Strollerderby : models

French Vogue: Bringing up Baby on Cigarettes and Prada

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Oh, mon dieu. French Vogue has outdone themselves. The April issue features a faux pregnant Lilly Donaldson wearing six-inch heels and doing things with a doll and a baby bottle that, well, defy summary. You really have to check these photos out yourself.

Call me paranoid, but I think they may be making fun of les americains in this one. All right, you got us, we Americans ARE totally uptight about not letting our fetuses smoke in utero.

In the next one, it seems the model confused the instruction, "Check the temperature of the milk on your wrist," with, "Use the milk to shoot up."

Judging from Jezebel’s take on the spread, I’m more uptight than I thought. Both the writers and commenters seemed united in their appreciation of the, ah, unusual take on motherhood. Tatiana writes, “French Vogue found the tenderness in mothering, but also the humor, the wackiness, the suggestion that it isn't perhaps natural to all women, and the surprise.”

As in, “Surprise! Motherhood turned me into a heroin addict?” I guess I don't like to be quite that surprised.

I agree with Jezebel that it’s nice to see taboos busted, but this spread perpetuates just as many myths about femininity as it knocks down. Donaldson couldn’t look more childish and helpless in many of these photos.

I like the idea that motherhood does not equal self-sacrificing sainthood, but is a pregnant supermodel smoking two cigarettes at the same time necessarily the best way to demonstrate that?

Photos: Jezebel

They Like Big Butts, and They Can Not Lie: Survey Finds Men Prefer Bigger Body Sizes

Cole Gamble — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:30:00 GMT

Drop that rice cake. I said drop it! For years, okay centuries, women have tortured, teased and starved themselves in the hope of reaching that ideal body size. One would assume this was all for the men. If that’s the case, someone should have asked the men, because ladies have been doing it wrong all along.

According to a body survey in the UK mag Fabulous, women claim their ideal body size is a 6. When asked, the men said they though the ideal female body size should be a 10. See the pic for a comparison.*

*These are UK measurements. Size 8 is equivalent to the U.S. size 6, size 12 is a U.S. size 10 and size 16 is a U.S. size 14.

Which begs the question, who have women been starving themselves for? When you ask your guy, “Do you like skinny girls?” and he says “no,” instead of reflexively calling him a liar and hitting him, maybe you should listen. He’s been telling the truth all along. So maybe it’s time to cut out the unending parade of diets and accept the fact men like women the way they look, maybe even more so with a few more pounds. And maybe before you ladies lose all the baby weight, take a second look at how thin you really need to be. The first round of fettuccini is on me.

For the record, I think all those ladies up there are hot.

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Anorexia Now Illegal In France

Amy S.F. Lutz — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:33:00 GMT

Lawmakers in France are so concerned about the estimated 35,000 French women suffering from anorexia that the lower house of Parliament passed a controversial bill yesterday making it illegal to promote "extreme thinness" through magazines, websites and advertisements.

The bill - which carries penalties ranging from fines of $47,000 to a three-year prison sentence if an afflicted person dies from anorexia - still needs to be approved by the Senate in order to go into effect.

Naturally, the prominent figures in French couture denounced the bill. "Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny," claimed Didier Grumbach, president of the French Federation of Couture," adding, "That doesn't exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France."

Sacre bleu, Didier! It looks as if a judge may very well be deciding who is too skinny in France. And even if the bill is too vague, as opponents suggest, or too simplistic, as other critics allege, it can't possibly hurt to make editors, designers, and advertisers think twice before sending more images of starved models out into the world.