I've decided to incorporate electronic paths into my main blog, being berta liao. However, I'll leave this blog up for archival purposes (and as an occasional notepad for myself).
...The first to exploit this cosmetics fixation [among women] were just women's fashion magazines that, more often than we would like to believe, use teenaged models and made them look like eroticized adults. Now there is a whole array of teen magazines that do the same, only with more teenage-directed articles and ads. Seventeen, Teen Vogue, YM, Jane, Teen People, Twist, Right On, Girl's Life, Cosmo Girl, and Elle Girl are distinctive in their focus and appearance, and in these the teen models are represented as teenagers. Page after page, they promote the need to buy products that promise to deliver the hope and dream of flawless beauty ("Look like a model or an actress or a pop star"). Sandwiched between pages of advertisements and fashion layouts, there are the token articles giving lip service to "girl power," or "taking control of your life," while offering detailed lists of "How to make him ask you out," "How to get him to ask you out again," or "Apply the most beautiful makeup possible." Such lightly sprinkled references to self-actualization are easy to ignore when salient pictorials are far more striking--and get proportionally more space.
Statistics about content say it all. Appearance-related products--toiletries and makeup--account for 61% of all ads and layouts in teen-oriented magazines, while clothing takes up only 20% of the advertising pages. In stark contrast, only 9% of advertisements targeted toward males are appearance-related (with 4% for toiletries and 5% for clothing), and there are no related "fashion" magazines for teenage boys (Source: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation).
The New York Times has an interesting article about Americans and their attitude towards money. "There is nothing more American than piling up wealth, and yet nothing more un-American than showing it off. "
Frank Rich writes, "When this kind of posturing comes from politicians vying for our vote in an election year, it's harder to laugh. At a minimum it makes one nostalgic for the day when Roosevelts and Kennedys didn't pretend to be anything other than the fat cats they were."
Anyways, it's an interesting article, and at this moment, hard for me to sum up so go and read it yourself.
I got this news piece off of Dr. Weil's weekly newsletter:
How the French Stay Slim and Healthy
Scientists have long puzzled over how the French, with their fat-loaded cuisine of Camembert, brioche and goose liver paté, stay slim and remain one of the healthiest people in the world.
New research has finally revealed the secret: small portions.
Results of a study published in the September 2003 issue of Psychological Science show that French serving sizes are much smaller than those in the U.S. The researchers found that the mean portion size in Paris restaurants was 9.8 ounces compared to 12.2 ounces in Philadelphia. Chinese restaurant servings in Philadelphia were a whopping 72 percent larger than Chinese restaurant servings in Paris; a U.S. supermarket soft drink was 52 percent larger than the French version; a hotdog was 63 percent bigger; and a carton of yogurt 82 percent larger.
The differences may help explain why 22 percent of Americans are obese compared to only seven percent of the French.
...
And now, in case you feel like you should get moving at your desk--yes, you, right now!--everyday yoga.
The true blog in this site, here are some sites I frequent.
Melissa likes to keep informed via CNN. However, I've always visited the New York Times. Sections I turn to first are Dining, Travel, Health, and Advertising. Forbes keeps me abreast of business' concerns. The Economist has two weekly newsletters on political and business events which keeps me from being an ignoramus even when I am caught up in the minutiae of life. Although in print I never miss the
New Yorker's The Talk of the Town, online I prefer the
Atlantic.
Guilty pleasures. I am a big fan of the WB's dramedy series, Gilmore Girls, now in its second season. My dad is taping the shows
for me while I am in Taiwan. In between videotaped installments of the show, I keep up by reading the scripts and looking at screen captures from GilmoreGirls.net, the best fan site. I am so glad that there are dedicated fans who have this kind of time on their hands who enable me to get my weekly Gilmore Girls fix. The characters are complex, the dialogue fast-paced, funny, and filled with references to literature and pop culture, and the interaction between mothers and daughters at times poignant and reminiscent of my own relationship with my mother.
Fup, the store cat at Powells, is a character I still don't understand, but I always enjoy reading about him in their bi-weekly newsletter. Visiting the bookstore is dangerous, since I often end up making a purchase...
