Suicide Girls? Body Modification and Shifting Standards of Beauty

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Recently, I've been considering getting a tattoo- actually I've decided to take the plunge. To some, this is no biggie. Most of the girls I work with (many of whom are only recently out of high school) have at least a bit of ink. I, on the other hand, have always had at least a few reasons to not get one. It's not that I don't love the look of them because I do. Instead, I've always told myself that God didn't want me to make such changes to my body or that black girls didn't get tattoos. Or (horror of horrors!), what if my poor mother never forgave me? I understand that all of these justifications seem ridiculous.

But I am ridiculous.

These are all just excuses for not doing something that I want to do for fear of judgement. Really, the only reason not to get a tattoo or ten is the fact that they're permanent. But you know, so is cellulite and I've got that too. So, what the hell, right?

But to the point.

Two of the women whom I consider to be my spiritual godmothers of sorts of have been doing a great bit of body mod lately.





Janeane Garafolo via The Sydney Morning Herald


These two, Margaret Cho and Janeane Garofalo, are two women whom I feel deeply indebted to. I consider them to be my own personal feminist superheros. They're both female comics working (and holding their own) in an incredibly male-dominated work environment. Not only that, but they've both thrived. Both Cho and Garofalo have parleyed their position as outsiders into their selling point for more than twenty years. Using their celebrity to make their voices heard, these women are as much advocates as they are comediennes. Cho has long been known as an outspoken ally of the queer community and also frequently speaks on an issue familiar to many women: body image/ eating disorders. Garofalo, on the other hand, practically reinvented herself as a political commentator when she began working as a host at Air America. As an outspoken progressive activist, she's taken a great deal of heat from conservatives including Bill O'Reilly.

Interestingly, both of these women began getting tattoos recently as a reaction to aging (although Garofalo had a few as a younger woman). Cho and Garofalo have both spoken at length about feeling like the ugly girls, if you will, in an environment with seemingly unattainable standards of beauty. So what happens when women who struggle with body image as young women begin to age? Garofalo's been pretty up front about her (mis)adventures on plastic surgery. It seems that when Botox didn't work out as well as she'd hoped, she took to tattoos to make herself feel more beautiful. Cho concures: "To me getting tattooed is a beautiful way to kind of deal with this idea of aging and to decorate myself as I get older."

It seems that for these women body modification is a method of gaining power to feel beautiful and sexy on their own terms. I've come to realize that this is what has attracted me to tattoos as well. Not aging, but rather, the idea of taking my body back after years of feeling less than.  Similarly, I got my nipple pierced as a way to feel better about my sagging breasts.

Is this type body modification an exercise in empowerment or a symptom of a greater problem plaguing women's self-esteem? I haven't a clue.

Pleasurists #81

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Epiphora's Woodgasm

Monday, June 7, 2010

I've been eyeing several NobEssence dildos for the last year or so but these toys bare a steep price tag. These are absolute quality products though and they are definitely worth the investment.

Epiphora and SheVibe.com are currently sponsoring an awesome giveaway for Hey Epiphora readers. This contest's winner has the opportunity to receive any one of the NobEssence wooden dildos that SheVibe offers. Epiphora will be hosting two Twitter parties that will allow readers to earn contest entries:
"The most exciting way to enter this giveaway will be to attend one or both of the two Twitter parties I’ll be holding. YEAH, I’M GOING THERE. Com’n, it’ll be fun! We’ll use the hashtag #woodgasm, chat about sex toys, and each participant will earn an entry into the giveaway just for participating. I’ll also be asking trivia questions, and party-goers who are quickest to correctly answer these questions will get extra entries.
Party #1: Saturday, June 12th, 2010, 3 p.m. — 4 p.m. PST. 
Party #2: Wednesday, June 16th, 2010, 6 p.m. — 7 p.m. PST."
Other ways to enter can be found here.
Go enter. Now.

A Little Sweetness- slightly out of focus

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

First Look: njoy Fun Wand

Tuesday, June 1, 2010



Today, I got the njoy Fun Wand in the mail. Also today, I got my period in a serious way. Oh, the pain. So for now, I must resign myself to admiring the wand in the box (not in my box). It's a really beautiful magenta satin-lined box.

The fun wand is the first toy I've bought from njoy and it's my first steel dildo. Out of the box, I was surprised by the heft of it. I mean, I knew it would be heavy. It's metal- I get that. For some reason though, I wasn't expecting it to be any heavier than a glass dildo of the same size (of which I have a few). According to the company, the fun wand weights nearly a pound. I'm really interested in whether this weight will make any difference to my vadge.


It also looks like a fun anal toy- but I don't have that much anal experience. So we'll see.