Canadian photographer François Brunelle photographed a series of people who look uncannily alike. His subjects are not related, and are in fact total strangers. The series, photographed in countries around the world, is entitled, ‘I’m Not a Look-Alike!’, and is the result of the photographer’s obsession with the idea that everyone on earth has a doppelganger.
Not all the pairings were successful in my view, but some are OMG quality. Here’s a sampling.
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This post I’m reblogging was from about a year ago, but I just discovered it today, and now I’m in feminist love with Nancy Upton!!
Here is American Apparel’s sore loser response:
“It’s a shame that your project attempts to discredit the positive intentions of our challenge based on your personal distaste for our use of light-hearted language, and that “bootylicous” was too much for you to handle. While we may be a bit TOO inspired by Beyoncé, and do have a tendency to occasionally go pun-crazy, we try not to take ourselves too seriously around here. I wonder if you had taken just a moment to imagine that this campaign could actually be well intentioned, and that my team and I are not out to offend and insult women, would you have still behaved in the same way, mocking the confident and excited participants who put themselves out there?”
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“Oh—and regarding winning the contest, while you were clearly the popular choice, we have decided to award the prizes to other contestants that we feel truly exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out, and whom we will be proud to have representing our company.”
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After the story hit the blogosphere, Nancy and the friend who photographed her were invited to tour American Apparel’s plant and meet with the team who created the contest. You can read about it in her Tumblr.
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American Apparel’s XL modeling contest ended yesterday. There was a clear leader in the contest, but she was actually making fun of American Apparel’s belittling view of plus-sized models. Here are her entry photos.
Think you are the Next BIG Thing?
Calling curvy ladies everywhere! Our best-selling Disco Pant (and around 10 other sexy styles) are now available in size XL, for those of us who need a little extra wiggle room where it counts. We’re looking for fresh faces (and curvaceous bods) to fill these babies out. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be the next XLent model, send us photos of you and your junk to back it up. Just send us two recent photographs of yourself, one that clearly shows your face and one of your body. We’ll select a winner to be flown out to our Los Angeles headquarters to star in your own bootylicious photoshoot. Runners up will win an enviable assortment of our favorite new styles in XL! Show us what you’re workin’ with! via Jezebel
I’m in the mood for some stuff that makes me feel good!
(Stay tuned for more overly cute animal pictures coming soon…)
The leopard crept through the sugar cane on an October night in 2002, and found a cow tied in a field, the way villagers keep their livestock in this dusty farming community. The cat didn’t harm the cow, but villagers worried about its predatory instincts, since they, too, were sometimes in the fields at night. They asked the Forest Department to remove the leopard to a wildlife sanctuary nearby.
Nimra, a one-year-old cat, plays with chicks in Amman (2007). Nimra took care of seven chicks after their mother’s death.
Mouse rides on the back of a frog in floodwaters in the northern Indian city of Lucknow
A monkey sleeps next to a dog at Lacor camp for internally displaced persons in northern Uganda
A tiger cub climbs over piglets at a park in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong. The tiger cub was abandoned by its mother and was raised by a sow.
Auan, a seven-year-old female cat,
licks the body of Jeena, a three-year-old male mouse, at a farmer’s house in Phichit, north of Bangkok. Auan found Jeena three years before the photo (2002) and has been his playmate and protector, including warding off dogs, since then.
My favorite photographer of the day, Dina Goldstein, features her latest project, which follows B, a “superdoll” and K, her partner in their home life…
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That’s just a teaser. Check out the whole story line on the project site.
(And if you missed it, check out the post about the project through which I discovered Goldstein, Fallen Princesses.)
If you followed my blog in its earlier days, you know what I think about young girls’ increasing obsession with princesses, and how Disney Princesses distort their image and expectations of themselves, of life, of relationships, of their sexuality… Everything.
That’s why I was so thrilled to discover Dina Goldstein, my favorite photographer (today). I saw her Snow White photograph from her Fallen Princesses series on Facebook, sans credit as is common there. Today I finally put together the name with the photography, and what a discovery that was!
Here is Goldstein’s description of the project and some of the pictures from the series, but I truly recommend you browse her website. It’s gorgeous.
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“These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The ‘…happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.
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The project was inspired by my observation of three-year-old girls, who were developing an interest in Disney’s Fairy tales. As a new mother I have been able to get a close up look at the phenomenon of young girls fascinated with Princesses and their desire to dress up like them. The Disney versions almost always have sad beginning, with an overbearing female villain, and the end is predictably a happy one. The Prince usually saves the day and makes the victimized young beauty into a Princess.
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As a young girl, growing up abroad, I was not exposed to fairy tales. These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of Fairy tales. I explored the original Brothers Grimm stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.
See my other Dina Goldstein post: In The Dollhouse.
Good intentions. I’m sick to death of good intentions.
Every time someone comes into one of the groups or blogs I manage, says something racist or sexist or transphobic or [fill in oppressive BS here], and they get called out on it, not only do I end up getting the whole offended “I’m the victim here” song and dance (“You are oppressing me by nullifying my right to express an opinion” “You are being violent to me by excoriating me in the group” “You are being a dictator!! [yeah, I’m Stalin])… Not only all that, but then come in the chorus of apologists: “He didn’t *mean* to offend anyone, he meant well!”. Oh, I guess the hurt he caused is now erased, then.
So here is what I have to say about good intentions: FUCK GOOD INTENTIONS.
If you have “good intentions” all that means is one or more of the following:
So remember:
RESULTS MATTER MORE THAN INTENTIONS, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND
Revolutionary Woman
Maria Santos Gorrostieta became mayor of the town of Tiquicheo in 2009, when she was only 33 years old. She recognized the risks as her town was located in the state of Michoacan one of the many battlegrounds in Mexico where cartels, police, and the government are fighting for control.Michoacan is also prized for its access to the Pacific where cocaine from South America and synthetic chemicals from Asia are brought into the country.
While she only served for two years, during that time she was the target of two assassination attempts. The first, in October 2009, she was the subject of the ambush. She survived but her husband was killed. In January 2011, she escaped another attempt but this time she was shot numerous times. After the second attempt she held a press conference showing her wounds and talking about her injuries.
After her term ended last year it seemed all would be over but on November 12, 2012, Ms. Gorrostieta was taken from her car, while her five-year-old daughter sat there, and was beaten in public. While she pleaded that her daughter not be harmed she was dragged away into another car. (Her daughter was left alone, screaming in her mother’s car.) On Saturday, November 24, Maria Santo Gorrostieta’s body was discovered. She had been handcuffed, beaten, tortured and killed.
She was 36 years old. She leaves behind three children.
Note: According to the BBC, two dozen Mexican mayor have been murdered since 2006.
Sources: The Daily Telegraph, The Huffington Post
(Top image: Facebook photo of Maria Santos Gorrostieta, courtesy of idigitaltimes.com. Bottom image: Maria Santos Gorrostieta showing her wounds from her second assassination attempt is courtesy of arklatex912project.wordpress.com)
via Obit of the Day: Tiquicheo’s Fearless Mayor Maria… | Obit of the Day.
“…the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk?
but, Can they suffer?” / Jeremy Bentham
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Following the extreme protest carried out by Israeli animal rights activists, in which they branded themselves with the number “269”, after a calf they met on a factory farm, the project continues: On November 1, which is International Vegan Day, the activists carried out a tattoo event, in which everyone was invited to get a 269 tattoo in solidarity with the suffering of animals raised and killed for human use and consumption.
The event created worldwide waves, and sister-events were carried out in many locations, such as Melbourne, Australia:
Lake Malawi has been earmarked for oil exploration, yet millions of Malawians rely on it for food, income, and drinking and cleaning water. Even more take pride in the lake’s unparalleled beauty. It is an eco-tourist drawcard. Malawians know that were oil to be developed in the lake, profits would be shipped abroad and an already poor population would be left stripped of their most precious natural resource.
But nature-based tourism and mineral extraction cannot effectively coexist.
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism presents a new and highly militaristic, sexist and simply obnoxious campaign for bringing more tourists into the Jewish-Democratic State of Israel, to experience the lush and beauty of Israeli apartheid.
One should wonder who are the tourists that would be persuaded to visit a state that’s so highly militarized, racist and sexist? A state that does not abide by its obligations under international law and who violates the most basic human rights for non-Jews? A state whose most liberal city, Tel-Aviv, boasts at having the highest percentage of military commanders in their municipality’s ad campaign, along with boasting the 92% draft rate of its high school graduates who serve in the army (aka ITF, IOF or IDF). A state whose vast majority is proud of holding ethnic-supremacist ideals, or at the very least think it is ok.
Please choose to stand by the basic rights of Palestinians and insist on their freedom, justice and equality in this land. For more information:http://www.bdsmovement.net/
Doing propaganda:
Noa Tishby – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864332/
Gilat Ankori – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0030184/
Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNVHY49TqWc
http://kol1mevie1.org.il/
http://www.mako.co.il/travel-visit-israel
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/survey-most-israeli-jews-would-support-a…
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/apartheid-without-shame-or-guilt.premium…
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/cool-tel-aviv-proudly-boasts…
From: Israeli Ministry of Tourism presents: militarism, sexism galore – YouTube.
Femina Invicta 