Believing in Birth Control Doesn't Make Me Un-American | 2Ps in a Pod

Sensual Rebel Models | IMG Show Package - New York F/W 2012 AOC Sensual Rebel

X-posted in AOC Sexual Politics

Hi Bro. Dennis,

I look forward to speaking with you and Paul tomorrow about your excellent trip to New York. I’ve just been so overwhelmed emotionally and psychologically with everything that is going on that I haven’t been able to write a response to your last blog post. Nor have I read Bro. Solomon’s article on feminine principles in the church — only due to lack of time. Our traffic is up 50% in the last three months. I’m working on my jewelry project — filled with problems, but I totally took over the design.)

You know that I’m working on getting asylum for my friend who stood against the flogging of 40,000 women a year in Sudan. We collaborated in smuggling this video out of the country and I was able to post the movie I made for Vimeo, when YouTube kept taking it down, deluged with complaints from Khartoum.

This woman was arrested for improper dress. I understand that even Pope John Paul used self-flagellation, according to Monsignor Slawomir Oder, John Paul’s postulator. But I simply can’t believe that this cruel flogging punishment is just for the 40,000 women of Sudan deemed to be not modest enough each year. 

Flogging of Sudanese Woman in Khartoum

Because I speak out on these issues, I am now banned in the Arab world, Bro Dennis. And soon I will be banned in America.

The minority is superb at silencing crimes against women in today’s digital world, even when they boo hoo incessantly that they have no power and are the victims of the Stalinist tactics of women like me.

Truthfully, Bro. Dennis, I don’t believe that I am the gestapo, no matter what the social conservatives say.

Because I am independent, I was able to keep the flogging video alive, while sending it on to Bloomberg News. Mayor Bloomberg’s company is one of the easiest to work with in broadcasting the horrors of violence against women. As you probably know, he put a $250,000 matching grant on the table last week for Planned Parenthood, when Komen moved to join the fight to shut down Planned Parenthood in America.

Declaration of Independence

I realize now that I must generate my own salary and living without depending on advertisers and even foundations, although I do believe there are grants out there for me. Watching the tactics of the prolife people, I realize there will come a time where if I have advertisers, the people who want me dead will try to shut down my financial support.

The only way for me to succeed financially is to receive my money from a group or organization that can’t be pressured to withdraw their support of me. That will be readers.

In the name of a higher calling to God and not the laws of America, the prolifers say that I have no right to express my ideas and beliefs in America. These very words should be silenced. FOX News says that I am a totalitarian feminist, an immoral and self-absorbed woman, and that I only care about myself.

I am the enemy in America, and it breaks my heart. The young girl who was so proud of her country and cried when she heard the song “America the Beautiful” is now the immoral, unpatriotic traitor to this country. My heart is awash in the condemning words of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and John Boehner, telling me that I am an immoral person and un-American.

So I will get to all these matters, including a writing a 2Ps in a Pod post in the next day or two. I fear it will be quite a cry of anguish but I will try to make it powerful and meaningful.

Anne’s Nightmare of Black Cats and Nursing Maggots

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Jen Davis's Self-Portraits Explore Large Questions of Self

Jen Davis is a Brooklyn based photographer. For the past 9 years she has been working on a series of Self-Portrait’s dealing with issues regarding beauty, identity, and body image. Her portraits explore not only society’e preoccupation with thinness as beauty, the deviance of being overweight but also the larger questions of the self.

Jen has also been exploring men, as a subject and is interested in investigating the idea of relationships, both physical and psychological, with the camera, says her web bio. She received her MFA from Yale University in 2008, and her BA from Columbia College Chicago in 2002. Jen is represented by Lee Marks Fine Art.

Every Woman Needs A Self-Photography Project

jen’s experience of photographing her body resonates deeply with me. I think every woman of every size from 0 to 50 should photograph herself to find her identity.  I’ve referenced my own personal self-photography experience in my 2Ps in a Pod blog: Beauty, Goodness & Self Worth As Female Expressions of God’s Love..  

My own case dealt with sexual guilt more than obesity. When I began taking self portraits I was 5’8” and a size 10 US. But I share the fact that a man I dated a few times ‘dropped me’ sending a note telling me that I reminded him of death. I was devastated and hit the gym, being attracted to exercise ever since.

Subsequently, this Yale-educated lawyer wrote me another note of apology a couple years later, telling me that he had been in a relationship with an anorexic woman at the time we met — and he loved her, although she had huge problems, was hospitalized and didn’t want to see him any more. This man who told me I reminded him of death because of my size, was comparing my BMI healthy body to hers.

Karl Lagerfeld Rates Not an Ounce of Fat Above Adele’s Talent

The pain that I felt is highlighted by men like Karl Lagerfeld, a frequent subject of my writing. Monsieur Lagerfeld, the man in charge of just about everything and certainly with an opinion about everything, has worked on repositioning Metro World News in Paris. Lagerfeld was talking about singers and said: “I prefer Adele and Florence Welch to Lana Del Rey, but as a modern singer she is not bad.” Karl prides himself on staying current with popular culture.

Being Karl “not an ounce of fat on a woman’s body” he had to cut to the chase of course, saying “The thing at the moment is Adele. She is a little too fat, but she has a beautiful face and a divine voice.” The Internet was ablaze with furor over Lagerfeld yesterday. I didn’t even post the noise, because I’m sick of Karl Lagerfeld’s categorical rating of women — whatever talent is under discussion — with fat first.

It is fair to say that I have issues with Karl Lagerfeld and his PR person in Paris knows it. I read that Lagerfeld has apologized since opening his big mouth about Adele, but I don’t know why. Perhaps he’s doing a Mitt Romney flip flop.  Lagerfeld’s every bit the misogynist man I was dealing with, telling me I reminded him of death, because he was in love with an anorexic.

Deadly Power of Words

Within the context of Jen Davis’s self-portraits, I will bring up the comment — not to criticize Lagerfeld — but to demonstrate his hierarchy of female attributes. Asked about Adele’s singing, he starts off with her size. This is the fashion industry at its deadliest and it destroys women’s sense of self, just as the Yale-educated a** lawyer wrote those devastating words to me.

GOOD, a superb website, has a short but very meaty interview with Jen Davis, and I urge interested readers to link over. Here is Jen’s website. I repeat that my own journey to self love and thriving really — learning to dismiss men like Karl Lagerfeld — came by picking up the camera. If Jen’s artistic exploration can trigger that journey for any of my AOC friends, her contribution to women is huge.  Anne

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Elsa Sylvan | Elle Muliarchyk | RUSSH #44 | 'Breath of Spring'

Elsa Sylvan expresses a sensual, pared down beauty for RUSSH Magazine #44. Shot by Elle Muliarchyk, the blonde beauty wears the spring designs of Miu Miu, Chanel, Rodarte and Prada styled by Gillian Wilkins. The intimate images are enhanced by barely there makeup from Cynthia Rose and soft strands by Luke Baker.

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Justine | Terry Gates | Glamour France January 2012

Justine is an intellectual, rebellious beauty for Terry Gates’ latest work featured in the January edition of Glamour France. A very cool (almost grey) platinum blonde coif by hair stylist Louis Bester and matching smokey eyes by makeup artist Violette bring an icy beauty to Justine’s feminine looks. / Manicure by Typhaine Kersual

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Amparo Bonmati | Angelica Heras | Elle Spain February 2012 | 'Unas Afterparty'

We trust this is one beauty editorial that bloggers won’t call out as pure perfection and flawless skin. In a glimpse into the real world of a funfilled life and “why did I do that?” Angelica Heras snaps Amparo Bonmati in a beauty and jewelry editorial for Elle Spain February 2012. ‘Unas Afterparty’ is a breath of wit and fresh air with makeup and hair by Monica Roldan. Call it a taste of women’s liberation.

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First Impressions, Women and the World of Plastic Surgery

Beatrice Morabito | Making Waves | Modern Aphrodites-1 AOC Private Studio

More and more people, especially women are paying greater attention to their physical appearance – and for  a woman like me, a simple mascara to enhance my eyes and lip gloss are still reflection that we are a product of media and that we embrace changes to our natural physical appearance. According to the American Society for Aethetic Plastic Surgery, almost 9.5 million Americans had received cosmetic procedures in 2010. This is an increase of nine percent in the past year, with surgical procedures accounting for 17 percent of the total.

What was once considered part of the domain of wealthy older women has now become a mainstream option for many individuals, regardless of income bracket or lifestyle. A recent survey has revealed that more than half of Americans approve of plastic surgery. These numbers suggest that many people, regardless of income, marital status or gender, view plastic surgery as a reasonable option.

The World of First Impressions

Cosmetic surgery can have a positive impact on a person if their body image is consistently associated to a negative focus on a body part or facial feature.  An article “Plastic surgery: Beauty or beast?” reminds us that physically attractive people receive preferential treatment and are viewed by others as being more outgoing, dominant and intelligent than their less attractive counterparts.

Yet another survey conducted by Newsweek revealed that 57% of the interviewed hiring managers said that less attractive candidate are likely to have harder time in finding a job. This quick judging of the candidates has only increased in our highly competitive job market. See the effect?

A 2010 study published in Psychological Science suggests that the general public pays more attention to people they find attractive.

Most of us have read that first impressions are made in the first 30 seconds. The reality of human brain science make actually be worse. The Association for Psychological Science writes:

A series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov reveal that all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions (although they might boost your confidence in your judgments).

Women, Men and Cosmetic Procedures 

Women accounted for 92 percent of all procedures performed in the US in 2010. This amounts to almost 8.6 million cosmetic procedures. The five most common surgical procedures for women were liposuction, breast augmentation, abdominoplasty, breast reduction and blepharoplasty or eyelid surgery.

Conversely, men had over 750,000 cosmetic procedures, a majority of which were rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, liposuction, cosmetic ear surgery and breast reduction for enlarged male breasts.

Weighing out the Benefits and Consequences of Plastic Surgery

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