October 5, 2009
In recognition of the fashion industry and media's negative effect on women's body image, Germany's Brigitte announced a ban on using professional models in its pages. Andreas Lebert, the magazine's editor-in-chief, said that he was "fed up" with having to retouch pictures of underweight models who bore no resemblance to ordinary women and noted that today's models weigh around 23% less than normal women. Read the full article in The Guardian. 
Lizzy Miller's Confident, and Un-Airbrushed Glamour Shot
September, 2009
Plus sized model Lizzie Miller appeared all natural and un-airbrushed in the September issue of Glamour Magazine. The magazine received countless calls from readers complementing the picture, and wanting more like it. Editor of Glamour magazine Cindy Leive felt no need to hide Ms. Miller's belly, saying, "We loved the look on her face, the joy in the way she was laughing, and the fact that she was not sucking her stomach in. The belly is a part of the body women struggle with." Read an interview with Lizzie Miller in the L.A. Times to find out more about healthy images of women in the media.  Evolution of Ordinary Girl to Photoshopped Model
2006
Evolution is an advertising campaign launched by Unilever in 2006 as part of its Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, to promote the newly created Dove Self-Esteem Fund. Watch as this ordinary girl is photographed and artificially transformed: one photo is selected from the batch and moved into a generic image editing software interface, where a series of "Photoshopping" adjustments are made to alter the appearance of the model even further, including, but not limited to: lengthening the neck, adjusting the curve of the shoulder, altering the hair and skin, and enlarging the eyes and mouth.
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