Drama students strip off to promote body confidence

In a performance called ‘Body Confident’, seven JMU drama students stood in nothing but knickers, and audience members were invited to come up and write messages on their bodies.

The performance was one section within a three-part immersive festival called ‘Everyday Perceptions’.

Girls were covered in inspiring messages from audience members, such as “beautiful, brave lady”, “courage” and “love” to name a few.

One of the performers, Codie McBride

The festival is based around self awareness and looks at how you see yourself, versus how other people may see you.

Ciara Devine, who created the performance, told The Tab: “I wanted to do the project because of how obsessed the world has become with body image and how women all over the world are made to feel ashamed of themselves.

“I have felt very body conscious for a long time now and I am constantly hiding behind clothes and feeling ashamed of myself when I shouldn’t.

“For each women involved they all had very personal and inspirational reasons for doing the performance. The response From the performance was completely incredible. I think each women involved achieved something yesterday and it was amazing.”

Angelina Cliff, one of the performers, said: “I kind of went through every emotion possible when I was stood there. At first I was terrified, but because we were doing it as a team, I wanted to be strong and do it for them, just as much as I wanted to do it for myself. It felt amazing after we’d finished, I’d definitely do it again.”

Codie McBride, another of the performers, said: “Admittedly it was unnerving when people came in, especially when the first male arrived, but by the end we were all completely comfortable.

“To the extent that a couple of the girls who hadn’t taken their bras off in the beginning chose to do so. I feel like it changed my perceptions, I realised most females bodies aren’t the media defined ‘perfect’ type but they are all wonderful, no one was less beautiful than anyone else.”