Much virtual ink has been spilled over the past few days over the Oxford Dictionary's choice of "selfie" for 2013 word of the year. But I've noticed among the chorus of opinions on the social media self portrait an annoying trend: the selfie evangelist. Selfies are just dandy, they say, because they're a way for people…
"I'm not a boob man or a butt man or a leg man, I'm a face man," say LIARS. According to new research, no matter what a woman's build, men spend more time looking at women's bodies than they do their faces, which means that we can stop with this "anti aging" bullshit and just let our mugs turn into the face of the dead…
Confession, guys: unless I'm in the shower and I feel particularly grimy that day, I rarely wash my face. I figured my face skin was sort of like dirty laundry — if stuff lays around for long enough, everything just kind of cleans itself (I realize, typing this out, that my logic is flawed). Anyway, long story short,…
Burlesque performer and fan dancing extraordinaire Jezebel Express once shared her realization that “sexy is a set of skills.” While I wholeheartedly believe this, I think it extends beyond sex appeal. Pretty, too, is a set of skills.
Last September a horrific-sounding "intimate bleaching product"
In a capitalist society, "gender equality" sometimes means "men can have their physical insecurities exploited for profit, too." As such, cosmetics companies that have spent the better part of the last century convincing women that their products will make them presentable enough so that maybe another human might love them …
In China, plastic surgery shows you've made it. And more and more people are making it.
You know all those parental arguments against tattoos? Well, take those for what they're worth, but shouldn't that kind of go double for permanent makeup? Except, wait, that's pretty. Standards of beauty: arbitary since the dawn of human consciousness.
So last Wednesday, the Society for Women's Health Research hosted a Capitol Hill briefing called "The Make Up of Your Make Up" (see what they did there?) to discuss, "the science of cosmetics and its impact on women's health." They sent me a press release right after, so I could know what a great time they all had.
"Before and after makeup" shots are a weird Internet phenomenon, and this gallery of "Asian Girls Before and After Makeup" is noteworthy both in that it exists and the uniform standard of beauty on display.
"To understand what it takes to be beautiful," writes Amy Alkon for Psychology Today, "we need to be very clear about what being beautiful means — being sexually appealing to men." She then commands: "burn those muumuus." Uh-oh.
"'Not a lot of brands talk to a 28-year-old,' said Daniel Giles, the senior vice president for marketing at Perricone. 'that's where Super is positioned, to 25- to 30-year-olds.'" Welcome to the next phase of aging-phobic marketing.
Earlier this month, Hugh Hefner was asked whether he objectifies women. His answer says a lot about our culture's confused attitude to female beauty.
Contrary to what every courtroom procedural, TV police force and pretend hospital would have you believe, in the real-world work-force, "beauty" is indeed a liability in male-dominated fields:
It's true! In fact, "it is not in fact illegal to hire only attractive waitresses." We should clarify that "ugly" here translates to "not blond, pneumatic and slender." This was all part of a serious academic study, you see.
Warning: The following video is ridiculously NSFW and NSFWS (not safe for weak stomachs, as there are graphic surgery scenes). But I've posted it at the bottom so you can still absorb this magical info without getting canned.
"Gorilla-face, to give it its technical name, is an occupational hazard for the older woman...You go to bed looking perfectly normal and you wake up looking like an extra from Planet of the Apes." [TimesUK]
My boyfriend called me from L.A. this morning and said he'd just heard a radio ad for vaginal rejuvenation — just in time for Mother's Day!
Let's play a super-fun drinking game! Take a shot every time we find another thing that's wrong with today's article on Baylor basketball star Brittney Griner and "changing standards of beauty."
We got an interesting letter from a reader today in response to yesterday's Megan Fox post
An interesting (but slightly limited) study was recently posted on the Pixels and Policy blog, about attitudes towards "female avatars and gender expectations." The results? For many women players, it's easier to embrace sexualization than to fight it.
The documentary Youth Knows No Pain, which premiered on HBO last night, featured Allure editor-in-chief Linda Wells, who says it's OK that anti-aging creams don't do what they claim, since they make women feel better about losing their looks.
Angelina Jolie was named Forbes' "most powerful celeb in the world" last week. Naomi Wolf, in the new issue of Harper's Bazaar (?) thinks it's cuz Brangie "brings together almost every aspect of female empowerment and liberation." Or something like that.
"And I know all I can do right now is hold on tight to the little bit of life that's left, cling to the edge of the skyscraper I'm slipping off of, feel my fingers slowly giving way, knowing I'm going to free-fall to a sorrowful demise." (She's 41.)
"The Science of Beauty" is complicated. Says one Proctor and Gamble cosmetics researcher, "obviously you're familiar with gene expression profiling!" Um, no. [SciAm]
The New York Times has discovered that - wait for it! - facials are not essential. Thanks?
People are getting plastic surgery to give them an edge in the bad economy. That's exactly why we're eating this chocolate.
Says the Washington Post's Robin Givhan, "We have come to equate a sinewy figure as the contemporary ideal. Beauty is control, discipline and independence."
Wait, what? According to a new study, we all think we're considerably more attractive than we are.
At 29, Alicia Douvall has had more than a hundred plastic surgeries. Now she's checking into rehab for her addiction.
