The Body Image Movement - Embrace

A good friend, Sharon, was telling me about an event and I thought it sounded like something that needed sharing. So, with that, I passed the blog over to her for the day!

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Martyn has very kindly offered me the opportunity to write a post about a cause that is very close to my heart...thank you, Martyn!

It's about body image, and specifically The Body Image Movement, which was founded by Australian Taryn Brumfitt as part of her personal quest to end, in her words, the global body-hating epidemic. 

 

Taryn's work is helping women to accept and feel better about themselves, and challenges the idea perpetuated by the media that external beauty = everything.  For someone who suffers often crippling low self-esteem, manifesting to a large degree in body image issues, Taryn's work has been of particular interest to me.

Taryn ran a successful Kick-starter campaign a couple of years ago to make a documentary film about body image and, as a result, has traversed the globe talking to women about this important issue.  The result is her ground-breaking and powerful film 'Embrace', which has had huge success in both Taryn's home country and in the USA since the summer.  Embrace is now set to launch in the UK and Ireland in January 2017.  The Embrace trailer can be seen here.

As a newly appointed Global Ambassador for the Body Image Movement I and like-minded others have put our hands up and volunteered to host screenings of Embrace in our local areas.  Mine, in Kent, is scheduled for 18 January 2017 at 6.30pm at Odeon Chatham.  The screenings are crowd-funded, meaning that as long as a certain number of tickets are reserved then the screening can take place.  If you wish to reserve a ticket for the Kent screening please do so asap via this link here.

 

 

I believe that Embrace is a very relevant and important film for everyone to see...although it has been created by a woman as a result of her own experiences, it is equally applicable to men, many of whom encounter similar body shaming and are constantly challenged by the media's perception of the 'ideal'.  It is also very relevant for teenagers who are certainly up against such challenges with the explosion of social media in recent years.  

If you are not in Kent but would like to see Embrace, the list of dates and venues are here.  If there is not one near you, you can put your own hand up to host one if you feel so inclined!

I look forward to meeting those of you who are interested in the Kent screening in January.

Best wishes

Sharon