Self-Esteem & Sexuality, Obesity, Exercise, Aging, Anorexia, Self Love

Hello to new Anne of Carversville readers. We’re aware today that our front page self-esteem tag is very hot!

To help you navigate your way through the enormous amount of materials that Anne has written on self-esteem, body image, the impact of the fashion industry on women’s psyches, a trend Anne calls fashion monasticism led by Karl Lagerfeld, and countless inter-related topics for women, we’re using this page to give you a big taste of our writing on these topics.

It will be developed through the day as we comb our archives for the best articles. Thanks. AOC

“Ida Keeling, 96, has a secret because, really, you don’t set the world track-and-speed record for the 60-meter dash without something good going for you, especially if you are, like Ida, competing in the 95-to-99 age bracket. Her daughter, Shelley Keeling, 60, is her mom’s coach.” Vogue US Self-Esteem and Aging

Aging American Women Should Move to France Body Politics

Just to reinforce Pamela Druckerman’s hypothesis that aging French women have it better, Dove’s 2006 Global Study ‘Beauty Comes of Age  confirmed a 20 year difference between American women and French/Italian/Brazilian women on the topic of when a woman’s beauty peaks.

Imagine looking in the mirror at 25 and believing that it’s all downhill from there. Yes, I’d rather be French!

Age of Ideal Beauty

Dove (Campaign for Ideal Beauty) asked the question ‘what is the age of ideal beauty’? By country responses to the answer ‘twenties’ were:

USA 48%; GBR 41%; FRA 11%; ITA 16%; BRA 18%.

Conversely, by country responses to the answer ‘forties” were:

USA 12%; GBR 22%; FRA 39%; ITA 38%; BRA31%.

Simply stated, American women believe that we reach the age of ‘ideal’ beauty before 30. We are ALONE in that belief among women around the world. The British women aren’t far behind us, and both groups have a staggeringly different self-perceptions than French, Italian and Brazilian women. Anne

More articles on aging: tag

Self-Esteem & Fashion Industry

Mikimoto Pearl Girls 1972 | Sensual, Beautiful with Clavicle Fat AOC Body & Culture

Because I come out of the world of Victoria’s Secret, have worked and consulted on lingerie and female sexuality for years, and have a hot libido myself, I personally like the old girls better. No desire for a bony clavicle or to be without breasts haunts me in still critical self-assessments, when I look in the mirror. (Note, as a 36B I was never endowed anyway. But I like my breasts and see no need to suppress them to look flat-chested. Nor do I believe in bombshelling myself.)

Like most women I’ve had my own self-esteem challenges, but I’m not a bouncing ball, marching to the male fashion drummer de jour. Quite frankly, I marched for women’s rights so that women could fashion our own identities on our terms.

To be blasted daily with fashion messages that the ideal woman has no curves, breasts, hips, wrinkles, an ounce of fat per Karl Lagerfeld, and let’s see — what else? You call this ‘aspirational’.

In reality it is a total provocation against women’s self-esteem, and we must be done with it!

Writing yesterday about John Galliano, I’ve had enough penis envy theory to last a lifetime.  I say ‘bring on the vaginas’.  Anne

Simon Doonan’s Insights on Gay Men, Fashion, Fat & French Women AOC Body Politics

Unlike Gawker’s Moylan, Simon Doonan will surely address the fashion-lite gay man, because it is his world. The last decade’s preference for Hedi Slimane slim is more direct comparison to ‘French Women Don’t Get Fat’ than South Beach’s bronzed, muscular bodies.

Karl Lagerfeld told the Telegraph UK — not an ounce of fat is desirable, sounding tougher than Mireille Guiliano who is charming, witty and persuasive, assuring us that life will still allow for sensory pleasure and not only in reading splendid old books.

To be fair to Lagerfeld, calorie-restricted mice may be in his corner when the topic is longevity and body far. As for smelling the food roses with a glass of champagne in your hand, fashion monasticism is a fierce and demanding muse.

I’ve often written that the downsizing of the Supermodels represents a psychological need to desexualize and disempower women from our physicality. In the last few weeks I’ve read intently about the rise of male control of women’s bodies, moving from a hunting and gathering society to an agrarian one. Anne

Sensual & Superyoung | Sex & Exercise

Staying Superyoung | Exercise, Sex, and More Good Behavior AOC Anne’s Blog

Dr. Weeks pinpoints two top ways to get that knowing smile on your vibrant, young-looking face: exercise regularly and enjoy a robust sex life.

When analyzing the sex and exercise habits of the Superyoung, Dr. Weeks concluded that:

• Regular aerobic exercise for about 40 minutes daily can add as much as 12 years to your life.

• The equivalent of three brisk one-mile walks a week is sufficient to help you look between five to eight years younger in middle and later years.

• Improving the quality of your sex life  can help you to look between four and seven years younger.

Dr. Roizen estimates that you can add nearly two years to your life, simply by having good sex twice a week. Weeks argues for three times.

Self-Esteem & Beauty Industry

Beauty | Plastic Surgery | Women’s Self-Esteem AOC Body Politics

Some mothers are concerned that getting their own cosmetic ‘improvements’ sends a message of insecurity to their daughters.  Logic must prevail on this topic. What seems to do the most harm is our endless self-criticism and hating this detail and that one about ourselves.

Always criticizing our flaws seems more destructive than just quietly doing what we choose to either ignore them, totally embrace them or fix them with a cosmetic or plastic surgery assist.

In Feb 2009, Vanity Fair featured “Plastic Surgery Confidential” reviewing the experiences of New York writer Melanie Berliet, a five-foot-nine, 120-pound 27-year-old, who went undercover with three plastic surgeons, seeking advice on what they recommended — and at what cost — to maximize her “assets” or minimize her “flaws”, depending on your point of view.

Unlike my medical aesthetics doctor, Berliet saw surgeons. Each man gave her a very different experience on seeing herself and her “imperfections”, with a varied cost on fixing them. The writers picture is at the top of the page.

How can any women get a chart of flaws that need fixing like the image above and not have self-esteem challenges? Anne