Calendar Girl Blog: Breast Photo Requests

One of the key criticism's I get as the publisher of the Breast of Canada Calendar is that I only use Caucasian women as models.

As example, this email came in yesterday.

I wanted to let you know that I think the calendar is nicely put together and there are some excellent photos in it. I noticed however that most of the photos seem to show Caucasian women, and thought that was not really an accurate representation for all women across Canada. I myself am a young First Nations woman, and thought it would be wonderful to see more images of different ethnicities. I'm not exactly sure of this, but is there not a higher chance of breast cancer for certain ethnic groups?

Here's the situation. All our photos are sepia tone which seems to neutralize skin tone so that difference is less obvious. My cover model for 2005 is a woman of colour. Unless I tell people this, they assume she is white.

But it's not just the photo treatment. I have a model data base of a hundred models, of mixed skin tones. When I put out a photo shoot call, inviting all, no matter who they are, nine times out of ten, only white models will attend. Even when I've asked for RSVP's and had a positive reply from non-Caucasian women, they don't actually show up. This is my observation.

I've lost friggin sleep over this. Of course I want to show all skin tones of women. Just like I strive to show all ages, breast size and shapes.

I had hoped that my photo contest would inspire more women of colour to submit images. And maybe it will in time. But so far, I'm piled high with Caucasian model submissions and looking high and low for more diversity.

Calendar Girl is puzzled.

Calendar Girl