Compare and Contrast

This got on my goat today….

Please check out these two articles from the BBC website regarding the plight of young women:

This tragic story

and

This article which makes me understand why suicide bombers might want to destroy "The Infidel West"

And after reading them, just ask yourself:

Why the fuck don’t people have priorities?

Both articles involve risks to young women, and both articles involve models but other than that they are poles apart and I think they perfectly illustrate the levels of incredibly blinkered self involvement some people are capable of.

The first article details the extremely horrific and harrowing practice of female circumcision (called, quite rightly, in this article “Genital Mutilation”), and the activities of one particular woman, who after being forced to undergo this trauma has since been trying to eradicate this terrible and barbaric practice - I defy anyone to read this without it sending a shiver of horror down their spine. To know that this can happen to up to 3 million girls per year, and that there are people out here to whom carrying these procedures out is just a part of life is something that truly terrifies me.

The second article, rather differently, is about models who might be considered a bit too thin... It was also the one that had a special twenty minute slot on the BBC Breakfast news…

Although no doubt a very serious issue in its own right-everyone is aware of the danger, particularly relevant to young woman, of eating disorders. However, rather than concentrate on the effect of these disorders on normal women and girls, the article decides to concentrate on models. WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TOO FUCKING THIN ANYWAY. Now I'm no tubby chaser myself but this one really annoyed me...

For fuck’s sake, we aren’t talking about normal people here, were talking about 8 foot tall, extremely self-involved, etiolated giraffe women who have FUCKING CHOSEN to enter a profession absolutely notorious for it’s terrible working practices in this area. It’s practically part of the job description for Christ’s sake…

Normal young women just don’t think “Hmmm….What’s my ideal career? I know-one that will involve about five years of eating nothing but fucking lettuce and being screamed at by outrageously camp men. I might even get drugged and raped at a party-wouldn’t that be super?” These people were fucking freaks to begin with…

To say that people aren’t aware of this is when they enter this profession is like someone deciding to become a Boxer, but not realising that it means they might get punched now and then.

The major issue in this article is not the issue that is pertinent to society as a whole, which is that perfectly normal shaped women are made to feel unattractive, and in many cases are suffering mentally and physically directly because of the ridiculously unreasonable ideals portrayed in the media, but that the British Fashion Council is defending its right to use these people.

Presumably they will trot out their usual excuses that “These women are used because clothes hang better on taller slimmer women”. They have also (although it is not mentioned in this article) for the same reason refused to ban the use of “Size Zero” models. Presumably because People like Karl Lagerfeld enjoy having a wank whilst fantasising about woman who look like a cross between coat hangers and a glockenspiel.

What utter fucking bollocks-from what I’ve seen of “fashion” (which admittedly isn’t much, however I am thinking specifically the likes of Gautier and Westwood) the clothes in question would look no less ridiculous if Kathy Burke was stamping up and down the catwalk in them than if “insert name of twelve year old, probably eastern European, currently popular, two-eyes-on-a-stick looking model here” was wearing them, indeed I would go as far as saying “clothes looking better” is very much a relative term when used to describe people dressed in a giant silk wasp costumes or similar items.

So, back to the original point-who do we feel most sorry for? The girls in the first article or the girls in the second? And guess which one will be on the news tonight…

Anyway, I think I might have got a bit too caring and “New Man” in this article so… erm… Phwooar, tits eh? Wahey!!! Fancy a fight?