Healthy and Happy, Positive and Accepting - "Real Women" in 2015

Very few of you will have noticed that the blog is a wee bit late this week; I have been ill (I am never ill). So I am in quarantine, watching the 40 year old Virgin and feeling sorry for myself whilst drinking copious amounts of water and eating dry toast.

Moving swiftly along - this week my blog is discussing the attitudes towards different sized women in the modelling industry. The other week, I read an article and the link was entitled "Here's what Victoria's Secret swimsuits look like on real women." The use of the phrase "real women" made me squirm. To me, the title suggested that the writer thought that Victoria's Secret models aren't real women because they are simply smaller, more toned and let's face it, more Photoshopped than the average woman. But (and I might seem naive for saying this) I think that there's only so much Photoshop can do; if they want to show slim women, they will pick slim women to be the models in the first place. So that left the bigger issue - that the writer suggested that they were not "real women" because of what they looked like.

And so I thought to myself: What do we think a "real woman" is in 2015? Now, more than ever, more plus-sized women are on the modelling scene and I think we'd be stupid to ignore this new culture of "skinny shaming" that we're seeing all over the place now that (arguably) modelling isn't exclusive to those that are size 6 or below. This led me to the conclusion that the Victoria's Secret article was a covert form of skinny shaming.

All you need to do to know what skinny shaming is, is look at Meghan Trainor's lyrics in "All about that Bass" - awful song, awful message. I'm not even going to dissect the lyrics and tell you which bits are unacceptable, because I hope many of you will agree with me, and will already be able to tell me - it's plainly obvious.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's brilliant that larger women are finding happiness in their own skin, but putting others down to find that happiness? That is what I am not a fan of.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll probably have heard of this lady above - Tess Holliday. She is the first size 26 model to be signed by a major industry - Milk Management. In terms of making a statement - of course, she's done it! But is it the right way in which to challenge the norm? I'm not so sure. I don't believe that the way to combat unhealthy slim models saturating the modelling industry is to attempt to decrease their significance by replacing them with equally as unhealthy, plus-sized women. Whenever you put someone on a public platform, they become someone's inspiration. It could be 10 people, it could be 1 million people - setting the right type of inspiration is important in this business.

Another woman you may also know - Australian model Robyn Lawley. At size 12, she is also a plus-sized model. Yep, you read it right, plus-sized. I have insecurities, much like many of you reading this. I am a size 12, but am I plus-sized? I wouldn't class myself as plus-sized. And neither should anyone else, including the modelling industry. The average dress size in the UK is size 16, so I (like many others) am shocked that a woman as slim as this is being classed as this. By having size 12 models classed as plus-sized despite being 2 whole dress sizes below the national average, it implicitly shames larger women and signifies that it is more desirable and 'normal' to be less than plus-sized, which is depicted here as size 12. (Which may I just say, is a perfectly fabulous size to be, not that I am biased at all.)

Views of what is found typically beautiful in a woman has changed over history. We can see this if we look to the Renaissance period (1300 - 1700AD) where in art, everyone appears to be nakey. My good friend Faith Harvey (History of Art student; potentially the most pretentious degree I've ever heard of, but you've gotta love our Faith) told me that the reason for this was primarily to celebrate the human form. We can see that the 'ideal' is far from what we might see in modern art or photography today. This shows that without a doubt, the notion of beauty has not always been the same as we believe it is now.


Marilyn Monroe peaked as an international sex symbol in the 1950s and early 60s, before her untimely death in '62. Despite there being much disagreement over what size she may have been, the smallest that has been estimated with any real credibility was a UK 8. Small, but still larger than the average model today. Marilyn Monroe was and is still seen by many as classically beautiful - this is without being as slim as other models now and around that time period.

60s supermodel Twiggy - given this nickname due to her extremely thin figure, was one of the first models blamed for eating disorders in young women. She has however, always maintained that being slim was all down to genetics and she was never unhealthy. She has even spoken out against girls starving themselves in order to obtain bodies like those shown in magazines or on catwalks. Many models have quite literally starved themselves to death, for example the sisters Luisel and Eliana Ramos both died due to complications related to malnutrition and anorexia. Eliana aged only 18. The underlying issue of suggesting that to be thin is the only way we can be beautiful is not only that we pressure regular girls to attempt to achieve these unobtainable expectations, but unhealthy models with BMIs of 15 also feel that they are "too fat" to succeed in the industry. Making girls with anorexia nervosa models, such as Luisel and Eliana, can be detrimental to their mental and physical health. Which is why modelling should not be exclusive to thin girls - it should be exclusive to healthy girls.

Although if we look at models in recent centuries, it's easy to see how the idea that being thin is best hasn't really changed that much. In the 90s, the modelling industry was dominated by Kate Moss and now Cara Delevingne - two models I absolutely love for numerous reasons! Also two models who maintain that in terms of their weight - they are healthy and it is down to genetics (which is absolutely fair enough - some people are built that way!). However, they are both incredibly similar and like Twiggy - very slim. Showing that as a society, the type of model that we find appropriate has barely changed, thus putting pressure on women who weren't necessarily built this way to attempt to obtain these "ideals". By only having one popular image of what is beautiful, it ignores all the rest - and of course, there are many.

I'm under no illusions - I know that the use of this type of girl as a model is an advertising tactic based on the notion that clothes look better on slimmer women and therefore more people will want to buy the clothes. However, I don't believe this is true! Plenty of men and women find different body shapes in women attractive. Some people love the slim catwalk look, some love curvy girls and some love size 26 girls like Tess Holliday. It's all very personal, so why in the past have modelling agencies only had very slim (and sometimes unhealthy-looking) girls as their models? I would argue that with the plus-sized world making the impact it has recently, this could possibly change in future.

But unfortunately, I am still not satisfied. I don't feel that we should fight fire with fire. Why should we start a war between slim and large girls? Why can't we celebrate health rather than body shape? And why on Earth do we not have models of all shapes and sizes rather than only having those at separate ends of the spectrum? We need a more accurate representation of the women in our society. By this, I don't mean that we should have all models at a size 16 as that is the average - I mean some size 6s, some size 8s, some size 10s and so on. A little anecdote for you - I no longer shop online because I am sick of all the models being size 6 - when I buy the clothes they look astronomically different on me to how they do on the website so there's no point in me going on as I may as well be shopping with my eyes closed. This could be changed so easily by having different sized models to give a more accurate representation of what clothes would look like on a variety of girls and I am positive that the industry has enough money to do this.

So what we need is a change in industry and more importantly - a change in attitude.

The industry must be changed so that it is inclusive for women of all shapes and sizes. Not simply "fat" vs "skinny" which is not only a negative way of challenging the norm, but it actually excludes the vast majority of us.

And attitude? Well that's up to us to realise that what we see in magazines is not how we need to live our lives. When we accept this and show the industry that their standards are not something we need to live up to, then maybe they will see how stupid their suggestion is that one type of body shape is beautiful. We need to be comfortable in our own skin and comfortable in the knowledge that it's ok to be different. If being comfortable in your own skin means eating more healthily and going for a fortnightly jog - do it. If it means eating three good meals a day because you don't already - do it. The most important thing is that you are happy and healthy, finding a balance can be incredibly hard but it is not impossible.

Lastly, to compliment this change that we hope to see in the modelling industry, we need to celebrate diversity in a positive way. Body shaming in any proportion is not something we should need to do to empower ourselves. Do not be judgemental towards those who do not wish to look the same, or do the same things as you do. Positivity and acceptance for who you are and positivity and acceptance towards the choices that other people make for themselves is crucial to create a happy and healthy society.

Sources
http://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/heres-what-victorias-secret-swimsuits-look-like-on-real-wome?bffbstyle&utm_term=4ldqphh#.che3lEvyD
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2013/nov/06/debenhams-size-16-mannequins-diversity?CMP=fb_gu
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/marilyn-monroe-was-not-even-close-to-a-size-12-16/

The Fox and the Hound

Take a look at the picture and think about what you see.

Love? Family? Do they remind you of a family pet? A member of your family? A particular person? Or do you just see animals? 

As far as I'm concerned, any of those thoughts are entirely valid. Many others that didn't come to my mind straight away, will be also. The point of that exercise, ladies and gents, was to humanize these animals. Looking at them, I find that they are not dissimilar to dogs - I don't think that even the most prolific meat eater can deny that. Dogs - an animal that we would be horrified to see anything bad happen to. Look to the dog eating festival in China and how many of us from the West were disturbed, despite chickens and cows going through the same experience simply for the satisfaction of our tastebuds. The point I'm trying to make is that which animals "should" and "shouldn't" be harmed is completely arbitrary and we are conditioned to believe so, based on our culture. 

Many of you will know that there is currently a ban on Fox Hunting; the Hunting Act of 2004 made it illegal to hunt wild mammals with a dog. But this week, there will be a vote on whether to repeal the act or not. 

For those of you that don't know, fox hunting is where posh people dressed like utter knobheads train dogs to find and kill/rip apart red foxes for "fun". They are training dogs to be killers when the dogs know no better. Hounds kill families of foxes while they attempt to flee for their lives, it would be a terribly different situation if the foxes were training the dogs to kill the hunters and their families, eh? If a dog killed an innocent human, it would be put down, so why should we celebrate and praise dogs for killing innocent foxes?

I find it very difficult to believe that this is even an issue in this day and age. I've said before that I was under the impression that we had been educated beyond seeing the body of a mutilated animal as amusing. If that's what you find amusing, then I suggest you lock yourself in a room with some sort of gaming console because you clearly haven't ventured into the 21st Century. I'm all for children getting out in the open and getting their heads into books instead of iPads, but it seems that they need to hand their iPads to hunters who appear to not be able to find anything better to do with their lives (in an age where there is more to do for fun than kill). 

The fact is, fox hunting (which originated in the 16th Century) is archaic and has no place in the UK where it is seen as cruel, barbaric and inhumane by many, many people.

We've all (hopefully) been shocked by Kendall Jones' and Rebecca Francis' pictures of their trophy hunting in Africa. 

N.B. I use these examples as people are likely to know who they are NOT because they are females. I believe that they have been unfairly targeted in the media as they are attractive females and we are not accustomed to seeing attractive females hunting. For the record, this does not mean that they are any better than any other trophy hunter. They are all awful.

So WHY if we've all been so shocked by trophy hunting in Africa, are some of the leaders of our country willing to regress to this inhumane, anthropocentric practice? The answer - for "sport".

David Cameron, with whom I have little beef, because as far as Conservative leaders go, he's been OK (still a bit of a bell, but OK), has said - "I have always been a strong supporter of country sports. It is my firm belief that people should have the freedom to hunt, so I share the frustration that many people feel about the Hunting Act and the way it was brought in by the last government. The Hunting Act has done nothing for animal welfare. A Conservative Government will give Parliament the opportunity to repeal the Hunting Act on a free vote, with a government Bill in government time." One of the many reasons why I did not vote Conservative.

Of course, this view is shared by many others, I was following a car with a "Countryside Alliance" bumper sticker saying something about repealing the Fox Hunting ban. Now, while I managed to refrain from ramming into the back of the imbecile, it showed me that the people that I personally find disgusting and barbaric are not too far from home. 

On the contrary, there is the organisation Blue Fox - Conservatives against Fox Hunting. These are members of the Conservative party who will be voting to keep the ban on fox hunting as they believe it is the right decision; good for animals, the countryside and society.  

However, we need to do everything we can to help, so I urge you all, if you agree with me, to sign the petitions on these links to show the lack of support there is for repealing the Hunting Act. 

http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/hunting/takeaction

https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-mp-keep-the-ban-on-fox-hunting-2?source_location=search_index&algorithm=curated_trending

AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ME watch Disney's Fox and the Hound (easily one of my favourites) and be moved by the friendship that forms between Tod and Copper. If you still do not agree, you are a lost cause and I pray you step on an upturned plug.

But all hope is not lost! Many MPs have already decided that they are going to vote against it, however very few people have predicted the outcome - based on a few votes, it is pivotal.

Sources

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-says-he-wants-to-repeal-the-fox-hunting-ban-10091571.html

https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-mp-keep-the-ban-on-fox-hunting-2?source_location=search_index&algorithm=curated_trending

http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/hunting/takeaction

Oobat Laurtsnem

This week I am writing about something that personally really, really irritates me.
Something that affects 100% of the population in one way or another.
Something so widely recognised that it has its own wikipedia page.

Some of you will probably disagree with me that this needs to be addressed and may dismiss this as another "whingy feminist rant". But I believe that today, this is one of the biggest things that is disadvantaging women. Living in the 21st century, I am optimistic about gender equality. We live in a tremendous time where, in my opinion, the glass ceiling is disappearing, women have the same rights as men (in terms of voting, etc.) and gender is becoming less and less of an object. Of course, we've got a long way to go, but look at how far we've come!

- Menstrual taboo. (The reverse spelling of the title; I had to do something clever and cryptic so you'd read it!)
Ironic really, that there is such an overt term for a subject so undoubtedly avoided in every day life.

From a young age, boys are hidden away from the harsh reality of periods: I remember in year 6 when we had sex education lessons, boys and girls split up while girls learnt about periods and boys learnt about something else. Still don't know what, dying to find out - let me know.

Women (because that's the cliché isn't it? That when a girl starts her period, she's a woman) are made to feel dirty or disgusting for something that is as natural as breathing. I know this because I (yes) am a woman. And too many times in my life have I felt embarrassed to admit it! Times including once to a male teacher, and many times in the P.E. changing rooms when shyly asking the other girls if they had any spare sanitary towels.

Women's bodies are incredible; we can endure childbirth, and although they plague us for a week a month, our periods have one of the most exciting functions. We've all (even boys) had the year 9 science lesson that explains what a period is, so I wont bore you with that. But I will bring in something of my expertise - reading into things too deeply. Vaginal bleeding can symbolise many things: that this person's body is ready for a change, she is a woman; that this person is not ready to conceive a child or that this particular child is not ready to be born. Men, as our physical counterparts, should respect this.

Some of us (me) at our time of the month, turn into the evil Period-Bitch-Monster from Hell. My mood swings are so bad that they give me whiplash (not to mention my boyfriend, who deals with me so well, thank you thank you thank you). But again, this is all very natural. You're not a moody, horrible person, you tend to release your frustration on those people you love the most. If they really love you, they will be able to deal with seeing you at your worst. People, especially those close to you, although they may already know this, should learn to respect and understand that sometimes, it may just happen. Of course, it's not an excuse, but it is a contributing factor.

But how can we expect the men in society to respect female menstruation when our society itself does not? We've all seen the posts circulating facebook that tell us that included in the price of tampons is VAT, a 5% reduced rate which is the lowest under EU law. The argument is that sanitary products are a luxury and women have menstrual cups, (read up on them, I'm considering switching as it's much better for the environment) but that's not for everyone! Tampons aren't for everyone! Some people prefer sanitary towels. Whatever your preference, "tampon tax" as it has been dubbed by the media, is in my opinion, ridiculous. If you'd like to know why I think it's ridiculous - please read this article which explains which items in the UK have VAT and which do not and try not to get as frustrated as I did - http://www.which.co.uk/money/tax/guides/what-you-do--and-dont--pay-vat-on/. Sanitary products aren't really a "luxury" when we can simply not go without them. With today's general attitude towards menstruation, we could not regress to the old days when we didn't have sanitary items and women used to have to carry a rag around with them to wipe (which is where the phrase "on the rag" comes from - crude, yet clever). Today that would seem like the most horrific thing a person could do, so no, I don't really see sanitary items as a luxury, but a necessity. They're hardly Prada handbags.

Having a period is nothing to be ashamed of - it is your body's way of telling you that you are a healthy woman. I'm not going to pretend I haven't experienced this, or be tactful because let's face it, when am I? All of us women will know the struggle of perhaps waking up having come on your period and you've bled onto the bed, or that awful feeling of coming on when you know you don't have any sanitary towels, or some of us may have come on while on holiday or at a swimming bath. We get desperately embarrassed and try to hide the sad fact, with the thought that if anyone did happen to notice that red spot on your jeans, they wouldn't understand.

Well no, up to 50% of the population will have personally experienced what you're going through.

But what some men genuinely don't understand (and this isn't me calling you stupid, you don't know simply because you don't have vaginas) is that women don't go to the toilet and menstruate in the same way they would go for a wee. It can happen anytime, anywhere and we do not have any control to be able to stop it. This is why it can be really embarrassing for women if one of the aforementioned situations happens, as people may categorise it in the same ballpark as women weeing themselves. Wrong. Very, very wrong.

I'm not saying that removing the taboo from menstruation will ever make this embarrassment that women feel completely go away - I can't predict how people will feel about the situation in future - but it will HELP.

If I've said it once, I'll say it a billion times more - language is the most powerful tool we possess. If you're sad, the best thing to do is open up to someone, if you're happy, tell others and infect them with your joy, if you want the period taboo to bugger off - TALK ABOUT IT. We are lucky enough to have the freedom of speech; the best thing we can do is utilise this and make a change. I truly believe that power lies within the masses and if we want to do something, we can do it. We can have gender equality - I want to live in an age where young girls aren't crying because they've started their period, where women can openly ask one another if they have a spare tampon, where we are not made to feel disgusting for something that is healthy and natural.

I want women to celebrate being women and not be ashamed of themselves. I want men to support women in celebrating this. Men are just as important as women in making this change. Together, we make something absolutely awe-inspiring - the human race. Homosexual, heterosexual, male, female, transgender, no gender - who cares?! We need to support each other and I believe that to abolish this taboo is absolutely fundamental to achieve gender equality.

Finally, I will enlighten you all on something that has inspired me - the #periodpositive campaign. Chella Quint developed this movement in order to counteract the mainly negative public discourse. She does this by using a positive approach explained on the website - https://periodpositive.wordpress.com/.

Although I strongly believe in this cause, individuals can only do so much - it's up to you, men and women, to end this taboo in a positive way.

Have a think, kids!

SOURCES
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/we-need-to-talk-about-periods-9638267.html
https://periodpositive.wordpress.com/
http://www.which.co.uk/money/tax/guides/what-you-do--and-dont--pay-vat-on/