October 10th, 2016
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
I am feeling so grateful this year in particular. My mother joins us every year for our feast. It was great to have her here with us. We designed special cards for each other to express our gratitude. My daughters, mother, husband and myself hand wrote why we were grateful for each member of our family. Then we exchanged our handmade cards. We expressed our gratitude out loud during supper. It was so sweet to hear my girls talk about how lucky they felt to be in our family and to have each other.
We savoured our delicious turkey supper with carrots, potatoes, brussel sprouts and cranberry jelly which my husband had so meticulously prepared. He is such an awesome cook!
As I drove my mother home, I was thankful for the sunshine and multi-coloured trees lining the 416 and Prince of Wales drive. My mother told me she learned a great deal from watching my daughters. My husband took our youngest out to buy clothing. Her birthday is next weekend and she has outgrown her clothing. My mother was meeting them at the store. She watched my daughter decide without hesitation which items of clothing she liked. My mother said she couldn't recall ever being that certain about anything. Growing up, she wasn't asked her opinion. If she had expressed it, chances are, her observations would not have been well received.
As we designed our cards, my daughter couldn't decide what to write and how to shape her paper. I had pumpkin-shaped papers, my husband had flags, my eldest daughter and mom both had hearts, so my youngest thought she might create stars. She didn't like the way her stars turned out. I offered to help but she pretended she didn't want to write cards. We accepted her decision to not make cards. She then came up with her own invention. She sculpted hearts out of red clay, she wrote, I love you!, on each one and placed a feather at the top, a different colour for each of us. My mother was impressed with her creativity and her freedom to express her gratitude her way.
I felt grateful that my daughters were having a good time, playing together, chasing the pets around the house and participating in this art activity. I also felt lucky to live in my home, a lovely family home, warm and spacious, loved and lived-in. I am thankful that my husband is such an excellent cook, that my mother is open to learning from her grand-daughters and sharing her insight with me. I am grateful that my daughters are older now. This means they are more independent and they are able to express their thoughts and feelings with words.
We have been through so much as a family and I am thrilled that we are all here in this moment, enjoying and loving one another. I am proud of my family with our two sweet pets. Our golden lab who is affectionate and excited to see us every day. Our sleepy, mellow cat who allows the girls to dress him up, carry him like a baby and make him dance in the most embarrassing ways (see photo of George with his sombrero on my FB page).
I have one more thing to be grateful for this year. Ever since I have posted about The Mommy Monologues on this blog and on FB, I have been inundated with stories from moms who have been through challenging pregnancies, births and traumatic experiences. They have survived and are sharing their stories to help other moms who are still battling. I am so grateful for their honesty and courage.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Monday, 10 October 2016
Wednesday, 21 September 2016
Transgender Models
September 21st, 2016
A few days ago, I was having lunch with my husband in our favourite vietnamese restaurant. There is a huge television on the wall and usually, images of delicious food plays in the background as we eat. This week, they chose a different television channel. I believe the program that was playing was, The View. I don't normally watch television while I dine with my hubby but something caught my attention. This beautiful dark-skinned woman said something like: "They were asking for models, 6'2 and up, no one said I couldn't have a penis".
There were maybe three tables of clients in the restaurant. We were all paying attention at this point. The View was interviewing models from a transgender modelling agency. I thought this must be a new and innovative business but I looked it up when I got home and there were at least four agencies focused solely on transgender models.
I know transgender issues have been in the news due to controversy regarding the use of public restrooms, however, I have encountered transgendered individuals as a teenager working in a Healthy Sexuality theatre program and, as an art therapist through my group work in high schools as well as in private practice. The individuals I met and worked with were kind, regular people who were extremely compassionate due to the judgment of others directed at them.
As a teenager, all you want is to fit in and be part of a group. You hunger for acceptance and you strive to express yourself authentically. If there's one thing teens hate it's bullshit (pardon my language). They can sniff a fake from a mile away. They really want to figure out who they are, express this to their surroundings and be accepted.
Transgendered individuals may feel trapped in the wrong body. They feel like a girl even though they have a male anatomy and are raised as a boy. They can also feel like a boy even though they are anatomically a girl. This creates inner conflict as they attempt to be authentic. When they try to explain to parents, siblings and friends that they feel like someone of the opposite gender, these loved ones have no previous experience to draw on and they don't know how to respond. In some families, the response is rejection and pressure to stay as they are, the gender that feels wrong to them.
Other transgendered individuals don't want to be identified as a gender. They don't fit into either box, trying to be categorized is painful and frustrating for them. They don't want to be referred to as male or female. They may want to be called, Them, instead of her or him. When we are doing art about this, I find it helpful to have my clients paint their essence, who they are inside. Poetry is also a great tool to give a voice to this inner self.
I was happy to see that some modelling agencies are embracing the beauty of all people. We are most beautiful when we are being true to ourselves. A few models who were being interviewed mentioned feeling safer in their work as models while working for these agencies. They don't need to explain anything, the companies employing them already know they are transgender. This is a great way to embrace their individuality and provide role models for a wider range of teenagers. Just as we now have plus size models, black models, asian models as well as skinny, white models to reflect the diversity and beauty in our community, we can now show transgender individuals that they are represented and valued.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
A few days ago, I was having lunch with my husband in our favourite vietnamese restaurant. There is a huge television on the wall and usually, images of delicious food plays in the background as we eat. This week, they chose a different television channel. I believe the program that was playing was, The View. I don't normally watch television while I dine with my hubby but something caught my attention. This beautiful dark-skinned woman said something like: "They were asking for models, 6'2 and up, no one said I couldn't have a penis".
There were maybe three tables of clients in the restaurant. We were all paying attention at this point. The View was interviewing models from a transgender modelling agency. I thought this must be a new and innovative business but I looked it up when I got home and there were at least four agencies focused solely on transgender models.
I know transgender issues have been in the news due to controversy regarding the use of public restrooms, however, I have encountered transgendered individuals as a teenager working in a Healthy Sexuality theatre program and, as an art therapist through my group work in high schools as well as in private practice. The individuals I met and worked with were kind, regular people who were extremely compassionate due to the judgment of others directed at them.
As a teenager, all you want is to fit in and be part of a group. You hunger for acceptance and you strive to express yourself authentically. If there's one thing teens hate it's bullshit (pardon my language). They can sniff a fake from a mile away. They really want to figure out who they are, express this to their surroundings and be accepted.
Transgendered individuals may feel trapped in the wrong body. They feel like a girl even though they have a male anatomy and are raised as a boy. They can also feel like a boy even though they are anatomically a girl. This creates inner conflict as they attempt to be authentic. When they try to explain to parents, siblings and friends that they feel like someone of the opposite gender, these loved ones have no previous experience to draw on and they don't know how to respond. In some families, the response is rejection and pressure to stay as they are, the gender that feels wrong to them.
Other transgendered individuals don't want to be identified as a gender. They don't fit into either box, trying to be categorized is painful and frustrating for them. They don't want to be referred to as male or female. They may want to be called, Them, instead of her or him. When we are doing art about this, I find it helpful to have my clients paint their essence, who they are inside. Poetry is also a great tool to give a voice to this inner self.
I was happy to see that some modelling agencies are embracing the beauty of all people. We are most beautiful when we are being true to ourselves. A few models who were being interviewed mentioned feeling safer in their work as models while working for these agencies. They don't need to explain anything, the companies employing them already know they are transgender. This is a great way to embrace their individuality and provide role models for a wider range of teenagers. Just as we now have plus size models, black models, asian models as well as skinny, white models to reflect the diversity and beauty in our community, we can now show transgender individuals that they are represented and valued.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
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