banning airbrushing

[plumerai]

This should make me happy, and in some ways it does. Certainly as both consumer and accomplice, I’ve fell victim to unrealistic portrayals of women’s bodies. I’d love to see magazines stop airbrushing our bodies. (I will say, though, that the number of times I’ve seen our airbrushers instructed to slim down a body is outnumbered by the times I’ve

Comments

[arksnay]

I think anger is SOMETIMES easier for SOME people to deal with than more vulnerable emotions like sadness or fear. But I think you're right that that's gendered - men externalize more, women internalize more, bla bla. I also love the thing Kate Bornstein (who is not a mental health professional, but whatev) wrote about making it a goal when experiencing dark times to feel "better" rather than to feel happy. On her list anger is "better" than hopelessness or despair because it's more active and can give momentum to change, and I like that very much.

I used to see a girl for counseling who had been sexually abused when she was little and her family knew and took the abuser's side. She was also surrounded by adults who had anger problems and had negative feelings about expressing anger even though she was filled with it. She was taking a martial arts class and talked to me about being scared to practice punches because anything that was even superficially like aggression would release all that anger and she was afraid she'd lose control and seriously harm someone because it had built up for so long.

[sarahskirt]

"anything that was even superficially like aggression would release all that anger and she was afraid she'd lose control and seriously harm someone because it had built up for so long."

Excellently put - I have known people who feel this way, who had every right and reason to feel this way. I've felt this way, but not at the same level of intensity.