Stand Up for Beauty and Win March 9, 2010
Stand up for Beauty and Win
March 8, 2010 at 12:35 am · Filed under Beauty and Fashion, Conscious Diversity, Sun Moon Healing Heart
Whitney Thompson for CoverGirlHow do you stand up for beauty, Gorgeous One?
Plus Size Clothing Magazine’s always on the lookout for new, innovative opportunities to ramp up the plus size presence in beauty contests, modeling competitions, advertisements, and public forums.
Lo and behold, we were sent an email about CoverGirl, and excitement ensued! It reads: “Take beautiful back. Make the switch. Take a stand. Tell us your story.”
The full-figured queens who’ve graced pages with CoverGirl warming their faces include Queen Latifah, Drew Barrymore (well, she’s been full figured at different points in life), and America’s Next Top (full figured) Model, Whitney Thompson.
You could be next.
Here’s the deal: create a video and let CoverGirl know…
Roger Ross Williams to appear on ‘Larry King Live,’ discusses acceptance speech March 8, 2010
By Dustin Schoof
Lehigh Valley News
March 08, 2010, 2:21PM
AP PhotoEaston native Roger Ross Williams poses with Prudence Mabhena at the Governors Ball following the the 82nd Academy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles.It has been less than 24 hours and Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams is still reeling from the win.
“It’s surreal, hard to explain what it’s actually like,” Williams said over the phone. “You go through the whole backstage process of interviews, you’re in different press rooms and then they bring in your entourage, get in the limousine and travel to the Vanity Fair party, which is the best party of the Oscars. I met every celebrity known to man.”
Williams won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for the film “Music by Prudence.” But his acceptance speech was cut off by the film’s producer, Elinor Burkett.
The Easton native and 1981 Easton Area High School graduate will appear on “Larry King Live” tonight to discuss his win and the controversy surrounding his acceptance speech, which caused a flurry of activity on the Web.
Although he didn’t get to finish on TV, Williams posted the entire speech on the film’s official Web site:
“Thank you, Academy. Thank you, Sheila Nevins, Sara Bernstein, my producer Elinor Burkett and my incredible crew. And my mother Betty … she got on a plane for the first time in her life to be here – I love you, Mom! And Prudence Mahbena … Prudence was born in a country that despises the disabled. Prudence, you had nothing … nothing but spirit, intelligence, and talent. And with your band Liyana you touched us all. Liyana means It’s raining, which in Zimbabwe is a gift from God. We don’t always recognize the gifts we get and Prudence, I’m so very happy to be a part of recognizing you tonight. I love you!!”
Women of the Commons March 8, 2010
Stephanie Fysh has curated a wonderful selection of photos to commemorate International Women’s Day over at indicommons. Check out her post for more Women of the Commons.
Photo from the Library of Congress.
Source: Heather Champ/Flickr Blog
Sheridan Watson: Ms. Fiercely Real March 7, 2010
Teen Queen Sheridan. – Photo: Warner Bros
“What you find
What you feel
What you know
To be real”
- From Cheryl Lynn’s “Got to Be Real”
That’s right–it’s all about the realness. And in this corner…we have America’s First Fiercely Real Top Model winner! After conquering every single competition Tyra tossed her way, 17 year old Sheridan Watson, an elegant size-14, emerged a champion as Tyra Banks’ Fiercely Real Teen Model Search drew to a dignified…
Beth Ditto, Critical Mass, and Retail: A Zaftig Fairy Tale March 6, 2010
Filed under Beauty and Fashion, Conscious Diversity, Progressive News Wire, Size-Positive, Sun Moon Healing Heart ·
EuroDisplay.sg Full Figured Mannequins
Critical mass happens, even in fashion. Critical mass is a sociological principle in which a trend, habit, or ritual happens so much, at such a rate, and at such a “mass” that it tips the balance, and voila: critical “mass” occurs until it becomes the norm.
The demand for plus size friendly fashion in the real world is most definitely in full effect. Byte by byte, the buzz grows: Vogue Italia’s “Vogue Curvy” is in the house, alongside its diversity-conscious site, “Vogue Black,” both housed under the protective wings of Vogue.it.
Italian men (and tourists…) are well familiar with the warnings: “When you’re a woman travel to Italy, you’re going to get pinched. The curvier you are, the more it’s going to happen.” Sophia Loren is no waif. The runway reality check is happening across the globe.
Full figured women and men, and their advocates, are pounding on the doors of major retailers, designers, and agencies, chanting: “Open, open, open!” And they’re being heard. People want to see themselves reflected, and the smart retailers, as late to the party as they are, are going Open Source.
Little by little, consumers are ditching the “why can’t I be that thin?” stigma and upgrading to, “why can’t you sell my size? Delicious to see.
Beth Ditto for Love Magazine. Photo: Wikipedia
Enter Beth Ditto, decidedly larger than Tyra Banks’ plus sized protégées, and not looking to change that any time soon. Ditto, a rockstar gone fashion designer (she’s unveiling a line…)
The Laws of (Animal) Attraction March 4, 2010
The Well-Trained Dog. – Photo: Kevin Miller Photography
DVD Review, “Train Your Dog – The Positive Gentle Method” with Nicole Wilde and Laura Bourhenne (The Picture Company – 93 Mins.)
“…No, Killer, no!”
“…Put the child down, Tiny!”
“I’m sorry—Baby has a barking problem…”
Do any of these scenarios feel a little familiar? If you think an untrained dog is not a detriment to your health, the animal’s health, and the general health and stabliltity of your family, it’s time to think more deeply on the matter.
There’s a world of difference between a new pup, an adolescent, and an older dog, and “Train Your Dog – The Positive Gentle Method,” is here to help you teach your pets good behavior every step of the way.
High-Spirited / Genius March 3, 2010
“We were both insufferably childish and high-spirited that afternoon. And the spectacle we presented–two grown men jostling each other on the sidewalk, and aiming cherry pits as though they were spitballs into each others’ faces, must have been outrageous. I realize that such happiness, out of which it sprang, yet more so, for that moment I really loved Giovanni, who had never seemed more beautiful than he was that afternoon. Watching his face, I realized that it meant much to me that I could make his face light so bright. And I felt myself flow toward him as a river rushes when the ice breaks up.”
- James Baldwin from: “Giovanni’s Room”
~
“But I still believe that the unexamined life is not worth living: and I know that self-delusion, in the service of no matter what small or lofty cause, is a price no writer can afford. His subject is himself and the world and it requires every ounce of stamina he can summon to attempt to look on himself and the world as they are.”
- James Baldwin, from “Nobody Knows My Name”
Integrative Healing March 2, 2010
Integrity must be learned. We’re all only born with so much. Integrity, integration, integral, meaning whole. Integrative healing. Wholeheartedness.
Oftentimes, people of color, at least in the States I can say from direct experience, don’t have the most ideal role modeling, simply because we don’t always have the traditions set in place.
I once had someone say to me, because I didn’t sound like the people of color that she knew from her home state that I wasn’t “following my tradition.” But my folks are from Oklahoma. And that’s just the 2 generations that I know of that are on the books.
You see the conundrum…much of this tradition depends on family heritage, and where, indeed, we arrived from–and when.
It’s Obama time, ideas are being recycled, new rituals are taking place. We are becoming a nation of one, worldwide. You can, for the time being, type “how to” in any major search engine and get a ballpark idea of what and how to create things, from the ground up. Rites of passage in the form of bits and bytes.
Still, there is the idea of tribe. Real-time warmth. Family. Oftentimes our matriarchs and patriarchs, if indeed they figure into our lives at all, either accept or reject their babies into the fold. This, too, has a lot to do with upbringing, tradition, even habit.
If we’re not initiated into our tribes and we’re cast away, stolen, spurned, neglected, or even accepted into a fold that doesn’t have the right ideas in mind for caring ritual, doesn’t have the models, then what?
Personally I find solace in the idea of family of choice. The LGBT community has taken the idea and run with it, but you find it in various cultures over time. The Harlem Renaissance, even the expats in it. Pre-Civil Rights era and of course in the thick of it, when the idea was new. Feminist circles.
White, too, is a color. Statistically, a lot of folks on welfare are white. We don’t address this idea often enough. Lots of crack addicts are white. Substance abuse busts up tribes too, regardless of color, and with or without the role modeling.
Incest survivors, survivors of abuse, so many scattered tribes. A disapora of motherless and fatherless children who all the while have birth mothers and fathers.
The mama bird kicks the seedling out of the nest. The recreational drug abuser parties with her little ones in the clan in the interest of thinking she’s doing what’s good and best for them. The lioness chases her cub away and bans it to the other side of the plain. We all have to fend for ourselves eventually. A blessing of sorts awaits, in the banishment.
Solutions in mind? The first, of course, is to survive.
Taking oneself from surviving to thriving is an elegant and stately idea. An idea that can be stitched up, patched, band-aided, and healed, one day at a time.
This is truly integrative healing.
My symbols in mind, of this integrative healing, at this time have to do with self-expression. This is the best idea I know up to now. Truth heals. Love with good intentions heals, the best of all possible solutions is a restoration to wholeness. Finding your right tribe can heal. This can take a lifetime. You could also spend your whole life as a tribe of one.
Holistic Healing Practices also come to mind, a part of but not the whole of the integrative healing process.
Thoughts wash up, and heal, survivors all, we are. Everyone on this plane of consciousness is a survivor. We made it out of the warm womb into the brisk cool air of life, today, and made it, yes, another day above ground. Just because we can.
Hand-fashioning, stitching, embroidering the fine and intricate patterns and designs of a life beyond livelihood, a fine work of art that is called quality of life, what a brilliant and blessed journey. I am grateful for it–bruises and bleeding and all.
And healing. I find the process of healing to be a beautiful one. Our bodies do it naturally, a million forces inside us run to rescue when there’s a ding, a scrape, an “anti-antibody” invader. The process of healing, and of support, is an innate one, from the inside on out.
How we make it look is a lifelong lesson. What doesn’t manifest naturally takes time to make itself known, and takes some learning. That is why mistakes, too, are gorgeous and delicious.
Revel in your mistakes, and integrate them. Relishing in that is a joyful and ever-new ritual.
What a beautifully-designed sight you, and your process, and I, and my process are, and will become.
Big, Beautiful, Woman, Olympian: Helena Blach Lavrsen March 1, 2010
Helena Blach Lavrsen – Photo: Big Brother
With the 2010 Winter Olympics barely behind us, we’ve been reminded once again of the grace, power, and beauty of Olympian athleticism: the discipline, fortitude, strength, and courage that achieving any level of Olympic presence entails brings to mind a kind of inexplicable magic. The “sorcery” involved is actually borne of a perfection and mastery that’s so fine-tuned, that it looks easy–rest assured, it is not.
We were honored with the opportunity to chat with the Danish curling Olympic medalist, international media personality, and plus size model, Helena Blach Lavrsen. Though she is less active in sports than previously, she’s continually applied that Olympian dedication and passion to her life, and it shows. As they say: “Once an Olympian, always an Olympian.” That, to us, is a definite “win.”
Click Here for the Rest of the Interview
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Articles and Interviews, Beauty and Fashion, Conscious Diversity, Inspiration, Size-Positive, Sun Moon Healing Heart, Women’s Health ·
