“SOW. LARD BALL. COW. MISTAKE OF NATURE. I HOPE YOU'RE RAPED. WATER HEATER WITH LEGS. YOU, DISGUSTING BITCH" Michela Murgia, writer. YouGov, the largest online data catalogue available, made a European survey about body shaming. Really important it’s the data that tells us how many people don’t even have the knowledge to understand that they are victims of it. People whose bodies do not correspond to the "ideal" canon are insulted or discriminated against - one-third of people in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Spain have already experienced this on their own. In most cases, being a victim of body shaming is not an isolated case: among Europeans who have suffered discrimination, 36% have suffered more than ten times. "Body Shining" is an outcome of the interest of all 5 European partner associations to multiply and improve the tools and abilities in the field of non-formal education with youth at risk of social exclusion, by sharing and combining resources, abilities, experiences and good practices amongst them. Each one of the partner's associations is specialized in one field of non-formal education. Main objectives of the project are: • Raise awareness about the act of body-shaming • Give tools of art mediation • Zeroing cyberbullying and act of discrimination • Enhancing self-esteem that allows us to have good relations with our-self and the others (fundamental for our personal growth development). The project has a duration of 29 months within which we improve 5 intellectual output: IO1 "What does body shaming mean?": We will present a book filled with young people’s perspectives on body-shaming. It will be based on workshops co-designed by them and by young with disabilities. It will collect 200 critical incidents IO2 "Toolkit for prevention": The output will consist of a series of video and texts offering training tools for youth workers to address the topic of body-shaming. The focus will be on prevention of body-shaming IO3 "Art workshops for body-positivity" while IO2 focuses on creating pedagogical tools for prevention, IO3 focuses on pedagogical tools that can be used for youngsters who had experienced body shaming. We will deliver art-based workshops in co-construction IO4 "Online learning platform" aims to help youth workers integrate the project’s products into their work practice either by establishing specific training or by inserting specific sessions into the existing collaboration process. To facilitate the adaptation of our training we’ll upload the videos from IO2 and IO3 illustrating the workshop processes of the different intellectual outputs IO5 "Artistic-campaign to raise awareness about body-shaming" consists in preparing art-campaigns co-developed by youth and artists on the main topics of the project and in delivering a toolkit to build a replicable model for art-campaign making, embedded in specific pedagogical objectives. IMPACT ON YOUNG PEOPLE/YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Through prevention activities they will: • Raise awareness of the role and the use of the internet, social media, and cyberbullying • Develop skills to identify, avoid, or escape from the act of body shaming • Degrowth of hate speeches • Zeroing shame as a result of a traumatic experience Through body-positivity aptitude they will: • Increase confidence and safety • Gain skills namely: self-approval, self-esteem, security • Accept and appreciate diversity as an element of enrichment Through empowerment/co-construction of art-sed workshops it will: • Acquire tools to run an artistic workshop • Be empowered through their increasing ability to do research, to explore their own perceptions and to find out more about other people’s attitudes and beliefs • Obtain tools to use and explore art mediation. IMPACT ON YOUTH WORKERS Through prevention activities they will gain: • Vocabulary used by young people • Competences to address the possible presence of insecurity concerning certain parts of us, which affects the well-being of our lives • Skills to advocate and prevent acts of discrimination Through body-positivity aptitude they will: • Obtain tools to empower young people • Acquire the capacity to animate in autonomy art mediation workshops with young people related to the body • Get capacity to promote body positivity aptitude Through empowerment/co-construction of art-sed workshops they will: • Gain a better capacity to discuss concepts of body shaming and self-esteem • Acquire the capacity to connect concepts and discussions to everyday professional challenges • Obtain tools to use and explore art mediation.
In the early stages, we were inspired to contribute to a new mapping of body-shaming phenomena in Europe. After collecting testimonies, we were motivated to take action to raise awareness of these phenomena and have a real impact on the local youth community; to facilitate understanding, analysis, and prevention of acts of body-shaming and body-related discrimination. In terms of our expertise, we wanted to explore the potential of art practices in raising awareness and combating body-shaming and to offer useful training tools for youth workers who wish to work on this issue. Our main goal was to develop a variety of activities and outputs (manuals and video tutorials) that differ from the usual methods of intervention and prevention in our context. Practices (in our case art practices) to awaken the interest of young people, to empower professionals working with young people, providing them with a variety of tools with which to open up and accompany young people in sensitive issues. And through the participants' personal experience to raise awareness and sensitivity to each other and to themselves in relation to the phenomenon of body-shaming. We have also created tools for deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse youth.
For all partners, the call for this project stems from personal experience with body-shaming and a desire to be able to investigate and trace its sexist, racist, and classist roots. Body-shaming and body-related issues have often been highlighted as aspects of culture that young people wish to change or combat. Therefore, applying for a project such as Body Shining was considered a priority and an opportunity to test and further develop arts-based training tools to raise awareness and combat the act of body-shaming. Most forms of violence are often accompanied by acts of emotional violence in the form of humiliation and insults. They are often related to body and appearance as aspects of personality accessible to harassment. Based on our group work with youth and our work with professionals working with youth, we have noticed the lack of sufficient amount of tools and the lack of tools that are effectively adapted and tailored to the interests and needs of today's youth. This made the Body Shining project an opportunity to develop impactful and relevant tools for youth to intervene and prevent body-shaming.