Campaign History

Endangered Bodies Ireland relaunches as Anybody Ireland

AnyBody Ireland launches this lovely new website and brings together a team of like-minded body-image activists to work on new campaigns

Endangered Bodies Ireland took a break as Deirdre had to take a step back due to other commitments

September 2018 – Endangered Bodies Ireland co-hosted a workshop called ‘I need a perfect body. Is it true?” in Rathmines Library with The Work with Bríd. The workshop invited participants to join us for an adventure into exploring what we really are, beyond our body image. 

December 2018 – The Surgery is not a Game campaign was hailed a success at the end of 2018 with Apple removing all of the offending apps and the petition having garnered over 154,000 signatures.

Feb 2017 – Endangered Bodies raises concerns about cosmetic surgery games aimed at children and launches a petition calling on Apple, Amazon and Google to stop the games from being marketed to children.  Eight representatives of Endangered Bodies around the world launched the campaign and Andrea Mara was the representative for Ireland. She shared why this campaign was important to her in the Irish Examiner.

May 2017 – Deirdre Cowman spoke about the #surgeryisnotagame campaign in an episode of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast 

May 2016 – Endangered Bodies Ireland invited Peggy Norwood Stella to deliver a workshop on her approach to wellbeing ‘A New BMI: Body Mind Intelligence’. Peggy encourages the practice of mindfulness combined with physical activity as the pathway to feeling well and moving with ease. Her mission is to educate, enlighten and inspire change from the current attitudes and beliefs about body weight and health, and to move towards a greater awareness of how the mind influences the body. You can find more on Peggy’s approach here https://www.anewbmi.com/

January 2015 – Endangered Bodies Ireland were invited to speak at the Trinity College Dublin Body and Soul week. Deirdre, Megan and Sophia spoke at the ‘Protect Your Body, Protect Your Mind’ event organised by TCD Students Union.

January 2014 – Endangered Bodies Ireland recognises that January can be a hard time for body acceptance so decided to put aside time and space to get together and focus on body acceptance and challenge the toxic culture of body hatred. A Speak Out is a gathering of people in a safe environment, where they are able to raise their voice to articulate their experiences of a situation, and, equally importantly, listen to the voices of others.

August 2014 – Cork Feminista hosted a public meeting titled ‘Reveal: The Real Vs. The Ideal Body Image’. The meeting covered topics such as media impact, body shaming, low body confidence, eating disorders and more and Deirdre from Endangered Bodies Ireland joined the panel to discuss body image activism.

Feb 2013 – Following incidents of weight-related stigma and bullying on RTE’s TV series ‘Operation Transformation’, Endangered Bodies Ireland petitioned RTE and sponsors of the programme to reconsider the emphasis on weight loss and to focus instead on some of the other physical, social and emotional benefits associated with balanced diet and increased physical activity. See the petition here.

May 2013 – Endangered Bodies Ireland celebrated International No Diet Day with a public celebration in Dublin’s streets. We wore t-shirts and carried speech bubbles with body-positive messages. We handed out information about intuitive eating and invited people to have a guilt-free treat. More info here.

June 2013 – Endangered Bodies Ireland hits the streets for Pride Parade on the 29th June. It was great to see so much diversity on the streets on Dublin and we were delighted to be out there spreading positive body image.

January 2012 – Deirdre Cowman set up a Facebook page for Endangered Bodies Ireland and started reaching out to other body image activists in Ireland.

March 2012 – Endangered Bodies Ireland took part in a panel discussion about the documentary Miss Representation. The documentary explores the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America, and challenges the media’s limited portrayal of what it means to be a powerful woman. The screening was organized by the Irish Feminist Network.

May 2012 – Thousands of women from all over the country gather together to walk or run 10k and raise funds for deserving charities at the Flora Mini-Marathon. In order to take part in the event, women pick up their race number and entry pack at the Woman’s World event  – ‘the largest female exhibition event in Ireland’. The exhibition features a huge number of products focused on weight loss and appearance so Endangered Bodies Ireland went along to hand out body positive messages to remind women that the event is about much more than that.

June 2012 – Endangered Bodies Ireland hosted a series of ‘You at Peace’ (YAP) discussion groups to provide women with a safe, confidential space to discuss the issues that impact on the way they feel about their bodies. By joining together to discuss our feelings and experiences, we can better understand and articulate the wider issues that influence the way we feel about our bodies.

February 2011 – AnyBody launches the Endangered Species movement in the UK with a billboard campaign in collaboration with DIVA magazine, Red C Agency and Clear Channel International. The purpose of the billboard campaign was to communicate the Endangered Species’ message: save future generations of women and girls from hating their own bodies.

March 2011 – UK Endangered Bodies Summit was an international summit that launched in March 2011 in major cities throughout the world. The aim is to save future generations of girls from the misery that turns women against their own bodies. The challenge? To make people understand how and why this is an emergency, to show them how they can do something about it, and to inspire them to embrace change.

At the London Summit, individuals and groups from the UK and Ireland were joined by initiatives throughout Europe and abroad to showcase the work they are already doing with and about young women – from projects in schools, colleges and communities to web-based groups and campaigning organisations. Performance, videos and artwork framed the day and underlined the urgent message of this summit.

November 2011 – Launch of the Ditching Dieting campaign at a SpeakOut during the 2012 UK Feminista conference.

2000 – Susie Orbach is a key participant in a UK summit, which targeted the editors, advertisers, and affiliates of the fashion industry to take responsibility for the rising rates of anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. Other participants include Liz Jones, editor of the British Marie Claire and the Minister for Women, Tessa Jowell. The result was a pledge for self-regulation, which left much more work to be done. 

2002 – Susie published On Eating and convenes a group to campaign for body diversity, which became AnyBody. The first actions were to produce a report “Costing the Invisible” mapping the socio-economical impact of the troubled body and set up a website to be an information resource.

2003 – Susie Orbach gave evidence to the Parliamentary Committee on Obesity and participated in the Vienna City Government Body Image Summit. The AnyBody group is officially formed with Susie Orbach as convenor. 

June 2005 – Susie Orbach is invited to work with Dove and helped change an advertising campaign into a mission: the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. 

August 2006 – The updated AnyBody website creates a space for comment and connection to challenge the dominant visual culture.

October 2006 – AnyBody reached out to to Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, following his statement that he will withdraw London Fashion Week funding if they continue to use underweight models. We suggested an alternative positive initiative for the funding and local fashion designers. 

January 2007 – We kick off our ‘MAKE BODY HATRED SO LAST SEASON’ fashion campaign and our Model Size Diversity campaign to get more variety of model sizes on to catwalks.

February 2007 – Anybody holds a flash protest outside London Fashion Week, see video footage of the protest here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-jGUs84q3o&feature=emb_logo

July 2007 – The Model Health Inquiry interim report put pressure on the British Fashion Council to set industry standards on behalf of models but not enough is done. AnyBody’s petition calling for body diversity on the catwalks of London Fashion Week continues.

October 2007 – One of AnyBody’s goals is to bring a case against Weight Watchers as one example of where the diet industry knowingly exploits the aesthetic ideal of slenderness. It has plenty of evidence that dieting does not help people maintain weight loss.

2008 – Susie Orbach presents at the Vienna Body Image Summit as a keynote speaker.

February 2009 – After bestsellers such as Fat is a Feminist Issue and On Eating, Susie Orbach releases her eleventh book, Bodies.

March 2010 – AnyBody joins forces with the Campaign for Body Confidence. On International Women’s Day 2010, Susie Orbach, leading academics, politicians and members of the media and fashion industries participated in a panel discussion in the Houses of Parliament, debating the way forward to combat body image pressure on women and girls imposed by idealised images in the modern media.

April 2010 – Girl Guides in the UK survey over 1200 girls between the ages of 7 and 21, and discover just how unhappy and dissatisfied they are with and in their bodies.