Adiposivity

Body image is a touchy subject. We recognize that most media images of human bodies (but especially women’s bodies) project an ideal that, if rarely attainable for a handful of people, is often unhealthy. We say we don’t want to encourage eating disorders and prefer a more realistic physical ideal, then snark about Britney’s love-handles. New York photographer Substantia Jones’ Web site, Adiposivity, showcases the bodies of women who are amply-endowed in every way. The photographs focus on soft, bulging bellies; demandingly curved breasts; puckery thighs poking through fishnet hose; hips, like the ones in the Lucille Clifton poem, that “don’t fit into little / petty places.” The goal, Jones says, is to “change attitudes about the aesthetic validity of big women, one fat fanny at a time.”