#1 March 4th, 2015 01:30 PM

Laney

Administrator

Leonard Nimoy championed full-figured women through his photographs

Who knew Leonard Nimoy had a career as a photographer?

I love these photos selected from his 2007 book The Full Body Project. The models all look so comfortable, confident and strong. I respect him for choosing such excellent models and for fostering a space for them to express themselves so powerfully.

Check it out here: http://mashable.com/2015/02/27/leonard- … otographs/

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artemesia

Member

Re: Leonard Nimoy championed full-figured women through his photographs

Fuck yeh! Who actually knew, the photo's are so good technically and the models so joyous - loved it!

Lila_J

Member

Re: Leonard Nimoy championed full-figured women through his photographs

Amazing photos from an amazing man!

sondrine

Member

Re: Leonard Nimoy championed full-figured women through his photographs

Recently I read the artist statement of a contributor called Midori, who said "I am very comfortable being naked, so I saw this as a fresh challenge to see if I have any boundaries left I can overcome."

I think an important thing to take from this is, curvy/chunky/overweight women are often assumed to be ashamed of the way they look, and while positive body image campaigns are obviously intended to reach anybody and everybody, a lot of women don't need to be told to love themselves!!!

Certainly, a lot of women contribute to ISM to feel liberated, and gain confidence through the welcoming nature of the site, and the diversity of women who contribute. But I think it's a common misconception that women who are large are ashamed of their size, and need to be told that they too are beautiful, or that the only way they can love themselves is to 'accept' their flaws, when in actuality, they never saw them as flaws in the first place !

I'm naturally thin, yet like a lot of women, struggle myself from time to time with low self esteem and body negativity, so by no means am I dismissing the importance of body image campaigns. But this series by Nimoy, and the comments of Midori really made me think, is it insulting to assume that all women have body confidence issues ? Is it close minded to see a larger woman expressing herself and think 'good for her for being so brave' ?

Body image, indeeed, is a complex topic and, like a lot of my opinions on serious issues, I am constantly conflicted !

trevor

Member

Re: Leonard Nimoy championed full-figured women through his photographs

Sondrine, you are so right in your questions and in challenging assumptions.  While generalisations are useful in discussing a population, they are often utterly wrong in applying to an individual in that population--in the latter case the generalisations are apt to be a prejudice and hurtful at that.  It's thoughtful of you to share your interesting observations about yourself as well as others.  Thank you, very much.

Last edited by trevor (May 4th, 2015 05:33 PM)

polaroid

Member

Re: Leonard Nimoy championed full-figured women through his photographs

Sondrine thanks so much for such a thoughtful & thought provoking post. This is a topic i've been thinking about a lot recently after watching a documentary on tv that dealt with some of these themes & which i found really challenging. Like you, i find myself constantly conflicted on a lot of serious topics & definitely am on this one too, which is frustrating as i like the certainty of having a simple belief about a particular thing that you can put in one sentence & be really clear about but i know you often can't have that kind of certainty when you're talking about topics that deal with feelings which are so unique & different to each & every person & the more i think about it the more i can see the dangers in generalisations as Trevor said.

One thing i've noticed a lot is that society & the media's opinions seem to become very polarised & focus on the extremes, either people who are dramatically under or overweight & i've observed that some people who have a very strong view can often end up claiming some kind of exclusive ownership over the right to feel a lack of body confidence & give themselves the right to decide who is allowed to in their eyes 'legitimately' struggle with body confidence. I can only speak from my own experiences, & as someone like you Sondrine who is naturally thin, but who also suffers from time to time with very low self esteem & in my case have a very anxiety-ridden & often self destructive relationship with food because i'm worried about ever putting on weight, i am actually quite disturbed by the amount of times people have told me to stop being stupid or how i don't have the right to feel anxiety because i'm not overweight, as if peoples' confidence issues are only allowed to be given legitimacy if you are deemed by others to belong to a group who society has decided ought to be worried, based purely on how you look, which i find abhorrent. So society sends the message that because if you are neither too thin, or overweight, that your anxieties around food or your weight & how those affect your mental health are therefore trivial & illegitimate & your worries undeserving of compassion. And likewise, if society deems you to be attractive, it is deemed illegitimate & trivial if you have body confidence worries or lack confidence, with only those deemed under or overweight, or deemed unattractive, allowed to possess those worries. But what i find equally abhorrent is how society, once its set out who is allowed to feel these anxieties, then proceeds to make sure, through shaming, bullying & abuse, that those people do develop the anxieties they've decided should be a non-negotible inevitability of the status they've attributed to them.

I apologise as i'm probably not making much sense, i think i'm going through one of those phases at the moment where i really struggle to put my thoughts into words & then hate what i've written afterwards & feel anxiety about it but i really want to contribute to & be a part of all these amazing conversations that everyone's having so i hope i've made at least a little sense.

Ben xx

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