hey, beautiful.

Yesterday I had a really great talk with my grandmother.  We talk on the phone pretty often, and I always enjoy our conversations.  But, yesterday we talked about this ad:

Specifically, we talked about how crappy it is that the ad is banned in so many places.  We were talking about our bodies and body image.  I started to tell her the story of the Dove ad, but she stopped me to say that she already knew all about it and then she told me how mad it made her.  My grandmother: a really conservative, southern baptist woman, was baffled at why such a beautiful and wonderful celebration of women’s beauty would be censored.  I told her about the other ad they did that shows a model looking fresh out of bed and follows her through a photo shoot. 

For some reason, watching that makes me tear up.  It makes me angry and sad that even though I *know* pictures in fashion magazines are fantasy, looking at them makes me feel horrible and ugly.  And my grandmother, who is 82, admits to feeling old and ugly when she watches television and sees the crazy beauty standard that the mainstream media keeps making more and more unattainable. 

It’s Easter.  I feel bad because I didn’t make a nice meal or a big breakfast or anything.  Willow had strawberries, Easter eggs, and chocolate bunny ears for breakfast, which is, admittedly, pretty awesome.  When I was little, Easter was a big deal: new dress, new shoes, big family get togethers around a big meal.  Maybe next year I’ll do more than make deviled eggs out of the ones that got cracked in the egg hunt. 

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And next year I will be more careful and not get paprika in my eye.  I don’t know how that happened, but I do know it burns a little for a long time.

4 thoughts on “hey, beautiful.

  1. Rachel

    thanks for the paprika tip – I need to make deviled eggs tomorrow.

    Hope you had a nice easter today. Ours was low key at home, but (um) not at all low key at my mom’s house. But fun was had everywhere.

    Reply
  2. sadira

    Happy Easter…and be careful with the spices girl, nothing to loose your eyes over. Well, I loved the ads (well, you know…) it helps to remind me that I am beautiful the way I am, and no comparing myself to anyone! I had a male friend once say to me he wished he could find a natural girl “…you know, like the ones in the magazines?” oh brother!

    Anyway, I am the gal at http://foolsewoode.blogspot.com/
    who sent Capello the Tarot fabric, and I found it at my local JoAnn’s fabric store (which was surprising as I live in a really small town) they also have all sorts of other Day of the Dead designs that are dreamy! Good luck finding it…

    Reply
  3. mamasutra

    I am almost twitchy-hysterical about the ads and the issues, and could go on for pages about them, but in the interest of brevity I’ll share this: talked to a mom recently who told me her daughter wants to dye her amazingly gorgeous wavy red hair blond. Why? There are no models with red hair (someone said “tell her about Nicole Kidman…whose hair is now blond). This child is not even in school yet. Makes me want to pull my own not dyed not blond hair salt and pepper hair out. Thanks for posting about this; as agitated as it makes me, it’s good for me to be reminded, especially with two baby women in the house.

    Reply
  4. capello

    mmmm… deviled eggs….

    neither one of those ads are shown here in kansas. or, at least, not during any tv that i watch.

    and yes, it is totally distorted and disgusting. i just hope more women realize it and teach their children (both girls and boys) the difference.

    Reply

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