Impossibly Beautiful

Part Twenty-One in an ongoing series…


Laura at The F Word (via Jessica):
Incredibly cool and beautiful singer Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) has been forced to search for a new record label after Roadrunner refused to promote her latest single, video and album. Why? Because she refused to let them remove shots of her "fat" belly from the video for Leeds United (see above), and is therefore "uncommercial". … Amanda's fans are quiet rightly outraged by this shoddy, sexist behaviour and have begun a Rebellyon, posting pictures of their own bellies on fan forum Shadowbox and sending them to Roadrunner in protest:
This issue is not just about Amanda Palmer's belly. This issue is about all the bellies of the world: big, small, hairy, stretch-marked, scarred, pregnant; every single belly. The aim is to reclaim the belly, to promote a healthy body image for everyone (not just females) and to protest against the "barbie dolling" of artists by record companies and the media.
Hell yes.
Seconded. (With a curmudgeonly desire that "women and girls" had been used in place of "females," since it does no good to argue in favor of human variation while using dehumanizing language. But I digress.)

I can guarantee that someone, somewhere, is making the argument that Palmer's "fat" belly should be censored if for no other reason than because Teh ChildrenTM might watch her video and take away the message that being "fat" is a good thing and ZOMG HEALTH!!!11!! because FAT KILLZ!!!11!! (Please see: All of Shapely Prose and every blog on its blogroll.) And what I find amazing about that is how a poochy belly so wee it's practically indiscernible on that video must be instantly demonized and linked to the encouragement of obesity, instead of being praised as an example of a healthy body exhibited by a confident woman and linked to the discouragement of eating disorders.

Funny how that works.

[Impossibly Beautiful: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty.]

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus