bodyBODY:You Can't Tell By Looking

January 8-February 12, 2005, at the Empty Space Theatre, 3509 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle
Thursdays-Saturdays 8 p.m.; Sundays 2 p.m. Doors/This Is Beautiful exhibit open 45 minutes before curtain.

Buy tickets here or by calling 1-800-838-3006. Reservations recommended.

You Can't Tell by Looking is the latest installment of the bodyBODY Project's exploration of the women's body-image issue. The multimedia event includes:

• You Can't Tell By Looking, an original dark comedy that explores family dynamics and how they play into women's perceptions of themselves and their bodies.
  
• What a Body!, a video documentary by Kathlyn Albright in which women from all over the world share their stories about how they navigate messages about their bodies from their families and our culture.
  
• This Is Beautiful, a collection of photographs by Amanda Koster that shows there is beauty in every body.
  
• Body Stories, an audioscape of true tales.
  

bodyBODY: You Can't Tell By Looking uses these different art forms to show audience members that they are not alone in their experiences navigating cultural, media and familial messages about their bodies. Just because someone is thin, it doesn't mean she is happy. If someone else is heavy, it doesn't mean she can't enjoy her body. Perhaps if enough people are aware of how narrow society's definition of beauty is, the scope will open wider to encompass all of us.

"I wanted to tell you that the show was compelling, so much so that we kept talking about it on and off the next day. It's a topic that is so engraved in women's lives that we often don't even bother to wonder why we think about body weight the way we do. Thanks for the enlightenment!" -- L.S.

"It made me think for days afterwards. I loved it." -- J.M.

"What a hot kissing scene. We loved it. ... Also, the fullness of the whole experience began to dawn on me only as we were leaving. I am so glad we lingered in the lobby. It was a real feeling of discovery as I became aware of all the art that was around us, the photos, the stories, the facts, the magazine ads." -- P.R.

This project is made possible with the generous help of The Shunpike, a great resource for artists

Body Facts: This is why bodyBODY is important

In 1920, women established the right to vote. 1920 was also the first year of the Miss America Pageant.
75 percent of normal weight women think they are overweight; 90 percent overestimate their body size.
In a study of almost 500 schoolgirls, 81 percent of 10-year-olds reported that they had dieted at least once. Another study found that negative body image is associated with suicide risk for girls, but not for boys. The number-one wish for girls ages 11-17 is to be thinner.
For the first time in history, the smoking rate of girls now surpasses that of boys, with the compelling motivation of weight control. Forty to 50 percent of women smokers smoke because they see it as a primary means to control their weight. Of these women, 25 percent will die of a disease caused by smoking.
In a sample of male and female high school students, two-thirds of normal-weight boys and girls believed that being thinner would have an impact on their lives. The majority of girls believed that this impact would be positive, while the majority of the boys believed that the impact would be negative. Girls were more dissatisfied with their bodies than boys. Girls reported magazines as their primary source of information regarding diet and health, whereas boys reported their primary source to be parents.
Approximately 7 million girls and women struggle with eating disorders. About 1 million boys and men struggle with eating disorders.
The average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5'11" tall and weighs 117 pounds. Today's fashion models weigh 23 percent less than the average female. A woman between the ages of 18 and 34 has a 7 percent chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and 1 percent of being as thin as a supermodel. 69 percent of girls said that magazine models influence their idea of what the perfect body is supposed to look like.
25 percent of men and 45 percent of women are on a diet on any given day.
80 percent of women are dissatisfied with their appearance.
51 percent of 9- and 10-year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet.
91 percent of women recently surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting; 22 percent dieted "often" or "always."
Americans spend more than $40 billion on dieting and diet-related products each year.
According to Teen People magazine, 27 percent of girls surveyed felt that the media pressures them to have a perfect body.
In a Stanford survey, 68 percent of female graduate and undergraduate students felt worse about their own bodies after looking through women's magazines.
The average woman sees 400 to 600 advertisements per day, and by the time she is 17, she has received more than 250,000 commercial messages.

(We are not affected by the Empty Space's troubles. Help them out by attending a benefit or donating money!)