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February 3,, 2006
Hollywood is afraid of female curves.
There I said it. Surgically enhanced breasts and collagen pumped lips are okay, but womanly hips? Fuggetaboutit. A slight curve on the stomach? No way in hell. You have to be able to see the outline of your organs through your stomach to be an acceptable movie or singing star. A fit body is a great goal to have, but for some reason Hollywood rewards celebrities who can easily become poster children for anorexia and osteoporosis. Case in point Nicole Richie, who looks like she is on the verge of death.
As her size 0 bikini sags on her shrinking body, the only difference between her and a starving third world child is that she can afford the couture, make-up, hair-stylist, and orangina tan to adorn her emaciation. She gets rewarded for her disorder with more magazine covers and job opportunities. When I watch other female stars on television or film, I can’t focus on their acting because all I can see are their veins throbbing on foreheads and necks (Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman come to mind). Then you have Teri Hatcher, who is so thin you can see her entire vascular system pulsating through her skin.Here she is running off what she’s got left:
There is no limit to how dangerously skinny these stars can become, and unfortunately they are celebrated as they are—role models for future generations of women. It truly is a circus watching these malnourished skeletons ambling on the red carpet in $20,000 gowns. These women, with all of their fame and wealth, are still victims of a system that has no tolerance for female curves. A system where an actress is told to lose weight when she’s already thin. That’s why watching video i on February 6th is so important—we explore the attack on female body image in three excellent independent films.
Wrangling those body image demons…
Talented director Holly Million tackles multiple aspects of body image problems in her entertaining film called Changing Room.. In this drama, three women reveal their secret body-image problems in a high-end women's clothing boutique. Million explores not only how the fashion industry can make women feel inadequate, but she tackles a little talked about subject: the mediocrity of breast augmentation in healthy women. Mainly, why would women who don’t have breast cancer succumb their healthy breasts to the knife to achieve some artificial ideal? While breast cancer patients everywhere loathe the thought of having surgery, healthy women are willing to have their breasts carved up, stuffed with potentially harmful foreign objects, and patched up again so they can display their new hard as walnut cleavage in some Victoria’s Secret contraption. When you really think about this profound difference, you realize how crazy our society has become. Full of fantasy, fun visuals, and even a cowgirl gunfight, this lighthearted but thought provoking film puts a whole new spin on this universal feminine concern. The show begins with my interview with this fascinating filmmaker--and to learn more about Holly, you can check out her website at www.goldenpoppy.com
Wrangling those body image demons…
The next film of the night is a Cinequest Film Festival pick also called Changing Room. In this dramatic short, a young Muslim woman wrestles with her faith and the implications her religion has on her body. This is a delicate subject with polar opposite points on view. On the one hand, many people from western societies believe that men use the guise of religion to control and suppress women—the Taliban in Afghanistan have taken that notion to the extreme for instance. However, there are the Muslim women who decide to wear the Hijab, or headdress, by absolute personal choice. Many of these women feel liberated when they cover up—because they are seen as a person and not as a sexual object of desire. In general they feel less vulnerable. In this film, opposing beliefs collide as the woman changes into a sexy dress in the changing room of a clothing store. There is absolutely no dialogue in this film, but the actress does an amazing job emoting pride, awkardness, vulnerability, and even horror in a very short period of time. The end of this film leaves the viewer with more questions than answers, an engaging piece of visual art.
Rage against the consumer machine…
We cannot underestimate the role consumerism has in driving the female body standard today. Advertisers try their best to make women feel incomplete as they are to compel them to buy their products. In the last film of the night, filmmaker Katrina Drabkin actually shows how elegant one can look without spending a dime and without using up more of the earth’s resources. She wears a dress composed of recycled food packaging and walks around San Francisco’s Union Square. Drabkin and her cinematographer, engage and are engaged by bystanders. The dress promotes recycling and calls attention to the accumulation of packaging materials in our environment, which is the result of an increasingly "to-go" culture. This film reminds me of an excellent website called www.adbusters.org, which advocates “buy nothing” days to help save the environment, and mocks the psychological methods of advertisers. You can get a taste of their mock ads
here.
Well, that’s it for now, I’ll be posting regular updates on video I shows now that we’re back on Monday nights at 10:00 pm!
Until next time...
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