Sara Blakely

As I am in the process of finding the perfect wedding dress, I must say “Thank You” to the genius woman who invented Spanx undergarments!
Sara Blakely was just a normal woman with a normal problem that she turned into an extraordinary opportunity.
“Like so many women, I bought clothes that looked amazing in a magazine or on the hanger, but in reality magnified every panty line and imperfection — clothes that eventually made their way to the "maybe one day I'll be flawless" section of my closet where they remained unworn.”(original article)
Who hasn’t felt that way? If I sold everything in my “maybe one day I’ll be flawless” section, maybe I could pay for a dream wedding!! These magnificent undergarments can reshape and refine most of the areas women are self-conscious about. They do not necessarily intend to make you look skinny; they intend to make you look smooth. More often than not, it is the ‘bumpy’ nature of my physique that bothers me, not my actual size. I am not alone in that feeling.
As if her invention hasn’t sparked enough good karma, “Sara is turning her attention to giving back by helping women globally with education and entrepreneurial support.”Sara has started the Sara Blakely Foundation which seeks to empower women. The Foundation finds young women with great potential and funds their education and goals. One of the biggest projects it is currently involved in is giving out scholarships for CIDA, the first free university in South Africa. These blessed women who receive the scholarships are given incredible opportunities that would have otherwise passed them by.
This Foundation has many incredible and maintainable goals, and I cannot wait to see what dreams she can achieve through this project.

“While many of our natural resources are being depleted, one is waiting to be unleashed… WOMEN!” – Sara Blakely

Outrage over Britney's Belly

Despite her many, publicly stated faults, despite her sad descent into trashiness, despite her disappointing excuse for a comeback, Britney Spears is not fat.


The Internet was teeming this morning with blogs on Britney's belly. Critics everywhere are "disgusted" and "embarassed for her" because of her appearance.

Um, excuse me? I know plenty of people who would be happy to switch bodies with her (at least the outside; who can say what state her health is in). Especially given that she has had two children in the past few years, I think she is doing just fine.

Opinions at the Associated Press were fairly open minded:

"Was it fair? Did Spears, lest we forget a mother of two, deserve to be held up against the standard of her once fantastically toned abs, sculpted by sessions of 1,000 tummy crunches? Or was she asking for it by choosing that unforgiving black-sequined bikini?

"More profoundly, in an age where skinny models and skeletal actresses are under scrutiny for the message they're sending young girls, what does it say that we're excoriating a young woman for a little thickness in her middle?

"Talk of Spears' physique comes amid an increasingly critical focus on overly skinny actresses in Hollywood, who've largely replaced supermodels as the world's fashion plates. It's hard to pick up a celebrity magazine without a critical photo of, say, Angelina Jolie's birdlike arms. And curvy actresses are getting positive attention, from Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson of "Dreamgirls" to Golden Globe-winner America Ferrara of TV's "Ugly Betty."

"In the fashion industry, there's been an effort to promote healthier-looking models. "Girls aren't looking as skinny this season as they did," said Suze Yalof Scwhartz, executive editor-at-large for Glamour Magazine. "There's food backstage. They're looking sexier." At Glamour, she noted, a model won't be featured "if she shows too much clavicle." "

I think britney should be satisfied with the way she looks. However her health, both physical and emotional, are in need of attention. Maybe if we stopped focusing on what "we the people" deem that she should look like, someone could give her the help she really needs. As long as the media and the consumers of America give constant focus to the disarray of her life, she has little hope.

I am asking you all to be better than that.

Moira Cameron

This woman has broken down a major wall in patriarchal tradition. She is the first female Beefeater EVER in a history of over 500 years!

"Moira Cameron, 42, from Argyll became the first female Yeoman Warder in the guards' 522-year history after beating five men to win the coveted position to the famous ceremonial guard."

Cameron joined the army when she was 16 years old and served in the forces for 22 years, the required experienced to try for her post.

She has set an amazing example to girls and women everywhere that we can truly do whatever we set our minds to; even if there is a current rule excluding women, it can be broken! Thank you, Moira, for helping us break through the "weaker sex" stereotype. Good luck with the inevitable jokes that will come your way.

Playwright fights for Congolese women

Eve Ensler is at it again, working endlessly to abolish violence against women. Especially sexual violence, as her efforts have turned to war-torn countries, mainly in Africa.
(For original article, click here)
"Eve Ensler has just returned from hell. That's how the author of "The Vagina Monologues" describes her trip to Congo, where thousands of women have been sexually attacked and mutilated in the African nation's civil war.
The 54-year-old playwright has joined with the United Nations in a campaign against what a U.N. expert called the worst violence against women in the world.
'In Congo, you're talking about a situation where Africans are hurting Africans, black people are hurting black people,' Ensler told The Associated Press in an interview from Italy. 'And it's harder to make people care. People say, 'Oh, it's just Africa.' And nobody is held accountable.'
She spent weeks at the Panzi Hospital in the city of Bukavu, in eastern Congo, where Dr. Denis Mukwege is helping to repair the broken bodies of war victims. The hospital sees about 3,500 women a year suffering fistula and other severe genital injuries.
A U.N. human rights expert said last month that the sexual atrocities in Congo's volatile province of South Kivu extend "far beyond rape" and include sexual slavery, forced incest and cannibalism.
From Geneva, Yakin Erturk called the situation the worst she had ever seen as the global body's special investigator for violence against women. She blamed Uganda-backed militias that occupy Congo's Ituri region, as well as the nation's armed forces and national police.
Erturk will report her findings in September to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
"How do I tell you of girls as young as 9 raped by gangs of soldiers, of women whose insides were blown apart by rifle blasts and whose bodies now leak uncontrollable streams of urine and feces?" Ensler asks in an article in the September issue of Glamour magazine.
The International Criminal Court in the Hague is now considering indictments in connection with the atrocities. The court's probe started in 2004, instigated by Congo's president, Joseph Kabila.
Ensler is asking people to write letters to Kabila, demanding that he take stronger action to stop the attacks. Hundreds of letters already have arrived at the United Nations, which is forwarding them to the African leader, Ensler said.
She is working to raise both awareness and funds for the women through the United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict and through V-Day, a global movement she founded to stop violence against women and girls.
V-Day was inspired by the overwhelming audience response to "The Vagina Monologues," an award-winning play in which actors share anecdotes about their bodies that reveal heartbreaking and hilarious glimpses of their souls.
The V-Day movement has raised over $40 million in the past decade, funding thousands of community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Kenya, Egypt and Iraq, as well as the United States.
The money Ensler helps raise for Congo will go to Panzi hospital and to establish a safe haven called "City of Joy."
Her journey to Congo in May was inspired by a conversation she had with Mukwege last December in New York, where he spoke about his work — 'sewing up women's vaginas as fast as the mad militiamen are ripping them apart,' as Ensler describes it.
Their friendship 'began with my rusty French and his limited English,' she wrote. 'It began with the quiet anguish in his bloodshot eyes, eyes that seemed to me to be bleeding from the horrors he'd witnessed.'"

If anyone can read this without feeling rage, feeling helpless, feeling true sorrow, then go on with your life as it was. If you feel the need to donate your money and/or your time, check out the V-Day website for clues on how.

Women With Wings

This amazing group of women has so many wonderful missions on their plate. Their main focus right now is to go to Zimbabwe and Botswana to "give back the voice" to the women there! This project builds such emphasis on the voice women have, and especially the voice we do not use. It is a matter of rebuilding confidence and spirit, re-establishing strength and will. These women in Africa need that desperately.

Nan and Lorri really need help for this dream to fly. They need encouragement, but right now their greatest need is money. You can make tax-deductable donations here if you would like.

For all of my Houstonians (and Abilenians) I have another method. Nan and I have had some communication concerning getting these women to Houston for a project building! Now, we would be responsible for raising the funds to get them here and do what they need to do, but we would also need to help them build this Africa fund.

If you have any good fundraising ideas, PLEASE leave them here in a comment. Also, if you are comfortable doing so, I ask you to pray for these missions and efforts. Together, we women need to utilize our strong voice and send these angels to Africa!

Plus Size Opportunities

Hollywood Gains more than Weight!

"The ladies of "Hairspray" are a rarity in fat-phobic Hollywood, whose obsession with willowy women is so strong the idea of a corpulent heroine is almost unheard of." These harsh but true words are the opening for a wonderfully eye-opening article about the 'new' remake of Hairspray.

Honestly, when was the last time you saw a big girl save the day? Win the contest? Get the guy? Ever?

Well Hollywood is slowly changing it's image, and the commotion is being headed by the return of the movie musical. Remember the splash caused by buxom, bitchy and beautiful Effie White played by Jennifer Hudson? That plot is riddled with weight references. However, even that was a baby step; different cultures have different beauty ideals. I think that is incredible. But until we had a "good ol' fashioned American white chick" with plenty of jello to jiggle the test of our nation's preference could not be complete. Enter Nikki Blonsky. This beauty, who plays the lead role in Hairspray, is proud of her beauty and talent. She kicks serious 'A' at the local dance contest, and she knows she is hot stuff. She encourages her mother, who is so ashamed of her own weight she hasn't left the apartment in years, to embrace the world and herself. This movie screams, "Way to go, fat chicks!" in the best possible way. It teaches us not to judge simply by a look.

I applaud the return of the movie musical, and not only because I want to star in one. The more money we can throw at the box office, the clearer the message to producers: we want to see our selves, our neighbors, our friends on the screen, not just the pretty skinny girls you picked off the runway. We are women too, we are beautiful and we are talented.

And we will be represented in the world of the media.

Models

Slow but steady steps are being taken to ensure the physical health of runway models and the emotional security of young girls everywhere.

While this article focuses on the fact that London is resisting this movement, it also highlights the countries who are really making an effort.

There are decrees being set about the limitations on fashion models, rules that should have been set down ages ago. They are trying to set a minimum age, namely because young girls are more succeptable to the pressure to lose weight in an unhealthy way. They believe that the younger the girl starts in this business the more likely she will develop an eating disorder.

These commitees are also enforcing rules concerning a minimum weight. In several fashion-focused countries designers have rejected models for being 'too skinny', and it it about time! They actually have regulations based on the BMI (Body Mass Index) which has more to do with the ratio of fat and lean muscle than just a number on a scale. It means they are finally trying to be more concerned with their health than just their appeal. Imagine what a great difference this will make for many girls?

I'm going to make a confession: I have, for quite some time, secretly longed to be a runway model. My body is far from perfect, but ladies I know how to do that walk! I have always kind of laughed to myself, however, at the possibility of it. I think I have a good mix between slender and curvy, but curves do not appeal to fashion designers this season, so why bother? Slowly the concern of health is sneaking up on the desire for "perfection", and it is going to change the social concept of ideal beauty. Look throughout history - the pendulum swings to both sides with time. There was a time in our history when being skinny and tanned meant that you were lower class, worked outside and could not afford food. Now it is revered as most high in the art of appeal!

Curvy ladies, our time will come again. It is already on its way!