The "Barbie" Figure

The barbie figure is always a controversial topic. Some people will see a barbie and just see a toy for a young girl or boy to play with.

(Gender stereotypes and whether a boy should play with dolls, or whether merely seeing the colour pink as a child is enough to turn one gay is a completely different issue)

Other parent's however, see a barbie and instead see an impossible body standard that will give their child self confidence issues if they don't look exactly like their favorite toy. 

At most kids might use Barbie as a fashion icon, but I don't see any kids starving themselves just because they own a barbie. There has to be some other factor going on there.

I bring this up, because recently, the body image role models debate has started up again as a result of the new Beauty and the beast film. In this new adaptation, Belle doesn't wear a corset because feminism is apparently all about removing corsets from portrayals of 18th century France, and also because no one wants children to be watching films where the princess has an unattainable waist size. (#not so subtle shade at Lilly James's Cinderella.)

Now I have the memory of a sieve, but as a child, I don't particularly remember thinking in order to be Cinderella, I had to look identically like her. Now despite not being able to remember this, I'm pretty sure I didn't, as there are many photos of me dressed up as Cinderella when I was little, and seeing as I am brunette, and Cinderella is Blonde, as a child, it clearly didn't matter to me that we didn't look the same, as long as I got to wear the pretty dress and twirl around to "So this is love"

 My point, not that I'm very good at getting to it, is that it is clearly not the child who has an issue with their favorite toys or characters having thin waists, different hair colours or even being a different race to them, instead it is society who finds these flaws and starts campaigns over them.

Maybe your child does have issues with their body image, but I can guarantee it isn't because Cinderella or Belle did or didn't have a corset, or Barbie did or didn't have a thin waist and if it is, it has to be the result of someone telling them "You can't be Cinderella, you're too fat enough" and if you're that cruel to tell a child that, then you need a good punch in the face.

Instead of arguing over the costume of a fairy tale character, or the chest to hip ratio of a doll, maybe we should be promoting different body sizes in other aspects of the media, like either films aimed for people over 10 (though we all know it's not just 10 year olds and under who go to see Disney films) or models in magazines, as they are much more likely to be the people influencing kids about how they look.

And to think this post started because someone threw shade at a film I love because there were corsets in it and god forbid you have to tell a child what a corset is and why a film character has a thin waist, because that is obviously the only thing a kid is going to take away from a magical story about being kind and finding your true love.

Anyway, rant over.

Till next time followers!

Magpie Aesthetic

We all know what Aesthetic is.

Blog's live on it. At least 90% of a post is planning out how it will look and what pictures could go with it and where they would go and how the layout would work. And you also have to consider how the font and the colours go with your background, as well as whether it is actually legible and practical.

I for one, spent about 2 hours prior to this post, redesigning my blog because I didn't think the aesthetic really portrayed me. Am I exaggerating about the length of my endeavor? Guess you'll never know. Though I can assure you that not much thought goes into how my blog posts look, as I don't have the best patience or eye for detail. Once the background, title and profile are complete, that's the extent of my blog aesthetic planning.

But everyone can agree that, maybe not consciously, we all care about aesthetic. Whether it be to do with finding the perfect lighting for a photo so that your social media looks "On Point" 

or whether it's matching your outfit just right, to not only to express yourself but also wordlessly show others how you're feeling and who you are.
(Totally not a shout for my friends Instagram. Her photo's are beautiful and she takes them all herself.)

Aesthetic is a big part of ever day life. We automatically, as a society, prefer the things we find attractive. From food, to clothes, to art, to even people. 

Now some people, not myself, have an eye for aesthetic. They can see it in every day items and take something ordinary and make it look extraordinary.

I have more of a magpie approach to aesthetic. I have absolutely no skill when it comes to creating my own art, but I can appreciate it in others and will steal the things I find pretty from other peoples aesthetic and then sit on my nest of chaos and disorganization and pretend that I can't see that none of it goes together and some of it contrasts and contradicts others.

But in my artistically naive mind, each individual piece is pretty, so when put together, they should also be pretty. 

So whilst I might not yet be at the level where I am so invested in maintaining the perfect blog or social media where I'll be willing to miss the bus or be lay for an event because that lighting war perfect, and definitely no where near at the level where I will throw myself to the mud to get the perfect shot of a flower that caught my eye, but I do think I can take a not terrible photo if I need to, and I have progressed massively from the days where I was an insane little girl where the amount of thought or care in my outfit resulted in me running around the garden in a fur coat, ballet skirt, wellingtons and on a skateboard.

But it seems I still have a long way to go!