When will we get OVER comparison and get on with our lives?
The Sunday Mail, highly informative and cutting edge tabloid that it is, today published a section with articles such as “Ad campaign unveils ‘real’ supermodels”, “Happy to be older, in control” and…take a look at this one- “Liberated females turn to tomboys”. I mean- WHAT THE?
The general topic of discussion throughout the articles are about how “stick-thin [models] have had their day and that women are turning towards more figure-friendly stereotypes in product marketing (is there even such a thing? Who wrote this article anyway?) and this has allegedly been reinforced statistical evidence collected by…wait for it- DOVE SOAP COMPANY! Prime stakes for the body image, that old soap never fails to raise eyebrows and cause a stir. I mean REALLY!
Soap is soap. Soap is not fat, thin, blond, brunette, tanned or six foot tall. It is just soap.
Yes, soap is a VERY liberating product for the power-dressing women of the twenty-first century. A big step forward. I hope the sardonic nature of this article has managed to shine through by now.
Meanwhile, the New Woman next to me is telling me all about Kylie Minogue’s new dabbling in Botox, and gives you the run down on how to get a picture perfect pout. Also, for further interest, New Woman boasts the dead easy ways to find your soul mate. Wow, what a corker. I really should read trash more often. I might even find my soul mate in a Botox clinic somewhere!
Not to be outdone, though, is New Idea with “Eat what you want and lose weight”. But no…we are NOT trying to conform to any kind of ideal here…because all that would lead to is a major deficit within the Dove soap company. And we remember that, in the words of The Sunday Mail “stick-thin supermodels have had their day”. So which one’s going out of print?
The bollocks vs. the bollocks?
Finally, I sit and flick trivially through the intellectually stimulating and hard-cutting women’s magazine Marie Claire wondering just what the hell I am supposed to be? A fat/ thin/ old/ young piece of soap? But I have found the holy bible- the words jump out at me- “What is sexy? What is fat?”. The answer! The article focuses on self perception- by basically dressing a woman in a bikini, slathering the image all over billboards and asking random chauvinistic males to comment.
Apparentely fat is still fat.
Well strike me with a bar of soap. That reminds me, I need a shower.