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Body Impolitic Greets Feministe!

Laurie Toby Edison

Laurie Toby Edison and Debbie Notkin say:

We are delighted to be invited to guest blog here at Feministe.

We can usually be found (along with a couple of regular guest bloggers) at Body Impolitic, where we blog about body image (interpreted as widely as possible), photography, art, and occasional other topics.

We got into working together more than 20 years ago, when we started work on Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes, which was published in 1994.

Cover of <I>Women En Large</i>

Ten years later, we published Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes.

Cover of <I>Familiar Men</i>

Our most recent project, not yet in book form, is Women of Japan, a series of clothed portraits of women who live in Japan, which was done in collaboration with Japanese feminists.

Lifelong Friendship

Laurie is the photographer, and Debbie writes, edits, and manages the text portions of the projects.

Twenty-plus years of body image work is long enough to give us a lot of perspective on what changes, and what remains the same. Both of us were active feminists before we started doing specific work around body image; so we knew we were in for lifelong (generations long) battles. It’s been fascinating to watch what has gotten better. For example:

  • a much larger community of people are talking about and working on body image issues,
  • good information and health statistics are more available to everyone, 
  • attractive clothing is sold for women of different sizes, and
  • social awareness and acceptance of transgender issues has grown remarkably.

    • We’ve also watched what has gotten worse, including:

  • the media definition of “beauty” is a lot narrower now than it was in 1989,
  • the sexualization of young girls is rampant,
  • medical procedures like Botox and labiaplasty have become normalized, and
  • men’s looks have become almost as commercialized and commoditized as women’s.

    • As we do in the photographic work, at Body Impolitic, we try to look at the immense number of factors that affect how individuals feel about our bodies, about living in our bodies, and about the vast pressures on all of us to hate ourselves and our bodies. While “body image” is a term that people frequently associate with weight (and we do blog about size acceptance and health-at-every-size issues), we also cover racial issues, cultural expectations of masculinity, parenting practices, ability/disability, and much, much more.

    We believe that knowing and appreciating the power and beauty of everyone’s bodies, exactly as they are, is a cornerstone not only of feminism, but of living well in the world.

    And we’re looking forward to being a more active part of the conversation here.

    21 thoughts on Body Impolitic Greets Feministe!

    1. Pingback: Body Impolitic - Blog Archive - » Guest blogging at Feministe! - Laurie Toby Edison: Photographer

    2. Question: do you write about hating your body because of chronic illness? I am jealous, and hate, other people’s “working” bodies, and my own for its betrayal, because I’m insulin dependent diabetic. My body doesn’t work properly with food – and exercise especially – hence the jealousy of people that can do whatever they want.. I am especially jealous of “working” bodies when mine doesn’t cooperate – classic example is when I can’t go for a run when my blood sugars are perfectly level, where they are supposed to be, but for a 4 mile run they are too low (I could go hypoglycemic). Have you discussed chronic illness body hatred??

    3. Hi Lauri, We met in Chicago at BlogHer ’07 and you gave me a copy of your first book to look at for Jane’s Guide. Nice to see you!

    4. aldea,

      We write most frequently about the body hatred that is created by a mutibillion dollar diet and beauty industry that need people to hate their bodies in order to make profits.

      We do blog about issues of disability including chronic illness. I think the kind of body hatred you describe would be good to write about. But for me, this needs to be written about from inside the experience. It’s something for us to think about and look for.

    8. aldea,

      your comment set off a lightbulb for me – I have hypoglycemia, and never really thought about why I was resentful of my friends who never have to worry about going for a long bike ride or a run, or some of my own body hatred. I had a nasty and embarassing incident at the gym two years ago, and never went back.

      I don’t know if you’re a regular reader of feministe, but there have been some really good guest posts about disability and chronic illness this summer (even if some of the comments have been not great) if you missed them.

    9. Two writers/thinkers/artists who do some of the very best work on this subject. Debbie and Laurie challenge my viewpoints and I am excited about this guest blogging!

    11. Hi, Laurie! I own two of your pieces, the heron/crane and the moon, both of which I wear regularly and get compliments on all the time. It’s wonderful to see you here on Feministe! as a guest blogger, and I look forward to your in depth posts about body image, feminism, and (hopefully) size-ism as a part of the discussion. That particular bias expresses itself even in the doctor’s office, where if a woman goes in for an earache, her doctor will focus on her weight, not her ear.

    12. Debbie @ 11

      I can totally relate to embarassing incidents in public places, and I’m also non-symptomatic, so when my sugars are going very low I don’t know what’s happening until I wake up with the medics standing around me. Another reason for my particular body issue is that I feel very alone. I know a ton of insulin dependent diabetics, but none take care of themselves. They’re often sick, roller coaster sugars, have eye or kidney issues, and here I am, hyper vigilant about testing, exercise, carb counting and near perfect A1Cs (6.0), all alone. Sigh..

      I’m a fairly regular visitor, so I’ll take a look around for the posts you mentioned. Thanks for sharing!

    16. Good to see you folks here. I dunno if Debbie remembers me form usenet, but we crossed paths on a few newsgroups back in the 90’s I think. And of course, I love your books.

    17. Josh, yes, of course I remember you! We crossed paths in person a few times as well.

      Thanks for the compliment. More Body Impolitic on Feministe later today.

    18. Is everybody under 40? Probably, but thought I’d ask. I notice you didn’t mention age at all.

      I thought I spotted a touch of gray on one of those women…

    19. DaisyDeadhead,

      We do write about age and aging, including the obsession with youth and the discrimination older people, especially women face. The list in the post were just examples.

      The women in Women En Large:Images of Fat Nudes are between 22 and 63. One of my regrets about the book is that I didn’t photograph a much older woman for it.

      The men in Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes are from 19 to 92 and the women in Women of Japan are from 21 to 92. I do learn from experience.

    20. Aldea and DaisyDeadhead’s comments crossed paths in my brain just now! Aldea’s question/comment about body hating one’s own body when it doesn’t function well, and other people’s bodies who do–giving the example:

      “I can’t go for a run when my blood sugars are perfectly level, where they are supposed to be, but for a 4 mile run they are too low (I could go hypoglycemic). Have you discussed chronic illness body hatred??”

      Speaking as a fat 60-year-old woman with very bad arthritic knees, I am now restricted even from going downstairs to get my own mail, but at NO TIME in my life was I ever a runner, so I don’t miss not running. There was a time when I could do a lot more physically than I can now, and there certainly are 90-year-olds who can do more at that age than I ever could. So I could hate the ageing process, or I could choose to hate my fat body, or to hate others who can do more.

      When I say “choose to hate” I have to say that this choice took years of learning how to disconnect the self-hatred, other-comparison tapes that have been battered into all of us by a culture that really does not embrace accepting our bodies.

      Frankly, I think hating others starts with being disconnected enough from our bodies to resent them when they don’t “function right” or”look right” by an arbitrary definition of “right” that doesn’t take into account our body’s own reality. I’ll compress about 5 years of self-therapy into 3 sentences:

      (1) I started by saying “No” literally every time a self-bashing thought popped up–it’s amazing how quickly this improved my inner mental climate.
      (2) I started making friends with my body asking her opinion about what she wanted to eat and what other things she needed more or less of to function.
      (3) Last, as I would to any friend, I offered praise and support for the things my body does well–so many things!

      Our commercial culture encourages us to DISconnect from experiencing our own bodies, and when we go though pain or disability, it feeds right into that state of anxiety that makes us more compliant consumers. I think loving our bodies exactly how they are leads to better health and happier lives, at least in my own experience.

    21. Pingback: Body Impolitic - Blog Archive - » Aging is (Not) Unnatural - Laurie Toby Edison: Photographer

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