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A blank canvas is perhaps the most intriguing image. And a blank canvas is exactly how Real Women, Real Bodies describes the human figure.Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, University of Wyoming students of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, etc., allowed Real Women, Real Bodies to draw all over their blank canvases for our fourth photo voice campaign.
Campaign 4 includes the models bearing a body part of their choice – be it a hand, foot, back, stomach, chest, butt, neck – with a quote written on it. The quotes included everything from “trans and beautiful” to “my worth does not depend on what you think my body should look like” to 2 Corinthians 4:16 to “I am forged of iron and fire.”
These images of naked body parts with handwritten messages are a call to everyone to feel positively about themselves: the variety of sizes of different body parts illustrates how everyone is so different, and everyone deserves happiness, despite what people see on the outside; the quotes serve as a way for each model to touch someone else with positivity and hope. At the end of the day, the campaign serves as more than just a way to promote positive body image for others. Perhaps the best feeling for myself, president of Real Women, Real Bodies, is when models come in and strip down. The smiles on their faces, the excitement of showing something so personal to create positive change, the proud feelings our models come away with – if these women and men were the only ones who got anything out of the campaign, it would all be worth it. Hopefully viewers of the images can gleam some of this amazing feeling just by looking at the finished images.Â
To see the Campaign 4 images, look around campus in the spring semester. You can also check out our Facebook page or follow us on Instagram or Twitter, @rwrb_uw.Feel free to message us if you ever feel like painting your own canvas.