Beauty: Is Thin Really Still In?

There was a recent popular post on wordpress about a stunning Pakistani model. I’m not going to argue: the girl is beautiful, unique and very attractive. Some of the comments left on that article, however, really disgusted me. One reader wrote that they “prefer not to see size 13 women” because they are “not inspiring.” Not inspiring for who, may I ask? Anorexics and bulemics?

I’m writing this post because it horrifies me that the obsession with extreme thinness is still so prevalent–not just in the fashion industry but in the popular opinion in general.

The most popular dress size in North America is a size 14. And let’s face it; a lot of these women are beautiful. They’re your mother, your sister, your wife, maybe even your daughter. Why support an unhealthy and (for most) unattainable image of beauty?

Luckily, there’s a countermovement in the works. The majority may not know it, but there is a burgeoning “plus” (read: normal) sized fashion and modeling industry growing around the world, and particularly in the United States. Even major modeling agencies like Ford are establishing Plus divisions throughout the country.

http://www.walkthecatwalk.com/ offers insight into the fashion industry and their demand for size 0-4 models, and puts forward a challenge to print magazines and designers to begin to subvert this. Turn on your speakers–there’s an introductory inverview with Liis Windischmann and Diane Pellini, both phenomenally beautiful models that challenge the standard definition of beauty.

If you have any doubt that normal sized women can be both stunning and beautiful, I suggest you check out the Fenomenal Calendar online. Click the corner of the calendar to turn the pages and see a year’s worth of beautiful, average-sized women.

Plus models are also beginning to be featured occasionally on the covers of prominent fashion magazines. A handful are starting even make a name for themselves. Fluvia is a perfect example. Check out this stunning latina model’s website here.  Just so you know, she’s a U.S. size 16.
Here are some others:

DLo, with Elite

http://www.suzlyons.com/

a photographer who does a lot of plus work-you’ll notice how alarming the occasional straight size model looks thrown into the mix

Isn’t it time that beauty of all sizes is acknowledged equally, particularly in the fashion industry?

Ford CEO Rakes in $28M for 4 Months on Job

I know news like this shouldn’t throw me into a state of incredulous disbelief anymore, but it still does. From a CNN article, see the full article at the link below:

“Struggling Ford Motor Company, which posted a record $12.7 billion net loss in 2006, gave its new CEO Alan Mulally $28 million for four months on the job, according to a statement filed Thursday. The details were made public as Ford moves ahead with plans to close plants and cut more than 30,000 hourly positions from the company in an effort to stem losses.”

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/05/news/companies/ford_execpay/index.htm?cnn=yes

According to the poll on the article webpage, 20% voted that this $28 million, 4-month compensation package is “appropriate if he can turn Ford around” while a staggering 77% thinks it’s “inappropriate no matter what he does.”

If this is truly the case, why do obscenely large corporate bonuses/salaries still remain standard in American and international companies? If the common workers don’t like it, shouldn’t they try to do something? Mobilise? Anything. I mean wow, that’s horrendous. These people at the very top of corporate hierarchies are largely figureheads, and not a whole lot more. What do you think can be done?

Kurt Vonnegut

A remarkable writer died on April 11, 2007; may he rest in peace.

“Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.”
~Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

“‘We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard … and too damn cheap,’ he once suggested carving into a wall on the Grand Canyon, as a message for flying-saucer creatures.”

Read the full obit on CNN (though I’m sure there will be far better ones on other websites quite soon): http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/04/12/obit.vonnegut.ap/index.html

A Few Good Quotes and a Positive Experience

“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them. “

–H.H. the Dalai Lama

This seems like a very simple thing to do–to at least not harm others. How simple is it in execution though? Can one live a life without hurting others (and to Buddhists in particular this includes all sentient beings)? What changes would you have to make to even live a life in which you minimise your harmful impact on others?

Another quote by the current Dalai Lama that I rather like follows:

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

I took the time a couple of weeks ago to help out with a small, startup nonprofit that teaches refugee children about photography, and this second quote reminds me of the experience with stunning accuracy. I helped a group of kids learn how to use disposable cameras, how to identify a subject, how to frame shots, basically how to look at the world through a camera. They were all practically jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect of taking a disposable camera home and using a whole roll of film for their first photo assignment, which was to take pictures that represent happiness to them. The following week, in return, I got to develop their first set of photos and see the world through their eyes. It was just about the coolest thing ever.

San Francisco to Ban Plastic Shopping Bags

Progress!

It’s about time something like this happened:

 

San Francisco is banning plastic shopping bags that are made with petroleum products. The move is predicted to save 450,000 gallons of oil per year and eliminate 1,400 tons of waste otherwise sent to landfills. Just imagine if this caught on in other major cities…

 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/27/environment.baggs.reut/index.html

Like the article says, it’s not at all uncommon practice in other countries to ban or at least discourage the use of plastic bags by charging for them. When I spent a semester in Ireland, this was just the case. Rather than shell out extra money for plastic bags, I brought along my hiking pack and carried my groceries the mile to my dorm on my back each week. It was a good arrangement for both parties–it provided extra exercise for an otherwise Guinness-imbibing student, and cut back on a wasteful and largely useless product. (Unless you consider the good they can do when placed securely over the heads of idiots. Hmm, shouldn’t have said that…)

Videos from the Trenches

No, not Iraq–Africa!

Tonight I came across a great nonprofit program called Scenarios from Africa that gives children and young people in Africa the opportunity to educate themselves and others about AIDS by collaborating with directors to produce educational film shorts.

While the aim of all the films is quite obvious when you watch them, the many videos that you can view directly from the website are also very telling of the situation in Africa and what daily life is like there. Some are sad, some are quite funny–watch a couple if you have a few minutes; you’ll be glad that you did.

http://www.globaldialogues.org/homeEng.htm

Organic vs. Local: Which is better?

More often than not, you simply can’t do both.

“It turns out to be a frustratingly layered choice, one that implicates many other questions: What’s the most efficient way to grow food for all? Should farms be big or small, family- or corporate-run? How do your choices affect the planet? What tastes better? And then there’s that little matter of cancer.”

From: Eating Better than Organic, Ben Stechschulte / Redux for TIME

Stechschulte dives into the issue from a simple situation all of us might face in the grocery store: two apples. An organic from California and a local nonorganic. Which to buy? And for what reasons?

I’m an enthusiastic proponent of selective and informed consumerism. There’s great potential to affect change for the good of both consumers themselves and larger causes. So, without further rambling or preaching, here’s the article. It’s a good read and discusses some really important issues:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1595245,00.html

On Global Capital Mobility and Downward Leveling

The following quote is from a book I’m reading and I think most succinctly describes the trend of “downward leveling” that many economists and citizens around the world are concerned about of late:

“As economist David Ranney writes, “There is a strong interconnection between capital mobility and the cheapening of the costs of production.” Mobility offers the opportunity [for companies] “to move to low cost areas” and “pit the peoples of different nations against one another.” By using the threat of moving as a club, “corporations can extract wage and work rule concessions from workers in their home country.” And mobility allows companies to challenge or escape such claims on value as “health care, welfare, and subsidized housing programs; worker and consumer safety standards; and environmental regulations.”"

-from Global Village or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction from the Bottom Up, Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, p. 52.

What are your thoughts or experiences with this?

Think it’s valid logic? Maybe not?

Do you see this happening in the company you work for? Are labor unions enough to counteract this trend? (I’m thinking not…)

Is this just “first-world” economic protectionist rhetoric?

Just tossing some ideas out there….I want to know what you think!