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My year without makeup

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:00:00 +0000

This is who I am: a woman. I’m a daughter, a sister, a friend, a wife, and a mother. At age seven, I was a girl with braids and rainbow hair clips, and at thirteen, I became a teenager with acne, orthodontics, and teased bangs. At nineteen, I was a college student battling her freshman twenty-five, then a new graduate with a discount poly-blend office wardrobe. For nearly a decade after that, I was an independent young woman in confusing relationships who paired thrift-store finds with designer shoes. At twenty-eight, I became an overjoyed fiancée with a shiny new ring, then an anxious newlywed with a new mortgage. When I was thirty-one, I swelled up into a pregnant goddess with superlative melons, then collapsed, nine months later, into a zombie with magenta undereye bags. Then that happened again. Today, at thirty-seven, I am a busy work-at-home parent and spouse. On most days, I wear jeans, and shoes with traction. I have a yoga membership I probably won’t use up. On Fridays, I drink a beer in front of the television and fall asleep before ten.

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:41:00 +0000

It is hard to be a woman in this country! We still earn, on average, 25 percent less than our male colleagues. We still do most of the housework and child-raising. Elected officials still think it is OK to make personal medical choices for us, while others ascribe supernatural powers to our lady parts. Life is complicated all over. So when Britton Delizia says that she has been bullied because she is naturally skinny and has killer abs, why not believe her? And when she launches a Kickstarter to fund a photography book that celebrates "fitness" and "healthy living"? Sure, feel free.

Redefining the perfect woman

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 20:37:00 +0000

According to Los Angeles Magazine, 91 percent of all cosmetic procedures in the U.S. are performed on women. In L.A., this used to mean more big-busted, classic blonde pin-ups walking around--but that's changing. The current issue reports that "the demand for cosmetic procedures now crosses every ethnic group, altering the de rigueur body shape." In other words, Pamela Anderson might not be the ideal body type anymore.

A spread in the magazine outlines some of the common procedures, including breast augmentations and rhinoplasty:

Augmentation has been one of the most frequently requestesd cosmetic procedures in the country since 2006, but the preference in L.A., surgeons say, is a more natural looking breast size that balances an hourglass shape.

Rhinoplasty is one of the top five most popular cosmetic procedures in the United States. According to L.A. surgeons, the trend in Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and African American patients is to refine, not alter, overall shape.

As the entertainment industry has become more diverse, so have the trends in plastic surgery. But it's also true that this new image, a cross between Sofia Vergara, Angelina Jolie, and Kim Kardashian, is a hardly a less impossible standard --just a different one.