Each June, Media That Matters Film Festival
debuts a collection of twelve shorts under twelve minutes. The festival is one
of the first and largest online film festivals and uses independent media to
inspire civic engagement. In its eleventh year, the festival debuted films
about female firefighters in Burning Barriers,
a low-income dancer from Oakland in Sick Wid It, a call to action to prevent infant deaths in
India in It’s In Your Hands,
and nine others.
The festival has had other
popular films, including 2006’s Something Other Than Other about a multiracial couple’s reflections on their
youth and hopes for a future in which their son is able to check a box for his
race other than “other.” The Media That Matters’ most famous films include AGirl Like Me, which was made by a
sixteen year old girl in Harlem and draws attention to problematic beauty
standards for African American girls, and World on Fire with Sarah McLachlan that compares the cost of a
media set in LA with that of international aid from bicycle ambulances in Nepal
to West African educational film screenings for refugees.
What is unique about the
Media That Matters Festival is that it provides justice-based content that is
immediately and publicly available. This interview
with Katy Chevigny, founder of the organization behind the festival, Arts
Engine, sheds light on the impact of short films that are available online plus
their reception in the art and nonprofit communities. The festival actively
manifests its mission to “engage diverse audiences and inspire them to take
action” because it is available to anyone with access to the internet. Chevigny
points out that while the festival does not inhabit a physical space, it is
constantly in flux and is engaged with external audiences online as well as the
internal community of filmmakers.
Pride 2012 was celebrated
around the world
this weekend from Chicago, where there was a record number of crowds with an
estimated 850,000 people, to Thessaloniki, Greece, where they celebrated their
first pride with 2,000 attendants. The LGBTQA community has seen progress this
year—notably President Obama’s endorsement for gay marriage—and is continuing its work for equality.
This past year has witnessed the rise of transgender figures in pop culture, thus honoring
testimonials, inviting activism, and giving voice a still too often silenced
community.
Glee’s new character,
Unique, a.k.a. Wade Adams, made her premier performing Boogie Nights as a
transgender woman. The Gay
and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD's, article
on the Fox show's new character highlights the importance of Unique’s self-identification as a woman, not a gay
man, distinguishing her from her gay peer, Kurt Hummel, and promoting
transgender awareness.
Cher’s son, Chaz Bono,
who publicly announced the beginning of his transformation in 2009, has been a
key figure in pop culture and in the LGBTQA community this year. Bono was awarded
the outstanding documentary prize and Stephen F. Kolzak Award at the 2012 GLAAD Awards for his documentary,
"Becoming Chaz,” and rumor has it he will star in an upcoming dating show.
Jenna Talackova, Miss
Canada 2012, was disqualified from the Miss Universe competition in March
because she was not “naturally born” a woman. Yet thanks to Talackova’s
fighting back and the international support she inspired, the Miss Universe
beauty pageant will now allow transgender women to participate. Critics and
activists praise the move as an inclusive step for transgender women worldwide
in pop culture, sports, politics, and the workplace.
1. Absolute Trust in
the Goodness of the Earth by
Alice Walker
Walker’s
poetry responds to post-9/11 emotional trauma with “less yang, far, far more
yin.” Her poems imagine meditative spaces and explore native traditions of the
Americas and Africa for spiritual healing in the West.
2.
Thirst by Mary Oliver
This
anthology of poems, written after the death of Oliver’s life partner, has an
elegiac tone as the poet encounters faith, healing, and restoration. Poems
address grief, belief, and meditation, as exemplified in the poem, “Prayer.”
3.
The Stream and the Sapphire by
Denise Levertov
Levertov’s
collection of poems reclaims Biblical myths and figures from a feminist lens.
Her poetry serves as a spiritual exercise that contemplate grace while inspiring
Ignatian-like social justice.
4.
Aunt Carmen’s Book of Practical Saints by Pat Mora
Mora’s
poetry acts as an extension of the rural New Mexican Catholic tradition of
worshipping local saints. Her poetry-as-prayer is paired with images of
wood-carved saints, aligning multiple art media with spiritual vocation.
5.
The Fifth Sacred Thing by
Starhawk
Starhawk, a prominent pagan feminist who practices
earth-based spirituality, explores ecological crisis, progressive love
relationships, and spiritual odysseys in her famous post-apocalyptic novel.
In the new Snaps! project,
Protagonist & Praxis, figures from film are imagined as muses for artistic
perspectives, personal vocation, and calls to action.
~~~
Sisters Sally and Gillian
are a part of a maternal line of witches with both magical powers and a curse
that dooms the men they fall in love with to tragic deaths. With help from the
other women in their family, they confront the curse with their supernatural
powers and home-brewed spells.
-Fleetwood Mac’s
“Mirage:” Channel the mystical with Fleetwood Mac’s album, “Mirage,” which
includes “Gypsy,” “Book of Love,” and “Love in Store.”
-The Complete
Dictionary of Symbols by Jack
Tresidder: Keep the magical within the everyday: Tresidder’s dictionary
includes origins and meanings of symbols from folklore, religious traditions,
and cultural beliefs for interpreting dreams and daily iconography.
-Terrarium: Take a cue
from the Owens’ ample garden and get inspired by Alice Walker’s “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens,” her 1983 nonfiction testimony for women of color’s
creative spaces within the kitchen, garden, and other domestic spheres.
Flex that green thumb by learning to make a terrarium or buying one like this.
-Homemade Potions: Linda
Rodin, of Rodin Olio Lusso’s “near-magical” essential oils, first dreamed up her
recipes apothecary-style in her kitchen. Read Into The Gloss’s interview here
for inspiration on home potions.
For creative women, the
world of blogging is an outlet, business, look book, and inspiration board.
Some are mothers balancing parenthood and work from home, some are moonlighting
online curators, while others are converts from the corporate to the creative.
Here is a wonderfully long list of women bloggers.
Meanwhile, here are Snaps! favorites:
1. WhoWhatWear Blog:
A 2011 BlogLovin’ Award Winner, the blog includes features on Models Off Duty,
editorials, interviews with figures from the fashion industry, and highlights
from international magazines. The blog is curated by Who What Wear
founders, Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power, and Le Fashion’s
Jean Camp.
2. Oh Joy!: Oh Joy!
Founder, Joy Deangdeelert Cho, is a graphic designer by trade whose work can be
found at Anthropologie, Wedding Paper Divas, and other shops and presses. Her
blog includes beautiful posts about graphic design, fashion, divine food, and
crafts.
3. Design Sponge:
Grace Bonney’s iconic blog features inspiring before & after shoots, DIY
projects, and whimsical posts like this one on hand-carved stamps.
4. Shutterbean: This food
blog’s recipes, reflections on restaurants and gastro pubs, and photography are
stunning, and the design work by women designers Darling
and Leah Creates is fantastic.
5. From Me To You:
Photographer Jamie Beck, who created the concept of cinemagraphs
with fellow photographer Kevin Burg, profiles street style, sneaks peaks at red
carpets, and follows fashion week’s runways with stunning snapshots.
The recent JCPenney ads
for Mother’s and Father’s Day and the new GAP ads that feature same-sex couples
and parents have caused controversy, primarily from the conservative group, One
Million Moms. Their response, fueled by anger over JCPenney’s hiring Ellen
Degeneres as a spokesperson, claimed that including gay individuals and couples
in advertising violated religious values. Their reaction included the following
statement: "We must remain diligent and stand up for Biblical values and
truth. Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will
not tolerate this sinful nature."
The controversy over the
ad campaigns do more than reveal homophobia and disagreements on definitions of
values (see Ellen Degeneres’ response to the criticism):
they disrupt the pattern of heteronormativity in advertising.
Heteronormativity is the
social bias that assumes opposite-sex coupling is the norm. Our culture is
heteronormative on a global level and is structured around the expectation that heterosexuality is the standard. For instance, individuals are never expected to come
out of the closet as straight, only gay, because heterosexuality is assumed as
the norm. Being gay, therefore, is a deviation from being straight,
a term that implies a standard model. Advertising reflects this standard:
erectile dysfunction ads never depict two men, Father’s Day and Mother’s Day
ads (until now) have not portrayed same-sex parents, insurance and home
security ads feature nostalgic montages of opposite sex couples and their
families, and Valentine’s Day jewelry ads always depict a male gift giver and a
female receiver.
GAP and JCPenney’s
inclusive ad campaigns deconstruct heteronormative marketing by including
same-sex couples and representing the unacknowledged LGBTQ partner, parent, and
shopper. While some have criticized the companies
for displacing advocacy with marketing, their choice to portray and therefore
recognize gay individuals, couples, and families is nevertheless significant in
disrupting systems of heteronormative dominance and standards.
Sizeism is perhaps one of
the most prevalent, unidentified prejudice for America in 2012. It is not an
academic disciple like ethnic or gender studies nor has clear legal definitions
for discrimination, yet it is widely present in our culture. In a recent poll on weight prejudice conducted by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity
director, Rebecca Puhl, Ph.D, and Glamour magazine,
men and women were asked to choose from pairs of words to assign to
photographed women they had never met. The project revealed heavier women were
more likely to be labeled “lazy,” “sloppy,” “giving,” and “undisciplined” than
skinnier women, while thinner women were more likely described as “conceited,”
“superficial,” “bitchy,” “vain,” and “controlling.”
The project reveals how
much body size and shape plays into perceptions of identity, character, and
even friendliness, and raises questions regarding how much people realize they
participate in discrimination based on size. Dr. Ruhl observes, “weight is one
of the last acceptable prejudices.” Yet weight is also one of the last
unidentified sites of prejudice because people often do not recognize sizeism
as discrimination.
Sizeism is complicated
because it plays both social and medical roles. When 35.7% of American adults
are obese, sensitivity about fat shaming can take the back burner to health
concerns regarding Americans’ problems with emotional eating, portion control,
and food deserts.
Yet there is an important distinction between attitudes about food as health
issues and attitudes about body shape as social issues.
Sizeism is slowly
becoming recognized as a form of discrimination and prejudice in the media and
academy. Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi, and Molly McAleer’s website,
HelloGiggles, has featured two articles on sizeism: one on ending fat shaming
and one on ending skinny shaming. Jane Pratt and SAY Media's website, xoJane.com, has featured
multiple articles like this one
that identify fat shaming as intolerance. Ms. Magazine blog has also documented
feminism’s future in body acceptance in articles like this one on fat activism
and this one on the perpetration of negative attitudes about body image.
Substantia Jones of The Adipositivity Project has
created a movement for reformed social attitudes about weight, specifically
“fat physicality,” by portraying images of overweight women. The Adipositivity
Project promotes size acceptance in which “the hope is to widen definitions of
physical beauty. Literally.”
The future of sizeism is
recognizing it as a prejudice, and hopefully in doing so, attitudes about size
will transform social norms of body image, health, and activism.
In 2007, the Council of
Fashion Designers of America began the “Health Initiative” which, according to Vogue, a contributor to the campaign, “encourages everyone…who works in
fashion—editors, designers, photographers, and casting directors alike—to share
the responsibility of fostering a climate where a vital and healthy physique is
lauded and encouraged.” In her letter from the editor
in American Vogue’s June 2012 issue, Anna Wintour outlines
the goal of the project and clarifies that it was “not intended to tackle
eating disorders” but rather has the following goals:
-Create
a healthier diet plan
-Promise
to identify and support individuals who are vulnerable to eating disorders
-Establish
a minimum age of employment for models
-Establish
a model-mentorship program
-Request
adequate breaks and access to nutritious food for models on shoots
Wintour signs off her letter
with the hopeful suggestion that the “Health Initiative” and Vogue’s
contribution by portraying healthy bodies “signals renewed efforts to make our
ideal of beauty a healthy one.”
Given its status as the
most influential fashion magazine, Vogue’s participation with the “Health
Initiative” shows promise in reimagining the current problematic gendered body
image norms in Western culture. Yet it also raises some concerns about
social expectations of health aesthetics. What do we really think looks
“healthy”?
As feminist philosopher
Susan Bordo observes in her 2003 article, “The Empire of Images in Our World of
Bodies,” consumer culture has a direct influence on social norms of body image,
sexual identity, and definitions of health. The images in magazines, on the
internet, and on television prescribe an ideal for women and men that is
advertised as a norm instead of fantasy, misinforming standards of beauty and
health. Bordo offers statistics on the rise of cosmetic surgery, a case study on
the increase of eating disorders in Fiji after the country was introduced to thin actresses on Western television, and testimonies from
other professionals to illustrate the influence of pop culture images on
conceptions of beauty, sexual identity, and health.
So what do we think is
“healthy”? Is Vogue’s “Health Initiative” going to change society’s standards
of beauty if society’s conceptions of health are skewed? As the debate over fat
shaming versus preventing obesity wage on and the amount of press devoted to
Crystal Renn’s changing dress size and health
continues to grow, perhaps our society’s attitudes about the relationship
between health and beauty are not as clearly definable or intuitive as we think
they are, particularly for women whose bodies are disproportionately
(mis)represented in pop culture.
In many ways, Vogue might
not be helping with our understanding of healthiness. British Vogue’s cover features the captain of the All Star Anti-Healthy Body Image Team, Kate Moss,
who famously claimed to live by the motto, “nothing tastes as good as skinny
feels,” suggesting that anorexia is a prescription for beauty. Meanwhile, supermodels like Cindy Crawford
and Janice Dickinson
have openly critiqued the magazine’s initiative for not reflecting the
realities of those in power of beauty standards within the industry, from the
consumer to Anna Wintour herself. Other writers and fashion insiders point out
that as long as Photoshop is fair game, it does not matter how healthy the
model is or looks: the image that gets published to the masses can still
distort “healthiness.”
Fashionista graded every
Vogue “Health Initiative” cover based on its health message, drawing attention
to the campaign’s successes and opportunities for improvement. Their assessment, though
brief, points to problems of social ideals of healthiness and beauty and to inconsistencies in recognizing
healthy as beautiful. Vogue’s “Health Initiative” invites a real
opportunity for changes within the fashion industry, yet it draws attention to
the ample space for larger change for social standards of feminine beauty and
wellbeing.
