Torstar News Service Published on Thu Oct 27 2016
If you’ve ever found riding the subway at rush hour to be something less than graceful, you’re not alone.
The TTC’s new promotional partnership with the National Ballet – dubbed We Move You – is drawing criticism from one organization that says it perpetuates “unrealistic and highly regimented bodies as some sort of an ideal of ‘beauty.’”
The campaign, which officially launched Thursday, shows dancers from the National Ballet of Canada in photos and online videos dancing and posing in subway stations, on streetcars and in buses.
But Jill Andrew, co-founder of the Body Confidence Canada Awards, worries the images send the wrong messages about what healthy, confident humans should look like.
“We can’t deny that there is a lot of body-based discrimination that happens … within our moves around the city,” Andrew said.
“My experience as a radicalized woman, as a fat woman, I’ve been called an f-ing fat black b---- on the TTC,” she said. “Is this video really moving me? Is this video at all depicting me on the move?”
Andrew’s organization is campaigning to have discrimination based on size and appearance made illegal in Ontario.
She said she doesn’t disagree with promoting Toronto’s vibrant arts and culture scene; she just wants to see more of a focus on imagery that represents who Torontonians really are.
“The body types of most ballet dancers do not adequately represent those of most Canadians and, I dare say, most TTC users,” she said. [...]
