It would seem that most people are obsessed with boob jobs. Or, perhaps I should say, people are obsessed with other people getting boob jobs–if you type “boob job” into the news-search feature of Google, you get pages and pages of insightful, respectful articles like “Nicole [Richie] Debuts New Boobs–Is It To Save Her Marriage? ” and “Iggy Azalea Shows Off Boob Job Results In Scorching Topless Feature.” Very, very good content, overall!
I think it’s fair to say that most of us have a bit of a love hate relationship with our boobs. Maybe we like the shape, but hate our nipples; or we think they’re too big, but love the way they fill out a top; or we think they’re too small, but are digging the fact that finding bathing suits and cute bras are incredibly easy. Basically, all the self-love in the world can’t make us love our boobs all the time, and that’s okay.
At this point, hearing the words “sexist” and “advertisement” in direct correlation with one another isn’t really a surprise. Sex sells, or so they say, and it’s usually women who bear the brunt of delivering the sex to be bought by men, theoretically, being used as punchlines in
Still, though, just because we’re used to things being a certain way doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s okay. Case in point–a new slew of ads from Calvin Klein. The brand just launched a campaign full of various “influencers” (models, actors, singers, etc.) with the hashtag #mycalvins that features some…weird (to say the very least) imagery. Basically, all of the men featured in the campaign are shown from some vantage point of power, while the women seem to just be there to exist things to look at. Heidi Zak, the CEO of lingerie company ThirdLove, took note of this sexism and decided to do something about it–she started a Change.org petition to have a particularly sexist billboard (which we’ll get to in a second) removed.
First came the thigh gaps. Then the belly button challenge. This was followed shortly by the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, and body contouring, and thighbrows (not to be confused with thigh gaps, obviously)–a wide swath of Internet challenges and trends that, at their heart, are basically nothing but a way to make girls feel bad abut their bodies.This week, there’s a new body-shaming trend. It’s called the A4 Challenge.
This challenge started on Weibo, a Chinese social networking site that’s basically a hybrid of Facebook and Twitter. To participate in the challenge, girls take a picture of themselves behind a piece of A4 printing paper (which is eight inches wide) to show that their waists are smaller than this piece of paper. And that’s it. If your waist isn’t smaller than this eight inches you…lose, I guess, which is problematic, to say the least.
Sleep is wonderful and life can be hectic, so we’re all tired all the time. But, to be fair, doesn’t it seem like students with busy schedules and lots of stress about more than just work are more tired than most people? Yeah, it kind of does. Even when you manage get a few hours of sleep, your mind is so overworked that you don’t get the quality rest that your young body needs. All the tests, sports, dances, and parties deplete you quicker than you can say, “I JUST WANT TO SLEEP ALLLLL DAY.” You’re taking on a lot in your life – you should have the energy to do it all! (P.S. cramming your face with energy drinks, sugar, and coffee isn’t going to help you out in the long run.)
It is very possible that, at this point in your life, you have heard of a man named Donald Trump. It is also quite plausible that you know about things called “breasts” (or “boobs,” if you are keeping it casual). It is quite unlikely, however, that you’ve ever thought about them in conjunction with one another–but earlier this week, that is exactly what happened, when an artist named Davison decided to paint a picture of Donald Trump using only her boobs. You can check out the video here, if you’re into that kind of thing:
Starting puberty early isn’t annoying. Yes, it can be awkward to be the tallest girl in the class, and it might feel isolating to be the only person in your grade who has their period, and there’s something to be said about the horror of realizing that everybody is laughing at how hairy your legs are in P.E. However, there’s a freakier and sometimes more sinister side of early puberty that we don’t really talk about enough, especially when it comes to starting your period at an early age. Take a minute to check out these eight weird facts about starting your period early. Don’t get scared or anything, but these little nuggets of info are definitely eye opening.
Before any of you look at this title and accuse me of advocating marijuana use, hold up. I’m not here to promote pot or alcohol. You’ll probably experiment and come to your own conclusion about them, just like I and everybody else on the planet eventually do! But now that that’s out of the way, I do have a bone to pick about the way that our society treats marijuana.
You’re literally so welcome!
I know that a common girl power mantra these days is to support a girl doing whatever they want with their body as long as it gives them confidence. I get it, let girls wear as much or as little makeup as they want, if an overweight girl wants to show off her tummy and rock a crop top, she should be able to do that without controversy. Still, I’m weary about blind support for this line of thinking when it could potentially support things like bleaching. No, I’m not talking about hair bleaching, I’m talking about bleaching the body.
Before I start this post, I want to make one thing clear. At Gurl, we’re all about promoting self love, but we’re also realists: you’re not going to wake up every morning feeling amazing about the way you look. That’s just human nature! But we do hope to encourage you guys to be a little less hard on yourselves, especially for things that are beyond your control. For example, boobs.
No matter how much we dread it, our periods will continue to come every month and bring with it its bundle of trouble. If you’re on birth control, you might not be too thrown off by its presence, but many girls have awful menstrual cycles. I’ve gotten cramps so bad that I’ve had to throw up, and I have colleagues that take entire days off of work during their time of the month. It would be nice if we could all use getting our period as an excuse to hide from the world for a week, but that’s a luxury hardly any of us are able to afford.
