mayhopearise:

savyjaye:

today i did something for me.

it was scary and hard, and if it weren’t for some amazing friends i’d have backed out a thousand times before i even made it to the salon.

i had three best friends in high school. as of this month, one is engaged and the other two are married (one with the most beautiful 6 month old imaginable). most days i feel like my facebook news feed is filled with announcements from my college friends getting engaged or married or pregnant. i am 21 years old, and most days i feel like i’m already behind in life.

for three years i’ve wanted to shave my head and for three years i’ve allowed guys to tell me that i would be less of a woman, have less beauty, or less value without my hair. for three years, i’ve had a dream that i’ve refused to indulge in because i thought that my hair was the sum of my worth and of my femininity.

i was wrong.

today, i left the salon with a shaved head.
and today, i left the salon feeling the most feminine i ever have.

this post isn’t about a hair cut, though, but about what i allow to define myself. for too long i’ve been wrong. it isn’t my hair and it isn’t a relationship. and even though some days it can be hard to remember, i can’t find my value in our culture’s definition of beauty.



i am worth more.
and you, you are worth more too.

this. this. this. this.

so proud of you, savannah! and girlfrandddd, you are freaking rockin the shaved head too! beauty!

(via thebladeissharp)

Source: savyjaye

think4yourself: Weightlifter Sarah Robles is an incredible athlete, but outside the world of squats and snatches, barely anyone knows her name. And even though she’s the U.S.’s best chance at an Olympic medal, she’ll never get the fame or fortune that come so easily to her fellow athletes — in part because, at 5 feet, 10.5 inches and 275 pounds, she doesn’t fit the ideal of thin, toned athletic beauty. (via The Strongest Woman In America Lives In Poverty)
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think4yourself:

Weightlifter Sarah Robles is an incredible athlete, but outside the world of squats and snatches, barely anyone knows her name. And even though she’s the U.S.’s best chance at an Olympic medal, she’ll never get the fame or fortune that come so easily to her fellow athletes — in part because, at 5 feet, 10.5 inches and 275 pounds, she doesn’t fit the ideal of thin, toned athletic beauty.

(via The Strongest Woman In America Lives In Poverty)

(via apsies)

Source: BuzzFeed

This video made me happy.

(from NYTimes)

But black hair and the black body generally have long been a site of political contest in American history and in the American imagination. Against this backdrop, the transition movement has a political dimension — whether transitioners themselves believe it or not. Demonstrating this level of self-acceptance represents a powerful evolution in black political expression. If racial politics has led to an internalization of self-loathing, then true transformation will come internally, too. It will not be a performative act. Saying it loud: “I’m black and I’m proud” is one thing. Believing it quietly is another. So the transition movement is much more profound and much more powerful — and I believe it offers lessons in self-acceptance for people of all hues and all genders.

Hillary standing up and having her photo taken without a layer of pancake makeup between her and the lens, smiling, looking normal…this is a huge coup. Anyone criticizing it, or commenting that she looks like she needs a rest, is quite woefully missing the point. Would a man be asked, or mocked, about something like this? And, actually, doesn’t Hillary look far better than the typical male politician at her—or any—age? She is 64. Even as we shouldn’t be concerned about her appearance, she looks great!
Hillary Clinton Looks Good, OK? - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

Source: theatlanticwire.com

I ask especially how we can leverage strong female-to-female alliances to confront and change that there is no winning here as women. It doesn’t actually matter if we are aging naturally, or resorting to surgical assistance. We experience brutal criticism. The dialogue is constructed so that our bodies are a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others—and in my case, to the actual public.
Ashley Judd Slaps Media in the Face for Speculation Over Her “Puffy” Appearance. - The Daily Beast.  More from the Ashley Judd essay.

Source: thedailybeast.com

newsweek: Ashley Judd, writing on the site, fights back at those in the media who speculated on her “puffy” appearance, calling the frenzy a misogynistic assault on all women.Why even stoop to their level? Ashley: I choose to address it because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about. And she’s only getting started! Yea girl. Read Ashley Judd Slaps Media on The Daily Beast.
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newsweek:

Ashley Judd, writing on the site, fights back at those in the media who speculated on her “puffy” appearance, calling the frenzy a misogynistic assault on all women.Why even stoop to their level?

Ashley:

I choose to address it because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about.

And she’s only getting started! Yea girl. Read Ashley Judd Slaps Media on The Daily Beast.

suicideblonde: Cate Blanchett goes sans Photoshop for magazine cover Intelligent Life — The Economist‘s lifestyle and culture magazine — went where few (but increasingly more!) publications have gone before: the unairbrushed cover. Cate Blanchett fronts the latest issue of the bi-monthly, a cover choice explained by Intelligent Life editor Tim de Lisle on the magazine’s website: When other magazines photograph actresses, they routinely end up running heavily Photoshopped images, with every last wrinkle expunged. Their skin is rendered so improbably smooth that, with the biggest stars, you wonder why the photographer didn’t just do a shoot with their waxwork. Cate Blanchett, by contrast, appears on our cover in her working clothes, with the odd line on her face and faint bags under her eyes. She looks like what she is — a woman of 42, spending her days in an office, her evenings on stage and the rest of her time looking after three young children. We can’t be too self-righteous about it, because, like anyone else who puts her on a cover, we are benefiting from her beauty and distinction. But the shot is at least trying to reflect real life. It’s a curious sign of the times that this has become something to shout about. But the cover doesn’t just make a statement about Photoshop, it also makes one about the sometimes dicey ethics of magazine photography. Tim de Lisle explained: “Publishers want a recognizable person on the cover, with a real career; but they also want an empty vessel — for clothes and jewelry and makeup, which often seem to be supplied by the advertisers with the most muscle.”
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suicideblonde:

Cate Blanchett goes sans Photoshop for magazine cover

Intelligent Life — The Economist‘s lifestyle and culture magazine — went where few (but increasingly more!) publications have gone before: the unairbrushed cover.

Cate Blanchett fronts the latest issue of the bi-monthly, a cover choice explained by Intelligent Life editor Tim de Lisle on the magazine’s website:

When other magazines photograph actresses, they routinely end up running heavily Photoshopped images, with every last wrinkle expunged. Their skin is rendered so improbably smooth that, with the biggest stars, you wonder why the photographer didn’t just do a shoot with their waxwork.

Cate Blanchett, by contrast, appears on our cover in her working clothes, with the odd line on her face and faint bags under her eyes. She looks like what she is — a woman of 42, spending her days in an office, her evenings on stage and the rest of her time looking after three young children. We can’t be too self-righteous about it, because, like anyone else who puts her on a cover, we are benefiting from her beauty and distinction. But the shot is at least trying to reflect real life. It’s a curious sign of the times that this has become something to shout about.

But the cover doesn’t just make a statement about Photoshop, it also makes one about the sometimes dicey ethics of magazine photography. Tim de Lisle explained: “Publishers want a recognizable person on the cover, with a real career; but they also want an empty vessel — for clothes and jewelry and makeup, which often seem to be supplied by the advertisers with the most muscle.”

(via melikeit2011)

Source: MSN

bunnyvictorious:

i am going to write a diet book called ___ POUNDS LOOKS GREAT ON YOU, BEAUTIFUL! and it’ll be a best seller.  i am so sick of the lean diet, the meat diet, the no bread diet, the no cheese diet.  what about the champagne and tacos diet, i ask you! why should it get the bad rap!

so what if you have favorite foods that aren’t great for you.  rescue a dog and walk it a few times a day.  eat what you WANT to eat.  eat until your pants are tight, and then go walk that dog a little brisker than before.  

you’re fine, you’re beautiful, you’re you.  and some ditzy diet book written by a bottle blonde who doesn’t have an ounce of weight on her body won’t make you happy.

that molten chocolate cake will, though.

I would buy this book.