Over the past week there has been a lot of chatter about Vogue banning underaged models and girls that have eating disorders. I think its a great initiative, but to be perfectly honest, it sounds like another round of lip service and will quickly be forgotten as fast as last season's trends. I hope I am proven wrong.
I worked as a model in the late 80's early 90's in New York Paris and Milan. I remember an episode of 20/20 with Barbara Walters in 1991 interviewing the feminist writer Naomi Wolf ,who had just wrote a book called 'The Beauty Myth'. Ms Wolf was going on saying that "100,000 plus women die of anorexia every year, because of images they see in magazines".
What did she use as an example of the images that cause this epidemic of anorexia?
A picture of ME!
Boy was I floored. How could she say such a thing? She had never met me and didn't know me personally??? First of all, I was and am NOT anorexic. I was beyond shocked and mad at Naomi Wolf for saying that I was 'probably anorexic and probably not menstruating', and for using my picture to illustrate what was causing anorexia in teenagers. Her remarks were hurtful and they offended me. Couldn't have been further from the truth.
Luckily, they interviewed Helen Gurley Brown, (the famed editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine back in the day when they had those amazingly sexy cover photos shot by Francesco Scavullo). She said that models eat like race horses to be able to keep up with their workload and travelling. At least the grand dame of the magazine world was defending me and my fellow models.
For those of you that remember the early 90's in fashion, the look was total Glamazon. The models were a lot curvier and healthier looking than the girls are today. The models that I see in the magazines nowadays are truly retouched within an inch of their lives. We can thank the addiction to Photoshop for that.
I think that to be true to all, the use of Photoshop should be restricted to just touching up ever so slightly, not to reconstruct and misconstrue someones natural body shape. I believe that if Vogue began to limit the use of Photoshop in its editorials, this would also be a step in the right direction. Its needs to be part of their mandate as well. It would also separate the real photographers from the chaff. But thats a whole other blog post.
Banning underage models is to be applauded. Banning models that have eating disorders is also a good initiative, but I can't see how Vogue is going to discern who is naturally slim (ie. Gisele) and who has an eating disorder.
Give us back the fantasy and the beauty of the fashion photo. Fashion is a fantasy, yet it still needs to root itself somewhat in reality.
Wednesday, May 16
Thursday, May 3
Offensive? What About a Sense of Humour?
Yesterday I shared a photo on Facebook of the former president of Brazil, Lula da Silva. It showed him reading a book upside down. The title of the photo used the same idea that is used by Master Card adverts worldwide. " Reading glasses,$2000, Ricardo Almeida suit, $8000, reading a book upside down:PRICELESS."
I thought is was hilarious and shared it on my Facebook. Well boy did I ever open a can of worms. One of my friends from Brazil( who has since de-friended me) took total offense to the posting and in her rant, called me prejudiced, bitter and above all ignorant. How dare I make fun of the former President of Brazil !!!
Seriously?
Is it now offensive to take the mickey out of politicians? Steve Colbert, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, 22 Minutes are all political satire shows on the TV here in North America and they all hone in on politicians.
Thoughts?
I thought is was hilarious and shared it on my Facebook. Well boy did I ever open a can of worms. One of my friends from Brazil( who has since de-friended me) took total offense to the posting and in her rant, called me prejudiced, bitter and above all ignorant. How dare I make fun of the former President of Brazil !!!
Seriously?
Is it now offensive to take the mickey out of politicians? Steve Colbert, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, 22 Minutes are all political satire shows on the TV here in North America and they all hone in on politicians.
Thoughts?
Tuesday, May 1
A Father's Love -The David Goldman Story
A while back I wrote about David Goldman, the New Jersey father who literally went to the ends of the earth to bring back his son Sean. I just finished reading his book ' A Father's Love' which talks about the hell he went through to get his boy Sean back. At the end I was in tears.
David got his boy home, but did you know that there are over 3000 American children that have been abducted by one of their parents and taken to foreign countries? I was shocked! How can this happen?
I became interested in the Goldman case because I too was married to a Brazilian and the ruling in the Goldman case could have trickled down and affected my custody situation with my children. Luckily my ex husband gave me permission to come back to Canada with our children because he is savvy enough to know that Canada is a much better place to raise children. They go back and visit their dad every year, but I am always attentive to the fact that he could change his mind and not let them come back to Canada. In Brazil they say 'um pe atras' which means to have one foot behind or to be cautious. If that was to happen, I would probably find myself in David Goldman's situation.
The Hague Convention was completely ignored and treated with contempt by the Ribeiro/Lins e Silva clan in Brazil. They tried every legal manoeuvre possible to attack and basically wear David Goldman down. He never gave up. Here was this simple down to earth dad from New Jersey, just trying to bring his son home from Brazil after the mother of the boy died during childbirth. The step family (Lins e Silva) and the grandparents (Ribeiro) became the abductors and their actions were deplorable.
Not only was this a David vs Goliath scenario, it was also the beginning of the end of the cronyism that has plagued Brazil for centuries. The Lins e Silva family are a very influential family of lawyers in Brazil that specialize in family law. Their tentacles reach the inner sanctums of the courts in Brazil. The irony of it all is that the head of the 'family' was one of the authors of a report for the Hague convention showing how child abduction can cause parental alienation. SERIOUSLY!
David Goldman's fight is far from over. He is committed to bring back all of the children who have been abducted and absconded by one of their parents and taken to a foreign country. A new bill is being passed in the USA based on Sean's abduction and David's fight to bring Sean home.
I ask that Canada become more pro active in this too. There are many intercultural marriages that could result in divorce and many children could be abducted to other countries that are a lot worse than Brazil (such as Middle Eastern countries where women have no rights).We need to secure our borders so that children are protected from this. I need permission to travel with my boys when I leave Brazil, but there is no system in place at border crossings here in Canada. Why is that?
David got his boy home, but did you know that there are over 3000 American children that have been abducted by one of their parents and taken to foreign countries? I was shocked! How can this happen?
I became interested in the Goldman case because I too was married to a Brazilian and the ruling in the Goldman case could have trickled down and affected my custody situation with my children. Luckily my ex husband gave me permission to come back to Canada with our children because he is savvy enough to know that Canada is a much better place to raise children. They go back and visit their dad every year, but I am always attentive to the fact that he could change his mind and not let them come back to Canada. In Brazil they say 'um pe atras' which means to have one foot behind or to be cautious. If that was to happen, I would probably find myself in David Goldman's situation.
The Hague Convention was completely ignored and treated with contempt by the Ribeiro/Lins e Silva clan in Brazil. They tried every legal manoeuvre possible to attack and basically wear David Goldman down. He never gave up. Here was this simple down to earth dad from New Jersey, just trying to bring his son home from Brazil after the mother of the boy died during childbirth. The step family (Lins e Silva) and the grandparents (Ribeiro) became the abductors and their actions were deplorable.
Not only was this a David vs Goliath scenario, it was also the beginning of the end of the cronyism that has plagued Brazil for centuries. The Lins e Silva family are a very influential family of lawyers in Brazil that specialize in family law. Their tentacles reach the inner sanctums of the courts in Brazil. The irony of it all is that the head of the 'family' was one of the authors of a report for the Hague convention showing how child abduction can cause parental alienation. SERIOUSLY!
David Goldman's fight is far from over. He is committed to bring back all of the children who have been abducted and absconded by one of their parents and taken to a foreign country. A new bill is being passed in the USA based on Sean's abduction and David's fight to bring Sean home.
I ask that Canada become more pro active in this too. There are many intercultural marriages that could result in divorce and many children could be abducted to other countries that are a lot worse than Brazil (such as Middle Eastern countries where women have no rights).We need to secure our borders so that children are protected from this. I need permission to travel with my boys when I leave Brazil, but there is no system in place at border crossings here in Canada. Why is that?
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