i-D Magazine
The world we live in today is wrought with controversy and drastic changes due to our ever-evolving lifestyle. The Internet and social media have had a revolutionary impact on the way we interact, socialize, and even think about the world around us. Even though this technologically induced society we live in is thriving with a plethora of knowledge, society has become even more self-centered. The Speak Up Issue of i-D strives to bring awareness to social, ethical, political, and caring causes. This publication was created as a project for a Current Trends and Forecasting class at the Savannah College of Art and Design. This is a recreation of a i-D magazine and is not an official i-D publication.
The world we live in today is wrought with controversy and drastic changes due to our ever-evolving lifestyle. The Internet and social media have had a revolutionary impact on the way we interact, socialize, and even think about the world around us. Even though this technologically induced society we live in is thriving with a plethora of knowledge, society has become even more self-centered. The Speak Up Issue of i-D strives to bring awareness to social, ethical, political, and caring causes. This publication was created as a project for a Current Trends and Forecasting class at the Savannah College of Art and Design. This is a recreation of a i-D magazine and is not an official i-D publication.
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talking mirrors<br />
TEXT BROOKE BENSON<br />
Standing before a wall of mirrors, I gaze at myself<br />
objectively. My body is simply a collection of lines,<br />
a form in which I reside. There is no criticism, disapproval<br />
or condemnation. Looking through my nineyear-old<br />
eyes, I see only a child. Judgement does<br />
not yet blur my vision, does not play cruel tricks on<br />
my eyes.<br />
By the age of nine I had been dancing at Miller<br />
Marley for nearly five years. My instructors were<br />
adults I looked up to as models of poise and control.<br />
Peering through the glass windows of Studio<br />
One, I imagined how one day I might be one of<br />
those graceful angels, performing a balancing act<br />
on wooden shoes.<br />
5:30pm. The tights, the leotard, the bag...<br />
the hair! Don’t forget the hair.<br />
6:00pm. File in...on with the shoes. “Pile, releve,<br />
lower...” a recorded voice would drone. The teacher<br />
came around and inspected our posture, our form,<br />
our point...and our bodies.<br />
“Pull that stomach in! Concentrate. Stop think about<br />
that McDonalds you had for dinner,” was Ms. Joan’s<br />
normal greeting. She was the first woman who ever<br />
taught me I had any reason to be dissatisfied with<br />
my body.<br />
A stiff, severe woman, Ms. Joan had all the warmth<br />
of a mannequin. With never a flaw in sight, she mesmerized<br />
me in a strange way. Her perfect blonde<br />
hair was most certainly a wig and I often got the<br />
inkling that she was not in fact human, but perhaps<br />
a robot sent to discern the human race, searching<br />
for those who reached her expectations.<br />
“There is a certain ‘dancer’ body type you must<br />
have if you want to succeed. Ballerinas are thin. The<br />
only way for you not to be fat is to stop eating all<br />
that junk you guys love,” she would preach, slipping<br />
shaming looks to any girl who had matured a bit<br />
faster than others, who had any trace of hips. She<br />
would conclude, “If you want to be thin, then no<br />
more candy bars for you.” Her words would echo in<br />
my mind...<br />
A couple of years ago, I ran into my old dance<br />
teacher. I had been struggling with anorexia for<br />
about a year at the time and needed desperately to<br />
gain weight. When Ms. Joan saw me, she practically<br />
gasped with delight. “Oh Brooke! You look fan-<br />
116 i-D THE SPEAK UP ISSUE
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