Godammit, I’m Mad!

This photo in the Daily Mail is accompanied by the tragic story of twins who have suffered from anorexia for twenty years.  It’s a disturbing story that touches on sibling rivalry, parental enabling, and the failure of all mechanisms to heal the victims of our culture’s obsession with beauty.

If you read the story, you’ll notice images on the right-hand side of the page, mostly celebrities chosen by the Daily Mail to ridicule for their weight gain, plastic surgery or cankles.  The message is clear: There is no escape from the search for physical perfection. No escape and no winning either.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a photography exhibit called Beauty and Culture that examines the many ways that images work to influence our concept of beauty. The exhibit featured a short documentary that was truly devastating. Five year old beauty queens, cancer survivors, ancient women still trying to look young, and a history of evolving thinness in fashion models…it leaves you sickened by the shit we go through to measure up to a stupid restrictive ideal of beauty.

The documentary points out that only 2 percent of women are built like fashion models. Why do these models have so much power over us?!

You know the “It Gets Better” campaign for gays? We also need a campaign for women that says:YOU LOOK FINE! Maybe if we were reminded 100 times a day that we are okay as we are, we could forget about the size of our butts.

When we left the exhibit, my friend and I looked for somewhere to have coffee. We found a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, where they display calorie counts with their pastries. Naturally, I freaked out and ordered a reduced-calorie muffin, because no matter what I know intellectually, deep down in my psyche I’m an unlovable fat pig.

I would like to thank Vogue, Glamour, the fashion industry and most of all my dad, who loved to drive around shouting “Look at the fat ass on that one!” I can relate to those poor emaciated twins, even though I’m a normal size. Accepting yourself can be a lifelong project.

I’m looking forward to V Magazine’s “Asian Issue,” available May 12. Ten per cent of the proceeds will go to help Japan, so you can feel virtuous while admiring a group of stunning Asian models.

But is it racist to admire Asian Models? Should we view and/or judge them individually? Are we divesting these models of their individuality when we lump them together as Asian? And what about the fact of their nationality? Korea, Japan, China, etc are different countries with different cultures. I wonder how I’d feel about a “Jewish Issue,” even though I know it’s not the same thing.

I love several Asian models: Shu Pei, Ming Xi, Du Juan, Liu Wen, and Sui He, just to name a few. They are breathtakingly beautiful! I have blogged about beautiful Asian men, and here’s another one, Paolo Roldan.

I am even willing to say that generally speaking, a beautiful Asian face is more compelling to me than a beautiful  ”White” face.

Thoughts, complaints or insults?

He’s hot, Asian, and androgynous.

He’s friends with Andrej. Maybe they talk about their hair?

If the Lord didn’t want me to long for David Chiang, He wouldn’t have given me eyes.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve figured out why I find Abby Lee Kershaw so irresistible.

She looks like a baby. You know all those studies that demonstrate the appeal of baby-like faces? Because we’re instinctively drawn to baby faces? Otherwise we might abandon babies when they cry for ten hours straight or something?

Abby Lee is a perfect baby. I love her. I wish I could open the front door tomorrow morning and find her in a basket, with a letter from the stork!

With three of them, I’m actually getting confused.

First they give her polio by photoshopping that leg. Then, if that’s not enough, they give her extensions!

I say, Let Goony be Goony! Don’t fuck with her.

I may have to write a heartfelt letter to Shopbop.

Meanwhile, meet two lessor Shopbop models:  Kristen Stewart Girl and Jeniffer Aniston Girl.

Have you noticed lately that there’s no escape from boobs? Every other fashion editorial sneaks in a model’s boob, if not complete nudity. Is this the Terry Richardsonization of fashion photography, or just the continuing of The End Of Innocence brought about by the internet?

I like to see beautiful nudes, but sometimes I’m just not in the mood. Sometimes, I just want to see the clothes, or the make-up, or the photography in a fashion layout. I want to have a choice about seeing boobs.

I was saddened by a photo at Susie’s blog, showing an older gray-haired model who still had to show her boob. I guess this was a win for feminism or agism. For me, it was a reminder that boobs have become de rigueur in fashion. Everyone must be willing to expose their boobs.

I’ve probably posted photos with boobs in them but from now on, this will be a boob-free zone, unless the subject is specifically boobs.

A beautiful way to not see boobs is the handmade silver pasties above, by Leah Ball, who just got funding for her Pasties Project. Yay for Leah!

No.

Oooooh! She’s like a cross between Daria and Angelina. How can someone be so beautiful?!

Naty Chamanenko may not have a gap between her teeth, but I may have to dump Abby Lee for her.

Do you have a non-lesbitious crush on a gorgeous model? Or a lesbitious one?