Published 5 January 2010 · Main Posts Sorry, Jen, but when I look at this I want to starve myself Koraly Dimitriadis If Marie Claire and eating disorder experts believe an untouched photo of a former Miss Universe is prompting positive body images they are seriously deluding themselves. A body like Jennifer Hawkins’s only exists with regimented diet and exercise and is hardly realistic. This photo depresses me. This photo makes me want to lay on the beach and tan. I don’t care what kind of articles they have in this Marie Claire issue supporting positive body images. A picture tells a thousand words and what this picture tells me is stop eating. The eating disorder charity Jennifer is supposedly supporting – the Butterfly Foundation – issued this statement: “Unfortunately, the wider purchasing and viewing public don’t buy magazines that have ordinary people on them,” Julie Parker, general manger, says. “Someone like Jennifer has great power to raise awareness of this issue.” I, for one, don’t buy these magazines because of photos like this that degrade woman. I would be more inclined to buy a magazine with an inspiring woman on it instead of a nude celebrity that offers nothing but a flawless body. If these magazines and charities want to help, they should steer the focus away from the body and start focusing on the mind and achievements of woman. Then I’d buy a copy. Koraly Dimitriadis Koraly is a widely published Cypriot-Australian writer and performer. She is the author of the controversial Love and F**k Poems. Koraly received an Australia Council ArtStart grant. She presents on 3CR radio and has a residency at Brunswick Street Bookstore. Her 2013 La Mama show is Exonerating The Body. She is mentored by Christos Tsiolkas. More by Koraly Dimitriadis › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 28 March 202428 March 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. First published in Overland Issue 228 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.