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Thursday, March 28, 2024
UW-Madison’s National Organization for Women handed out stickers and buttons promoting body love on the UW-Madison campus.

UW-Madison’s National Organization for Women handed out stickers and buttons promoting body love on the UW-Madison campus.

Student organization helps spread body positivity on campus

UW-Madison’s National Organization for Women celebrated Love Your Body Day with campus activities, including a speaker who addressed self-love and feminism.

For nearly 20 years, NOW has celebrated body positivity on Oct. 17. In order to spread the message, the UW-Madison chapter handed out goodie bags filled with buttons, affirmations and information about NOW on Library Mall. Later in the evening, they hosted Gender & Women’s Studies Professor Katherine Phelps.

Phelps talked about beauty standards in today’s society, as well as what it means to love the body and the institutions that constrain it.

She explained that the practice of today’s feminism lacks an equality of intersecting identities and encouraged the audience to challenge the social constructs around femininity that give some bodies value and others none.

“The problem isn’t femininity — it’s the value we put on it,” Phelps said.

She also discussed how people in today’s culture are often told the phrase “love your body” but aren’t given the proper tools to do so.

Laura Livermore, co-leader of the UW-Madison NOW chapter, said this is why the organization hosted Phelps.

“A huge part of feeling safe and comfortable is loving your own body and knowing there are others who can help you with that,” she said. “We celebrate to help reiterate we’re in solidarity with everyone here on campus.”

Livermore added that NOW celebrates Love Your Body Day to create an inclusive environment for those wanting to strengthen and practice self-love.

“Our organization focuses on spreading positivity and empowerment, especially between women and other marginalized communities,” she said. “We are an intersectional, feminist group here on campus and we want to create a safe space for people.”

According to Livermore, the events hosted by the organization garnered a lot of positive feedback and they hope to have more events in the near future to spread the importance of loving the body for everything it is. 

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