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October 15, 2006
Great Blog: "Back in Skinny Jeans"
Typepad is highlighting this blog by someone named "Stephanie," [Stephanie Quilao, thanks for dropping by, Stephanie!] so I popped in to take a look, and I just think this site is TERRIFIC! One post after the other, I started reading back in the archives, going "yes, yes, yes."
I gave my niece a subscription to that "New Moon" magazine just last Christmas. So besides having a vulcan mind meld with "Stephanie," I just love her eclectic mix on a subject that is near and dear to my heart: the media manipulation of women's body images and self esteem.
I feel this even more so since I was dealing with the death of a dear friend earlier this year, a feminist and activist, but also a doctor with her own health issues because of a bad gastric bypass operation. I've had many arguments lately with a male friend who seems utterly oblivious to the fact that women's body image problems are a CRUCIAL feminist issue.
Which is so amazingly illustrated in the Dove video from YouTube, which I include here below, as seen also on the Skinny Jeans site.
Would you even recognize this woman, if she were standing on the street, next to her billboard? It just hits me like a fist to the gut. Women are going around feeling inadequate because they are being compared to women who don't even exist. Even the model for this ad (who really doesn't look like anything special to me) would feel ugly next to her own falsified image.
October 15, 2006 in Cyberculture, Education, Feminisms, Food and Drink, Personal, Photography, Politics, Sustainable Living, Television | Permalink |
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Great post. I have two daughters. The eldest plays high school basketball and the youngest plays basketball and soccer. I think these sports are excellent for girls because the body image they cultivate is one of being strong and in shape. They teach girls to love their bodies for what their bodies can do for them (i.e., run, jump, kick, etc.) rather than for how they look. Not the complete solution to our society's overemphasis on looks, but a bit of a shelter from the storm.
Posted by: China Law Blog | Oct 17, 2006 2:11:27 PM
Thanks for the cool post Chris. I appreciate it! You make a good point too about how this woman would feel looking at her "fixed" image. If it were me, no doubt the insecure feelings would start to emerge. It's tough not to let this get to you in some degree. What Dove is doing though is great in terms of educating. People don't realize just how much photo retouching is done to the images we see in print. And really, we need to remember there is no realistic way to achieve the look in the magazines because software is making the models look that "pretty."
Posted by: Stephanie Quilao | Oct 17, 2006 5:21:25 PM
Thanks for dropping by, y'all! Stephanie, I'll add your last name to the post above. Sorry I couldn't find it at the time I wrote the post. I'm definitely subscribing to your blog!
I also was a high school basketball and soccer player (and softball, cross country, track...). I can't imagine getting through school without it, and THAT couldn't have happened without Title IX, which is why I signed that petition (where did that link to the petition go? I had it here somewheres... guess it fell off the bottom of my "Intriguing" list).
Funny thing too. As I've written in a previous post on this blog (http://www.serendipit-e.com/blog/2006/08/a_girl_i_know_f.html) a girl I played basketball against in high school JUST BEAT the sitting governor of Alaska in the PRIMARY.
Just let that sink in a second. She's 42 years old (or thereabouts), lives in Alaska and hunts and fishes (I have no idea how she did the 4 kids thing). She was the mayor of one of my hometowns, long after I left.
The sporty side of Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica is another reason I like that character so much, as well.
But I won't forget 1972, the first year they let girls in Little League, because I was the only girl in my town to demand to be allowed in after that ruling. I also remember how we didn't have intra-school sports in junior high, for girls, and we had to pitch a fit to be allowed to have intramural basketball.
How many girls teams have to come in for 5 am practices, because the boys teams have the gym at all the prime hours? And they're thinking of getting rid of Title IX?!
off on my rant...
Chris
here's the link: Tell President Bush: Keep Girls Part of the Team: Save Title IX
http://www.titleix.info/content.jsp?content_KEY=1810&t=savet9_campaign.dwt
Posted by: Chris Boese | Oct 17, 2006 6:11:40 PM
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