Numerous events were held last week as part of Love Your Body Week, a yearly event hosted by Feminist Action Coalition (FAC).
The kick-off began with the Clothing Optional Photo Shoot. Contrary to last year’s photo shoot, there will not be a separate event held in February to commemorate the Playboy Protests of 1969. Instead the event was integrated into Love Your Body Week as a way to promote what real bodies look like.
“I felt we got a pretty large turnout for a lot of different things, including the fun things but also that were more somber and in the past were not pretty well-attended, so I thought it went pretty well,” said Hannah Kapp-Klote ’13, who co-leads FAC together with Claire Williams ’13 and Evan Hunsley ’11.
In addition to the photo shoot, Love Your Body Week included other events such as a Consent Workshop, Clothing Optional Yoga, Clothing Optional Bake Night, Male and Female Identified Masturbation Workshops and a screening of the movie “Real Women Have Curves.” A last-minute addition to Love Your Body Week was an event entitled Fat Acceptance & Body Lovin’ hosted by the Vegan Co-op at Eco-House. Unlike many other events, this one was not Clothing Optional to cater towards students who might not feel comfortable with nakedness.
The Consent Workshop was a collaboration with the campus group Real Men and in the past has also been a part of New Student Orientation and Take Back the Night Week.
“Consent is one of those [things] you can’t really stop talking about, you can’t really be an expert on consent, so that’s one of those things were I would like to see more people at, especially during NSO,” Williams said.
“I think we got a large turnout for a number of different things,” Kapp-Klote said. The Female-Identified Masturbation Workshop was probably the most attended event, followed by the Clothing Optional photo shoot.
“It’s kind of subversive to talk about masturbation if you are a woman, because of sexual standards,” Klapp-Klote said.
Love Your Body Week has been in planning since the second FAC meeting of the semester, which was held during the second week of school. Since all FAC leaders of last year are abroad right now, the group experienced some minor organizational difficulties.
“It was a little bit stressful, because not a lot of things were saved,” Williams said. “For example, I didn’t think it would be a problem to get the poster board things so I called FM early Monday morning and they were like you actually have to go through Contact Operations.”
FAC has been an organization in Grinnell since 1992 and Love your Body Week, which started out as Love Your Body Day, has been around just as long. Over the years FAC has taken on different faces which come naturally with different leaders.
“You had some leaders who were really into the queer aspect of FAC, you had some leaders who more into the political side or the intersectionality aspect of feminism,” Kapp-Klote said.
This year FAC moved their meeting space from the Stonewall Resource Center in Younker Pit to the Voicebox on the third floor of the JRC.
“It’s pure logistical nature,” said Kapp-Klote. “The Voicebox is a cool activist’s place…and it’s nice to have whiteboards.”
Looking forward to next semester, Kapp-Klote and Williams both said that they are more likely to host one or two-day events and that they would like to get a speaker on campus.
“I am trying to get Inga Muscio to come to campus”, said Kapp-Klote, talking about an author who has spoken on feminism, racism and other social issues.
“I would really, really like to get a speaker next year. I think having a speaker helps to draw some attention to it,” Williams said. “The speakers we are looking at could work with the Sociology or Anthropology department and I think that would help the events to appeal to more.”
