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beauty March 25, 2020
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How Project #ShowUs looks to shatter beauty sterotypes

After capturing some of the most iconic and authentic images ever, Getty Images still understands there are new and important moments to be seen.

Especially now, in uncertain and unprecedented times, the public needs to see images and hear from artists that are often pushed to the background.

Female-identifying and non-binary artists are among those creatives whose voices are not heard enough.

With this understanding in mind, Getty Images is launching the #ShowUs grant, in partnership with Dove, to provide financial support and mentorship for artists committed to authentically representing women in commercial photography.

The grant is available for female-identifying and non-binary commercial photographers who have been shooting for less than five years.

The grant is part of the Project #ShowUs Collection that Getty Images, Dove, and Girlgaze launched in March 2019. The project is meant to expand conventional standards of beauty and evoke a broader sense of what being beautiful really is.

Beyond the financial benefits of the $10,000 grant, the lucky recipient will also be able to license their content through Getty Images at a 100 percent royalty rate for content created within their proposed project.

This grant is just the first in a series of grants to be awarded in 2020. Since its grant program’s perception inception, Getty Images has donated over $1.6 million to photographers and videographers all over the world.

Have you ever seen a better squad of companies? Getty Images prides itself on authenticity, creativity, and inclusivity. Dove focuses on making everyone feel beautiful and confident. Girlgaze’s mission is to close the gender gap.

 

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These three companies are working together to promote diversity and help female-identifying and non-binary artists to receive the same opportunities as everyone else.

Everyone has a vision, a view through their eyes and mind like the lens of a camera. We all deserve to have an opportunity to share ours.

Applications for the #ShowUs grant are open now and will come to a close on May 10. Apply here.

beauty February 13, 2018
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Chidera is the 23-year-old blogger making saggy boobs poppin’ again

All boobs are good boobs. Big or small, round or bell-shaped, perky or pendulous, a boob’s a boob…right?

For many women bombarded with Victoria Secret push-up ads, images of celebrities with plastic surgery, male-directed films and media, and rising pressure from social media to look perfect from any angle, it’s not so easy.

The natural tug of gravity can cause a sense of shame and self-loathing, but blogger Chidera Eggerue (a.k.a. The Slumflower) is smashing the negativity and encouraging other women to do the same.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbUsIUIDBjX/

Chidera is by no means new to lending her social media platforms and her voice to causes she believes in. The previous creator of #BlockHimParty has been an outspoken and opinionated advocate of her core values (“Knowing Your Worth,” “Finding Your Peace,” and “Owning Your Beauty”) through her blog, Twitter, and Instagram to her more than 100k followers. Chidera, who hails from South-East London, has also spoken out on key issues like Black Lives Matter and the all-Caucasian Vogue editorial team.

She has made appearances in many world-famous news organizations such as CNN, BET, and i-D and has been named one of the rising, millennial, Black, female voices by various publications, including Elle and The Fader.

#SaggyBoobsMatter launched in July 2017, when Chidera posted a defiant declaration of her confidence. She confided that she hated her body as a teenager and stressed that women should not feel obligated to fit into beauty standards.

She wrote “First of all, women do not exist for the consumption of men. Biologically, our bodies are built for babies. Babies don’t care about how perky your boobs are; they just wanna be fed. Men aren’t and will never be in a position to tell women ‘how to be a woman’. Impressing men isn’t even a goal worth making.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXESILCBDI1/

In the same blog post, she remarked that, even today, people are astounded when she wears an outfit without a bra. She also expressed the need for more saggy boob representation, saying

“If I had seen women with saggy boobs being glorified for their beauty, I wouldn’t have developed a complex as a very young teanager…the more your image is normalized; the less of a spectacle your reflection is; the more comfortable you will be in your body…”

She ended the post with a call to action, to take inspiration and confidence in her bold, beautiful, braless photos.

Since her initial post, #SaggyBoobsMatter has spread across social media, encouraging other women to rock their own body confidence and flaunt their naturally-hanging breasts.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfDtsdLAvn1/?tagged=saggyboobsmatter

https://twitter.com/mollytdehart/status/960287295323635718

The hashtag has gained recent popularity for women of all shapes and sizes, and Chidera has stated that she is thrilled to be the catalyst for body acceptance. In a BBC Radio interview, Chidera expressed,

“As a young woman, I started to hide my body and where these unnecessary push-up bras that would be uncomfortable for me just so that I could feel like I fit in and I look appealing…why I chose to do this is because there are other women who don’t yet have the strength in themselves…to love the parts you’ve been taught to dislike…to help other people reach that point.”

But not all reactions have been positive. Comments range the full scale of nastiness: from body-shaming to more personal attacks.

One notable remark is a malicious meme posted by Don Jazzy, a Nigerian record producer, who has since deleted and apologized for the post.

Although she is disappointed, Chidera chooses to take the negative reactions in stride. Having once considered a boob job, she believes that these comments come from a place of ignorance and insecurity.

She told Buzzfeed News,

“By force, we will all have to learn that the only way to normalise something is to see it repeatedly. So if you have an issue with saggy boobs, you have to ask yourself why a person’s body offends you.”

Many people continue to spurn and criticize bodies that fall outside of beauty standards. Often, they cite health concerns or biological and evolutionary predispositions as the root of their disgust.

For example, a 2017 scientific study from Prague’s Charles University suggests that men like firm, medium breasts and see droopiness as a sign of age and decreasing fertility.

Even controversial celebrity Kim Kardashian is not immune to body criticism. Last April, an uproar arose in the tabloids and online after photos of her in a bikini in Mexico showed cellulite on her backside.

https://twitter.com/shockedmeme/status/847639563480711169?lang=en

Still, it seems that the body positivity movement is gaining ground.

Brands like Aerie and CVS, who are taking stands to feature un-retouched images, and plus-size models like Ashley Graham, Olivia Campbell, and Tess Holliday are carving spaces in the fashion industry. More and more, we are seeing diverse bodies represented and celebrated.

The time when only perky, unblemished, and unwrinkled bodies were beautiful is drawing to a close. Now catch me rocking some serious Venus of Willendorf vibes.