As part of her WST 202 class, Women's Studies student Mikhaila Skehor produced a button campaign and facebook group. The goal of the "I Heart My ______" campaign is to fill in the blank with a body part you've always been taught is wrong, ugly, or abnormal. Embrace it! Or, if you don't want to specify a body part, leave it blank as a sign of solidarity. There's absolutely no pressure.
Posts on the wall of the group include "I heart my legs," "I heart my lopsided breasts!", "I heart my tummy," "I heart my love handles" and many more. Jaclyn Friedman, Lisa Jervis, and Jessica Valenti are a few of the famous feminists who have buttons so far, and the Facebook group holds steady at about three hundred members.
As Mikhaila explains it, the purpose of the project is to get the word out about 'screwing the ideal' prescribed by the media of the beautiful body. Although she's focusing specifically on the ideal set forth by the mass media for a woman's body, unattainable goals are set for men as well. Mikhaila insists that our bodies are beautiful no matter what the media says; a healthy body image should be central to your self confidence, not your physical attributes.