Disabled Bodies in Able-Bodied Contexts
No one wants to be pitied, but many people are comfortable having others to pity. And it’s easy, if you haven’t thought it out, to pity someone in a wheelchair, or someone who walks tapping her way with a white cane. It’s much more complicated to think about that wheelchair, or that cane as something that opens up the person’s life … and would open it up much more if buildings and streets were more accommodating to a variety of needs. It’s not only complicated, but potentially deeply disturbing, to think about high-tech prostheses, maximized for the needs of a particular person with particular skills at a particular time in his or her life, to think that a “disabled” person perhaps has something that works better than what “normal people” are issued with.
[Nudity below the fold]
Now with pro-pixel fauxtanical hydro-jargon microbead extract
Do you ever feel like your skin has that unpleasant skin texture? Are you worried that your waist isn’t narrower than your head? Do you look at photos of yourself and think, “Oh, no, I look like myself!”? Have no fear–you stop looking like a human being and start looking like the walking incarnation of an unrealistic, unattainable beauty standard with Fotoshop by Adobe.
“This commercial isn’t real,” says faux-ad creator Jesse Rosten, “and neither are society’s standards of beauty.” (For the record, the whole “eat healthy and exercise” thing ain’t a slam-dunk either, Rosten. But your overall point is sound.)
[Transcript after the jump.]
...read moreObjectification, Your Honor
This is a guest post by Jessica Mack
Last week, there was a new and interesting twist to the Leveson Inquiry – the ongoing public trial of the British Press following last year’s phone hacking scandal. A handful of women’s rights and rape prevention groups in the UK are insisting that the media’s portrayal of women – namely its accomplice in sexism, objectification, rape culture, and misogyny – be investigated as part of its general scumminess.
Photoshop-by-numbers
Though we generally notice the more egregious offenses, when a magazine cover barely resembles the celebrity it’s supposed to portray, we’re so jaded that we let it fly, much as we accept that a Picasso is going to kind of look just about person-esque.
Now scientists at Dartmouth can identify precisely how cubist a cover photo has become on a scale of 1 to 5.
...read moreMarriage, Singledom, Social Evolution, and that Kate Bolick piece in “The Atlantic”
Okay, so. Since I am a Feminist Commentator ™, many folks have asked my opinion on a piece that recently ran in “The Atlantic” called “All The Single Ladies“, by Kate Bolick. Many of you have probably already seen Bolick’s piece — I’ve got a roundup of a few relevant links and snips at the [...]
...read moreThe Pervocracy nails it on misguided critiques of sex-positive feminism
I really like a recent post from the sex-positive feminist blogger Holly Pervocracy, and I’m about to link to it. But before I do that, I want to note that in part of the post, Holly explicitly goes after a radical feminist blogger named Twisty Faster, who blogs over at I Blame The Patriarchy. (Holly’s [...]
...read moreSometimes Women Have Scrotums.
So a new advertising campaign has been released for testicular cancer awareness clearly aimed at cis female-attracted men. It features Rhian Sugden, a cis female model, posing sexily for the camera, running her hands over her body, then pulling a scrotum out of her underwear and examining it. Watch the YouTube video here, because embedding [...]
...read more“We have to be as fearless about our bellies as we are with our hearts.”
I’ve written often about how it is we have to reach hard in the direction of the lives we want, even if it’s difficult to do so. I’ve advised people to set healthy boundaries and communicate mindfully and take risks and work hard on what actually matters and confront contradictory truths and trust the inner [...]
...read moreFrom the mouths of babes (on the subject of babes)
Watching your youth and childhood fictional favorites make the transition into adulthood can be jarring sometimes. I don’t think I made it all the way to the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because yaaawn… so bored. I didn’t like the Harry Potter epilogue. Or when Shawn-Douglas Brady got ugly in the fall of [...]
...read moreDon’t Do This
Surgically altering your labia: DO NOT DO, unless there is some actual medical reason. Also ohmygod forget anyone who tells you your labia are too large or that virginal vulvas look one way and whore’s vulvas look another. They all look really different, I think! But also kind of the same! Also if someone is [...]
...read moreHoly roller
WHAS11 tells us that First Unitarian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, has its first-ever female minister. Yay! And stuff. But whatever. The real story is that minister Dawn Cooley is hiding a dark, fishnetted secret (although not the one I was expecting by the time the news story got around to the big reveal). ——— ——— [...]
...read moreAwesome Size 12 Model Wins Silly American Apparel Contest
Recently, Jill wrote here on Feministe about Nancy Upton, the awesome size 12 lady who entered a silly beauty contest from American Apparel by taking awesome pictures of herself in foody positions. (You can find pictures by clicking here, or pretty much anywhere all over the Internet at this point.) Here’s the awesome part: Nancy [...]
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