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"Marie Claire's "Love Your Body Issue" is a Big Fail"

Click image to read article.

According to AdiosBarbie.com, a recent article published on November 25, 2011 by Elena Rossini points out how Marie Claire failed to set a positive message towards women and their body and how this issue sets out to convince women to "buy buy buy." She says, "A more accurate title for this issue should have been: "Please hate your body and buy our advertisers' products." Yes, it's that bad. For example, the image I posted above points out the irony that goes on throughout this magazine. You have an image of a collage of photos by Kristina Stojilokovic that says, "What part of your body would the people who love you change?" along with closeups of freckles, a scar, knees, a mole and a belly button. Then to your right, which is the next page in the magazine, you have an ad by L'Oreal, 'Revitalift." What's wrong with this image? Well it is obvious to say that this magazine consists of just ads, rather than encouraging women to actually love their bodies, no matter what shape, age, size, freckles and what not. It's as if women rely on magazines to be their bible. It's sick.

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As all advocates of feminist politics know most people do not understand sexism or if they do they think it is not a problem. Masses of people think that feminism is always and only about women seeking to be equal to men. And a huge majority of these folks think feminism is anti-male. Their misunderstanding of feminist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about feminism from patriarchal mass media.

Bell Hooks

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Airbrushing, the most common tool to cover up wrinkles, acne, and any other type of feature that appears to be "not perfect" or unattractive in the media. As you can see, the photo on the left is the original image: tanned and a bit muscular. To your right: pale, skinnier and maybe even younger. Not only does this send a ridiculous message towards society about the images of women but the headlines on the cover are aiming towards sex, diet pills, "56 ways to unleash your sexy side." I mean, aren't all women sexy in their own unique ways? Magazines may think that they're helping out women and shaping up their lives but they're not...that's just my opinion. They're making this world a competition when it comes to who's hot and what not. I have to admit, I am a fan of Vogue and Nylon magazine, but I don't let that distract my life when it comes to my education, love life and family. I'm subscribed to Vogue but I literally haven't had any time to myself to sit down and flip through/keeping up with fashion. The definition of being "normal" or "cool" in today's society is revolved around sex and diet pills. It's scandalous.

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Britney Spears volunteers before and after photos to be shown to schools to help students overcome body issues.

Female celebrities in magazines has always been a big influence amongst myriads of young female teenagers and even older women. Although I'm a not a fan of Britney Spears, I must admit that this photo sends a powerful message to women: "Women in magazines are airbrushed from head to toe." For your information, Marilyn Monroe, who was considered the most beautiful woman back in the day (still 'till this day to some people) didn't have a flat stomach and wasn't a size 0; she was a size 9. A woman with real curves and love handles. It's a shame to see how women carry themselves in such a negative, pitiful way when it comes to their looks. It is as if everything is a competition in the girl world. Not everyone in this world don't see the beauty in every woman; whether skinny, curvy to being armless, the definition of "perfect" in magazine images is corrupt.

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The only time of the year...

when women get to dress up as whatever that they want to be without being labeled (name called). With that being said, Halloween is the event when men want to hookup with women. Sexy Halloween costumes are very exposured and revealing. This is the only day when anyone gets to dress up on a special night with a costume. Halloween isn't an immature holiday. It brings out people's creativeness, especiall in women. Most women like when their skin is exposed, their haird done, nails done, etc.

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"Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street"

Steven Greenstreets's, who is a Daily Caller, Tumblr "Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street"

was identified as "creepy" in an October 24, 2011 post on the Women's Media Center

website. Julie Burton, president and CEO of the Women's Media Center said "“Is it too

much to ask the Daily Caller to feature women leaders, rather than to objectify women

as ornaments?  How about:  Here are the top 10 women leaders speaking at Occupy Wall

Street?" People can be so shallow to represent women in such a humiliating way. In my

opinion, the words "hot chick" is offensive, as well as "sexy." I feel like people (especially

men) are becoming more illiterate and lazy when it comes to elaborating on how they

feel about women. For example, have you ever had a guy whistle or yell out "damn!" to

you, rather than a "Hello good afternoon beautiful lady?" I mean, a proper and

pretentious greeting to a women is so rare these days. It is all over the media! You

always have that typical "hot chick" who every guy wants to sleep with and the message

you get from these ridiculous reality shows is "What has the world come to?" Click on

the image to read more about Greenstreet's.

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Jimmy Choo

Most of you probably already know that fashion is a great, yet controversial way to expose women. It is pretty obvious that the only way to advertise Jimmy Choo's clothing and accessories is to have a woman bent over in the photo above. Not that this idea isn't creative and what not but it's the fact that having the color black and a skin tight skirt without even showing the woman's face makes me view this image as being exotic in a way. I recently saw another Jimmy Choo ad in Vogue's October issue and it was a picture of a man's face on the ground with a woman's foot stepping on his face. Of course she was wearing Jimmy Choo boots but the photo symbolized domination in a woman's world. It wasn't anything close to being provocative but it had an edgy feel to it.

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Probably one of my favorite websites; no doubt a tab I have opened whenever I go online. "Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture." What I admire most about this magazine is that it's unique and diverse when it comes to introducing new voices in contemporary feminism. It's important to be aware of what goes in mainstream media because it teaches females to know that there's still controversy going on when it comes to gender roles, identity, power, and most importantly, women. I think the name itself is pretty ironic as well. Check out their website at the link below.

http://bitchmagazine.org/

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Bitch Magazine

Probably one of my favorite websites; no doubt a tab I have opened whenever I go online. "Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture." What I admire most about this magazine is that it's unique and diverse when it comes to introducing new voices in contemporary feminism. It's important to be aware of what goes in mainstream media because it teaches females to know that there's still controversy going on when it comes to gender roles, identity, power, and most importantly, women. I think the name itself is pretty ironic. Check out their website at the link below.

http://bitchmagazine.org/

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Jillian Michaels, isn't just passionate and motivated to help people lose weight like most people think she is, but she is an animal right advocate. On July 21, Michaels along with other animal lovers protested outside of the Staples Center about raising awareness on elephant abuse that goes on behind Ringling elephants. Michaels states, "Their enslavement by the circus means [elephants] spend their lives in chains and stuffy train cars with no freedom to roam, and they suffer painful, fatal ailments that come from such a stressful existence." She is fighting to help people get the word around because it requires no cost and is the easiest thing to do.

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The pressure to "look good" for female actresses

Myriads of women in the media, whether it be on a television show, awards show, music video or for a magazine ad, are obsessed with their weight and appearance. What most women confuse themselves with is the difference between looking healthy and slim vs. looking pale and underweight. Many female actresses are under stress and pressure to play a certain role in a film or on television; in general actually. For example, Natalie Portaman opened up about her drastic weight loss for the movie, "Black Swan." Natalie trained 5-8 hours to get the slim look of a ballerina. She states "I think it was just the physicality of it all that was the most extreme." This goes to show that being an actress is not always about fun and games. Female actresses are under tension and stress to play a specific role in a film or they are afraid of what the media might say (poking fun) about their appearances. Always remember ladies, confidence is sexy.

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Starving for the "perfect" image

Tall, skinny, curves, no curves, boobs, no boobs; the fashion industry is all about selling an image of women, who majority of the time, look sick and way too thin and unhealthy. There is constant pressure amongst fashion models who feel the need to be unnaturally thin. When excluding super models on the runway, magazines target at teenagers, who then feel the pressure to stare themselves or switch their diets to bing eating that way they can look and feel more confident about being skinny. A popular issue for example was back in July. Hila Elmalich, a 33-year old fashion model who suffered from anorexia and died from poor heart condition; she weighed under 60 pounds. The pressure to be thin will never go away amongst women in the fashion industry.

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I recently visited the Tim Burton exhibit at the LACMA and after walking around for about a good hour or two, my boyfriend and I decided to grab something to eat. As LACMA being known for having pricy foods and beverages, we decided to check out all the food trucks that were lined up out front on Wilshire (across from the La Brea Tar Pits). Anyway, I ended up purchasing 100% grass-fed hamburgers from Patty Wagon Burgers, which were absolutely delicious! It's hard trying to find a healthy food truck to eat at because the majority of all the food trucks I saw had excessively greasy and heavy foods. Feel free to read more about their beef and be sure to follow them on Twitter by clicking on the photo. Chao.

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Summer 2011 has officially ended for me and fall has approached faster than ever. I'm Skya Eiland and here I've created Big Sip, a blog about the wonders of food and fashion in Los Angeles, California. Here we go...