Project challenges perceptions of beauty - By Lori Varosh

For the second installment of the bodyBODY Project, documentary filmmaker Kathlyn Albright expanded the cultural and ethnic diversity of her interview subjects.

The result was surprising.

Instead of just lamenting how cultural definitions of beauty negatively impact body image, some subjects of her film -- ``What a Body!'' -- dwell on the positive aspects of appearance.

A woman who was raised in Taiwan tells her, ``I think it's great here; fat, skinny, it doesn't matter. You can always find someone to appreciate you.''

Why feel bad about being fat? asks another woman who's worked in a refugee camp in the Dominican Republic. ``It means you have enough food.''

Americans ``have the luxury of having a body image problem,'' Albright concludes. ``It's the luxury of being in a very wealthy place.''

But women in her film also echo the new Seattle divorcee, who observes, ``If I want to find someone else, I'd better get myself as close to that ideal as possible, or I'm going to spend the rest of my life alone.''

Awareness of such quiet desperation led three artists to create ``bodyBODY: You Can't Tell By Looking,'' a multimedia project exploring women's body image issues through photographs, documentary film and drama.

For ``This is Beauty,'' photographer Amanda Koster conducted a nude photo shoot at an eating disorder clinic in British Columbia, showcasing the beauty of all women regardless of age, race, ability and size.

Vanessa McGrady's original dark comedy, ``You Can't Tell by Looking,'' explores the relationship two sisters have with their plastic surgeon father, and the way it affects their lives. Bibi is fat, wild and at home in her voluptuousness. Vicki has become a bulimic prisoner in her 36-24-36 frame.

McGrady produced the first installment of the project, ``bodyBODY: Aphrodite Raves,'' last year, after the man she emphasizes is her ex-boyfriend suggested she'd gained weight.

At the time, she was perhaps 10 pounds heavier than her current size 6 or 8, McGrady says, but the implication that he was not as attracted to her sent her into a tailspin.

While a journalist, she'd written a newspaper story about a naked photo shoot -- the Take Back Our Bodies Project. The piece had generated more response than anything else she'd ever written, McGrady says. ``It really hit an accept-your-body nerve.''

Parents pay their children to lose weight, she says. Children conclude the parents are ashamed of them, when all they really want is for their children to be healthy.

Through the bodyBODY project, all three women hope to stimulate thought and discussion about ``how we perceive and define beauty in the 21st century.''

The hurtful things people say to each other can stick with them for the rest of their lives, Albright says.

``We don't want people to be more guarded than they are,'' Albright says, ``but we want people to be aware that what they are saying affects people, especially children.''

``The body is just a vehicle for the brain and soul to be in the world,'' Albright adds. ``When you get in a car for a Sunday drive, if all you think about is what a junker you have, you'll miss the drive.''

BODYBODY: YOU CAN'T TELL BY LOOKING

* Saturday to Feb. 12

* 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

* Empty Space Theater, 3509 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle

* $15 at the door or through Brown Paper Tickets, 877-278-4842 or www.brownpapertickets.com

* Pay-what-you-can preview: 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7. Tickets only at the door. Proceeds go to Red Cross for tsunami relief

* www.bodybodyproject.com