Brittany Murphy… another battle lost?

First, I just want to say how deeply saddened I am to hear about Brittany Murphy’s death. Like most girls, Clueless is one of my favorite movies, and I followed Murphy’s career from the “valley girl” classic to Girl, Interrupted, to 8 Mile. I was completely shocked when I first heard the heart breaking news. It’s extremely disturbing, as she was only 32-years-old.

I’ve been following the reports of Murphy’s death. The press first said Murphy’s cardiac arrest was due to natural causes. Then I heard it may have had something to do with her Diabetes. Later on, I heard it was drugs. Like any other celebrity death, the news has changed about 100 times, and it’s only been known to the public for a little over 24 hours. I read a report earlier today however, about how Murphy greatly struggled with self-image issues and eating disorders.

People Magazine reported how Murphy struggled with body image issues over her 18-year (too short for her age) career. She fought the tabloids as soon as the press started rumors of an eating disorder, saying (according to People), “I’m the same size I was in Clueless; it’s just that the weight in your face changes as you grow and get older. This is my body. I’m proud of it … I’m healthy.”

Reports of the actress always being extremely self-conscious were released. Also according to People, one even said, “A lot of her problems were due to poor self image. She wore extraordinary amounts of makeup, tons of fake eyelashes, got her teeth capped, dyed her hair blonde, lost weight – she wanted to be a beauty. She didn’t want to be the fat girl from Clueless. She didn’t eat a lot. She would drink copious amounts of coffee.”

I will continue to follow Murphy’s death investigation. Whatever the cause may be, this is an extremely sad story. If Murphy’s death is due in part to self-image issues, I really hope people will open their eyes, and start to pay attention to the terrible effects the media can have on a person.

Filmmaker’s boycott of Ralph Lauren

Filmmaker Darryl Roberts, Nicole Pollard (Miss Indiana 2009), and 100 supporters are demonstrating outside the Ralph Lauren store in Chicago.

Fox Business reports the boycott aims to, “Improve media and advertising images sent to young women and girls.”

The article also states the boycott will, “broadcast live via Ustream, which enables iPhone 3GS users to send live video to websites, something that Roberts says will allow “the many thousands of supporters around the world that wanted to join us, but couldn’t, to visit http://americathebeautifuldoc.com/ and watch our peaceful demonstration as it happens.”

Roberts documentary America the Beautiful, focuses on the subject of body image and eating disorders. Check out the live stream of the boycott and scroll through his website (listed above) to learn more.

Demi Moore, is it really you?

Demi Moore is on the cover of W Magazine, but is it really her? Many bloggers are arguing that Moore’s body looks exactly like Anja Rubik’s.

Rubik is the fashion model who donned the same Balmain dress on the Paris runway earlier this year. According to an article in The Telegraph, people are arguing the neck, collarbone, and arms are all identical. Could Moore’s head be photoshopped right on to Rubik’s body? If this were true, I don’t think anyone would be surprised.

Did anyone see Charlie’s Angels? Demi Moore looks great, her head does not need to be posted on a 26-year-old model’s body.

Matters are becoming so extreme, that a Los Angeles photographer even offered to donate $5,000 to charity if Moore could prove her body was not digitally retouched.

Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2009 review

So, did everyone see the ridiculous bodies walking down the runway last night?

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show aired Tuesday at 10 p.m. I decided to watch it as a tradition with a bunch of my girlfriends. I can’t even count the number of times I heard, “I’m going on a diet.”

After blogging about body image for three months and realizing all of the horrible effects the media has on our bodies, you would think I wouldn’t be affected by these women. However, I caught myself several times thinking I should do two-a-days at the gym for a while.

Some people would call this show a one hour torture session, but it’s important to look at it as pure entertainment and not to take it too personally.  However, I did think there was one part of the show that seriously crossed the line. This segment focused on the flaws of the models competing in the search for the next Victoria’s Secret Angel.

During this part of the show, the Angels-to-be were brought to several trainers at a gym. These trainers told the models what they didn’t like about their bodies.

I was flabbergasted.

Besides a few of them being too skinny, I would not have been able to name one thing wrong with these beautiful girls. One of the trainers non chalantly told a model what was wrong with her body to her face. If you missed it, be sure to watch the clip I’ve included.

Besides that disturbing part, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, as I do every year. I especially loved the Black Eyed Peas performance.

What did you think?

The Sun-Maid Raisin Girl’s ultimate makeover

Glamour Health and Fitness would like to know what you think of the Sun-Maid Raisin Girl’s new look.

If you haven’t noticed, Sun-Maid’s newest commercials and advertisements depict a new icon – and she definitely looks like she receieved a makeover.

In fact, according to Glamour’s website, some bloggers are suggesting that it looks like she received breast implants.

After studying the difference for myself, I have to agree with those bloggers. The Sun-Maid Raisin Girl’s graphic designers have definitely been generous this holiday season.

Don’t forget to check out the history timeline of the Raisin Girl. Does this show how the media’s depiction of body image has changed throughout the century?

The before shot:

The after shot:

Former Miss Argentina dies after plastic surgery

Solange Magnano was 37-years-old and a former Miss Argentina. She died Sunday, Nov. 30 after undergoing a plastic surgery procedure.

According to CNN.com, Magnano died in a hospital after being transferred from a clinic where she underwent an elective surgery on her buttocks (gluteoplasty), which took place on Wednesday.

Magnano ran her own modeling agency in Argentina, and was a model herself. She was Miss Argentina in 1994. She was also the mother of 7-year-old twins.

Plastic surgery is extremely common in Argentina. According to CNN, 1 in 30 Argentines has gone under the knife.

Interview with Carly Miller

I interviewed Carly Miller, who has recently recovered from multiple eating disorders. However, this interview means a lot to me, because not only is Carly one of my very close friends, she’s also one of the inspirations for my blog.

Carly (left) and me (right) during our freshman year of college at Towson

Carly and I hit it off right away. We’re both Philadelphia natives and our high schools were huge rivals. We came to Towson University together and became friends right away. We were inseparable. We pledged the same sorority, and did everything together, until problems started to arise.

Carly left Towson during our sophomore year of college to get long-term help at a facility in Toledo, Ohio. Since then, she’s made amazing progress and has come to a full recovery.

Here’s a small tease to the story…

“My eating disorder first developed when I was 15. It started up again my senior year of high school but didn’t become extreme until the second semester of my freshman year of college. There were a lot of contributing factors to my ED. Being an athlete, I was always told that the smaller you were, the faster you went. and I really stuck by that idea. In college, there were so many changes going on and I just felt like I needed something that I could have control over, and I chose my weight. Additionally, there were some extremely negative experiences that I felt a lot of anger about, but was too scared to vocalize it, so I turned the anger in on myself and abused my body instead,” Miller said.

For her full story, read the feature story on the page to the right titled, “Her long and winding road to recovery.”

Thanks to Carly for the interview and I’m so proud of you!

Babies airbrushed to look “more perfect”

The UK’s Practical Parenting and Pregnancy magazine admitted to airbrushing babies. The reasons? So they could, “put them across in their best light.”

According to an article on Jezebel, one editor explained,”We lightened his eyes and his general skin tone, smoothed out any blotches and the creases on his arms…But we want it to look natural.”

Is this some kind of sick joke? They are babies. Our society starts with the most innocent form of life, and retouches them because apparently baby wrinkles are not acceptable.

What kind of message does this send?

Interview with Revolution of Real Women Part II

Here is part II of my interview with Brianne Widaman. See part I just below this post!!

JK: Especially for women, how do you think the media pressures society to look good?

RRW: We still live in a patriarchal society. No matter how far we’ve come to redefine what it means to be a woman, we’re still faced with stereotypes that seek to pigeonhole us and label us. As we’ve been asking for years, “Ever felt like you weren’t thin enough, pretty enough, athletic, tall, short, normal, curvy, sexy, smart, wealthy, successful or PERFECT enough?” We’re hit from an infinite number of angles to change ourselves to be more accepted by others and society. Men face these challenges in different ways as well, but when you have far more women battling potentially fatal eating disorders than breast cancer, you know we’ve got to wake up and fast.

JK: What can women, and everyone in general, do to avoid these societal pressures?

RRW: Media is not going to go away. In fact, it will likely only continue to grow in ways we can’t even imagine. That’s why it’s so important to infiltrate it now and CREATE the media we wish to see – more positive, diverse and realistic images of women in media. If we don’t get organized and DO something about it, the change isn’t going to happen. That’s where RRW comes in – we’re leading the way for an organized movement to finally do something about it.

It’s important to believe in yourself. Realize that so much of what we see in the mainstream is false, manipulated and created to make you feel inadequate. Don’t give anyone else the power to define YOU. It’s easier said than done, right? Baby steps are the most crucial part of this. As a movement, we will take baby steps and big steps together. It’s all a part of how serious and lasting changing comes to be.

JK: Anything else you can tell me?

RRW: I think it’s important to point out that both men AND women experience negative effects from mass media. Not only is there an increase in the percentage of men experiencing body-image issues and eating disorders, but they also have women in their lives, mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, girlfriends and wives who have a very wounded, distorted sense of self. They see how we allow it to control our confidence and ambitions. Something unique that we have chosen to include in our campaign are the voices, participation and concerns of men. Everyone must be represented at the table for this to really work.

Interview with Revolution of Real Women Part I

I recently interviewed Brianne Widaman of Revolution of Real Women, which is a group that aims to empower women to be true to themselves, rather then what everyone else says they should be. Widaman started RRW when she was in recovery for anorexia and bulimia.

The group has grown to 19,000 members and is extremely successful. Widaman says that Revolution of Real Women is essentially a media she created that she wished to see in society.

I loved interviewing Brianne and want to thank her very much for her time!! Good luck with Revoution of Real Women, it’s amazing and I hope only the best for you!

Follow Revolution of Real Women on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace.

JK: Tell me about the Revolution of Real Women. How did it start?

RRW: REVOLUTION OF REAL WOMEN™ started back in 2005 when I created a Flickr group (which still exists today: www.flickr.com/groups/RealWomen) because I wanted to create a group that was more about empowering women to be true to themselves rather than what everyone else said they should be.

When membership began to steadily increase, I realized I needed to spread the message and began to expand to other social networking sites.  Today, we have over 19,000 members (what we call our “ALLIES™”) across all of our different sites and groups. It’s always amazing to me to see how interested people are in this subject. The most common responses I get when I tell someone about the campaign are “Wow! That’s really needed right now,” and “It’s about time!”

I started RRW when I was in the early stages of my own recovery from anorexia and bulimia. It was really a way for me to create the media I wished to see… (yes, similar to the Ghandi saying “Be the change you wish to see.”) to celebrate the messages I thought women needed to be hearing instead of the ‘airbrush-this’ and ‘lipo-that’ talk that’s, unfortunately, a part of our society.

JK: What does the Revolution of Real Women aim to achieve? What are your goals?

RRW: Our core goal has not changed. We focus on being both a positive source of information and encouragement to women as well as a strong and fearless ALLY™ when it comes to speaking up for a woman’s right to be her authentic self. One of the most critical ways we can go about making LASTING change is by providing women with the knowledge of how manipulated we really are when it comes to advertising. This campaign is about ousting the misperceptions we’ve come to accept as truth – that we should be using what mass media tells us in shaping who and what we are.

At the core, most of the offenders of women’s self-esteem just want to make money. Ignoring the biggest players in the game, no matter how powerful they might be, is not going to make them go away. We need to convince them that there’s just as much, if not more money to be made by uplifting women rather than degrading and manipulating them.  In doing so, we will have to engage in conversations both with our ALLIES™ as well as our ADversaries™ to come to a place of understanding and common ground. We welcome the involvement of every individual throughout the globe to magazine editors, television executives and producers to fashion designers and modeling agencies… ALL parts of the mass media machine must be involved.

We are currently in the final stages of launching our long-anticipated website (RevolutionOfRealWomen.com) where members will be able to join our campaign and take part, not only in the IDEA of a revolution, but a virtual, even physical one as well. I can’t go into too much detail, but we wanted to find a way to make it easy for people to get free information as well as participate in the movement. REVOLUTION OF REAL WOMEN.com will be a powerful hub of activists and advocates who believe in empowering women and making lasting change when it comes to how women are portrayed in media and how women feel about themselves.

As far as future goals go, I try not to limit myself or the campaign. I have a pretty varied background from the music and entertainment industries to politics and non-profit work, so the sky is the limit on what RRW will seek to do to spread our message and create really and lasting change.

JK: Do you believe that the media places negative pressure on society to be skinny?

RRW: Well, yes, I think that’s probably a given, though it would be a mistake not to look at the whole picture. To simply go and blame the “media” isn’t entirely fair. That’s a broad term and it encompasses a lot more than one might expect. When we’re facing such a huge dichotomy between the issue of obesity and eating disorders in our country, it’s hard to deny that something’s messing with the message. Moderation in life, in so many ways, is the key.

We really embrace the “Health At Every Size” philosophy. It allows women room to be their genetically authentic size, and goes to show that just because one woman weighs more than the next, that does not necessarily mean one is healthier than the other.

JK: Do you think the media has gradually improved throughout the years pertaining to its body image messages? Or, do you believe the messages have gotten worse?

RRW: That depends if you’re looking at the big picture or not. On a broader scale, yes, absolutely – media has become more detrimental by increasingly using of our self-esteem and insecurities as their leveraging points. They’ve gotten way too good at it.

However, it wouldn’t be fair of me not to acknowledge the smaller ways in which we, as a society, are trying to better the situation. Activist and interest groups are seeking to help. Big names like Dove are putting themselves out there with more positive messages to encourage young women to believe in themselves. Even magazines have made some baby steps as of recently by including more average-sized women on its pages. There’s even a modeling agency that’s caught my attention named the Ben Barry Agency – they are working from inside the fashion industry to fight size and age discrimination.

These are all our “ALLIES™”. What we’re experiencing is the culmination of years of revolutionary ‘talk’, and combining that with an organized effort to actually join together and DO something about it. There’s a buzz in the air right now, and for me, it’s absolutely invigorating. We’re going to do it.