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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Barbie with a Booty

I don't know if I'm just noticing these things more because of how much they have been on my mind lately, or if I'm just being shown what I need to see, but I have seen and read so many inspiring things on the subject of women's body image in the last few days.
Remember how I said I could go on for a long time about how industry benefits from women's self hatred? Well, this guy did. His name is Alok Appadurai, and he and his wife started A Beautiful Body Project. Their mission is to promote a new standard of beauty - one that is based in reality. His wife takes pictures of women's postpartum bodies and leaves them just as they are. No Photoshop. No airbrush. They are publishing a book of the images they have taken so far, and I want it. I want to display it on my coffee table for all my guests to see. I want it to be a part of my children's lives. I want them to see these images and know that they are beautiful and strong and real. The poem Alok wrote - Milking Millons Off Women's Self Doubt - is powerful. I strongly encourage you to read it.
Have you heard about the guy who 3-D printed a Barbie based on the average American woman's body? I think it's amazing and so, so frustrating at the same time. Why has it taken so long to do something like this? Why hasn't Mattel done it themselves? We've known for a long time that Barbie has an impossible physique, why can't we just change it? Either way, I love Real Barbie. I think she kinda looks like me. Or I look like her, I guess. Just minus the blonde hair. Who among us has been able to say that about the Barbie we grew up with...?! I want this new Barbie for my daughters.











































I have so much more I could show you, but I think I'll lay this subject down for a while here on this blog. Check out my Pinterest board True Beauty for more inspiring images of real women and links to other people taking a stand.

4 comments :

  1. I am now following you on Pinterest! I love the 'real' Barbie, and I think she looks so much better than please-feed-me-because-I'm-little-more-than-a-stick Barbie! Women need to know that what we see all the time is not REAL!! We are fed so much crap that it's pathetic.

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    1. Jenn, thanks for following! And I agree with you 100%!!! It's high time we all learn the truth and pass it on to our daughters.

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  2. i love the look of the new barbie too!
    my next thought was, this one will be even more of a hassle to dress. it was hard enough getting clothes on that stick of a body.
    can doll clothes makers just use velcro????

    i do love that song's word. play it for me :-)

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    1. Haha, Mom. I love how your mind works! Yes - velcro and elastic. :)
      Could you not play the song? If not, I'll show it to you next time I'm with you.

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