A feeder-gainer couple.

From the Daily Mail:

'I force-feed myself 5,000 calories a day through a funnel': Meet the 23-year-old desperate to reach 30st - so that men with a fat fetish will PAY to watch her eat

• Tammy Jung, 23, is increasing her weight by over 3st every 6 months
• She currently weighs 16st - halfway to her goal weight of 30st
• She spends £70 a day on takeaways
• Encourages her boyfriend to pour milkshakes down her throat with a funnel
• Already earns £1,000 a month online, some people pay to watch her eating

Lots of young women are thinking about gym visits or diets right now to prepare their bikini bodies for the summer months ahead.

But one 23-year-old is doing the complete opposite and force feeding herself - often through a funnel - in a bid to become as fat as possible.

Tammy Jung was once a healthy eight-stone teenager who wore skinny jeans, loved playing volleyball and going out with friends.

But in a bizarre reversal of a crash diet, Tammy has decided that she wants to put on a lot of weight as quickly as possible, and spends her days indoors eating buckets of fried chicken, boxes of doughnuts and whole blocks of cheese.

She even allows boyfriend Johan Ubermen, 28, to pour ice cream milkshakes down her throat in an attempt to ingest 5,000 calories a day.

Tammy's frightening diet has seen her weight soar by over 3st every six months, and she now weighs over 16st - just over halfway to her goal weight.

The once svelte young woman is piling on the pounds to earn money as a Big Beautiful Woman on internet websites and hopes to one day top 30st.

Tammy, who already has fat-loving male fans from around the world, has been warned she is putting her health at risk and shortening her life.

But the determined young 'gainer' celebrates every pound she adds and insists she doesn't care about damaging her body.

She said: 'I've never been happier than I am working to put on weight - nothing will stop me achieving my dream.

'I know it's controversial but it's no one else's business - eating makes me happy.

'I'm making lots of money doing what I love - and I want to make even more.

'As far as I'm concerned there is no such thing as too big.'

Aided by her 'feeder' boyfriend Johan, Tammy's daily diet includes up to 30 doughnuts as well as stacks of pancakes and waffles.

The couple can spend up to £70 a day on takeaways and junk food to fuel Tammy's mammothappetite.

Tammy said: 'I start the day with a huge breakfast of waffles, cream cheese, bacon and sausage then head to McDonalds for a few burgers in the afternoon.

'I can snack on cheese all day, a couple of blocks is no problem, then for dinner I'll either eat pizzas or make Mexican food.

'At the end of the day I make a weight gain shake from heavy whipped cream and a whole tub of ice cream, which Yohan feeds me through a funnel.

'The funnel forces me to drink the shake even when I'm full after a day of eating.'

As a teenager, Tammy played volley ball and football and weighed a healthy eight stone, but felt insecure despite her healthy frame.

She said: 'I used to be self-conscious about my appearance. I always thought I was fat and had low self esteem.

'After I gave up sports, I began putting on weight. At first I was in denial. But one day I looked in the mirror and realised I was fat - and I felt great about it.

'My body looks so sexy and I feel more womanly the heavier I get.'

With a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 45, 5ft 2" Tammy is almost twice the average for a woman her size.

Tammy even films herself eating on camera for her army of online fans.

She said: 'I get a lot of requests to eat and weigh myself on camera. Some guys even send me scripts so I know what to say.

'I can make up to £1,000 a month if I work at it, and I'm hoping to earn more the bigger I get.'

Johan, her boyfriend of eight months, doesn't worry about the attention from other men.

He said: 'I noticed early on that she really likes to eat and was eating more than me when we went for dinner - I was impressed.

'I would love her no matter what she looked like.'

Incredibly, Tammy's family have no idea what she does for a living - or that her weight gain is deliberate.

She said: 'My family have noticed that I am putting on weight but they still don't know I'm doing it on purpose.

'They probably wouldn't agree with it but I'm making a living and supporting myself.'

Dr Claude Matar, of the Pasadena Weight Loss Center, said: 'It's very straightforward, she is causing her life to be shorter. She is taking the risk of dying early.'

See the rest of the photos here.

And the corresponding video:

Big Beautiful Woman: Funnel Feeder BBW Wants To Be The Fattest Woman In The World SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/Oc61Hj Big Beautiful Woman model Tammy Jung force feeds herself every day with a funnel in a bid to become an internet star.

Science: The world's most attractive face?

From Design Taxi:

The World’s Scientifically Most Beautiful Woman?

By Anthea Quay

UK-based 18-year-old student Florence Colgate has the most naturally perfect face, according to British lifestyle and entertainment show ‘Lorraine’.

According to The Daily Mail, a woman’s face is said to be most attractive when the distance between her pupils is just under half of the distance between her ears. Colgate scored a 44% ratio.

The distance between a woman’s eyes and mouth should be just over one-third the measurement of her hairline to chin. Colgate scored a 32.8% ratio.

“Florence has all the classic signs of beauty,” Carmen Lefèvre, of The Perception Lab at the University of St Andrews’ School of Psychology, told The Daily Mail. “She has large eyes, high cheekbones, full lips and a fair complexion. Symmetry appears to be a very important cue to attractiveness.”

“Although we don’t realize it in everyday interactions, in most people’s faces the right and left half are actually quite different.”

The blue-eyed blonde—who’s currently studying ‘A’-levels at the Dover Grammar School, and works part-time at a seaside chip shop in Deal, Kent—has never had any plastic surgery or chemical enhancements, and normally wears only light foundation, mascara, concealer.

For the natural beauty contest ‘Lorraine: Naked’ (where no make-up or cosmetic enhancements of any kind were allowed), Colgate won a trip to a London model agency and will be featured on billboards and posters in beauty and health retailer Superdrug stores.

Colgate told The Daily Mail that she would love to have a career in modelling but “is currently studying business, geography and psychology, and intends to do business management at university.”

“Women should not have to feel that they have to wear makeup,” Colgate said. “I hope people will look at me and think they don’t need to. I’m very happy with the way I look and I would never have any plastic surgery or Botox.”

Can science define beauty, in your opinion?

See more photos here.

MAC Cosmetics' Strength campaign.

Earlier this year, MAC Cosmetics released Strength, a new marketing campaign featuring a woman named Jelena Abbou. Ms. Abbou is a figure competitor (similar to bodybuilding, but less emphasis on being huge) and as such is much more muscular that your typical model. MAC has been receiving tons of positive feedback about their choice to feature her.

From Jezebel:

MAC Put A Female Bodybuilder In A Makeup Ad And It’s Beautiful

When I first saw this ad for MAC's new "Strength" collection, it kind of stopped my in my browsing tracks. What an incredible figure that woman has — and what a striking image for a mainstream cosmetics brand to choose as an advertisement.

The woman in the photo is named Jelena Abbou. She is a Serbian-American competitive body builder and fitness model, and she is fucking impressive to look at. I really like seeing her in a makeup ad. Hers is a body that is so different from the usual physical ideal that is shoved down women's throats — the slim, uniformly "toned" but not muscular, waifish model body that we see in every other ad and magazine and T.V. show aimed at women. There's a pretty strong social stigma against women who are "too" muscular, as Samantha Escobar explainsaptly here:

We all know that our society often fat shames people they deem overweight and sometimes body shame those declared too thin, but many men and women consider very muscular women to be "gross" or "unappealing." I find this strange, since — while I don't remotely condone it — fat and thin shamers tend to at least cite health as a typical reason for being assholes. When it comes to insulting muscular females, this logic makes no sense; typically, those women work out frequently and eat incredibly well in order to achieve the bodies they have. Why insult them?

Well-developed muscles are the embodiment of strength, and our culture doesn't value physical strength in women. It might even be a little suspicious of it. A man with a six-pack is supposed to be sexy; a woman with a six-pack is supposed to be "mannish." That stigma is why it's so shocking to see Abbou in a cosmetics ad: she's styled and photographed in a way that glamourizes her and highlights her beauty and her femininity, but the ad also does not camouflage or attempt to minimize her incredible body. (Which is the usual treatment that athletes, particularly female athletes, get in fashion photography — for reference, just consider any time Vogue picks a lovely, slender, female athlete to be in a fashion spread.) In fact, Abbou's muscular arms are the focus of this picture. That's what makes this ad so striking, and so incredibly beautiful.

Here's the copy from MAC that goes with the campaign:

I am a women: fearless, elegant, strong. We love women who strike powerful poses, stand out, redefine the notion of beauty…and do it with an inner/outer strength that’s irresistible and impossible to ignore. Colour is a vehicle for a women to flex their femininity and MAC’s New collection reflects this state of mind and style. It starts with dramatic eyes defined by two Eye Shadow Quads that sculpt and highlight, precision Penultimate Eye-Liner and extra-volumizing Opulash. Lips plump up with vivid colour to project power while Powder Blush in Natural Tones softly chisels cheeks. And, nailing it for overall presentation, MAC’s High Gloss Nail Lacquer.

While I think it's fantastic that MAC has chosen a very obviously muscular woman as the face of their new campaign (and she is very attractive), there's something about it that also bugs me. Perhaps it's the insidious nature of this type of advertising - i.e., MAC is trying to win customers over by appearing progressive, while still promoting a very specific beauty ideal. Or perhaps it's because it's MAC, a company that depends on vanity to make money (not that we're not all vain, mind you). Maybe it's also that Ms. Abbous fake breasts also seem to contradict the idea being promoted here - i.e., that there is more than one beauty ideal. Or possibly it's the fact that Ms. Abbou is still conventionally very beautiful, despite being muscular. Or maybe I'm just full of beans. Feel free to tell me so.

Here's a video clip of Ms. Abbou in action:

Jelena Abbou is a beautiful fitness model. There is just something about her that makes you do a double take. Wow! She is an IFBB Pro as well as a Fitness Model who has been on the cover of numerous magazines inclduing, Oxygen, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Natural Bodybuilding, Womens Exercise, Flex, Planet M and others.

The Nu Project.

Passed along by Madeline a couple of years ago (thanks!).

From the homepage (NSFW link):

Thank you for being here. The Nu Project is a series of honest nudes of normal women from all over the world. The project began in 2005 and has stayed true to the original vision: no professional models, minimal makeup and no glamour. The focus of the project has been and continues to be the subjects and their personalities, spaces, insecurities and quirks.

To date, over 100 women across North and South America have participated in the project. Without their courage, confidence and trust, none of this would have been possible. We are so thankful for their willingness to open their homes to us.

They're always looking for women to participate: link.

To see the galleries (NSFW!), click here, here and here.

Ideal women sizes.

Carlin Ross at Betty Dodson with Carlin Ross:

Inspired by Jenn's "apple body" post, I was googling around for the latest research on body image.  There was been a quantifiable shift in body preference reinforced my images in the media.  Today, women strive for the tubular body type.  That's the boyish, athletic Betheny Frankel look (I'm not criticizing Betheny just giving an example).

Here's where the mind fuck comes in.  While the preferred body aesthetic is skinny minny, we are in fact curvier than ever:

"In recent years, women's body sizes have grown larger (Spitzer, Henderson, & Zivian, 1999), while societal standards of body shape have become much thinner. This discrepancy has made it increasingly difficult for most women to achieve the current sociocultural "ideal." Such a standard of perfection is unrealistic and even dangerous. Many of the models shown on television, advertisements, and in other forms of popular media are approximately 20% below ideal body weight, thus meeting the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (Dittmar & Howard, 2004)."

As a young girl, the supermodels of my era were Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington - women with curves and healthy figures. I can't imagine growing up now with the pressure to be 20% underweight. The worst part of it all is that it's not what others find attractive. The average person prefers a woman who's a size 12.

God forbid if you enjoy a meal or eat a piece of cake. The tubular body shape is not womanly. Curves connote fertility that's why men love curves. It's like denying biology...and for what?

The average man.

From The Atlantic:

This Is the Average Man's Body Graphic renderings of modern males by James Hamblin

Todd is the most typical of American men. His proportions are based on averages from CDC anthropometric data. As a U.S. male age 30 to 39, his body mass index (BMI) is 29; just one shy of the medical definition of obese. At five-feet-nine-inches tall, his waist is 39 inches.

Don't let the hyperrealistic toes fool you; Todd is an avatar. I gave Todd his name, and gave his life a narrative arc, but he is actually the child of graphic artist Nickolay Lamm as part of his Body Measurement Project.

Todd would prefer perfection—or at least something superlative, even if it's bad—to being average. But Todd is perfect only in being average. With this perfection comes the privilege of radical singularity, which is visible in his eyes.

Though in his face this reads lonesome, Todd does have three international guyfriends. They met at a convention for people with perfectly average bodies, where each won the award for most average body in their respective country: U.S., Japan, Netherlands, and France. The others' BMIs, based on data from each country's national health centers, are 23.7, 25.2, and 25.6.

Read the rest and see the other images and infographics here.

Penile implants: A trend in Filipino seafarers.

From the Atlantic:

The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers

How the pressures of the shipping industry have shaped everything about this maritime culture. Right down to their penile implants.

[...]

Many Filipino sailors make small incisions in their penises and slide tiny plastic or stone balls -- the size of M&M's -- underneath the skin in order to enhance sexual pleasure for prostitutes and other women they encounter in port cities, especially in Rio de Janeiro. "This 'secret weapon of the Filipinos,' as a second mate phrased it, has therefore obviously something to do," Lamvik wrote in his thesis, "'with the fact that 'the Filipinos are so small, and the Brazilian women are so big' as another second mate put it.

According to University of California, Santa Cruz labor sociologist Steve McKay, who traveled extensively on container ships with Filipino crews in 2005 for his research on the masculine identity in the shipping market, raw materials for the bolitas can range from tiles to plastic chopsticks or toothbrushes. A designated crew member boils them in hot water to sterilize them, and then performs the procedure. There are also different preferred locations for insertion. Some have one on top or bottom, and others have both. One shipmate told McKay that others have four, one on top and bottom and on both sides, "like the sign of the cross." Another said: "I have a friend at home, you know what his nickname is?" McKay recalled. "Seven."

Read the rest here.

Debate.org: Circumcision.

Circumcision is a highly controversial procedure. The debate tends to be polarizing and is messy, in the sense that it represents the intersection of medicine, science, tradition, sexuality, aesthetics, religion, and politics. A recent debate at Debate.org asked, "Do females prefer males who have circumcised penises?" There are hundreds of responses. Here's a sample and the current results (which cluster around 50:50 over time). Click to make larger:

All of the other comments for and against here.

Vulva visor.

From the product homepage:

What On Earth Is The Va j-j Visor? The Va j-j Visor is a revolutionary, patent pending, protective vaginal shield designed to help protect a woman's inner vulva area (inner labia, clitoris, and vaginal opening). The Va j-j Visor is a soft and flexible cup that covers the inner vulva area and naturally fits the shape of your body, while your body's natural muscular tension holds it effortlessly in place. It is also hypoallergenic, disposable and recyclable.

Why Do I Need The Va j-j Visor? The Va j-j Visor will help protect all of those tender and sensitive parts that you don't want exposed during various methods of hair removal. Brazilian and bikini waxing, depilatories and shaving, hair coloring, tanning or spa treatments. It can also be used as a hygienic shield while trying on swimwear or intimate apparel, and during body piercings and tattooing.

• Disposable
• Hypoallergenic
• Protects against UV rays
• Provides hygienic protection
• Recyclable
• Doctor recommended
• Made in the USA
• 100% satisfaction guaranteed
• Patent pending
• Tested and approved for laser hair removal
• CE Certification

And some commentary from Jezebel (read the comments at the bottom for even more):

Here's my conflicted train of thought re: the Va j-j visor, a "a revolutionary, patent pending, disposable shield designed to help protect a woman's inner vulva area (inner labia, clitoris, and vaginal opening)" while removing pubes that's "soft and flexible and will naturally fit to the shape of your body, while your body's natural muscular tension holds it effortlessly in place."

• Fuck the patriarchy.
• I consider myself an open-minded woman, but if I ever saw one of these pastel clit shields in a friend's bathroom, I'd reconsider our friendship.
• But why? Who am I to forbid someone who wants to protect their delicate parts with a purple plastic visor? It comes very highly recommended on drugstore.com!
• Not to be a bitch, but this seems pretty remedial. Can't you just use your hand? (Says a person who recently sprained her ankle while walking slowly down a street, so maybe I'm not one to talk about careful movements...)
• Great, can't wait to read the next "sex adventure" piece about the woman who tried a Va j-j visor!!! (THIS IS SARCASM!)
• Am I shaming women for writing about their personal experiences?
• Why does it have to be called the Va j-j Visor? Why? Why??

Facial symmetry site.

Passed along by Natasha (thanks!).

AnaFace is a site that allows up to submit a photo to have it evaluated for symmetry. Given that it's a free online site, and that you can submit pretty much any photo, it's probably not particularly accurate. But fun, nonetheless. Check it out here.

Composite female faces from 32 different countries.

A growing body of research shows that average faces are rated as most attractive. Someone put together these composites (original source?) of female faces from around the globe. The striking thing is that they're all quite attractive, if not a little boring (click to make larger):

Going without makeup.

Continuing on the theme of makeup...

Many women who normally wear makeup have experimented with going makeup-free - this is nothing new. But in the last few years, several articles, blog posts and even a week-long internet-based event have documented these experiments, with women candidly discussing their experiences going without. The responses have been mixed, with some people being very supportive and others highly critical.

Here's the beginning of an article at Jezebel by Rachel Rabbit White, a popular blogger who conceived the idea of the No Make Up Week back in 2010:

"Yeah, but I don't wear much…" were my first thoughts, when I imagined running this experiment. No Make-up Week: the idea was good, I thought, but my heart raced a little as it sank in.

"But I don't wear much." And I realized I was a little quick to run to the defense of my palettes and powder.

It's not about taking a week off because make-up is somehow bad or because not wearing it is better. It's that by taking a week off, I should be able to understand my relationship to cosmetics more clearly. Why do I feel I need to sketch on eyebrow pencil before going to the grocery? To shellac my face before seeing a friend? And if I am going to a networking event or party, can I feel comfortable in anything less than contoured cheeks and caked on lashes?

When I think about not wearing make-up for a week, a voice inside of me screams, Noooooooooo! And this is exactly what I want to explore. I mean, the thing is this: Make-up is a powerful tool, it has the ability to transform, to incite imagination and creativity. But, when an option turns into a necessity, I don't know if it's still a tool. At the least, it loses its spark.

And then, there are the social reasons that push us to wear make-up. A study online claims that 8 out of 10 women prefer their female colleagues to wear makeup and the same number of women said they would rather employ a woman who wore makeup than one who didn't. Because of these expectations, I think it's hard for any woman to have a good relationship to make-up.

For me, a good relationship with make-up isn't a given, but it is something to work towards. Whether you wear make-up or not, there is a story there. I often feel like I *need* make-up. And when there is not a real feeling of choice, this needs to be explored.

The comment section for the article gets pretty heated, with many women calling Ms. White out for being insensitive to those who aren't naturally beautiful and for not respecting peoples' choices. Check it out here.

All the posts about No Make Up Week from Ms. White and other contributors can be found here.

Another blogger, Kendall Bitonte (who also is a USA Today correspondent - photo of her at the top of the post), documented her 6-week experiment with no makeup. Here's what she had to say over at the Beauty Bean:

Cleanser. Lotion. Foundation. Bronzer. Blush. Eye shadow on brow bone, lid and crease. Eyeliner. Mascara. Chapstick.

And that was just a typical Wednesday morning.

The face that stared back in the mirror at 7:30AM, baggy eyed with blonde lashes and an uneven skin tone, was a blank canvas that beckoned for paint, definition and color before being viewed by the world.

As I washed my face that night and watched the colors swirl down the drain, I realized my relationship with creams, powders and wands had become a bit more complicated than Covergirl’s “Easy, Breezy, Beautiful.” In fact, applying and wearing makeup was my ritual, a source of joy and a duty. I thought the products made me prettier, more desirable, and more respected by society.

Over the past twenty-one years, I had been waging a war against the body that I saw. I hated my body; from my thighs to my nose, my attributes seemed alien and I never saw an image that convinced me otherwise. Out of all other means, makeup was quickest for me to stencil myself into the published images of beauty.

But makeup was temporary and fleeting relief. Regardless of my efforts and no matter how much I grew, matured, exercised or what I wore, I could never change how I looked. Yet, I kept trying, failing and trying again.

But on that Wednesday, I lay in bed so tired of failing. The tears of the twelve year old in struggling in the GAP dressing room welled up behind the eyes of the now-almost adult. I was disgusted with myself for this self-hatred. My internal fight had exhausted me.

Enough is enough.

“I’m giving up makeup!”

I got up from bed and zipped my makeup bag shut-and shut it would stay for the next six weeks.

Before going leaving for class on day one, I took one last look in the mirror and did not recognize myself. Oh boy, don’t you look like a ray of sunshine. I threw on a scarf to put something pretty near my face, fixed my hair and stared back at my bare face-everything looked so wrong.

These six weeks are going to suck.

This revulsion at my fresh face did not subside until around week four. In these weeks, my face braved class, extracurricular activities, bars, dance parties, Spring Break and a graduate school interview all without the armor of cosmetics. I faced each day with a dose of doubt and fluttering nerves that someone would call my bluff and question who I thought I was looking so undone. You’re not pretty enough to do this.

Despite my fear, I doubted that someone would say something about my lack of makeup (the possible awkwardness would hopefully stop any sane person). My doubt rang true as I went six weeks without a single interrogation of “Are you not wearing makeup?” In fact, the closest questioning was far from a negative experience: a guy friend of mine asked at the middle of week four, “Did you do something different with your hair? Something looks different, I can’t figure it out but it’s a good different.” I shook my head and smiled. So someone did notice-he noticed me and I am a ‘good different.’ So, while I cannot say if anyone noticed that I did not wear makeup, I can say with absolutely certainty that no one cared.

With these six weeks now behind me, I wear much less makeup. I hardly ever wear anything besides moisturizer and chapstick to class and when I do “glam up” for the weekend, I think of makeup as means to accentuate my features, not to cover them.

But the rebellion against my own demoralization is far from over. As these past six weeks taught me, the world embraces me more than I embrace myself and wearing less makeup has been one small step towards self-love and towards the end of this fight.

And what would a post on makeup be without a little levity from Jenna Marbles (NSFW language!):

Doggy Toys: http://jennamarblesblog.com/shop As I sat down to write this description I just remembered that girl that has two vaginas HAHAHAHA like how does she have sex or like put a tampon in there, which one does she pee out of or is it like it just comes out of both?

Amy Poehler on makeup.

The premiere episode of Ask Amy, where Amy answers your questions!! First topic: makeup!

Many more Ask Amy's here.

Facial averaging.

This is super creepy, but interesting nonetheless.

From Lovelyish:

Researchers claim that the perfect face is the most average face. More specifically, it's the ratios, between the eyes, and from the mouth to the eyes that determines attractiveness. Women in photos were perceived to be the most beautiful when the space between the pupils was just under half (46%, to be exact) of the width of her face from ear to ear. Also, when the distance between the woman’s eyes and mouth was just over a third (36%) of the overall length of her face from chin to hairline. Some celebrities who have this ratio include Jessica Alba, Liz Hurley and Shania Twain.

What I found even more interesting was an experiment attempting to create the most beautiful woman in the world using Photoshop. They took 16 of the most beautiful faces, separated them into groups of four, and took the average of each group to create the average of the averages. Here's what it looked like:

Presumably they could do the same thing with other races, or if they wanted the ultimate, they could mix all the races.

Strong is the new skinny?

I previously posted about this theme in female attractiveness when MAC Cosmetics came out with their Strength line. The marketing for it features a figure competitor (much like a body builder, but less emphasis on massive muscles), Jelena Abbou. The post led to an interesting discussion about beauty ideals and as most agreed, replacing one (being thin) with another (being muscular - and still thin) isn't really all that helpful (it might also be worth mentioning that Jelena Abbou has had breast enlargement surgery, too). An obsession with a different ideal is still an unhealthy obsession. At least the more muscular physique represents an alternative, though, and as some people have argued, a healthier one because it exudes strength rather than weakness. Read the post here.

A recent blog post by a woman really into Crossfit has drawn a lot of attention for similar reasons. She draws a distinction between skinny and strong, and chronicles her journey from one to the other. Some samples:

This Trendy “Strong is the New Skinny” Thing (and what it could mean for the next generation of girls)

For the record: Teenage girls are so goddamn moody because they are always fucking hungry.I guarantee you that every teenage girl’s angst is amplified ~300% because she is 1) miserable because she’s on a diet and hungry 2) miserable because she’s “on a diet” but just ate a cake and feels really guilty and is considering regurgitating it 3) miserable because she’s given up on dieting and resigned herself to being “fat”. And why do we do this to ourselves?

Because we want to be thin and beautiful.

This desire to be thin and beautiful goes much, much deeper than the desire to be sexually attractive (Dear men: We don’t actually care about you that much). Eventually all girls internalize (whether we realize it or not) certain realizations about how the world works, and our dual status of being both human beings and sexual objects. Girls learn things like employment, leadership opportunities, and social acceptance come easier when you’re good looking. We see in the media that a woman’s viability as a sexual object is often emphasized more than her intellectual accomplishments. In fact,the success of a powerful woman is often accompanied, or even overshadowed, by the attention directed at her appearance.

[...]

The time when I was my skinniest and most photographically beautiful (i.e. I looked magazine-cover-skinny) was also the time when I was at my weakest, in all senses of the word. I was constantly asking the guys downstairs to opens jars for me, and if they weren’t home, well then I was shit out of luck (and pasta sauce). Trying to carry my own suitcases while traveling between Seattle and Montreal was (pathetically) a nightmare. Even carrying pitchers of beer at the bar I was working at was a struggle for my skeletal arms. I was sleeping 12 hours a day and constantly tired. I’m sure that my brain wasn’t functioning all too well either.

[...]

But when I look back at my experiences, decisions, and accomplishments, I still wonder how different would my life have been if I had been encouraged to be strong instead of skinny. Would my grades have been better if I hadn’t been literally starving myself since the age of 13? Could I have gotten into Harvard instead of McGill? Would I have been a better runner if I had been encouraged to fucking eat instead of diet. Would I have had better relationships with my parents, sister, and friends?

[...]

Now when I look in the mirror (this is embarrassing by the way, I can’t believe I’m admitting this online) I flex instead of sucking in. Now when I pinch my stomach, it’s to feel my abs, not to feel shitty about how much “flab” (real or imaginary) is sitting there. I no longer stare at the “calories burned” display on the elliptical, but how many plates I have on each end of the barbell. I can open my own pasta sauce jars now. I am moving soon and do not need the help of any hulking strong lad to transport my furniture. My goal has changed from “be a size zero” to do a motherfucking pull up. I have gained far more self-esteem from being able to pick up heavy shit that I ever have from being able to zip up a skin-tight designer dress. I became a more capable, energetic, independent, and mentally focused person once my focus shifted from what my body looks like to what my body can do.

Go read the rest here.

New app: Lulu.

From The Gloss:

Review Men Like Restaurants With New Lulu App, The Yelp Of Romance (For Girls!)

Someone once Tweeted, ”Yelp.com: explore where local illiterates have recently stopped eating.”

If you are one of the many people who find Yelp to be a source of valuable information (not in the social anthropology sense), however, you may be receptive to this new Lulu app, which is to men as Yelp is to restaurants. All you need is a Facebook profile confirming your femaleness and you can go on Lulu and review exes, crushes, hook-ups, current loves, friends and relatives. Like meat, but with abs.

According to founder Alexandra Chong, she “created Lulu because my girlfriends and I needed it.” But also because people will download and use such a service, seeing as how any technology that promotes and cultivates human vileness tends to be very popular.

Here is a description of Lulu for you, by Lulu:

Lulu is the smart girls’ app for private recommendations and reviews on guys.

Lulu takes its cues from the real world: we meet a guy and think he’s cute, but want to know if he’s the charmer he appears or really a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So we ask our girlfriends, and look him up on Facebook and Google. It’s a private, fun ritual we all indulge in, often complicated by the fact that we don’t want the guy to know we’re checking out his creds.

Enter Lulu—the first database of men, built by women, for women. Through Lulu, you can read and write reviews of guys, which are pulled from a variety of tools, questionnaires, and fun features. The reviews show numerical scores across a number of categories, putting the emphasis on collective wisdom.

[...]

But there are obviously bigger and grosser aspects than the stupid hashtags. Namely, this whole thing is really objectifying. People aren’t movies. Or restaurants. They shouldn’t be reviewed and then ranked, publicly, according to their score. That’s what Maxim does.

It’s also impressive how poorly Lulu manages to reflect on both genders. Not every woman internet stalks dudes and then gabs with her “girlfriends” about it over lemon drops or half-caff beverages or fat free stuff because life isn’t the first act of a fucking romcom. Moreover still, not everybody’s straight (though Lulu is only concerned with them). Things just harken back to a simpler time with the Lulu app, a time when men were men (with lots of money and cars and love-believing!) and women were kind of sad and desperate with no real personality to speak of. Per the brand’s press release: Lulu aims “to create a discreet, private space for girls to talk about the most important issues in their lives: their relationships.” The worst.

Though we’re certainly more used to seeing stuff like this with women as the target, we’d like to emphasize this sucks when it’s done to anyone. Regardless of gender, we’re not in favor of anything that offers a space for people to say mean things about other people* under the guise of helping… though the glossy, airheaded faux female empowerment makes it even harder to swallow.

Read the rest here.

The homepage for the app is here.

Some enterprising young man has created an app that allows men access to the Lulu database (which they can't normally access) and see their own reviews, and reviews of their Facebook friends. Check it out here.

Hillary Clinton goes au naturel; people freak out.

This happened a while ago, but is pertinent to this week's class. From Jezebel:

What We’re Really Talking About When We Talk About Hillary Clinton Without Makeup

On Monday, the front and center picture on Drudge Report was Hillary Clinton's bespectacled face without makeup, because apparently we've talked about every other possible topic in the world. The picture of Clinton's face, which Matt Drudge helpfully tagged "Au Naturel," features the smiling Secretary of State's countenance naked but for black framed glasses and red lipstick. I guess we're all supposed to gasp and feel faint, to acknowledge that yes, Hillary Clinton is a real live human with monstrous, terrible flaws, and this is the pictorial proof of that. And now she should hang her head in shame and Matt Drudge wins, and he's automatically King of America forever.

Fox echoed Matt Drudge's triumphant smugness, asking in their headline if Hillary "forgot" her makeup, as though she'd been caught peeing her pants onstage or flashing her crotch at paparazzi as she got out of a limo.

A woman didn't wear makeup and this is news? I guess I thought the news cycle's kill screen would involve more animated fireworks, or decks of cards cascading in arcs rather than just a picture of the Secretary of State's face looking like it's ready for some slumber party ghost stories.

With Drudge's attempted shaming came a reciprocal backlash from fans of Hillary and what Fox News viewers might call "the liberal media." The Washington Postdefended the makeup-free look: "It's refreshing to see Hillary fresh-faced. She looked like a schoolgirl in the picture –- the Hillary from her granola college days at Wellesley." And the Atlantic Wireproclaimed that Clinton looked "good, okay!?" And of course, as a member of Team Hillary, my reflexive first reaction to the photo was to leap to the defense of her looks. She looks great! Cute glasses! There is nothing wrong with Hillary Clinton's neck, okay?! That's how a neck is supposed to look! She's totally pretty!

Read the rest here.

And a brilliant quote from from Ms. Clinton about the whole affair:

"You may not agree with a woman, but to criticize her appearance — as opposed to her ideas or actions — isn’t doing anyone any favors, least of all you. Insulting a woman’s looks when they have nothing to do with the issue at hand implies a lack of comprehension on your part, an inability to engage in high-level thinking. You may think she’s ugly, but everyone else thinks you’re an idiot."

- Hillary Clinton

Real-life Barbie girl meets real-life anime girl.

A while back, Navio passed along a link to a story about a woman who has turned herself into a real-life Barbie doll (for real, real). She's gone through extensive plastic surgery to achieve her look. I posted the story on the blog with some photos and a clip of her singing (she's an aspiring musician, too). Click here to see the post. Navio sent me a recent update (thanks!). The real-life Barbie doll met up with a real-life anime girl to do a joint photo shoot.

From Rocket News 24:

Ukraine’s Anime Girl and Real Barbie Meet Face to Eerie Face!

Two girls from the Ukraine have made a splash around the world with their unusual aesthetic choices.

First we have newcomer, 19 year-old Anastasiya Shpagina, who’s industrial strength make-up job transforms her into three dimensional warm blooded anime girl. In the other corner we have 21 year-old Valeria Lukyanova, who surprised the world with her appearance of a “Real Barbie Doll” which is rumored to be the result of extensive plastic surgery.

And now for the first time these two titans of body modification collide for a photo shoot of epic disproportions.

What’s really weird about these pictures is that these two women seem to complement each other really well. By that I mean Real Barbie seems to look even more like a Barbie doll next to Anime Girl, and Shpagnia also looks especially animated next to Lukyanova.

Any rivalry you might’ve expected these two girls to have never came to be. Actually in several of the photos you can see them exchanging make-up and fashion techniques, dressing up like each other surprisingly well – in a creepy kind of way.

Original Article by Chinami Choshu on Pouch (Japanese) Photos: Acid Cow (English)

See the rest of the photos here.

"Her labia lives...in a JAR."

Plastic Wives, an upcoming show on TLC, has been getting a lot of (negative) buzz. Here's the first episode:

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The foreskin factor.

From the Tyee:

Foreskin Facecream

And it's not the only body part on the chopping block for vanity. Ethical?

In an article for The Tyee, Dr. Paul Tinari estimated that a single male foreskin can be worth upwards of $100,000. He argued that men who are circumcised have a right to the revenue made off the resale of their foreskins (just as someone who sells their hair for wigs would, for example).

But that's not the only issue in the debate over how people use and profit from foreskins. Many people are challenging the ethics and medical necessity of male circumcision, which means that any use of the foreskins after that is also in question. Then there's the fact that foreskins aren't just being sold for the medical flesh trade; rather, they're joining a few other body parts being sold in the service of vanity. And if the ethics of using human body parts, skin and stem cells for medical research and treatments are contentious, the ethics of using them for vanity's sake is a whole other conundrum.

[...]

That's because foreskin fibroblasts are big business. A fibroblast is a piece of human skin that is used as a culture to grow other skin or cells -- like human yogurt kits. Human foreskin fibroblast is used in all kinds of medical procedures from growing skin for burn victims and for eyelid replacement, to growing skin for those with diabetic ulcers (who need replacement skin to cover ulcers that won't heal), to making creams and collagens in the cosmetics industry (yes, the product that is injected into puffy movie-starlet lips).

Foreskin-derived skin, sourced from circumcisions (now considered by many experts to be painful and also unnecessary) is still often considered the "cruelty free" alternative to testing cosmetic products on animals. One foreskin can be used for decades to produce miles of skin, much of which helps people in genuine medical need.

Read the rest, including discussions about sourcing foreskins, the ethical implications, how they're used, etc. here.