AHORA, LAS MADRES

Por AnaB Camponovo

DESNUDOS MATERNALES LIBERADOS

LA BELLEZA DE ASUMIR LAS ESTRÍAS

Ahora son las madres. A propósito de nuestro primer aporte sobre la belleza natural del desnudo -y viendo el recientemente publicado en la Red-, creo interesante compartir este nuevo motivo de desmitificación y aprecio del cuerpo femenino, en este caso, EL CUERPO MATERNAL NATURAL COMO BELLEZA. ASUMIR con gracia las consecuencias de los embarazos. Agradecemos estas iniciativas sanadoras que permiten liberar de complejos a quienes lo deseen. Es una oportunidad histórica que apreciamos en toda su dimensión. Adjuntamos el video con el que Jade Beall promovió su campaña de recaudación de fondos para editar su libro.

Huffington Post, 26 junio 2013

Hace un año, Jade Beall comenzó a subir a Facebook retratos de cuerpos desnudos de mujeres que habían dado a luz: ella misma y una amiga. Pronto sus fotografías, que mostraban los crudos y bellos estragos de la maternidad en los cuerpos reales, se hicieron virales.

Ahora, Beall está preparando un libro llamado A Beautiful Body (Un cuerpo bonito, en español), que ha logrado financiarse a través de la plataforma de crowfunding Kickstarter. En el momento de escribir estas líneas su proyecto ha conseguido más de 38.000 dólares de los 20.000 que había solicitado a los internautas.

Jade Beall, posando con su bebé

La idea parte de una historia personal, explicó Beall a The Huffington Post:

"Cuando era adolescente sufría un profundo sentimiento de no merecer la pena. Tuve acné y no fui capaz de mirarme en un espejo durante casi tres años, a menos que fuera a la luz de las velas.... Gané 22 kilos con mi embarazo y eso se añadió a mi historia personal de odio a mi misma en una cultura que ensalza imágenes photoshopeadas de las mujeres en los medios de comunicación"

"Avergonzar a las madres por no volver al estado anterior después del parto puede causar sentimientos de fracaso cuando ser madre ya es lo suficientemente difícil y cuando un gran número de nosotras ha vivido ya una vida de sentirse poco bella antes de dar a luz", añade la fotógrafa, que trabaja en Tucson, Arizona.

Para el libro, la autora ha retratado a más de 50 madres, que han accedido a posar de forma voluntaria. Será publicado en enero del año que viene. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1373438121/a-beautiful-body-book-project

My Story: 

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I posted this photo below of a friend of mine I took in my studio here in Tucson, AZ

Lulani #1

I had already posted photos of my post-birth body to show the world what I was going through after my son Sequoia came into this world.  I then posted onto my Facebook photography page this photo above and it went viral. I realized that there were hundreds and thousands of women who also wanted to share their life stories about their bodies! The emails started flooding in and I knew I had to build this project, that it was my calling. The stories have been intense, beautiful, painful, and everything in between.

A Beautiful Body project is going to be a book of 100 or more black & white photographs of mothers. Each photograph will be accompanied by an essay, a narrative or a poem written by the women in the photograph exploring her personal journey with what beauty and feeling beautiful in a culture that alters over 90% of all media means to her.

I am still taking volunteers for this first volume.

My intention is for this book to be successful so that I can continue on photographing and creating other ‘A Beautiful Body’ volumes such as beautiful women facing aging, beautiful women dealing with cancer, beautiful young women facing eating disorders and beyond.

Alexis #5

I have heard hundreds of stories now. Anorexia, childhood bulimia, the mother of a woman told her she was too fat to be a ballerina, self-hatred, self-suffering. Feeling unsexy because she perceived her nipples as imperfect, feeling unsexy because she lost too much weight after breast feeding. Feeling like there was something deeply wrong with her because she only lost 5 pounds 9 months after the birth of her 2nd child. Mourning the loss of her un-suckled breasts. Sexual abuse, self-inflicted abuse, teenage and young adult drug addictions due to self loathing because she never felt beautiful; breast cancer after the birth of a long awaited pregnancy, loss of a baby at birth with a wrinkly tummy to remind her everyday of what might have been. There can be so many stories shadowing a woman in our culture. We are, however, also incredible blessed with tremendous amounts of freedom and the ability to shape-shift concepts and ideas in our country. We have the ability to feel worthy, to believe we are beautiful and to be a part of a community of people who wish to share beauty and joy in this world.

I offer the photoshoots to women for free, and I also have a family that I am a part of supporting. Finally, I want this to be a crowd-funded project rather than have corporate backing, which is why your support means the world to me. All the women photographed are volunteers to show and tell their stories so that other women can step out of the shadows and from behind the veils to see their own divine beauty as women, mothers, hopeful mothers, mothers who have faced loss, mothers who are healing, mothers who are thriving and to women across this Planet.

You can also support this project by sharing it on your social media accounts, telling 3-5 friends, or calling a news station and saying 'hey here's a great story!"

I already have the publishing and distribution in place, as well as 20,000 photos already taken to edit, as well as a fully built website that will dovetail with the physical publication.

The project is intended to redefine beautiful. Our bodies. Ourselves. Our World. Our families. We are beautiful.

Thank you for being a part of the magic we are creating together!

-Jade Beall