Dear Media,
I woke up this morning to a picture my friend had posted (mockingly) of a “Get Beach Ready!” article in some beauty magazine. In it, the first tip suggested,
“BAN STRETCH MARKS.”
and I say -
Go fuck yourself. That’s right. You heard me.
Stretch marks have nothing to do with beauty; in fact, I think they have a lot to do with skin elasticity. So stop trying to attach moral value to stretch marks.
Or anything else body-related for that matter.
Media, did you know eating disorders are the deadliest mental health illness? Bypassing alcoholism?
Well yes, they are. And you are contributing to many a woman’s death, on a daily basis, all for your love of money.
Stop trying to kill my sisters. Or my daughter, for that matter.
What if you, instead, chose to publish an un-airbrushed, average looking lady on your cover? Might that young pre-teen you’re selling to have not chosen to go on a 500-calorie a day diet? Maybe, maybe not. Even if you’re not the direct cause, you’re part of the equation.
And when the women who don’t kill themselves via starvation give up on attaining that perfect ideal, they swing the other way. They start binging, because they just as well might give up and “get fat because there’s no hope for me anyway.” You may have heard of an epidemic called “obesity.” You play a part in that.
They buy into your bullshit because you’ve inundated them with false truths since the moment they were born. Society’s values do a number on them too – “sweet, cute, Daddy’s little girl.” Pushed down by the patriarchy as soon as they can breathe air.
Oh, and stop trying to kill our mothers.
The other day, I heard a husband joke about giving his wife 6 months post-partum to appear as if she never had a baby. Behind the joking that made me want to stick a needle in my eye – there is truth. A million of your articles have been dedicated to women pretending as if they never took part in assisting the human race in surviving. Makes sense.
Keeping women insecure earns a lot of money for you. How do you sleep at night? How do you live with yourself?
Either way, it’s got to stop. You make my new-mother friend feel like she should weigh less, you make my daughter the subject of weight stereotypes, and you make me feel like my genetic spider veins are little spindles of evil on my pasty-white, untanned-and-therefore-unappealing skin.
STOP.
(Another Piece of Cake realizes there are healthy ad campaigns out there, and applauds them! Another Piece of Cake also realizes men are hit hard by the media too, but Another Piece of Cake only writes about women because she’s, well…a woman.)
