Monday, August 22, 2005

If I may direct your attention...

I'm home from a weekend tramping through the woods on horseback, leaving me sunburnt, tired and grimy. So I'm just going to direct your attention to Kira's blog, Loving Twilight.

She has an excellent post about the new Dove ads, and female body-images: good, bad, and other fucked-uppedness...

She writes:
"I'd seen the ads in magazines, and I found them so refreshing I showed them to every woman in my office one day. Even the size 1 pixie with the glittery nails--and Ms. Glittery even commented that the women looked like real women.

Finally, I thought. Real hips on billboards! The world was a little better the day those Dove ads came out.

And then I read the post. It was written by a woman. In one sentence she undid all the praise she had for Dove.

"Thank God I'm skinnier than those women," she wrote.

Wham. All that hope of liberating the feminine ideal was dashed in one afterthought.

We can hate those other ads, with their images and ideals of the 95-pound blond in 5-inch heels all we want, but as long as we identify with said blond in our hearts, we have gained no ground."
The rest of the post is excellent, too. Go, read. I'll just grab a shower and a cold beer, and I'll be back in a wee while...

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Glad you liked to post, Mac. I've been searching endlessly for a pic of my hips to include, but damn if I can't find one that isn't in a wedding dress!

Mac said...

Hi Jason, and welcome. I peeked in at your blog and linked you up, interesting stuff! Thanks for stopping by, and I'll hope to see more of you.

ohdawno said...

Why don't men have this issue? I continue to be amazed that paunchy puffy wrinkly grey ol' geezers still strut around like they're some deity's gift.

ohdawno said...

Sorry for serial posting, but there's some serindipity going on between your blog and Bitch PhD's.