By Kaye Toal Dear Jennifer Lawrence, I’m in love with you. I hope that’s not awkward to admit and that it doesn’t, you know, complicate your day or something. I also hope whoever you’re dating, if you’re dating anyone, doesn’t completely hate me. I’m probably the LEAST threatening person to be confessing my love, anyway, [...]
By Kaye Toal As a body positive activist, I am often asked, “Kaye, what do you mean by ‘diet culture?’” Diet culture (I explain) is what we live in, where various diets are businesses that make billions upon billions of dollars marketing a product that has a 95% failure rate. Diet culture means that many [...]
By Kaye Toal Hey, SPARK readers! Let’s play a game! First: think of some men who do not fit “traditional” or socially-acceptable male beauty standards but still feature in TV shows and movies where their roles revolve around something other than their weight. Men like, say, Seth Rogen. Or Chris Farley. Or Jack Black. Or Danny [...]
By Kaye Toal Dear Mattel CEO Robert Eckert, I’ve got a bone to pick with Barbie. Recently, I saw Mattel’s new ad for Barbie promoting her “I Can Be Anything” line, and at first I was not all that annoyed by it. It’s okay: young girls of various ethnicities talk about how they can be [...]
By Kaye Toal Turn off the TV for a second, if you have it on. I want to have a little bit of a conversation with you, and the last thing I want is for it to be interrupted by yet another weight loss commercial gimmick. They crop up more and more often this time [...]
By Bailey Shoemaker Richards and Kaye Toal Today is boot camp for all of you 101 shoppers. This holiday season, it’s more important than ever that we tackle the stores with a critical eye, since it seems like companies are always ramping up their attempts to sexualize, demean and otherwise alienate young women shoppers. From [...]
