Realistic images of women make a real difference

My mum regularly goes to England to visit her family there and she always brings me back a British magazine. Six years ago I asked her to look for a feminist magazine because I wanted to check out the lady-power publications from across the pond. What I ended up getting was a lesbian magazine called Diva.

My mum didn't realize she had bought me a lady-lovers mag until said she decided to read it on the plane ride home, which is an amusing mental picture for me. Anyhow, from that year on, she always brings me back a copy of Diva, and I've grown to really like the magazine even though I'm straight as an arrow.

The most recent issue I received was from May 2012 and I was thoroughly impressed. I'm really passionate about the representation of women in the media - in particular, the over-saturation of impossibly perfect, highly Photoshopped images of women that are jammed down our throats every day. Over exposure to these images of super skinny women with no pores, fat, wrinkles, imperfections or stray hairs creates an an unrealistic beauty standard, which results in many women feeling inadequate.

That's why I was so excited when I saw these models in Diva magazine - they made me feel great! It's not very often that I feel good about myself after looking at women in magazines, but this time I did. It was a fantastic feeling. And I know that it wasn't just me "reading too deeply" into the images, because a friend of mine flipped through the magazine and upon seeing the images said, "HEY! These girls are like... normal! It's so awesome!"

In my personal experiences chatting with women about this subject, I find that women are crying out for images like this in the media. Are you listening, magazine editors? WE WANT MORE REALISTIC IMAGES OF WOMEN!

This is perfectly illustrated by the recent online petition started by 14-year-old Julie Bluhm. She requested that Seventeen magazine print just one unaltered photo spread per month. Over 70,000 people have signed the petition, but Seventeen magazine has refused to budge.

The women in Diva magazine's spread are both slim and have great skin - basic requirements for most models - but they are softer, fuller and their "imperfections" (such as moles) have not been erased by Photoshop. They convey a healthy, natural look and their skin isn't plastic-like. Their faces aren't caked in makeup and their hair styles look like something I could actually achieve at home and feel comfortable wearing in public.

I'm sure that these images have been touched up with Photoshop to some extent (it's pretty much standard in the industry), but it's not ridiculous. They are a more realistic, down-to-earth representation of women. Kudos to Diva magazine for using models like this. I can't wait until we see more of this in all magazines.

A Tina Fey quote to brighten your day

"Every girl is expected to have caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama and doll tits.

The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes. Everyone else is struggling."

- Tina Fey

Jennie Thunder's feminist adventures in Windsor

I was invited to speak at the University of Windsor as part of their International Women's Day events this year. It was a real honour to be invited to share my knowledge about the representation of women in advertising, plus my experiences as a feminist radio program host and blogger.

Me (left) with Nicole and Meghan, hosts of Milk & Vodka

One of the coolest experiences was being a guest on another radio program. The University of Windsor has a campus radio station much like our beloved CJSW in Calgary. CJAM is smaller, but they do have a feminist radio program - Milk and Vodka. I was interviewed by the fabulous hosts Nicole and Meghan.

It was really fun to be the guest rather than the host, and it was awesome to meet other feminist radio program hosts! We share a lot of similarities regarding our goals and hopes for strengthening the feminist communities in our respective cities.

I gave three presentations while in Windsor, all of which involved ad-busting - my specialty! I taught students how to identify things like sexism and racism in ads, and showed them how advertisements work by making us feel ugly, wrinkly, fat and generally inadequate. The shittier we feel about ourselves, the more we'll spend on products that supposedly make us thinner, more beautiful, less hairy, less wrinkly, and so on. Below is a typical example of what my ad-busting looks like. I've been doing this for about 6 years now and it's so much fun. I like challenging the mainstream messages in advertisements and inserting my own message of empowerment (or maybe just something funny that makes people think twice about the images they're seeing). 

My whole experience at Windsor was thanks to a group of women's studies students who were asked to find a presenter for Women's Day. They wanted a young feminist who was active in her community, and they found me via this blog. As I mentioned, I felt very honoured to be asked to present. Spending time with the students who organized the events was a real treat. They reminded me of myself six years ago - a keener student (I mean that in the most affectionate way!) with a passion for women's issues and a desire to make a difference. 

The students who organized the event: Sapphire, Marianne, Alexis, me and Laura

On my final night in Windsor I attended a button-making event at a local cafe. Tons of students from all faculties showed up to make buttons. I made a few myself - pictured here. This was actually my first time making buttons - hard to believe since that's practically a right of passage for feminists!

Well, that's my trip to Windsor in a nut shell. The best aspects of the whole experience were spending time with other young feminists and hearing feedback from my presentations like, "I learned a lot" and "That was really interesting." I have returned to Calgary with renewed feminist spirit and I'm ready to keep on rockin'!

A funny, kinda feminist commercial involving mom jeans

I can't believe I just saw a commercial that manages to authentically promote body acceptance and the concept that regular women can be smokin' hot sexy mammas. It's also decently funny too.

Kudos to Real California Milk for making a commercial that celebrates a woman's "bunt cake"!

Just some good ol' fashioned ad-busting

I used to do a lot of ad-busting when I was in university. I even taught ad-busting workshops to teens and university students. I haven't done any in a while and I kinda miss it, so I thought I'd post a few of my favourite busted ads and maybe it'll help inspire me to do more!

The Great Wall of Vagina: Changing female body perception through art

British artist James McCartney spent five years plaster casting 400 women’s vulvas for his sculpture The Great Wall of Vagina. The project is an exploration of women’s relationships with their genitals.

James came up with the idea while he was working on a different sculpture for a sex museum. He discovered that many women have anxiety about the appearance of their genitals, incorrectly believing they are ugly or abnormal. “It appalled me that our society has created yet one more way to make women feel bad about themselves” he said. He decided to do something about it – so he created art that dispels misconceptions about what women look like “down there.”

The women who volunteered to participate ranged in age from 18 to 76. There is great variety in the vulvas, as you would expect given there are 400 of them. One has multiple piercings, two are from identical twins, there are mother and daughter castings and transgendered men and women. There are even casts from a woman pre and post natal, and another pre and post labiaplasty. 

The sculptures are fascinating to look at and people can view them without feeling shame or discomfort because the images are not pornographic. They allow women (and men) the opportunity to see the immense diversity in female genitalia. Each one is completely different and completely normal.

Check out the videos below to learn more about James and The Great Wall of Vagina (which should probably be called The Great Wall of Vulva, since the vagina is your birth canal, while the vulva is your sex organ. But I’ll forgive James that grammatical mishap, because his project is awesome!). 

American Apparel had their chance to be cool, and blew it

In August 2011, American Apparel (AA) launched a plus size model search called The Next BIG Thing. Women were asked to submit their photos and the public would vote for the new face of their plus size division.

It all sounded pretty cool to begin with. I was excited... AA is finally branching out to plus size women? Hooray! But then I read the call for models. As you might expect from AA, the call made use of predictable and somewhat demeaning language.

Calling curvy ladies everywhere! Our best-selling Disco Pant (and around 10 other sexy styles) are now available in size XL, for those of us who need a little extra wiggle room where it counts. We’re looking for fresh faces (and curvaceous bods) to fill these babies out. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be the next XLent model, send us photos of you and your junk to back it up.

A couple of problems with their call out:

1. Wait - they’re only making 10 styles in size XL? That’s not very many. Also, what exactly is “XL”? According to the AA size chart, XL is a size 12/14, also known as the AVERAGE size of American women.
2. Your language is ridiculous. Extra wiggle room? Curvaceous bods? Your junk? Why does everything related to plus size women need to come packaged in stupid language like “booty-licious”? 

Well, their call for models didn’t just seem awkward and offensive to me. It caught the attention of Nancy Upton, a size 12 gal from Dallas, Texas. She entered the contest as a protest, submitting pictures of herself in alluring poses while eating chicken, chocolate, pie and even bathing in a tub of ranch dressing. Her submission simply said, “I’m a size 12. I just can’t stop eating.”

The public loved Nancy. When the contest was over, she won the popular vote by far. But American Apparel didn’t like that the winner was mocking their contest. So AA’s Creative Director, Iris Alonzo, wrote a letter to Nancy which included the following ridiculous sentences:

It’s a shame that your project attempts to discredit the positive intentions of our challenge based on your personal distaste for our use of light-hearted language, and that “bootylicous” was too much for you to handle.  

Oh — and regarding winning the contest, while you were clearly the popular choice, we have decided to award the prizes to other contestants that we feel truly exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out, and whom we will be proud to have representing our company.

Hot damn! We love Nancy!

So Nancy was shot down by American Apparel. Big surprise. But then something interesting happened. Nancy posted the harsh letter from Iris onto her blog and it went viral. American Apparel was suddenly swimming in bad press and Iris had some serious back-pedaling to do to.

Iris apologized to Nancy and offered to fly her and a friend out to LA to tour the company headquarters and discuss how AA could better market to plus size women. Once again, I had a glimmer of hope that maybe AA could be kinda cool.

Nancy and her friend met with the creative team who organized The Next BIG Thing contest and had an interesting discussion about marketing to plus size women. American Apparel exec’s fed the girls cream puffs (the irony of which was not lost on Nancy), and Iris even took Nancy and her friend out drinking. Things were looking up. “I had a REALLY good feeling about where the company would go after my trip,” wrote Nancy on her blog.

Over the next few days, Nancy and Iris exchanged a few more emails, and then Iris fucked it all up again.

On October 4, Iris wrote:

Marsha and I were trying to remember what we even talked about, and amidst all of the late night fun and cream puffs (compounded by the fact that we couldn’t re-watch the video of the meeting), we can hardly remember what was said at all.

I think Nancy summarizes my feelings about that email pretty well. On her blog she wrote:

This company spent thousands of dollars flying Shannon and I to LA, to meet with their team and they can’t even remember what we discussed. Nor do they care to. They want me to write something happy go-lucky about how positive our meeting was for women everywhere, and then they want to sign off on it, you know, in case I forget anything.

As it stands today, this whole debacle is SO TOTALLY OVER to Nancy. She is done with AA, writing “[Those] three sentences of that email tell more truth about what went on in this bizarro adventure than anything I saw in that factory or those offices.”

So, American Apparel had numerous chances to do something cool here, and they blew it every time. They insulted plus size women in their call to models, they shunned the popular winner of their contest and then insulted her in an email, tried to make it up to her only to flub it all again.

American Apparel, you clearly need advice, so I’m going to offer you a suggestion: Don’t be afraid of change. Or fat girls.

AA: Don't fear fat girls with chicken!

Your stocks are in the crapper, your CEO is dealing with multiple sexual harassment lawsuits, nobody likes your ugly hipster clothes anymore, and everyone’s sick of your sexist advertisements. Clearly, your company is in need of a shake-up. SOMETHING needs to change and I’m not going to pretend I know what that is, but maybe this whole thing with Nancy could have been exactly the change you need.

When your company is already down pretty low, you have nothing to lose by trying something new. Who knows, maybe you could have captured the hearts of North American women sized 12 and up, opening your store to millions of new customers. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and other stores like Forever 21 and Target have already realized that the “fattening of America is a big business opportunity.”

In light of this whole debacle with Nancy, I fear that American Apparel’s destiny is to fade away as soon as hipster style falls out of fashion. But I’m OK with that, because time and time again AA has proved themselves to be a company that only cares about making clothing for slim, young, beautiful hipster women. Good luck making a profit each year with such a tiny demographic.

Lessons in nudity from the Swedish

I recently had the pleasure of visiting my friend Linn in Sweden. While staying with her we attended a couple of fitness classes at her gym. After my first Yoga class in Swedish, we headed to the locker room to grab our runners and hoodies. When I looked up from tying my shoe lace, I realized I was sitting amongst a sea of naked bottoms. All the ladies had stripped down and stood around chatting in the buff while doing their hair.

Two days later we went to another class, and the same thing happened. After class, there was noticeably more nakedness than in a typical Canadian locker room. Friends disrobed in front of one another, chatted about plans for the weekend and generally carried on as if their most intimate parts weren’t on display. And maybe that’s simply because for the Swedes, and many folks outside of North America, the naked body is no big deal.

As we walked home that night, Linn and I compared “locker room etiquette” in Canada and Sweden. At her high school, everyone hit the showers after gym class. As a result, she’s seen all her peers naked over the course of many years.

My high school gym experience was completely different. We never showered after class – there wasn’t time, it wasn’t encouraged and nobody did it. Sure, there were showers in the locker room, but they were used exclusively by the volleyball and basketball teams. Since I never played on any sports teams, I never showered with my peers. In fact, to this day I have never seen any of my friends in the nude.

In Calgary, nudity in the locker room is pretty mixed. Whether you strut your stuff or hide in a change room typically depends on your age, cultural background, and your level of I-don’t-give-a-shit-ness. Generally though, younger women shy away from all-out nudity and prefer to change in locker rooms or shimmy their knickers on with one hand while holding a towel around them with the other. It seems that the older you get, the less you care, and so with age comes nudity.

I’ve decided that I like the European style of locker room etiquette. I believe that the more naked bodies we see, (and I mean REAL naked bodies, not Photoshop plastic bodies) the more comfortable we become with our own body. We get to see the amazing variety in the human body, and we realize that it’s all normal: scars, hair in weird places, saggy boobs, varicose veins, stretch marks, cellulite-dimpled bottoms, the incredible variety of nipple size and colour, and so much more.

I think it’s important that we see naked bodies of all ages in non-sexual contexts. We’ll have more realistic expectations for our own bodies when we see what other people look like. It’s harder to hate your own body when you see your “flaws” in everyone else too. Hiding our bodies from each other breeds insecurity and feelings of abnormality. I hope us Canadians can eventually move to a more European level of comfort with nudity. It doesn’t have to be sexual… it’s just natural and normal.

Transgender woman wins breast augmentation contest

AMP Radio’s controversial “Breast Summer Ever” contest took an interesting turn today. The winner of the competition, who was voted for by the public, was Avery. She was born male but is transitioning to female. What may be most surprising is that Avery won by a landslide – 76% of the votes – in conservative ol’ Calgary.

Although I've never liked the contest, I think it’s interesting that Avery won. Her win has shown me two things:

First, the younger generation of Calgarians (those most likely to be AMP Radio listeners and voters) are an open minded bunch. This gives me hope that our awesome-but-conservative city can be a more welcoming place for those whose gender or sexuality is anything other than straight.

Second, I believe that voters saw through the ridiculousness of many aspects of this contest. Most of the other contestants didn’t have a compelling reason to deserve a $10,000 boob job. Many of them wanted new breasts for reasons the public just wouldn't sympathize with. Avery’s case was one of the few that caught my attention, and I was pleased to see that the public chose someone whose life could be meaningfully changed by breast augmentation.

No matter the outcome, I still find the contest a distasteful marketing ploy. The program manager basically admitted in a FFWD article that he was doing it for publicity, and now that a transgender person has won, the station will receive even more attention. Although a transgender person won the contest, that doesn’t change the fact that it was a stupid, sleazy contest that promoted body dissatisfaction and normalized plastic surgery. None the less, it was an interesting contest with the ending I secretly hoped for but never expected to happen.

Congratulations, Avery. I hope your new boobs help you complete your journey to womanhood.

UPDATE - I was asked by the Calgary Herald to comment on this story... here is the article!

Who entered the “Breast Summer Ever” contest, and why?

The judges for Amp Radio’s controversial contest for a $10,000 breast augmentation have picked their 10 finalists. Now it’s up to the public to vote on who is most deserving of the boob job.



Since I first heard about this contest, I was curious to see would enter, their reasons for entering, and whose story would resonate most with the public and win the ultimate prize. Each contestant has made a video, which are posted online. I watched each one and here are their reasons for wanting breast augmentation:

• 4/10 women had lost weight, which changed the size and shape of their breasts. They talk about the “excess skin” left over after weight loss and how their breasts just don’t look right anymore.
  
  
• 3/10 of the women talked about nursing children and the toll that having kids takes on your body. Basically, they want their pre-baby boobies back.
  
  
• 3/10 had sob stories, but surprisingly there were no cancer survivors. One woman has a large burn mark that covers her right breast, another has "lop-sided" breasts, and one had a rare disease that made her very thin and unable to develop breasts during puberty.
  
  
• 1 woman is transgender (she was born male but is transitioning to female).
  
  
• 1 woman said she wanted a lift and reduction, as she is a size FF and would like to be average sized.

I was a little disheartened to see how many women discussed their post-pregnancy bodies and how they want their old body back. Why can’t we accept that women’s bodies change after pregnancy? Our bodies change throughout our lives – why is an aging body or a post-baby body seen as something that needs to be fixed? (News flash, ladies! You can’t stop aging. You just can’t. Stop wasting your time, money and effort trying to, and accept your aging body instead. I promise life will be a lot more fun that way).



There is an unreal amount of pressure on women to get back to how they looked before the baby. Trashy celebrity tabloids publish issues with headlines like, My body after baby - How I lost 25 lbs in 8 weeks. The pressure is so strong that I actually know women who are choosing not to have children because they’re afraid of what it will do to their bodies. Says Katie Gentile in an article from the Daily Beast,

When women shed the baby weight, they are not merely getting back their pre-baby body, they are obliterating all the evidence of ever having had a baby in the first place. This means the one thing that only women's bodies can do is expected to be immediately erased. The post-baby body is wrung of its recent life-giving feat. Sagging milk-filled breasts must appear perky; the once-swollen abdomen is made concave. It's as if we should actually believe the baby dropped from the stork, from the sky, from anywhere but that toned, buff body.

To me, part of being a feminist is accepting and not judging other women’s decisions and choices. So I’m not going to rag on the women who entered this contest or judge them for what they want. But many of the women talked about gaining or improving self-confidence through breast augmentation surgery, and I think they’re missing a key piece to the self-confidence puzzle. Self confidence is an internal thing – it comes from knowing who you are, knowing your values and what you stand for, setting and accomplishing goals and knowing that you are worthy of happiness and love. True self confidence, self acceptance and self love come from the inside – plastic surgery is an external procedure that will not fix an internal problem.



I won’t be voting for any of these ladies because I fundamentally disagree with the contest. I think the contest promotes body dissatisfaction and the idea that self confidence can be instantly achieved with a surgical procedure. Also, Amp Radio has a young audience and I know lots of kids listen to it. I think it normalizes plastic surgery for young people when they hear about it as a “fun contest.” Our society’s obsession with perfect bodies has gone too far, and I refuse to be a part of anything that perpetuates endless discontent with one’s body.



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Check out some of the contests in Canada offered by ReadersDigest.ca

African Americans bias towards dark-skinned women

This is a 9-minute trailer for the upcoming documentary Dark Girls, which explores the deep-rooted biases and attitudes about skin colour within Black American culture. 

As an outsider, I was unaware of the discrimination that goes on within the Black community towards darker skinned women. I was shocked and saddened to learn that Black women judge other Black women on the darkness or lightness of their skin. One woman in the video says, "If I had a little girl, I didn't want her to be dark. I remember saying that. I didn't want her to be dark like me." 

The film is due for release in the Fall or Winter of 2011. Follow Dark Girls Movie on Facebook to stay updated.

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.

Have you seen this poster? It might just make your day.

As you stroll about Calgary, you might stumble upon one of these “Booty Camp” posters and wonder what they’re all about.

The posters were created by “Two Big Fat Revolutionaries” (two self-identified fat feminists) who were tired of seeing posters advertising boot camps, which are fitness programs geared towards women. They were pissed off that these advertisements make women feel shitty about their bodies and imply that only slim bodies are healthy and sexy.

So the Two Big Fat Revolutionaries decided to do something about it. They got together, ate a giant pizza without feeling an ounce of guilt, and came up with their own Booty Camp poster in hopes of starting a movement of self-love through fat-positive guerilla art.

The Revolutionaries and their friends postered the city in early April, and continue to put up posters whenever they can. A few weeks after the posters went up, I met up with a friend and she was excited to tell me about the Booty Camp poster she had seen, and how she was absolutely thrilled by it. She took one of the “You are beautiful” tear-offs, and kept it in her pocket. The next time she wore those jeans she rediscovered the note and was stoked to be reminded that she is beautiful.

A poster like this can really make a person’s day. It’s nice to see something that reinforces a positive message about our bodies and doesn’t make us feel like we need to be slimmer, fitter or firmer. As the poster says, “The widespread depiction of uncommonly thin women defines what we consider beautiful, so sometimes it’s hard to remember: YOU are BEAUTIFUL!"

If you want to get involved, put up some posters or just get more info, email the Two Big Fat Revolutionaries at juliet.burgess@gmail.com.

Spreading love & lessons on armpit hair

Despite the fact that all women have armpit hair, it’s hard to find one who wears it with pride. I recently came to an interesting realization: I’ve NEVER had armpit hair. As soon as it began to grow in, I was already shaving it off, and I’ve never let it grow longer than about 1.5 cm (after a week in the mountains with no razor!). So, why do women spend so much time, effort and money shaving (or waxing) what Mother Nature gave us?



Prior to World War I, most women only worried about the hair that could be seen; hair on the scalp, and for some, facial hair. Around 1915 however, fashions changed and sleeveless dresses came into style. And so began The Great Underarm Campaign – whereby companies that made razors sought to inform American women of a problem they didn’t know they had: unsightly underarm hair.



The campaign began with an ad in the May 1915 issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine. The ad featured a young woman in a toga-like dress. Her arms are arched over her head revealing perfectly smooth armpits. The first part of the ad reads, “Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair.”



Around the same time this ad ran, Wilkinson Sword launched a marketing campaign for razors aimed at women, and within two years sales of razor blades had doubled.



The advertisers succeeded in convincing women that armpit hair was unattractive. They used an advertising technique that is still hugely successful today: invent a problem and then offer your product as the solution. It’s commonly used in anti-wrinkle cream advertising, for example. It doesn’t get much more natural than wrinkles, but advertisers have millions of us convinced that (a) they’re a problem, and (b) we can “cure” them with creams and botox injections.



So, we know why most of us shave off our pit hair, but are there any good reasons to grow it? There are plenty of reasons not to, the least of which being that you’re likely to be called a femi-nazi, man-hating lesbian, angry hairy bitch, or some other cruel name. (I mean, seriously? All that anger over a few wisps of hair!? Get over it, people!)



Well, here’s one reason why you might want to consider growing it back. In one of the most popular and trusted books on sex, The Joy of Sex by Alex Comfort, the authour makes such a strong case for female armpit hair that I had to share it here.

“The natural perfume of a clean woman [is] her greatest sexual asset after her beauty (some would say greater than that). It comes from the whole of her – hair, skin, breasts, armpits, genitals and the clothing she has worn…[some women] chop off their armpit hair, or did until a new generation started to realize that it was sexy. This might be forgivable in a hot climate with no plumbing. Now it is simply ignorant vandalism… A woman’s little tufts [are the] antennae and powderpuffs to introduce herself in a room, or in lovemaking.”

And it’s true… humans are attracted to each other on a primal level by the way we smell. Your own unique smell is an extremely powerful force, and armpit hair is there to capture it.



Despite my awareness of how ridiculous it is that women shave their pits, I still do it. It’s a social norm that’s extremely hard to break away from. But after reading about armpit hair in The Joy of Sex, I have to admit I’m tempted to give pit hair a chance! “Little tufts”… “Powderpuffs”… Why, it sounds simply delightful! And despite what the media tells us, there are plenty of folks – both men and women – who find the au natural style very attractive.



Whatever your preference for pit hair may be – bushy or bare – I think we all need to respect the choices of others. We shouldn’t be disgusted by women who grow bushy little powderpuffs, and we shouldn’t assume anything about their sexuality, anger levels, involvement in feminism, or anything else! And for those of us who shave or wax, we need our hairy sisters to understand that most of us won’t ever go there, mostly because we’ve been so brainwashed to think it’s unattractive and we’re terrified of what other people might think.

Update on Tonight's Chat With Sunday Omony

Tonight we sat down with model, Humanitarian and all around wonder-lady Sunday Omony.

Such a lovely guest! During the program, we mentioned Sesame Street's "I Love My Hair" song, all about encouraging young girls to accept themselves (and their fabulous hair!). I promised I would post it for reference, so here it is!

The podcast of this episode will be available shortly. You can stream this and previous episodes here or subscribe via iTunes.

Vintage Japanese Political Poster

PinkTentacle posted a neat-o collection of vintage Japanese political posters - and this is my favourite. It's supposedly an anti-pollution poster, but it could also have a host of other meanings and interpretations. Interesting stuff.

More Ass-vertising

More ass-vertising for shoes that will supposedly give you a miracle F-ing workout.



Previously in ass-vertising: Reebok's Ass-vertising Campaign

The Photoshop Effect

Do you know the extent to which photos in magazines are retouched? This video demonstrates how images are retouched and asks if our obsession with Photoshopped images is creating unattainable beauty standards for women.

Reebok's Ass-vertising Campaign

Reebok claims you can work out your legs and butt muscles just by wearing their EasyTone shoes. Everyone’s looking for an easy way to a bikini body – whether that be through “skinny pills” or shoes that tone your butt and legs. There’s so much damn pressure to look good (i.e. skinny) and marketers know that people will buy almost anything if there’s a glimmer of hope that it will work. Despite the lack of proof that these shoes actually work, people are buying them up. Officials from Reebok say the EasyTone is the company’s most successful new product in at least five years.



So, how are these shoes supposed to work? While most athletic shoes offer support and cushioning, these “muscle-activating” shoes are engineered to create instability. “Balance pods” inside Reebok EasyTone’s are said to force the wearer to engage stabilizing muscles further, resulting in more toned leg and buttock muscles.



An article from the New York times basically states that Reebok’s claims are bullshit. “To support the claims, the shoemakers each offer company-financed exercise studies suggesting that the shoes produce a higher level of muscle engagement, at least in a controlled research setting. But the studies don’t show whether more engagement leads to meaningful changes in muscle tone or appearance over time. Nor is it clear whether the high level of engagement continues once the walker becomes accustomed to the shoe.”



I think what disturbs me the most about these EasyTone shoes is their advertising campaign. Erm, make that assvertising campaign, cos asses are about the only thing you see. I’ve included two of their print ads, and you can also watch their obnoxious television ads on YouTube, but I warn you that watching these ads may lead to lower self esteem and feelings that your body isn't good enough. (Thanks, Reebok!)



The print ads are frustrating because they’re so obviously fake. The legs have been Photoshopped to such an extreme degree that they look like plastic Barbie legs. Real people’s legs don’t look like plastic, they have veins and different colours/tones on the skin. Caucasian skin is not a peachy-plastic colour: it has tones of red, purple, green, and blue within it. The only conclusion I can come to is that these legs must belong to some new race of humans with impossibly flawless skin!



Also what’s up with the see-through panties? It’s bad enough that they throw these fake skinny legs in our face, and now we have to look at ass-cracks too? It’s just a bunch of anonymous Barbie legs and asses being thrown into our faces, and we’re meant to believe that we can actually achieve this look? Let me save you the $150 on the shoes and some of your dignity by telling you now that even the fittest most athletic women in the world don’t have legs and asses that look like this because these are computer-generated bodies. Refuse to compare yourself to a Photoshopped body. Refuse to believe their bullshit lies that you too can look like this - all it takes is walking in these shoes!



No, Reebok. All it takes is a greedy advertiser and a soulless Photoshop editor who’s willing to air brush all the veins, colour, personality and individuality out of your legs until they look like two sticks of peach-coloured plastic.



So Reebok, I have a request for you. If you shoes ACTUALLY work, then have the balls/eggs to show us REAL women’s legs after they’ve walked around in these shoes. Until then, I’ll continue to believe that the only woman capable of legs like that is a computer-generated woman.

What happened to Christina Hendrick's hips?

Christina Hendrick from Mad Men is a beautiful, curvy lady. But in this new ad for London Fog, they seem to have Photoshopped her hips right out of the picture. Below is a picture of what her hips actually look like.



Why would London Fog Photoshop her hips down so drastically? Christina's curvy body is part of what's made her loved by so many people and a role model for curvier women. Shame on you London Fog for fucking up what could have been a really beautiful advertisement.

Jacob no longer photo retouching

Canadian retailer Jacob just announced they will no longer retouch photos to alter the body shapes of their models. Their new policy begins as they launch their fall campaign for both Jacob and Jacob Lingerie brands.



Jacob is claiming to be the first Canadian company to do this. I can't say for sure if that claim is true, but I've never heard of another Canadian company doing this... although we've reported in the past that some European magazines (in Germany and France) have already taken this step.



"Jacob has always made an effort to promote a healthy image of the female body" says spokesperson and Communications Director Cristelle Basmaji. "By adopting an official policy and broadcasting it publicly, we hope to reverse the trend in digital photo manipulation that has become excessive in our industry. Our decision to never reshape the bodies of our models is particularly innovative for our Jacob Lingerie campaigns. The basis of the new "no retouching" policy is to promote an honest and realistic image of the female body."



Although this is an awesome move by Jacob and a huge step in the right direction, it's important to note that Jacob is not completely ditching Photoshop. They will still use it for things like smoothing out skin tone and removing scars or tattoos. Hortense from Jezebel writes, "While it would be nice to have a company embrace tattoos, uneven skin tone, and scars (you know, "imperfections," aka "shit everyone has in real life but are made to feel insecure about because said things are airbrushed away in mass marketed images of beauty"), but it's hard to fault the company's transparency..."



Jacob will be releasing three versions of some of their Fall campaign photos: the raw image, the photo as seen in their advertising campaign and one that has been retouched as would have been done in the past. It will be interesting to see how the three photos differ - I'll try and post them on the blog when they come out!



For more information: CBC.ca, JACOB