Too Thin Not In

The French government is considering a media ban against images of models and celebrities who are deemed to be too thin, and who could potentially be seen as promoting anorexia or unhealthy eating habits in women.

Now, this story is too delicious for words for so many reasons. Once we've stopped counting the ribs on the Olsen twins, we can take a look at the French PM's arm candy of a missus. Former supermodel Carla Bruni Sarkozy has stopped wearing stilettos around her diminutive husband, and now it would seem she's also just dying to dig into some creme brulee. What better way to allow her to stop competing with the cover models than to outlaw anyone thinner than she is?

Obviously, I'm kidding, but to be honest if you take a really good look at the so called beauty standard these days, it's not only ugly, but really frightening. Instead of the lush beauties of bygone eras, we're faced with skeletal waifs - instead of envying them I just want to feed them.

According to some sources extensive airbrushing will also be banned at a certain point.

Imagine that. Women and men will be faced with pictures of celebrities who actually look like them - albeit with lots more implants and nip/tucks.

Warts and all,
Rachel x

Sexski and the Cityi

Moscow has pink taxis for women and now apparently women will be getting their own tipple too- in the form of a new line of "Ladies" vodkas, which according to Reuters comes in girlie flavors like lime, vanilla and almond, or plain for cocktails. The new vodka is lighter in taste and breezier in appearance and being marketed to women as a perfect cocktail companion with a light salad after a workout.

Russian psychologists though aren't thrilled with the idea of an even greater push to imbibe. They're concerned that Russia's vodka market, which is already estimated at about 2.2 billion liters annually, will rise significantly.

According to the story, the Moscow Serbsky Institute for Social and Forensic Psychiatry estimates that more than 10 percent of Russia's population of 142 million are alcoholics - a significantly higher figure than that on record..

Yuri Sorokin, a psychologist running a Moscow rehab center said 60 percent of those he treats for alcoholism are women, including the wives of Russian millionaires.

"I believe that female alcoholism is a huge problem in Russia. I believe it is as huge and hidden as the underwater part of an iceberg," he said.

The makers of the Damskaya brand however, tout it as being no more dangerous than chocolate is - to a diabetic.

Intoxicatingly yours,
Rachel x

Calvin Klein- The Butt Of Many Jokes

I'll admit that I cringe when I think of people who mock publicists publicly on blogs like guilty pleasure Bad Pitch Blog, but this one cracked me up and will likely go down in the annals of heinous PR pitches.

"WWD News Flash: Eva Mendes to Be Calvin Klein Underwear's Face"

some blah blah and then this tidbit "The deal deepens the brand's involvement with Mendes," Groan. How are we not supposed to break out the bad puns with something quite this bum-tacular?

'Nuff said. I'm not sure that anything quite this perfect should be tampered with, but they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one.

One last thought, is announcing a stint at rehab really preferable to admitting a quick round of lipo or bootie nip/tuck? Inquiring minds really, really want to know.

Smugly and Snugly yours,
Rachel

Green Makeovers

As a culture we're pretty makeover obsessed. Have a major life trauma? Try subtle face framing highlights and forget about that pesky foreclosure or that fact that your husband spent nearly $80k on hookers.

Well, apparently the U.S. dollar which is definitely losing a popularity contest with the Pound, Yen and Euro was feeling like the ugly girl at spring break and in dire need of some prettification. To combat the ugly money blues, a new improved $5.00 bill will be launched today complete with pretty purple detailing- no, really. The new design is meant to deter counterfeiters, but it's actually weirdly attractive if you can stop obsessing over the fact that it probably cost a small fortune to redesign our money which is sadly only worth only a very small fortune.

Related unrelated, Bliss Spa whose ads are generally fun if forgettable, has come up with a way to combine freebie market research with a pre-launch makeover. The brand is debuting a new line of skin care and allowing the ultimate consumer to pick the scent from one of three possibilities which include fresh, spicy or vibrant fragrance combinations.

In an era of user generated content it will be interesting to see if user generated product development will drive sales.

Feeling pretty, oh so pretty,
Rachel x

How Young Is Too Young?

I clearly remember my first manicure. I was nearly 17 years old and about to graduate from high school and my sister treated my best friend and me to our first professional polish. Until that point we'd lacquered our nails on our own on a daily basis with everything from stripes, polka dots and argyle to match our outfits. I felt incredibly sophisticated and suddenly overwhelmingly grown up. It was a transition, a rite of passage and entry into the world of adult women and their beauty rituals.

Then again, until I was about 16 years old I had hair down past my waist. One blustery winter when my parents were on vacation I decided to go for my first official (read pricey Manhattan salon) haircut. Trust me when I tell you that the change was nothing drastic. A few snips, a trim and a fluttery fringe. When my father saw it for the first time he refused to speak to me. I seem to recall him saying something to the effect of, 'What have you done with my hair?'

Fathers and daughters have unique bonds as do sisters. Of course my father got over his horror at my more mature 'do, though years later he still muses on how pretty my hair was before I 'ruined' it. Granted, I came from a sheltered background and lived in a more innocent time (though it would seem that any era is radically more innocent than our own), but girls my age didn't alter their looks drastically until they felt old enough to take responsibility for it. I'll admit that I spent years with hair every color of the rainbow and a few not found in nature with piercings and other style subtleties that I came to regret, but I'll always be grateful to have had the opportunity to remain a young girl for as long as I felt the need.

A story in the New York Times yesterday Never Too Young for That First Pedicure, highlighted birthday parties for the 6-9 year old set, including one 7 year old and her 3 1/2 year old sister. Their mother Anne O’Brien is quoted as saying that the party was the girls' father's idea. To say that the notion of toddlers going for pedicures is troublesome at best and to me at least evokes images of JonBenet Ramsey, and other very young girls who are no longer given the option of remaining children before being forced into an ever hyper sexualized world. The idea of a father wanting his daughter to remain a daddy's girl may seem clichéd, but the idea of a father coming up with the idea of his barely out of diapers daughters going for makeovers to celebrate a single digit birthday seems troublesome if not a bit creepy to me. The story talks about 'makeovers' for the girls. To be honest, what is there to make over?

15 year old Miley Cyrus AKA Hannah Montana who is deified by the pre-tween set, is held up as the epitome of wholesome, though she seems disturbingly brittle. Are there any truly wholesome role models for girls left?

My sister Kiki mentioned another anecdote from my own teen years in her blog in which I yearned for the outlandish and supremely inappropriate clothing worn by a classmate of mine. My mother's response, ‘What will she look forward to?’ If little girls can no longer stay little girls and are pushed into womanhood before they’ve even neared puberty, how can one expect them to grow up with any healthy sense of self, much less when faced with the barrage of visuals that include skeletal fashion models or eerily perfect celebrities?

How truly tragic that these little girls have passed a milestone while they’re still too young to even remember it.

Nostalgically  yours,
Rachel x
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How Not To Evolve

Yesterday's New York Times included a feature about the new book "How Not To Look Old" by Charla Krupp. Without going into the painful particulars, "How Not To Look Old" scares me a little, okay it scares me a lot. The premise of the book, which debuted on the New York Times best-seller list last week at No. 8 in the advice and how-to category is neither particularly new nor groundbreaking- society doesn't particularly revere aging women, so try not to look like you're actually aging.

The most terrifying part though is the fact that we live in a society that encourages plastic surgery (you know, the potentially life threatening kind that involves scalpels and anaesthesia, that requires weeks if not months of recovery time and frequently leaves people looking like they've been dipped in wax) as a smart way of dealing with aging. Aging is a natural part of life. We live, we (hopefully) learn, we become more interesting or at the very least somewhat evolved people and it shows on our faces and bodies and in our senses of humor.

I'm all for wanting to look and feel your best at any age- and have for all intents and purposes built my career on advising women (and businesses) how to present their best face or brand and look great and feel better. What troubles me though is the notion that women, or men for that matter have to change themselves to conform to a dangerous ideal of not only beauty but relevance. Ms. Krupp is quoted as having previously stated that her book "is hitting a nerve because I am giving not looking old a spin as if your life depended on it.”

Take a look at the nightly news lately and you'll likely encounter the frozen faced visages of presenters who look startled not by world events but by overzealous Botox injections and partial face lifts. Watch your favorite sitcoms or movies and you'll likely notice actresses shaking their hair extensions vigorously to make a point since their faces no longer register emotion, much less expression.

The actor Heath Ledger's death earlier this week at the age of 28 was shocking. Comparisons were made to the late James Dean, whose favored adage was said to be "Live fast, Die Young, Leave a beautiful corpse." Dean died at 24, Ledger was not much older at 28. By my estimations that means that using their lifespans as a gauge at the ages of 12 and 14 respectively, Dean and Ledger were both middle aged. Ridiculous perhaps, but then again so is the notion that youth is the only commodity of value left to working women and that zealously protecting, enhancing or whittling their faces and figures is the only recourse left for modern women.

Warts and all,
Rachel x
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The RedHeaded Stepchild

I recently heard the expression redheaded stepchild for the first time and was mystified.... first off I was puzzled that I'd never heard it before, and secondly because I couldn't fathom why having red hair would be used as a pejorative. My grandmother Mindel was known for her fiery red hair (and matching temperament) and nearly every one of my cousins on my father's side of the family has at least one redheaded child. Only my own family is relentlessly brunette, though I've explored my own red roots over the years with shades ranging from cherry cola to Crayola red.

When people ask me my 'type' of man, I usually have a hard time describing him, since I don't have a type or ideal. I tend to be attracted to smart men first and foremost, wit is high up on my list, kindness, decency - all priorities, I usually get along well with foreign men so an accent is good too. If you really asked me to admit my one weakness though- it's for the ginger haired lads.

Now many cultures and religions do look down on redheads, either because of long standing prejudice based on old wives tales, residual fear of marauding Cossacks or Vikings, or old fashioned associations with redheads as being in some way associated with the devil. There was a recent spate of articles about anti gingerist sentiment in the U.K. where it has been likened to racism, with instances of adults being bullied or even driven out of their neighborhoods.

As a society we should know better than to ascribe certain attributes to individuals based on their hair color. Then again, I'm pretty grateful to NBC for casting the dishy Damian Lewis as primetime's first real redhead male lead since Ron Howard on Happy Days.

My point? As a culture we should get over defining people strictly by exteriors. Fat doesn't make you jolly, blonde doesn't make you stupid and based on the never smiling face of one Victoria Beckham AKA Posh Spice and her ever shrinking co-Spices- thin apparently doesn't make you happy.

Non-judgmentally yours,
Rachel x
Read Career and Corporate Cool (TM) now or visit the website