Tag Archives: representation

Doctor, Doctor! Gingerism’s gone nuts

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I’m afraid the ridiculous row about Doctor Who’s regretful comment about still not being ginger as he reincarnated as Matt Smith is just one of the many signs that the internet seems to have destroyed our ability to appreciate or recognise nuanced meaning and / or irony.

after this week’s events, in which more than 100 complaints were made to the BBC over an off-the-cuff remark made in the Christmas Doctor Who special, it is clear that gingerism is on the verge of running out of control.

The remark, uttered by actor Matt Smith at the moment of his transmogrification into a Gallifrean Timelord ran as follows: “I’m still not ginger”. It is expressed in a tone of frustrated regret, in the manner of someone who all their life has dreamt of being a ballet dancer and still finds themselves doing PAs at Po Na Na. Somehow, the ginger fringe has interpreted this as a slur.

via Doctor, Doctor! Gingerism’s gone nuts | Paul MacInnes |
Comment is free |
guardian.co.uk.

Professional models barred from German magazine

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The 29-year-old blonde teacher was among a cast of more than six “normal women” selected by the mass circulation middle-market Brigitte to pose for its January fashion feature following an editorial pledge by the magazine to keep controversial size-zero models off its pages.

Andreas Lebert, editor of the 700,000-circulation magazine, announced the ban last October after receiving letters from hundreds of women readers who complained that they had no connection with the models shown in the magazine and that they no longer wanted to see “protruding bones”.

via Professional models barred from German magazine -
News, Fashion – The Independent.

Karl Lagerfeld says only fat birds object to size 0 models

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Classy.

“These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly,” said Lagerfeld in an interview with the magazine Focus. The designer, who lost a lot of weight himself when he went on a strict low-carbohydrate diet several years ago, added that the world of fashion was all to do “with dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women”.

via Karl Lagerfeld says only ‘fat mummies’ object to thin models |
Life and style |
guardian.co.uk
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Guardian article on the extent of photo retouching in the media

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Now you see it, now you don’t.

In 2007, a study at the University of Missouri found that a wide variety of women felt noticeably worse about themselves after viewing pictures of models in magazine adverts for just three minutes. Another study in 1999, found that nearly 70% of teenage girls surveyed said their idea of the “perfect” body shape was influenced by the pictures they saw in magazines.

Too fat to be a model? The picture that caused a storm in the fashion world

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One wouldn’t have thought this would be news. As Miller says, “pretty much every picture in a magazine or ad is airbrushed . . . I don’t think the public understands how much smoke and mirrors are involved in making women look like that.”

Too fat to be a model? The picture that caused a storm in the fashion world – The Guardian.

Ben Goldacre on Swine flu

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I’m not showing off. I know I’m a D-list public intellectual, but I just think it’s interesting: because not only have the public lost all faith in the media; not only do so many people assume, now, that they are being misled; but more than that, the media themselves have lost all confidence in their own ability to give us the facts.

via Ben Goldacre: Swine flu and hype – a media illness |
Comment is free |
guardian.co.uk
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Gerry McCann testifies to Parliament

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Madeleine McCann was treated as a “commodity” by the UK press, her father Gerry has told MPs.

Some reports about the missing girl had been “embellished” or even made up, the culture, media and sport select committee was told.

Papers had, without evidence, published stories suggesting Madeleine was dead, which could have stopped people looking for her, Mr McCann said.

via BBC NEWS | Politics | Madeleine ‘treated as commodity’.