Positive body activist Taryn Brumfitt slams censors’ decision on female genitalia

ACTIVIST and filmmaker Taryn Brumfitt has slammed the decision by censors to give her positive body image documentary an M15+ rating.

A DOCUMENTARY that sets out to raise awareness of the female body has been given an MA 15+ rating, reinforcing the message that women’s bodies are shameful according to director Taryn Brumfitt.

“It puts my film in the same category as Fifty Shades of Grey,” said the positive body image activist.

“It’s wrong on so many levels. I am outraged.”

After screening at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, Embrace is to be released in cinemas nationally on August 4.

The Classification Board has ruled that a sequence showing different women’s vaginas in close up, as part of a discussion about body acceptance, warrants an MA 15+ rating along with consumer advice of strong nudity.

Taryn Brumfitt, whose film Embrace has been given an MA 15 + classification

The Board noted that some of the genital detail included “protruding labia.”

“The Board of Directors have got their heads in the sand if they think that’s offensive,” said an angry Brumfitt in the wake of the decision.

“These images are not crude. We don’t need to be ashamed of how our bodies look.

“An M rating (stipulates) that nudity must be justified by context. The nudity in my film is completely in context.

“The only way these images can be harmful is if they continue to be censored.”

Brumfitt is the founder of the Body Image Movement, which sets out to recognise the importance of body diversity and to redefine beauty ideals.

Acknowledging her own struggle with crippling body image issues, the writer-director appears naked in the poster for Embrace,

Taryn Brumfitt, who directed the film Embrace.

“From test screenings, the number one piece of feedback we have had is: ‘I want my daughter to see this’,’’ said Brumfitt.

Banning audiences under the age of 15, she believes, is a terrible mistake.

“Seventy per cent of girls are dissatisfied by their own body. Fifty per cent of 5-12-year-old girls want to lose weight.

“Hypersexualised images of women make their way onto billboards and buses. There are messages everywhere telling young women to be something other than they are.

“This is a conversation we need to be having with our girls.”

“This is a very disappointing decision,’’ said Transmission Film’s Andrew Mackie.

“The whole point of this entertaining and educative film is the message that all bodies are different ... and that girls and women should be encouraged to love themselves exactly as they are.

“This is a message that needs to be heard by girls under the age of 15.”

Transmission Films also confirmed today that Facebook would not allow a post of the film’s poster to be boosted to reach an additional audience because the image has “excessive skin.”