A Perfectly Beautiful Conversation with Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, 50-pound big-time-loser, and Natalie Fournier, photographer and performance artist.
Janice: You are bold and brave, in your underwear … and clearly making a statement about your body, the collective body and how we see beauty, and about your relationship with Minnie Mouse … please, tell us!
Natalie: It started early on … Like most little girls, the fantastical world of Walt Disney, with its princesses and fairies, inserted itself in my mind. Those Barbie-like princesses became my ideal of beauty, with their small waist, their perfect legs and long silky hair. As I became older, actresses in movies and models in magazines replaced those princesses.
Janice: I know what you mean. I was taken with Snow White and now Catherine Zeta-Jones, who could play Snow White! I know it played with my mind, making me feel less than … longing to be that form of beautiful.
Natalie: Exactly. This picture of what “perfect beauty” looked like contaminated my mind, as well, and played with my self-esteem. After putting myself down over and over again, it became pretty clear to me that I would never be able to attain that ideal (or myth) of beauty. I realized that trying to be something that I’m not is just simply ridiculous.
Janice: It is ridiculous! Did you know that twenty years ago, models weighed 8% less than the average woman. And today they weigh 23% less. It’s a total myth! Airbrushed photos, you know. Nobody is that perfect, especially in the morning. And now … how do you feel about your ‘real’ body?
Natalie: Over these last couple years I have learned to love my body, and its every curve!
Janice: Your work speaks so beautifully to this love and acceptance of self. I admire your ‘performance.’ Your form of expression.
Natalie: Through my art, I try to expose the absurdity of trying to look like something else than yourself, of the ridiculousness of wanting to fit in a mould of what is
“desirable” or “beautiful.”
Janice: No point in trying to be someone else … as Cornell Wilde says, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Natalie: Great quote!
Janice: And finally, your reference to Minnie?
Natalie: Even if Minnie Mouse and her friends don’t think I fit in with them, in my eyes, I am beautiful and that’s that!
Janice: You are beautiful! And that is that! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your art!
For more Natalie go to Inplainsight.ca!
Spread the word, NOT the iciing!
Janice
Image from the “Desire” series “Minnie Mouse”, inkjet print, 34″ x 42″, 2007, by Natalie Fournier, Photograph, Performance Artist, currently residing in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. ipsgallery
For more motivation and inspiration, join the Kick in the Tush Club: Beliefnet Chapter.
Pick up a copy of Janice’s latest: All Is Forgiven, Move ON ~ Our Lady of Weight Loss’s 101 Fat-Burning Steps on Your Journey to Sveltesville!
” . . . . kooky genius ~ see if her idiosyncratic diet plan will work for you.” ~ O, The Oprah Magazine
about Janice