Who's moralising food now? Why, Sumo Salad!

Let's get this out of the way - I LOVE salad. Don't keel over in shock or anything, but I think there's nothing so refreshing in a stinky hot Brisbane summer as a fresh and crisp salad. Occasionally when I'm out in a shopping centre, I'll get a hankering for something to eat and the best out of a bad bunch will be food retailers like Sumo Salad. I've had it approximately twice in my life (I don't really go shopping much!) and every time I've been there, their staff (teenagers) have closed down the hotplates early so they can go home on time. I've had to settle for the premade salad in the bain-marie those times, but last night I snapped and turned on my heel so I could write a passive aggressive tweet about it. When I'm hungry, I'm grumpy. I like to avoid being grumpy.

I felt justified in my wroth when Leigh linked to Sumo Salad's new ads which brought on waves of non-hunger related grumpiness that can only be assuaged by blogging furiously. 

And anyway, that "cankle" isn't even one. Fat and skinny people, and lots of people in-between, have cankles - you're born with them and you may as well make peace with them!

Similarly, many men (from skinny to fat and back again) have "moobs" that they were born with - they weren't made by chicken nuggets at all.

Hey, Sumo Salad! Your mascot is fat and appropriated for Maude knows what reason because none of your food is even remotely Japanese. Your salads are wilted and bland! I will now add you to the list of Foodcourt Retailers I Avoid - fear the angry fat lady's wrath! I'm so over the body shaming and food demonising and I don't understand how insulting your target market will entice them into your stores, unless your ads aren't aimed so much at fat people but at people who are afraid of being fat. Sumo Salad, you are douchebags (and I like to keep douchebags away from my lady bits!)

I’ve seen a lot of the body image stuff that’s been happening recently in the media (magazines, news, tv) and haven’t really commented on any of it anywhere. Sometimes it’s nice to digest developments instead of bashing out an immediate response on my keyboard.

I’m very happy that body image is getting more and more play in the mainstream media, because Maude knows we’ve been talking about it online for years. The tricky thing about mainstream media is that instead of getting a bunch of like-minded people discussing the topic rationally (like in our fat-o-sphere vacuum, maybe), every person gets access to the topic and has the right to bash out an opinion even if they’ve never really thought about it before. It sounds kind of condescending, but many people don’t actually question their conditioning and resort to those pre-formed notions when talking about weight, body image, fashion and health. Let me illustrate this: a magazine hires a plus size stylist to write a column about her plus-size fashion experience and many people outside the body acceptance vacuum hammer out knee jerk opinions: What about her health? Blah blah blah health insurance! Fat people are TOTES GROCE! The hoi polloi aren’t even commenting on the actual topic: fashion. Instead they are falling back on the “go to” reaction to a fat person made visible.

So we have all this cultural conditioning, but the people outside the vacuum aren’t really aware that they have it. I’m trying to figure out if the awareness campaigns are genuine attempts to make people aware of their body image conditioning or if they’re just paying lip service to those inside the vacuum. I’m actually starting to think that the media is appealing to the masses, and limiting the scope of “acceptance” in order for people to deal with such a revolutionary notion. And that’s hurtful.

I’ve noticed that many stories on body image and acceptance also have this glaring caveat: it’s a wonderful thing to love your body, but not if you’re too fat. When Ellen had an army of plus size models on her show she bought into this notion and I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth. So, as a “deathfatty” I’m supposed to hate myself into an acceptable weight range and it’s only then that I can love myself? I don’t think it works that way Ellen! Not on a practical or academic level. It’s so arbitrary too, do I get a hand written invitation from some “deathfat” panel once I cross the threshold of acceptable body type? I will not, because as it stands no one can agree on that - well they can agree that slender is acceptable but where's the line in the sand?

It sounds a lot like many stories in the media are aiming this body image talk at women who are at a “typical” body weight and are aiming thinner. Are fat people totally co-opting this body acceptance talk? If we are, I don’t think it’s an intrusion. There’s this awareness campaign I’ve been seeing here and there called “End Fat Talk” and while I totally agree with it, I get the impression it’s not aimed at people of my size, it’s aimed at people who think they’re fat. I don’t mind co-opting this message. Actually I don’t mind co-opting any body acceptance message. We have a great privilege as blog authors, internet connection users and people who can communicate ideas and as part of that privilege I get to discuss these things that matter to me, with you.

We can’t exclude anyone from the body talk, I don’t think that’s fair. It’s the reason why many in the FA movement reject the notion of the “Real Woman” and thin woman as enemy. We’re all in this together.

Let's start with the bad..They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so let's just have a look at this, shall we?

This has been blogged at Boing Boing and all over the place, and Ralph Lauren have been keen to get it taken DOWN, lodging DCMA's with wild abandon. Unfortunately for them republishing an image like this for the purposes of "critisism and comment" is pretty much THE definition of "Fair Use" so they're not having a lot of luck.

I don't know about you, but my very first reaction when looking at this image is "What the F*%K??" - it looks very glaringly and obviously wrong to me. The proportions are ridiculous, and it's just silly looking... her head is HUGE compared to the rest of her body.. what is up with that?

What I can't understand is how this got to print.. I am presuming that between this photo getting butchered in photoshop and the magazine going on the shelves there would have been a fair number of eyes on it. Why didn't anyone pipe up and say "Umm, this is stupid?"

It's obvious to me that there's something drastically wrong with this image. Is it because I don't live in "Magazine land" that my eye hasn't been warped beyond all sensibility?

This puts me in mind of environmental disasters - like when they are using something toxic to make homes, or in people's food.. the people who have the highest rate of exposure get sick first, and display the most obvious symptoms.

Is this what is happening here? We know these images are damaging, to all of us - tall women and short women and fat women and thin women, young women and old women.. these images? They don't make ANYONE feel good about themselves.. even the tiny portion of the population that actually look like the (pre-photoshop) models don't feel good looking at these images..

And if you look at them too long, too much - your eyes get poisoned by them. Your idea of what a woman looks like gets warped. Warped so badly, you might let something like this get all the way to the printers.

This is a dramatic example of what is happening to all of us on a smaller scale.. the only thing we can do is try to limit our exposure to this posion, and balance it out with positive, realistic images of women as much as we can.

Enough of that, I think I've ranted enough.

On a more positive note.. the most popular women's magazine in Germany, Bridgette, has recently announced that they will no longer be using professional models in their magazine. Their press release is below, translated more-or-less-understanably via my trusty google translator..

Because beauty has many faces BRIGITTE starts the initiative "Without Models": From now on, all photo spreads for BRIGITTE will not be photographed with models, but with women like you and us. What counts is the personality. We invite you to join in!

The fashion has changed.
The women have changed.
Our world is different.

So we start a revolution:

BRIGITTE there from 02 January 2010 only

WITHOUT MODELS

From today, all photo spreads in BRIGITTE, from fashion to beauty to living and fitness, no longer produced with models --
but with women like you and us.

Because women do not need a deputy. They can require nothing more. Because clothing is now no question of trends, but of personality. Because not only create new looks on the catwalk, but on the streets, in schools, on concert stages, in the cinema, in a café around the corner. Because we want to show fashion and beauty in the future women who are not subject to the often perverse laws of the business model, but middle of their lives.

Because there is nothing better than WOMEN.

_____________

Hmm, real women? No more photoshopping or airbrushing? That sounds like a step in the right direction to me. I find myself hoping this is a great success for them, and that other magazines follow suit.

Because I enjoy sitting down with a magazine as much as the next person.. but I'd rather some eye-candy instead of some brain-poision, wouldn't you?