Here are a few articles I read this week that got me thinking, and I’d implore you to click on through.

We’re all real women … what do men or size have to do with it? by Clementine Ford on The Drum

One major problem with the whole “real women have curves” thing is that it still places female body types in adversity with one another. Instead of saying it’s okay to be any size, it just reverses the typical preference for super-skinny types and disparages those women. Saying that having curves is “better” or “more real” and “more womanly” than being skinny doesn’t help anyone. This is such an interesting and complex issue, and Clementine Ford expresses all these ideas quite eloquently. Importantly, she points out something that is easy to miss, but that’s pretty salient to the whole issue: the “men prefer curves anyway” argument that always comes up just reinforces the idea that male desire should be integral to the way we feel about our bodies.

(more…)

Published on lipmag.com

The SCAR Project takes an unflinching look at breast cancer, celebrating the courage of survivors, paying tribute to the lives that have been lost, and bringing hope to the more than 10,000 women under the age of 40 who will be diagnosed this year alone.

This is a series of large-scale portraits of young breast cancer survivors by fashion photographer David Jay. Its tagline is ‘breast cancer is not a pink ribbon.’ Nothing is hidden here. These portraits show the raw, brutal truth of the disease, and all the physical and emotional scars that go along with it. They are bold, arresting, possibly confronting or even frightening to look at- this is the physical reality of breast cancer, complete with double mastectomies, lumpectomies, and reconstructions. (more…)

Published on lipmag.com

Australia might officially say ‘no’ to violence against women, but we still have some pretty alarming rates- and it gets worse over the Christmas to New Years period. In an average year, nearly half a million Australian women will experience physical or sexual violence, with rates spiking quite significantly over the holiday week. Last year, over 5000 women in New South Wales alone suffered domestic abuse during the Christmas period.

There’s no definitive explanation for this trend, but police and experts suggest that a combination of factors relating to the holidays, such as financial strain, increased alcohol consumption, and families (often unhappily) spending more time together, are likely to contribute. (more…)