Adios, Barbie

If you hate your body and you want someone to tell you you're better than everyone else, this is the book for you. Pardon me if this post seems a bit like sporadic word vomit. That's kind of how it inspired me.

So first of all, this is a book of essays written by different women about body image and identity. Mistake number 1. You see, body image and identity get discussed so much these days that it’s easy to compare them too closely and say, “My Jewish nose is my identity,” or “My weight is my identity.” I think India Arie puts it well in her song: I am not my hair. I am not this skin. I am a soul that lives within.

Susan Jane Gilman. I only hope she’s joking about half the Barbie’s she wants to see (I suspect she’s not). While trying to praise the “average” woman, she’s condescending against whites and Germans specifically. An all-out assault on men.

These authors are drawing strange conclusions about how they’re viewed and then trying desperately to hold onto those views. It’s books like these that attempt to make “body” synonymous with “sex”. This idea that “real women have curves.” Real women are lopsided, have stretchmarks, etc. This is the downfall of feminism. Attempting to fight oppression with oppression, hatred, etc. There’s no grace, beauty, poise, forgiveness; characteristics that don’t mark us at “feminine”, but rather mark us as human. If this book is about body image, why are there no essays by women who fit the “perfect” body type? Is it to be assumed that they never think about their bodies, or is it that they’re busy being bimbos and sluts and morons to be able to form coherent thoughts?

It’s a growing sentiment that we see in pop culture icons like George Lopez, who say that the world is becoming a more beautiful place because all the pasty white redheads are dying out. Am I gonna go around feeling all oppressed about it? No. Disrespected at the very least. Some people call it counter-racism. I just call it racism.

Much of the book seems crass; an attempt of the post-modern feminist world to out-shock the male dominant world with rude talk before they can oppress us with the same vile thoughts.

Is there an up-side to the book? I didn't find one.
Score = 1