Just a quick one to say that the STAND Campaign’s Billboard Project is thisclose to its fundraising goal — and y’all can totally help us get there by donating a buck. Yes, just a buck! Or more, of course. But they need 217 more donations to unlock a $5,000 matching grant, so right now, it’s all about the Solidarity Dollars.
Here’s the scoop from my girl Ragen Chastein of Dances With Fat fame, who is organizing this awesomeness:
Read more...Support All Kids Billboard Project Update
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Hi, my name is Virginia and I’m addicted to Pinterest. (If you’re already confused, click here to find out what it’s all about.)
My friend Amy got me hooked way back in September 2010. I’m fairly sure it’s the only thing we’ve ever early adopted! Since then, she’s pinned a reasonable 268 items. Meanwhile I’ve pinned 839 things.
Ahem. That total actually went up to 845 pins since I wrote the first draft of this post.
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But did Big Pink really get the message? iVillage Health asked me to drop by and discuss it.
Bottom line: If you stood with Planned Parenthood and/or breast cancer organizations that don’t play politics with women’s heath, good on you! We made a difference and 170,000 low-income women will be getting breast cancer screenings this year as a result.
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Usually, I try to spread the advocacy posts out a bit, so as to not burn you guys out — standing up for things is hard work after all. But this is a blog first and foremost about body politics — and this week, a lot of our core issues hit a boiling point. So we’ve been standing up for salon workers’ health, and for Planned Parenthood and women’s health in general.
And today we’re taking a stand for children’s health. Which really blows my mind because, really? We have to have a debate about that?
Filed under Beauty Standards, Government Watch, Happenings, Health | 1 Comment |
As you’ve probably heard, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation decided to yank their funding (hundreds of thousands of grant dollars) for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics around the country. The official line is that Komen can’t support an organization being investigated by Congress — but considering that the only people in Congress who care about investigating Planned Parenthood are anti-choice lawmakers who have sought to end all federal support of the group — some of us aren’t smelling that cheese.
Reports Kate Sheppard for Mother Jones:
Komen has been under pressure from anti-abortion groups to drop its funding for Planned Parenthood, which received $680,000 from the anti-cancer group in 2011. Most recently, abortion foes forced a Christian publisher to stop printing pink Komen bibles and pressured bookstores to take them off shelves. Groups have also called on supporters to boycott Komen entirely, and decried the group as a “lie from the pit of Hell.” [...] pressure to end the Planned Parenthood funding may have also come from within Komen itself. Karen Handel was named senior vice president at Komen in April 2011, and is now “leading the organization’s federal and state advocacy efforts.” But before joining Komen, she was a candidate in the Republican gubernatorial primary in Georgia, and was critical of Planned Parenthood.
So. Fishy.
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Hey, remember waaay back in 2010 when the supposedly “formaldehyde-free” Brazilian Blowout hair straightening treatment tested positive for — irony alert! — formaldehyde?
Lots of salon workers and customers reported all kinds of unhappy symptoms as a result of working with the product, but of course, the beauty industry had some hairs to split about it, even though their own textbooks and industry spokespeople had said years earlier that formaldehyde doesn’t belong in beauty products. Ahem.
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Jennifer Aniston tells InStyle that it took “years of peeling back the onion to finally stop using makeup as a mask and feel comfortable in my own skin.” (Via PopSugar.)
Of course she also makes the requisite Pretty Celebrity reference to her “dumpy teenage” self. By golly, Americans love an Ugly Duckling-Turned-Swan story. But I’m stuck on the creepy yet accurate onion metaphor. It reminds me of cleansing clients during facials at Beauty U. Whenever someone came in with a full face of makeup on, the process did feel rather onion-like. And the face that was revealed once I swirled, swirled, swirled with my finger tips and cotton burgers didn’t always bear much resemblance to the face they walked in with. Sometimes they really did look older or less attractive without that mask. Sometimes they just looked… clean.
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Congratulations — if you’re reading this post, it means you’ve successfully found your way to my new and improved blog on my new and improved website.
In case you missed the news on the old blog, here’s the deal. For the past few years, I’ve maintained a professional portfolio site at a whole other domain. This made sense when I first started beauty school and had to keep a low profile. But it stopped making sense awhile back and so I’ve finally rectified the matter, bringing blog and portfolio together at last.
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Hello, again. It’s almost the weekend and I’ve got something pretty to show you:
I know, right?!
Here’s the deal. For the past few years, I’ve maintained a professional portfolio site at a whole other domain. This made sense when I first started beauty school and had to keep a low profile. But it stopped making sense awhile back and so I’ve finally rectified the matter, bringing blog and portfolio together at last.
Or rather, Liz and Jeff, the geniuses at Super Runaway have rectified the matter and I can’t say enough good things about them. (They also designed my best friend Amy’s website, and we joke that we maybe have a collective crush on them. If you need web folk, hire them. Stat.)
Filed under Happenings | 2 Comments |
Because I like you all SO much!
I’ve been delightfully inundated with your sweet comments and emails this week, in response to Tuesday’s post about my body not liking me right now. I won’t lie — I was nervous to press publish on that post. Migraines and cysts are the kind of “female complaints” that carry no small amount of crazy girl stigma, and I worried I’d come off as unwrapped, self-indulgent or just… weak.
But you guys reminded me that we don’t fight stigma by succumbing to it. And hearing from those of you who have dealt with this same kind of nonsense reminded me that I’m not alone — which is a cliche, but also, everything. Apologies to anyone I haven’t yet responded to directly. Please know that I’ve read what you wrote and am so thankful for it.
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