America’s Next Top (Role) Model

On Sunday, I was watching America’s Next Top Model while sipping my morning cup of java. There were a dozen young ladies between the ages of 18 and 24 competing for the top position. The theme for the show was “The Garden of Eden” and the mostly male directors had sketches made of women wearing body paint to match the theme. The young ladies were shown each theme designed exclusively for them and all but one were fairly confident to go forward with the body-paining project. And here I ask, since when is body-paint not art but rather fashion?

The one young lady in question was reluctant from the start and not comfortable with the idea of having all her private parts shaven and having artists place paint and glued-on rhinestones in the most private of private areas of her body. Assuming she would change her mind the directors sent her to the dressing room to undress. The other young ladies were all ago and fairly confident that they could handle such an undertaking.

Then came the last part of the theme in the form of Adam when half a dozen very handsome young male models walked on to the set wearing only a small black Speedo. The first of a series of photo-shoots began and the models began to pose in full body paint next to the now fully naked and confident male models.

Frustrated, the producers where still trying to talk the one reluctant young lady out of her robe. But she stood there shocked and even more uncomfortable than she was before saying “I love my husband and I cannot see anyone touching my private area or seeing me naked other than my husband” at which point she broke out in tears. In the moment of feeling the least dignified of what she had gotten herself into, the head producer, a male, fired her on the spot and told her, to go home, that she was no longer part of the show. The young lady left in tears.

In this example we see how little value the fashion industry attributes to those who wish to retain his or her dignity. I wonder if that producer would have said the same thing to Linda Evangelista or if he would have treated her with more kindness? Probably not. I found it appalling to see how the producers of the show were so eager to help those who were willing to bare all and showed no respect for the one young lady that showed she had strong feelings about what she was unsuspectingly placed in the middle of.

Having been an aspiring model myself, and having had a mother who was a successful fashion model and fashion designer, I know that the fashion industry has always had an element of nudity that was necessary for the job. In my mother’s days of modeling all over Europe, fashion was about style and elegance. In my time fashion was about showing more nudity, smoking, drinking and doing drugs to retain an emaciated look. But in this instance, a young lady showed dignity and a level of self-respect we should all strive for in our young women. These days the fashion industry crosses the line with young women all the time and tries to get them to go against their own dignity. I for one would like to see the fashion industry teach women how to dress, not how to undress.

The Power of Words

Sobriety means learning how to say things right and helping others learn why this matters. Loving others until they learn how to love him or herself is a God given gift we can all pass on.

The Price of Keeping Up with Being Beautiful in Hollywood

I remember watching Charlie’s Angels, Full Throttle, where Cameron Diaz and Demi Moore were in a bikini on the beach and thinking to myself, wow, Demi looks better than Cameron! Demi has been working on her body image for quite some time, but now we’re learning that there is a serious problem looming underneath the beautiful exterior of Demi Moore. As of late, Demi is making headlines such as having a problem with anorexia, substance abuse and of all things having suffered a seizure! Are the demands Hollywood puts on female actors to blame? Have these demands caught up with Demi Moore?

I think it’s really great to look good and feel good and for those who got it, by all means show it off and flaunt it with dignity. In Demi’s case it seems that looking good was at the cost of feeling good. Here’s to hoping Demi finds her way back to feeling great and allowing her body to heal. As the saying goes in recovery, first we’re going to save your behind, then we’ll worry about the size of it. God speed Demi!

FYFN Pays Tribute to Etta James, R.I.P.

While legendary Jazz and Blues singer Etta James who passed away today at the age of 73, did not die from addiction, she struggled with an eating disorder, heroin, cocaine and prescription drug abuse for many years of her life. According to the Associated Press, Etta James addictions began in the 1960’s and lasted till 1984. Etta took her recovery all the way and made some more drastic changes with a gastric bypass surgery to combat a 400-pound weight issue. Addiction could not keep the soulful blues singer from gracing audiences with her beautiful voice. We have all been touched by her message. R.I.P. Etta James, you made our life like a song by giving us the blessing of the passion in your music and words we will remember forever.

Drug Free World: Substance & Alcohol Abuse, Education & Prevention

Drug Free World: Substance & Alcohol Abuse, Education & Prevention booklets are FREE, yes FREE and should be part of drug education awareness for those serious about sending the right message. DFW is sure to make an impression on anyone who is looking for an intelligent approach to educating youth about the dangers of drug abuse.

Drug Free World is a great resource for real testimony on the consequences of drug abuse. DFW offers a large variety tastefully designed materials, including DVDs, for schools, home and community. Check out DFW. Their materials are comprehensive and easy to understand.

January is Human Trafficking and Slavery Awareness Month:

Human trafficking and prostitution are one and the same and both are crimes against humanity and the absence of all we know to be decent and dignified. Getting caught in the middle of this cruel and brutal “industry” takes away a human beings sense of self and casts a dark shadow over every dream once thought possible. Getting out may take years and forgetting the horrors lasts a lifetime. Human worth is worthless and the soul is violently crushed by each encounter. Drugs and drug abuse are demanded and are part of “the job”, making human trafficking and prostitution of one the most powerful and evil engines, driving not only drug addiction, but also drug trafficking, human rights abuses and the devastating consequences connected to it.

In this article “Human Trafficking and Prostitution” author Melissa Farley, Ph.D. of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, describes the fight we have ahead of us to abolish this God forsaken form of human slavery.

Melissa Farley, Ph.D. - According to U.N. estimates, approximately 2.5 million people are being trafficked around the world at any given time, 80% of them women and children. Conservative estimates suggest that the sex industry generates some $32 billion annually. However, estimates of income generated from prostitution in one city, Las Vegas, are as high as $5 billion. Today, sex trafficking is a high-tech, globalized, electronic market, and predators are involved at all levels, using the same methods to control prostituted women that batterers use against their victims: minimization and denial of physical violence, economic exploitation, social isolation, verbal abuse, threats and intimidation, physical violence, sexual assault, and captivity. Despite the illogical attempt of some to distinguish prostitution from trafficking, trafficking is simply the global form of prostitution. Sex trafficking may occur within or across international borders, thus women may be either domestically or internationally trafficked or both. Young women are trafficked for sexual use from the countryside to the city, from one part of town to another, and across international borders to wherever there are men who will buy them.

Prostitution is widely socially tolerated, with the buyers socially invisible. Even today, many mistakenly assume that prostitution is sex, rather than sexual violence, and a vocational choice, rather than a human rights abuse. Although clinicians are beginning to recognize the overwhelming physical violence in prostitution, its internal ravages are still not well understood. There has been far more clinical attention paid to sexually transmitted diseases among those prostituted than to their depressions, lethal suicidality, mood disorders, anxiety disorders (including post-traumatic stress disorder) dissociative disorders, substance abuse, and traumatic brain injury. Regardless of its legal status or its physical location, prostitution is extremely dangerous for women. Homicide is a frequent cause of death.

Prostitution is an institution akin to slavery, one so intrinsically discriminatory and abusive that it cannot be fixed--only abolished. At the same time, its root causes must be eradicated as well: sex inequality, racism and colonialism, poverty, prostitution tourism, and economic development that destroys traditional ways of living. The conditions that make genuine consent possible are absent from prostitution: physical safety, equal power with johns and pimps, and real alternatives. It is a cruel lie to suggest that decriminalization or legalization will protect anyone in prostitution. Until it is understood that prostitution and trafficking can appear voluntary but are not in reality free choices made from a range of options, it will be difficult to garner adequate support to assist those who wish to escape but have no other choices. Enforcement of international agreements challenging trafficking and prostitution can aid in this effort as can laws challenging men’s purchase of sex.

It is important to address men’s demand for prostitution. Acceptance of prostitution is one of a cluster of harmful attitudes that encourage and justify violence against women. Violent behaviors against women have been associated with attitudes that promote men’s beliefs that they are entitled to sexual access to women, that they are superior to women and that they are licensed as sexual aggressors. Those concerned with human rights must address the social invisibility of prostitution, the massive denial regarding its harms, its normalization as an inevitable social evil, and the failure to educate students in the mental health and public health professions. Trafficking and prostitution can only exist in an atmosphere of public, professional and academic indifference.

Source: www.prostitutionresearch.com