Ugly talent agency /London & New York/ aims to promote (and sell) unconventional beauty. Though it is unlikely that our conception of beauty would turn 180 degrees because of this type of practice, we should be careful not to make it another pole of thinking and stream of stereotyping. Ugly shouldn't be the new beautiful. All kinds of beauty should coexist, all the time. Um...pretty much like how Ugly embraces model-looking models in the Rage brand. /MSNBC's Today talks about Ugly/
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/Calvin Klein and the underwear revolution from PonyStep/ "Calvin Klein pioneered the objectification of men"? The most recent example I can think of is Caravaggio. Even if CK was responsible for this at all, the destination of its practice would be nothing new but consumption, the ultimate goal of any "innovative" campaigns. From something like the Brooke Shields commercial it is clear that CK intends to provoke rather than to evoke alternative mentalities, though the objectification of men may do a little of that. But do we expect them to contribute to building a healthier set of ideologies (not saying that objectifying men is a healthy thing to do)? No, it is almost ridiculous to. Their job is to make (model) boys and girls look hotter than the cotton pieces on them, and at the same time make them part of the pieces. Nobody is talking about exploitation here. Nor moral. Nor underwear. It's called sexiness. Yes, that thing we want.
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/this entry got quite a lot of comments from the Feministing Community/ I'm having a period. It started yesterday and the beginning was extremely uncomfortable this time. Today I went to browse all the different-but-similar fancy packages for at least 5 minutes untill I guessed I got the right ones. During the process I could not help but thought of a line implanted in my mind through some sort of extraterrestrial contact - Have a happy period. A sentence like this is alien, so alien it may be alien to aliens. On which planet is a period happy? I checked their tips on how to have a happy period. They seem to be advices on releasing stress than gaining happiness, or simple regimes for being healthy. No words about pads. The hope of using a particular brand to solve any menstrual "unhappiness" is collasped and gone. Oh but there are heating pads (particularly from ThermaCare) that "will let you leave the house and participate fully in your life"! Sounding good? Having a pond of blood in my tummy, I sat still and went to the local website. Though most of the discussions are plain laughable there is one that might be interesting: What will the world be if men menstruate?. Most say men will be more understanding of women. Some say it will be fair. Some say it is nice, while others worry about dangerous consequences for men to be more irritated than they always are. But I like this one the most: Sales of sanitary pads will grow immensely. Another question in the discussion board is whether boyfriends or husbands have bought pads for us, assuming girls and women are all men-loving, or have a cute-enough spouse to be called 老公仔. Right. Prince Charming's are all around and we can (and should) simply wait for them to pick us up (maybe when we are having a happy period).
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If you don't feel uncomfortable about the fact that this is led by a product brand and has in(de)finite connections with lines and series of products, Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty may be a fair resource for you who (body)care.
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