All Walks Book Club

Free Your Mind is proud to be taking part in the All Walks book club.

All Walks is a project co-founded by Debra Bourne, Caryn Franklin and Erin O'Connor which aims to challenge both the fashion industry's, and society's, view of body image and beauty.

Anyone can take part in the All Walks book club; all you need is Bodies by Susie Orbach, which is the first book we will be reading. We will be reading one chapter a week starting with the introduction and chapter one. Discussion will take place on Twitter with the hash(#) tag #AWbookclub and on the following Facebook discussion forum: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=17591&uid=275187151550. Make sure you are a part of it!


Find out more about the All Walks book club on the All Walks blog here: http://allwalks.org/?p=2214

FYM on Twitter: @FYMcampaign - http://twitter.com/#!/FYMcampaign

All Walks on Twitter: @allwalkscatwalk - http://twitter.com/#!/allwalkscatwalk

Also involved in the discussion:

Michael 'Frost' Williamson: @mwfrost - http://twitter.com/#!/mwfrost - fashion designer and stylist, and blogger of Safety Pin Charm fashion blog, whom is also involved in All Walks.

Discussing Mental Illness on Internet Forums

Posting on internet forums can be an enjoyable past-time and it is one in which I engage in everyday more or less. But what about when the discussion turns towards mental illness?

Unfortunately, as everyone knows, internet forums are plagued with people posting ignorant and, sometimes, bigoted views. As I stick to the more friendlier forums I manage to avoid the worst of it. But I have found that mental illness is one subject guaranteed to cause "controversy" or produce, not necessarily discriminatory views, but views that still show a large degree of ignorance.

Sometimes these sort of comments on a forum can really upset some posters, turning the discussion into a flame-war. Other times these comments are ignored or the other posters fail to see the ignorance within the comment.

Personally, I'm never going to be reduced to flaming anyone. But at the same time I will speak up if someone has posted something I know not to be quite right.

I don't think subjects such as mental illness should be avoided as topics of discussion on internet forums. In fact, quite the opposite, discussing these subjects and enlightening those who don't know as much about this subject is a highly positive and healthy activity. However, flaming someone who doesn't agree with you (no matter how ignorant they are being) is not the way forward.

It's not right for mental illness to be a taboo subject. Discussion on mental health and the issues surrounding it are healthy. Just be prepared for a few small-minded people.