culture

Thin ain't the only pretty

Tony Thompson

They say that beauty is subjective.  That ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. And yes, that’s true–on an individual level. When you expand your view to look at society as a whole, it becomes apparent that in the United States, on a wider, cultural level, the messages and images people receive overwhelmingly say “this is the standard of beauty”. And that standard doesn’t have a wide range.  If you don’t believe me, do a Google image search for women’s magazine’s and look at the results. Then do the same thing for men’s magazines. The models used by those companies reinforce narrow standards of beauty. Newsstands are hardly the only place where conventional standards of beauty reign supreme. Look at the big and small screens.  Think of the actors and actresses that you see on any given tv show or movie. Overwhelmingly, they fit well within socially approved standards of beauty. Then look at comics books. Or video games. Or the covers of romance novels. Or the images of men and women on billboards across the country. Or travel magazines.  Or restaurants like Hooters or Twin Peaks. I could go on.

One of the messages reinforced throughout society is the idea that thinner is better and fat is bad.  Plus-size men and women are routinely denigrated and told “you’d be nicer looking if you weren’t so big” or “you have a pretty face for a big person”. All that shaming does is reinforce to the target that there is something wrong with them. That they are a bad or broken person because they don’t fit conventional beauty standards.

Inspired by the experiments of Esther Honig (who asked 40 people from across the world to make her look beautiful) and Priscilla Yuki Wilson (who conducted a similar experiment to Honig’s to find out how editors would Photoshop a biracial woman), Marie Southard Ospina decided to conduct her own experiment.

Marie Southard Ospina

Having grown up predominantly in the first world, I’m aware that in countries like the U.S. or the U.K. being fat is (although quite common) perceived as an inherently negative thing. Stereotypes include, but are not limited to: laziness, selfishness, stupidity, naiveté and even a lower socioeconomic class. But I’m also aware that the notion of “thin is the only beautiful” doesn’t permeate the entirety of the world. When I first heard of the Ugandan Hima Tribe, I remember being amazed to learn how much beauty they see in a larger woman — and that being fat is still considered a sign of prosperity, health, wealth and/or grace. Just as it was to Peter Paul Rubens, and just as it still is to painter Fernando Botero or illustrators like Sara M. Lyons.

And so, inspired by Honig and Yuki, and my own perceptions of weight and beauty, I decided to replicate their original experiments — with a plus-sized twist.

THE EXPERIMENT

The relationship between weight and beauty is quite obviously one that varies from person to person — so when we begin discussing it in terms of nation to nation, lines get blurred. That being said, I was so fascinated by these women’s work that I became increasingly curious as to how editors would treat a photo of me if asked to edit it, what with my chubby cheeks, double chin, thick shoulders and chest and rounder, fuller face. What would they do with these traits? Would they all slim me down in the aid of “making me look beautiful”? Would they fiddle with my messy hair? How would they see me, as a plus-size woman, and how would they “fix” me? What would they make of my face without makeup, in its tired, “just woke up” state? One editor said, “You have weird face. I make better,” whilst another asked me, “Are you a porn?” But overall, each Photoshop “expert” (a term I use loosely as some editors were newbies/rookies, whilst others had decades of experience), took well to the task at hand. All I asked was for them to make me look beautiful, whilst keeping in mind the looks they see in the fashion/beauty mags of their countries. They were each compensated with $5-30, the amount always set by the editor him/herself. And so, here’s what “beauty” means to all of them.

Here are some of the results:

Australia

Bangladesh

Pakistan

Vietnam

Latvia

United States

Overall, Ostina felt positively about the experience, noting that many of the editors preserved her natural beauty.

Regardless, the experiment offered a lot more editors in favor of “preserving natural beauty” than I would have imagined, and so I feel extremely positive about its results. Maybe this is a sign that things are changing for the better (I mean, Refinery 29’s “25 Real Photos of Women’s Breasts” remains a super important and needed show of realistic bodies, and realistic beauty). Or maybe it’s a sign that I got predominantly friendly, natural-beauty-favoring photographers. Ultimately, there was far less body snark and unspoken body shaming through these photo edits than I first assumed there would be. I won’t assume that all of the photographers are as pro-plus-size as I am, but maybe natural beauty is making a comeback. And I, for one, would be greatly pleased if this was the case. Not because putting on makeup or doing my hair is that much of a hassle. But because I’ve always wanted to live in a society in which freckles and moles and double chins and natural wrinkles were embraced, rather than hidden away and caked in foundation.

One interesting thing: Ostina wore a towel to see if and how editors would alter parts of her body other than her face. Four of them decided to put clothes on her.  What message does that send? That she’s only beautiful if she puts on clothes? That fat people can’t be naked and beautiful? That there is something wrong with women’s bodies? Me, I’m going with all of the above.

(hat tip to Buzzfeed)

Thin ain't the only pretty
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Thin ain’t the only pretty

Tony Thompson

They say that beauty is subjective.  That ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. And yes, that’s true–on an individual level. When you expand your view to look at society as a whole, it becomes apparent that in the United States, on a wider, cultural level, the messages and images people receive overwhelmingly say “this is the standard of beauty”. And that standard doesn’t have a wide range.  If you don’t believe me, do a Google image search for women’s magazine’s and look at the results. Then do the same thing for men’s magazines. The models used by those companies reinforce narrow standards of beauty. Newsstands are hardly the only place where conventional standards of beauty reign supreme. Look at the big and small screens.  Think of the actors and actresses that you see on any given tv show or movie. Overwhelmingly, they fit well within socially approved standards of beauty. Then look at comics books. Or video games. Or the covers of romance novels. Or the images of men and women on billboards across the country. Or travel magazines.  Or restaurants like Hooters or Twin Peaks. I could go on.

One of the messages reinforced throughout society is the idea that thinner is better and fat is bad.  Plus-size men and women are routinely denigrated and told “you’d be nicer looking if you weren’t so big” or “you have a pretty face for a big person”. All that shaming does is reinforce to the target that there is something wrong with them. That they are a bad or broken person because they don’t fit conventional beauty standards.

Inspired by the experiments of Esther Honig (who asked 40 people from across the world to make her look beautiful) and Priscilla Yuki Wilson (who conducted a similar experiment to Honig’s to find out how editors would Photoshop a biracial woman), Marie Southard Ospina decided to conduct her own experiment.

Marie Southard Ospina

Having grown up predominantly in the first world, I’m aware that in countries like the U.S. or the U.K. being fat is (although quite common) perceived as an inherently negative thing. Stereotypes include, but are not limited to: laziness, selfishness, stupidity, naiveté and even a lower socioeconomic class. But I’m also aware that the notion of “thin is the only beautiful” doesn’t permeate the entirety of the world. When I first heard of the Ugandan Hima Tribe, I remember being amazed to learn how much beauty they see in a larger woman — and that being fat is still considered a sign of prosperity, health, wealth and/or grace. Just as it was to Peter Paul Rubens, and just as it still is to painter Fernando Botero or illustrators like Sara M. Lyons.

And so, inspired by Honig and Yuki, and my own perceptions of weight and beauty, I decided to replicate their original experiments — with a plus-sized twist.

THE EXPERIMENT

The relationship between weight and beauty is quite obviously one that varies from person to person — so when we begin discussing it in terms of nation to nation, lines get blurred. That being said, I was so fascinated by these women’s work that I became increasingly curious as to how editors would treat a photo of me if asked to edit it, what with my chubby cheeks, double chin, thick shoulders and chest and rounder, fuller face. What would they do with these traits? Would they all slim me down in the aid of “making me look beautiful”? Would they fiddle with my messy hair? How would they see me, as a plus-size woman, and how would they “fix” me? What would they make of my face without makeup, in its tired, “just woke up” state? One editor said, “You have weird face. I make better,” whilst another asked me, “Are you a porn?” But overall, each Photoshop “expert” (a term I use loosely as some editors were newbies/rookies, whilst others had decades of experience), took well to the task at hand. All I asked was for them to make me look beautiful, whilst keeping in mind the looks they see in the fashion/beauty mags of their countries. They were each compensated with $5-30, the amount always set by the editor him/herself. And so, here’s what “beauty” means to all of them.

Here are some of the results:

Australia

Bangladesh

Pakistan

Vietnam

Latvia

United States

Overall, Ostina felt positively about the experience, noting that many of the editors preserved her natural beauty.

Regardless, the experiment offered a lot more editors in favor of “preserving natural beauty” than I would have imagined, and so I feel extremely positive about its results. Maybe this is a sign that things are changing for the better (I mean, Refinery 29’s “25 Real Photos of Women’s Breasts” remains a super important and needed show of realistic bodies, and realistic beauty). Or maybe it’s a sign that I got predominantly friendly, natural-beauty-favoring photographers. Ultimately, there was far less body snark and unspoken body shaming through these photo edits than I first assumed there would be. I won’t assume that all of the photographers are as pro-plus-size as I am, but maybe natural beauty is making a comeback. And I, for one, would be greatly pleased if this was the case. Not because putting on makeup or doing my hair is that much of a hassle. But because I’ve always wanted to live in a society in which freckles and moles and double chins and natural wrinkles were embraced, rather than hidden away and caked in foundation.

One interesting thing: Ostina wore a towel to see if and how editors would alter parts of her body other than her face. Four of them decided to put clothes on her.  What message does that send? That she’s only beautiful if she puts on clothes? That fat people can’t be naked and beautiful? That there is something wrong with women’s bodies? Me, I’m going with all of the above.

(hat tip to Buzzfeed)

Thin ain’t the only pretty

Women in Food: Nyesha Arrington

Tony Thompson, 1 Comment

There are not a lot of women who hold head chef positions at independent restaurants in the United States. In fact, only 10 out of 160 positions are held by women (6.3%).  Just like every other industry, as you near the top, you see fewer and fewer women.  That’s not due to a lack of talent-nor desire-on the part of women (there’s a mild degree of irony in the fact that women aren’t present in great numbers as head chefs, yet the classic gender essentialist roles of women have them raising children, cleaning, and…cooking).  Perhaps it’s because restaurant owners aren’t aware of the existence of female chefs. I hear they are very difficult to find.  I had to scour the internet for all of 20 seconds before I found one:  Top Chef alum Nyesha Arrington:

Continue reading “Women in Food: Nyesha Arrington” →

Women in Food: Nyesha Arrington

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Tony Thompson, , ,

Scientists have found Waterworld!

Psych!

Actually, scientists have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of an exoplanet far outside of Earth’s solar system.

Observations of the Neptune-sized planet, which lies 120 light years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, revealed that its atmosphere was mostly hydrogen with around 25% made up from water vapour.

Until now, researchers have been frustrated in their efforts to study the atmospheres of planets much smaller than Jupiter because their skies were thick with clouds. The problem was so persistent that astronomers had begun to think that all warm, small planets formed with substantial cloud cover.

But writing in the journal Nature, scientists in the US describe how they found a Neptune-sized planet with cloud-free skies, enabling them to make detailed measurements of a small planet’s atmosphere for the first time.

The planet, named HAT-P-11b, is about four times the diameter of Earth. It orbits so close to its star that surface temperatures reach more than 600C and a year passes in five Earth days. Like our own Neptune, the planet lacks a rocky surface – it’s a ball of gas – and is thought to be lifeless.

Scientists from the University of Maryland used Hubble’s wide field camera to analyse light from HAT-P-11b’s host star through the planet’s atmosphere. They found that light with a wavelength of 1.4 micrometres was absorbed, matching the absorption spectrum of water molecules.

“Although this planet is not classically habitable, it reveals to us that when we find Earth 2.0, we will be able to use this technique, transmission spectroscopy, to understand its atmosphere and determine the quality of life available on its shores,” said Jonathan Fraine, a graduate student and first author on the study.

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Grrrr, FOX News goes full on victim blaming:

Earlier this week, Forbes severed its relationship with columnist Bill Frezza after backlash from a column titled “Drunk Female Guests Are the Gravest Threat To Fraternities.” The article, which was eventually taken down, included a photograph of a barely conscious woman lying on the floor drinking wine.

“[W]e have very little control over women who walk in the door carrying enough pre-gaming booze in their bellies to render them unconscious before the night is through,” Frezza wrote. “Based on new standards being promulgated on campus, all consent is null and void the minute a woman becomes intoxicated — even if she is your fiancée.”

“In our age of sexual equality, why drunk female students are almost never characterized as irresponsible jerks is a question I leave to the feminists.”

On Thursday’s edition of Outnumbered, hosts Andrea Tantaros and Kirsten Powers agreed that women should take more responsibility for preventing themselves from being in situations where they could be sexually assaulted.

And just what situations are you referring to? All frat parties? Are you really going to tar every frat party, and thus every fratboy as potential rapists? Is your opinion of men that horrible?
Secondly, how do you account for the women that go to frat parties and aren’t raped?
Thirdly, are you saying if women don’t go to frat parties they won’t get raped? Really? Because last time I checked-women get raped at home, at school, at church, at the supermarket, on the street, at work, and pretty much any location you can think of. There is no “safe place” to avoid being raped.
Fourthly, rapists are responsible for raping. Stop putting the onus on women to magically stop a rapist from deciding to rape. Men can control their dicks and it’s ridiculous and victim blaming BS to claim otherwise. I may be gay, but I’ve been in plenty of situations where ::SURPRISE:: I didn’t flop out my penis and start raping. Why? Because I choose not to be a rapist. Other men are just as capable of making the same choices.

Tantaros argued that the columnist had expressed a “legitimate fear” that drunk women could destroy the fraternity system.

“I don’t know why this writer is taking so much heat because this is actually a problem that goes on,” she insisted. “These girls show up at these fraternity houses. The guys, what are they supposed to do? Lock them out? ‘Hey, how are you?’ They have a couple more beers, the girl passes out… so it is a legitimate fear.”

Co-host Kennedy Montgomery pointed out that not allowing drunk girls into the house was “exactly” what fraternities should do.

“They walk up to guys’ rooms, they get lost in the fraternity house,” Tantaros said. “Maybe they get drunk as the night goes on playing beer pong.”

Co-host Sandra Smith observed that it could be “the fault of the fraternities that have… no policies to handle this.”

“Don’t let them in the door in the first place,” she said. “Call somebody, get some help, don’t let them in the door.”

Tantaros agreed that there was an issue of “girls getting too drunk and men taking advantage of them. However, where’s the personal responsibility for both sides?”

“Really! If we say personal responsibility for women, the feminist go berserk,” she added. “They’re like, ‘No, we should be able to wear whatever we want, and drink as much as we want, and pass out in the streets.’”

“It makes the drunk girl completely clean no matter what happens — and again, we have to say it because some cuckoo person is going to start blogging how we are supporting women getting raped, which we do not support,” Powers remarked. “And she is not guilty or any of those things, but the point is that the drunk woman is — she’s just not held accountable for anything. The drunk guy, however, is supposed to make all these amazingly perfect decisions, and not make any mistakes.”

You can fuck the fuck off with that victim blaming bullshit.  Victims of rape are not responsible for their rape. Period. There’s nothing they can do to stop being raped because they aren’t the ones doing the rape.  Rapists rape. If rapists stop raping, rape won’t happen.  The drunk guy is expected to make one goddamn decision- TO NOT RAPE.  That’s not an “amazingly perfect decision”, it’s what any decent human being should do.  Grrrr…

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Go gay bashing and get less than 24 hours in jail!

They spent less than 24 hours in jail.

24-year-old Philip Williams, 24-year-old Kathryn Knott, and 26-year-old Kevin Harrigan all made bail and were released at 3:30 AM this morning.

Williams and Harrigan had bail set at $75,000 each, and Knott at $50,000 each. No word on why the amounts were different. It could be the judge sees their roles differently or their risk of flight differently.

They are all charged with Aggravated Assault, Simple Assault, Reckless Endangerment and Criminal Conspiracy.

All three were part of a gang of friends who were out to dinner September 11. Most or all of the group are believed to be friends from a local Philadelphia Catholic high school.

I bet if they were Hispanic or Black, they’d be sitting in their cells a good long while.  Also, their bail probably would have been higher.

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The International Olympic Committee has adopted a Non-Discrimination Clause

They couldn’t have done this sooner? Like, before Sochi?

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Gay couple in Azerbaijan fear for lives after engagement photo is shared by media

The president of Nefas LGBT Azerbaijan Alliance fears for his life and that of his fiance, according to the group’s Facebook page.

A photo of their engagement posted on social media was then published by media outlets in the Caspian Sea country without their permission.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Azerbaijan but there is strong public disapproval of gay people who are seen as abnormal.

Javid (Atilla) Nabiyev has since received death threats on his Facebook profile and has deactivated it.

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