body image

It's Not That I'm Bitter...: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:02:00 +0000

Challenging the norms of our modern society and how the feminist movement has evolved into a misfire of sorts (a mix of improvements with unexpected setbacks), Gina Barreca wrote her book It’s Not that I’m Bitter... to share her perspective. She covers a wide range of topics, from the beauty-obsessed culture women live in to how the holidays are unnecessarily stressful for women due to misguided expectations to our tendency toward behavior dictated by guilt and fear. Yet, she addresses these topics with a snarky sense of humor, regularly citing, “Not that I’m bitter…”

Immediately tackling being a woman in her fifties surviving in this world defined by body image, despite being a feminist and an intellectual, Gina admits that even she suffers from common women-only setbacks of bathing suit season-induced low self-esteem, and the like. The truth is that men and women are very different, and there are many aspects of being a woman that only other women can understand. Reading It’s Not that I’m Bitter... is like having a long chat with a close girlfriend, where she vents about the pressures and expectations of society, questions her own neurotic behavior in hopes of finding validation, proudly defines her stance, and proclaims judgments while admitting to some self-deprecation in the process. It’s amusing, a bit confusing, but ultimately relatable in a way only a woman would understand.

The title of this book made it sound as if this author had found personal peace with all that ails womankind in our modern world. Apparently not, and I was very disappointed with the ending. It abruptly stops on a note of Gina’s advice and curious questions for the main female figures of the previous presidential election (i.e., Hilary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, and Cindy McCain). Yes, it was amusing, but I was expecting some grand conclusion, not another random capsule of thought. Conquering the world is apparently still a work in progress for Gina, as it is for the rest of us too. And this helps the author to come off as a pal rather than a patronizing professor.

A mix of feminist perspective, humorous angst about our beauty-obsessed culture, and random (albeit amusing) ramblings make up It’s Not that I’m Bitter.... You won’t find any solutions to the problems you face as a woman (though a man would surely gain insight into women… and probably run screaming), but you will find a comedic look at today’s society, and where women need to stop holding themselves back.

Written by: Sarah Eve Nichols-Fulghum, July 25th 2010

New Moon Girls (The Beauty Issue)

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 12:00:00 +0000

New Moon Girls

If you’re a parent or a person who interacts with and cares about children, you might have noticed some worrisome trends, especially among girls. I have seen girls as young as seven show concerns over “getting fat” or being unpopular. Bullying, body image conflict, and other issues seem to be plaguing young women earlier and earlier.

Most women who call themselves feminists would agree that enriching the younger generation is crucial. The statistics on young girls today are disturbing: according to the National Institute on Media and the Family, forty percent of girls between nine and ten surveyed had tried to lose weight. The NIMF also published study results that stated the following: “One in every three articles in leading teen girl magazines also included a focus on appearance, and most of the advertisements (fifty percent) used an appeal to beauty to sell their products.” This is getting serious, folks. We cannot continue to feed our daughters this kind of messaging and then wonder why rates for eating disorders and low self-esteem are so high. That said, I think it can sometimes be hard to give these girls positive messages that are digestible and make sense at their level. Who wants to listen to boring old parents anyway?

Thankfully there are forms of media to help. If your daughter, sister, or friend is drawn to magazines, hide their latest issue of Teen Beat and replace it with New Moon Girls. The magazine has so many fun sections that she will hardly miss it. New Moon puts a spin on traditional magazine sections to make them even more relevant for girls. Instead of a Letter from the Editor being written by an adult, girls who helped work on the magazine write it. The advice column provides advice from—you guessed it—girls. The entire magazine focuses not only on giving girl readers good content but also in making sure that it is credible and relevant by getting it from the very girls New Moon targets. Simply put, this magazine is genius.

The Beauty Issue (May-June 2010) is full of positive messaging and reinforcement, something girls today often lack from the media. The issue contains features on beauty including how to boost your body confidence, your favorite body part, and a piece on inner beauty, as well as short fiction. The idea of beauty is tackled from every possible angle, giving girls an opportunity to discover what they like most about themselves rather than showing them yet another picture of female celebrities and models.

I am encouraged and thrilled about magazines like New Moon Girls and my hope is that they will continue to compete with more mainstream magazines for the attention of young girls. (Hint: They can’t do so without our support!) This magazine is for anyone who wants a girl in his or her life to know just how special she is.

Written by: April D. Boland, May 1st 2010

The Bathers

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:59:00 +0000

By Jennette Williams

Duke University Press

A collection of striking black and white stills, The Bathers is not just about the theme of bathers, but more importantly about the way women are portrayed and perceived. Winner of the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, Jennette Williams states that her initial project was: “to photograph without sentiment and objectication (sic) women daring enough to stand before [her] camera.” The photos illustrate that there is no doubt that she has achieved her goal. Despite being a volume of photographs of the feminine body (all except one shot), this oeuvre compounds in one tome the exact opposite of what most modern-day mainstream media presents of the objectified female figure.

In William’s lauded collection of photos, the female forms are shown in all their plump softness, reflecting the reigning ambiance of the collection: a peaceful reflection that can be seen not only in the visages of the women represented but also in the muted colours of the platinum prints. In the faces of these Hungarian and Turkish women, we find the same gaze that existed in Auguste Renoir’s early twentieth century paintings of “his” bathing subjects. It is probably this mysterious contemplation that explains artists’ fascination for bathers as subjects: a dream-like placidity and sense of inner calm. The prominence of rolls, folds, dimples, body hair, bellies, and nipples is natural although sometimes veiled by the often-foggy images; William also manipulates light and shadow expertly; one can almost feel the cocooning humidity of the public baths.

The representation of this serenity contrasts with the modern stereotypical depiction of the female body, the Tyra Banks-coined squint–or “smizing”–and purely angular (sometimes skeletal) silhouettes that are so coveted by most of the globe’s population. There are few shots in Williams' collection that do not display flesh in a way that is completely foreign to North American media (birthplace of the Playboy Bunny!). These “Cosmo-type” bodies are rare in the book, and even so-called “imperfect” bodies such as the very controversial silhouette of “plus-sized” (U.S. size 12-14!) are few. Most of the women have strong rounded figures that stand out in the stark detailing of the photographs. You’ll remember twenty-year-old model Lizzie Miller’s charmingly rounded tummy from a recent issue of Glamour magazine, yet the magazine’s most recent issue still provides us with advice on how to dress ten pounds thinner.

This attractive volume is thought-provoking because it defies stereotypical gender norms and photo enthusiasts will also find it to be a very stunning collection of images.

Written by: Sophie M. Lavoie, February 6th 2010

Thinandbeautiful.com

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:00:00 +0000

By Liane Shaw

Second Story Press

As someone who has struggled with disordered eating, I was very eager to dig into Thinandbeautiful.com. This young adult book was written by Liane Shaw, a teacher who once struggled with anorexia. The story follows Maddie, an anorexic teenage girl who finds herself sucked into the "pro-ana" (pro-anorexia) website thinandbeautiful.com. Thinking no one understands how she feels about her weight and her body, Maddie pushes her friends and family away, finding her only comfort in the virtual arms of her online friends.

The story finds Maddie in a sort of rehab facility for eating disorders where she is told to keep a journal chronicling her descent into anorexia. The action shifts back and forth between the journal entries describing how Maddie fell into anorexic thinking (it all began when a doctor during a routine examination warns her to be careful about gaining "unwanted pounds") to the present day, her time in the rehab facility and her feelings that no one understands her "need" to be thinner. It's only when Maddie gets tragic news about one of her online friends that she begins to come to terms with the idea that she might have a problem.

Thinandbeautiful.com starts slowly. The journal format is difficult to get into, partially because it didn't really feel like the words of a seventeen-year-old girl. It read like the words of an adult trying to write as if she were a seventeen-year-old girl. In fact, it is reminiscent of the after school specials you might have watched in the late eighties.

Describing the descent into anorexia is difficult; the early parts of the book are slow and convoluted and don't really help to explain why someone would decide that their weight it isn't good enough, no matter how thin they may be. In fact, as much as the early pages of this book talk about Maddie's desire to be "thin and healthy," there is little mention of what her actual weight currently is or what she thinks it should be. Her goal is simply to be thinner, but there is little behind that desire. Her desire to be thin is fueled only by a vague notion that "thinner is better," not any idea about how her life will be different when she reaches her undefined magic goal weight.

I’m not saying there has to be a rational reason behind an irrational way of thinking, but I do think eating disorders are usually fueled by more than just a desire to be thin. It’s a perception that something else is lacking or that the thinness will help the sufferer achieve something, such as control. That’s why I found Maddie’s struggle difficult to identify with and understand.

About halfway through the book, once the journal entries reach their apex and Maddie really starts to confront her feelings about her family and her online friends, the story starts to resonate. You may not understand why Maddie has an eating disorder, but you do understand she’s hurting and that she’s struggling to find a way to conquer her illness. It is in the last third of the book that you feel the author's connection to the material; the words finally start to ring true and the book becomes genuine, just when it matters most.

However, Thinandbeautiful.com is a case of too little, too late. Those final glimpses aren't enough to recommend the book. Someone struggling with the same thoughts as Maddie may find Thinandbeautiful.com comforting, but those trying to understand why someone would starve themselves will find this novel lacking.

Written by: Jennifer Lee Johnson, January 19th 2010

Woman as Design: Before, Behind, Between, Above, Below

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:34:00 +0000

By Stephen Bayley

Conran

Stephen Bayley’s Woman as Design is a large, and fairly heavy, coffee table book that examines how a woman’s body has inspired and changed the world. A woman’s body has been used as the inspiration (whether conscious or unconscious) for a myriad of products including cars, soda bottles, and buildings.

Divided into two parts, part one focuses on the sexualized and eroticized parts of a woman’s body and dress in a more historical context. Part two moves to the outside world and the changes and trends that advertising, fashion, movies, cosmetics have undergone through time in relationship to women’s bodies. The general lesson is that those in power have shaped and changed women’s bodies, sometimes literally in terms of corsets and bras. Women are, in turn, seen as sex objects to be desired and claimed or virgin Madonnas who are sacred and untouchable.

The organization seems a bit convoluted, and it could have been made more concise. With the seemingly non-linear direction of the book, it’s one you can pick up and flip to a page at random, but it isn’t one you sit down and read through. Woman as Design is also not a book that you pick up as a scholar looking to further your knowledge on the topic, but it does provide some great illustrations that really help prove Bayley’s points.

Woman as Design is filled with large color photographs, some of which are reproductions of famous paintings and sculptures, like the Venus de Milo. Quotes from historical figures, actresses, designers and architects accompany many of the photos. There is a stunning set of images of a woman using her breasts as a type of performance art, and I have never seen breasts move like that before. Since many of the images involve nudity and close-ups of various parts of the female form, the book is not recommended for young people without accompanying text and context.

Bayley’s text does not necessarily present any new or radical ideas on how women’s lives and bodies have been shaped by culture, but it does make the idea easily accessible.

Written by: Kristin Conard, January 2nd 2010

Creating Myself: How I Learned That Beauty Comes in All Shapes, Sizes, and Packages, Including Me

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:04:00 +0000

By Mia Tyler

Atria Books

Imagine growing up with these parents: Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and Cyrinda Foxe, a popular actress and model from the 1970s. At first glance, it might seem luxurious, glamorous, exciting, and fun to be part of this family, but Mia Tyler tells the real story of her experiences with her rock 'n roll mom and dad in Creating Myself.

From the first lines of the book, which reveal Tyler's intention to commit suicide in 2001, readers will find riveting details, shocking stories, and jaw-dropping secrets. For example, as an eight-year-old, Tyler had to pour her mother's vial of cocaine into the toilet, and later in life she struggled with her own drug addictions and self-mutilation.

But this book is much more than an exposé of a celebrity family; it is Mia's story of coping, growing, forgiving, moving on, and finding herself amidst the chaos and confusion of a rollercoaster home life. Stories and memories are shared, along with descriptions of birthdays, romances, family tension, crazy social sprees, and her work as a plus-size model. Tyler recounts her trials with using men, drugs, and food, and working to overcome these addictions. She even provides a detailed examination of her own sanity at different points in her life, and how her psychological well-being impacted her choices and the way she encountered the world.

Tyler's candid stories and honest self-evaluations reflect a woman who has been through a lot, has taken a good hard look at herself and the world around her, and has chosen to take the best approach possible by forgiving herself and her family, moving on, and deciding to take care of herself. She comes out stronger in the end, with seemingly endless love and wisdom to share.

Creating Myself will hit home with all readers, even those who don't share Tyler's celebrity status or her extreme past. Those who choose this book will find out that it is possible to take on—and overcome—all that the world has in store for us.

Written by: Amanda Moss, August 30th 2009

You'd Be So Pretty If...: Teaching Our Daughters to Love Their Bodies—Even When We Don't Love Our Own

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:04:00 +0000

By Dara Chadwick

Lifelong Books

In presenting the best ways to work with our daughters regarding self-image, author Dara Chadwick offers relatively comprehensive ideas pertaining to the aspects of maturing for girls into women. By surmising her year writing the "2007 Weight-Loss Diary" column for Shape, Chadwick builds her column into a no-nonsense-this-is-how-it-is book for mothers, daughters, and all of us who interact with young women from early ages.

Looking at her own relationship with her body, the author realizes potential effects on her own daughter who may find her somewhat overly concerned with her body; this could translate into her daughter grappling with similar issues. Basically, Chadwick restates the importance of loving who you are as being the most important trait of being a good person.

While writing her column and undergoing her own transformation, her awareness of her daughter comes through. Realizing the importance of her daughter's keen image of her mother, she looks at her life and interviews others who deal with their own weight issues. The underlying premise remains her own relationship with her daughter, now in the teen years. At the end of each pertinent chapter, the author reiterates some talking points regarding the topic, pulling out the right words fitting the sentiment and deeming them necessary for mothers to talk, a completely understandable point, to their daughters.

Written after her column was completed, You'd Be So Pretty If... gives parents a chance to check in with themselves and arms them with tools to encourage healthy growing up. Not getting messy or too extreme in her interviews, Chadwick's book feels like a good exploration for women to talk to their kids. Covering many topics, she does not go too far into each one, and this leaves us to develop our own research about mothers, media, and school bullying. A compendium spoken from the heart, You'd Be So Pretty If... gives a lighthearted reflective look, but serious read to all of us.

Written by: Carolyn Espe, August 25th 2009

Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with your Body

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:05:00 +0000

By Kate Harding, Marianne Kirby

Penguin

Quit dieting and declare a truce with your body. This seemingly straight-forward proposition functions as the springboard from which authors Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby jump into a discussion of what it means to accept one's self and how to dismantle the countless negative and judgmental messages we receive and propagate on the daily. As two of the leading bloggers in the "fatosphere"—the online fat acceptance movement—Harding and Kirby tackle issues of dieting, fat stereotypes, self-deprecation, female acrimony, socializing and much more, all from the fat perspective.

How does denigrating fatness eat away at our own self worth? Are derogatory slights against fatness and fat people considered more socially acceptable than, say, racist or sexist stereotypes? How often do we participate in diet talk (instead of meaningful conversation) in order to "bond" with other women? Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere compels readers to ask themselves these essential questions. We are challenged to examine our assumptions about fatness, and urged to reimagine a way of life founded upon self-realization and fulfillment rather than participation in an endless struggle to achieve the happiness and beauty depicted in the mass media.

There's no question that Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere is a part of the blog-to-book phenomenon. Unbound by traditional rules of grammar, formality and structure, the authors take on an informal style, making liberal use of chummy, sarcastic and intimate prose. Though I'd argue this writing style helps break down the wall between author and reader, establishing an inimitable camaraderie and trust, it also detracts from the book's authority. Time-honored writing methods can be helpful in establishing one's credibility and expertise.

At times, Harding and Kirby shortchange their arguments by over-simplifying complex issues or inserting insensitive and insulting asides. What begins as founded and constructive guidance, might end with a misguided attempt at pseudo-psychological counsel. Also problematic are the persistent contradictions that appear in the book. I was particularly disappointed with the first chapter of the "Socializing" section, entitled "Find a Good Partner." Though the authors acknowledge that "single" isn't synonymous with "unlovable," they suggest time and again that being in a committed relationship is a helpful, if not essential, step toward loving your body and your self. Unlike Kirby and Harding who write that "Life isn't fair; if it were, we'd all be in love right now," many readers might find happiness and fulfillment outside the realm of monogamy.

Yet, despite these shortcomings, Harding and Kirby get the job done. They offer a window into the fat experience and give voice to opinions and perspectives that have long been silenced. They urge us to stop thinking about our bodies as "The Enemy" and encourage practicing "Health At Every Size." They remind us that "the best we can be is not exclusively determined by physical measures," even though we've grown up believing that "our bodies [are] primarily something for other people to experience externally." Importantly, they encourage us to stop judging other women and be our own best friends. That's advice everyone should heed.

Written by: Sofia Marin, May 19th 2009

It Doesn’t Count If… It’s the Last One: And 204 More Reasons Why You Can Eat That

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:26:00 +0000

By Daisy Westmoor

Clarkson Potter

Fat is not just a feminist issue; it’s everyone’s concern. We’re in an age where good health equals happiness—not a bad philosophy, but for our society's increasing problem with the relationship we have with our food. What we consider to be fat is often misguided; bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Yet, people go on unnecessary diets and eating obsessions to attain that "perfect" Western body sold to us by the higher powers.

The word diet itself has negative connotations: to not eat, to lose weight, to lose something of the self. The body doesn’t wish to be deprived, so nine times out of ten, the diet will fall short. That’s why Daisy Westmoor’s It Doesn’t Count If… It’s the Last One is a refreshing alternative to media-saturated messages of holding back being the key to self-worth and success.

In this anti-diet hardback, Westmoor provides over 200 reasons to eat those forbidden foods we all crave. It’s a humor book—and it succeeds. Among the funniest excuses to consume are, it doesn’t count if… "it’s raining and you’re sad," "it’s sunny and you’re sad," and "it’s past its expiration date."

The content is very much a rebellion against conventional ideas of feminine delicacy. It’s okay to put on the pounds, seems to be the message, but it also gives the illusion that there aren’t any adverse consequences of indulgence. Paradoxically, telling women to "eat that" does not give back their sense of power or control over their bodies.

What makes It Doesn’t Count If… It’s the Last One sparkle are its illustrations by Mary Lynn Blasutta. Without these quirky images Westmoor’s lines wouldn’t hold as much humor: "It doesn’t count if… your scale is broken" is accompanied by a sketch of a woman standing on a broken scale (no surprises there) with the speech bubble "Sweet." And "It doesn’t count if… it comes on top of lettuce" is complemented by the portrait of a woman ready to tuck into a super-large burger.

It’s a bit unusual that the publishers chose to pick an illustrator known for her designs of thin women; it is almost as though the book is speaking more to slim women who are trying to maintain their figures. Regardless, these pictures grant the book its fun and edge. Pages are splashed mainly in red, white, and pink, which gives this creative work the feel of a sugary treat itself.

It’s a pleasurable break for those who battle everyday temptations to resist nutritionless food, and of course, Westmoor’s 204 reasons to indulge in a cake or two shouldn’t be words to live by; eating with regard for health does matter, especially if you lead a sedentary lifestyle. It Doesn’t Count If… It’s the Last One makes an ideal gift for someone who’s always roller coaster dieting, giving them a humorous relief and release from the prison of guilt.

Written by: Payal Patel, March 22nd 2009

Bitchin' Bodies: Young Women Talk About Body Dissatisfaction

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:12:00 +0000

By Terri L. Russ

StepSister Press

Another day, another book exploring women and their bodies is published. The media is saturated with literature surrounding the female figure—just take a look inside any Barnes and Noble and prepare to be overwhelmed. And sure, we've read them all, so what could possibly be so appealing about Bitchin' Bodies? How can an author tread ground that is already so well-worn? Is this book even worth bothering with? The answer may surprise you.

Bitchin' Bodies explores the various mindsets and struggles of young women with ease. Terri Russ, the author, writes with remarkable clarity that informs without coming across clinical. To put it frankly, Russ makes a topic that has become borderline trite feel fresh. It is almost impossible not to devour this book.

Through interviews with numerous college-aged women, Russ illustrates the issues that impact the thinking of nearly every women in today's culture. Every chapter focuses on a different aspect of body dissatisfaction, from internal food struggles to the effects of the male gaze on the female perspective. Each page is like a reflection of the reader's private thoughts, as if Russ has identified an interview technique illuminating the trends in the collective mind of the 18-24 female demographic.

Even the appendixes offer helpful activities designed to help the reader develop a more positive body image through personal reflection and journaling. While the initial idea of Bitchin' Bodies may present itself as lackluster, sitting down with this book is probably one of the best literature-based decisions a woman (or man) can make. I know this text will be a staple on my bookshelf for years to come.

Written by: Corey Janssen, March 20th 2009

Red: Teenage Girls in America Write On What Fires Up Their Lives Today

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:17:00 +0000

Edited by Amy Goldwasser

Plume

My teenage years have always seemed to be something that I’ve wanted to forget: awkwardness, feeling clueless about life, not feeling comfortable in my body, navigating love and friendships, hating my family, loving my family, not knowing who my family really was, and knowing that there must be something more to life than what I was doing. Ugh, high school.

Now that I’m past my teens and well on to other decades of my life, I haven’t taken the time to look back and consider all of those big Life Questions I once had. Amy Goldwasser’s anthology, Red: Teenage Girls in America Write On What Fires Up Their Lives Today, helped me to both reconsider my past wonderments and understand what teenage life is like for a whole new generation of young women.

If it were just fresh voices that evolved out of this anthology, Red would be an amazing and worth-your-while read. If Red were just about life as a teenage woman in America, it would still be a great anthology. But the unique articulation of each writer, the diverse experiences represented, the range of topics presented, the brutal honesty and uncertainties revealed in each essay, and the fierce tenacity to understand life that each writer brings to the page makes_Red_ not only phenomenal, but a feminist staple for every reader’s library. The anthology is composed not of adults editing and filtering the words of teenage girls, but the words of the young women themselves—with all of their incomplete thoughts and blunt renderings of life.

The topics covered in Red range from what you would expect from an anthology of teenage girls’ writings (i.e., body image, friendships, and family life) to groundbreaking essays by young women on politics, PTSD, pop culture, and war. This isn’t to say that the essays about body image, friendships, and family are not groundbreaking. In fact, these pieces challenge the reader to think about, reconsider, and understand the complexity of young women’s lives in America just as much as the essays on the larger world do. Whether the writers’ voices come across as determined and strong or hesitant and ambiguous each essay invokes the varied challenges of growing up as a woman in America.

I believe that the intended audience for Red is you. Whoever you are. You could be a young teenage woman living in America and obviously connect with Red, or you could be from a different generation and gender than the contributors and still find every essay meaningful. While phrases such as, “we exchanged screen names” definitely point to the youth of the authors represented in_Red_, when one of the contributors states, “I want to reach out so that someone somewhere will breath more easily because I have lived,” you begin to understand that these fresh voices speak their words with an awareness of the world around them, and the impact that these words might have on others—something that our society does not believe young women are capable of today. Red proves this notion wrong in brilliant and wonderful ways.

Written by: Chelsey Clammer, February 20th 2009

Margaret Cho’s Beautiful Tour

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:32:00 +0000

Organized by Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho’s Beautiful Tour, which began in February 2008, is still scheduled to visit a number of lucky locations throughout the United States. As usual, Cho’s brand of feminist, LGBTQ, activist, and politicized humor was hilarious, raunchy, and thought-provoking. Unlike so much of the comedy gracing television screens lately, Cho continues to infuse her comedy with cutting edge analysis of race, gender, body image, and sexuality. From uproarious imitations of Paris Hilton to advice prompted by Britney Spears lack-of-underwear-in-public fiasco (Cho warned “don’t let people take pictures of your pussy”), to a narrative about the difficulties of travelling with one’s Hitachi Magic Wand in tow, to the wonderful “Eat Me Out” song that closed the show, Cho’s humor engaged not only with contemporary popular culture, but also with pressing issues of feminist concern.

The sustained focus on the female body and body image was hardly surprising given the name of the tour. However, Cho went beyond her common refrain of “I’m so fucking beautiful,” in order to offer comedic analysis of everything from anal bleaching to tattoos. Cho often relates the story of the deejay who asked her in an on-air interview what she would do if she woke up one day and she were beautiful. Her take on this insulting question never fails to pack a punch. This time around, Cho countered the paradigm upheld by the deejay’s question, and by wider American culture, as an insidious narrative prompting not only body hatred, but also hatred of non-white bodies, non-hetero bodies, and non-normative bodies of all types.

Cho’s message about beauty is ultimately about feeling beautiful about oneself not because one is able to fit cultural norms or play to the normative gaze, but rather, because one should realize that we are all, too put it in her terms, so fucking beautiful.

Written by: Professor What If, October 7th 2008

Tazewell’s Favorite Eccentric #4

admin — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:20:00 +0000

By Sarah Arr!

This zine, published in April of 2006, is tiny but powerfully personal. It has 30 pages, and, at only 5½ by 4¼ inches, it’s small enough to fit in a pocket for on-the-go reading.

On the very first page, zinester Sarah Arr! writes, “this issue is a lot more personal than things I’ve previously written,” and adds that she will not give copies to co-workers and casual friends. She observes that her life is not all misery and wretchedness, that she has fun every day and reminds us, “like most perzines, this is an outlet.”

Sarah’s first story, in which she pays homage to “bargaining with a real, live, flesh and blood human,” is about the flea markets in her hometown. The topics of the next few pages include the frustration of not having the right words, envy of thin women, drifting away from friends, being attracted to a guy while loving her girlfriend and a parent’s illness as a reminder of her own mortality.

In the middle of the zine the issues get even more intimate, and the label on page 15 reads, “This may be TRIGGERING.” She writes about her mom’s drug addiction, which led to Sarah being sexually abused as a little girl. After sharing what she calls “possibly the hardest thing that I’ve ever written,” she then tells of her younger brother’s death as a child.

While these issues are in no way happy or upbeat, Sarah tells her distressing stories with honesty and clarity. I appreciate that she is struggling to deal with her past and trying to heal by writing about the painful events. The insight Sarah has given into her harrowing experiences will help me behave more sympathetically towards people I know who have dealt with similar occurrences in their lives.

While this zine is not exactly entertaining, it is thought provoking and well-written. Words can be powerful weapons in the struggle for survival. As Sarah says about the sexual abuse that she experienced: “I write about it because that makes it real. Something that I can understand in words that happened. I can wrap my mind and my mouth around those words and arm myself like a soldier. I can wrap them up into ribbons to give other women so that they know that they’re not alone. That you’ve already lived through it once. We are stronger than the past.”

Written by: Chantel C. Guidry, July 16th 2007

The Curse of the Holy Pail

admin — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:23:00 +0000

By Sue Ann Jaffarian

Midnight Books

When I first laid my hands on this book, I really didn’t know what to think. I’d never heard of this series before, the only thing I did know was that it was a mystery novel. Before reading it, I studied the book’s cover and found myself smiling; it was the outline of a thick woman in casual garb, not the typical "attractive" silhouette squeezed in a curve-hugging, tailored suit that I was expecting. I guess that was my first clue this book would not be what I expected.

For a moment I pondered if I should have read the first book before reading this one. After a couple of pages, I completely forgot that this was the second of a series; Jaffarian introduced the reader to her heroine’s past adventure with ease and without repeating the whole first book. In fact, the small tidbits she did mention seemed less of an integral part of this book, and more to merely to acquaint protagonist, Odelia Grey, and the reader. By the end of the first chapter, I felt like I already knew Odelia.

Odelia Grey is not portrayed as your average heroine. She’s a short, middle-aged, fat paralegal who dislikes her boss. She’s also a smart, confident and independent gal who loves her friends, Thin Mints, and her cat Seamus. She has had bad relationships, and she has had good relationships. Her current relationship is with an intelligent wheelchair-bound hottie ten years her junior who not only worships her, he also understands her. Odelia Grey is an interesting and smart character; she’s portrayed as a real person, not in black and white, but with all of the shades in between. The fact that Odelia knows she’s heavy, but doesn’t obsess with it is quite honestly extremely refreshing.

The entire book is confident and charming; Jaffarian keeps the pace going without dropping the ball at any point. She inserts quirky little habits here and there, which make you like and relate to Odelia more, like the fact that she freezes her Girl Scout Cookies and eats them sparingly so they’ll last all year, or the fact that she gets herself in trouble even when she doesn’t mean to. The book involves a murder and the mysterious disappearance of a rare and expensive lunch box, which Odelia ends up solving.

The Curse of the Holy Pail is a light piece of fiction; it’s smartly written and yet it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Jaffarian fills her pages with all types of characters: fat, thin, handicapped, black, white, Latino, even dwarfs. Yet, she doesn’t put them in stereotypes, each one of them exists in her or his own world with her or his own reasons. Odelia Grey carries the book with confident strides and a no-nonsense attitude that’s sure to take you for a fun ride.

Written by: Jessica Sánchez, May 22nd 2007

How to be a Model (A 12 Step Plan)

admin — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:04:00 +0000

Directed by Allison Beda

a Muse Productions

How to be a Model (A 12 Step Plan) is everything you didn’t anticipate. This ex-model uses her newfound filmmaking skills to take viewers behind the scenes of this not-so-glamorous lifestyle, and - instead of teaching us how to become a model - she teaches us how to recover from modeling. Beda says “to be a model necessitates recovering from being a model,” and that is why the 12-step program shows the audience how to survive the harsh realities of modeling rather than how to enter this grueling industry.

The film follows Beda’s friend, Peggi Lepage, a 28-year-old international model with “one-more-year syndrome.” Through this, the audience sees the real world of modeling, not the glitzy stuff shown on TV and in movies. We learn the hardships, such as the daily battles most models have with their self-esteem, the strains on their relationships and, of course, the steps.

Naturally, step one is to meet the physical requirements. Most already know that only a small percentage of people actually have bodies that meet these requirements. According to Beda, 90% of the known world cannot be a model based on their physical measurements. We also learn, through a later step entitled “Are you really meeting the physical requirements?” that even models with the "correct" height, bust and waist size may not be what the market wants. Many models have plastic surgery, and one in ten do not have an eating disorder.

Another step, instructs viewers to have an anchor in the “real” world. Since, as Beda illustrates, the modeling industry simply uses and disposes its models, the assistance of people outside this world is essential. Peggi’s anchor is her mother Patricia, who supports her daughter, but, through tears, expresses her unhappiness with Peggi’s decision to subject herself to such a cruel industry.

Models must also plan on being alone. Friendships last around six weeks, and are disposable. Many girls in the film say they thought modeling would help them make friends, but because of the lifestyle, this isn’t the reality. Also, depression inevitably shadows their lonely existence.

Beda’s last step advises anyone considering modeling to have a second career in mind. Youth is what the agencies and market want, therefore, you cannot model forever. And, as many of the models attest to, modeling is better when you have something to fall back on.

The film also teaches viewers some model lingo. We also learn that “go-sees” are when models walk into agencies and see who can get them work. This often requires walking for miles and hours. The previously mentioned term one-more-year syndrome describes how a large number of models tell themselves they’ll model for only another year, but many never keep this promise. This is because, as Beda shows, modeling is addicting, despite all of its severities.

Laced with humorous sarcasm, tears and new beginnings, How to be a Model (A 12 Step Plan) demystifies the unforgiving world of modeling, while showcasing the enlightening journeys of career models as well as Beda’s transition into the more rewarding art of filmmaking.

Written by: Michelle Tooker, May 7th 2007