May 2004 Designated as “Turn Beauty Inside Out, Maine” Month
Contact: Aileen Fortune, University of Maine Cooperative Extension (UMCE), York County office, 1-800-287-1535
ORONO– In Waterville, a nonprofit organization, Hardy Girls Healthy Women, promotes self-awareness and positive images among girls. The group holds conferences, sponsors recreational opportunities and provides a “safe space” for girls to avoid competing with each other and instead, to become friends, says organizer Karen Heck.
Their activities–and the work of similar groups throughout Maine–are the focus of a proclamation by Governor John Baldacci designating May as Turn Beauty Inside Out, Maine (TBIO Maine) Month. TBIO Maine is a program coordinated through the Gender Project of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
“I invite all Maine families, schools, and communities to conduct appropriate activities to promote awareness and appreciation of beauty as good hearts, great works, and activism,” said Baldacci. “All who share this vision should join in this critical work with our girls and young women in groups and communities throughout Maine.”
The proclamation acknowledges the vision of TBIO, Maine:
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a new cultural definition of beauty so that girls in Maine feel good, safe, strong and confident and have a sense of ownership of their bodies and their lives;
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girls have the resources, skills, and role models to support them in questioning cultural and media definitions of beauty;
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girls develop an awareness of the inner and outer aspects of beauty and realize that they have choices in figuring out for themselves what it means to be female, whole, and beautiful.
Aileen Fortune of the Cooperative Extension office in York County coordinates the Gender Project and notes that “Turn Beauty Inside Out” began as a project of New Moon Magazine in 1999. Each year the focus is on a different form of media with the goal of encouraging decision-makers to re-think how they portray women and girls.
Inspired by New Moon’s “Turn Beauty Inside Out” campaign, a Maine steering committee first met in 2002 to explore ways to introduce the project at the state and local leves. Turn Beauty Inside Out, Maine is about education, activism and social change, says Fortune.
Governor Baldacci has commended the educational and community development efforts produced by Cooperative Extension educators and the Turn Beauty Inside Out, Maine steering committee. With sponsorship from the Maine Women’s Fund, the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Women’s Health Campaign, Turn Beauty Inside Out, Maine has compiled educational curricula in media literacy, body image, leadership, and empowerment for girls and women. developed strategies and opportunities for individual and collective action.
In addition, organizers are working to create a highly visible media and public awareness campaign.
Organizers of TBIO, Maine believe that redefining beauty can lead to cultural change affecting the fabric of families, schools, and communities across the state, says Fortune. For example, in a conference in Waterville last year, girls played a game called “the lunch table.” They pretended to be in a school lunch room where they were choosing with whom to sit and eat. Stereotypes came to mind — the geeks, the princesses, the jocks — and the girls then created two-minute skits to demonstrate the characteristics of each stereotype. Conference participants then discussed the issue of stereotyping and how it affects girls who are left out of social groups, says Heck.
More information about Turn Beauty Inside Out, Maine programs, resources, activities is available at 1-800-287-1535 (within Maine) or 1-207-324-2814; or on the Web at http://www.umaine.edu/umext/genderproject/04tbioactivities.htm. To Learn about New Moon’s “Turn Beauty Inside Out (TBIO) 2004” activities in May, go to www.mindonthemedia.org.