Comments on: Prisoners Of Beauty

By: D

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:05:06 +0000

It’s a picture of a celebrity prison. You do your time and you come out looking f-a-a-a-bulous!

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:00:56 +0000

I live near Hot Springs, and have done extensive research on archaic medical devices because of that fact (translation: used the company’s interwebs while bored at work), so I was so happy to see this picture, and pictures like it.

It looks like the mercury saunas that mental hospitals would treat patients who had syphilis with. Of course that isn’t one because the close proximity of the ‘patients’, but to mistake a beauty regime for harsh treatment of a mental patient is kinda really funny…

By: Cat Brother

Cat Brother — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:14:47 +0000

re this seated sauna as a form of women-only fat loss, thus showing the terrible pressures The Man puts on women, these heat treatments were quite common for both men and women well into the 20th century. There’s a whole ’sweating is good for you’ train of thought, more or less archaic now, where this sweating was thought to have a tonic effect.
You may remember Sean Connery as James Body locking a bad guy into one, in revenge for the guy cranking up the traction machine when Connery was strapped to it. This all took place at a (for the time) cutting-edge health spa 007 was sent to to shape up and clean out.
Saunas do indeed have their health benefits (wish I had one at home)but they’re a lousy method of fat loss.

By: Bacchus

Bacchus — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:47:37 +0000

Kaya, I’ve got some young men just a little older than your son in my circle of gaming buddies. When this subject comes up I’m a big believer in counter-propaganda.

What’s fundamentally going on is that they hear and see an endless parade of “anorexic is beautiful” messages, and the folks who disagree, like me, don’t usually speak up because most of us aren’t confident enough to value our own standards of beauty over the prevalent one. So if they remark on some “fat” chick, I’ll make some dirty-old-man remark, like “Mmm, nice hips, she could bear you many strong children”. Or, conversely, when they are admiring the starveling-of-the-hour, I’ll shudder dramatically and say “Ugh, never, not unless you feed her first, she’s all bones and sharp corners! I’d be a afraid of losing an eye.”

Now, there’s a limit to how much value they are going to put on the opinions of one “old man” at odds with all their precious media, just as there’s sure to be a limit on what your son is going to believe about female beauty as understood by his mother. But hey, it’s all I can think to do.

By: Bacchus

Bacchus — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:35:00 +0000

Miabele, vocabulary conflict indeed. You’re using the word “patriarchy” in a manner quite different than I’ve encountered before.

However, it sounds (paceat some confusion on my part about what you meant to modify with “some men do as well”) as if you are arguing that, because men are known to participate in the broader game of awarding status based on appearance, they share responsibility for the pressure to conform to appearance standards that are (broadly speaking, I’m sure we can find a male fake-nails fan somewhere) not the result of male preference. If that’s what you mean (and I grant that I may be misunderstanding) I’m not with you.

By: Miabele

Miabele — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:45:34 +0000

Ah–we seem to be having a vocabulary conflict. When I mentioned the patriarchy, I didn’t mean to put the blame onto all men and only onto men. I was referencing instead the way society reinforces certain kinds of behaviors that maximize the differences between men and women and try to make all men and women behave that way, and also creates a rigid heirarchy which only a few people ever benefit from. (Hence all the judging, and the name “patriarchy” as opposed to something like “male privilege”–a few old rich men get a lot of power, and even fewer rich old ladies, but that doesn’t equal all men being better off than all women.) Both men and women contribute to maintaining this status quo in roughly equal amounts.

Also, I didn’t intend to elide the fact that women were doing the judging, or I wouldn’t have said and that isn’t something that only women are doing to each other. My point was that a lot of people think it’s *only* women doing it to each other, but that in reality some men do as well.

By: kaya

kaya — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:05:29 +0000

I don’t know if this has anything to do with anything but I like to talk. ;-)

Recently we were watching Saw 3, the scene with the naked girl hung up and freezing. My 12 yr old son remarks that she’s fat. FAT! My lord, you can see that woman’s ribs. So I object and point out that she is NOT fat and he remarks that in comparison to other naked chicks he’s seen on tv, she’s a heffer.

I couldn’t argue with him on that point I’m afraid. At 12, he’s ignorant of all sorts of things, including women’s bodies. He’ll learn (I hope) and he’ll become as enlightened as you are Bacchus. (again, I hope).

I blame neither men nor women. I blame the media. ;-)