Buy Walking VideosLeonard Nimoy’s The Full Body Project
Serious props go out to Leonard Nimoy for his book, The Full Body Project: Photographs by Leonard Nimoy. He is promoting a healthier vision of what makes a woman sexy. It’s a photography book that focuses on the larger sized woman.
He even had the cajones to go onto the Colbert Report and defend his book:
I love how he explains the importance of such a book to Stephen Colbert:
“There really has been a standard established and the standard is presented to us by the women who model the clothes. The issue is this: the average woman in this country weighs 25% more than those models do and they will never attain that body shape, so they have been sold on the idea that they don’t look right. You have been told that there is something wrong with you and you have to buy our pills, or buy our diet, or buy our surgery, or whatever…”
Stephen Colbert said that he wouldn’t call Mr. Nimoy a pornographer and then goes ahead and calls him a pornographer. He defended himself beautifully:
“This book would be appropriate on the coffee table of every home in the United States, particularly where there are young ladies involved and I’ll tell you why. Because young girls are standing in front of mirrors as a result of what they’ve been sold as being the standard and say, ‘I hate my body.'”
Thanks, Leonard Nimoy, for showing us that you can be fat and sexy.
Via: February 14 Colbert Report: Leonard Nimoy (Video) | TV Crunch
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February 17th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Hi Laura. Good point about those trying to change their lives! Please check my blog. It just seems that they are making it ok to be obese when we know how internally sick it can make us. Then we turn to prescription drugs for help and that only makes matters worse. When I was fat, I was depressed and couldn’t find clothes to fit me, walking up my stairs to the bedroom was exhausting, and I felt old – very old, though I was only 25. I struggled for years on my own trying to lose weight, gain confidence, and get healthy. I didn’t have any help and it was extrememly difficult with kids, work, and a very low budget. I ended up landing a babysitting job at a health club in exchange for a membership and small paycheck. I work very hard, am always caring, kind, compassionate, and striving for people to be happy. My goal is to help as many people as possible, as they are ready to change.
February 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Thank you for writing about the Full Body Project. I am one of the models. A message that the models fight for is Health At Every Size (HAES), Fat Acceptance, Body Acceptance. You can be fat and healthy. We are dancers, performers, activists, and love our bodies – no matter their size. We take care of ourselves and love every inch. With Leonard Nimoy’s permission, I have created a MySpace page to promote the book, the models and our messages.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I am a huge promoter of “body prideâ€. I detest weightism, as much as I do sexism, racism, etc. I have worked very hard to love my body at even/especially, my heaviest weights. I have in the past, and currently do, coach a number of people in their weight loss efforts. I was thrilled to find this website, and I have truly enjoyed it. I feel grateful for the kindnesses received from Laura and others. That said, I have a problem. I see this picture as blatant pornography, and I feel very sad about the fact that it is here, in a place I have considered safe. Pornography has caused me deep problems over the years, not the least of which was having my family destroyed when I was 8 years old; due to my Father’s pornography addiction and pedophilism. I need to send deep thanks for the kindness and enjoyment I have found on this site, but politely withdraw myself from future participation here. I feel very sad about that, but feel that it is imperative; because to me, pornography is a far greater poison than overeating will ever be. I appreciate and respect that we all have different viewpoints, and I wish each of you success and joy in your weight loss journey.
Sincerely,
Diana, NASM CPT
June 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Appreciating ones own views can prolong the victimized mentality. While my art has been easily seen as being pronographic because it depicts illustrations of fictional couples copulating in graphic detail. Just as generalizing women or men or races can be stereotypical it needs to be stressed to all that there is a world out there that is not black or white, but very full in the ranges of gray. While promoting different body types is generally seen as a good thing, it lends people like Diana, to believe that despite the consideration of Nimoys promotion of bigger women , she sees it as nothing more than pornography. Certain personal aversions will be what ultimately creates our own sense of who were are what we like and dislike, what has shaped our opinions and gives us generalizations in order to approach new topics and use our conviction as cornerstones terminology. I do not agree that this is pronographic , though I do not agree that Nimoy is promoting a healthier woman. Obesity is not healthy, showing overweight women may be shocking when gauged against ” supermodels” but what about people who are generally fit? To me this shows a pride in being satisfied with being overweight and nothing else. To say that these women can not get to a supermodel status is also demeaning, pessimistic and not giving credit to someones underlying character.
May 27th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
The point was not, in my opinion, to promote anything other than “women.”
Not every woman is healthy. That doesn’t mean she needs to hate herself. That doesn’t mean she cant love her life while she works towards a healthier lifestyle when she makes the choice to do so.
Only portraying fit women, thin women or large women in an entire culture is wrong. Just WOMEN. All women, no matter what they look like, should be able to live, love and pursue happiness.
Overweight women should be proud to BE, just as every other person should be if they are living their life the way they desire. We don’t send the message that people with high blood pressure or high colesterol should hate themselves and be ashamed of their less-than-healthy bodies… why put that stigma on women who are overweight? And if anyone thinks those things are more difficult to control than weight, they obviously haven’t been an overweight person their whole life 🙂
Stop judging, stop telling people how they should feel or think. Live your life and respect and admire others for living theirs.