Early yesterday, I posted this photo on the Enchanted Zaftig Facebook page. My intent was to encourage a conversation about it ~ what do you see? what do you think? how do you feel? Occasionally, I post photos of social importance to stimulate responses from the Enchanted Zaftig community and to help us grow and learn as a society.
This particular photo received what was quite possibly the highest number of responses I have yet to see on the Facebook profile. Approximately 11 new people joined the page yesterday, adding comments of sadness, disbelief, confusion, even positive reinforcement about how beautiful they think this woman really is.
Yes, it’s a simple photo ~ black and white, some words scribbled on the subject’s torso ~ and yet the symbolism is profound. She’s thanking someone, the world perhaps, for hating her body, for making her feel inferior, for causing her emotional pain. You can see it clearly in her eyes. In the heaviness of her shoulders. Across her forehead should be written: “Low self-esteem”.
This photo drips with sarcasm and sorrow.
At some point in the night, Facebook decided that it needed to be deleted, due to violation of their Rights and Responsibilities code (*gasp* there are nipples showing!) Although I respect and understand Facebook’s policy, I wish that it could be focused more upon pornographic nudity rather than on such a poignant portrayal of one woman’s self-loathing that sadly mirrors a large majority of our population.
It is a photo meant to inspire a conversation, not masturbation.
So here I am… posting it on the Enchanted Zaftig blog, where it will (hopefully) not be censored or removed.
Please feel free to share your comments below:
Enchanted Zaftig 
I love the message, very powerful. Your body. It’s just wonderful. I hope you love it. You should. It starts with those deep dark eyes. The rest of you is just gorgeous. I hope the post stays up. Ciao
Not that it matters what I think but you are beautiful.
Who would hate such a body? That body speaks to me and says, “I am fertile, can easily bear offspring with little complications and can easily feed my babies.” That, to me as a man, is a natural part of female beauty.
As someone who is dysmorphic (in my case about my face rather than my body – I’m okay about my body, it’s good for a middle-aged woman, pear-shaped, small breasts) I can understand the message, the expression in the woman’s eyes, damn near everything. “Thank you for hating my body because it doesn’t conform to the aspirational crap of adverts and soft porn, and thank you for making me hate myself,” is what she seems to be saying to me. There is a certain amount of disdain for the viewer, an a little bit of challenge, and I think therein lies the disturbing nature of the picture.
She certainly doesn’t have an ugly body, she has a fairly ordinary body, one which falls within the scope of what one can expect a body to be, one that is in the fat-to-skinny range that you find amongst our half of humanity.
Facebook’s ‘policy’ is indiscriminate, undiscriminating, by which I mean it fails to discriminate between an image that is pornographic and one that is not. In that respect it is not a policy but a diktat, not a policy but a stony-faced prejudice. At best, Facebook simply can’t be bothered. I am sorry to say that it is typical of New American Puritanism (sorry to drag America into this, but Facebook IS an American corporation, it is ‘Facebook Inc’) in which it is okay to carry weapons and execute the feeble-minded but it is considered unspeakable to display a nipple. Their ‘policy’ displays the utmost disrespect for the woman in the photograph and proves the truth of the displayed slogan. Facebook hates this woman. Facebook hates this entire woman, not just her nipples.
Would Facebook delete this image, a painting by Renoir: http://artmight.com/albums/2011-02-07/art-upload-2/r/Renoir-Pierre-Auguste/renoir-nude-girl-reclining-1917.jpg ? Would they delete my Gustave Courbet avatar if I displayed it in full?
Thank you for blogging on this subject and for bringing it to our attention.
M
__________
Marie Marshall
writer/poet/editor/blogger
Scotland
http://mairibheag.com
http://kvennarad.wordpress.com
I can relate to how she feels. Not because she’s ugly, because she isn’t, but because that’s how I feel about myself. However, having a different size body is not going to help. I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum and still hated myself either way.
So many people DO feel this way about themselves… and that is the crisis! No matter what, no matter what you look like or how you FEEL you look, you are a person of GREAT WORTH. You have something to offer this world! Find ways to discover what that is (or what THEY are, because you probably possess many gifts). Hugs!
http://www.manifestyourpotential.com/self_discovery/2_find_follow_your_bliss/find_gifts_talents/book_toc_your_gifts_and_talents.htm
I see nothing wrong with her body, what a shame that society has made her feel this way. Self-confidence is everything!! I think she looks beautiful!
I find this photo very disturbing. I have gone back to it several times trying to see what it is that is so bothering to me. Why is she thanking me for hating her body. I don’t hate her body, in fact I find it very pleasing.
I think that the real underlying statement here is; Why do I hate my body.
You can see it in her eyes.
Yes, there is definite sarcasm in her statement, which makes it all the more compelling. Her eyes tell it all… sorrow. Thank you for your comment.