Feminists talk a lot about the need to reshape and broaden ideas about what sorts of bodies are beautiful. But actually doing this is much more difficult. This dance troupe , Danza Voluminosa, sounds like it may actually be helping to accomplish this, by showing ways in which large bodies can be graceful and beautiful.
4 thoughts on “Redefining beauty”
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Feminist Philosophers 
I’m also a fan of Big Moves, who have the motto “Because Every Body Can Dance.” They’re an awesome group who recognize that health and fitness are not determined by the number on a scale.
[…] 2, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized — Monkey @ 8:54 am Further to Jender’s post on Redefining Beauty, I thought I’d share these rather lovely photos taken by Leonard Nimoy (yes, I think it […]
I disagree with the idea that big is beautiful, mainly because obesity should never be ebcouraged due to the health implications. underwieght people live longer than overwieght people and fewer people actualy manage to fall under the anorexic catagory than the amount of clinicaly obese which is rising dramaticaly every year. If large women feel self consiouse regarding their image it is not because the women on tv are too thin it is because they themselves are too fat! and the solution would be to either ACCEPT THEMSELVES OR EAT MORE HEALTHILY.
Hazel, fat acceptance advocates have long argued that the evidence `linking’ obesity to health problems is weak, and that diet and exercise (or lack thereof) are the primary cause of things like diabetes, not obesity itself. See, for example, this piece in the NYT:
Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. The data suggest that half of overweight people and one-third of obese people are “metabolically healthy.” That means that despite their excess pounds, many overweight and obese adults have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and other risks for heart disease.
At the same time, about one out of four slim people — those who fall into the “healthy” weight range — actually have at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity, the study showed.