Body Image, Minus the Drama

Like millions of teenagers the world over, Nancy Redd just wanted to know whether her body — odor and all — was normal. Despite stealthy trips to the health section of her local bookstore, she never found the frank information she was looking for.

Those painful memories inspired Redd, 26, who went on to become a Harvard graduate, Miss Virginia 2003, and a Miss America contestant, to write Body Drama: Real Girls, Real Bodies, Real Issues, Real Answers. A New York Times best seller, Body Drama is hailed by critics as “a book of liberation” and “the modern girl’s Our Bodies, Ourselves.”

Body Drama leaves no taboo body topic undiscussed — or unphotographed. In a humorous but no-nonsense fashion, Redd talks about things ranging from back acne and bikini waxes to body odors and pubic lice. The book also includes unretouched photos of naked women, including a centerfold of 24 vaginas.

“Body Drama is the book I wish I’d had as a teen, and the book that all young women need today more than ever before,” Redd says. “How can we respect and protect our bodies if we don’t know what real bodies look like? If we can hardly utter the word ‘vagina,’ much less peek at it without feeling dirty, how can we own and love it and ourselves?”

Redd will speak at Boston University tonight at 7 with Judy Norsigian (Hon.’07), coauthor of Our Bodies, Ourselves, at 685 Commonwealth Ave. Their discussion, Media Diet: Tipping the Scales Toward the Acceptance of Real Beauty, is part of Genderfest, a two-week festival that looks at women’s roles and representation in politics, religion, and the media and examines issues of race, safety, and sexuality, cosponsored by the women’s studies program and the student organization Every Person Counts.

Redd spoke with BU Today about writing the book and about what women can do to accept — and embrace — their own body drama.

BU Today: Why did you write Body Drama?
Redd: My own body. In middle and high school, I’d often sneak into the health section of the bookstore or library and frantically flip through the dozens of puberty and body books on the shelves, ignoring the paragraphs of clinical text, searching urgently for photographic evidence that I was not a weird, stinky girl — proof by comparison, if you will. I desperately needed to know whether my body was normal, but my searches always ended in vain. To me, if none of the body books talked about dandruff (which I had) or period stains (always a concern) or showed me how my growing body was supposed to look naked (which I really wanted to know), then other girls must not have these same issues, problems, and curiosities. I always finished my reading feeling as though I had missed the boat in the body department. None of my issues was ever publicly discussed, so I thought that my original assumption was correct: I was a gross girl with lots of odd problems.

It wasn’t until taking some women’s studies courses in college that I got the information I needed and the reassurance that body drama happens to all women, and not just me. It was really painful to stress over my body for all of my teen years, and not everyone is as lucky as I was to have open-minded professors and classmates to dish with. Body Drama is a book created out of my own personal feelings of necessity and relief.

Who is the intended audience?
Anyone who wants to learn more about the female body and have fun while doing so. I originally intended my audience to be teen girls, but I’ve realized that the scope is much broader than just them. I’ve received e-mails ranging from teen boys to grandmas who have read the book.

What do you hope the book will accomplish?
In Body Drama, my readers are seeing the female form in an un-airbrushed, natural setting — quite the opposite of what they’re used to. I’m proud that Body Drama presents bodies in a positive and educational light that isn’t sexualized, and I hope to help open the minds of today’s youth to the idea that women’s bodies aren’t supposed to look like cartoons, with over-inflated chests and wasp waists. Our bodies are supposed to leak, creak, stink, and grow hair.

How have readers reacted to the book?
I’ve gotten some lovely responses from people all over the globe. Many readers tell me their stories of struggling with body drama, from the 10-year-old who worries about masturbation delaying her period (it won’t) to the 75-year-old woman who desperately wishes that she had been able to shirk societal standards of beauty and “normal” when her body was young and still fully functional.

The book includes a lot of personal — and potentially embarrassing — anecdotes. What gave you the courage to write them?
I wanted to put my experiences out there, because if I didn’t share some of my own stories, I felt that it would be hypocritical of me to expect young women to open up about, and get help for, their deepest, darkest, and most embarrassing body dramas. The issues in my past that I talk about — going nearly bald after using a bad hair relaxer, awful odors everywhere, feeling fat, needing therapy — happen to almost everyone, and we shouldn’t have to feel shame. By talking about my own body drama, I hope young women can learn from my mistakes without making the same ones.

What was the most difficult aspect of writing the book?
I was superworried that I wouldn’t be able to get enough women to come to the photo shoots. I was nervous that only subzero-size models — or worse, no one — would respond to my Craig’s List ads asking women to be photographed for Body Drama. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. More than 400 women of every age, size, and ethnicity proudly offered their back acne, lopsided boobs, and even liposuction scars for photographing. I was awed by the courage and passion of these women. They weren’t your usual model types, yet all of them were the most beautiful women I’ve ever met.

What did you learn about yourself in writing Body Drama?
That it’s superfun and cleansing to admit to your deepest feelings of embarrassment and shame, because that helps others to heal, too. Body acceptance is a group effort.

Are you happy with your own body?
Aside from this evil pimple that cropped up in the middle of my forehead last night, yes.

What needs to be done to change women’s negative perceptions of their bodies?
We’ve gotta give ’em more body role models, so that they have a true picture of what they’re actually supposed to look like. We’ve gotta be more honest and open about natural functions and human behavior. How can we expect women to feel okay about their bodies if they don’t have any real pictures or fair information to go by? Body Drama is my way of opening the doors to a more realistic and inviting dialogue about our bodies, to heal and change our society’s current negative perceptions.

Redd will speak tonight at 7 p.m. at 685 Commonwealth Ave., Room 224. Admission is free and open to the public.

For a complete listing of Genderfest events, click here; click here for the Facebook listing.

Vicky Waltz can be reached at vwaltz@bu.edu.