There is this one book about a young boy who went to heaven and then awoke from a coma, only the heaven part was made up and at The Guardian, Michelle Dean has a really fascinating, in depth look at what went wrong.
Tracee Ellis Ross is hilarious and this interview with Jenna Wortham is worth some of your time this morning. I wholeheartedly embrace her stance on Spanx and other means of cruelly controlling women’s beautiful bodies. (And yes, now several people will say that it helps create a smooth line and so on and I embrace you too.)
Here’s another great interview, this time with Bjork, and questions from Jessica Hopper.
Target, continuing their general excellence and hellbent mission of parting us from our hard-earned money, is launching a fashion line for plus-sized ladies.
AVA & VIV will feature fun, flirty clothes that any woman, regardless of size, will want to wear. It also pulls inspiration from some of the most powerful voices and faces of the plus-size movement: Nicolette Mason, Gabi Gregg, and Chastity Garner.
Only click this if you can see images that are NSFW and also prepare yourself. Fashion? Fashion!
Have you ever wondered how historical figures filled their days? Of course you have.
The picture in this tweet is very funny.
If you want to watch Transparent and you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, it will be available to stream for free this weekend!
When I think of streams, I think of water.
Step aside, Barbie.
In Nigeria, Barbie has some fierce — some brown — competition: Taofick Okoya, a 43-year-old entrepreneur, has created Queens of Africa dolls and Naija Princess dolls that are outselling Mattel’s classics. Okoya tells Reuters that he sells about 6,000 to 9,000 dolls a month and that he has “about 10-15 percent of a small but fast-growing market.”
For some context, we’ve been seeing the alabasterness of dolls become more of an issue in America as of late, including this recent skit on Saturday Night Live. Last year, American Girl Doll discontinued some of its nonwhite dolls — Ivy Ling, an Asian-American doll, and Cecile Ray, an African-American doll — to much controversy. In 2013, Mattel came under fire for its Mexican Barbie, which was marketed with a passport and a chihuahua.
Happy Friday, friends.
Looks like that book was a load of… malarkey.
You saw your chance and you went for it. I respect that.
::puts on sunglasses::
EEEEEEYYYYEAAAAAAAHHH
Surprise of the day: the guy who used to “sleep” at the bus stop with his dick hanging out of his pants was actually just very fashion forward!
Those Nigerian dolls are kick ass as hell. I wish I could lay my hands on them for when I have kids of my own. It disappoints me how much American Girl is failing in its initial mission for interesting and relatable historical dolls of a variety of backgrounds (and now that I reflect in it for the first time the two dolls I had were the only nonwhite dolls at the time, Addy and Josefina) because goddammit AG there are a zillion great stories for girls in America and THEY ARE NOT ALL ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE.
I’m convinced AG knows exactly what it’s doing (or failing to do) as a company and doesn’t care. They’ve priced themselves out of most people’s markets, so what they’re left selling to are upper class (majority white) people. I remember being so interested in the stories they were telling when I was young, and now…it’s just an empty hole. It’s so disappointing, but I am SO PSYCHED about how cool these other dolls are.
Everything went downhill after they got bought by Mattel.
Apparently Transparent is going to be on Shomi in Canada (rival to Netflix set up by two major cable companies). They also got the Canadian streaming rights to Jane the Virgin so maybe they’re worth at least the free trial month?
My issue with Shomi and Crave is that they’re only available to people already paying for cable (well, Shomi is also available to Rogers internet customers).
I’ll sign up once they broaden their model…
Not to mention that Cecile and Ivy weren’t even the stars of their stories, they were the “best friend” dolls, which is irritating as hell. There is a small but vocal movement that I have seen (toy/doll collector here!) urging American Girl to offer a Girl of The Year that is a WoC. Since they started the project in 2001, there have only been THREE non-white GoTY dolls, and none with dark skin – Marisol in 2005, Jess in 2006 and Kanani in 2011. They go on sale for one year and one year only and it’s like…c’mon AG. You can and should do better than that.
The pink aisles (ugh) are still overwhelmingly white (ugh) and I would really love to see a better balance there.
I wonder how much of this is related to the Mattel acquisition of Pleasant Company? I remember as a kid, the historical focus was very much front and center (while allowing them to still make and sell $$$ products), and there WASN’T ANY PINK. When Josefina was introduced, I remember I even went to some kind of author event with my mom, and learned a bunch of things about Mexican American culture in the 1800s and doing educational activities before getting my book signed. It seems like in addition to denying the existence of POCs as part of the history of the US, they are really pushing the modern dress-up/accessorizing stuff more, anyway.
…OK, yeah, wow, I just visited their website and they don’t even publish the historical activity/learning books anymore. I loved the craft books, the cookbooks, and the “XX’s World” books that were pure historical context. I liked them better than the fictional stories. That’s really upsetting. 🙁
The American Girl cookbooks were the best. I would read them over and over again even though I was such a picky eater I only ever made a couple things out of them.
The American Girl Cookbooks! My parent’s just found and sent me my copy of the Addy cookbook, which I fondly remember reading. I’m pretty sure the biscuit recipe in it is great… maybe this will be my weekend project.
I’m pretty sure my mom still has Samantha’s recipe for mashed potatoes written down somewhere. It was the first mashed potato recipe she’d ever had success with and I was so excited because I loved mashed potatoes and she hated them, but we made that recipe together and it was great.
My mom has used Molly’s meatloaf recipe exclusively since we got that book back in the 90s. I adapted it in adulthood to make it lower carb, but I still use it too!
I’d be willing to bet a good portion. I got into the dolls BECAUSE of reading the books when I was younger (though I may be an exception, not the rule?) and it feels like they aren’t being as strongly emphasized anymore.
We had Molly’s World, Samantha’s World, and Kit’s World, even though I was well beyond AG-having age when Kit debuted 🙁
I only ever read the books – I think AG had only just debuted when I was of an age to love it so although the dolls were a thing, they weren’t A Thing yet. Way too expensive (not that they’re not $$$$ now, of course) and not yet popular enough that I could peer-pressure my parents into buying me one. (Though I yearned for a Kirsten doll.)
I had about a jillion of the books. My parents would always buy me books, especially if they had Semi-Educational Content, and I liked history. They flat-out refused to get me one of the dolls, though I coveted Felicity so hard. “You don’t even play with dolls,” they said. “And they’re expensive.”
As a grownup, I look back and applaud my parents’ decisions, in this arena at least.
American Girl recently found me (too soon guys, my daughter’s not even 2 for goodness sake), and they are *so* pushing the modern stuff more now. I feel like they had this golden era of diversity where they introduced Addy and Josefina and really seemed to be moving toward telling stories of minority groups’ history, and then …. Fizzle. (I guess at least Addy and Josefina haven’t been discontinued yet.)
Anyway, AG was always ridiculously priced, but it totally gave me a heart attack to see this tent on sale for the modern dolls. You can buy a tent for real adult humans for that price!
Mattel bought Pleasant Co. in 1998. Josefina debuted in 1997. Coincidence??? I’m really starting to think not.
I remember very distinctly that when I got my first doll, the doll + book + accessories pack was $88. If I were to get the same thing now (and I could, now that Samantha’s back I guess, yay) – the same package would cost $134. I know inflation is definitely a thing, but how the hell do you justify a $46 leap???
The thing is, Mattel’s getting better at diversity in their other lines well, as much as you can for Monster and Ever After Highs – but it feels like they are deliberately leaving out AG. They have Addy and Josefina, who else do you need? (it hurt me to write that)
Ugh. I think you’re right.
I still don’t understand why they don’t have an Asian main character, especially because they have a whole series of books set in 1970s San Francisco.
I am scared of the new Gerber baby. No, not kidding, straight up do not trust this baby.
http://jezebel.com/even-a-cunt-like-me-cant-hate-…
I mean as a rule babies aren’t to be trusted but this one is painfully adorable. Though not quite as adorable as my niece who was clearly robbed of the title.
I thought Torrey Smith’s baby son won? I was convinced because I follow Torrey Smith on IG and his son is adorable.
He is apparently your “crawlers division” champion. Also, oh my god, what an adorable lil fella.
The faces I am making at my screen after Google Image Searching that child are just embarrassing, and I can’t stop.
And, Insta-FOLLOWED.
Wow, there’s only ONE person in the comments on the Queens of Africa article who’s arguing that it’s racist for POC to not be satisfied with having only white dolls! Because it’s discrimination based on skin colour to say that you would prefer for your Black daughter to have a doll that looks like her… or something?
(It hurt my brain to write that.)
I had more Barbies of Colour than white ones. In Canada. In the eighties. I had three black Barbies, and an “Eskimo” Barbie (who was beautiful and my favourite). Because I was Tolkien’s bitch back then with a secondary line in early Marion Zimmer Bradley, all of my Barbies had handmade warrior/ranger costumes with cloaks, and swords made from toothpicks, and they used to go on adventures together.
And now I am sad we weren’t friends, because my queer Barbie would have enjoyed that a lot.
I am super thrilled that the new plus-size line at Target is a) designed by stylin’, plus-size gals; b) going to be readily available in store as well as online; and c) may actually feature actual plus-size women in the advertising. However, the article linked to the Lilly Pulitzer “controversy” and it just ended up reminding me how much I absolutely, epically, burn-it-to-the-ground detest Lilly Pulitzer.
I am hoping beyond hope that this ‘restructuring’ Target is saying will hopefully bring the 4x back into stores and away from online-only…I know I’ve lamented this in Link Roundups before, but there are very few, if any, brick-and-mortar stores that carry plus sizes past a 26 or so and I know more than a few people that would really, really like some more options before resorting to the internets.
Tracee Ellis Ross is amazing and this interview is great. V. disappointed that she didn’t reveal her lipstick secrets, though. There’s some serious magic going on there.
That interview with Tracee Ellis Ross was delightful, and I love her on Black-ish. It’s so refreshing to have a sitcom mom that is just as wacky and ridiculous as the dad instead of being a practical killjoy.
Re: the historical day planners, so Marina Abramović has decided to drink more water….
I wonder, does she have an alarm set for every 45 minutes at night so that she gets up to drink water? Or rather is it like a natural thing? Corollary – how many of these every 45 minutes wake up things are actually her bladder about to explode due to drinking so much water? Also, I’ve read a fair amount of mysteries involving medieval monks and/or nuns and so I knew a bit about the round the clock services, but…dang. I can’t imagine being that tired and cold and starving all the time. Props.
For some reason, my favorite part is “change into night shoes.”
The best child-in-heaven story: http://www.clickhole.com/video/amazing-boy-saw-he…
The Megyn Kelly story is fascinating all around. Its notable that the article describes her as “beautiful” 4 times, “blond” 6 times, and all of her big breaks originated with white men being fascinated that this woman they found attractive was speaking man-words (i.e. intelligent). Esp when the law firm bros took her out to “see if she could hang w their macho culture” and she passed — so, YAY woman in our male space that requires us to change nothing! On one hand she found a way to win w/in the patriarchy? But largely through a white beauty privilege and the price is becoming a right wing propaganda machine– but occasionally she calls them out? IDK! Life is a rich tapestry.
At the end when he describes her outfit: “In person she goes with very little makeup, keeps her hair pinned back above her ears and dresses modestly: on this morning she wore an overlarge black T-shirt, black jeans, high Prada boots and a chunky crystal around her neck, the spiritual significance of which she swore not to know.” Oh wow, glad to know she dresses “modestly” in real life.
I’m especially confused about that “spiritual significance” bit. I have a couple of pendants with crystals/gemstones (I’m super into the druzy jewelry trend which has taken over around here) but that doesn’t mean I have any idea what qualities or powers are associated with those stones by people who believe in crystal healing or whatever. Does he suspect Megyn Kelly of being a secret druid or something?
Megyn Kelly, Secret Druid! I am going to secretly believe this every time I see her now.
I’m always bemused whenever I see right wing folks on the internet do a “Women on Their Side” vs “Women on Our Side” meme gif, showing that conservative women are all prettier/hotter than liberal women (usually, a picture of Hillary Clinton when she looks tired). Like, yay for you? Your side has chosen to support women who adhere to a very narrow beauty standard? (Also saw gamergate do this recently, though their particular standard was petite pretty Asian ladies rather than heavily-made-up blonde women.)
Anywho, Megyn Kelly routinely surprises me in terms of being surprisingly sensible and taking no shit from her male Fox colleagues. Well, in between bouts of arguing that Santa Claus is white.
That article made my head ache. I think they wanted us to think better of her because she’s educated and apparently can think–though I wouldn’t have been able to tell this from most of her on-air work–but mostly I noticed how often it was about how she looked (patriarchally acceptable) and extended justification for her employer and the 80% of the time that what she says is dishonest and execrable. They let her get away with occasional antagonism because she’s attractive. I’m torn between kind of wanting to respect her, and being unable because either she believes everything she says, or she doesn’t but takes a paycheck from Fox News. Equally bad. This is someone with zero moral compass.
I was shocked to hear that she has a degree in law, though maybe I shouldn’t be because law attracts a lot of jerks according to the lovely people I know who practice it. It goes to show that ambition is more important than intellect or critical thinking skills. Fox has all these moments when there are five white men and one white woman al sitting around, and the camera pans to the uncomfortable woman after the men say a bunch of misogynist shit and I have zero sympathy.
F*** target, the fired me for being trans. Why exactly do we need to describe a corporation that crushes small business, unions, and has a terrible record of treating their employees poorly as having “general excellence”?
Yeah this is not my idea of “general excellence” http://gawker.com/behold-targets-brand-new-cheesy…
Christ, the NYTimes article on spaces for Co-working on vacation is pretty much my picture of dystopia. I already get that experience in academia – I work in an international science collaboration where tons of people ssh from their laptops into a central laboratory machine, meaning you can work anywhere and anytime. And you know what? For me, at least, it fucking sucks. It completely erases the boundary between work and home life, because when you can work from anywhere, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be working all the time. It also helps create this idea that your work is your *identity*, rather than just a job. Blarrghh!
Also, Silicon Valley-style co-living seems like a terrifying concept wherein one never actually leaves college.
Anywho, I’m considering applying to a government or military research job, just so it’s actually *illegal* for me to take any work home.
Totally. It completely exemplifies everything that’s wrong with American working culture– we’re all supposed to never want to stop working even if we can.
This Humans of New York has been on my mind lately, relating to this: https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/photos/a…
The lady is totally an awesome lady but it really disturbed me how many of the comments were “This is the American Dream!!!” The American dream should not be working 95 hours per week so your kids can go to college. It should be, yknow, having a decent life AND your kids can go to college. It really brought home for me the deep roots of our fucked up attitudes about working.
“Don’t feel sorry for her on behalf of her working 95 hours a week. She was one of the most naturally joyous people I’ve ever met. Giggled through the entire interview.” Jesus H. Christ. Hey, HoNY guy, go fuck yourself.
Ew, I did not notice that comment. I wonder how many hours that dude has to work, wandering around the city taking photos.
He is such a condescending smarmbag.
Eeek I started reading the comments and now I feel very sad 🙁
That’s so horrifying that it makes me itch to get into the comment section, against my better judgement. And the photographer doesn’t see any problem with the situation, because she seemed happy during the interview! *rends clothes*
Haha same, but I resisted. There is definitely no point arguing with people who are incapable of understanding the nuance of “Maybe she is generally happy and an admirable person but it’s also possible that her life could and should be easier than it is?”
Good lord, things are so messed up here.
Yeah I just read that and was like “I already work too much when I’m on vacation, no way do I want a place that makes it easier for me to do that because then I will just work MORE on vacation.” Don’t these people have friends or family that they want to spend time with? I feel like vacations are the one time I can connect with the people in my life who are not coworkers.
Nope, can’t go having friends who aren’t On Message, they’ll only try to drag you down (read: point out that things are fucked) out of jealousy (rather than, say, common sense or concern).
Yesterday, Dear Prudence (why do I still read Dear Prudence) had a letter from a woman expecting her second kid, and her husband wanted to take an out-of-town freelance gig on the four days on and around her due date. Prudie actually suggested he prioritize the birth of his child, but the commenters (why do I still read the comments) were just going crazy over “Whatever, it’s just his second kid, he’s already sacrificed his CAREER for you (because she was the main breadwinner), let the poor guy go.”
Which… okay, yes, there are factors such as needing money and gambling that the baby might not come in those four days that might play into this, but people. It’s the birth of this person’s child. Not just his wife’s child. His child. Like, a big life event. What is with the clamoring to downplay actual life moments in the name of work, work, work?
Hah, yeah, we once scheduled a big collaboration meeting, and had a professor say that “he might have a conflict on that date, but he could work around it.” When pressed further, the conflict ended up being HIS DAUGHTER’S WEDDING. Aaahhhh.
It says a lot as well that, even more so than talking about physical health or depression, there’s a MAJOR taboo in talking about burnout in American workplaces. Like, I’ve seen grad students and postdocs leave their positions, and when someone asks why, their advisor will say “Burnout” and kind of shake their head and roll their eyes like the person is a total failure.
I have tried to have good work-life balance in grad school (I rarely work on weekends now that I am done with classes) but it is difficult to enjoy because I feel guilty all the time. Especially because the other grad student in the group is always talking sadly about how he was in the office until 3AM and it was so cold when he biked home.
On the other hand, dude was probably surfing the internet until at least 11pm, if he’s like the other grad students I’ve known (myself included). Bragging about lost sleep is such a weird STEM thing.
omg how was he going to work around that. PEOPLE.
YES YES YES YES. I love the computer-y nature of my work, but not having a physical location where I have to be to do my research (ie, a lab) destroys any semblance of boundary between work and home. I regularly ssh into my work computers at unseemly hours of the day to do work, and I am almost never the only one online 🙁
*Sad little fist bump!*
My favorite thing about not being in grad school is the fact that when I leave work, I’m no longer at work. It’s beautiful.
I’m glad the Rock’s schedule is pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to be.
GORILLA LOVIN’
BUT WHEN DOES HE SLEEP?
The Burpo-Malarkey Doctrine
THE BURPO-MALARKEY DOCTRINE
The day planner link is further cementing my love for Dwayne Johnson. Soon it will eclipse my love for Vin Diesel. Maybe there will be a duel for my affection!
I love that medievalpoc found the Rock’s Western Art History doppleganger:
FANTASTIC
Yeah I wasn’t going to consider it a complete survey of historical figures unless the Rock was included.
Well, as the painterly evidence indicates, he is like the immortal Orlando, cardio’ing and gorilla lovin’ with great poets and leaders throughout the course of European history.
hearts in my eyes.
Re: duel for your affection– have you seen Fast 5/Furious 6? Almost all the well-muscled, bald headed homoerotic fighting a girl could ask for. (They wrestle each other less in Furious 6 but hey)
If Terry Crews ever joins that franchise my life will be complete and I will die peacefully before turning to dust and blowing away in the wind.
Oh mannnnnnnnnnnnnnn Terry Crews joining the cast would just be… I mean… *fans self*
I’m glad you pointed this out; I too had thought this dream was made manifest by the Fast & Furious franchise.
We have MOST similar affections, apparently!
The Pitchfork article made me fall in love with Bjork all over again.
(Also, am I the only person seriously amused by the penis ponchos?)
For Friday amusement, here’s a whole bunch of libertarians getting really super defensive over people criticizing the Ayn Rand letter to her niece. http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/01/21/lending…
(Warning, it’s on Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, because of course it is)
HOW did I make it to age 31 and through countless episodes of Girlfriends and now Black-ish without knowing that Tracee Ellis Ross is Diana Ross’ daughter??? This is like Mariska Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield all over again.
WAIT, WHAT?!?!
OMG I did not know that about Mariska/Jayne!!! WHAT!
I had no idea about either! wow.
OH MY GOD
So the good news is I judged Tracee Ellis Ross on her own merits as an individual performer rather than comparing her to her mother but the bad news is I’ve been living under a rock.
It’s Friday and I’m having a near-life experience.
A fantastic essay on the problems with self-congratulatory “maker” culture: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/201…
I also think it could go even deeper:
1. It seems like many people who do make things are nonetheless not defined as “makers” in this culture if the things they make (hamburgers, coffee, t-shirts, brooms, etc) aren’t imagined/marketed as “innovative” or “artisinal,” or if they don’t have full control over the entire “making” process. I.e. working class people.
2. Race, not just gender, shapes who gets to “make” the things that ARE defined as “innovative” or “artisinal.”
Great article, and great comment!
Oh wow, thank you for posting this. I suppose I could consider myself a “maker,” but in a feminine-coded and therefore less sexy sphere: I knit constantly. I make sweaters and socks and scarves. Three relevant things I have noticed in the online knitting world:
1. We are told to see it as a compliment when people say, and oh boy do people ever say it, “Oh wow, you could/should sell that!” (From the article: the most prestigious things are “specifically ones you can sell.” Because making things for yourself/the people in your life who are wonderful enough to deserve a handmade pullover is so amateur.)
2. Female designers vastly outnumber male designers, but the latter tend to be hailed as visionary/groundbreaking/artistic far more often than the former. Teaching tends to skew pretty female.
3. Consumerism. The glorification of yarn stashes and yarn buying and tool buying. A variant on the “if it’s not for sale, it’s crap!” school of thought. I take a perverse delight in unraveling things I don’t like and remaking them into something better, and in darning holey socks instead of tossing them. But I still have a stash I don’t know if I’ll ever use, because the idea is so pervasive. I hear about stashes from other “makers”/hobbyists as well–what is up with this?
There was a cool exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, in the Vagina-Table Wing (ie feminist wing that has The Dinner Party) on quilts, that talked a lot about the historical reasons that the art women make, like quilts, was never considered real art. It’s kinda like, if you can sell it it’s worthwhile for that, and if you just put it on the wall to show how visionary and artistic you are it’s valuable for that, but god forbid it should be beautiful, useful AND existing outside of capitalism.
Related to what paddlepickle is saying below (above? how do these comments work?), you should check out The Age of Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. It’s incredibly thick, tons of footnotes, etc, but it’s a genuinely scholarly look at items made by women for use around the house in the colonial period, and how artful they were despite being “only” useful items. It’s amazing. BONUS: you can go down a rabbit hole through her bibliography to all kinds of other books relating to said topic, including some really interesting ones about African American-created home goods and other ephemera. It’s all really fascinating to me, so I always recommend it for this kind of topic.
psssst Roxane is the best link rounder-upper.
I’m sitting here trying to describe how much I hate Spanx and pretty much all foundation garments and all I can say is I HATE THEM SO MUCH. I’ve never found them anything but hot and tight to the point of suffocation, and every time I’ve been told I should wear them it’s always with the undertone “you know, to hide your ugly fat bulges”. Fuck Spanx and all its ilk.
My issue with them is that unless you are already slender they make you look like a sausage. Like, maybe your torso has no bulges now but it is also a cylinder. Woman-as-burrito.
I had (well, have; they just live at the back of my closet now) a pair of Spanx and actually did like the way they made my dresses lie a bit better, but then I discovered that you can also just buy a nice floofy petticoat and have a skirt that goes out to here and is perfect for flouncing around in.
I haven’t looked back.
YYUUUUUPPPPP. I pull mine out occasionally (I have a wonderfully slinky mod-ish 60s dress that kind of necessitates confinement underneath), but I hate the culture that surrounds them. I wore a lovely sheath dress to a wedding once (it was in the summer, and super-hot), and my mother-in-law’s first comment upon seeing me was, “don’t you have some spanx or something to go under that?” I have resented their existence ever since.
THIIIISSSSS. They absolutely have their use for many folks, and that’s great! What infuriates me is the expectation for some women that we MUST wear them all the time- basically, so people don’t have to look at the unsightliness of our actual bodies. Fuck that noise.
YES, it’s all wrapped up in the nonsense of “only these certain types of bodies are acceptable.” And that’s incredibly frustrating. I also refuse to comprehend the notion that some people wear more than one pair at a time. Like, you’re kidding, right? That’s just masochistic.
This is how I feel about most of the trappings of modern femininity. Like shaving– do it or don’t. But I resent the hell out of the idea that it’s disgusting not to.
I misread the last sentence of your post as “I have resented her existence ever since” and was enthusiastically behind this sentiment.
I mean…that’s not entirely inaccurate…
She sounds delightful.
Oh, she can be a real peach.
*small voice* I like how they keep me from jiggling and prevent my thighs from rubbing together and hurting…
Hey, if shapewear works for you, that is excellent! Rock on with your bad self and continue to be fabulous! I just have unfortunately had nothing but bad experiences with them. 🙁
Understandable. I think I’m insecure about my Spanx-wearing and thus feel an irrational need to defend them when I see people hating on them.
No, I gotcha. I think Vera Koop upthread nailed it- Spanx are like shaving body hair, or wearing makeup, or most of the other lady-body things we do. I don’t mind that they’re out there, and a lot of people clearly get something out of them, it’s just frustrating when they’re applied as a baseline standard of acceptability rather than “Hey, you can do this thing if you want? Or not! Either way is cool.”
Yeah definitely. I’m kind of at the point where I feel this feminist guilt about doing those things, even the ones (like spanx) that I objectively like.
I like how they smush my middlesection together when I’m having bad menstrual cramps. Am I the only one that has been helped with this with Spanx? maybe it’s a hug machine kind of thing?
Spanx: Thundershirt for Your Womb.
Also, it could be that they trap heat. I wear compression stockings to help with my plantar fasciitis, and they also keep my legs warm.
I like the fact that they stop my thighs rubbing together (so painful), but I tend to find them too hot and uncomfortable. Both options are bad.
Except that the makers’ themselves aren’t even subtle about it about the “hiding your ugly fat bulges” thing. Maidenform has a line called (not kidding) “Fat Free Dressing” and another called “Control It.” There’s a shapewear brand called Skinnygirl. Or Vivian’s shapewear has a label that says “say goodbye to muffin top.”
But all the fat squeezes out the top anyway!
Megyn Kelly named her kid Yardley? YARDLEY? I don’t know if it’s worse if it’s Yardley Kelly or Yardley Brunt.
Yardley Brunt sounds like the name of an English hamlet or maybe a voluminous ground-covering plant. Like mottled spurge.
It’s the voluminous plant slowly growing over the walls of the cottages in the English hamlet.
In case anyone has missed the trailer for Tina Fey’s amazing looking new pilot: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/unbrea…
This looks good! I’ll definitely watch it and hope it’s as hilarious as 30 Rock. Also, so happy to see D’Fawn!!
I thought it looked great on my first watch of the trailer, but on my second watch I noticed that the news report says “WHITE WOMEN FOUND (in smaller letters: “Hispanic Woman Also Found”) and I was like “YUP THIS IS MY TINA”.
YES! I noticed that too!! The beeeeesssst.
It’s not a pilot, Netflix picked up the whole series, didn’t they?
I was also super stoked to see D’Fwan is in it. (And also Jane Krakowski.)
I really want to go work for the Bigfoot guy. Getting paid to take lots of trips, go for lots of hikes, and then shrug my shoulders and say “I was so close this time?” Perfect.
Screw spanx. I just want an effing open bottom girdle. I want decent effing foundation garments for the 4 times a year I have to wear them, and they are impossible to find in stores that don’t cater to extreme subspecialties or fetish wear.
What Katie Did carries them, for the price of a midrange bra. http://www.whatkatiedid.com/en_us/products/classi…
Occasionally they have them in their outlet store, too. http://www.ebay.com/usr/whatkatiedidclearance?_tr…
Sweet. Many thanks.
You’re welcome!
Also, Rago is still around and making their girdles. Amazon’s got ’em for $32. http://www.amazon.com/Rago-Shapewear-Bottom-Girdl…
They’ve also got Venus Cortland for around $20. http://www.amazon.com/Venus-Cortland-Foundations-…
I wear a lot of vintage (for which you need the proper shapewear, otherwise the clothes will look off) and there’s a lot of discussion of the pros and cons of different shapewear makers on vintage blogs, which might be worth googling.
Thanks for the links! Do you have any experience in terms of waist cincher vs high waist open bottom girdle? I’m looking for something to wear under work dresses with pencil skirts (pencil dresses?) so I’m trying to find something that doesn’t make me feel like I’m going to be sick like Spanx do and also is easy to go to the bathroom in.
Waist cinchers are more like a classic corset, i.e. designed to nip in your waist. The girdles I linked to are more “butt lifters” than stomach shapers, as are most vintage girdles. I don’t know why spanx make you sick, but these are definitely firmer in control than spanx, although spanx sort of make you into a tube, and girdles (and waspies, etc.) make a more hourglass shape.
This link does a really good job of talking about how waist shapers work, although its focus is primarily victorian-style corsets, but the diagram is relevant for 20th century shapewear as well.
https://thepragmaticcostumer.wordpress.com/2012/0…
Thanks for the information! It might not be fair to say that Spanx make me feel sick as it was only one time that I tried them and I had to take them off after about ten minutes of trying a dress on. It may have been a sizing issue. But it definitely made me never want to try them again. I’ve got a basque that is fairly firm up against my stomach and slimming and I feel fine in that, so who knows how the waist cincher will go. But my mom has Amazon Prime and I might as well give it a shot while I’m going to be home and can get free shipping and returns!
If the basque is boned and you don’t mind it, you’ll more than likely be fine in pretty much anything What Katie Did makes. I wore one of her Torsolettes under my wedding dress, and I felt no discomfort. I now have one in black (as well as the peach one I wore under my dress), and I whip them out whenever I need intense shaping (wiggle dresses, etc.). I could also probably get away with wearing the black one as a top, with jeans or a pencil skirt.
You definitely need to wear stockings, though, otherwise the bottom rides up. I understand that’s pretty normal for girdle-y things, though.
I can’t speak for the others, but they’re both companies that have been making girdles for a very long time, so they’re probably similar in strength. Google around on vintage blogs, though, and I’m sure you’ll find some very detailed breakdowns of different girdles.
i found one on sale at macy’s and i LUUUUUUUV it. it’s even got garter straps <3
So mad that Target announces their plus-sized line literally a week after they announce they’re pulling out of Canada. WE CAME SO CLOSE.
Target in Canada never carried plus sizes, (at last, not on Vancouver Island). Shortly after they opened, I asked at one store, and was told that Target Canada were not selling the plus-sized line available in the States, and had no plans to do so in the future.
We were never close – shopping at Target Canada was like being mocked by someone with a lot of money and a very strange sense of humour.
Target in Canada didn’t seem to carry any of the things that made it such a cult favourite in the US. Low stock, prices weren’t great, and overall it didn’t strike me as having the occasional interesting oddities that made Zellers worth it (I found some weird things at Zellers, now and then).
And now they’re pulling out and leaving people jobless and acting as though it’s some sort of incomprehensible thing – no, sirs, you were a useless store and you clearly never made an effort. “I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die just from the shock of that surprise.”
Maybe Mrs. Mike was the only book they read about Canada before they entered the market, and they imagined our unfettered glee when we realized that, instead of driving a sled piled with furs to the nearest Hudson’s Bay store for barter and woolen blankets, we could use cash to buy clothing and groceries.
I didn’t go to the local Target very often; shopping there made me feel like the last human left alive in a world where nothing was fun or necessary.
Target’s CEO received a larger total severance package than all 17,600 suddenly-jobless Canadian staff combined, but do enjoy their plus-sized clothing, and, uh, “general excellence”?
Yeah, but he EARNED that money! For…for getting..fired, I guess?
I’m not really sure how this works.
For his clear-headed business expertise and guidance of the company, clearly.
Obviously. What ELSE would they be firing him for?
Roxane, thank you so much for the Transparent tip. I so badly want to watch this show but I’ve really cut back on my Amazon spending. It’s supposed to snow here this weekend, so the timing couldn’t be better.
Well I WOULD support Target, but they just closed down in my country, taking nearly eighteen thousand jobs with them. Uh. Whoops?
Fuck Spanx and yay for lumps! And not just the specific lumps that we are supposed to like.
Ugh, that Megyn Kelly piece is too depressing. How nice it is to know that the idea of a Fox anchor actually doing her job and not lobbing soft balls at war criminals is so incredible that it’s treated as a moment of courage. She still spouts the same b.s. 90% of the time.The standards are just so low that rare occasions of basic competence deserve attention. There was another round of accolades recently after she admitted that systemic racism exists in a conversation with O’Reilly, then she turned around and argued that racism had nothing to do with Eric Garner’s death.
Yeah, I’m actually pretty pissed about the AVA & VIV news, since I live in Canada and they decided to throw in the towel here and shut down all the stores, so no AVA & VIV for me.
EDIT: I SEE YOU, MY PLUS SIZED CANADIAN SISTERS, ALSO MAD AT TARGET. *fistbump
Yeah, I'm actually pretty pissed about the AVA & VIV news, since I live in Canada and they decided to throw in the towel here and shut down all the stores, so no AVA & VIV for me.
EDIT: I SEE YOU, MY PLUS SIZED CANADIAN SISTERS, ALSO MAD AT TARGET. *fistbump
It's not a pilot, Netflix picked up the whole series, didn't they?
I was also super stoked to see D'Fwan is in it. (And also Jane Krakowski.)