Skinny: Banned but Favored

“Armani weights in to row over thin models” titled an article - hopefully pun intended – featured on this morning’s Yahoo’s website.

Fashion designer Armani agreed that he had always used models "on the slender side", adding: "This was because the clothes I design and the sort of fabrics I use need to hang correctly on the body", the AFP story reads.

The row over banning the on-the-slender-side models from runways started when Madrid, whose regional government cosponsored the fashion show held there this month, excluded one third of the models who ran shows in 2005 from attending because they were deemed too thin.

Madrid took this action to avoid sending the wrong message to its teenage girls. The organizers said they wanted to "help ensure public opinion does not associate fashion, and fashion shows in particular, with an increase in anorexia, a disease which, along with bulimia, is considered ... as a mental and behavioral problem".

So just how thin is too thin?

In Madrid, a model’s body mass index (BMI) needed to be at least 18.
Measured with 5’9”, the required height for a fashion model, this means she needs to weight at least 122 pounds.

According to the measurements found on auditionagency.com, these 122 pounds are about the fashion business’s maximum. They call for models to be between 108 and 125 pounds.

Will banning skinny fashion models change women’s view on how desirable it is too be thin? Not according to a recent survey conducted by the UK University of Bath.

“This study shows us why using thin models is a successful strategy by advertising companies," said Professor Brett Martin, of the University of Bath’s Marketing Group in its School of Management.

The researchers interviewed 470 female undergraduates. Only 29 percent reacted favorably to models of a larger size while 67 per cent reacted favorably to print advertisements, in this case food products such as up-market salad combinations and gourmet hamburgers. featuring thinner female models.

Those who preferred thinner models tended to believe that weight can be controlled by dieting or exercise. They tended to think the thinner models were more “elegant”, “interesting”, “likeable” and “pleasant”.

Thinner women were more likely to believe weight could be controlled. They also were less likely to have friends who were larger women, and some of them believed that larger women were a little untrustworthy.

With thinner women obviously still being the role models, how far will Armani go to make sure that his clothes are hanging on the right kind of bodies?

His online Armani Exchange Fashion Clothing store delivers sizes PO to 14. This is up to plus six the average dress size (2-4) worn by the fashion models on the runways but it still leaves out half of the American women whose average size is 14.

http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060921/en_afp/afpentertainmentbritainitalyfashionarmani

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060908/lf_afp/afplifestylefashion_060908143012

http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/research/models200906.html

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm

9/11: The Five Year Itch

While near the reflecting pools - in sight of the cameras - the widow of a 9/11 victim tearfully remembers her husband, wishing their grandchildren won't have to see a similar event, a less peaceful scene is formed at street level. Near the exit of the World Trade Center Path station, protesters wearing "investigate 9/11' t-shirts" and carrying "Ask questions, demand answers" banners clash with passers by.

"Some people are trying to provoke us", claims a young man standing near the pedestrian bridge overlooking the World Trade Center," that is why I chose to be at this quiet spot." The man, a heavily tattooed construction worker in his late twenties, claims to be a real conservative and doesn't take kindly to people who call him a liberal.

"For years I believed the story about the hijackers" he says, gazing at the steady stream of mourners in the pit, "but then I started to wonder who really benefited from all this." Only yesterday, at an event near Union Square, did he get his own investigate-9/11-t-shirt.

A forty something man wearing a blue cap with 'NAVY" printed on it, walks towards him and thanks him for doing what he is doing. "The fear is gone," he adds, "It's the government who should be fearful now."

Back at the World Trade Center PATH station, near where the newly hung pictures depict what happened here five years go, a fresh group of bystanders is loudly arguing with the learn-the- truth-about-9/11 protesters. This time their pamphlets have gotten company: a few Bush sympathizers, holding signs with "9-11 is the result of the Clinton administration" and "Support the war and our troops", have joined the crowd.




A few feet from the tumult, a young man sitting on the floor is playing his drums. Right next to him, Buddhist monks sit silently behind a piece sign. One of the 9/11 investigation t-shirt bearers has joined them. Across from them, two man are holding a gigantic board with on one side Ghandi's picture and on the other side the text "9/11/2006: 100 years of peace movement." In a corner, a Japanese man invites people to write a message on a large white cloth, laying on the ground.


Further down, near Cortland street, a lone flute player is crouched on the floor against the steel fens, a few bundles of roses adorning his head. Across, a chauffeur shows of his high wheeled patriot colored truck.

"You should all do like this man," yells a young woman in beige combat trousers while pointing at a slender built young man holding up a small sign saying "Forget about politics, remember the heroes."

World Trade Center movie

Seen at Yahoo news at noon on August 10, 2006: "European carriers cancel flights to U.K." It was the title of an AP article describing the effects of the terror attack, involving a plot to blow up airplanes in mid air, the U.K. says it foiled. The advertisement within the article was that of Oliver Stone's new movie "World Trade Center".

Advertisements probably are not assigned to articles so this ironic combination must be the result of a random choice. Maybe this was not the effect the WTC movie advertisers were looking for since Oliver Stone has already been accused for misusing tragic events for his own profit.

When entering the theater to see the WTC movie, one is expected to know what happened on 9-11-2001 and if not, lets say you are a visitor from out of space, only the TV news the various characters are watching will fill you in. The plot revolves around two Port Authority policemen, two of the twenty people rescued after the towels fell, and what they - and their families waiting for news from them - went through after being stuck in the towers' rubble.

The ex marine who found the two men in the rubble claims a dominant spot at the end of the movie although he has few lines. Maybe it is the forceful way he said "for those of you who don't realize it, we are a nation at war" or maybe it is just because he is the only one "doing something" (the two main characters being stuck in the rublle for most of the movie). "Someone needs to revenge this" he tells his boss in Connecticut when explaining why he won't come in. It is no suprise to find out - in the aftermath part of the film - that he later served two years in Iraq.

The police men, to some extend their fallen buddies, and the people who rescued them are about the only ones directly portrayed in this movie. The many that did not make it out of the towers are glanced at briefly when the family of the rescued officer passes by a wall of pictures of missing persons.

About 50 spectators watched the movie at Newport Mall late Wednesday night. While exciting, the comment most heard was "Too much drama." Still, all the, mostly young, men in the theater had clapped at the end of the movie, so Stone must have done something right. I gather it was the fact that the movie concentrates on heroism and actually has some humor in it (the scene with Jesus and the water bottle comes to mind).

But a drama it was. What with the portrayal of two families’ ordeal in what became known as the attack on America. If it weren't for the 9-11 theme, this movie might well be deemed a chick flick.

Many New Yorkers and New Jerseyans claim that this movie was made too soon or shouldn't have been made at all. They do not want to be reminded of the terror attack they say. Trying to forget will be hard to do with the alleged UK terror plot constantly in the news.

America again is deemed under attack.” Today our lives have changed," Brian Williams said on NBC's evening news. CNN must have been right Thursday morning when they said: "The rules have changed while you were sleeping." Judging by the reaction of the Americans on TV, giving up carrying water and toothpaste in their hand luggage, or who knows giving up carrying hand luggage at all, will be done in stride. It's already seen as a heroic deed in the fight against terrorism. Lets not forget, emotionally most are still stuck in the World Trade Center's rubble.

Heat Wave Drives Workers to Air Conditioned Workplace with a Smile

"I was happy to come to work today", Fiona, a Curves gym technician in Jersey City, told me Wednesday morning, "I haven't slept well last night, here I have central air conditioning."

She wasn't the only one to tell me that story. In the supermarket, a man, lets call him Jose, was ticketing prices with gusto, "I can not imagine having to work outside now", he said.

Office workers seemed to walk from the PATH station to the office with even more jest of urgency in their stride than usual. Most women were carrying something with sleeves with them, because those air conditioned cubicles can get chilly.

Hamilton Park in Downtown Jersey City was virtually empty that day at noon and the usual hot dog and ice-cream salesmen were nowhere to be found. A lone maintenance worker was trying to catch a break on a bench under a tree. I didn't ask him how it felt to work in the 100 degree heat - not to mention the 114 heat index, because he was holding something with a long wooden stick.

I did what Mayor Bloomberg suggested in his press conference yesterday afternoon: "If you see somebody working outside in this heat, give them a smile."

It might not have helped to ease the pain, but the storm last night, knocking 20 degrees of the thermometer, sure did.

Lebanon Evacuees Speak In New York Church

When asked the question "How was the situation where you were staying in Beirut?", Yasmin Hamidi, a 25-year-old New York native, talks non stop for about ten minutes about bombs, frightened children, sleepless nights, being glued to the TV for news, the dangerous drive to the embassy and then says "Sorry, I'm kind of angry."

Anger (towards the US and Israeli governments) , frustration (at the biased media coverage) and guilt (at leaving friends and family behind) is what drove Yasmin and three other evacuees to speak up at St. Bartholomew's Church last night during a briefing organized by the Network of Arab-American Professionals of New York (NAAP-NY).

"People ask me if I am happy to be back," Stephen MacInerney, from North Carolina, told the more than 100 attendees,"well I haven't been happy for one minute."

Stephen, a graduate student at Beirut's American University is concerned about his Lebanese friends. "When I was there I could at least talk to them over the phone and know that they were alive say an hour ago," he explains, "it is much harder to talk to people from here." For the first time in his life he is depressed and getting back here doesn't make things better. "It is strange to hear people talking about normal things."

Ayah Bdeir, a 24-year-old a Lebanese and Canadian citizen, relates with Stephen's sense of being strongly removed. "As I walked here I felt guilty," she said,"because I escaped". Ayah, who decided to read a statement from a paper because she feared not to be able to stay collected while talking, breaks down after reading one sentence. "I was right," she whispered while wiping her eyes.

Lina Shehayeb, from Bronxville, who was spending the summer with her parents in Lebanon, took the embassy's advice to stick it out a few more days because of the large amount of people waiting for evacuation. Meanwhile she helped out at a local school where refugees were camping out. "There were mostly women and children. Babies were laying on the floor," she recalls, "It was hearthbreaking to look at the children because they are innocent."

Yasmin, Ayah and Lina were vacationing in Lebanon, as were many foreign nationals. According to Stephen, tourism in Lebanon had just been restored to pre-civil war level.


From left to right: Stephen, Lina, Ayah and Yasmin

"My aunt was in Beirut 24 years ago. She had to decide to stay in the house or leave for a safer place.When she fled, the car she was in got bombed," Yasmin said, "That was the reason she came to the US: for skin restoration and to get the feeling in her fingers back. Now she found herself in Beirut having to make that same decision again."

Last Saturday, Lina was evacuated by ship with her 17 and 19-year-old sons. They reached home Tuesday night. "The evacuation was poorly organized, the government did not do a good job," she claims, "but the people on the ground did". Lina commends the US marines for giving up their suites in the hotel to refugees and sleeping on the ground. "The marines were fabulous. They were extremely patient with us and did more than they should."

Yasmin was surprised that there was no coordination between the US and Israeli government regarding their safety. When asked what road to take to the embassy on the day of the evacution, no advice was given. " We do not know where Israel is going to bomb next," an embassy representive told them. She feels the US has given Israel a green light for the bombings. "How can my government let this happen to people? They are going to hate us as long this is going on. It doesnt take rocket science to figure this out," she said.

"There is no way this is going to benefit Israel," alleged Stephen, a student of Middle Eastern studies, "Hezbollah exists because of the invasion in the 80's so how are they going to gain from this?" He also believes, from what he has seen and heard in Lebanon, that Hezbollah has become independent but is still supported by Syria and Iran.

"If my jewish friends witnessed what I have witnessed they would be more against what the Israeli goverment is doing," Lina said, "All area's are hit, Hezbollah presence or not."

"In Lebanon, the only jewish people they know are the Israeli soldiers, it is so easy to hate military prensence," Yasmine asserted, "I grew up here, so have jewish friends from school and work., I wish they had normal relations with them like I do."

The speakers blamed the US media for giving a distorted picture of what was happening.

"I look for news but all I see is old pictures and the evacuations from foreigners", claimed Ayah, who left Beirut, with her sister, on her own behave , paying 600$ for the dangerous 40 minute drive at high speed to the Syrian border,"what will happen when all dual national citizens have left?"

"In Lebanon we watched the local news, it was the only way to know what was happening," Yasmin explains,"On CNN you didn't see it."

Stephen noticed a difference in reporting between the US reporters and all the others. "Especially the film crews," he stressed, "The French, British, Spanish, and others were talking to every one on the street asking them questions. The US crews were not interested in what the Lebanese or anyone else had to say."

He feels that this type of news coverage distorts everything. "If people here knew what was going on, there is no way they would support it."