On the lighter side: Barbie and Ken serves as inspirations for religious art

Oh that is just peachy! As if the completely anatomically impossible Barbie hasn't done enough damage to kids for generations who look at that doll as the perfect body figure to attempt to emulate.
 
Ramesk,

It is all about her emotional needs. She may have 'issues', and this is her way to relieve her emotional needs and 'issues'.

It may be that she is just a little 'quirky'. In a way, I feel sorry for her.

Or maybe she's just trying to have a little fun.
 
In my book it is a psychological disorder. What these girls have to do to their bodies to get this completely inhuman shape is very bad for their health, very expensive for the surgeries as well as the cosmetic surgeries. Plus the problems with their organs, having corseted their waists to this tiny size. Probably issues with bulimia as well as no one can keep this shape without eating disorders.

These are girls who destroy their bodies to achieve this shape. It is a mental disorder that needs intensive therapy.
 
I agree it is horrible what these girls must go through. But first and foremost, we must show them compassion. For people with 'issues', showing them compassion can be more beneficial than having them go to therapy. And a lot cheaper.
 
These are girls who destroy their bodies to achieve this shape. It is a mental disorder that needs intensive therapy.
So does the culture in which the 'ideal' rises in the first place.

Remember these poor girls are trying to achieve a cultural stereotype. Think about the cosmetics industry, cosmetic surgery, then all the fallout from not attaining these goals, anorexia, bullimia, self-harm ... and we kid ourselves we've got it right?
 
Oh, I think we do.

Music, fashion? media ... still quite sexist. One of my daughters is a runner, and gets at least one comment every time she goes out. No woman ever appears on the cover of a glossy mag without being airbrushed. I think Kate Winslett complained, but she's a rarity ... our western culture is fundamentally sexist, and wears its equality on its sleeve.

What's worse, in the UK the idea that women demonstrate their equality by 'ladette culture' in which they get drunk / throw up / piss in the street like their male counterparts ... the whole thing was media manipulated.

Black people have yet to realise that 'rap music' is black music manipulated by white people, who have tricked black people into aspiring to white racist stereotypes – all black men are pimps and dealers, all black women are wanton sluts (rap originated as an antidote to violence, now it's largely violence and misogyny).

A muslim women, who happens to be a high ranking judge in the British legal system, returned to Pakistan to undergo an arranged wedding. The liberal white British were horrified. She pointed out that their system failed more often than it succeeded, so they were hardly in a position to criticise.

I just think the idea that things are automatically better now than they were is somewhat naive. Things are different, and may well be better, but are women any more empowered than they were?
 
Things are different, and may well be better, but are women any more empowered than they were?

I think the systems are better but the culture is about the same. But are you saying there is no movement to work against all the issues (I'm not touching the rap comment) you just mentioned?
 
No effective movement, no.

We've become a culture that talks about stuff, and thinks that by talking about stuff, that's progress. Whereas, in fact, it's not talking about stuff that brings about change, it's doing stuff.

So we talk about it a lot, but we're not actually doing anything about it.
 
Really? We are actually the culture that is bringing about more change than humans ever have... than this earth has seen since its creation. We can argue whether it is good or bad...but our productivity is higher than ever, more individual businesses and industries are being created than have in the past and when it comes to technology and inventions we are in exponential growth...the chart going straight through the roof.
 
Really? We are actually the culture that is bringing about more change than humans ever have...
Who's 'we'?

... but our productivity is higher than ever, more individual businesses and industries are being created than have in the past and when it comes to technology and inventions we are in exponential growth...the chart going straight through the roof.
Ah, you mean America! :D
 
No effective movement, no.
I don't know if that is relevant to the "and we kid ourselves we've got it right" point I was countering.

We've become a culture that talks about stuff, and thinks that by talking about stuff, that's progress. Whereas, in fact, it's not talking about stuff that brings about change, it's doing stuff.

So we talk about it a lot, but we're not actually doing anything about it.

Ahh, the ol' "we've become" perspective. Easy to say, harder to prove though? No? Mostly opinion?
 
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