“On the street I saw a small girl cold and shivering in a thin dress, with little hope of a decent meal. I became angry and said to God; ‘Why did you permit this? Why don’t you do something about it?’ For a while God said nothing. That night he replied, quite suddenly: ‘I certainly did something about it. I made you.’”
Quoting Erin Matson’s truly beautiful editorial for minnesota.publicradio.org:
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“I remember flipping through fashion magazines disinterestedly as a girl, never realizing the extent to which Photoshop could be used as a weapon of mass destruction.
We have all come to expect that photos of models are airbrushed in advertisements and fashion magazines. It’s a fact—one that’s all too easy to swallow and throw back up.
Recently, Ralph Lauren fired size-four model Filippa Hamilton, allegedly for being too large. This story is an outrage in itself. She is, by the standards of the World Health Organization, underweight.
What made me want to burst into tears was far worse: A dramatically Photoshopped Ralph Lauren ad that surfaced in Japan after she had been fired.
I know all too well that the modeling and fashion industries love to portray women who struggle with eating disorders or have been digitally altered to dangerously unrealistic standards, and they do it with dramatic glamour.
While I was dying of anorexia during my late teens, I was recruited by modeling agencies three times. One of the times I was hospitalized, a fellow patient climbed on stage at the Mall of America to win a modeling contest while on a day pass, her hospital bracelet flopping off her wrist as she waved to an applauding crowd.
Recently, Self magazine ran a “total body confidence” issue and digitally slenderized singer Kelly Clarkson before putting her on the cover, even though she has said that she’s comfortable with herself just the way she is.
Women and girls are watching, and the results aren’t pretty. Eighty-one percent of 10-year-old girls are afraid of being fat, and an estimated 10 million … CONTINUE READING THIS WONDERFUL ESSAY
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Join the National Organization for Women’s “Love Your Body” campaign
Then…
Read Irked posts tagged “body image”
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Six years ago, Crystal Renn was an unknown size-0 model who moved to New York from Clinton, Mississippi, to make it big. She struggled with her weight for years, however, and finally made the bold decision to switch to plus-size modeling. Now a healthy 165 pounds, she is the highest-paid plus-size model in the world, having graced the covers of American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and appeared in Dolce & Gabbana ads. The 23-year-old recently talked with TIME Magazine about her new book Hungry, her size-0 modeling days and walking the runway for Jean Paul Gaultier. Here are the highlights:
Quoting the Friday, August 28th edition of The Chronicle-Herald:
The Saint Mary’s Huskies football team is hosting a car wash Saturday in Halifax to raise funds for Hope Cottage. The team, along with the Halifax RCMP, Halifax Regional Police and Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service, will wash cars, with all proceeds going to the non-profit agency, which provides hot meals to the needy. Some other Saint Mary’s athletes will help out, as will players from the Halifax Rainmen basketball team. The car wash will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at O’Regan’s Chevrolet Cadillac on Robie Street.
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Quoting halifaxnewsnet.ca:
Hope Cottage [2435 Brunswick Street; (902) 429-7968] is a charitable organization whose mission is to provide meals to those who cannot afford to obtain these meals themselves. Since its inception Hope Cottage has grown into a Halifax institution feeding more than 200 meals a day, Monday to Friday. Each day a brunch of soup and sandwich is served from 10:00 to 11:00 and a hot prepared meal from 5:00 to 6:00. Hope Cottage was originally financed by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. For the past 15 years or so Hope Cottage has been self sufficient, with all revenues coming from unsolicited donations from individuals and corporations. The annual operating budget for the cottage is approximately $165,000.00. Hope Cottage relies heavily on volunteers. There are three volunteers for each meal, for a total of 30 people working two to three hours a week. Volunteers will work the same meal every week. These people serve meals, serve coffee, wash dishes etc.
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The following terrific article, titled “Metro Transit nixes passes for blind,” appeared in the January 23-29, 2009 edition of The Halifax Commoner. It was written by Ryan Baker:
Dennis McCormack has used Metro Transit to get around Halifax Regional Municipality for more than 40 years, just like thousands of other Haligonians.
But McCormack is different from the people sitting around him on the bus. Nestled next to his bus pass is a plastic card from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
McCormack has a condition called albinism, leaving him with less than 10 percent visibility in his clear blue eyes.
For as long as he’s taken the bus, McCormack has used a courtesy pass from Metro Transit. Those free rides—for him and all visually impaired people—are coming to an end.
Every Third Bite
Directed and produced by the Meerkat Media Arts Collective Winner of the Good Food Award Supported by the Clif Bar Family Foundation & W.K. Kellogg Foundation Official selection of the 2008 Media That Matters Film Festival
Every third mouthful of food you eat is pollinated by a honeybee. Without bees we’d pretty much all starve to death.
In the winter of 2006, honeybees in Europe and North America started to disappear. They disappeared by the millions. They disappeared without a trace. About one in every three colonies left their hives but never came home. Researchers started calling the mass disappearance CCD—Colony Collapse Disorder.
Bees play a central role in our food supply. They are crucial to our economy and our ecosystem. This is more than just a honey matter. Nature’s pollinators are dying out in epidemic numbers.
Watch a truly riveting documentary film after the jump…
Recipes for the Bipolar Palate
by Rabbi Marc Wilson
AKA “Rabbi Ribeye”
AKA “Rabbiner von Beefsteak”
Have you already figured out that I am as bipolar as a rubber band? When I am up, I am a hyena. When I am down, I make Hamlet look like Jerry Lewis. Thank God for leading-edge medication, an understanding therapist, and a loving and ever-patient wife.
You probably do not know that I am Click to continue »
By about ten this morning, outside the Click to continue »
Take This Bread
by Sara Miles
Reviewed by David Roche
David Roche on Take This Bread:
—Sara Miles is a storyteller, and her story, written in a tight, wonderfully readable style that she honed in her reporting years, is about food . . . Yes, this book is good enough to eat.
—She nails a core aspect of New Age spirituality when she describes it as “spongy”.
—Her prayers are not words but actions.
—She is not saintly. She can be testy, edgy, judgmental, with a touch of arrogance. But that’s the way prophets are supposed to be. Miles’ conversion is a flawed floundering.
—Her descriptions of the food pantry scene and its human communion are vivid, at times heartbreaking, but always respectful.
