Near the Old Man of Storr, Scotland I took this in 2004

Monday, February 27, 2012

On Being Female

How the hell will we, as females, ever truly be equal when all we ever give a big shit is how our bodies look. Media constantly reinforces women's self-hate by pitting us againt each other, by showing us what could be if only we lost that extra ten pounds, etc.

Another point to ponder is, why is it every woman's goal who is a celebrity to become skinny and blonde once in the spotlight, and if she's not already white, to become so.

Let's look:
Now, why did these two women, good ol' J-Lo, known primarily for the size of her backside, not her shitty dance tracks , and Cameron Diaz have to turn around like this? Do men ever show their backsides, thusly? Of course not! Men's subtext is never "ogle me, objectify me." Though for women, especially celebrities, this is always the case.

Next up, Jennifer Hudson, who went from being a dark- pigmented, large-sized person, to a very skinny, very light- skinned person, almost overnight.

The first photo is a  "before shot" which I've dubbed "well before" because she looks like herself. The second is in the middle of her drastic weight loss, and  the last is an "after" shot, as in after she turned into someone else, both in size and colour.

She is now the spokeswoman for a weight loss company, and on the commercial she says that her greatest achievement  is all the weight she's lost, not winning awards for her talent! Wow!
Well before
Going...
Gone
(L) the blonde, super white, woman who bears so much skin now in her videos that seeing her dressed would be racy. (R) when she was in Destiny's Child, she was dark pigmented.
What about Beyonce? Here's a 'before and after'  of her as well,which is actually an after and before. Pretty insane, huh?She went from dark-skinned, and kept her clothes on, to bleaching the shit out of her skin and hair and letting big lips (aka jay-z) pimp her..she's nearly naked in the videos I've seen since she became mrs. big lips.

There are millions of examples of women choosing to, or being forced into the world of money,fame and getting pimped. Another example Leanne Rimes. She started her career as a little kid; gawky and young.


She went from normal to fresh out of aushwitz ( I can't and won't capitalize that word!)
Rimes as a kid, just starting her career, with a killer pose!
Rimes looking liked she just stepped out of a concentration -camp!

Time and time again, women sell their power.We shrink ourselves, our bodies, voices, appetites--physical, emotional, walk around politely on tippy- toe. Enter--The High Heel, keeping women infantilized since men invented them.  Hoo-Rah. Maybe the motto that men invented, along with the shoes, was " breasts out, butt up, that's the way to win your luck."

Posh Spice and Mr. Spice- god forbid she wear Birkenstocks while pregnant, what would the boys club think?!
Here's dear J-Lo again, this time pregnant, and a slave to The Patriarchy!
Apart from the infantilizing and over sexualizing of the body, they are damn painful, and ridiculous to walk in. So many women seen to feel that learning to walk in a contrapment that will do serious damage to your back, feet and  legs, is a rite of passage and a badge of honor, my sister seems to be one of them, but then again, she, like many women who hate being female, listen to men-musicians talking about women as "bitches" etc.