Image description: Brick and plaster arches in tan and brown tones create shadows on a cobblestone street in Florence, Italy. At a distance, a woman crosses the street pulling a wheeled suitcase behind her.

Hi friend,

Photography is both descriptive and prescriptive. It's descriptive because it captures the world and people around us, but it's also prescriptive because photos of people are so ubiquitous in our digital world that we photographers create what is considered "normal." And unfortunately, photographers grow up and live in the same world as everyone else: one that both emphasizes and rewards compliance with cultural beauty standards.

Over on Fitness Protection's Running Life blog, I'm talking about why it matters which images appear on the cover of running magazines, why the bodies you see in the media don't match the ones you see at races and how you can get involved in representing bodies like yours. Head here to read the full article.

Please be safe (and follow your local area's COVID-19 guidelines) this (American) Thanksgiving!

Warmly,
Lindley

P.S. If you'd like to share this week's thought, it exists in blog form here.

My favorite photo this week:

Image description: A woman of color with long dark hair, wearing a tan sweater and burgundy scarf, walks between small pine trees with dappled sun and shadow. She is holding a rope from which hangs a terra cotta pot with a small plant while looking over her shoulder and smiling.

Recent from me:

• Ask Lindley: How do I deal with fatphobia and diet talk at work?
• Plant Chat: Propagation Station
• Well-done steak and spray tans
• 10 Body-Positive Buttons and Pins
• Trauma dumping is oppression in action.
• Ask a Fat Creator: Danielle Gregori
• Rainy PNW Portrait Session with Ms. M

The Conversation

Here's what's being discussed this week in the world of body acceptance, HAES, body positivity and fat liberation:

• Teaching kids about Thanksgiving or Columbus? They deserve the real story
• How to Organize Your Friends and Family on Thanksgiving
• As A Native American, Here's What I Want My Fellow Americans To Know About Thanksgiving
• Redefining Health and Wellness, Hearing Your Own Voice, and Why Fear Isn't a Good Motivator with Melissa Toler
• White Women As Gatekeepers: The Clipboard of Control
• It’s Not “Just” Anxiety
• WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE: Characteristics
• Wholesome content: Love is love
• Representation: sitting pretty 
• Strange Pacific Northwest content: Fifty years ago, Oregon exploded a dead whale (obvious content note for animal remains, in text only - no photos)

I'm also passing on this research study on behalf of Satori Madrone, who is conducting a research study explores the possible connections between intuitive eating and sex drive in women. I'm just the messenger on this one, so please direct any questions to the Facebook page or website contact.

Need a good 101 or refresher on bodies, fatness and science? I always recommend Body Respect by Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor.

Image description: A fat woman with long pink hair is shown in silhouette with her arms raised and head thrown back. The sun peeks out from behind one of her hands above a lake and silhouetted mountains in the background that glow in the sunset. Text overlaid on the image reads, Body Liberation Stock from Body Liberation Photos.

THE NEW BODY LIBERATION STOCK IS HERE

The new Body Liberation Stock is live! This is the culmination of years of work and I'm so delighted to present it to you. Please share it with your friends and colleagues – the more popular the site grows, the more resources will be available to create and add images from every walk of life for a more thorough and useful resource for fat-positive stock imagery.

The new site has a REAL, credits-based purchase system, just like iStockPhoto and other major stock photo sites, with real subscription options that will neatly deliver credits to you every month to spend. (And you can, of course, buy images at any time with regular currency as well.)

Here are some other great things about the new site:

> It’s integrated with the main Body Liberation Photos site, so it’s easier to find

> You can access a real My Account dashboard to view remaining credits and re-download images

> You can buy credit bundles at a discount and they’ll be automatically added to your account — no more waiting for credit codes to arrive in your email

> Contributors will be more easily able to add their own work, which means an increasing variety of fantastic diverse and body-friendly images for you to use

> Having a stable, high-quality site will free up my time to caption, tag and post my large backlog of fat-positive stock photos and recruit more contributors

Quick Resources: On dealing with fatphobia and other marginalizations at work

• Fatphobia in the workplace can be career limiting and psychologically harmful
• Why We Need Older Women in the Workplace
• Workplace Wellness – An Exercise in Frustration
• Your workplace wellness program probably isn’t making you healthier
• Stop touting the crazy hours you work. It helps no one.
• Why We Should Take Weight Discrimination Seriously As a Workers’ Rights Issue
• A Lack of Confidence Isn't What’s Holding Back Working Women

Image description: A fat white woman is shown from the calves down, wearing blue jeans with wide cuffs and red toenail polish. Her feet are bare, with a toe ring tattoo and visible spider veins. She is standing in a puddle on concrete with raindrop circles and orange oak leaves floating around her.

5 Items for a Cold November

• Fine Art Print: "Autumn Exploration," 2016
• Surprise Me! Body Positive Soaps
• Blissicorn Bath Salts
• Body Decoration: I Love and Appreciate My Body
• The Body Love Box: Mystery Month
• Fine Art Print: "Going into the holidays like," 2019

November Free Stock Images

Click the link below to claim your free stock images for this month. The link will expire in two weeks, so be sure to grab them soon.

• November free stock images (zip)

If you enjoy the free photos I provide each month, please help support Body Liberation Photos by purchasing stock images or becoming a supporter. Low on budget? Consider linking and/or giving photo credit to bodyliberationphotos.com when you use these free photos. Your support makes it possible to continue creating and offering these images. 

Image description: Lindley, a fat white woman, stands in a pink and blue plaid shirt in front of a wall covered in yellow and brown vines. Her photo is surrounded by a light blue border with text on top that reads, NAMI Orange County presents…It's Okay to Feel with Jenipher and Non. The podcast title is Our Beautiful Bodies with Lindley Ashline.

LISTEN: Lindley on It's Okay to Feel

This is the first podcast where I've ever needed to stop and ask, "Can I say this on the air?" 😂 Jenipher, Non and I talk about body image advice for the Tiktok generation, porn and Photoshop, health at EVERY size and more for @nami_oc. This one's fresh off the announcement, so I don't yet have a transcript, but I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Image description: Lindley, a fat white woman, is shown sitting in a cafe with salmon-pink walls. She has shoulder-length blonde hair and glasses, and is wearing a black top with a translucent blue-and-white patterned jacket. Her hands are on the tabletop in front of her.

Pssst! Did a friend forward you this email? If you'd like to get your own body liberation guide every week, just drop your email address here.

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