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Meet the beautiful ladies who are our latest Body Gossip supporters : DIVINE UNITY!

South London born trio Divine Unity are a girl group with a difference.

An eclectic blend of pop music sung with naturally soulful voices, their career began early and Sacha, Martina and Sharlene started off singing at church which included performances at the Brighton Convention Centre.

The award winning group have since performed at the National Exhibition Centre and The Drum Theatre in Birmingham as well as performing to a sold out crowd at the Royal Festival Hall and Symphony Hall.

The talented singer/songwriters have also graced the stage with the likes of Soul Legend Omar and two time MOBO Award Winning saxophonist, Yolanda Brown; as well as supporting Basement Jaxx vocalist, Sharlene Hector when she performed at the Hat Factory, Luton. The girls are currently playing an 8 week set at Charlotte Street Blues which will see them performing throughout February and March 2010.

Body Gossip's Natasha Devon of Winning Minds is in the current edition of Cosmopolitan Magazine (yes, Cosmo!!!) talking about her courageous battle with bulimia, and how Winning Minds helped her, and her connection to Body Gossip.

In Cosmopolitan Natasha talks about how years of bulimia pushed her body to its limit and reveals her astonishing fight back. Natasha also talks about how Winning Minds helped her,  and how she came to work for Winning Minds last august. Natasha now runs a workshop with Mark Newey a leading NLP practitioner and Eating Disorder Specialist in the UK. Together they have developed a workshop to help women with eating disorders which is endorsed by the charity B-eat.

You can read Natasha's article in Cosmopolitan Magazine here: Natasha's article in Cosmopolitan.

Natasha is also a regular blogger on positive and varied beauty, and you can read her superb blogs here: The Real Beauty Debate.

 

If you've heard the debate on Radio 5 Live on Saturday night, you'll know by now that Giles Coren had some rather strange and at times offensive opinions about body image, including stating that humans shouldn't eat every day, and that historically we have been skin and bone.  Ask any dietician, they'll tell you that Giles' views about food are dangerous and crazy. Ask any historian or art lover and they'll tell you that Giles was making up history to support his own argument.

Personally, I'm not blaming Kate Moss for believing what she says - in her industry she is under pressure to stay 'skinny'.  But as a fashion and beauty icon, she should realise by now how powerful she is and how influential she is - it is irresponsible of her to project this dangerous motto, where she must know how it would be received.  To anyone with a negative image of their own body, Kate's words say: "Don't eat anything, and you'll feel great because you'll be skinny".

Listening to that motto with the ears of a 16 year old girl, or boy, and suddenly it sounds very different.

Dangerously, Kate's motto ignores what food is there for - to give us energy, nutrients and to maintain a healthy body and mind.  She's demonising food, which is potentially deadly.  This just encourages obsession over eating and weight, when we should see food as a way to give our body energy.

What is it about not eating that is so brave and strong?  I think Kate Moss was a coward to use this already over-used statement (Steven Tyler coined the phrase years ago).  Talk about jumping on the tired old bandwagon of 'Thin is in'.  For so many years we've had the same message: 'Perfection is everything, don't show any flaws, wrinkles, cellulite, love handles'... But all these things are what makes us HUMAN and UNIQUE!  

Kate Moss would have been much BRAVER had she gone against the grain and said "I'm going to age naturally, I'm going to eat a healthy diet and exercise in moderation, and embrace my natural, healthy body."

Come on Kate, grow some balls and be the first to make NATURAL, HEALTHY BEAUTY the dish of the day!

 

So, tonight I was invited to join the Radio 5 Live debate about Kate Moss's comment "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels".

It was interesting!  Giles had some incredibly contentious views, which I really didn't agree with.  He talked a lot about how we don't need food, and how humans should be skin and bones, like we were throughout history - ummmm really?  What about the beautifully curvy women seen in paintings for hundreds of years? 

It seems to be just terrible that there is an intellectual public debate where views such as Coren's are discussed - and that's not criticising Giles personally.  If you read his article in the Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/giles_coren/ you'll read that Giles himself has huge body issues.  He weighs himself 6 times every morning, he seems obsessed with his own weight and size.

My worry is that he's not alone, and that too many of us worry this much about our own body image -and that's why I'm pushing Body Gossip so much.  It's awful that so many people obsess so much about their bodies - how can we stop this insecurity and self-loathing that so many of us feel?

Giles got a lot of criticism tonight, which I must say he deserved - his views were at times ridiculous, at other times offensive.  But what worries me most of all is the fact that he is clearly just as obsessed with body image as so many people in the UK, and that this obsession will take over his life, so that he doesn't enjoy his life.  He said he doesn't eat for days on end - he's missing out on so much enjoyment!

I'll write more when it's not late - to be honest tonight was an odd experience, I was literally onstage in 'War Horse' 5 minutes before the interview on Radio 5 Live, and it's taken me this long to digest it all - but yes more shall be written about the interview, but for now, all I have to say is this: If you listened tonight, or if you didn't but have something to say about your body, write your story and send it to story@bodygossip.org.  Your story could be performed live onstage by a celebrity cast, and you could take part in the revolution that is Body Gossip.

Ruth x

For the 3rd time EVER, Body Gossip took to the stage with a script of brand new stories written by the incredible:

Elizabeth Caproni, Amy Clode, Graeme Dalling, Amber Dodd, Andrea Georgios, Sabrina Mahfouz, P Molyneux, Shelley Mounter and Kate Tym.

The theatre that seated 250 was very nearly sold out (and those who weren't there MISSED OUT!) and there was a very interesting QnA afterwards where we all met Xaviera Hollander, the famous writer of 'The Happy Hooker', who was in the audience.

The paps were out in force and you can see the images from the show here:

http://www.wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?igi=385321&s=body%20gossip&sfld=C&vwmd=e

And for the after-show party pics, look no further than right here Body Gossip fans:

Rachael Haddon (No. 1 BG Fan), Natalie Cassidy, Nikki Grahame and winning writer Elizabeth Caproni

Shobna Gulati and Caterer Supreme, Ryan

Ruth with winning writers Elizabeth Caproni, Graeme Dalling, Amber Dodd and Kate Tym

Rachael Haddon and Body Gossip Ruth

What a night, one to remember, and I'm really proud that Body Gossip made it all the way to Scotland - after all, the sofa was there way back in August 2007! (Check out the vids in the video gallery for proof - inc. Reginald D. Hunter, Jason Byrne, Adam Hills and Andre Vincent all Body Gossiping like good uns!)

Ruth x

The fantastic Lizzie Roper has been confirmed as the fifth member of the Body Gossip team in Edinburgh - she'll be joining Natalie Cassidy, Anne Diamond, Nikki Grahame and Shobna Gulati on Monday 17th August at Assembly Hall, Edinburgh..

..And I'm pretty excited I can tell you! Things are going really well Body Gossip-wise.  We've got features in the Scotsman, Closer magazine, OK Magazine, the Daily Mail and Natalie, Anne and Shobna are going to be on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday morning!

So, Natalie and I will be in Edinburgh from Friday 14th August - look out for us.  We'll be doing as much publicity as possible, whilst fitting in some plays as well of course..!

And the rest of the gang join us on Sunday. 

I can't believe that Body Gossip is about to premiere 13 brand new stories at the Edinburgh Fringe - it's pretty scary actually, but I know it will be fab!

If you can, join us: tickets are £10, available from www.assemblyfestival.com

1/3 of ticket sales go directly to Beat.

Ruth x

That's right, I really can't stop Body Gossiping...even on holiday.

Body Gossip reached new heights recently when it appeared at the top of Ben Nevis!

Yes that's right, check this out:

That's my sister, the amazin' Liz Rogers, on the top of Ben Nevis in her Body Gossip T-shirt.

OK people, the precedent has been set - who can Body Gossip the best???

At the moment my sister wins, close second Chloe doing the Great North Run.

Let the games begin...

...well at least, Ruth is and therefore so is Body Gossip! I'm off to spend 10 days on the Greek Islands with my boyfriend. A holiday? Well, sort of...I'll also be organising Body Gossip's one-off show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival while I'm gone, so don't worry, there really is no rest for the wicked!

So, we've been talked about on This Morning and Loose Women, discussed in the Daily Mail, The Mirror, Closer, Now and Reveal magazines - and check out this article in Heat magazine!

If you want to gossip about us, click here.