Friday, August 21, 2015

Thank You Sports Illustrated For Getting Rid of Those Pesky Models' Heads!

If you click on Sports Illustrated right now, you’ll be treated to an eye-full—a preview of the annual swimsuit edition, which comes out in February.

Oh! But they’ve made it fun and interesting for you!

They’ve chopped off the models’ heads, so you can guess who they might be.

And because, hey—it doesn’t really matter what face is attached to those bodies.


Chop them off, so you can have more control over your fantasies. Now you can imagine any beautiful woman’s face appearing there atop that body.

They’ve pre-dehumanized their models for your enjoyment.

Now, she is a sex object, but one that is not allowed to use her sexuality for power because when she doesn’t have a face, guess what else she doesn’t have?

She doesn’t have a bothersome mind to get in the way!

And even better—no mouth to speak with!

I am so excited to live in a world where men expect women to be willing to turn their face aside and let men take control. 

I am so thrilled to see women become objects placed on display.

I suppose it’s not surprising that we as women allow ourselves to be seen like this, because in fact this is how we see and treat ourselves. We are always aware of how we look and are usually presenting ourselves to the world in a way that assumes the ideal spectator of us is male, therefore our image is purposely designed to flatter the male species.

Why is it really that her face is not visible to us? 

She is not only de-humanized, but also depersonalized. We don’t get to see who she is as an individual; it’s like it doesn’t matter who she is, without her face in view she could be anyone.

For women seeing these faceless bodies, we also get to look and imagine our face there! We get to imagine what we could have been, but weren’t. We get to see what we should aspire to, what we should reach towards. 

As a society, must really be invested in what this image shows. If we weren’t, we would take a stand against corporations so blatantly fragmenting this whole image from our female history. Who cares what women have fought for, instead let’s laugh at our small voices asking for equality. 

Could it be that a sexist concept like this could be used as a wake-up call to us as a gender, or hopefully as a nation? Corporations assume this is how we want to be treated because we don’t speak loudly enough against it, otherwise these publicity stunts could not exist.

I may be accused of being a man-hater or a prude because of my stance, but that is not the case. I may be called a hypocrite for having been a part of the actual problem, and I will not deny those who say it, in fact—I will agree. 

I will agree that I was raised in a society where the only women I saw fighting the issues were those labeled as “feminists” in a demeaning voice. The only admired female icons were supermodels in bathing suits adorning sports magazine covers in grocery stores. 

Is it a surprise that I grew up to be a woman who saw female power as equivalent to how good she looks in a bikini? Is it any shock that so many women suffer from a desire to be perfect, which has resulted in many self-image problems and more dangerous physical diseases like anorexia and bulimia?

I am a woman. I feel anger at the stereotyping that we as women have learned to accept.

We are still being represented as a “faceless” gender, which Yves Sports Illustrated quite unabashedly points out to us. Until we stand up and say there’s something backwards going on, until we cry out at the inequality…nothing will change. I want things to change.  I want the next generation of women to not be confused by the double, fragmented, world they live in.

I want everyone to have face.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

A Three Baby Belly Looks Like This

Lena Dunham, actress, writer and director extraordinaire, has created a hashtag for people to share their “beautiful lonesome photos”: #beautifullylonesome.


She has long been a positive body image supporter and has no fear of exposing herself through her art.

Dunham is also beginning a newsletter called Lenny, which will include stories from a feminist slant.

Tag @lennyletter & me in YOUR beautifully lonesome pics please and we'll share some standouts on @lennyletter's insta...#beautifullylonesome

What does #beautifullylonesome mean exactly?

It could be so many different things—even for those of us surrounded by loving family and friends, we all feel lonely sometimes.

@LenaDunham

To be able to find the beauty within that loneliness, within a sadness that can strip us away from the things we love, can be a challenge on most days. But we need to keep trying.

To be able to look at ourselves boldly, naked and without regrets or apologies, is freedom.

We can strip down, see others’ beauty, and hopefully, eventually, see ours as well.

I’m still trying to come to terms with my three-baby belly. I feel ashamed of its wonkiness on my bad days, guilty for not loving myself more completely on my better days.

I know that I should celebrate my “stripes” that I have earned, and I know that my body brought three little humans into this world, but I still can’t help feeling the way I do.

I can simply keep trying, everyday, to accept and love myself a little more.

Make the Sandwich or Don't! We Know What She Was Saying...

I love reading news online. I really do.

It’s so much fun to see how out-of-proportion people can blow stories.

I’d say a talent I have is being able to really see both sides of a story. It’s so easy to spin some stupid comment someone makes on television into either a) a feminist statement or b) a call for a hearty “Get-over-yourselves-people!” argument.

Case in point: according to Raw Story, “Fox News host and former reality TV star Rachel Campos-Duffy asserted on Tuesday that conservatives had happier and longer marriages because liberal women refused to make sandwiches for their husbands.”


First of all, anybody who has to be introduced by “Fox News host and former reality TV star,” we know what we’re getting into by continuing to read.

*Small aside: Why and how can everybody who was ever on a reality TV show be called a reality TV star? I have no idea who this Campos-Duffy person is. Can we just say reality TV actress? Just being on a reality TV show does not make one a star

Anyway, so Campos-Duffy made this statement about how if women would just, you know, get up and make a sandwich for their husband after sex that more marriages would not end in divorce.

OK! Cue the Oh my gawd, I cannot believe she just said that! What does she want?! Women in the kitchen?! Women subservient?!

But do not forget the Oh, please, she just means be nice to your husband! She’s not saying that the men shouldn’t do nice things for their wives either! She’s just saying take care of each other and make those little things matter!

OK, so there you have it.

Two ways to “read” the news. And now, everybody can bicker back and forth in the comments section of all the websites reporting the story from one of these perspectives.

Isn’t online news fun?

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Hmm...You're a 7--Now Put on Some Pants!

It seems what we have here in the news today are a few fine examples of what women must put up with on a daily basis.

Heidi Klum quite rightly wondered what she possibly has to do with the election and why Donald Trump should be bringing her name up.


Klum first humorously responded to Trump’s declaration that she was no longer a “10” by making a mocking video.

Next she came out with understandable anger:
But really, the whole entire situation about women is not really funny, you know to put a number on a woman, especially women. We juggle so many things and I feel that women who support their families, who have children, who make their lunches, drive them all over the place, work at the same time—I mean, we do so many things. So in my book, every woman is a 10.
Just the fact that Trump believes that women should be “rated” in any way and that it’s OK to say it out loud makes me throw up a little.

And in Missouri, lawmakers are having their own problems with women.

Unable to stop themselves from sexually harassing women, they believe the solution is to blame the victims. Make them wear different clothes. Because you know, it’s not fair that they should look good, that’s too tempting.

I’m seeing a trend here—insecure men who are grasping for a way to build themselves up. It’s a shame they can’t do it on their own, but need to take down a few women on their way.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Supermodels Have Troubled Body Images, Too

What are mere humans supposed to feel when even supermodels have body image issues?

According to Elle, model Cara Delevingne has left the fashion building!

Getty via Elle
Now, if the modeling business is making a supermodel (who makes millions and can pick and choose her jobs and be waited on hand and foot) rethink her occupation because of how it makes her feel, the public should maybe question how damaging modeling can be.
Modeling just made me feel a bit hollow after a while. It didn't make me grow at all as a human being. And I kind of forgot how young I was…I felt so old.
So it’s great that Delvingne is moving on and speaking out about the issue.

People magazine quotes Delvingne, "It is a mental thing as well because if you hate yourself and your body and the way you look, it just gets worse and worse.” 

Do you think she is sincere in speaking about these body image issues? Or is she just saying what the media likes to hear for a good soundbite?