[LINK] NOW Toronto's 2016 Body Issue

[rfmcdonald]

Last week, weekly NOW Toronto had a lovely cover page feature, examining the relationships between people and their bodies and between individual people and their bodies.

The new year should be a time for positivity and celebration, but too often that gets lost in negative messaging designed to make you feel like a load of crap.

"Diet! Eat less! Join a gym! Survive on juice/tea/kale alone!" Corporations and media alike seem determined to spread self-hate disguised as discipline, ambition and health-consciousness. It's all about the New You. Never mind the perfectly good old you.

Tired of the ubiquitous body-shaming that rears its ugly head each January, we decided to change the conversation and create the Love Your Body Issue. It features an inspiring and diverse mix of Torontonians willing to bare (almost) all for the camera to promote body positivity. In these pages you'll find stories of tragedy, growth, transformation and acceptance alongside compelling photos of brave subjects representing an array of shapes, sizes, abilities, orientations, genders and colours.

On the surface, 2015 seemed like a pretty good year for diversity. Jourdan Dunn became the first model of colour to cover Vogue UK in 12 years. Beauty and fashion brands tapped older women like Joan Didion, Joni Mitchell and Iris Apfel to star in ad campaigns. c debuted on the cover of Vanity Fair, accepted Glamour's Woman Of The Year Award and the ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage Award. The United States Supreme Court ruled states must allow same-sex marriage.

Genderless dressing exploded on the scene, and major brands did away with separate male and female styles. The ROM's exhibition of local designer Izzy Camilleri's IZ Adaptive line for people in wheelchairs was honoured by the prestigious Costume Society of America.

The core of this feature are the nude photos of twelve different people, of varying races, genders, and sexual orientations, and these individuals' descriptions of how they've come to relate to their body. It's a fascinating read, one that's relevant for me right now.