I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned it before but the first time I viewed the opening credits to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, nearly forty years ago now, I’d had a few drinks and was seriously concerned that I was hallucinating. I felt a bit like that when I read this article:
Despite the obesity epidemic, North Carolina Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin, and Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis are pushing legislation to encourage the media to produce healthier images of women.
They say women and girls feel overly pressured to be thin.
The trio convened with teenage Girl Scouts Wednesday to promote their bill, the Healthy Media for Youth Act, which would facilitate research on how the media affects women, create a grant program for youth empowerment groups, and establish a National Taskforce on Women and Girls in the Media to set standards â€that promote healthy, balanced, and positive images of girls and women.â€
“Children are consuming more media than ever, but unfortunately, the images they see often reinforce gender stereotypes, emphasize unrealistic body images or show women in passive roles. The need for more positive images of girls in the media is clear,†said Baldwin. “I’m proud to sponsor legislation that will help girls and young women see themselves in a new and stronger light.â€
One of my former business partner’s many witticisms I think of as a sort of reverse-Voltaire: “I agree with what you say but I deny to the death your right to say it.”. I completely agree that television and movies should portray more realistic images of women. Does a 6′ tall former underwear model who weighed between 120 and 130 lbs. at the height of her career really make a good standard bearer for such a cause?
With age and childbirth she has, understandably, put on a little weight. Promoting healthy body images for women in the media at this point sounds like a career move as much as a deeply held conviction.
I went through this body image thing with my daughter many ears ago. In response, I read Raising Ophelia. Just from recall, Miss America in 1960 was about 5’6″ and weighed 130. In 2000 she was 5’11” and weighed 102 (approximate numbers). This is a real issue for girls today. But, I will agree that it is fortuitous timing for Davis.
Steve
This subject ties directly to a post I’ve been researching. Just as an example for decades the conventional height for a fashion model was 5’7. That persisted through the first half of the “fashion age” from about 1920 until the mid 1960s. Now many are over 6′.
In 1960 the average height for an American woman was 5’3. Now it’s 5’4. Clearly, something has gone out of whack.
Interesting. I would have assumed Davis’ would have grown up with at least some body issues, being a woman that tall. I didn’t realize how tall models were; it’s hard to have perspective on these things through the television. Similarly, I didn’t have any idea what Marilyn Monroe’s dimensions were.
PD:
Well, what do you expect? You waste your time studying Lincoln — like he could ever carry a reality show — and you miss the truly important things.
From your perspective, it may seem like a hallucination that Geena Davis is telling girls not to worry about being skinny like today’s models because yes, she was quite a beanpole in her youth. However, I doubt anyone could deny her the experience she has had feeling the pressure from Hollywood as she became a more mature actress and began to fill out. I agree that it is hardly natural to stay in that ungainly, thin silhouette past young adulthood, but obviously she has since become a more natural-looking beauty. This *progression* could certainly make for a convincing point of view for today’s Girl Scouts (assuming they know such classics as Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own, Beetlejuice, etc).
@michael, I’m just biding time until next year’s release of “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter,” starring Maxim fav Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mary Todd Lincoln. Women were much shorter back then, so picking her makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
(Three Lincoln movies next year!!!)
I thought they were going to redo Goodwin’s Team Of Rivals making it into, Survival, The Cabinet Version. A riveting series where factions band together to vote a different member out each week until only one remains. The lucky winner becomes Abe’s new VP and gets to choose the Reconstruction laws of his choice.
Steve
Hot chicks?
Any reference to Monty Python leaves me a slave to my inner-juvenile……..”naughty bits” and of course, the famous parrot bit – “he’s not dead, he’s resting.”
As for the chicks, keep current. Seen the 3G Mobile chick?
Carly Foulkes. She’s a pretty child. I suspect that in 30 or 40 years time she’ll regret all that ankle and knee flexing. Her costumer is a genius.
“Carly Foulkes. She’s a pretty child. I suspect that in 30 or 40 years time she’ll regret all that ankle and knee flexing.”
My spine surgeon would probably frown, but I think about those legs……..and being 30 years younger…..and……never mind.
I never bothered to look up who she was. Ouch. 23?? Are you kidding?? Getting too close for comfort. My daughter is 13, has had a couple commercial gigs, and just landed a principal’s spot in the next “Superman” movie. I don’t want lecherous old men talking about her.
I take it all back, except wanting to go back 30 years. Then its open season…..