Realistic images of women make a real difference

My mum regularly goes to England to visit her family there and she always brings me back a British magazine. Six years ago I asked her to look for a feminist magazine because I wanted to check out the lady-power publications from across the pond. What I ended up getting was a lesbian magazine called Diva.

My mum didn't realize she had bought me a lady-lovers mag until said she decided to read it on the plane ride home, which is an amusing mental picture for me. Anyhow, from that year on, she always brings me back a copy of Diva, and I've grown to really like the magazine even though I'm straight as an arrow.

The most recent issue I received was from May 2012 and I was thoroughly impressed. I'm really passionate about the representation of women in the media - in particular, the over-saturation of impossibly perfect, highly Photoshopped images of women that are jammed down our throats every day. Over exposure to these images of super skinny women with no pores, fat, wrinkles, imperfections or stray hairs creates an an unrealistic beauty standard, which results in many women feeling inadequate.

That's why I was so excited when I saw these models in Diva magazine - they made me feel great! It's not very often that I feel good about myself after looking at women in magazines, but this time I did. It was a fantastic feeling. And I know that it wasn't just me "reading too deeply" into the images, because a friend of mine flipped through the magazine and upon seeing the images said, "HEY! These girls are like... normal! It's so awesome!"

In my personal experiences chatting with women about this subject, I find that women are crying out for images like this in the media. Are you listening, magazine editors? WE WANT MORE REALISTIC IMAGES OF WOMEN!

This is perfectly illustrated by the recent online petition started by 14-year-old Julie Bluhm. She requested that Seventeen magazine print just one unaltered photo spread per month. Over 70,000 people have signed the petition, but Seventeen magazine has refused to budge.

The women in Diva magazine's spread are both slim and have great skin - basic requirements for most models - but they are softer, fuller and their "imperfections" (such as moles) have not been erased by Photoshop. They convey a healthy, natural look and their skin isn't plastic-like. Their faces aren't caked in makeup and their hair styles look like something I could actually achieve at home and feel comfortable wearing in public.

I'm sure that these images have been touched up with Photoshop to some extent (it's pretty much standard in the industry), but it's not ridiculous. They are a more realistic, down-to-earth representation of women. Kudos to Diva magazine for using models like this. I can't wait until we see more of this in all magazines.

Just some good ol' fashioned ad-busting

I used to do a lot of ad-busting when I was in university. I even taught ad-busting workshops to teens and university students. I haven't done any in a while and I kinda miss it, so I thought I'd post a few of my favourite busted ads and maybe it'll help inspire me to do more!

Feminist film "Miss Representation" to screen in Calgary

This film looks awesome. Miss Representation exposes how mainstream media contributes to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. Please come down to The Globe Cinema on Wednesday, January 18 from 6 - 9 p.m. to check it out and meet other feminists in Calgary!

All the details are on the Facebook event - invite your friends.

I love advertisements with strong, sassy, smart ladies

I just saw this ad for World of Warcraft on TV the other day and I absolutely loved it. First let me say that I do not play World of Warcraft (or any computer/video games, for that matter) but I have definitely noticed their catchy and creative advertisements (have you seen the one with Mr. T?).

Anyway, back to the reason why I like this commercial so much. First, Aubrey Plaza, who's awesomely hilarious in the TV show Parks and Recreation, is equally snarky and funny in this commercial. I love her sassy personality in this ad. She comes accross as a strong, smart woman who don't take no shit from nobody, and I love it.

There's nothing worse than whiny, weak women like Bella from the Twilight series. Kudos to the marketing team at World of Warcraft for portraying smart, powerful women in their advertising, and not trying to "cutesy" up the game or the commercials in order to appeal to women. 

American Apparel had their chance to be cool, and blew it

In August 2011, American Apparel (AA) launched a plus size model search called The Next BIG Thing. Women were asked to submit their photos and the public would vote for the new face of their plus size division.

It all sounded pretty cool to begin with. I was excited... AA is finally branching out to plus size women? Hooray! But then I read the call for models. As you might expect from AA, the call made use of predictable and somewhat demeaning language.

Calling curvy ladies everywhere! Our best-selling Disco Pant (and around 10 other sexy styles) are now available in size XL, for those of us who need a little extra wiggle room where it counts. We’re looking for fresh faces (and curvaceous bods) to fill these babies out. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be the next XLent model, send us photos of you and your junk to back it up.

A couple of problems with their call out:

1. Wait - they’re only making 10 styles in size XL? That’s not very many. Also, what exactly is “XL”? According to the AA size chart, XL is a size 12/14, also known as the AVERAGE size of American women.
2. Your language is ridiculous. Extra wiggle room? Curvaceous bods? Your junk? Why does everything related to plus size women need to come packaged in stupid language like “booty-licious”? 

Well, their call for models didn’t just seem awkward and offensive to me. It caught the attention of Nancy Upton, a size 12 gal from Dallas, Texas. She entered the contest as a protest, submitting pictures of herself in alluring poses while eating chicken, chocolate, pie and even bathing in a tub of ranch dressing. Her submission simply said, “I’m a size 12. I just can’t stop eating.”

The public loved Nancy. When the contest was over, she won the popular vote by far. But American Apparel didn’t like that the winner was mocking their contest. So AA’s Creative Director, Iris Alonzo, wrote a letter to Nancy which included the following ridiculous sentences:

It’s a shame that your project attempts to discredit the positive intentions of our challenge based on your personal distaste for our use of light-hearted language, and that “bootylicous” was too much for you to handle.  

Oh — and regarding winning the contest, while you were clearly the popular choice, we have decided to award the prizes to other contestants that we feel truly exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out, and whom we will be proud to have representing our company.

Hot damn! We love Nancy!

So Nancy was shot down by American Apparel. Big surprise. But then something interesting happened. Nancy posted the harsh letter from Iris onto her blog and it went viral. American Apparel was suddenly swimming in bad press and Iris had some serious back-pedaling to do to.

Iris apologized to Nancy and offered to fly her and a friend out to LA to tour the company headquarters and discuss how AA could better market to plus size women. Once again, I had a glimmer of hope that maybe AA could be kinda cool.

Nancy and her friend met with the creative team who organized The Next BIG Thing contest and had an interesting discussion about marketing to plus size women. American Apparel exec’s fed the girls cream puffs (the irony of which was not lost on Nancy), and Iris even took Nancy and her friend out drinking. Things were looking up. “I had a REALLY good feeling about where the company would go after my trip,” wrote Nancy on her blog.

Over the next few days, Nancy and Iris exchanged a few more emails, and then Iris fucked it all up again.

On October 4, Iris wrote:

Marsha and I were trying to remember what we even talked about, and amidst all of the late night fun and cream puffs (compounded by the fact that we couldn’t re-watch the video of the meeting), we can hardly remember what was said at all.

I think Nancy summarizes my feelings about that email pretty well. On her blog she wrote:

This company spent thousands of dollars flying Shannon and I to LA, to meet with their team and they can’t even remember what we discussed. Nor do they care to. They want me to write something happy go-lucky about how positive our meeting was for women everywhere, and then they want to sign off on it, you know, in case I forget anything.

As it stands today, this whole debacle is SO TOTALLY OVER to Nancy. She is done with AA, writing “[Those] three sentences of that email tell more truth about what went on in this bizarro adventure than anything I saw in that factory or those offices.”

So, American Apparel had numerous chances to do something cool here, and they blew it every time. They insulted plus size women in their call to models, they shunned the popular winner of their contest and then insulted her in an email, tried to make it up to her only to flub it all again.

American Apparel, you clearly need advice, so I’m going to offer you a suggestion: Don’t be afraid of change. Or fat girls.

AA: Don't fear fat girls with chicken!

Your stocks are in the crapper, your CEO is dealing with multiple sexual harassment lawsuits, nobody likes your ugly hipster clothes anymore, and everyone’s sick of your sexist advertisements. Clearly, your company is in need of a shake-up. SOMETHING needs to change and I’m not going to pretend I know what that is, but maybe this whole thing with Nancy could have been exactly the change you need.

When your company is already down pretty low, you have nothing to lose by trying something new. Who knows, maybe you could have captured the hearts of North American women sized 12 and up, opening your store to millions of new customers. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and other stores like Forever 21 and Target have already realized that the “fattening of America is a big business opportunity.”

In light of this whole debacle with Nancy, I fear that American Apparel’s destiny is to fade away as soon as hipster style falls out of fashion. But I’m OK with that, because time and time again AA has proved themselves to be a company that only cares about making clothing for slim, young, beautiful hipster women. Good luck making a profit each year with such a tiny demographic.

Who entered the “Breast Summer Ever” contest, and why?

The judges for Amp Radio’s controversial contest for a $10,000 breast augmentation have picked their 10 finalists. Now it’s up to the public to vote on who is most deserving of the boob job.

Since I first heard about this contest, I was curious to see would enter, their reasons for entering, and whose story would resonate most with the public and win the ultimate prize. Each contestant has made a video, which are posted online. I watched each one and here are their reasons for wanting breast augmentation:

• 4/10 women had lost weight, which changed the size and shape of their breasts. They talk about the “excess skin” left over after weight loss and how their breasts just don’t look right anymore.
  
• 3/10 of the women talked about nursing children and the toll that having kids takes on your body. Basically, they want their pre-baby boobies back.
  
• 3/10 had sob stories, but surprisingly there were no cancer survivors. One woman has a large burn mark that covers her right breast, another has "lop-sided" breasts, and one had a rare disease that made her very thin and unable to develop breasts during puberty.
  
• 1 woman is transgender (she was born male but is transitioning to female).
  
• 1 woman said she wanted a lift and reduction, as she is a size FF and would like to be average sized.

I was a little disheartened to see how many women discussed their post-pregnancy bodies and how they want their old body back. Why can’t we accept that women’s bodies change after pregnancy? Our bodies change throughout our lives – why is an aging body or a post-baby body seen as something that needs to be fixed? (News flash, ladies! You can’t stop aging. You just can’t. Stop wasting your time, money and effort trying to, and accept your aging body instead. I promise life will be a lot more fun that way).

There is an unreal amount of pressure on women to get back to how they looked before the baby. Trashy celebrity tabloids publish issues with headlines like, My body after baby - How I lost 25 lbs in 8 weeks. The pressure is so strong that I actually know women who are choosing not to have children because they’re afraid of what it will do to their bodies. Says Katie Gentile in an article from the Daily Beast,

When women shed the baby weight, they are not merely getting back their pre-baby body, they are obliterating all the evidence of ever having had a baby in the first place. This means the one thing that only women's bodies can do is expected to be immediately erased. The post-baby body is wrung of its recent life-giving feat. Sagging milk-filled breasts must appear perky; the once-swollen abdomen is made concave. It's as if we should actually believe the baby dropped from the stork, from the sky, from anywhere but that toned, buff body.

To me, part of being a feminist is accepting and not judging other women’s decisions and choices. So I’m not going to rag on the women who entered this contest or judge them for what they want. But many of the women talked about gaining or improving self-confidence through breast augmentation surgery, and I think they’re missing a key piece to the self-confidence puzzle. Self confidence is an internal thing – it comes from knowing who you are, knowing your values and what you stand for, setting and accomplishing goals and knowing that you are worthy of happiness and love. True self confidence, self acceptance and self love come from the inside – plastic surgery is an external procedure that will not fix an internal problem.

I won’t be voting for any of these ladies because I fundamentally disagree with the contest. I think the contest promotes body dissatisfaction and the idea that self confidence can be instantly achieved with a surgical procedure. Also, Amp Radio has a young audience and I know lots of kids listen to it. I think it normalizes plastic surgery for young people when they hear about it as a “fun contest.” Our society’s obsession with perfect bodies has gone too far, and I refuse to be a part of anything that perpetuates endless discontent with one’s body.

---
Check out some of the contests in Canada offered by ReadersDigest.ca

Adbusting at Market Collective

Last weekend, volunteers from Take Back the Night Calgary set up an ad-busting workshop at Market Collective. People were invited to flip through magazines and find advertisements, images and articles that they wanted to “bust.” Busted images were then plastered over the walls.

I organized this adbusting workshop, and I’ve been doing these for about 5 years now. I define adbusting as “Defacing images that are offensive because they portray unrealistic beauty standards, are sexist, classist, homophobic, racist, insulting or demeaning."

Here's what the adbusting workshop looked like:

The workshop drew large crowds and we received so much positive feedback. One woman came up to me and said, “Thank you so much. I really needed to see this.” I think that seeing busted ads helped to remind people that we shouldn’t passively accept images we see in media: we should be thinking about them, what they really mean, and what they’re really telling (and selling) us.

We received over 100 “busted ads” but I can’t post them all here, so below are some of my favourites.

Jennie's Picks: The Best Busted Ads from Market Collective

THIS is beautiful? But it's fake!

Who can compete with Photoshop?

I miss my Mommy

Did you see she has such pretty eyes?

There's more to life than being pretty

That's cool... I'll just wait over here

Women are food? Consume, dispose, repeat.

Remember what food tastes like?

One of the most offensive ads I've ever seen

Click ad to enlarge image
Shape Liquid & Powder ad from 1970
Thanks to Vintage Ads for posting this

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that advertising is one of my niche areas of interest within feminism. I spend a lot of time looking at advertisements - both vintage and current - trying to dissect the meaning of ads and figure out what the company is trying to tell us and sell us. I've seen some pretty horrific ads in my time - but this one is right up there with the worst. When an ad is this offensive, I've gotta get my rant on! Below are the three worst sentences/paragraphs from this ad, and why they piss me off.


“Beneath that floppy sweatshirt she’s a little overweight. You knew that. Because right now, you’re a little over weight, too. That’s bad. This year’s bathing suits hide nothing. Unless you start losing some, you may spend your summer in a sweatshirt, too. Face it, you’ve got to stop eating.”

• The girl in the shirt IS NOT OVERWEIGHT. Not even close. By stating that she is, the advertisers are planting a seed of doubt in every reader's mind that she too is overweight. If a young, slim girl like that is “a little over weight,” then almost every woman is.
• Being overweight is “bad”? And they've already implied that almost every woman is overweight… so now they’ve got 95% of the female readership feeling like bad people. This is a common advertising technique; advertisers make you feel insecure about something, then offer their product to fix your problem. In most cases, the “problem” is something completely natural, like grey hair, cellulite or winkles, but we’re made to feel so ugly/guilty/old/fat that we are desperate to fix it… and we’ll try any product that “guarantees” results.
  
• “Face it, you’ve got to stop eating.” Wow. Really? That's a pretty blatant promotion of eating disorders.
  

“… you can substitute Shape for one or two meals a day. Or, if you’re really serious, four Shape meals a day for a while. And no other food.”

• Are you fucking kidding me? This promotes unhealthy eating habits and essentially tells women who are “serious” about losing weight (and who wouldn’t be serious about it after you’ve already called us fat and told us that's bad?) that they shouldn’t eat.
  
• What the hell does "four Shape meals a day for a while" mean? That's a pretty unspecific amount of time. If I consumed Shape four times a day and ate nothing else, how long do you think it would take before I'd collapse from lack of energy or some other ailment? Not to mention it would fuck with my digestive system.
  
  

“If we made Shape taste any better, you might start sneaking it now and then, and you would get fat on it.”

• WTF. Terrible copywriting, just terrible. If you’re advertising a product that’s supposed to make women slim, why would you then state that having too much of it will make you fat? This sentence is just bizarre to me, and confirms the fact that the people who developed this ad were complete fucking idiots.

The Photoshop Effect

Do you know the extent to which photos in magazines are retouched? This video demonstrates how images are retouched and asks if our obsession with Photoshopped images is creating unattainable beauty standards for women.

It's 2010 and advertisers are STILL using gang rape to sell clothing?

When will designer brands learn that it’s not cool to use gang rape to advertise clothing?

In 2007 Dolce & Gabanna put out this charming ad, which was banned in Italy, Australia and Spain, and caused controversy world-wide.



Now, Calvin Klein has basically done exactly the same thing. This new ad, starring Dutch model Lara Stone, has also been banned in Australia for being “suggestive of violence and rape.” Australia's ad watchdog said the image "was demeaning to women by suggesting that she is a plaything of these men. It also demeans men by implying sexualized violence against women."

I believe these companies know that what they're doing will spark controversy, and they're using the old "any press is good press" motto. So on the one hand I'm reluctant to even mention this because maybe that's exactly what they want... but on the other hand, it's really important that people understand WHY these images are unacceptable: Studies have shown that increased exposure to images of violence against women "normalizes it" and makes it less shocking and seemingly less wrong. If people start to think of rape and sexual assault as something normal, they will have less sympathy for victims, and more offenders will get away with their crimes.

GQ's November issue turns Glee into porn

Is this Glee photo shoot too sexually explicit for the audience it courts? I think so. Glee is a hugely successful television program that's popular with tweens and teens. It's also wildly popular amongst adults too, but the producers of Glee have to remember that if youth are a big part of their audience, the actors shouln't be posing like porn stars.

The racy photo shoot features Dianna Agron (Quinn), Lea Michele (Rachel) and Cory Monteith (Finn). The Los Angeles Times has a really good article about this, and these two paragragraphs were stand-outs for me:

Monteith is, of course, fully clothed. Not so his female costars, who bare their midriffs and décolletage, bras and panties, in thighs-spread, derriere-hoisted poses made more than slightly unsettling by their school-girl ensembles. Michele, in particular, seems to be auditioning for a live-action version of Japanese anime porn.

The result is not so much saucy and in-your-face as it is predictable and depressing -- oh look, more young women being asked to assume the position, this time complete with pom poms and lollipop. No doubt Agron and Michele did it to be sexy and playful, and were not at all manipulated by forces that have put generations of young women in precisely the same poses for precisely the same reasons -- to feed the fantasy, promote the show and sell magazines. And that just makes it worse, doesn't it?

First, it upsets me that young girls look up to these actresses and here they are posing like porn stars... great. Second, I'm so fucking sick of the same old "sexy" poses: girl licking lollipop seductively, guy with two girls, girls sticking their butts and breasts out, etc. I mean really. Get some god damn originality. Third and finally, I know that all the people in this photo shoot are adults, but they play teenagers on a television show. GQ is a magazine for men, and considering that these photos are set in a school, the photographer has essentially served up over-sexualized images of school girls to grown men.

Any other Glee fans out there? What do you think of these pictures? Today, I am sad to report that I've lots a little bit of respect for Glee.

The Threesome. Super creative and original!

The crotch shot. Another classic.

Oh, the lollipop in the mouth! Another CLASSIC!
And by classic I mean completely unoriginal.

What happened to Christina Hendrick's hips?

Christina Hendrick from Mad Men is a beautiful, curvy lady. But in this new ad for London Fog, they seem to have Photoshopped her hips right out of the picture. Below is a picture of what her hips actually look like.

Why would London Fog Photoshop her hips down so drastically? Christina's curvy body is part of what's made her loved by so many people and a role model for curvier women. Shame on you London Fog for fucking up what could have been a really beautiful advertisement.

Eat, Pray, Gain 11 Pounds

I was reading an article about Julia Roberts' new film, Eat Pray Love, and a few sentences really irked me. Here's what I read, and why it pissed me off:

"... the famously slender Roberts admits she piled on the pounds during shooting for the Italian segment of the story... [Roberts revealed] she gained 11 pounds during the Italian filming."

First of all, when is 11 pounds considered "piling on the pounds"? Second, why is Julia Roberts gaining 11 pounds news-worthy? Third, the article was titled "A Weighty Role for Julia Roberts." Seriously? It's not like she gained 50 pounds here, people. Are you really that desperate for a story?

It's just another example of how women's bodies are publicly scrutinized and their weight gain/loss is constantly discussed. The choice of words "piled on the pounds" says a lot about the way we view women's weight gain. If a male actor gained a measly 11 pounds during filming, would it get a mention? Of course not, because it's so ridiculously insignificant. So why does it matter when it's Julia Roberts?

New Diesel ad looks an awful lot like American Apparel

Is this supposed to be, "if I wear hot jeans to the office my boss will sleep with me?" And what's up with the fact that their tag line is now "Be Stupid?" (bottom right). WTF.

Top 7 reasons why American Apparel sucks

1. Internal documents reveal that ugly people shouldn’t bother applying at AA.

2. The company's Guide to Grooming describes in detail how staff should look. No bangs! No gauge earrings! No liquid foundation! No goatees or mustaches! No Uggs, flip flogs, gladiator sandals, vans, converse or winter boots! (Oh, no, we’re not a dictatorship. Whatever would make you think that?)

3. AA won’t make some of their women’s clothing above a size 6.

4. They doesn’t want any of those “trashy Black girls” to work there. Only the ones with the nice hair.

5. Current employees must submit photos to be promoted or receive a raise. Cos, you know, we don't want any uglies being promoted.

6. AA has a Best Bottom Contest to find the sexiest ass. Well, I don’t know about the sexiest ass, but I know who the biggest ass is… Don Charney (CEO of American Apparel).

7. They pretend that they're really progressive cos they don't photoshop their ads and they use "real women" to model their clothes. I guess "real women" only come in a size 4 or smaller and look about 16. And guess what? Sleazy porno-style ads aren't progressive and edgy. It's the same old shit that Calvin Klein has been doing since the 80's. Just admit that your ads are as sleazy as every other shitty clothing company and stop trying to pretend that you're so original and cutting edge.

Well, there is a light at the end of the tunnel... apparently AA is in pretty serious financial trouble.

Feminist issues in the news

Here are links to the feminist news stories we're covering on tonight's show (July 26).

Is cheerleading a sport?
A federal judge in Connecticut ruled that cheerleading is NOT a sport.

Man in Jerusalem convicted of "rape by deception"
An Arab man and a Jewish woman meet randomly and had a fleeting sexual encounter. Later when the woman discovered the man was an Arab, she accused him of rape.

Lesbian teen banned from prom will receive settlement
A lesbian teen who was banned from taking her girlfriend and wearing a tuxedo to prom sued her school earlier this year. In March, a US District Court judge ruled that the school board infringed upon her First Amendment rights.

Obama Administration Announces New Programs and Action for Equal Pay
"Paycheck discrimination hurts families who lose out on badly needed income. And with so many families depending on women's wages, it hurts the American economy as a whole. In difficult economic times like these, we simply cannot afford this discriminatory burden." - Barack Obama

Monday's show: Disabled bodies ignored in mass media

On Monday July 26 we're talking about body ideals in advertisements and media. More specifically, we're discussing how disabled bodies are completely missing from mass media. The "invisibilizing" of disabled bodies serves to make the general public feel that disabled bodies are not or cannot be sexual or beautiful. So we're speaking to a gal who created a photography project that challenges the notion that disabled bodies are asexual or undesirable.

Holly Norris is a women's studies student and a photographer. She and her friend Jes Sache came up with the American Able project as a way to challenge our society's fears and misunderstanding about sexuality and disabilities:

"In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context."

Check out Holly's website for more info on this amazing and inspiring project!

Another interesting website to check out is GenderAds.com.

As always, we're on-air from 8:00 to 9:00 pm (MST) on CJSW 90.9 fm in Calgary, but you can listen from anywhere in the world on cjsw.com. You can also download our podcast if you miss our live show!

The American Able project spoofs American Apparel ads


The original American Apparel ad

Monday's Show: Fat in the Media

On Monday July 12th we’re discussing fat – in particular, reality TV programs about fat people, celebrities that deal with weight gain in the public eye, and the pressure that every-day women feel to maintain a slim body.

In recent years there has been a huge influx of reality TV programs about fat people trying to lose weight, fat families, kids at fat camp, and much more. How do these programs affect the viewers – especially viewers who identify as fat? How do the programs affect the people who participate in them? Is reality television exploiting obesity?

Just like us regular folk, celebrities also deal with fat. The only difference is that when they gain a few pounds, it becomes a massive media frenzy. In 2009 Jessica Simpson gained 10 pounds and it was splattered over the tabloid covers for the ENTIRE YEAR. People are STILL talking about it. For shame! A few other celebs we’ll be discussing who have dealt with very public weight gain are Kirstie Alley, Oprah and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Images of "Fat" Celebrities
(Wow, "fat" celebrities look pretty regular to me...)

These pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt were all over the media. She was slammed for her saggy ass and cellulite on her thighs.

Jessica Simpson's infamous "Mom jeans incident" which graced tabloid covers throughout 2009.

This is a clip from Jessica Simpson's recent reality series, The Price of Beauty, where Jessica and two friends travel around the world to see the extremes that women go to for "beauty."


Related articles/websites:
Biggest Loser finalist says the show gave her an eating disorder
Oprah and her weight
Jessica Simpson talks about her weight gain on Oprah
Kirstie Alley’s weight struggle
Something Fishy - website about eating disorders

Hot! HOT! HOT!

I am totally loving this. For its June 2010 issue, French Marie Claire has gone curvy with editorials featuring plus-size models in lingerie and swimsuits! And just two months ago the magazine printed a totally non-airbrushed issue. I have a new found love for the French.

Aren't these pictures absolutely smokin' hot? The models look so healthy and beautiful!



Check out more hot pics from French Marie Claire here!

I would way rather see clothing, swim wear and lingerie modeled by the women above than this anorexic stick that's pictured below. (Image below is 19-year-old model Inna Pilipenko in clothing from Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen's brand The Row. This image is extra-disturbing considering that Mary-Kate Olsen struggled with anorexia herself).

If this isn't skinny, I don't know what is

The feminist blog-o-sphere is up in arms about the new cover of Shape magazine. This month's cover girl is Kim Kardashian - looking smokin' hot (although probably highly photoshopped) in her purple bikini. So what's the problem? Well, read the words printed next to her left bicep: "I'll never be one of those skinny girls."

Hortense, a writer at Jezebel comments, "As if we're supposed to find this admission believable and heroic as it sits next to an airbrushed picture of, uh, a 'skinny girl' who is currently a spokeswoman for the Kardashian QuickTrim diet pill system, a program she claims, in commercials for the brand, will help you create the body you deserve... In celebrating and promoting Kardashian's statement that she'll "never be one of those skinny girls," even though she very clearly already is, the magazine is essentially telling its audience that Kardashian doesn't represent thinness, which is ridiculous."

Sociological Images also has some great comments about this magazine cover - be sure to check it out.