Author Courtney Martin will discuss women in the media and body image activism

Award-winning author Courtney E. Martin will speak about “Taking Back Our Bodies, Our Media, Our Lives” Feb. 20, 7 p.m., at the University of Richmond. She will speak in Tyler Haynes Commons, Alice Haynes Room. The program is part of the WILL and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies lecture series and is free and open to the public.

Martin, author of “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection Is Harming Young Women,” will discuss how the media treats girls and women and how they can actively develop a positive body image.

Martin’s “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters” was nominated for a Books for a Better Life award by the National MS Society. She has since written “Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists,” in which she profiled eight young people doing social justice work. She spoke about feminism and activism at the inaugural TEDWomen Conference in December 2010, and has written for The New York Times, Newsweek and The Nation, among others.

Martin earned a master of arts in writing and social change from the Gallatin School at New York University. For more information, call 804-289-8578.

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