Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

In my last post about the amazing Valerie Boyer and her efforts in France to force magazines to label images that have been altered in an effort to to destroy the illusion of female perfection that women are bombarded with everyday in the media by reminding them that the images are fake, I talked about my wish for having someone in the government get behind this cause in the US.

This morning while flipping through the New York Times Styles section I stumbled upon this letter to the editor regarding last week’s article Point, Shoot, Retouch and Label:

To the Editor:
We, the psychotherapists of the Women’s Therapy Centre Institute are excited to discover our French “sister movement” across the sea.  We are a group of female therapists who have been taking a stand for decades against the media’s total disregard for the female body, and the message that there is only one right way to “be” a woman. We join arms with Valerie Boyer and invite her to participate in “Endangered Species:  Preserving the Female Body,” our new campaign, for which we are organizing and international summit to take place in New York City in 2011.
Signed
Anne Wennerstrand – The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute, NYC

And now I will be joining arms with the Women’s Therapy Centre Institute (and they’re right here in my own backyard!) to further this cause here in the US.  That’s their logo up there, isn’t it AWESOME??

Finding out about this group without having to hunt them down just feels like a miracle.  Since reading the article last week I have been obsessed with the thought of striking out and starting a movement here in the US–what a gift to find out that this group exists and has already done so much good work to advance this cause.  I’m really not into the holidays but I have to say I got the best gift ever this year…stay tuned–I’ll be updating on my involvement with The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute and their efforts over the next few months.  And all I can say to women’s magazines across the U.S. is–”Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid.”