Last week on Cosmopolitan.com, assistant fashion and beauty editor Brooke Shunatona published an article in which she chronicled living like Kylie Jenner for a week (because who else would a successful, apparently functional adult want to live like?). After a week dealing with extraordinarily long nails, walking in extraordinarily high heels, and wearing an extraordinarily painful waist trainer that resembles… Continue Reading →
“Era of the Big Booty”? No thanks.
I’m not a prude, and I don’t like to judge other women’s personal choices. But I do care an awful lot about how women are portrayed (and portray themselves!) in the media. We’re now averaging 13.6 hours of media consumption per person per day, which means the stories we see played out in the media… Continue Reading →
Lesbians are girls, too: Why no one’s immune to media
I have a superpower. I am immune to the power of media. Yes, you heard me correctly. Bring on your Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows and Hardee’s ads and watch their influence fall harmlessly away from me. For as a lesbian, I “do not care about the standards of beauty created for me by society.” Wait…what?… Continue Reading →
H&M heralds the dawn of the “virtual mannequin”
Between print media, TV ads, and virtual promotions, we media watchdogs have seen it all — rib cages, spines, cleavage, you name it. Though the women portrayed in most catalogs are typically white, unhealthily underweight, and sexualized, we could at least find solace in the fact that their bodies were their bodies — a.k.a, not… Continue Reading →
Perpetuate unrealistic ideals with Portrait Professional
Throughout our lives, we are constantly bombarded by false images that seek to compromise our self-esteem in order to make a profit. Imagine if this false image that you, your friends, family, or professional colleagues saw every day was of you? I recently came across software that would allow individuals to do just that. It’s… Continue Reading →
On banning ads, photo-retouching, and (shock!) personal responsibility
In the wake of the big news that the MP Jo Swinson and the British Advertising Standards Agency has fabulously banned two ads by L’Oreal (owner of Maybelline and Lancome) showing Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington, I’m starting to think about how we — everyday women and girls — can help ourselves out of this… Continue Reading →
Rosario Dawson speaks out against unrealistic beauty expectations
We love what Rosario Dawson had to say in this month’s issue of Shape–a magazine not exactly known for being body-positive. Dawson criticizes the cultural expectation for women to be thin, toned, and blemish-free, and calls the way we scrutinize women’s bodies “a form of violence.” We couldn’t agree more, especially with all the recently… Continue Reading →
Victoria’s Secret airbrushes away Candice Swanepoel’s torso
Just in case you needed more proof that models are airbrushed within an inch of their lives (and without a few inches of their torsos). A big thank you to About-Face reader Christiana who brought our attention to the latest Victoria’s Secret offense. It’s easy to overlook the Photoshop fiasco at first glance, but take… Continue Reading →
“Elle” makes a mockery of Gabourey Sidibe’s cover girl moment
What do you call a top fashion magazine that features a plus-sized African American actress on its cover? Progressive? Revolutionary? If you’ve read recent Internet reports of Gabourey Sidibe’s October Elle cover, you might call it “racist,” “offensive,” or, as Salon puts it, “a weird fetishization that borders on patronizing.” Allow me to explain. In… Continue Reading →