Cécile Dormeau

0:12Hello my name is Cecile damu I'm a French illustrator that will explain terrible English accent sorry thanks a lot to nicer Tuesday for inviting me and thank you for coming so one day I was in the underground in Paris and I heard a guy mumbling close to a fat guy some people should not take the public transport because it take too much place another day I was in a bar and a guy asked to my friend with his friends laughing in the back we wanted to know if you're pregnant and I heard girls in the street saying and I took.

0:47So much waste as phones have you not tie the size of her legs this is so ugly or it's this other guy saying to my friend complex by her weight oh you're not fat because fat is a worst insult you can say fat is a bad word in movies you will see most of the time fat people represented as ugly stupid and lazy and especially for the fat girl she will never be the object of desire of love most of the time fat people are just there for that we laugh about them why are we such a mean fat people why people cannot see fat people as people and you know some people will answer you know.

1:25I think it's good to fat shame fat people because like this it encourage them to take care about their body and their health but when you say to a girl your big fat cow she will not say oh my god you're right. I just have to be skinny and to take care of myself and make a diet that was so simple what I didn't think about it myself thank you this girl will just feel like because fat shaming just bring fat people to be dehumanized and to hate themselves even more you cannot take care of yourself if you don't love yourself if you don't accept how you are to sick people I love around me being fat shaming and hating themselves so much about it I just thought this needs to change and one day I had in mind this idea that for once I will represent a fat girl as a normal girl just living her everyday which will not be a victim but confident which will not be insecure about her weight but honey and which will not be ugly but dutiful and sexy unable to seduce and I guess that was kind of unusual because some people start to be interested and also start to ask me to justify why I was drawing fat girls because the normality is to represent skinny people.

2:33And I started to have comments like this is so ugly fat people's emotion grow some balls and stop promoting girls to be fat and ugly doesn't help anyone to be happy if they're over 30 without a boyfriend or husband and one reason why is it don't have a husband or boyfriend is because you have ugly body types that are portrayed as being Freddie when it's not or the same pictures if drawn by someone skinny will be damn offensive so we have the idea here for many people fat means ugly unhealthy single and ridiculous. And if I'm drawing fat people is just to laugh about them right.

3:13So I just thought okay can we change representation of fat people in the media one day I made this little illustration for the Essos magazine where I represented fat girl and it was not about self-acceptance it was about magic in everyday life.

3:28And I saw that some girls we are really happy to identify themselves and I realized that we really need to show more body diversity everywhere and not only in body positive topics and today. I have clients who let me show my body diverse more body diversity and that's very encouraging like here for a body care brand or like here fanatical for about comics or like here for Natick all about having sex in Paris or here a cover for about a teenager but in the other hand on unfortunately I also still have a lot of clients who will tell me Oh still we love how you draw a woman how they are but please can you make her with thinner legs and around the but the more I was in this body representations thought the most I open my eyes on how all girls with all kind of shapes fat or not have a lot of complexes and we are losing so much energy complaining about it even if we make fun about it it's a friend telling me I just discovered myself v belch help it's my sister telling me I just made my photography from my passport I just look like a giant hamster or another friend telling me I need to shave my mustache I look like a porn actor from the 70s why so much hate for our self I decided to analyze my own complexes and to come back to the most blessed years of my life concerning body hate which is secondary school and to support this point I decided to share with you some old self portrait I was during of me between age 14 and 20 and at that time I was so obsessed with my flaws I was extremely complex by my hair my boobs my belly and you know it was not being just a bit embarrassed I was seeing myself as a monster and I was convinced to be the only girl to be like this in the whole world what did I hate in myself so much for several reason do you remember the time at secondary school when boys we are making ranking about the best poops of the class we are at the age where the body is changing and we assist to a festival of comments about our bodies and I made illustration about this aggression and a lot worried about my absence of boobs at the time.

5:37So I got stuff like oh are you boobs finally growing or what's a breadboard what's up ironic board and further other girls will have you will have like airbags if you have big boobs or like the pen for tall skinny girls we are all judged by our physics no matter what you look like there is always a good reason to have a complex about something in you and the other reason was also because I couldn't identify in the media I found my boobs disgusting because it was a couldn't lie look like the books I could see in the magazines or on TV and my friends with big books were telling me that big boobs in the media and never knew this thing called gravity and at a time when I was opening a girl's magazine I was reading it and feeling completely depressed when I was closing it why because this magazine was telling me that I will not be worth to be loved if I was not meeting very specific criterias and I was thinking I'm not enough I'm not normal and I I was not the only one to don't feel identify in the media and to be a dictator with my own body so I just thought hey girls let's say together off to this feminine ADL because we don't need to be perfect and I just start just draw about these insecurities that we can have to say to the girls that it's normal to have flaws and that we all don't look like the same and who love your body starts by stop comparing yourself to other people all the time and saying that our personal value is more than just our appearance some years ago society will tell you that didn't you have that you have to look like a Kate Moss to be Freddie and some years later you will have to look like Maura Kim Kardashian so should you spend your whole life trying to adapt yourself to what people consider as beauty or should you just take the control and love your body no matter what people say and I just start trying to show these flaws considered as most rules in another way political funny like boobs vans Bell cheese orange skin stretch marks crow's feet saggy boobs and also hair because I just saw that hair is a major complex for many girls this is something we never show in the media all the girls we see our always perfectly smooth and girls will say like I feel like a man when I'm not shaved or I'm so gross with my hair or it will feel abnormal because they have hair on the legs Posse arms back belly teased fish whatever part of the body but in having hair is completely normal we always feel bad in our bodies because society will never show realistic bodies that's why I want to draw girls how they are that's why I'm always really happy when people recognize himself in my illustration laughing at them and with them.

8:23And I really hope it can help them to move forward towards self-acceptance one day I had a comment of a woman saying that I was a missile gene just mocking about women but the thing is of course if I want to speak about diversity in body shapes and complexes of course it's all about the mocking topics about us all to try to hurt you by judging you and also how hard we can be with ourselves because we know that these little comments can be extremely destructive and I want girls to learn to be stronger than to insult to say yes I've got swim boobs yes I've got celibate so what because I realize that this pressure of how a girl must be to be pretty is still very strong if most of the comments I had were really positive I also had a lot of men and women telling oh my god fortunately all the girls look like this otherwise I don't know how the men could find a cialis we are so used to see in media's bodies in a certain way that when these bodies are shooting their normality without Photoshop the reaction of people will be rejection and disgust that's why for me you more is the best answer to negativity laughing of what is scaring us threatening us oppressing us is to me the best way of empowering ourselves how long have you been pregnant for 10 years laughing of our self for me is a big off to be addicted and I think this is really important to try to find new more in all this complex tema to help girl to the dramatized about their image to questions himself about the distances and what society takes it from you to be acceptable I want that girls really ask themself ok what do I want do I need to be like the girls at media's are telling me to be do I need to look like her or can I look like me I want my literation to be like a virtual hug for people who feel insecure or a bit up to tell them it's ok and you're not alone to struggle and fight with your insecurities and problems we just have to find a way to speak about it let's work on our shames and frustration to be in harmony with ourselves and let's embrace our inner ability in my illustration I often try to ask myself ok what do I want to change what do I see in media that I don't like and want to see differently what do I want to stand represent in my work and how do you want people to feel when they see it what is not enough represented and how can you bring people to question about some things tummies for representation. And we really need to ask ourself what we do what we should say more to the people to make them feel great identified and confident and help them achieve in life what they want thank you [Applause]