Love Your Body Day – October 18

Wednesday, the 18th of October, marks the annual Love Your Body Day.

This day was founded by the NOW Foundation, or the National Organization for Women Foundation.  The Love Your Body campaign “challenges the message that a woman’s value is best measured through her willingness and ability to embody current beauty standards,” according to the LYBD’s website.

For more than ten years, the Love Your Body campaign has been “encourag[ing] women and girls to celebrate their bodies and reject the narrow beauty ideals endorsed in the media.”  They are raising awareness of the sexism in society and, most importantly, doing something about it.

On their website (loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org), there is a page specifically called “What You Can Do.”  Here they offer heaps of ways for people to take action against sexism and to encourage equality.  A few of these ideas include creating your own images of beauty, making a pact promising to respect yourself, and to even contact advertisers and other media outlets to “embrace positive, healthy, inclusive portrayals of girls and women.”

York High School is involved in this nation-wide day as well.  The feminist club, EMPOWER, sets up posters throughout the school spreading awareness.  Some of the posters include information on the negative portrayal of women in the media.  In the bathroom stalls are posters with positive quotes on them with space for students to write their own empowering phrases.

This day brings awareness to a value that every person should embrace every day: equality.