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The Swimsuit Brigade for Honest Photos
by A few months ago, I launched a lame protest against the unattainable beauty standard set by the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. I was way too wussy to actually pose in my underwear, though, so I made a duct tape version of myself. Duct Tape Suzanne didn't really capture all my bulges, but she did a good enough job demonstrating that people with B cups don't explode out of bras.
Recently, a number of celebrity airbrushing and other retouching incidents have come to light. Catherine Morgan put a nice photo montage of some of the incidents on her blog; Rita Arens described the photoshopping of young pageant girls on BlogHer, and D Listed puts up all sorts of “before” and “after” photos of the famous and retouchingly “beautiful” on his site. Every year, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition contains women airbrushed to the hilt.
With all the airbrushing out there, I wonder why models are even needed any more. Magazines, advertisers, and the fashion industry could save tons of money by hiring shlubs like me at a low rate, then painting a new face or body on the picture since they are already more or less doing so. That said, I am fed up. Other than the Dove Real Beauty campaign, which depicts "normal" women of a variety of body types and ages in order to sell lotion, there are very few public images of just us regular ladies. In fact, it seems that the availability of photo “improvement” software is leading women to increasingly despise themselves so much that they request airbrushing of every day pictures before they put photos on their My Space profiles or elsewhere on the internet. Laurie Ruettimann titled her hilarious post on corporate photo IDs, “I’m So Much Prettier When I’m Airbrushed”, and a lot of women seem to believe that’s true. Why just be you when you can be you minus 10 years, 10 (or more!) pounds, and all traces of personality?
Enough is enough. Let's fight back by reminding people that there is nothing wrong with flab, wrinkles, and character. I’m taking the first step. While generally I regard myself as a person with an average physique, thanks to the constant onslaught of unrealistic images that assault me every day, I tend to hate my appearance. Bathing suits? Suzanne Reisman Enemy #1. If I really want to get out the message that it is OK to just be yourself, I need to accept who I am and what I look like. (Deep breath.) Here's what I look like in my new Gottex Blue bathing suit:
Am I mortified at how chubby I look compared to other the swimsuit pictures I see? Yes, but it is me. I shouldn't feel ashamed at not being perfect. I'm not going to any longer, and neither should anyone else. Join the Swimsuit Brigade for Honest Photos (or give me a better title; this one seems a little heavy-handed, no?) and stand up for normal women. Post a picture of yourself online in your swimsuit (The Sewist beat me to this idea two months ago; she looks great.) and place the link in the comments. It may not be a billboard in Times Square, but it’s a start.
Models don't speak for us, and airbrushed ones even less so. Let's represent ourselves.
Suzanne also blogs against the dominant beauty paradigm at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants A small portion of this essay is cross-posted there and includes f-bombs
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Comments
AIn't Gonna Do It
But applauding, furiously, from the sidelines.
Nerd's Eye View
This is AWESOME, Suzanne! Here I am!!!
And Suzanne, you are hella hot!! Here I am, in my suit (well, I have skirt on over it but baby steps, people, baby steps!) This is from a few months back (but this year!). I'll have my boys take a better pic in the yard sans suit.
Birdie
Birdie's BlogHer Blog
La Pajaro
Well, rats, it's getting shoved to the side.
I'm NOT THAT SKINNY
Just save to disk and you can see me in my glory, LOL. Don't know why it's shoving up against the side!
Birdie
Birdie's BlogHer Blog
La Pajaro
I love it.
Thanks for sharing. You are one sexy lady yourself. Go all of us! yay!
Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants
Sans suit or sans skirt???
hehe ;)
Liz Rizzo
I blog at Everyday Goddess and On The Lot.
Snort! Freudian slip!
That's too funny, Liz!!! Well, I took a full body shot (WITH suit, NO Skirt, ha ha) and will be blogging it this week once I"m home from my teacher's retreat.
Birdie
Birdie's BlogHer Blog
La Pajaro
You're my kind of pin-ups!
Suzanne, you look like a million bucks! And as one of the most melanin-deprived members of this site with one of the melanoma-medical-history-prone family trees, I revel in your tan-free glory. Birdie, you rock star.
I will try to get one of my kids to take a picture of me this weekend in my own approach to the swimming suit. It goes like this:
1. On with the suit and 50-proof sunscreen
2. Next with the hat, large as I can find
3. Next: Polarized sunglasses. I have learned that unprotected, I burn my eyeballs in California, and have to be careful
4. Sunproof shirt
5. Long skirt swimsuit cover-up that my mother made me. Also sunproof.
6. Reapply 50-sunscreen to feet, hands and lips.
7. Tell 'tween to stop joking that a burqa would be less work if he wants any lunch at the beach or ever again, damn it.
As you can imagine, I'm hottie-mchot-hot in this get-up. But death by skin cancer would be even less sexy...
Again, you rock.
Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette
Doing mine this weekend too
Sigh.
So proud of you.
Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain
I sort of got the idea from you
Tit Brigade, anyone? I follow only the best leaders...
Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants
WAY TO GO SUZANNE!!!
WAY TO GO SUZANNE!!! You look GREAT! I am so going to jump on this bandwagon. It might take me a day or two to get the picture and then (the hard part) try to figure out how to get it onto my computer and then size it and get it into my blog. But...I will.
You have something here Suzanne...this could become a real "movement" -- It's "the real thing", and that's a great thing. Women standing tall and proud, and not in judgment of themselves. I love it!
WAY TO GO!!!
Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and Informed Voters
The Women Standing Tall and Proud Movement
Catherine, I hope that happens! That would be awesome. One little blog photo first, Times Square billboard next!
Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants
Maybe a "Dove" ad in Redbook.
I don't know, maybe we can do a "Dove" ad in RedBook. But a billboard in Time Square? I might have to sit that one out.
Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and Informed Voters
Awesome!
Suzanne, you look awesome! You know after spending the week at the beach you would think I would have a picture of myself in a swim suit, but I don't think I do. I was too busy taking pictures. I'll take one tomorrow.
A. Elliot
Okay, I'll play.
I'm a bit of a wreck in this one - just got out of the water and jammed a hat on my head, and it shows... ; ) It's also kind of cheating because I'm not standing up, but I take all the pictures in this family! This was my mom going, "I need a picture of you girls!" and it happened fast. (That's my sister on the right.)
One of my most lovely friends was obsessing about what she'd look like Labor Day weekend in a bikini, and it upset me so because she is not only beautiful, who cares ? I told her that the beach is one of my favorite places, and when I'm there, I just don't let myself worry about my body. I do, sometimes, but not when I'm there. It's not worth it.
Posting this photo recently of my rear view from the ground while I was climbing a rock was a huge deal for me, because it's not my best side, that's for sure. But I was rock climbing! This was the REAL huge deal for me. So I'm trying to focus on that part, the "I can do things I used to be really afraid of" part, and not the part that's horrified by the size of my ass. It's about time.
Thanks, Suzanne. Love your outlook and how you bring us along for the ride.
Laurie
LaurieWrites
The flip side of body image
First off, Suzanne, you look lovely and so very hugable in that bathing suit :)
It's very interesting how body image varies with cultures, and those who don't fit the bill are made conscious about it.
I grew up in a part of India where thin was never in. At least not when I was young. Chubbier (sometimes fat) women were preferred.
I was thin. Always thin. And never heard the end of it: every social gathering, every visit to relatives, all the time: "you are too thin, too thin, too thin".
If fact, I was almost grateful when the glamor industry exploded in India and thin was becoming fashionable. (Not that people stopped nagging me: "So, you planning to enter the Miss India contest this year?") God, how I HATED it!!!
My parents once consulted a doctor about how to get me to gain weight. I guess they were worried I would grow up to be unhealthy (I must admit I was a fussy with food). Our doctor (thankfully) asked my parents to chill, and gave me a range for my height: try to stay between 50-55 kg (110-121 lbs). That was it.
Since then, that is the only standard I care about. As long as I am healthy, feel well, and stay within that weight range, I pretty much don't care. Thanks to age, I am "gaining" weight, anyway, so that's that.
I can totally see how the reverse phenomenon can be true here. Yes, the body image here (especially with cosmetic surgeries and air brushing becoming so popular) is, kind of, imaginary. But that's what advertising is all about, right? Mostly exaggeration, lies and false promises.
I think you are doing a great job campaigning for "real" bodies. Please include some naturally skinny ones too.
All women are welcome
Hi Snigda,
This is definitely not meant to be one of those backlashes against skinny women. Many super thin women wind up having butts and chests airbrushed onto them to make them fit a standard, just as non-thin women get airbrushed down. The point of us this is that real women don't look airbrushed, models tend to look only one way, and there are many, many types of real women out there. Let's see the full range of women, proud of themselves.
Suzanne
Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants
Thin isn't in
Talk to any really thing teenage girl or young adult and she will tell you she hates wearing a swimsuit as much as anyone else. It's just as troubling to me.
Bah.
~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings
i'm in (gulp)
As soon as I charge the batteries for my camera. I'll take the photo on the week end and post by Monday night.
Yikes!
laurie
www.notjustaboutcancer.blogspot.com
Truth, lies and ads
Hey S! Thanks for responding :)
While I agree with your thesis that "models don't speak for us", I think they aren't even trying to. They are speaking for the product they are selling. Period. Companies need to make their products look "good" and they'll do anything to make that happen, air-brushing, camera angles, et al.
The problem arises when people start internalizing what they see, and believe them to be true. I think the way to tackle this is to expose them. Which is where your campaign can be very effective. When a model wears a VS bra, it IS about the bra. When I buy the same bra and wear it, it becomes about me :)
As for me, I am a health-first kind of person. My tagline to your campaign: Do not let anyone define beauty/body types for you. Simply put, there are no standards (except health) for us to live up to.
This is the REAL THING
How many times do we turn on the TV or open a magazine and have all these beautiful bodies staring back at us? But honestly, how real are they? As the posts attest to, without all the airbrushing, cosmetics, wardrobe (or lack of it) and fuss, these young girls/women wouldn't be nearly as glamorous.
At least we have our self worth, our dignity and for many of us, happiness in our lives. We are all fabulous in our own way, with something special inside of us, and as long as we realise this, we will accept ourselves as we are.
I think you are so brave Suzanne for donning the swimsuit and taking your picture to post here, and if I had one, I would join you. My excuse? It is winter here in Sydney, Australia and my swimsuits are all packed away until Summer approaches. I could post one in my daggy trackies which would cause just as much a stir.
You go girl, and yes, I too have jumped on your bandwagon.
Absolutely...Fabulous at 40
Cheers
Danette
www.fabat40.com
OK, I'm in.
This is an old picture, but not that much has changed, and I really wanted to participate. I'm so proud of all of us!
I tried
I put on my swimsuit and.... it was far too small. No wonder it took me 1/2 an hour just to get it on. So no picture from me :( though I did still post as an advertisement to others to participate
(Here's the link.)
Yay grass roots!
I'm so excited and touched that everyone is participating in some way! This is great.
Don't forget to tag your post Swimsuit Brigade so that technorati and other sites pick it up!
Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants
I broke my camera
Ok, it wasn't the site of me in a swimsuit..but I'm working to fix a dropped camera. Stay tuned.
Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain
or sight
wow. too much web-surfing today
Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain
Finally did it!
Finally got a photo of me in my current swimsuit online.
http://flickr.com/photos/darinhercules/1225638040/
(the photo is strangely stretched when uploaded here). It's stretched out and needs to be replaced (the excess is tied behind by back), but still looks OK. BTW, is there a tag to use on Flickr for these?
I LOVE the tankinis that Land's End makes. They fit real women's bodies. Yes, I ordered 4suits today to try on in the comfort of my own home to replace this one.
And I blogged it here!
Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions
Finally
Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain
You Ladies Rock!
It is soooo important to love your body. I try to keep in mind that while many of my "parts" may meet with my unrealistic ideal, there are so many who would give anything to be able to use or replace missing or paralyzed parts.
We are all lovely, fortunate women - me thinks!
Have a great weekend!
Erin
ExpectingExecutive - Helping Women Manage Life's Details
Hurray! Keep the pictures coming!
After the Glamour/America Ferrera debacle, we need these pictures more than ever. If you post your picture on your own blog, please tag it "swimsuit brigade" and/or link it here so that you are counted!
Everyone looks awesome in their own skin!
Suzanne Reisman, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Ran
Slayer in Swimsuit!
I was so inspired by this post and by Queen of Spain, I joined in :)
http://slayerintraining.blogspot.com/2007/09/swimsuits-for-blogher.html
It's from 2 years ago, and only half of me, but I don't often let myself be photographed in a swimsuit ;) Thanks for giving me the courage to show this photo!
Angel
headacheslayer.blogspot.com
slayerintraining.blogspot.com