In another life I used to judge body building competitions, however when the steroid culture kicked in my conscience made me wave it all goodbye. So I was intrigued to learn about positive body image activist Taryn Brumfitt’s debut movie Embrace.
copyright The Ponder Room
Embrace is a documentary taking us on Brumfitt’s personal journey from ‘body loather to body lover’. Some 500 people packed Luna in Leederville to watch the movie and most stayed for the Q&A session.
Photographer and mother of two Brumfitt faced the usual doubts about her post baby body, nothing surprising there. But then a lightbulb moment came when she realised she’d had negative thoughts about her body every day. Looking at her young daughter, she decided she ‘didn’t want her to waste a single day worrying about her body.’
‘I’m more than what I look like. I can waste my time on how I look versus thinking about how I can contribute,’ explained Brumfitt.
In 2013 she placed a before and after photo on social media, the ‘Before’ showed her fleeting body building attempt, the ‘After’ a more Rubenesque figure. The result …
Brumfitt was up until 3am reading emails, most supportive, some not. The images were seen by over 100 million people. When asked if she’d thought it through her reply was simple … ‘no’.
Fast forward through a successful crowdfunding attempt and Brumfitt was soon jetting around the world interviewing women about their bodies. The movie includes interviews with Ricki Lake, body image blogger Jess Baker (the Militant Baker), Adelaide research professor Marika Tiggemann, UK talk show host Amanda de Cadenet, Cosmopolitan editor Mia Freedman and motivational speaker Turia Pitt.
The movie touches on some issues that have already been heavily promoted e.g. photoshopping of beauty images (think the Dove campaign), or that models have been known to survive on Gatorade soaked cotton balls. So too the well promoted sentiment that ‘we are the consumers, we have the power, we have to exercise our power in how we spend our money.’ However, there was also some new information such as the recent increase in eating disorders recorder amongst Fijian women (attributed to the globalisation of female beauty images) or that Iran is the ‘nose job capital of the world’.
Aside from the movie Brumfitt established the Body Image Movement, where she urges women (and men) to:
- love your body unconditionally;
- have a positive relationship with your body;
- to end judgement;
- to embrace diversity (especially on the catwalk);
- to take a pledge to do one positive thing to embrace your body; and
- to share your stories.
‘To walk through life with unconditional love for your body. When you get a handle on this you can do anything, it frees up time to think about other things.’
She added that we should praise our young girls for ‘what they do, not what they look like … it’s not about ‘you look pretty in that dress’, it’s ‘what are you going to do in that dress’.’
The movie has received international support from the likes of Perez Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Rosie O’Donnell and Zooey Deschanel. To her critics, who say she is promoting obesity, she counters that she made the film for women not critics.
While you could easily come away thinking it’s all well intentioned rhetoric, and just another movie jumping on the bandwagon of That Sugar Movie and the like, this doesn’t appear to be the case. For starters it has been a long road for Brumfitt, having to raise her own capital and combat the film Classification Board which has given her movie a rating of MA15+. Brumfitt was not impressed.
‘I’m shocked and outraged that the Board has deemed Embrace unsuitable for Under 15 year olds. Quite frankly I think they’ve made a terrible mistake, there is already enough body shaming in the world, we certainly don’t need anymore. The whole point of the classification system is to protect minor from being exposed to harmful content, but what exactly is the Board protecting them from? These images are confronting yes, but the only way they could be harmful is if they continue to be censored.’
Similarly Facebook won’t allow a post of the films poster (shown above) to be used to reach additional audiences because the images was deemed to show ‘excessive skin’.
Undeterred Brumfitt is steaming ahead. At present she is aiming to get the movie released in primary schools and onto the curriculum. With 500 Ambassadors around the world who are prepared to give one hour at a time to share blog posts and help out, she’s clearly not alone.
As I watched the audience come to their feet in a standing ovation I pondered:
- Clearly this has hit a nerve;
- We haven’t seen the last of Taryn Bromfitt, I can’t wait to see what she does next and more importantly what her daughter grows up to be;
- This is a great example of following your passion, asking for help and not letting others get in your way;
- I wish her lots of luck in getting the movie infront of those who really need to see it.
Starts August 4 at Luna Leederville and Luna on SX
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Thought provoking
