In a society that focuses all its attention on what you look like on the outside it is not hard to believe that many women and girls don’t feel so good about themselves on the inside. We are not immune to images of tall, thin, seemly perfect women, but diversity is the spice of life. Whether you are a size 2 or a size 22 we think you are fabulous!

Help promote positive images of women and eliminate negative images of women on October 19th (and year round) with these Love Your Body Day Actions! Even if you don't have time to organize, you can always send a Love Your Body Day ecard to your friends and family!

• Learn More Something Fishy Website on Eating Disorders Women of Color and Eating Disorders About-Face National Organization for Women's Love Your Body Day Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance

  Magazine/Television Writing Campaign
  Organize a letter writing campaign to express your displeasure with homogeneus and degrading images or portrayals of women in magazines, newspapers, television shows, or advertisements. Demand images that promote respect for all women. You can target individual ad companies or magazines that solicite degrading images of women.
• Create Your Own Media/Support Positive Media
  Provide a positive alternative to mainstream media. Create a mural or collage that depicts women's bodies in a diversity of sizes, shapes, and colors. Develop a zine including articles, facts, poetry, and art exploring the issue of body image and the struggle for equality. Display murals or collages and distribute zines on campus. You can use this as a tabling event in which you encourag students who stop by the table to contribute to the collage by having magazines and other images available for them to choose from. Also make sure to support positive media images of women and independent media sources like Ms. Magazine, the premier feminist publication.
• Table with a purpose!
  Host a table at your student center or other prominent campus location to promote awaress about Love Your Body Day! Hand out FMF brochures on body image and other flyers and pamphlets of campus resources. You can also have materials for a collage or mural handy to encourage particpation from students passing by.
• Offer a panel, workshop, or guest speaker about body image for the campus community!
  Collaborate with your student helath center or wellness center to bring a speaker to campus to promote healthy eating and body image. This can be a local spearker such as a psychologist, social worker, or other qualified health care professional or a national speaker. Visit Soap Box for suggestions on national speakers dedicated to promoting awarness about healthy body image!
• Host a Film Festival
  Plan to show a film on body image at your next meeting or for a campus activity and plan a discussion following the film. Some suggested films include:
  • Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women, Still Killing Us Softly, Killing Us Softly 3, and Slim Hopes
  • NOW's Re-defining Liberation
  • Or mainstream movies such as: Real Women Have Curves and Lovely and Amazing
• Mentoring Program for High School Girls
  Affect change in your community and provide a positive influence for high school girls by starting a Mentoring Program at a local high school focusing on feminism, body image, and self-esteem. Utilize Unit 7 of the Choices: Study and Action Manual.
• Have a Book Club
  Have your group members read a recommened book about body image to be discussed at a meeting. You can also encourage them to read it with another woman they love; mother, sister, daughter, or a friend. Suggested books are:

  • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  • She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
  • No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits Making Women Hate Their Bodies-How to Fight Back by Terry Poulton
  • Real Gorgeous by Kaz-Cooke
  • Full Lives by Lindsey Hall
  • Losing It? America's Obsession with Weight and The Industry That Feeds On It by Laura Fraser
  • School Girls by Peggy Orenstein
  • For more suggestions visit About-Face

    Don't forget to take pictures of your events and share your stories with us at campusteam@feminist.org