About-Face
About-Face equips women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image.
Description:
To fulfill our mission, About-Face leads our Education Into Action media-literacy workshops in schools and groups, teaches girls and women to take action, and maintains a resource-filled web site, About-Face.org.
Everywhere girls and women look, they see messages about their bodies and their selves, telling them they must be tall, blonde, tan, and sexually available. In fact, a woman can rarely separate her feelings about her physical body from her self-worth, especially in our media-saturated society. And the messages even the youngest girls are seeing and hearing are skewed, sexualized, and sexist.
These messages -- part of what About-Face calls the "toxic media environment" -- are contributing to a host of girls' and women's ills, including low self-esteem, depression, persistent anxiety over weight and appearance, extremely unhealthy diets and exercise regimens, and eating disorders. All of these problems interfere with a woman's ability to function to the best of her abilities.
About-Face is based in San Francisco, California (USA). At this time, our workshops and action groups reach throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Our web site is available the world over.
Our ultimate goal, the About-Face vision, is to imbue girls and women with the power to free themselves from the burden of body-image problems so they will be capable of fulfilling their varied and wondrous potentials.
History:
About-Face was established in 1996 with a poster campaign by Kathy Bruin, who doctored a Calvin Klein fragrance ad featuring model Kate Moss. The poster, which previously read “Obsession,” was now emblazoned with “Emaciation Stinks” and was plastered all over San Francisco. Bruin’s personal rebellion received national media coverage and an overwhelming response from women who wanted to speak out against starvation imagery in media.
Since that first poster action in 1995, About-Face has put up three other large, full-color posters all over San Francisco and surrounding areas: “Bodies Are Not Fashion Accessories: Question the Motives of the Diet Industry” (1996), “Please Don’t Feed the Models”(1998), and “Fashion Plate” (2002), and choreographed numerous protests and other actions.
In 1997, About-Face began speaking engagements—precursors to our current media-literacy
workshops—at schools, universities, and other groups. In 2001, Kathy Bruin handed over leadership of About-Face to long-time member Jennifer Berger, who remains About-Face’s Executive Director today.
Contact person: Jennifer Berger, Executive Director, (phone), (email)
Address:
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P.O. Box 77665
San Francisco, CA 94107 |
Web Site: http://about-face.org
Directions:
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Our office is based in San Francisco, in the Executive Director's home. We are currently looking for a dedicated office space.
Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Church St. and 14th St, Church St. Station, 16th/Mission BART,
Walk distance (in minutes): 5
Nearest Bus Stop: 24-Divisadero, 22-Fillmore, 3 minute walk |
| Last updated on October 23, 2009 |
