{The Body Liberation Guide} A celebration, a request, a frustrated grump and a note for supporters
A mother and daughter I photographed in Salt Lake City in 2019.
This is a bits-and-pieces week: a celebration, a request, a frustrated grump and a note for supporters.
Let’s start with the celebration! Last week, the Body Liberation Guide went out to 5,317 of you. The rate at which y’all open these emails is spectacular, too – almost 50%.
That means over five thousand people want to hear what I (and the many people I link to) have to say about body liberation. Thank you, for putting your trust in me as both a writer and a messenger.
Now, the frustrated grump.
I’ve been talking a lot lately on social media about generative AI lately, the technology companies are using to scrape the web for artwork and profit from it without consent or licensing. (If you’re not already familiar with it, I wrote an easy explainer here.)
I knew that some of my work had been scraped, but I didn’t know the extent of it until last week, when I discovered that large chunks of the Body Liberation Stock archives had been stolen.
(You can see some of that here in this “has my work been stolen?” database, though fair warning, some of the images at the bottom aren’t my work and may be not safe for work.)
Y’all, I’ve put eight years into creating this body of work. It’s my full-time job. It was supposed to be my livelihood. And now it’s been copied so that billionaires can make more money and everyone can take advantage of my images without having to pay me or even know my name.
Since AI image generators went mainstream, my revenue from stock photos has tanked. I brought in $160 total from stock images last month, not counting expenses, taxes or payouts to my contributors (whose work was also taken). And last month was an outlier – the few months before that, the average revenue from stock photos was $30.
Markets change all the time. Stuff happens. But I’d hoped that someday my work would be obsolete because stock images had become universally inclusive, not because that work had been taken and widely used without my consent.
Next, the request.
If every person who subscribes to this email supported it at $1 per month, I would make a living wage from my creative and activist work. If everyone supported it at $5 per month, I could hire someone else full-time and push forward a bunch of new projects. Imagine how much faster we could change the world if we all band together.
And of course not everyone will find that supporting financially is the right thing at this time! Just forwarding one of the Body Liberation Guides to a friend helps, as does sharing a link (to a specific email or to the signup page) on your social accounts. Together, we’ve got this.
And finally, an important note for existing supporters.
Apparently Patreon had some kind of horrible payment processing disaster that unsubscribed a lot of people from the creators they were supporting. I saw a drastic drop in supporters this month, so I know some of you were affected. If you were supporting me on Patreon, please go check your account and make sure that you’re still supporting everyone you intend to!
Warmly,
Lindley
The Conversation
Here’s what’s being discussed this week in the world of body acceptance and fat liberation:
» Allyship opportunity: Help SJ recover from top surgery (support)
» I don’t want to be “hot” I want to be respected. (read)
» The Anti-Obesity Assemblage Artifact Analysis Tool (download)
» 10% off Anti-Diet Vegan Nutrition Online Course through August (see)
» I asked for a fat pin-up girl which it refused to do as it would be offensive and harmful. (read)
» I’ve received thousands of hate comments on IG for making a plus size mannequin (watch)
» What to do when your fat icons get weird (read)
Unicorn chaser: How do you catch a fish without a fishing pole? (read)
“Fat people have sex. Sweet, tender, luscious sex. Sweaty, feral, sheet-ripping sex. Shivery, jiggly, gasping sex. Sentimental, slow, face-cradling sex. Even as you read these words, there are fat people out there somewhere joyously getting their freak on.
Not only that, but fat people are falling in love, having hook ups, being crushed-out, putting on sexy lingerie, being the objects of other people’s lust, flirting, primping before hot dates, melting a little as they read romantic notes from their sweeties, seducing and being seduced, and having shuddering, toe-curling orgasms that are as big as they are.” » Hanne Blank, “Big Big Love”
Upcoming Events
- » Part 3: Case Consultation Session Aug 10
- » Sizable Shenanigans Comedy Aug 11
- » Application Deadline: Body Image Coach Certification with Summer Innanen and Danni “Amapoundcake” Adams Aug 11
- » Sizable Shenanigans Fat Comedy Aug 11
- » The Big Dipper: A Fat Babe Pool Party Aug 12
- » BIG SPLASH! 2023 August 12
- » Body Positive Block Party Aug 13
- » Giant Storewide Sale @ Two Big Blondes Aug 16-20
- » Ahead of the Curve with Marcy Cruz: FLM Edition with Velvet d’Amour Aug 16
- » Estate Planning for Poly Families Aug 16
Quick Resources: Health at Every Size®-Aligned Workbooks
- » Trauma, Your Nervous System, & You: The Workbook
- » Food, Your Body, and You: Workbook & Resource Guide
- » A Body Image Workbook for Every Body
- » The Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens
- » Unpacking Weight Stigma
- » The Come as You Are Workbook: A Practical Guide to the Science of Sex
- » The Intuitive Eating Workbook
- » The Body Image Workbook
- » Your Body Is Not an Apology Workbook: Tools for Living Radical Self-Love
Hi there! I'm Lindley. I create artwork that celebrates the unique beauty of bodies that fall outside conventional "beauty" standards at Body Liberation Photography. I'm also the creator of Body Liberation Stock and the Body Love Shop, a curated central resource for body-friendly artwork and products. Find all my work here at bodyliberationphotos.com.
