There has been a definite shift in recent times in the way women’s bodies are being depicted in marketing campaigns and on social media.
Lena Dunham, for example, is a major advocate for loving the body you’re in, and in September, plus-sized model Ashley Graham rocked New York Fashion Week, taking to the runway in lingerie.
But Wear Your Voice magazine are taking body confidence to another level with their new #BeyondBeauty initiative.
“As a media publication, we understand the responsibility media plays in our lives,” writes Editor-in-Chief Ravneet Vohra.
“According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 47% of girls in 5th- 12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures, while 69% of girls [of the same age] reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.”
Wear Your Voice’s new campaign is an attempt to celebrate the human body, regardless of race, gender, size, disability or religious background.
They invited 18 “womyn” to participate in a body positive photo shoot, in order to “better represent a wider spectrum of bodies.”
Vohra believes that the photographs demand the subjects be “seen, heard, and honoured”, and that the campaign, which has been two years in the making, is an important step forward.
“As a mother of two young children,” she said, “I want to make sure that the next generation of young people don’t inherit our insecurities.”
The pictures have not been Photoshopped, and the “before” and “after” shots, rather than showing a slimmed down, edited version, are exactly the same.
Another set of images contain phrases like “inspiring” and “invincible”, and “flawed” and “flawless”.
“We are supporting authenticity in all its forms,” Vohra concludes. “We are daring to look beyond this traditional and limiting idea of ‘Beauty’ to see the strength that not only lies within, but that exudes from all.”
