A few months ago I mentioned America Ferrera, of Ugly Betty fame, making her “weight statement.” In that post, I talk about weight statements as non-stories; they’re just there to give media an opportunity to make “news” out of female celebrities’ weights, casting such stories as positive stories about the women’s self-esteem so that they themselves are not accused of the bad-intentioned looking they initiated in the first place.
Of course what contradicts each story’s positive message is the fact that the story exists at all. Gee, might it not be the case that, when one is put in a position of defending why one is loveable, one might already be in trouble?
I’ve just figured out that the Miss Universe pageant isn’t coming on until 9p eastern time. That seems quite late. How ever will the children watch?Well, at least that might give me more time to work on my theory of bikini nationalism, or at least to contemplate how global beauty standards might be following shifts in global capital, thus recreating in our relation to sensuality a dissonance not unlike the one growing in the U.S. between sex and desire.Okay [head shake], back to earth. I am thinking of 
A whiff of insanity, which I caught from Robyn over at 
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