Pro Infirmis

I am not someone who lives with a disability, but as I have said before, I am an Ally and I will do my very best to sympathize, listen and spread your story.

A striking video released on December 2nd, 2013 that will change the way you see the fashion industry and brings about an issue that very few even consider while shopping. Pro Infirmis released this 4 minute video for International Day of Persons with Disabilities and shows how little those who have a disability are presented in media and fashion in general. 

Pro Infirmis specifically designed mannequins to represent those who may be missing limbs, may be confined to a wheelchair, may have a spinal malformation and more. The mannequins were then shown on the Zurich Bahnhoffstrasse and the video show passersby reactions. It's very apparent none of the civilians have ever seen someone with a physical disability be represented in fashion, and this can cause great damage to one's self-image and esteem.

In entertainment and the media, those who have intellectual or physical disabilities are often portrayed as an object of pity, a hero that "overcomes" their disability and most often are sex-less beings. Once again, not only does this cause great harm to the body image of those who live with a disability due to lack of representation in a positive light but it implies they cannot engage in a fully functioning, or society's idea of a "normal" life. Just like the lack of PoC in media, it's time to change the representation of characters, models, etc. to show that living with a disability is not a imprisonment and to shatter the current beauty standard.

Denise Jolly

I was perusing Jezebel, a well-known women's interest blog whose tagline is "Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without Airbrushing." when I came across an article titled This is the Best Body-Positive Image You'll See Today in the trending section. It's an amazing blog piece on an amazing woman.

Denise Jolly is an activist and artist that promotes self-love and care, as well as the importance of a positive body image. Today Shameless Photography released a photo shoot of Jolly, recreating the infamous hitchhiking photo Madonna starred in in 1992.

The photo got a lot of publicity, even Madonna tweeted about the importance of the message it's sending. In the The Huffington Post article about the photo, Jolly is quoted as saying 

"...it took 33 years for me to see women my size living proudly and unapologetically in their naked bodies. This is unacceptable. There are women, people, bodies all over the world raised to believe they are unwanted and invisible. We are not built to be invisible; we are built to be the cast and anchor of desire, no matter our size or makeup."

Jolly also did a 30 Day challenge where she took a photo of herself nearly nude in every photo and wrote somewhere in the photo "Be Beautiful". Denise Jolly is an amazing woman working to change the view on what is and is not beautiful in this country. She deserves all the publicity she can get, so I thought I'd help out and write my blog post about her. She stresses how difficult learning to love yourself can be, but it's absolutely worth the challenge. She also emphasizes the importance of loving yourself and your body in public, not just behind closed doors. Be loud and proud about the body you've got, be unrelentingly in love with what you have. As a 19 year old girl who has struggled to be in love with my own body, her words almost brought me to tears. She is such an inspiration and is a trail blazer in the fight for self-love.

If you want to learn more about Denise, and I highly suggest you do, go to her website here.