Smart Sensuality Women As Envisioned by Ellen von Unwerth

Fall Fashions at the London TimesNote: our link to Ellen Von Unwerth’s current NYC show at Staley-Wise gallery.

I’m in this weird juxtaposition of words and images on the London Times. On the one hand, I’m reading a delicious article Stars sex it up for photographer Ellen von Unwerth. But this extraordinarily unsexy woman keeps looking at me to the right.

After all their writing on body image, the London Times hasn’t changed all that much.

After declaring the skinny minnie dead a couple months ago, in more than one writing, this woman to the right is my role model — staring at me as I read about photographer Ellen von Unwerth’s knack for photographing genuinely sexy women — women who like sex.

As I explained to my new friend who has tantalizing visions of me in a two-piece bathing suit — fine. I can lose 10 pounds and perhaps 15.

If I do 20, that makes me a size 6, with an 8” wrist. For me, that’s as thin as I ever aspire to be and still be sexy.

Truly I am big-boned. The only prize I ever won in life was an expensive white gold bracelet at a major charity event — and it didn’t fit.

Crushed, I gave it to my then-partner’s daughter.

I was a size 6 for about a month in my life, but my weight that I work to maintain keeps me an 8 or 10, depending on the label and cut.

Still, I was not annoyed with him, because even I remember the size 6 with some wishful thinking. “Beyond that,” I said. “I will lose my libido.”

Ellen von unwerth photographer

Now THIS was a serious statement, coming from a woman like me.

“Really?” he asked me. “If you lose too much weight, you can lose your libido?”

“Yes, I’m not kidding you,” I responded. “Do you think I — of all people — would make a joke like this?”

My friend can have his pick of beautiful women. I’ll say no more, because his pride is staying out of Google, not in it.

But the look on his face when I connected his desire that I be as thin as humanly possible with the potential of lost libido was — seriously earnest, given the fact that our sexual chemistry could sink The Titanic, before we lay a hand on each other. It’s well known that when a woman’s BMI drops into 18 and below, she suffers significant health consequences and the negative impact on her sexual hormones is on the list.

Ellen von Unwerth photographerIn fact, he thinks I look fabulous but there is this society thing. And Chanel dresses. Even I have nightmares about the sales woman standing in the dressing room saying “Monsieur, your Madame does not have the figure of a Chanel femme.

In fact, I may be a lost cause at Chanel, and I’m trying to warm him up for Donna Karen. These matters take time.

But even monsieur says “You look fantastic in strapless.” Translated, I have very broad shoulders, but he is right. And halters, too, even if the Muslim man in Brooklyn did want to send me off to the local mosque for lessons in how to dress properly.

Many of the world’s most beautiful women do not actually look like they enjoy sex. They are looking for a post on the pedestal, or a laison with a sugar daddy.

Crazy as it sounds, very thin, size zero ice-queen women often have no interest in sex  In the same way that I don’t want to wear a burqa, I have no desire to be a zero. I much prefer being an imposing, sensual woman, with muscles.

My body is more like Michelle Obama’s than anyone else, and I am proud of my muscles and strong appearance.

Ellen von Unwerth photographing Elle MacPherson“Ellen von Unwerth’s ladies, however, are clearly enjoying themselves. More than that, they seem entirely happy on their own, though they might be even happier if another person were there. The idea projected is that their world is complete, full, brimming over, and another person would be extra. So that’s another thing that is sexy: independence, self-possession, even narcissism. (And the converse is decidedly not sexy: clinginess, need.)” via Stars sex it up for photographer Ellen von Unwerth.

Annoyed with the London Times for posting “that woman” up there to our right, I like this copy to describe a Smart Sensuality woman.

Having made this pitch for women who look like they belong in an Ellen von Unwerth campaign, indeed I have agreed to “see what I can do.” It’s not all that much really 15-20 pounds.

Trust me, though, I will never look like Ms. Toby up there in the corner.

Please, dear fashion editors. stop beating every ounce of estrogen out of us, so that we look like boys. We are FEMALES, and most females have curves. There are some genuinely gorgeous women, blessed with a gamine figure and the stealth of a gazelle, but they are rare.

Even for the vast majority of us who try hard to be our physical best, we have curves. Enough! Anne

Ellen von Unwerth’s New York Moment

Ellen von Unwerth and Annie Liebovitz Could Give Terry Richardson a Photography Lesson, When the Subject is Erotic, Beautiful Women

Crystal Renn Celebrates Her Curves

Crystal Renn via BlackBookMississippi-born Crystal Renn spent the first years of her New York life trying to look like Giselle. It was only when she began to eat that she had a career in modeling, as a plus-size woman. via Blackbook Mag

Now Crystal Renn has written a book called ‘Hungry’ and she’s the rage, following in the unleashed frenzy of women loving the Lizzie Miller story at Glamour Mag 

I totally agree with Renn’s argument that American women obsess over their bodies.

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Health Research Around Omega-3s Includes Kiwis

via Flickr’s Grenadad

In our growing intersection of the healthy foods and sexy foods, scientists are expanding their research into omega-3s, typically found in fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and sardines. 

We know that omega-3s reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by reducing inflammation and promoting healthy circulation. I write that omega-3s are “sexy” because healthy circulation is important in our “private parts” as well.

Unhealthy circulation is related to male ED, but is also important in female sexuality, where blood circulation affects a woman’s clitoris. Keeping this post simple, female arousal, lubrication and ultimately, orgasm depend on good supply.

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Claudia Schiffer | 'I Like Myself So Much Better Today'

London Times Alexia Skinitis writes about Claudia Schiffer: There aren’t many women who could honestly and confidently say they feel and look better at 39 than they ever have before. In fact, Claudia Schiffer may well be one of just a handful. 

I think Alexia’s been camped out under a rock for a few years, with large numbers of women knowing that they look better — more vibrant and beautiful — at 40 and much older. 

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Comfort Food, Obesity and Severe Brain Degeneration

From a woman who genuinely cares about your health and your sex life, let’s have a sit down here.

I asked in a recent post ‘Can McDonald’s Make You Stupid?”

Now that was a below-the-belt swideswipe. I admit that I’m jumping up and down, trying to get your attention, even at the risk of annoying you.

Not only am I passionate about good sex, I’m passionate about good health. The two are not mutually exclusive, especially when sexy food carries so many great health benefits.

Even I didn’t know that today’s research news was marking towards your computer screen.

I thought the American Heart Association saying that we must get off our sugar addiction was big news. However will we get American women consuming only six teaspoons of sugar a day! Right guys, you get eight. Call it one can of soda and no more sugar anywhere.

Sugar is not the big news of the day.

Brain Scan Blues

Brain scans are the big news, and if these results don’t get us on a serious diet and in the gym (no matter what the damn cover of Time said two weeks ago about exercise), I don’t know what will get our attention.

A new brain-imaging study by researchers at UCLA and the University of Pittsburg finds that the brains of overweight and obese subjects were on average 4% and 8% smaller, respectively, than the brains of those who were at a healthy weight—evidence, according to UCLA neurology professor and study author Paul Thompson, of “severe brain degeneration.”

My headline “Can MacDonalds make you stupid” was unfortunately right on target. As a trendmeister, I’d rather be wrong on this one.

The news isn’t good for overweight people — those with a BMI over 25 — or for obese people, those with a BMI over 30.

If one is obese, the news is particularly bad. Not only does one’s brain shrink, but the damage occurs in the frontal temporal lobes, the seat of higher-order reasoning and judgement; the anterior cingulate gyrus, key to attention and decision-making as well; the hippocampus, where long-term memories are processed, and the basal ganglia, from which smooth movement is initiated.

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Sugar Substitutes Busted By Smart Brain Cognition

The brain response to real sugar is different than with sugar substitutes.In the same week that researchers told Americans to slash our sugar consumption, new research suggests that even when artificial sweeters fool our taste buds, they don’t dupe our brains.

In recent brain scanning tests companying brain responses to sugar drinks, and artifically-sweetened ones, both sugar and the noncaloric sweeteners activated a brain region called the amygdala, which signals sensory pleasure. But only the sugared drink turned on a cherry-sized nugget of brain tissue in a region called the caudate.

Results emphasize the fact that our brain has a mind of its own, in how it activitates response to artificially-sweetened food and drinks. Knowing that it hasn’t actually received a sugar ‘fix’, the caudate section of our brain may still send us looking for real sugar, stimulating appetite, rather than depressing it. via LATimes