Beautiful?

How fascinating the concept of beauty is. I noticed this as I perused through my sisters cast off ASOS magazine which I snatched up like a magpie as soon as she was done with it. In this magazine there were a lot of models all of whom were striking in there own way. A lot of whom were so striking that they couldn't be called pretty in the conventional sense of the word. These women had large dome like foreheads, large gaps in their teeth and sharp, prominent cheek bones.

Being the possessor of a rather large forehead, I was glad of this. I like these odd looking amazons with their stark, awkward grace. They show me that funny looking women can be muses in high fashion. The only down side to this that they are all very slim. I hate the term skinny like I hate the term fat. When someone calls me skinny it brings forth unwanted images like this....

Although to be fair Skeletor is quite ripped, who am I to insult his chisled masculinity?

Nevertheless I can sympathise with the frustration of women who find that the fashion world doesn't really offer them models who they can relate to shape wise. Most of the bodies that saunter down  the runway are of proportions I wouldn't dream of (mostly because my dreams are currently overrun with pastry). A friend and I was discussing the body shape of women, her being a size 18 and me a 8/10. What was interesting is that we were trying to come to terms with what 'normal' women were. Normal is a vague word, what quantifies normal. I suppose the average size of a female in this country would be the obvious answer. That's a size fourteen apparantly.

It would be nice to see rounder bums and softer lines in magazines and on the runway. Whose to say it wouldn't be a nice change. We should still have thin sexy ladies for other thin sexy ladies. We should just have rounder sexy ladies for the other rounder sexy ladies to look up to. There's a particularly repulsive person who seems to be against this.

Now, this is old news but this man upsets me even if his dresses are quite pretty. It's this type of person that makes us, both women and men hate ourselves. Sure, we should be strong enough to say  'screw you' and ignore the negative words of this one, essentially insignificant individual. However, this man has power and influence over models and designers alike. He gets in whatever way to decide what is beautiful and what is ugly.
If someone is a judge on Australia's Next Top Model, they are in a position of power and, no matter how harsh the reality of the fashion world actually is, their messages filter down into the rest of society. Women might feel they need to live up to certain standards.

I know women aren't stupid and they know it isn't their job to look a certain way or way less than a certain amount. But when we are constantly bombarded with images to the contrary, these messages seep in no matter how watertight we think our minds are. To have someone like this man, insulting these amazons so callously could leave the average woman feeling a bit angry.

There's a criticism and then there's just being a prick.

I know the difference, do you?

London Riots Aftermath

To all the rioters that were out last night. Poor disaffected youth's so angry with the police that you decided to break into wine bars and ransack them for alcohol and cash. Power to the people?You felt obligated to destroy five generations of a family's history by burning down Reeves in Croydon and leaving parts of London in ruin. You put the lives of people in your own communities at risk, destroyed homes and businesses in your own back yard.

What have you done?

It cannot be denied that there is a very strained relationship between youth and the police force, particularly black youths. And anyone who would completely dismiss these riots as mere criminality and deny any connection between the dire economic situation and the events that unfolded last night would be naive. Young black males are more likely to be stopped and searched by the police. I remember even as a girl in secondary school being paranoid about the public image of young people. I used to go out of my way to act against the stereotype stamped on urban youths.

Inevitably there is anger rising in those suffering as a result of government cuts. Jobs are scarce, taxes are rising and even those with relatively good degrees find themselves unemployed. We get it. The social, political and economic situation is a breeding ground for things like this to happen.

But as for the actions of those involved in the riots last night, no matter what your motivations were, the things you have done are unforgivable. Last night you attacked and destroyed peoples homes and livelihoods indiscriminately. You behaved like animals pillaging retail parks for commercial items like Trainers and iPhones.

You cannot pretend that attacking police officers with fireworks and metal poles is way forward. These people have children, they have families. The police force is an institution, but it is made up of normal individuals with just as many rights and grievances as you.

Even if the police were your primary target, you didn't primarily attack the police. You attacked anything and anyone you came across, like mindless thugs. It wasn't enough for you to just rob those businesses, you had to burn them as well. You felt the need to ensure that nothing could be salvaged, that everything was completely destroyed. How monstrous of you all.

You claim this to be your way of showing the government that you can't take it anymore. Don't lie. Don't try to turn this into a political protest. Looting Curry's and your local Chinese restaurant isn't protesting. Saying to your friends 'Let's get some watches, blood', shows just what you were out there for- everything you could get.

There are pictures springing up all over Facebook, Twitter and BBM showing criminals posing with their  spoils; a girl with tights over her head and a crate of Supermalt under her arm, a young boy on a bike with a basket of snacks stolen from a local supermarket, a grown man slipping a monitor under his hoodie in broad daylight. And it isn't just fearless youths either, not just angry blacks. There are mothers and children, grown men, whites, blacks, Asians.

I'm watching a girl shouting at a BBC news camera about respect and rights. What about all those people whose homes you destroyed, whose businesses you burned to the ground? Don't we as citizens of this city deserve the right to live without fear? What about our right to our own property, to keep our jobs, to keep our homes and families safe?

Don't speak about the police's lack of respect for you, when you blatantly have no respect for the ordinary people going through the same economic and social struggles as you are. If you wanted to win the respect of society or the trust of your community, you have failed. All you have done is ensure widen the chasm between young people and the rest of society.

Violence begets violence. Respect begets respect.