Jes Baker | |
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| Years active | 2013−-present |
| Known for | Body positive movement |
Jes M. Baker is an American writer, photographer, and activist, best known for being part of the body positive movement. [1] [2] She blogs as The Militant Baker. Her writing focuses on self-image, and topics range from body hair to rape culture. [3] [4] Baker founded the Body Love Conference, which held regional conferences in Arizona in 2014 and 2015. [5] [6]
Baker was born in 1986, [7] the eldest daughter of a large Mormon family. [8] She went to college in Arizona and Idaho. [9] After college, she worked as a pastry chef, a psych-social rehabilitation specialist, and a mental health educator at a company that provides job support to those with mental difficulties. [9]
In March 2012 Baker began blogging, using the moniker The Militant Baker. [10] She was inspired by a body positive writer named Rachele who ran a blog called The Nearsighted Owl. [2] Baker's blog features posts on equality, recipes, body positive language, DIY, notes on self-acceptance, the feminist movement, and empowerment. In her blog, she explores the connection between self-esteem, body image and mental health.
In 2013, Baker helped create a series of images, using the phrase "Attractive and Fat". [11] The images were a response to the advertisements of the clothing store Abercrombie and Fitch. Baker, who wears a size 22, changed the store's logo from A&F to "Attractive and Fat" in a mock ad, intended to challenge the marketing strategies of the store. Back in 2006, store CEO Mike Jeffries had publicly made a statement that only "cool kids" belonged in Abercrombie clothes, that the store was exclusively for those who were considered to be popular. In May 2013, Baker wrote "I challenge the separation of attractive and fat, and I assert that they are compatible regardless of what you believe;" Following this, Jeffries issued an apology. [1]
Baker's photo for The Adipositivity Project in 2013 was described by Bustle magazine as one of 'The Most Body Positive Photos From the Last 30 Years'. [12] In 2014, she co-founded the Expose Project, [13] which features views of bodies that don't conform to cultural stereotypes and standards of beauty. [14] [15]
In 2014 she gave a TEDx talk, explaining how body insecurity hinders personal and professional productivity: [16] "the way we view our bodies determines the way we participate in the world." [17] In 2015, she coined the term "body currency" [18] referring to how people devote their financial and mental energies to make their exterior bodies perfect, at the cost of mental happiness. [12]
In October 2015, her book Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls was published. The book includes short guest essays by Virgie Tovar, Sonya Renee Taylor, Andrew Walen, Jen McLellan, Shanna Katz Kattari, Kimberly A. Peace, Sam Dylan Finch, Bruce Sturgell, and Chrystal Bougon, who present perspectives and experiences on topics like self-acceptance and unlearning patriarchal beauty standards. [5] In addition, Baker shares personal experiences paired with research. [19] To promote the book, Baker developed the hashtag #FatGirlsCan as a way for women to share videos and images of what activities they can participate in regardless of their body size. [20] [21] According to WorldCat, the book is held in 230 libraries. [22]
Baker was the October/November 2015 cover model for DailyVenusDiva.com. [23] She also has written for publications like xoJane , Ravishly and Volup2.
Baker has discussed her struggles with depression as well as borderline personality disorder. She has over 20 tattoos, which she has said was a way for her to acknowledge the visibility of areas of her body, like her arms, which she struggled with. [8]
Body image is a person's thoughts, feelings and perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body. The concept of body image is used in several disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, philosophy, cultural and feminist studies; the media also often uses the term. Across these disciplines, there is no single consensus definition, but broadly speaking, body image consists of the ways people view themselves; their memories, experiences, assumptions, and comparisons about their appearances; and their overall attitudes towards their respective heights, shapes, and weights—all of which are shaped by prevalent social and cultural ideals.
Ashley Graham Ervin is an American model and television presenter. Graham made her debut on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2016. A year later, she published her first book, A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like, which contributes to her advocacy in the body positivity and inclusion movement.
Michael Stanton Jeffries is an American businessman who was chairman and CEO of clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014. During Jeffries' tenure, he engineered a turnaround of Abercrombie & Fitch from a "fashion backwater" losing $25 million yearly to a lifestyle brand grossing $2 billion yearly by 2006, though this approach courted controversy with the advertising of semi-nude models, racially and sexually insensitive slogans, and the stance of marketing to "cool kids".
Hollister Co., often advertised as Hollister or HCo., is a retail brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch Co, selling apparel, accessories, and fragrances. Goods are available in-store and through the company's online store. Hollister says it was founded in 1922 in Hollister, California; however, it was founded in 2000 in Ohio by Abercrombie.
Rachel Earl is an English writer and broadcaster. She is best known as the author of the 2007 book My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary, a collection of the diaries she wrote as a teenager which was later adapted into the E4 comedy-drama series My Mad Fat Diary (2013–2015)
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer, founded in 1892 and currently focusing on contemporary clothing targeting customers in their early 20's to mid 40's. Headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, the company operates three offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks with 845 company operated stores across its brands, as of February 2020.
Amy Lemons is an American fashion model and model advocate. She rose to fame quickly by landing the cover of Italian Vogue at age 14. Her ascent in the modeling industry included shooting the covers of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle and Marie Claire. She also landed campaigns for Abercrombie and Fitch, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, and Louis Vuitton. After a brief hiatus to earn her college degree from UCLA, Amy came back to the modeling industry and began speaking out about the industry's "zero-sized standard" and healthy self-esteem for young women.
My Mad Fat Diary is a British period teen comedy-drama television series that debuted on E4 on 14 January 2013. It is based on the novel My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary by Rae Earl.
Elizabeth Anne Velásquez is an American motivational speaker, activist, writer, and YouTuber. She was born with an extremely rare congenital disease called Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome that, among other symptoms, prevents her from accumulating body fat and gaining weight. Her conditions resulted in bullying during her childhood. During her teenage years, she faced cyberbullying, which ultimately inspired her to take up motivational speaking.
Myla Grace Dalbesio is an American model, artist, and writer.
Ryann Maegen Hoven, known professionally as Tess Holliday and formerly known as Tess Munster, is an American plus-size model, blogger, and make-up artist based in Los Angeles.
"Basic" is a slang term in American popular culture, used pejoratively to describe culturally unoriginal people, particularly young women, who are perceived to prefer products, trends, and music that will make them look upper class even though they are not. "Basic bitch" originated in hip hop culture and rose in popularity through rap music, songs, blogs, and videos from 2011 to 2014. The male counterpart can often be put under the "bro" label.
Sonya Renee Taylor is a New York Times best-selling author, activist, thought leader, spoken word artist, and founder of The Body is Not An Apology global movement. Taylor's work focuses on body liberation, racial justice, and transformational change using her framework of radical self-love. The author of seven books, Taylor's other projects include the popular "What's Up, Y'all?" video series and the reparations-inspired Buy Back Black Debt initiative, which in October 2020 cleared over half a million dollars in Black-held debt. She is a Black queer woman who also holds the identities fat, cisgender, and neurodivergent. Her pronouns are she/her.
Chrystal Bougon is the owner of Curvy Girl Lingerie, a plus-size lingerie store, and the CEO of BlissConnection. She is the author of The Curvy Girl Playbook, and executive co-producer of the reality television show Plus Life. She is also the host of the radio show Everyone Wants to Have Better Sex.
Neelam Kaur Gill is a British fashion model and activist. She has worked with Burberry, Abercrombie & Fitch and appeared in Vogue magazine.
Iskra Arabella Lawrence is a British model.
Leomie Jasmin Francis Anderson is a British fashion model, television presenter, and activist. She walked in four consecutive Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows from 2015 to 2018, and became a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2019. Anderson was included in a 2020 Forbes '30 Under 30' list for the art & culture category.
Fran Horowitz-Bonadies is an American businesswoman. She is the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., a position she has held since her appointment in February 2017 following Mike Jeffries.
Jessamyn Stanley is an American yoga teacher and body positivity advocate and writer. She gained recognition through her Instagram posts showing her doing yoga as a "plus-size woman of color," who self-identifies as a "fat femme" and "queer femme." She is the author of the books Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear, Get On the Mat, Love Your Body and Yoke: My Yoga of Self Acceptance.
White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch is a 2022 American documentary film made for Netflix and directed by Alison Klayman. The film focuses on Abercrombie & Fitch's massive success and controversies during the late 1990s to 2000s. It was released on April 19, 2022.
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