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I watched the first episode of the US "How to Look Good Naked" and it made me all happy inside--yay for the girl to figure out she's pretty! There was only one moment that annoyed me because it referenced my pet peeve. When they put the girl's body on the side of a building and asked passersby what they thought of it most people complimented her, but one woman said, "That's what a real woman looks like."
This annoys me on two levels. First because I hate that phrase. I'm not a supermodel by any stretch, but it's gotten applied to me because it's always used to mean that a "real woman" has to have a certain body type--usually whatever body type the person using the phrase thinks she has, or thinks she looks better than, and that's bullshit. All women are "real women." Even supermodels before they're airbrushed. The whole point is there isn't one way women look, everybody's different and they can all still be beautiful. Trying to change the aesthetic to put your own body type on top isn't freeing you from anything.
Secondly in the context of this show I thought--why can't you just give her a compliment on her own? Why does there have to be this implied comparison to some other "non-real" woman, who we all know is a supermodel, so that basically you just said, "She doesn't look like a supermodel." I'm sure the girl knows she doesn't look like a supermodel. That's why she's insecure. We're trying to get away from comparing her to people whose body types she was not born with and celebrate what's good about her. I just feel like while everybody else was complimenting the woman, this statement is more a political statement about the agenda of the person making it--down with supermodels. It's a weird day when "nice rack" is the more empowering thing said to a woman, but there it is!
Anyway, this also made me think about something I was talking about on New Year's Eve about fan fiction and bodies, specifically in media fandoms. ( More about that within. )
This annoys me on two levels. First because I hate that phrase. I'm not a supermodel by any stretch, but it's gotten applied to me because it's always used to mean that a "real woman" has to have a certain body type--usually whatever body type the person using the phrase thinks she has, or thinks she looks better than, and that's bullshit. All women are "real women." Even supermodels before they're airbrushed. The whole point is there isn't one way women look, everybody's different and they can all still be beautiful. Trying to change the aesthetic to put your own body type on top isn't freeing you from anything.
Secondly in the context of this show I thought--why can't you just give her a compliment on her own? Why does there have to be this implied comparison to some other "non-real" woman, who we all know is a supermodel, so that basically you just said, "She doesn't look like a supermodel." I'm sure the girl knows she doesn't look like a supermodel. That's why she's insecure. We're trying to get away from comparing her to people whose body types she was not born with and celebrate what's good about her. I just feel like while everybody else was complimenting the woman, this statement is more a political statement about the agenda of the person making it--down with supermodels. It's a weird day when "nice rack" is the more empowering thing said to a woman, but there it is!
Anyway, this also made me think about something I was talking about on New Year's Eve about fan fiction and bodies, specifically in media fandoms. ( More about that within. )
