Barbie has cankles? So says designer Christian Louboutin. (via)
posted by mrgrimm on Oct 15, 2009 - 68 comments

Vogue is now frequently "retouching" phptographs to make models look larger...
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist on Jun 17, 2009 - 73 comments

"What you're looking for as a retoucher is a broom, something that covers your tracks, some way of obscuring where you've been. The first thing [most] people take out is bloodshot eyes. That's the last thing I take out—the last thing I'd, like, just wipe, because that just makes it look retouched." -- from Jesse Epstein's video op-ed for the NY Times, based on her film Wet Dreams and False Images ("I know that's not airbrushed. I could put a million dollars that's not airbrushed."), one of three related short documentaries on physical perfection. "Each head has to be identical to the other head, so we don't want anybody putting sandpaper to the head." -- from 34 x 25 x 36. Via the latest installment of Shakesville's Impossibly Beautiful series. (Previous posts on retouching.)
posted by maudlin on Apr 3, 2009 - 51 comments

Variations in normal human genitalia. All links NSFW. Breasts (of women who have not given birth; of women who have), vulvae, and penises. Previously, erection photos. [more inside]
posted by cybercoitus interruptus on Mar 1, 2009 - 233 comments

Quebec clothing chain Simons has pulled its newest catalogue after getting hundreds of complaints that the models in it were too thin. The genesis of the complaints may have been a story about the catalogue (and complaints) on Radio-Canada (Canada's French-language national broadcaster) about a week ago. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd on Aug 27, 2008 - 77 comments

These women are supposed to disgust you into buying low-fat yogurt.
posted by brittney on Jun 19, 2007 - 106 comments

"THIN is a photographic essay and a documentary film about the treatment of eating disorders. In 1997, Lauren Greenfield began documenting the lives of patients at the Renfrew Center in Coconut Grove, Florida, a forty-bed residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders. She subsequently returned to Renfrew to take more photographs, and was eventually given unprecedented access to film the daily lives of patients". (scroll down or search for "Greenfield"). 2002 MeFi post on Greenfield's previous project, "Girl Culture", here.
posted by matteo on Oct 16, 2006 - 23 comments

The Shape of a Mother There are a lot of sites out there that document the changes a woman's body goes through during pregnancy. The goal of Shape of a Mother (picture-heavy, NSFW) is to document what also happens afterwards. Women from all over the world submit stories and pictures of how their bodies changed after giving birth and how it affects their self-image. From the site's creator: "It occurred to me that a post-pregnancy body is one of this society's greatest secrets; all we see of the female body is that which is airbrushed and perfect, and if we look any different, we hide it from the light of day in fear of being seen."
posted by LeeJay on Oct 14, 2006 - 53 comments

Naked is a gallery of sixteen regular people in various stages of undress (using an innovate flash interface). It has extensive interviews with the participants, talking about how they feel about their bodies and being nude in general. It's about as far from being erotic as possible (and rightly so), instead aiming to get viewers thinking about how they confront their own body image issues and how they feel about nudity.
posted by mathowie on Apr 2, 2003 - 45 comments

Which is more scary: that this girl is 20 stone at the age of 11 or that the reporter thinks her friends are an ideal weight at 1/4 of her weight? Take her to 5 stone and a BMI of 11 would put her well below the anorexia threshold BMI of 16.

But would her friends accept they could have a problem? Probably not. What causes Anorexia? Strep? Genetics? Models? Something else?
posted by twine42 on Oct 29, 2002 - 29 comments

Everybody Vogue. Well, really just the thin people. Vogue Magazine gets a tongue-lashing from Slate. Seems the fashion mag attempted a "body diversity" issue, but their idea of a large-size model is a size 8. Excerpt: "If "tall" and "short" and "pregnant" are body types, and Minnie Driver is "curvy," there's no need to admit the existence of the bottom-heavy, let alone try to dress the poor bastards."
posted by GaelFC on Apr 2, 2002 - 21 comments

"If every girl who had a Barbie doll had a vulva puppet she'd have a very different view of her body," says Dorrie Lane, the Oakland artist and sex educator who made the 300-pound vulva.

Indeed.
posted by adampsyche on Mar 6, 2002 - 38 comments

When Barbie meets ballet...? Mattel are shelling out £85,000 to sponsor the ENO's traditional Christmas run of the Nutcracker, which coincidentally starts just as Barbie in the Nutcracker hits the cinemas. A good way to "interest young girls in the ballet", or a head-on crash between two questionable influences on their body image? (more inside...)
posted by holgate on Sep 9, 2001 - 4 comments

What are you more worried about: death, or your looks? "University of South Australia health researcher Murray Drummond said while there was a growing focus on young men and body image issues, such as steroid use and eating disorders - older men's concerns had been overlooked. Dr Drummond said men aged 55 to 80 were 'not concerned about how they looked as long as they were alive'. But he said they were concerned about what their bodies were able to do."

As a (young) woman, I definitely have body image issues (noting earth shattering, I'm afraid), and I'm not so worried about my body failing me. What about everyone else?
posted by jetgrrl on Sep 4, 2001 - 24 comments

A model commits suicide the other night but what's really tragic about this is this is what is considered "plus sized" these days. Aren't the days of 80lb, heroin-chic models over?
posted by mathowie on Jul 25, 2001 - 81 comments