TTC in new PC Battle over Body Image

The National Ballet of Canada and the TTC recently unveiled the "We Move You" campaign; a joint collaborative featuring two of Toronto's top infrastructure and cultural organizations.

The aim of We Move You was to provide Toronto Transir Commission customers with enhanced beauty and art during their commutes with a collection of images and video. The campaign features striking images of five National Ballet dancers at various TTC locations across the city.

"Both our organizations move Torontonians - the TTC physically around our city and the National Ballet through our performances onstage. Collaborating together enables us to highlight movement through ballet, while introducing our dancers to new, wider audiences across the city," said Karen Kain, Artistic Director, The National Ballet of Canada. "The company is thrilled with our newfound partnership with the TTC."

However, the campaign has already received a lot of backlash from sensitive Torontonians, who fear that that images might portray “unrealistic and highly regimented bodies as some sort of an ideal of ‘beauty.’” This quote was from Jill Andrew, co-founder of the Body Confidence Canada Awards, who adds that the images send the wrong messages about what healthy, self-secure TTC-riding human beings should look like.

“We can’t deny that there is a lot of body-based discrimination that happens … within our moves around the city,” according to her interview in the Toronto Star. This is an interesting perspectie given how hard these athletes have to work to get their bodies to look like that. These aren't just adults/teenagers suffering from eating disorders and attempting to project a pro-anorexic mentality to the masses; these are legitimate ballet dancers who have graduated to the National level, and are proud of the bodies they've developed as a result of their passion. 

Why are we, as a society, getting so offended, and being so sensitive, when we should really be rewarding these people for their hard work and dedication?