Monday Scraps 69

1. AMERICANA: Max Fisher at The Atlantic interviews new visitors to the U.S. about what surprises them most. Grocery stores and nursing homes, apparently.

2. RACE: If you read one thing on this list (but I hope you read it all), read Kiese Laymon’s essay “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America” about race, racism, violence, Mississippi, and 8,000 other things. Content aside, the prose will bowl you over (Gawker).

3. FRIENDS: I love love love this Roxane Gay list of tips on being friends with another woman: “7A: Don’t be totally rude about truth telling and consider how much truth is actually needed to get the job done. Finesse goes a long way. 7B: These conversations are more fun when preceded by an emphatic, ‘GIRL.'”

4. BIKINI: The internet is a strange place. Exhibit A: Matchbook, which pairs bikinis with beach reading by literally matching the pattern of a bikini and the cover a book…

5. WRITING: Chicago writer Megan Stielstra in a lovely essay on finding, or not finding, a room of one’s own in which to work (The Rumpus).

6. OLYMPICS: Divers’ faces while diving. You’re welcome.

Related Post: Sunday 68: Your twenties, POV of a condom, Jason Alexander, Hope Solo.

Related Post: Sunday 67: Lego The Wire, Caterina Fake, models without makeup

Curve Appeal vs. American Apparel’s “Next Big Thing” Contest

This is the picture I keep meaning to submit to Curve Appeal... except my technologically incapable self can't find the "Submit" Button. Sigh.

Today, I found a Tumblr called Curve Appeal that fits with yesterday’s theme of un-retouched photos of women’s bodies*. On it, women and girls post pictures of themselves and include anecdotal notes about their figures (“I’m finally starting to realize that I don’t have to be a size 0 to be fashionable”) or quantitative data about their measurements. The creator writes, “I think it is so important for girls and women to have a realistic point of reference to look up to!” I couldn’t agree more; realistic points of reference in the media are few and far between.

At the moment, there’s a number of submissions from girls who are competing in the plus-size model competition for American Apparel, which I do NOT appreciate nearly as much. I don’t blame them for wanting to be publicly recognized as attractive. After all, it’s an acknowledgment that lots of larger women don’t get on a regular basis. That being said, I really don’t like the ranking/rating system of the American Apparel contest. Pitting body vs. body is good for no one. Also, their press release was insulting and full of terrible puns (and I usually love terrible puns).

Each of the American Apparel contestants gets to post a little blurb about themselves. There are tons along the lines of “Real women have curves!” Again, I get that this is coming from the desire to attach positivity to something that is often treated with disdain or disrespect, but there is no more “real” body type than any other. Attaching femininity to a particular body part does nobody any good. Why do we have to undermine other bodies to make us feel good about our own? Real women have bodies. That’s about as much as I’m willing to say.

*Curve Appeal also includes photos of plus-size models from catalogs and runways. I don’t think this diminishes the value of the rest of the non-airbrushed photos.

Related Post: Tyra calls plus-size models “fiercely real.” What?

Related Post: Phoenix Marie before and after make-up. Which do you like better?