Laurie and Debbie say:

All we have to say about this astonishing assortment is that “body image” is hardly a limited topic.

Looking for the perfect street protection? How about a hot pink tampon taser?

All of the ad copy is fabulous, including “ready for honorable discharge at a moments notice.” But the best of all is “Need not be female or menstruating to use effectively. Tampon taser/stun gun to be used for security purposes only or in self defense. It is not intended nor recommended for vaginal insertion.”

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the deletion of Peggy Munson’s DVD from the Lambda Award reading in San Francisco. We’re pleased to say that the Lambda Awards in other cities did feature her reading, which is also now available on the web. Meanwhile, here’s an interview with Munson, conducted by Rachel Kramer Bussell and posted at Feministing. Even better, Munson posted her DVD to her myspace page. The work is hot, and while it takes a little while to recognize how queer it is, it certainly is queer.

Here’s just one teaser from the Munson interview:

“[Origami Striptease] is a love story that goes through a meat grinder, ice chipper, and paper shredder. An erotica writer falls in love with a character named Jack: they have ridiculously hot sex until then Jack unravels once he becomes obsessed with ice cubes, Greenland, and Zamboni ice resurfacing machines. … Everything is shredded–language, love, reality, narrative–and redemption is not an easy road.

At Feministe, zuzu found a whole new level of fatphobia. Some British scientists got the bright idea of adding the appetite suppressant leptin to infant formula. As one of them is quoted in the original article from the Guardian, “The supplemented milks are simply adding back something that was originally present: breast milk contains leptin and formula feeds don’t.”

Zuzu nails the issue perfectly:

So, um, why not, say, make it much easier for women to breast-feed if it’s so vitally important to deal with the “obesity epidemic”?

Well, I guess that would be because nobody profits from breast milk. But a leptin-based formula would probably be patentable, and certainly profitable if you could convince people that it will keep their kids from getting fat in adulthood, no matter what they eat after being weaned.

Keira Knightley is considering giving up a successful acting career. It sounds like she is uncomfortable with many things about fame (what thinking person wouldn’t be?), but the straw that may break her back is her status on the pro-anorexia boards and discussion groups. She does not want naturally thin women to be “scapegoats for promoting a mental illness.” As regular readers here know, anorexia is more complicated than that; at the same time, we have to applaud Knightley–many other stars would just pat themselves on the back.

We are neither surprised nor horrified to discover that lesbians are more likely to have a high BMI than straight women. First of all, it isn’t clear what method the researchers used for “overweight,” but there’s an implication that it’s BMI, which could simply mean that Lesbians are taller or, as the article does mention, more muscular than straight women. More to the point, however, is this quotation: “The results of these studies indicate that lesbian women have a better body image than do heterosexual women.”

Yep. In fact, we’ll take it one step further. Having primarily or only male lovers is generally bad for your body image. Straight men have better body images than gay men also. Yes, of course, there are thousands of exceptions, and we value each one of them.

Just as Zuzu nailed the enhanced baby formula, Lindsay at Majikthise does perfect justice to an ad about internet stalking, which (surprise!) warns girls of what might happen to them if they aren’t careful.

Predictably, the Ad Council’s message is “Think before you post, little girl.” Just once I’d like to see a campaign called “Think before you stalk, dude.” Or: “Just because a minor posted this doesn’t give you the right to throw it in her face, creepy adult.”

The 37th Carnival of Feminists is up at Kitkat’s Critique.

And finally, evolutionary biology for your amusement:

Why do male ducks have huge phalluses?. Because female duck anatomy is complicated and fascinating.

Dr. Brennan argues that elaborate female duck anatomy evolves as a countermeasure against aggressive males. “Once they choose a male, they’re making the best possible choice, and that’s the male they want siring their offspring,” she said. “They don’t want the guy flying in from who knows where. It makes sense that they would develop a defense.”

We got the the tampon weapons from the extraordinary Bruce Schneier via Steven S., the Keira Knightley link from Kerry at waywardcats, and the stalking article from Arthur D. Hlavaty. And someone we can’t remember pointed to the lesbians and weight article.

fat, weight, body image, size acceptance, tampons, taser, Peggy Munson, Lambda Awards, disability, stalking, internet stalking, lesbian, BMI, Keira Knightley, anorexia,ducks, evolution, duck phallus, babies, infant formula, leptin, appetite control, Body Impolitic