In Jessica Simpson’s Weight Watcher’s TV ad, the former “Daisy Duke” appears only as a giant head, as if the spot was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and Jessica was a last minute stand-in for Marlon Brando.
“the horror…the horror…”
It is clear that Jess is not willing to show America her post-pregnancy body, even though she is telling the public to buy what she’s using to slim it. She is ashamed, in other words, and if a beautiful young woman like her believes that not being able to fit into Daisy’s cut-offs makes her hideous, just imagine how that makes the average woman feel.
Then there is Christina Aguilera. The former waifish “pop tart” who sang “Genie in a Bottle” is now an established pop music diva, and posed for photographers as she announced the American Music Awards Nominations in a throbbingly purple form-fitting dress that didn’t hide a single pound or curve, and showed that she has an abundance of both.
“We’re gonna need a bigger bottle…”
Christina’s not ashamed, nor should she be, and her willingness to look happy and confident regardless of her expanding figure is a boon to a culture that has been working overtime to make women of all ages feel unattractive unless they look like super-models.
Being a celebrity, especially a female celebrity, is hard on the self-esteem: the National Enquirer and its ilk are always trying to get a shot of you at the beach so it can make fun of your cellulite, as if actually looking like a human being rather than a Barbie doll is proof of moral rot. I would like to hear Christina apologize to Britney Spears, whom she once mocked for “letting herself go” when Brit was in full-time mommy mode, but since Brit is now fit and Christina’s the one who seems to have abandoned the Size 4 life for good, that may be too much to ask. Still Aguilera is being an excellent role model, and a courageous one, for asserting by her attitude and conduct that a woman is more than a figure, and nobody should make you feel worthless because of your weight.
Are you listening, Colonel Kurtz?
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Source and Graphic: Just Jared
Ethics Alarms 
when women give up fake breasts, fake hair, fake haircolor, and all other procedures causing FAKENESS, then we can start talking.. right now, the fakeness EPIDEMIC is exploding and both Jessica and Christina are PRIME examples of oppressed women.
I don’t know that I would go THAT far—they have made their own deals with fame, celebrity, show business and the devil, and are better off by far than the 60 hour a week housewife/ secretary who feels she is being judged by celebrity body standards.
Standard game theory issue.
It’s better for everyone if noone gets cosmetic surgery, wears ridiculous amounts of makeup, dresses revealing, etc.., but if nobody does such, doing such is a big advantage, so people do, and other feel they have to as well to keep up.
That’s a great perspective. Dead on.
all the more reason not to go along and be a sheep. Women today in western society, particularly in the US, are not liberated like they think and they strive for ideals that are *exactly* like Hitlers and the pure race/aryan look. It is an epidemic of self-hatred. Take the issue of haircolor. Who in Hollywood is a real blonde? name one? and do you see how they fall one by one like chess pieces to this epidemic? there is a shortage of doctors in the US in every area except plastic surgery. that is morally reprehensible. Women who cannot bear to be themselves, and love themselves the way they are created are NOT liberated. They’re oppressed, and the pressure on young women to look like these aryan ideals is insane. Look at Beyonce for example.. she is slowly and surely washing away her african roots.. and ppl like Christina Aquilera just looks plainly bizarre. the whole thing is sick. and sickest of all is the fact that noone is talking about it.
Gee, I think people talk about it incessantly. But nothing happens—you have to change the culture, and I don’t see it happening. All the pressure is the other way. Jordin Sparks and Raven Symone gave great lip-service to loving their plus-size bodies and refusing to knuckle under to pressure to reduce—look at them now. Meanwhile, insulting someone’s weight, as I mention here often, is the one acceptable form of minority denigration. And since fat is also “unhealthy,” there is no way you can partition beauty and health, and health/fitness/attractiveness from cultural norms. I agree with you, but there’s not much hope.
I can’t attribute the entire “epidemic” to self-hatred and Hitler complexes. Is it my self-hatred, or aspiration to look like an exemplar of some master race, that causes me to pause and ponder whether I should take some of the gray out of my hair before a job interview? No. Reality is much closer to what tgt says, whether it’s weight, hair, bra size, you name it with “appearance.”
no, I wasn’t talking about getting gray out of your hair. I was talking specifically about the epidemic of bleach blonde hair, blonde highlights, getting your hair lighter, and straighter, etc etc. All trying to achieve the Aryan look. And re: being overweight, the US needs a healthy approach which is not going to the slim extreme, nor advocating taht its ok to be obese. The US is the fattest nation on planet earth in the history of Mankind and it’s causing a health crisis. This needs to be dealt with, and healthy food and exercise is the answer. VERY simple. But, with money, big businesses advocating otherwise, it’s an uphill battle.
No argument with you about obesity “at large.” But about the Aryan thing…I have long made the argument that as far as the human race goes, “Brown, we’ve got down.” Meaning, the vast majority of people have (1) enough skin color to say it’s some shade of brown, (2) various shades of brown and black hair, and (3) darker-than-see-through-blue at least, or brown, eyes.
So, I deduce, the relatively high per capita lust for blonde hair is actually at least partly related to a celebration of, or appreciation for, one of humanity’s true minority appearance attributes. Unless I am mistaken, blonde is a recessive trait – blue eyes, too. “Red” hair is even rarer. Leave it to that brown-haired fool, Hitler, to promote that uphill battle to populate a “master race” whose standard for hair color is blonde.
So, it makes me nervous to feel agreeable with “anti-blonde” sentiments, because that makes me wary of possible prejudices against minorities, and of mindsets that are vulnerable to tolerating prejudices against minorities, that I either don’t share or don’t wish to share.
I think your worries are worrisomely on the wrong side of the fence. Look at who’s been mistreated and oppressed in history. It’s not the blonde nordic ppl. Also, it’s not a recessive gene, it’s due to living in a cold climate for great lenghts of times. When women obsessively try to be Marllyn Monroe (also a fake blonde) and cannot be themselves, be real, but have to aim to fulfil a twisted idea of being a sexual object, it IS a problem.
Marianne, are you saying that genes don’t control hair colour but cold climate does? I have lived in Canada (where it gets pretty cold in the winter) for many years, but my hair has not gone blonde yet. A few greys, but no blonde. When can I expect it to change?
changes in skin and hair color since we all left Africa does NOT occur in one single life time but over thousands of years. that’s what I’m taking about. Genes also play a part, but environmental factors over a LONG stretch of time is what changes us. Now, it’s all artifical for reasons of vanity, which should NOT be praised.
“I think your worries are worrisomely on the wrong side of the fence. Look at who’s been mistreated and oppressed in history. It’s not the blonde nordic ppl.”
Marianne, if it’s any consolation, (1) it’s important to me to not be adding to your worries, and (2) I’m not gonna let myself worry like someone perhaps could, about what I quoted there.
I just don’t agree as conclusively that blonde-imitation is symptomatic of some mass psychosis. Sure, case-by-case, there is “blonde ambition” that is disturbing and that deserves close monitoring. Lots of people are, and do become, vulnerable to getting carried away with interest in ways that either may not be part of their “native environment,” or that are otherwise seemingly incongruous in light of how a person is known. Your comments reminded me of a slur that I have not seen or heard for a long time, but that I believe is relevant to our discussion: “wigger.” Depending on where I am, what I’m doing, and who is around me, I could very easily be accused with that slur. (Of course, I would be merely a target of opportunity for the slur-user’s expression of racial prejudice, that is, I would be a representative of the actual, bigger target.)
But of course it is not inherently unhealthy for individuals to be concerned about their appearance, nor is it necessarily unhealthy to be motivated, and to act, to alter appearance. I believe we agree on that, particularly in regard to obesity. Blond-ing is only one of many paths a person may choose (and, in my opinion, ought to be free to choose), along with tattoos, piercings, shaving, tanning, liposuction, botox…just to ramble-out a few. There is “fakeness” that is lying and that can be symptomatic of, say, lack of self-respect, or being oppressed. But then, there is also denial that appearance matters, which is also lying (to oneself), and disrespectful, even oppressive, to others.
I do look at who’s been mistreated and oppressed in history. When I do, I am also looking at potentialities for future instances of mistreatment and oppression, with intense vigilance and guard up to stand for net gain in civility, as opposed to mere transference of the giving and receiving of mistreatment and oppression from one minority (or majority) to another.