The Curvy Life blog is a response to the constant barrage of unrealistic images of women on television, in movies, and in print. We are constantly being told that our bodies and our lives aren’t “good enough” and many of us suffer from the emotional pain of feeling outside the beauty norm (ab-norm as it is).

However, the Curvy Life is really for her:

That’s me at age 15, hating my body.

I had already been on a diet or two, and I remember the punch in the gut I felt when I looked at this photo–I hated my thighs, I thought my stomach was too poochy, and my knees were too dimply. From this point forward, I made it a mission to avoid having my picture taken.

It breaks my heart to look at this picture today. I look at that photo know and think– How cute was I? Young, slim, with creamy skin, beautiful in the way of youth (and I wish I could have those thighs back). I was athletic and smart and outgoing. Yet, at this moment in my life, I felt like a failure as a woman (and I was just starting out).

It took me many years to learn to appreciate my own beauty, and dare I say it, to love my body. It was a process, and I want to share that process here, so that no woman has to carry the heavy burden on her heart carried by that 15 year-old girl.

Here I am, all grown-up:

I still wince at the site of myself on film, but I don’t run from the camera anymore. And I know, that one day, I’ll look back in wonder at the beauty of my youth here, just like I do with my 15-year-old self.

So, what’s the mission?

The Curvy Mission

1. To promote positive body image and self-esteem, regardless of size
2. To advocate for size inclusion and diverse images of women
3. To educate women about images and messages aimed at us
4. To promote body love rather than body hate
5. To encourage whole body, mind, and spirit wellness
6. To rage against the self-loathing machine
7. To create a community of support

I’d love to hear your curvy story. Feel free to share your curvy struggles, your curvy triumphs, your curvy fears, your curvy dreams–your curvy life.

http://hvattum.net/index.php/2008/01/05/evolution/

If you saw the show, let me know what you think. I was moved to tears by the journey to self-acceptance experienced by the first woman featured on the show.

If you haven’t seen the show, look for it on the Lifetime channel. It is replaying throughout the week. Or, if you don’t have Lifetime (or you just can’t wait), you can see the entire episode online at LifetimeTV.com. The show website has some interesting features–click here to view these. I particularly like the feature Where Do I Fit In? featuring the full spectrum of beautiful body types.

Check out my previous post for more on the program and for tips on how to feel good naked.

The death of Donda West, mother of hip-hop artist Kanye West, has generated a lot of media discussion about the risks and dangers of plastic surgery. There have always been risks associated with plastic surgery, yet you wouldn’t know that from the way plastic surgery is depicted on television. There seems to be an endless variety reality TV shows such featuring plastic surgery: Dr. 90210, Plastic Surgery New York Style, Ultimate Plastic Surgery Before & After, Plastic Surgery Beverly Hills, and Big Medicine. Not being a great fan of the genre, I can’t say for certain, but I would assume that these shows don’t feature a lot of stories where patients die after procedures.

These shows have a powerful effect: a study conducted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons revealed that “first-time patients seeking cosmetic plastic surgery are directly influenced to have surgery by the plastic surgery reality television shows they watch.” (Click here for details.)

And so it seems, from the number of shows featuring plastic surgery, that everyone is doing it. However, Washington Post writer Robin Givhan has observed an interesting undercurrent in the media coverage of Mrs. West’s death: “the underlying message became that indulging in plastic surgery is inherently selfish and narcissistic,” that people seeking cosmetic surgery are “courting tragedy” and looking for “easy answers.”

Below is an excerpt from her article, “Plastic Surgery’s Allure Cuts Both Ways.” I think that she makes a compelling argument about the messages we receive.

“There’s no way to know what was going through West’s mind. But her death makes one marvel at the way in which popular culture pushes, pushes, pushes people toward an ideal. And then tut-tuts when they take the bait.

No matter that the most conscientious surgeons emphasize that cosmetic surgery cannot transform a patient’s life, the promise remains. With a snip and a tug, faces can be made younger and more attractive. The patients believe they will not only look better but also feel better, which will lead to greater confidence, which will strengthen their cultural currency.

Audiences like nothing more than a beauty makeover. The ugly duckling turns into a swan. Cinderella got a fairy godmother of a stylist and won the heart of the prince. It was beauty that charmed the beast — not the young woman with the scintillating personality.

But beauty makes folks envious. They want to be assured that others work hard to maintain their appearance (even if they’re looking for the easiest ways to maintain their own). Consider the notion of aging gracefully. What does that mean, really? Folks are demanding that the enduring beauty of matrons and dowagers be earned. They want them to maintain a six-day-a-week workout schedule that includes walking on a treadmill to nowhere and a life that is devoid of meat, dairy, alcohol, sunshine, sugar and anything else remotely pleasurable. Is that natural? Is that grace?

There are virtually no women who have the genetic good fortune to arrive at age 60 looking like a Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren or Diahann Carroll without a surgeon’s expertise. Most people in the public sphere do something, Botox to boot camp, to fend off the effects of time. They are encouraged and expected to take action. If they don’t, they will be judged harshly. But they must take care not to let the effort show — don’t reveal any hairline scars or improbable perkiness. Otherwise, our judgment will be even harsher.”

“Big booty=big brain” is the alternate title for my previous post (scroll down to read it). The Today Show is teasing this story as “Learning Curves.” Here are some of my other ideas for headlines–I’d love to hear yours:

“Junk in the trunk, junky no more”

“Curvy girl, brainy girl”

“Clever curves”

“Get smarter–eat”

“Fat ass=smart ass”

“When a girl walks by with an itty-bitty waist and a round thing in your face…”

…she’s probably pretty smart, or so says a new study just published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

You’ve got to love this quote, based on a summary of the study:

“Curvy women are not only intelligent, attractive and live longer, they also give birth to intelligent children….” (DNA-India)

Scientists studied 16,000 women to determine if there was a measurable link between waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (the size of the waist in comparison to the size of the hips) and cognitive ability (IQ) of the women and their children. The study revealed that women with hips larger than their waists (think “pear” shape) had higher IQs than women with small hips or linear shapes. The children of big-hipped women also scored higher on cognitive tests.

The researchers suspect that a prevalence of Omega-3 fatty acid, found in female hips and thighs, contributes to the growth of the fetal brain during pregnancy. Belly fat contains more Omega-6 fatty acid. This difference in composition of fat may also explain why, in women, lower body fat seems to have a protective effect on the heart (see Diabetes.org for more on the subject).

Thus, big booties=big brains=big health.

Waist-to-hip ratio is becoming a new area of interest in the study of weight and health. Studies consistently reveal that WHR is a greater predictor of overall health in women than BMI. (To calculate WHR: divide waist measurement by hip measurement–w/h–a measure of 0.8 or less is considered healthy for women. To read more about WHR vs. BMI check out the article, BMI:Freaking out about nothing, on Reuters.com.)

I am curious to see how this study is going to be covered in the mainstream media. Will this study be used to challenge the ongoing and continuous attack on fat bodies, or will it be minimized? Even worse, will this data be used to beat on curvy bellies? It will be interesting to watch.

But in the meantime, let’s take our big hips and big brains and get out there and take over the world!

Here is an extended response to the Leonard Nimoy project from gogopussycat. She moved me to tears.

I read one of the articles about the full body project, I thought it was really sweet that he has become a size activist. The only part that I didn’t like was at the very end of the article they said “while he isn’t sexually attracted to full figured women, he does
think they’re beautiful.”

Like, don’t think you are getting away with being sexually attractive fat women, you can be acceptable, but not sexy. I mean, did they ask him if he finds Jewish women sexually attractive when he did the Shekina project?

At the very least he himself is doing something wonderfully positive for feminism and size awareness, it was just the journalist who had to throw in that traditionally snide, just to keep fat women in their place style comment.

So overall yay fat women! Its always amazing to me to see that and think, how not offensive are their bodies are! Fat women are made to feel that the very presence of their bodies are offensive, like you can’t wear enough clothes to be socially acceptable - and the irony is that they are actually more beautiful naked. ( For one part its due to the horrible plus size fashion selection!)

Im always struck by how much more interesting plus size bodies are, and so organic, it looks much more like a living thing in nature, like a tree, or earthen shape. Which brings me around to fat modeling, like how interesting would it be to make clothes
and have fat models where you could actually see the fat shapes through the clothing,
and not just massive body shapers and corsets (fat women are so threatening they’ve
been sent back in time to the turn of the century).

There are some picts of Velvet on Contraband, where shes wearing a thin Jersey dress, and think no body shapers or underwear, so you can actually see her cellulite dimpling, and flesh folds. And can I tell you how amazingly not unbeautiful nor offensive it is. Everything about the photos were typical to a magazine spread - makeup, hair blown back, soft lighting….and body fat. The last thing you expect to see associated with glamour and style.

It was fabulous.

I felt a whole consciousness shift, like I couldn’t remember why I ever thought that it
was hideous or unacceptable when that would happen to me trying on a dress or pants
where the material was “too thin” or “too tight”.

And that’s the power of an image.

So, we’ve established in the last two entries that 1)on any given day, in any given place, a tube of lipstick, cheap or expensive, may contain lead and that 2)there’s no way to be entirely certain that your lipstick is lead-free.

So, what to do?

Let’s go back to The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics for a call to action. Their report, A Poison Kiss, contains four suggestions:

1. 1. Write or call L’Oreal (the worst offender): See the link below for a sample letter and L’Oreal contact information. http://action.safecosmetics.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=14281
2. Write a letter to the editor.
3. Write your congressperson, governor, or state legislature.
4. Spread the word. Let your friends and family know the truth about the lack of regulation of the cosmetics industry.

There is absolutely no reason for lipstick to contain lead (see the varieties and brands of lipstick that tested lead-free), so let’s demand a change.

(Read the entry “Lead in Lipstick — Part I” for the intro to the story.)

So, we got the bad news today that our cherished red lipsticks contain lead. So what? What’s the problem?

At least that’s the response from L’Oreal Group, leader of the pack on the lead list (with no shades on the lead-free list). According to the Boston Globe, L’Oreal tells us not to worry:

“Each and every ingredient used in our products has been thoroughly reviewed and tested by our internal safety team made up of toxicologists, clinicians, pharmacists, and physicians,” the statement read. “All the brands of the L’Oreal Group are in full compliance with FDA regulations . . . and the requirements for safety in the more than 130 countries in which our products are sold.”

Sounds like a good answer: L’Oreal is “in full compliance with FDA regulations.” The problem: there are NO FDA regulations regarding the lead content of lipstick. A tube of lipstick could be 100% lead and technically not be in violation of any FDA regulation. (For further details see “A Poison Kiss–The Problem of Lead in Lipsticks,” the report published by The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.)

In healthy adults, low-level lead exposure is not considered harmful; however, lead in the body builds up over time, and in combination with other conditions, is certainly not good. As for children and pregnant women (lead passes through the placenta quite easily), there is no such thing as a safe amount of lead exposure.

The picture at the beginning of this entry (from “A Poision Kiss”) says it all.  If lead on toys is a danger to children, then how much more so is lead in lipstick.  Yet, no lipstick recall is pending.

So, what can we do?

I’ll summarize The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics’ call to action in my next entry.

In the latest “Guess where we found lead lurking” news, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has found that more than half of 33 brand-name lipsticks tested contained lead. One-third exceeded the FDA limit for lead in candy (0.1 parts per million), the standard established to prevent the ingesting of lead. As the average woman will ingest 4 pounds of lipstick over her lifetime, the candy standard for lead seems appropriate.The entire report, including the entire list of tested products, is available in PDF format at www.safecosmetics.org. It is well worth the read.

The worst offenders were:

-L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” – 0.65 ppm
-L’Oreal Colour Riche “Classic Wine” – 0.58 ppm
-Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” – 0.56 ppm
-Dior Addict “Positive Red” – 0.21 ppm

However, don’t ditch your Dior just yet: in the test, lead levels were not consistent across brand, shade, or price point. In fact, Dior “Replenishing Lip Color Red Premier” made the “good” list, with less than 0.02 parts per million of lead.

In a somewhat-good news/bad news/worse news scenario:

Good news: there are lipsticks at every price point with no detectable levels of lead.

Bad news: there is no way to determine the lead content of a lipstick based on brand or price.

Worse news: In several cases, multiple tubes of the same lipstick (brand and shade) showed significant variations in lead content from tube to tube.

Thus, you can’t even bank on a lipstick from the “good” list today being “good” tomorrow.

(Wonder why two tubes of what should be the same lipstick can have different amounts of lead? Safe Cosmetics speculates that this may be due to “different amounts of contamination taking place during contamination or different levels of lead contamination of the lipstick’s individual ingredients.”)

But is leaden lipstick really a problem?

See the next entry, “Lead in Lipstick — Part II”