Shameless Self-Promotion

On the off-chance that anybody reading this doesn't know me personally, I thought I'd let you know I have another blog.
It's more thoughtful, less snotty and has generally longer entries, on topics ranging from family issues, to politics, to life in Berkeley, California. If you'd like to check it out, simply go to http://eucalyptusway.blogspot.com/

lip-sinking to new depths

The above online campaign been stalking me for weeks. Somehow, I doubt the advertisers got Angelina's buy-in, and I really hope she sues.

Angelina Jolie has lovely lips, of course. They are large. They also have a distinct contour, a line that you can draw, because she comes by them honestly. Artifically plumped lips lose that shape and can look a lot like earthworms mating.



But this is the part that gets me. "Thin lips are ugly on anyone." Talk about tapping into young women's physical insecurities. Ugly like who? Kate Hepburn? Vivienne Leigh? Courtney Cox? Erin Burnett? All beautiful, all thin-lipped, all unimaginable with an outsized tumescent mouth.

When I was a girl, society gave Black women the message that their full lips were unattractive - which is racist and sick. I guess we have evolved a tad, since this ad isn't racist. Just sick. There are many ways to be beautiful. Black women generally have big lips, like the ravishing Beyonce, but that doesn't make sloe-eyed, slim-smiled Thandie Newton a dog. Angelina and Scarlett are pretty and pouty, but Gwyneth shouldn't have to wear a bag over her head.

This revolting ad is just another manifestation of our bigger is better culture - a culture that appears to be in its death throes as the economy snaps to like a pulled-taut rubber band. McMansions. SUVs. Bagels and muffins bigger than your head. Huge cocks and gigantic boobs and lips big enough to keep your nose warm.

The entertainment, advertising and fashion industries keep telling young women "You can't be thin enough". Unless, of course, the thinnest part of you happens to be your lips.