Beautiful Just The Way You Are

“I AM INSPIRED BY YOUR PROJECT OF CHALLENGING POPULAR MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN.”

BEAUTIFUL Just The Way You Are (BJTWYA) was a protest intervention project begun in 2009 that included 15,000 printed posters mailed to respondents, a BJTWYA website, a blog, and the interventions performed by thousands of people any place where magazines were displayed.  Posters were sent all over the U.S. as well as Canada, Europe, and Australia.  The following text was printed on the back of every poster:

BEAUTIFUL Just The Way You Are (BJTWYA) is an art action to protest the relentless objectification of girls and women throughout our culture. Launched on May 30, 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, BJTWYA takes place at any magazine rack.  Anyone, in any location, can participate.  This is the action:  You walk up to a magazine stand and place one of the BJTWYA posters over every stack of magazines that use the female body to sell something - to sell the magazine, to sell an article, to sell a product, to sell a lifestyle, to sell a promise, or to sell the idea that you need to match your body to the picture. You decide which covers qualify. You place a poster over each one. Then you walk away.

You can do the art action anywhere - at supermarkets, bookstores, doctors’ offices, hotels, convenience stores, news stands, libraries – any place you see the opportunity.  You can place the poster in front of a stack or behind the first or second magazine in a stack to be revealed later.  You can put them inside the magazines in waiting rooms or give them to others. All you need is a supply of the BEAUTIFUL Just The Way You Are posters, available online at www.bjtwya.com.

BEAUTIFUL Just The Way You Are comes out of a deep disturbance at the ease with which our culture robs our humanity through such common mechanisms as education, media, and fashion. In spite of major 20th Century advances of the women's movement in critical areas of suffrage, labor, and education, the last thirty years have seen a persistent devaluing of women that is supported, promoted, and disseminated by an exploding infrastructure of corporate media and technology. Violence against women and distortions of body image are not abating. Glaring inequalities between men and women persist, yet "feminism" is a word avoided by many. The pressure for girls and women to make themselves into sexual objects for consumption by others is stronger than ever, with a growing list of methods to achieve it. Pornography has become mainstream while becoming increasingly degrading to women. Self-objectification is construed as empowerment. Self-degradation is confused with self-determination.

BEAUTIFUL Just The Way You Are takes advantage of the power of a graphic image and repetition as well as the power of collective action. The magazine rack is only one of many locations where we are taught the lessons of our culture, but it is one that is ubiquitous throughout our towns and cities and reaches every stratum of the population. At the magazine rack words and pictures work together seamlessly, like a good children's book, to teach and tell a story of who we are. Before girls are ten, and then without pause throughout their lives, they internalize the lesson that their bodies are how they will be first judged, and that there is a body type that they must attain to be judged worthy of attention. We learn that the female body can be used to sell anything - tangible or intangible - to women, men, and children. The use of a motorcycle, a deodorant, a vacation, a necktie, or a beverage implies ownership of the woman's body pasted into the advertisement. Although all humans are born with beauty and power, our early unquestioned self is quickly corrupted. We adopt an anxiety while navigating a path towards a culturally dictated state of beauty and power.

BEAUTIFUL Just The Way You Are seeks to intervene in the space between all who stand before the magazine rack and the engine of advertising and mass culture. In that space of daily life, it places an alternative. BJTWYA is an invitation to act.

BLOG EXCERPTS

November 25, 2009

Even though the BJTWYA action takes place where magazines are displayed, the topic goes far beyond magazines. The BJTWYA blog is a place to start and join conversations that identify the experiences we have with objectification in our daily lives.

Beginning with an anecdote:

I am at a dinner party at a house with seven adults and three children. Sitting around the table, we are beginning to savor the food, sending compliments to the chef for the chicken dish that is on our plates. The person who cooked it describes the recipe and how he looked diligently in the supermarket for the cut of meat he prefers for this dish. A male friend across the table is working his chicken with fork and knife and chimes in, "I like my breasts thick," followed by a response from the chef's wife, who chuckles and says, "implant size!"

I sit in stunned silence, feeling a burning need to say something but muzzled by the fear of sending the whole dinner party off its intended course of pleasant chatter. Everybody keeps eating. A normal dinner party.

Once again, I miss an opportunity to speak up. Later, as I always do after one of these incidents, I vow to be ready with a comment the next time.  To make a small gesture of protest, in daily life, and interrupt a few dinner parties.