Thursday, November 10, 2016

There Are Thin Bodies Too

I was surprised a few weeks ago to learn that a joint advertising campaign between the Toronto Ballet and the Toronto Transit Commission was deemed controversial and criticized as promoting
"unrealistic and highly regimented bodies as some sort of an ideal of ‘beauty."
The campaign, titled, "We Move You", features members of the Toronto Ballet in poses in and around Toronto's subway stations, street cars, buses, and trains.

There's no denying of course the dancers are very lean, and don't look like you or me.

But the campaign isn't tied in any way to self worth, beauty, or health.

It's a campaign highlighting the incredible athleticism and grace of ballet dancers, along with the fact that subways literally move people.

Though I definitely agree with the critic's statement that
We can’t deny that there is a lot of body-based discrimination that happens … within our moves around the city”,
isn't the suggestion that the bodies depicted in these pictures are somehow wrong or unhealthy a form of body-based discrimination?

While I'm clearly not shy to call out fat shaming, I just don't think this is that. There are thin bodies too.