Love Your Body Week begins Oct. 22 and CSUN is partnering with the Media and Public Health Act Project (MPHA)  and the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) to offer students fitness classes and food tasting.

Originally started by the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1998, the Love Your Body Campaign was conceived in order to address the unrealistic standards of beauty brought on by media and reinforced by society.

Brought to the campus by Barbara Eisenstock, a nationally-recognized media literacy educator and CSUN journalism professor, participants of the MPHA Project aim to pass federal legislation that will require labels to be placed on doctored images of the human body when used in advertising.

The MPHA Project, named after the proposed act of the same name, has united several organizations throughout CSUN as well as the departments of journalism and health sciences.

“The MPHA Project is an important opportunity to educate, engage, and empower students with media literacy skills and public policy strategies to counteract unrealistic body images we see in media that normalize a cultural ideal standard most people cannot achieve without resorting to unhealthy eating habits, excessive exercise routines, even plastic surgery,” said Eisenstock. “The legislation does not call for judgment, just transparency so that viewers can make their own judgment.”

Beginning on Monday, Matador Walkway will be occupied with booths offering peer nutrition counseling from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Members from Joint Advocates Against Disordered Eating (JADE), Blues and Project Discovering Alternatives for Today’s Encounters (DATE) will be tabling from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The booth will offer visitors the opportunity to contact their congressperson in support of the act via computer. Students, faculty and staff who participate will have the chance to win prizes.

Zumba lessons will be offered at 5:30 p.m. at the Student Recreational Center.

Tuesday morning will begin with continued tabling by the peer counselors and nutritionists on the Matador Walk. At 5:30 p.m. the Student Recreational Center will host the workout session “Tone At the Barre! Love Your Body Edition.”

The Student Dietetic and Food Science Association will host a “Healthy BBQ” on the OST Lawn beginning at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, during which guest Melanie Klein will be speaking at the Grand Salon.

The week will end on Thursday with “Fit Frame Class: Love Your Body Edition” held at 11 a.m. at the SRC, followed by “Yoga with Marvelous Margaux” at the CSUN Residential Halls at 5:30 p.m.

During the week and beyond, students will be able to join the “Tweet the Truth” MPHA Project campaign on Twitter @MPHA_CSUN, aiming to spread awareness on the negative uses of photoshopping and impact it has on individuals.