“You are beautiful.”
It’s a simple sentiment, but one that the members of the UW-Madison chapter of the National Organization for Women don’t think we hear enough. As part of NOW’s Love Your Body campaign, UW NOW hosted Love Your Body Day and handed out messages promoting body positivity on East Campus Mall early Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s really unreal when people are so surprised when you tell them they’re beautiful,” co-founder of UW NOW Maddie Colbert said. “Especially on a campus this big, with so many people to compare yourself to and so much pressure to do so, it’s important to remain positive about who you are.”
Junior Gabrielle DiBenedetto said receiving these messages can better campus life, especially for students managing the transitions and pressures of college.
“It’s important for these things to happen on campus in an informal way because it catches students and makes them feel more connected to the campus community,” DiBenedetto said. “College can be tough and it’s really incredible that random people here would come up to me and make me feel great about myself.”
The Rape Crisis Center and Sex Out Loud included their own messages about self-acceptance and how body positivity can support their own missions on campus that UW NOW members handed out at the event.
“We see many messages about how we should not love and accept our bodies. At Rape Crisis Center, we believe it is a radical act to love your body exactly the way it is,” the Rape Crisis Center’s message said. “We also see practicing enthusiastic consent as a vital part of loving your own body and respecting others.”
Members of UW NOW said they were happy to see positive reactions to their event and hoped that they created a space to allow people to express body positivity for themselves.
“People have been very receptive to our messages,” UW NOW member Morgan Olsen said. “I’ve noticed a bunch of older women commenting on how happy they are to see this, which I think shows it’s important to start body empowerment young so it can carry throughout people’s lives.”
