Thinspiration Kills

Oh my gosh.

Thinspo is totally blowing my mind today.

Never had I ever heard about this type of thing until we watched a movie in my trends class today (thanks Dr. D!)... And if you have never heard about "thinspo"... here's the gist of it. "Thinspo" (short for thinspiration) is a pro-anorexia media movement that is all over youtube, and I suspect elsewhere... I really haven't done that much looking into it other than on youtube. Basically, there are people out there who compile pictures of thin girls (some with eating disorders) and put them with music and then post them on the internet to inspire others to continue their disorder... like "oh I know it's hard-but it's totally worth it... look at these super skinny girls and know that if you only eat a cube of cheese and a cup of grapes today, you can have collarbones that look like drawer pulls and a hollowed out face too!"

I found this "thinspiration. Real girls." on youtube today, and since September 3, 2007 it's had 26,823 hits. So it's been up there for the world to see for about 880 days. That's about 30 views a day. The user who put it up on youtube is called "DailyThinspo", and she had a goal to upload a video every day... but it looks like she only has four videos... one has had 223,231 views... that's about 254 views a day. It totally blows my mind. 254 girls/maybe guys are looking at her video to be "thinspired"... it's crazy. I just can't really wrap my mind around it. There is a whole community out there devoted to helping each others fall deeper into their eating disorders.

This video makes me so sad! Half of the pictures look like

they were found on teenage girls' myspaces. You know...

the pictures where girls are standing in the mirror with

their camera? It's so sad.

This one is the one we actually watched in class...

While showing pictures of girls measuring their waists and sitting

at the toilet, it actually asks "Is it worth it?" Followed by a very

chilling "YES." It's so sad.

This video, however made me feel like the world isn't going to find itself dug in the ground... it's a video trying

to sway people from the effects of "thinspiration"

Her Anti-Ana video has had 309,213 views since June 2007...

hopefully she is inspiring hope and educating some young girls

who are lost.

Looking at all of these videos today has made me totally sick. I had

to eat a brownie to make sure I wasn't affected.

It was pretty yummy.

Man of the Moment: Peter Sarsgaard

I recently saw An Education starring Carey Mulligan (from Pride and Prejudice) and Peter Sarsgaard. I had been interested in seeing it... but my best friend, Brennwyn, had already seen it, so one afternoon I kind of kidnapped my mom and took her to the Angelika in Dallas. (Love you mom!) Well the movie itself was great... I recommend it. It was funny, thought-provoking, and very colorful. (Oh and the clothes were fabulous as well!)

Well anyways, Sarsgaard was amazing. He was so good at being charming and a little chemically unbalanced and detached, and you couldn't decide whether to love him or hate him or pity him. Well, he was great... very smart.

Not even two weeks later I was "working on homework" and watching Garden State... a movie I'm not sure if I even like that much... (I've seen it at least five times, and never really enjoy it... I like the special features more than I like the actual film.) But anyways, sitting in "his" living room doing ecstasy and smoking from a homemade bong is Peter Sarsgaard, as Zach Braff's old high school buddy. I was totally weird-ed out, but knowing it was actually him made the movie slightly more entertaining for me.


Well anyways, I just think he's super adorable and talented and charming... and he just got married and had a baby! Congrats to him! He's married to the über-fabulous Maggie Gyllenhaal (it's cute... they both have surnames with a double vowel...) but anyways... they're a nice match. Here's a little clip from David Letterman where she kind of talks about him... it's more funny than a testament about his wonderful charisma... if you have the time, watch it... it's almost slightly awkward... the "kid's mother" and "kid's father" bit is great.



Okay and then I find this interview between him and Carey Mulligan absolutely hysterical! It's kind of terrible and all inside jokey until about a minute in when he says that his biggest qualm about playing his character in An Education was that he didn't know how to act Jewish... he's a thinker, that one.



Oh but what makes it even better is that when he's talking about "what does it mean to be Jewish?" the guy interviewing him is making those understanding noises like "mm hmm" and "yeah"... it's not like Sarsgaard has come up with some huge philosophical thing here... I dunno... I found it quite entertaining... until they stopped talking about "what it means to be Jewish". Oh well. He's a good actor, and that's really the whole point to the story.

He has a nice smirk, doesn't he?

Out of Print: First and Fifteenth

For my birthday, my mom bought me an out-of-print book of drawings by Steve Powers. It's called first & fifteenth... and after doing a little bit of research, "first & fifteenth" refers to the most lucrative times of the month for a drug dealer... why? Because welfare checks are issued on these dates every month... hmm. Sorry my scanner is covered in stuff, or I would scan some pretty illustrations from the book... maybe I should clean off my desk?

I looked it up on amazon.com, and a new one sells for as much as $104... wow...

I haven't read it yet, but I'm really interested... "pop art short stories" are right up my alley. I love pop art! (Yes, pop art is really art.) And short stories are good because I get easily distracted...

But anyways... I love Steve Powers.

And Steve Powers loves love.
He has a new book coming out with photos from his love letter graffiti series in Philly... I will definitely be buying it as soon as it is humanly possible.