17teenvoguechallenge:

It wasn’t about the hunger. There were moments of hunger, mostly after I finished a meal when I realized that all I had until the next one was dried fruit. But I wasn’t hungry for most of the day.

 The worst part of yesterday was thinking about food. I thought about wanting food so much I felt as if I was back in 7^th grade.

 Back then I remember deciding that my stomach was too round, not flat and beautiful. I decided I would eat three meals a day, with one small snack in between. I would get home at the end of the day and pour myself a bowl of goldfish.  While I did my homework I carefully ate each one, and then stared at the empty bowl, longing for just one more cracker.  

 Nowadays, I usually get home a little after five and have a big snack.

Yesterday as I sat down at my desk and unpacked my homework all I could think about was food. At school I thought about food a lot, but had distractions. Now I was in my own home and downstairs was just a place with food I wasn’t supposed to eat.  

 It isn’t normal or healthy for so many of your thoughts during the day to center around wanting food or convincing yourself to wait just a little bit longer to eat. I did this diet for one day, as part of a week long focus on health and fitness. YingYing and I will discuss this further as our challenge comes to a close, but during the day I was grateful that I didn’t have to follow this diet and do complex braids, sneaky workouts and flirty texting.

 Today I did some of the sneaky workouts that Seventeen suggested. There was adding weight to your backpack (unnecessary, mine is already super heavy), tightening your abs in class for 30 seconds (which is difficult to do while paying attention to what your teacher is saying), and the “isometric arm curls” which are so ridiculous that you’ll have to try them yourself. Next week, I challenge ya’ll to try this in a public setting.  

 Remembering to do these “no workout workouts” was the hardest part. What it requires is constantly thinking about working out, about toning arms, flattening the belly and shaping the butt. Doing this requires giving a major part of your daily thought to workouts and portions. I want teenage girls to dedicate big parts of their thoughts to activities they’re passionate about. I want this brain space to go to fun, to enjoying being a kid, to being ferociously curious. 

 There is a workout for every part of the day. I gave my body to Seventeen magazine and it feels awful. I’m not hungry or sore. I feel as if they’re looking me in the eye saying, “you have no excuse not to have a perfect body! If you don’t have flat abs it’s because you lay on the couch and relaxed while watching your favorite show. You could have been doing jumping jacks during the commercial breaks!”

 Seventeen magazine feels toxic in my hands. Last week it felt a ridiculous, “how can you expect me to go out in public with my hair saturated, dripping with gel.” Now I feel its power to destroy.   

-alice

Emphasis mine. 

• Tags
• tw: ed
• seventeen
• body image
• media

whitethornwolf:

A moment of silence for the fictional wives who died to justify the protagonist’s chronic manpain

(via khaleesi)

• Tags
• media
• sexism
• LE SIGH

gingerhaze:

justdyingtolive replied to your post: I am actually astounded at how many people are…

Maybe there are just more skinny white actors and actresses in the industry? If you want more diversified casts for new shows, start encouraging more diversified people to go to acting school. Or if you aren’t skinny or white, YOU get on these shows!

just gonna put this here

Ah yes, because racism, sizeism, and sexism don’t seriously affect casting in Hollywood.

There are a ton of POC and people of different sizes in the industry. They just don’t get cast because it’s assumed that the target audience won’t care about them, which is Total Fucking Bullshit.

(Also, nobody attack gingerhaze, she’s putting this out there to give an example of the moronic pushback she’s received as a result of — GASP — suggesting casts be diversified. It’s a great post, actually).

• Tags
• racism
• sexism
• media
• media criticism

delladilly:

tbh i am just tired on whole with stories about girls ~with frozen hearts~ who need to learn to laugh (at a man’s funny jokes) and relax (in a man’s supportive embrace) and love (a man)

and there should more stories about girls with frozen hearts who are perfectly fine with that or girls with soggy hearts who cry all the time and that’s ok too or girls with frozen hearts and girls with soggy hearts falling in love and making heart soup

or girls with stone hearts who are strong and sturdy and silent and who will never ever laugh at a man’s jokes but who raise good daughters kindly

stone soup

like idk there are reasons for girls to be distant and cold and protective and ambitious and stop telling us we have to be warm and open when the world is a piece of misogynistic shit like change that first why don’t you

(via partyshoggoth)

• Tags
• wow I love this
• representation
• media
• media criticism
• affirmations

You know what is real? That fucking joke. That fucking joke about how a female character has no control over whether a male character masturbates to the thought of her, and indeed, no control over whether or not he harasses her that way. As if any woman needed any reminder, real or scripted, that that’s true.

What is presented in the media and in what light determines how we interact with those things in our culture. Louis C.K. doesn’t get a free pass because it’s not a “real” interview. Is it a tiny bit less alarming because there’s the added level of an actress consenting to be in that role? Well, maybe a tiny bit — but why the hell do we live in a culture where THAT’S CONSIDERED A JOKE?

It’s bullshit. And it doesn’t much matter whether it was a “real” interview or not.

• Tags
• sexism
• harassment
• media