A Tale of Two Bodies

              “I like looking nice, but I always put comfort over fashion. I don't find thin girls attractive; be happy and healthy. I've never had a problem with the way I look. I'd rather have lunch with my friends than go to a gym.                                                    ~ Adele

We’re not 100% with Adele here, as the gym is certainly important. But we are with her in that balance, and being happy and healthy is way more important than striving to be thin! And comfort over fashion is way cool, too. If more people had a mind of their own on this topic, the skinny bitch fashion industry would have less and less of a negative influence on our fragile self images.

A Tale of Two Fashion Marketing Campaigns

Let’s get real with expectations for a moment. Do we endorse the wafer thin models that may represent less than 1% of our countries demographic, despite age, and unfortunately lead us to unneeded anxiety and self doubt in our own body images? Hell no. But we also don’t want to give out kitchen passes for being overweight and enable the excuse factory for obesity, either. For us, as stated before, health is more important than appearance, and athletically fit, strong and healthy as a ‘look’ is the new thin (as in the desirable new look) and the new sexy.

First, let’s tell the status quo ad story from a leading offender in the clueless, arrogant fashion industry, Victoria’s Secret. You’ve all seen the TV ads, so here’s the skinny (pun intended). Their latest Ad Campaign,

The Perfect “Body”, from a company not especially known for embracing diverse body types, seems to have hit a nerve this time. 

With the lingerie brand’s #IAmPerfect movement, accusations abound of body shaming and promotion of an unrealistic standard of beauty. It appears women have grown accustomed to the half-naked freaks of nature parading around on runways, TV shows and in print campaigns, but the words, The Perfect ”Body”, along with the waif images, was apparently too much this time.

U.K. residents Frances Black, Gabriella Kountourides, and Laura Ferris launched a change.org petition demanding that Victoria’s Secret change the wording on their campaign so it doesn’t glorify unrealistic beauty standards. The three co-filers also want a promise from the company to ‘pledge to not use such harmful marketing in the future.’    
            
Good luck with that petition, ladies. Maybe better to boycott Victoria’s Secret merchandise and hit them where they live, ie: in their pocketbooks? Just a thought...And just in time to restore some modicum of faith in the fashion industry, we have the story of 27 year old Myla Dalbesio, a plus size (read, sadly, as the size of a normal woman, only because anything over a size 8 is considered by, you guessed it, the fashion industry as PLUS sized) model featured by Calvin Klein in the brand’s latest "Perfectly Fit" underwear campaign.  

                                      

                                                                                                                                            

So what’s the significance here? To Myla, who spent years abusing Adderall, flirting with bulimia and crash dieting in attempting to whittle herself to a conforming ‘model’ size, it represents progress. And Calvin Klein didn’t use her inclusion as some publicity stunt for ‘inclusion’, as other fashion iconic companies have done in the past, simply for PR reasons. She was treated exactly as the other models were and expected only to produce some outstanding photos, a universal goal of all models anyway.


“It’s not like [Calvin Klein] released this campaign and were like ‘Whoa, look, there’s this plus size girl in our campaign.’ They released me in this campaign with everyone else; there’s no distinction. It’s not a separate section for plus size girls,” Dalbesio was quoted as saying. Some fashion companies, as evidenced here by Calvin Klein’s actions, do get us after all!

Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better

One of my favorite sayings is, “money votes”. Be careful, therefore, where you decide to spend and invest your hard earned cash. Refraining from doing business with those companies that promote ideals counter to ours gives us at least a small voice at a time when we may feel we have no say. Most companies that seem not to have a consumer conscience are also likely fully invested in the ‘corporate profit at all costs game’. Hit them, and hit them hard, where it hurts most!

         “I've got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin'. And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls.”

                                                                      ― J.K. Rowling

PS: And this just in... A new, real looking Barbie doll now comes in a normally proportioned body size! Among other add-ons, she even has customizable cellulite stickers if your kids want to make Lammily even more real. We might suggest instead that you incorporate UP Beauty Anti-Cellulite Cream to get rid of or reduce cellulite, so our kids don’t need to use those stickers for their reality! 

10 Hours Walking in New York City

UP Beauty Online

          "Catcalls make us feel unsafe. Catcalls remind us that, at any moment, even when we feel safe, we could be assaulted. Even if we were all superwomen, capable of dodging all harm, catcalls tell us that we’re only objects, waiting to be objectified by the next brazen creep who walks by."                                                           — Valerie Burn

WoW, I guess that’s one way to look at it. I’ve always believed that the way we interpret our world boils down to our answer to this, as posed by Albert Einstein: “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” Do we view the world as threatening and dangerous? Or do we see it as a place of peace and safety? Obviously, the world is neither of these all of the time, but since perception directly influences reality, our core outlook has a large bearing on our view points. Put me in the category of the above quote being extremely inflammatory and blown out of proportion, based on fear and hostility, not on love. Valerie seems to live in a hostile universe.

That is not to say that I condone public sexual harassment of women, or anyone for that matter, in any form. But the question remains as to what one interprets as a ‘catcall’, with the definition being as important as the issue. Is, “Hey darlin’, lookin’ fine today” a catcall? Does it depend on whom it comes from, their proximity, or what the voice inflection is? How does one, if it’s even possible, judge the intent? Does it depend on our mood when we encounter it? Do various ethnic and socioeconomic circumstances, or a perceived inequity between the ‘victim’ and the ‘catcallers’ social status, factor into the equation? Only one thing is certain – it’s complicated and the answers are NOT cut and dried.

By now you probably have heard some of the ruckus caused by the viral video (link attached in the PS) of the attractive white lady wandering the streets of NYC, getting verbally acknowledged in varying degrees by men, most of which were African American or Latino and visibly blue collar at best. The first item of note here was a lack of male white collar Caucasian representation on the video footage, for whatever the reason. The second irony, if you will, is that the producers of the video were from an organization called ‘Hollaback’ and they presented approximately 2 edited minutes out of a 10 hour shoot. Hollaback, by the way, is an organization whose stated goal is to end offensive catcalling, so let’s consider their agenda before we wig out on the video content.

It has been said that in sports (and many other subjects, I’m sure), you can find and use statistics to support whatever theory or picture you want to present. I would argue that if you have 10 hours of video footage edited down to 2 minutes, you just might be able to tell whatever story you wanted to in support of your goals, stated or otherwise. Isn’t being mentally manipulated by an agenda ironically close to catcalling as an infringement on our personal boundaries?

It must be TRUE, I saw it on YouTube

Again, let’s be clear on something. Harassing or verbally abusing another human, male or female, for any reason is wrong and unacceptable. What we’re trying to get across here, though, is that we all need to keep our thinking caps on as we filter through the multitudes of images that come at us daily. We’ve all seen the punch line to the joke, “I saw (or read) it online, it’s gotta’ be true”. There are people and organizations out there seeking to manipulate us, to stoke our fires so to speak, in getting us to side with their agendas. If you consciously support a cause, then that’s a win. Anything else is crap.               

Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better

As you know, we’re big proponents of personal responsibility and living with intent. Please don’t say anything to anyone that you wouldn’t want to hear yourself. Make your intent to create a friendly world filled with love and positivity. Filter out the daily nonsense you encounter and surround yourself with people, things and causes that make you feel good. And be careful, for what goes in, must come out!

“Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.”
                                                                                ~ Henri Nouwen

PS: Here’s the link to the video:                                                     

After viewing it, what is your impression?

Cruising Along At Forty

UP Beauty Online

          “Cruz has no physical flaws, the bent noses and crooked teeth we would normally use as signifiers. Her face contains no secrets, at least not about her.”

                                                                  - Chris Jones, Esquire                                                        

Penelope Cruz is breathtaking, and besides giving us mere mortals a pang of insecure anxiety and feelings of jealous ire for our vanilla hereditary blood lines and DNA, she can actually offer hope for the aging amongst us. That is, if we can get beyond our own pettiness (I’m trying...J) for long enough to be open to this message of inspiration.

You see, Penelope was just named Esquire’s Sexist Female Alive 2014 and she’s 40 years old. So, where do I mine inspiration from that you ask? Well maybe, just maybe, we can now actually believe that 40 is the new 30, 50 is the new 40, and that 60 is the new 50. No offense to the 70 plus crowd, but I had to cut it off somewhere. Aging with grace and panache may now be a real possibility.

CRUZing along at Forty

As a teenager, Penelope fell in love with producer Pedro Almodóvar, not in the romantic, but in the artistic sense. She would go to his movies alone, after lying as to her age, to take them in and explore them in the grandest of detail. Penelope vividly recalls the day she decided that she must become an actress, wandering out of a movie theatre in Madrid knowing in her soul that she had to succeed, just in order to meet Pedro to tell him how much he inspired her with his work. He is now her great friend and mentor, the director of five of her movies, and still the biggest source of her inspiration.

Now at 40, Cruz is still evolving, growing, and challenging herself as her passion continues to flow forth, and it is apparent even when her image is captured in still shot photographs. You can see it emanating, bubbling behind those steamy, big brown eyes, which turns simple beauty into otherworldly attractiveness – a clear choice for Sexiest Woman Alive, 2014!                 

Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better

It becomes utterly obvious to me through Penelope’s story how an evident external beauty can be exponentially turned up by a focused passion, as well as knowing and living the reason you were put on this earth. Some call it being in the flow, alignment, or synchronicity. I call it simply living your purpose with passion.

There is nothing sexier than someone radiating purpose and passion from their pores, and again, when this focused inner energy is added to one’s outer appearance, we have what some call the “it” or the “X” factor. Charisma, moxy, mojo, personality and confidence are some other ways to possibly describe this phenomenon, but perhaps the best way to illustrate it is to mention two words – Penelope Cruz.

Let’s all strive to find this in our lifetime. What your passion becomes is irrelevant, as we are not saying you need to be a world famous actress with drop dead exotic look to live your purpose and ooze attraction. Just have a plan to be the best that you can be in your own unique role, whatever that is. The world will be a better place for it.

            “I had an attraction to drama. Most of us have that, especially if you are an artist — you feel like you are tempted to explore the darkness. I could not be less interested now. For me, the most attractive, charming, cool, fun, interesting thing — how could I call it? A plan.”   

 - Penelope Cruz

PS: We firmly (no pun intended) believe that inner beauty is paramount; with that being said, if UP Beauty can help you smooth out some cellulite on the exterior, let us know!                                                                       

                “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."                                                                                                                               ― Anne Bradstreet

This quote is really a nice reminder of the rule of polar (no pun intended) opposites: without extreme contrast, one may not be as appreciative of the potpourri of colors, things, feelings and emotions that are out there to be experienced. Hot makes us appreciate cold, while white gives black new depth. Sad makes happy take on new found value as hate makes love glow brighter. We often define these opposites, wrongfully by the way, as good and/or bad, while they are really all just part of the process, the journey of our lives. The level to which we can embrace each as they come up in our lives is the degree to which we start to live a more enlightened life.

The Winter Blues – Is it Real or Imagined?

                    “A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an 

unnecessary freezing of water.” 

                                                                                 ― Carl Reiner

Depending on our geographical location, winter, as the physical change agent that it is, can have varying degrees (again, no pun intended) of impact on us. Regardless, there are consistencies in the winter season such as decreased daylight and internal bodily cycle changes, regardless of the actual temperature drop you experience.

During the winter season, days are shorter with reduced periods of daylight available for Melatonin production and Vitamin D metabolism, with the lack of both having been linked to mild depression. This depression can escalate up the scale to even the more severe cases of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). The percentages of the population affected by SAD, as you might imagine, rises in correlation with the temperature drop and low sunlight levels as we move from the Southernmost states up through central states, and finally into the North. It must be noted that there is a large difference between the two ends of the depressive spectrum, mild cases all the way up to SAD, but in general this is what the term ‘winter blues’ refers to. And it is real.

Add to this diminished daylight a drop in temperatures, especially in the Northern states, and you have a human body that is biorhythmically encouraged to simulate the hibernation patterns of our animal friends. Things like craving carbohydrates, sleeping a lot and late, going out of the house minimally and being less active in general also add to these actual depressive feelings, the winter blues.

Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better

Depending on our area of inhabitance, we will all experience some temperature drops during the winter months, so rotating the appropriate clothing and footwear, including outer garments if necessary, will get us set up to take the chill out of battling the elements. Giving your closets an overhaul, donating unused items and getting the blood flowing with a healthy dose of organizational zest will help bolster your mood and get you ready to stay warm and sane, despite Mother Nature’s cold-hearted mischief.

Changing your skin care routine will also help shield your skin from the harsh, dry elements of winter. By incorporating a hydrating serum for the facial skin under a substantial, protective, sealing moisturizer, you gain additional moisture and manage to lock it in. In addition, lessening the aggressiveness of both your cleansing and exfoliating routines helps you avoid stripping the valuable oils from the skin. It may also be necessary to use your serum and moisturizer together more often than the usual morning and evening applications during the winter. Eye cream is always important, regardless of season.

Staying active, even if you must will it upon yourself, is mandatory. If you lose the stimulation of physical exercise (endorphins), and add in a hibernating tendency with sunlight depravation, you will almost surely bottom out this winter. Staying home and nesting is actually a positive as long as it’s in moderation and not playing into the possibility of winter isolation. Above all, remember the sun will sing again, and the tune will be that much sweeter after enduring the winter blues.

                    “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.”

                                                  - Victor Hugo

PS: Social interaction, especially when it leads to a couple of laughs with friends, may be the best cure for the adversity of winter...