"The advertising industry tells women and girls that every part of their body needs fixing -- from eyebrows and noses to hips and thighs," said NOW Foundation President Patricia Ireland. "Women are urged to give up or replace food with cigarettes. All this feeds the multi-billion dollar industries that profit from creating a beauty standard that is impossible to achieve."
Activists around the country will be united today through various actions, house parties, forums and events. NOW chapters and universities in twenty-six states are holding Love Your Body Day house parties, speak-outs and news conferences. NOW Foundation Education Vice-President Elizabeth Toledo will rally at Bryant Park in New York City. This action, sponsored by the New York City NOW chapter, will spoof the fashion industry with a feminist runway.
Love Your Body Day 1999 is endorsed by organizations across the country, including the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Boston Women's Health Book Collective and Eating Disorders Awareness & Prevention.
"People are joining together to challenge the cookie-cutter images of women that say we need to be one size, one shape, one color, one age, one race, one sexuality to be beautiful," Ireland said. "Harmful, negative and limiting images of women keep us focused on our body parts rather than on our whole selves."
Love Your Body Day is part of the NOW Foundation's ongoing Women's Health Project.
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