a look at how multi billion dollar industries (cosmetics, dieting, cosmetic surgery, pornography, mass media) set impossible beauty standards and reap large profits by making women feel insecure about their appearance.

contact: aseachange [at] gmail [dot] com

Aug 4, 2008 11:30am

On hiatus.

Jul 12, 2008 3:05pm

NYTimes : In Novels for Girls, Fashion Trumps Romance

“Heroines no longer become women through romance, they become feminine through consumption.”
Jul 9, 2008 7:39pm
“ If you are creative and dissident you should ignore the free market…seek small publishers looking for genuine truthful creative work…Creativity needs courage, not only to face the publishing global or local market but also to face your own society, the power system of your own nationality or religions or class or gender or race or others… ” - Nawal El Saadawi
feminist writer & doctor
speaking in Madrid at the World Congress of Women, July 4th 2008
Jul 9, 2008 4:19pm
currently working on my film treatment. currently working on my film treatment.
Jul 8, 2008 12:46pm
“ Our history will be what we make it. […] To a very considerable extent the media of mass communications in a given country reflect the political, economic and social climate in which they flourish. […] We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late. ” - Edward R. Murrow
RTNDA Convention
Chicago, October 15, 1958 
Jul 8, 2008 12:39pm
I’m sorry, but a long, long time ago, when I was in high school (mid-late 1990s, private school), I – or my friends for that matter – would have never, ever envisioned spending $768 on a handbag. The mere idea of making such an extravagant purchase would have never even crossed our minds. I also spent every high school summer studying English in Los Angeles, meeting and befriending other teenage girls and boys from the U.S., Germany, Japan, Spain, Turkey – you name it. And we never ever lusted after such things. We didn’t even discuss fashion or luxury items. Period. “Mom, I saw a $768 bag on Rodeo Drive, can I have it?” would have been met by incredulity – and would have probably generated a good scolding.I remember noticing a shift in attitudes while I was a junior in college in the U.S. An enormous sea change in the way freshman and visiting high school girls dressed. I would see 18 year olds obsessed with Marc Jacobs and designer handbags. Not to mention expensive Juicy Couture items. This puzzled me for a while. Then the girls pining over these things became younger and younger. Middle school girls. And after a while it just became the norm.The triumph of capitalism. Yippie! (not)  I’m sorry, but a long, long time ago, when I was in high school (mid-late 1990s, private school), I – or my friends for that matter – would have never, ever envisioned spending $768 on a handbag.

The mere idea of making such an extravagant purchase would have never even crossed our minds.

I also spent every high school summer studying English in Los Angeles, meeting and befriending other teenage girls and boys from the U.S., Germany, Japan, Spain, Turkey – you name it. And we never ever lusted after such things. We didn’t even discuss fashion or luxury items. Period. “Mom, I saw a $768 bag on Rodeo Drive, can I have it?” would have been met by incredulity – and would have probably generated a good scolding.

I remember noticing a shift in attitudes while I was a junior in college in the U.S. An enormous sea change in the way freshman and visiting high school girls dressed. I would see 18 year olds obsessed with Marc Jacobs and designer handbags. Not to mention expensive Juicy Couture items. This puzzled me for a while. Then the girls pining over these things became younger and younger. Middle school girls. And after a while it just became the norm.

The triumph of capitalism. Yippie! (not) 
Jul 8, 2008 12:23pm

The Beauty Myth & Teenage Girls : Gossip Girl

“Thanks to the point-and-click shopping on its Web site and the fees it charges some brands to be featured in the series, “Gossip Girl” has been able to profit from its power to generate trends. It is not the first show to collect revenues from product tie-ins, but it probably is the first to have been conceived, in part, as a fashion marketing vehicle.” 
Jul 1, 2008 3:17pm

The Guardian (UK) : Now, the Backlash

The sex industry is booming, the rape conviction rate is plummeting, women’s bodies are picked over in the media, abortion rights are under serious threat and top business leaders say they don’t want to employ women. It all adds up to one thing … an all-out assault on feminism. But why? And what’s to be done about it, asks Kira Cochrane
Jun 30, 2008 1:11pm

NYTimes : A Girl's Life

Jun 26, 2008 2:03pm

ScienceDaily: Cosmetic Surgery Procedures To Exceed 55 Million In 2015, Study Predicts

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