What are we learning when we read "Who Wore It Better?"

Photo from Hollywood Life: Splashnews/Getty 

Photo from Hollywood Life: Splashnews/Getty 

We are socialized from a young age to compare ourselves against others. Magazines devote pages to these spreads such as "Who wore it best?" or "Who wore it better - celebrities in identical clothing?" where women are scrutinized and evaluated for their fashion choices and appearance. 

Why is this harmful? 

Research studies indicate that being in environments where someone's appearance is constantly talked about, or being compared to, will increase our body dissatisfaction. 

Additionally, consistently viewing images or engaging in appearance comparison behaviours can lead to an increase in self-objectification, where you treat yourself like an object to be looked an evaluated. 

We are so much more than ornaments to be adorned! We have so much more to offer than just our appearance. 

So, the next time you read a story about "Who wore this red-carpet dress best?" Or "Who wore this outfit better?"  we would encourage you to think about, who is benefiting and who is being harmed from women being pitted against each other?

We are #WomenNotObjects

Advertising images often treat women as sexualized objects to be looked at and evaluated. We live in a media saturated world which means, what we view significantly influences our ideas of emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. Overtime, as we constantly view these imageswe become socialized to treat ourselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated, a process called self-objectification. 

Why is self objectification problematic? When we self-objectify it can lead to lower self-esteem, fewer mental resources, lower-life satisfaction, increased eating disorders etc.

Research studies also show that consistently viewing such portrayals of women create social “scripts” that influence our attitudes and beliefs about what we can and cannot, or should and should not, aspire to be in life. 

It matters how women in mainstream media are depicted.

We highly encourage you to take 2 minutes to watch Madonna Badger's powerful video about the prevalent sexism and objectification of women in advertisements. 

 We are #WomenNotObjects.



Why You Need To Know The Complicated History Of Pubic Hair Removal

Photo Credit: Aqua Beauty and Spa

Photo Credit: Aqua Beauty and Spa

Women spend more than $10,000 on hair removal over their life; 95% of women under 30 remove some to all of their pubic hair. Why?

Every year pubic hair is declared “back”—from the Daily Magazine in 2012, to the Telegraphin 2013, to Women’s Health Magazine in 2014, to Alternet in 2015. But is it really? How does pubic hair make a comeback every year? Clearly, we desire pubic hair to be vogue. Now, bathing suit season is upon us. What do I do?

As a woman, I am very aware of my four options for downstairs: shave, wax, groom, or go au naturel. When I started developing as an adolescent, I was surprised when things started to change. Having played with hairless Barbies for all my childhood, I guess I had been beguiled into believing pubic hair didn’t occur until you were much older. Regardless, I embraced the changes and journey of becoming a woman.

In my mid-teen years I became aware that women were shaving and more “risqué” girls were starting to wax. As my body developed and low-cut jeans, bikinis, and shorter shorts started to fill my closet, I, too, hopped on the bandwagon that believed hair was unfeminine, unsightly, and needed to be removed. That is until this year, when I decided to examine the wagon I was riding.

In a recent U.S. study conducted among 2,000 sexually active women under the age of 30, 88% of the women ages 18-24 reported removing some to all of their pubic hair. Fifty-nine percent of the women reported their pubic hair status as typically or sometimes completely hair-free. In another study published this year, 49.8% of the women reported being typically hair-free. Only 4.1% of women reported not trimming or removing any pubic hair, leaving 95% of the women with groomed, trimmed, or removed pubic hair.

Evidently, the overwhelming majority of women under 30 remove some to all of their pubic hair. The next question on my mind was why? In another study asking over 600 women what their motivations were for removing pubic hair, the most common reasons were, “It looks better in a bathing suit”; “It makes me feel attractive”; “I feel more feminine and more comfortable”; and “I think it’s cleaner.” Other common though slightly less popular answers included, “partner likes it”; “men prefer it”; and other reasons related to sex.

Reading these reasons cited for hair removal sparked a desire to learn more. Is pubic hair removal merely a Western generated phenomenon? Is hair removal filled with rich insight or is it merely a current stubbly blip in the historical lens of personal care?

Read the full story on Role Reboot