Happy International No Diet Day!

May 6, 2008 · Filed Under Society ·

Today is International No Diet Day, which I think is a fabulous day to celebrate!

I believe that women should not be seen purely as sex symbols and that there is no such thing as a “perfect weight.” So often, when women are trying to reach their “perfect” weight by going on a diet, they become obsessed with weight loss and diets in general to the point where their perfect weight keeps getting lower and you fall victim to the evil life of anorexia or bulimia. People so often forget that there are physical and mental health risks when going on a crash diet that at first you swear is temporary.

The diet industry manipulates people into believing that they will never be seen as attractive or sexy unless they are a size two which is not only disgusting, but something that the diet industry should be of ashamed of themselves for. However, they do not feel ashamed or sorry for the amount of lives that they have ruined while reinforcing the idea of being the perfect size, specifically to women. Making billions of dollars per year, the industry understands the minds of women; they understand that if they make women believe that they aren’t skinny enough or that they aren’t beautiful, that they can ultimately cash in on other people’s self loathing and that is both terrifying and disgusting.

So today, in celebration of International Diet Day, I am urging people out there not only to break away from their diets today, but for good. It has been proven that diets do not work and if you lose weight at first, weight management is a bitch and more often than not, people not only gain their weight back, but they put on more weight from binge eating after starving themselves or not allowing their bodies the necessary nutrients that it needs to live.

If you are dieting to lose weight for health reasons, it is always wise to get the facts about diets or to consult your doctor and stress that you will not be taking pills, drinking weight loss beverages and etcetera and see if they have any other ideas as to how you can effectively lose weight and maintain your health.

Today would be a great day to strip down, maybe take a nice bubble bath, drink some wine and then afterwards, look at yourself in the mirror–Yes, completely naked. While some may not like what they see, you must realize that your body is solely yours and putting it through hell will not make you feel better and ultimately will not make you look better. You are beautiful just the way you are and no one else has any right to tell you or lead you to believe any differently.

You may also want to check out a fabulous, fabulous post, A public service announcement from your body and also check out some fat acceptance blogs, such as the Big Fat Blog, Shapely Prose, or some others that are listed ideally on the Shapely Prose blog.

Tags: beauty, body image, dieting, eating disorders, fat acceptance, International No Diet Day

Feminism at its Finest: April 2008

April 30, 2008 · Filed Under Feminism at its Finest ·

Hooray, it’s the April 2008 edition of Feminism at its Finest!

Carol presents Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, a great post on spousal abuse and when you know someone who is being abused by their spouse–physically or verbally. Definitely a must-read, so head on over toCan’t Holder Tongue.

The Eclectic Female presents Recognizing Verbal Abuse in Relationships, saying:

“Words can hurt, and it is important to recognize when verbal abuse occurs.”

This is posted at Women’s Lifestyle.

Jackson Kern presents 40 Million Trees and a Nobel Peace Prize: One Woman’s Story, which is a video exclusive on how Wangari Maathai became the first African woman, and first environmentalist, to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. You can see the video at The Alternative Channel Blog.

John Phillips presents Guide to Hiring Women. I’ve seen these pictures before, but here’s a little trip to the past for you. This is posted at The Word On Employment Law.

Kejda Gjermani presents Dissecting the Burqa posted at Kejda.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents An Ode To Lefty Bloggers Who Hate Hillary Clinton posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

Nine Deuce presents Porn Part 4: Half of the Big Picture. This post is not offensive. In fact, it makes some phenomenal points, such as:

“There’s no other object that is both desired and hated in the way women in porn are.”

~
“The porn industry is fucking lousy with producers who not only don’t work too hard to make sure their “actors” are of age, but who actively seek underage girls as they know it will increase the revenue they can extract from the kinds of assholes who are obsessed with virgins and young girls. Chances are, if you use a lot of porn, you’ve participated in the rape of a minor by proxy, especially if you’ve ever done a search with the word “young” in it.”

This is definitely a post worth checking out, posted at Rage Against the Man-chine.

Shaheen Lakhan presents Domestic Violence: Call for Primary Care Screening and Gender Issues - Part I, saying:

“Nearly half of women killed by their partner are seen in primary care settings prior to their deaths, but only 4% of them were in shelters.”

You can read the whole post at GNIF Brain Blogger.

Tali presents Plus Size Pinups - Could they Ever Grow Beyond Sidestream?, saying:

” Plus-size pinups are a niche within a niche. It’s hard to see a potential of growth outside of the plus-size fetish community. I would like to propose otherwise, by showcasing a few plus-size pinup artists.”

She also presents Where Pinups Got Their Start, saying:

“he end of the 19th century brought us the curvy, flowing styling of Art Nouveau. What better suiting movement to kick-start the pinups of the mid 20th century?”

Both of these stories can be seen at The Pinup Blog.

And lastly, for some shameless self-promotion, everyone should go check out my weekly section on the commercial sex industry, Take Me Now Here.

And that’s it for this month. Be sure to submit your posts for next month’s carnival here.

Tags: 2008 election, Africa, blog carnival, body image, culture, domestic violence, exploitation, Hillary Clinton, men, misogyny, porn, sex industry, Sexism, Take Me Now Here

Take Me Now Here: The Commercial Sex Industry and Feminism

April 19, 2008 · Filed Under Sex ·

Take Me Nowhere I have very briefly touched upon my thoughts on the commercial sex industry here and basically all posts I have written on the topic have been quite popular versus the other subjects I have written about.

With the attention those posts have received and after talking to a friend of mine who runs Take Me Nowhere, a great site that touches upon some taboo subjects such as marijuana, law reform, Wicca, Paganism, The Occult and also some personal tidbits thrown in there for the hell of it, we decided that while she gives the majority of conservatives quite a bit to get pissed off about already, why not throw some sex into the mix?

And so starting yesterday, I will be writing a section on the commercial sex industry, everything revolving around the sex industry and I also plan on writing a bit about feminist-friendly sex and (gasp!) feminist-friendly sex toys and stores! I have a lot of ideas, so check out my section, Take Me Now Here over at Take Me Nowhere (ha, get it?)

Tags: body image, brothels, culture, escort services, exploitation, marijuana, Media, men, phone sex, porn, prostitutes, prostitution, psychology, sex industry, sex trafficking, Sexism, strip clubs, Take Me Now Here

Feminism at its Finest: March 2008

March 31, 2008 · Filed Under Feminism at its Finest ·

Welcome to Feminism at its Finest, March 2008 edition. This is by far the largest edition we have had to date and I am very excited for this carnival to keep building awareness and momentum. So let’s get to the submissions.

Blue presents Hotties On TV Sell Get Rich Scams, a post talking about an infomercial that I have seen on some lazy late nights that used women who are depicted as brainless and naive while objectifying women and using the “sex sells” mentality and sadly, they are selling to millions of people using this mentality. This post can be seen at Money Blue Book.

Carol presents What Kind of Feminist Am I? posted at Can’t Holder Tongue.

Christine presents Is Marriage Outdated?, which starts off with:

“The marriage ritual is Anglo-Saxon in nature and archaic in today’s society. Marriage for tax break reasons is not a very romantic notion nor should it be a reason for two people to stay together.”

Posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.
She also presents Think Before You Vote,posted at Me, My Kid and Life.

Clever Elsie presents a few posts, first off we have “Marry Him” by Lori Gottlieb: A Singletude Response and How Single Men Make Women Settle, which is a followup on the “Marry Him” post about how Lori Gottlieb says that women settle, but men don’t have to and Commit to Yourself, a great post on a tongue in cheek idea of self-commitment parties, which I find to be a refreshing new look on being a happy single. All of these posts can be seen at Singletude: A Positive Blog for Singles.

Edith presents How to Succeed Without Being a Man, an interview with Kerrie Halmi, posted at Edith Yeung.

Greg Laden presents Board Room Gender Gap posted at Greg Laden’s Blog.

Katie presents Powerful Speech: Suggestions For Feminist Media, saying:

“This lets feminist media makers (like we bloggers!) one of the most useful things we can do right now (and, I suppose, forever?) to end sexual/gendered violence against a huge population of women.”

This post can be seen at Brown Femi Power.

Lori Jewett presents Ending Violence Against Women, saying:

“Strong, confident women everywhere are making themselves heard, but violence against women still threatens us. Learn more about women’s struggles against this plague of violence and what you can do to help.”

She also presents Coming Together for Change, saying:

“What the world needs now…is a woman in the White House. Rational, compassionate thinking, the ability to bring people together, the creation of consensus, real change…isn’t it about time?”

These posts can be seen over at Between Us Girls.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Hysterical Lefty Bloggers Whine For Clinton To Leave Obama Alone, a great limerick, as well as Ode To Eliot Spitzer, posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

Marcella Chester presents Socialization Which Sets Up Sex Predator/Passive Victim Model posted at abyss2hope.

Tina Su presents A Gift That Wows!, saying that the best gifts we can give another person are appreciation and open communication, posted at Think Simple. Be Decisive.

Tracee Sioux presents a few posts, Girl Characters and Geena Davis, saying:

“Girl characters are outnumbered 3 to 1. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media is trying to change that. A look at some studies and what you can do to help.”

Posted at So Sioux Me.
She also presents Mood Shaper, a post on how a full-body girdle made her feel about herself, including adjectives such as angry, moody, irritable, cramped, shoved in, judged, restricted, oppressed, repressed, hostile, wrong, fat, unacceptable, picked apart, flawed, pinched, unworthy, squished and frustrated, as well as Stop Abortion Vote Healthcare!, saying:

“With healthcare for disenfranchised women on the table we have an unprecidented opportunity to drastically reduce the abortion rate without criminalizing women in poverty.”

These posts can be seen at Blog Fabulous.

And that’s it for this edition! Make sure to submit your feminist posts for next month, which will be up on Wednesday, April 30.

Tags: 2008 election, Barack Obama, blog carnival, body image, Eliot Spitzer, gender equality, Kerrie Halmi, marriage, Media, rape, relationships, sexual assault