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] Inspired by a body positive writer named Rachele who wrote 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 a number of 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 own appearances; and their overall attitudes towards their own respective heights, shapes, and weights—all of which are shaped by prevalent social and cultural ideals.
Ashley Graham Ervin is an American plus-sized model and television presenter. After a lifetime of modeling, Graham had 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.
Health at Every Size (HAES) is an approach to public health that seeks to de-emphasise weight loss as a health goal, and reduce stigma towards people who are overweight or obese. Proponents argue that traditional interventions focused on weight loss, such as dieting, do not reliably produce positive health outcomes, and that health is a result of lifestyle behaviors that can be performed independently of body weight. However, many criticize the approach and argue that weight loss should sometimes be an explicit goal of healthcare interventions, because of the negative health outcomes associated with obesity.
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 uses a narrative of being 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 (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of February 2020, the company operated 854 stores across all brands.
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.
April Flores, also known as Fatty Delicious, or Fatty D, is an American pornographic actress and director, writer, photographer, makeup artist, and plus-size model.
My Mad Fat Diary is a British 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, author, 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 people who are perceived to prefer mainstream products, trends, and music. "Basic bitch" originated in hip hop culture and rose in popularity through rap music, songs, blogs, and videos from 2011 to 2014. Their male counterparts are usually termed "bros". Similar labels to "basic bitch" or "airhead" in other English-speaking countries include contemporary British "Essex girls" and "Sloane Rangers", and Australian "haul girls" known for their love of shopping for designer gear, and uploading videos of their purchases on YouTube.
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. Her website describes her as "one of many midwives for the new world." 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 BlissConnection.com. She is the author of the book "The Curvy Girl Playbook". She is the executive producer of the television show Plus Life. She is also the host of the radio show “Everyone Wants to Have Better Sex”.
Neelam Kaur Gill is an Indian-British fashion model. She has worked with Burberry, Abercrombie & Fitch and appeared in Vogue.
Iskra Arabella Lawrence is a British model.
Leomie Jasmin Francis Anderson is a British model, fashion designer, and activist. She has 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.
Body positivity is a social movement focused on the acceptance of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities, while challenging present-day beauty standards as an undesirable social construct. Proponents focus on the appreciation of the functionality and health of the human body, instead of its physiological appearance.
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 book Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear, Get On the Mat, Love Your Body.
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