bodies

http://www.bigcuties.com/

This nice Barbie and Ken from 1961 might be useful for demonstrating just how much the ideal masculine body has changed.


Look at those skinny legs!

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Nair (a cream hair-removal product) is now targeting teen girls. The Nair Pretty website treats shaving for the first time much like the first period–talk to your mom or older sisters! We know it can be scary! And of course what makes it scary is all the cuts and nicks you can get from a razor. And guess what? There’s an easy solution!

I especially like that Nair Pretty is supposedly formulated especially “for the skin of teenage girls.”

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Yan sent me this link to the Brigham Young University dress code. Here are some examples:

One of the things I think is really interesting is how aggressively multicultural the posters are. The Mormon church did not allow black men to be priests (and therefore they could not ascend to the highest level of heaven) until 1978.

Thanks Yan!

Data on the prevalence of cosmetic surgery is notoriously difficult to find. This is data on the five most common procedures, according to one association’s members. Pretty amazing.

Surgical and non-surgical procedures (2006):

10-year comparison:

Most popular procedures by gender:

Found here.

This is an image that graces the cover of a new documentary about intersex individuals called Black and White.


In general, though, I think it’s a really powerful image that refuses to accept that women who are not young, with a teenage girl’s body, and a submissive attitude are somehow offensive.

This “delightful” quiz in Us magazine asks viewers, segregated by sex, to judge women’s breasts and what they do with them. Don’t miss the fact that 56% of men and 31% of women prefer Heidi Montag with breast implants.

What, exactly, a reader is supposed to do with this information is a mystery to me. But there must be a use for this in some class somewhere.


Women, if you are lucky, you too could look like a piece of Chex Mix:

NEW! You desire these kitchen counters and cupboards like you desire that “dream” woman’s curves.  I know you do.  (Thanks Sarah N!)

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I also have to ask: Above her head it reads “Studio White — Featuring Curves.”  Could this be a race joke?  You know, black women are curvy, so a white woman’s curves is a special feature?  I don’t know.  I may be reading too much into it.