(Content Note: mention of sexual assault)

Melanie Tufts (she/her) and Emma Deakin (she/her) collaboratively create boudoir photography experiences grounded in fat-positivity, equity, and consent. Sophia, host of the Fat Joy podcast, did a boudoir photo shoot with them and shares her experience being photographed nude, and how everything they did throughout the experience felt like a reclamation of her body.

Melanie Tufts is a fat-positive boudoir photographer. Her focus on the boudoir genre, specifically for women, allows her to focus on her values and ideologies. She views her work as personal activism against societal pressures dictating how women, especially those in marginalized bodies, should appear and behave. Reclaiming sensuality as a personal journey, Melanie strives to provide a safe space for women. Alongside her husband, three kids, and one very spoiled cat, she lives in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, where she also serves as a creative consultant contributing to a local mental health community's website and photography needs.

Connect with Melanie on her website, Instagram, Facebook page, and Women’s Only VIP Facebook Group.

Emma Deakin is a licensed Hairstylist and Makeup Artist and the Owner of Bare Bones Beauty located in Brantford, Ontario. Emma’s focus in life is self-love and self-acceptance, which she brings into her salon practices. Emma became a member of the Fanshawe Hair Program Faculty in 2021 as well as an Education Leader for the hair line, Colorproof.

Connect with Emma on Instagram and Facebook.

This episode’s poem is called “a brief meditation on breath” by Yesenia Montilla.

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