Beauty is an ever changing standard and can be a deciding factor in determining whether we are esteemed or outcast within a culture.

From a woman suffering with ritually bound feet in Sung dynasty China to a modern American trying to squeeze into her “skinny jeans,” or a man who spends hours every week pumping exercise machines in pursuit of six-pack abs, we feel the pressure to conform to standards of idealized beauty — standards we feel compelled to measure ourselves against. Many allow this measurement to powerfully influence their sense of self-worth.

A woman’s spirit, her sense of confidence and self-worth, may be broken by repetitive messages that tell her she isn’t good enough the way she is — poisonous messages with no higher purpose than to generate demand for self-improvement products. In this age of technology the exposure to these critical messages is nearly constant from e-mail spam, radio, television, film, and print media. Men and women have to put on mental armor every day to deflect the pointed barbs and subtle hints that we should wax away hair, lose twenty pounds, and have bigger breasts or a larger penis.

Body Politics is a major collaborative series by artists Tammy Vitale and Heather Bartlett that addresses the concepts of self-image, self-worth, and submission to standard ideals of beauty, and how these affect our perceptions of our own bodies. The series features a number of interactive pieces inviting viewer participation, and though its primary focus is women’s body images, it includes works about male body image as well.