Real Women
(Because Some Are More Realier Than Others)
So the SWF was first in the door with her suggestion for my occasional series - If I had a blog [it's not for lack of me trying to persuade her] I think I'd have a good rant about the concept of 'real' women - the notion that some women are somehow more real than others. It drives me mad!
She continues: I can appreciate where they're coming from and that adverts do show women who are physically very different to the average girl on the street, but if you replace 'real' with 'average' the term loses some its pleased-with-oneself aura. There's nothing wrong with being pleased with oneself but the use of the word 'real' somehow infers some sort of moral superiority over less 'real' women - i.e. models and thin actresses - miserable anorexics the lot of them, traitors to the gender!
Yikes. This should have been Reader's Choice #1 by rights, but I couldn't figure out what angle to approach it from. See, if we're talking angles, I am best approached with a wide and vaseline-smeared lens, for I have weighty issues with my posterior. So although I can appreciate the cause of my beautiful slim friend's irritation, I can't say I share it. I identify with these Real Women - I find them less intimidating, more beautiful. I don't know if it's because I identify with them that I find them attractive - I have an eye for women who are roundy of bum and plump of thigh and I wonder if this is just narcissism on my part, my ego subconsciously kicking my unflattering insecurities up the ample arse. I appreciate that advertisers are trying to flatter me by referring to these women as "real" and I buy wholesale into their pitch. The tubster in me is absolutely delighted at the vilification of the models and thin actresses, these traitors to my gender. The SWF is right though, "real" could easily be substituted with "average" in this case, causing the phrase to lose all appeal - no woman wants to think of herself as average.
Ordinary.
Plain.
So the slim women, the ones just like those models and actresses, feel discriminated against. I thought about this, and tried to affect sympathy as I tried to squeeze into a skirt in Zara last Saturday. No dice. Fashion and its herald, popular culture, are still weighted very much in favour of skinny malinks. So what if a few liberal-leaning features editors and clever advertisers have set their sights on the plainer janes in stretchy jeans. Big deal. It makes the bigger deals amongst us feel a little better about our muffin tops, when all around us judgement screams FAT!
*Ah* she said, it's nice to rant. She's right, it is. This rant's not one for me though.
She continues: I can appreciate where they're coming from and that adverts do show women who are physically very different to the average girl on the street, but if you replace 'real' with 'average' the term loses some its pleased-with-oneself aura. There's nothing wrong with being pleased with oneself but the use of the word 'real' somehow infers some sort of moral superiority over less 'real' women - i.e. models and thin actresses - miserable anorexics the lot of them, traitors to the gender!
Yikes. This should have been Reader's Choice #1 by rights, but I couldn't figure out what angle to approach it from. See, if we're talking angles, I am best approached with a wide and vaseline-smeared lens, for I have weighty issues with my posterior. So although I can appreciate the cause of my beautiful slim friend's irritation, I can't say I share it. I identify with these Real Women - I find them less intimidating, more beautiful. I don't know if it's because I identify with them that I find them attractive - I have an eye for women who are roundy of bum and plump of thigh and I wonder if this is just narcissism on my part, my ego subconsciously kicking my unflattering insecurities up the ample arse. I appreciate that advertisers are trying to flatter me by referring to these women as "real" and I buy wholesale into their pitch. The tubster in me is absolutely delighted at the vilification of the models and thin actresses, these traitors to my gender. The SWF is right though, "real" could easily be substituted with "average" in this case, causing the phrase to lose all appeal - no woman wants to think of herself as average.
Ordinary.
Plain.
So the slim women, the ones just like those models and actresses, feel discriminated against. I thought about this, and tried to affect sympathy as I tried to squeeze into a skirt in Zara last Saturday. No dice. Fashion and its herald, popular culture, are still weighted very much in favour of skinny malinks. So what if a few liberal-leaning features editors and clever advertisers have set their sights on the plainer janes in stretchy jeans. Big deal. It makes the bigger deals amongst us feel a little better about our muffin tops, when all around us judgement screams FAT!
*Ah* she said, it's nice to rant. She's right, it is. This rant's not one for me though.
