Jack & Hill: A Beauty Blog - make-up, cosmetics, perfume, and the substance of style

Nancy is taking it off for the Oregon Food Bank

Jack & Hill contributor Nancy Rommelmann is taking off her clothes to raise money for the Oregon Food Bank this month, during their Blog 4 Food drive. How far is she willing to go for a good cause? I know, since I took the pictures, but I ain't tellin--you'll have to pony up to find out.

For every $50 donated by her fans, Nancy will be removing an item of clothing. For those of you unfamiliar with Nancy's work, she is an award-winning narrative journalist and food writer by day.

Love it? Hate it? Leave a comment, here, or on Nancy's blog. But try to leave a tip, too. Come on, how often do you get to tip a stripper and take a tax deduction?

Research: Anorexia NOT caused by models or magazine editors. Like, DUH.

It's pretty obvious that no person can be blamed for another person's anorexia. New scientific research points to brain abnormalities as the root cause:

[S]cientists say that the brains of those with anorexia are wired differently to those of the rest of us. Those who develop anorexia are born with a susceptibility to the condition, they say.

...Dr Ian Frampton, a psychologist a Exeter University has been working with anorexics using the same technology. The U.S. research supports a growing feeling that anorexia is caused by brain structure, he said.

"You would expect a lot more anorexics than we currently have if it was down to advertising and peer pressure and images of famous models like Kate Moss. These youngsters have something going on in their brain that is different.

"We are not totally sure what is happening, but we think that some of this might be inherited or some might be due to a fault in the developing brain either in the womb or during early childhood. We need to move away from this idea that supermodels are to blame."

Thank you, reason and science. Now, if we can just get all the shrill responsibility dodgers to STFU...

Marks & Spencer give it up for the J-cup

  nicest fitting room ever 
  Originally uploaded by dynamist.

It may sound silly, but having a properly fitted bra is just above food, shelter, and water when it comes to necessities for females. I’ve always wondered why so many shops (I’m looking at you, Victoria’s Secret) carry on as if there aren’t millions of women who need and are willing to pay for something above a D. So this is very good news indeed for British women.

As for Yanks, I just discovered Soma Intimates when I was in Texas. They not only have really fabulous dressing rooms (pictured), but great deals on good, pretty, comfy bras. I still prefer to be fitted at Nordstrom, though. Even though a decent bra will run you at least $40 (if not on sale), it’s an entirely worthwhile investment. And don’t forget to be re-fitted every time you lose even five pounds!

While I’m on the subject (it’s not like there’s much bra news here), I can’t resist adding that you REALLY need to get a proper exercise bra if you’re jogging or even speed walking. I know how much it hurts to glimpse a woman who doesn’t wear one, so I can’t imagine how painful it is to actually be that woman. What’s the use in all that exercise if you’re going to punish your bits?

Quote of the day

Gok Wan (at right), host of How to Look Good Naked, in an interview with the Observer Woman magazine:

The UK perception of beauty is totally out of whack. We're incredibly confused about what we think is attractive: women who are a size 10, but who hate their bodies; women who admire someone who is a 14, but who don't want to be a 14 themselves. We haven't a clue! We're told certain things, and we believe them. You're probably wearing that dress because you think someone else will like it.

[A UK 10 is a US 8, and a UK 14 is a US 12.]

What is your relative weight?

The Dorit Baxter blog comments intelligently on the kerfuffle about a recent study indicating that "weight gain spreads like a plague among clusters of friends":

Summaries of these findings speak of the concept of social contagion in which obesity spreads like a virus through a social network giving a new and literal meaning to the term obesity epidemic. Reports of the study explain the hypothesis that friends affect each others’ perception of fatness so that when a close friend becomes obese, obesity may not look so bad.

We've long known that our self-perceptions can be unreliable, but this raises, for me, a truly fascinating concept, which is that perception itself is relative. Could it be that light waves are processed by cones and rods--and also by society--before they reaches your visual cortex? Amazing.

Diet pills

  Lechon + my mom's Xenical 
  Originally uploaded by chuvaness.

Alli - the diet drug also sold under the brands Xenical and Orlistat - is going to be available over the counter come June. Will you try it? Have you ever used diet pills? I never have, but I have to admit, I am tempted to give Alli a try.

Shortbus & the warm, wet fuzzies

On the surface it probably seems unusual that a movie that opens with a young man attempting to fellate his own member and ends with an orgy should fall squarely into the tradition of romantic comedy.  But is it really so strange?  Why can't sex be charming, funny, sweet and sentimental, in addition to being rauncy, dangerous and dark?  In art, it almost never is.  Which is why I felt such a sighing sense of warm relief watching John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, which is every bit as explicit as Behind the Green Door, but falls more in the tradition of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot and Jennifer Aniston's latest vehicle. 

I've been thinking about sex and sexual imagery and art a lot lately anyway.  My son just started high school, which is the time when one begins to move beyond birds and bees and into exploring the actual culture of sexuality--and when I look around, by and large, I don't like what I see.  I cut my vaginal teeth on Jean Genet, Jane Bowles and other sinister stuff.  I think my initial expectations of sexuality were that it would be loving and recreational, but I was quickly disabused of any such notions by a culture that treats sex as relentlessly dirty, and oftentimes tragic. 

Both of which it is, or can be.  But it's also more than that.   Our strict ideas of what is "hardcore" has to do with hardness as in tumescence, but also hardness as in emotional impenetrability.  But sex is about penetration, permeability, fluidity, both physically and emotionally.  And I don't think we'll really ever be a healthy culture until our art reflects that.  Which is why I think Shortbus, in addition to being a lot of warm, fuzzy fun, is also important.

Manohla Dargis's New York Times review is spot on, even when she compares the movie to Oklahoma!

Girl fight

Female Sumo wrestlers from the world championships in Japan.  Via the SF Chronicle's photo website.  The photo got me curious. According to this Russian website, women Sumo wrestlers have existed since the early 1700's:

Matches were organized between women and also between women and blind men. Some of female sumoists were actually skilled wrestlers. By 1744, onna-zumo's popularity had reached Edo (Tokyo). Tournaments were held at Asakusa Temple until authorities closed them down on the basis that it was immoral. However, due to popular demand, the matches continued at different locations in northern Japan. A few exhibitions even took place in Hawaii. But by 1926 this form of activity was completely banned for women.

Fascinating.  Apparently, the relaxation on the prohibition on women Sumo wrestlers may have something to do with getting the sport admitted to the Olympics, where one criteria is that the sport be open to both genders.

Height/Weight

Speaking of websites where you can post pictures of your ass, Cockeyed has started a matrix of photos based on height and weight.  If these people are being honest (and they seem to be), you'll find that your preconceptions about what people weigh, particularly women, are largely skewed. Women of all heights have been claiming to weigh 120 lbs. for so long that it's now commonly held that 150 lbs. is fat. Well, it is if you're 4' 11". Otherwise, no.

Does my ass look fat in these pants?

Actually, I think my ass looks better than usual in these.  When I heard that the Gap had come out with a new line of "curvy" cut jeans, I actually made a trip to the mall to check them out.  Even before I turned 40 and got fat I was curvy, and had a hard time finding good jeans.  The Gap makes curvy jeans in a size 0, which sounds oxymoronic, but isn't (my ass has been in the double digits since high school, however).  I would not be ashamed to wear these jeans out in public. I didn't buy them, though, because I'm pathological when it comes to paying full price for anything clothing-related. I will wait for them to go on sale, by which time I may yet be a size smaller, who knows?  I say with a handful of leftover halloween candy by my keyboard....Aw, what the hell, Nike and Gloria Steinem have declared the world safe for big butts.  I think we could use a few more of them to balance out the giant breasts that seem to be everywhere.  The key to it all is having a waist somewhere in the middle.....