I remember when I was doing rent and I was too thin, and I was doing that on purpose because I’m dying, I’m a HIV+ drug addict. I remember having to eat raw food and doing all this work to make sure I could stay thin… And I remember everyone asking me when I was doing press for the movie, “what did you do to get so thin? You looked great!” and I’m like, “I looked emaciated.”
It’s a form of violence in the way that we look at women and how we expect them to look and be, for… what’s sake? Not health, not survival, not enjoyment of life, but just so that you can look ‘pretty’.
I’m constantly telling girls all the time, “everything’s airbrushed, everything’s retouched, to the point of just that it’s never even asked, and none of us look like that.”
- Rosario Dawson
(via fuckyeahwomenprotesting2)
"
Television is literally shaping the way women in Bahrain think they should look, according to new research, writes Basma Mohammed.
It is changing their perception of beauty, with most now thinking ‘skinny’ is best, as opposed to the traditional Arab taste for a fuller figure, according to the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research (BCSR).
Not so long ago, there was little pressure on Emirati women to be thin; indeed, a fuller figure was seen in a wholly positive light. That, however, is changing rapidly, according to a study that found most young UAE women were dieting and as many as a third were underweight. And women put the blame squarely on the shoulders of skinny celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Heidi Klum.
The UAE study was carried out by Sarah Trainer [who] said student responses were “very similar to what you hear from American teenagers”. The Emirati women said the way the American media featured celebrities such as Beckham and Klum influenced how they perceived their own bodies…
“Their girlfriends and men like them to be slim,” Ms Trainer said. “All of them blame this on the Western media.”
Eighty-seven per cent of women surveyed in Bahrain said they trimmed down to match the Hollywood image of beauty portrayed on television. Sixty-seven per cent said they were also influenced by women’s magazines and 59 per cent by the internet.
All these influences are changing the way Bahraini and other Arab women define themselves and beauty, says BCSR studies assistant general-secretary Dr Abdulrahman Musaigar.
‘It is the media that is pressuring our women to see beauty as being skinny,’ he said.
Five years ago, a similar survey revealed that women thought a fuller figure was beautiful, but they were now swinging away from the traditional perception, said Dr Musaigar.
Not so long ago, there was little pressure on Emirati women to be thin; indeed, a fuller figure was seen in a wholly positive light. That, however, is changing rapidly, according to a study that found most young UAE women were dieting and as many as a third were underweight. And women put the blame squarely on the shoulders of skinny celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Heidi Klum.
The UAE study was carried out by Sarah Trainer [who] said student responses were “very similar to what you hear from American teenagers”. The Emirati women said the way the American media featured celebrities such as Beckham and Klum influenced how they perceived their own bodies…
“Their girlfriends and men like them to be slim,” Ms Trainer said. “All of them blame this on the Western media.”
"- The Judgment of Paris Forum - Heritage vs. the rootless media
"There’s no such thing as a “fake woman”. A real woman may be your best friend or your worst ideological enemy. They’re fat, skinny, and everything in-between, some shave their legs and some don’t, some have vaginas and some have penises (and some have both), some are near-saints and some are murderers, and some are even Sarah Palin. It’s no good to pick out your favorite group of women and single them out as “real women” because of their biology, psychology, or ideology. There’s no point in feminism unless it’s working for the equality of ALL women, not just the ones you agree with and like."
- Real Talk.: “real women” are all women. (via socalfeminist)
(via transqueery)
well said.
