Celebrating the Feminine Form

The Feminine Form is a wondrous design by mother nature. I think it is far more interesting and delightful to observe than the male form, and no, I'm not bashing men here, I just genuinely find looking at women far more appealing than looking at men. 

Marvell Lane celebrates the female form in all its glory. We love the curve of the hip, the strength of the quadricep, the generosity of the bust, the character of stretch marks, the commonality of cellulite, and the personality of wrinkles. We will never remove these elements from our imagery. They are beautiful. They are human. They are to be celebrated.

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I don't understand why mainstream media continue to pigeon-hole women into looking only one way. Predominately white and ideally very thin. If the media are feeling generous or feel like "dipping their toe" in diversity, then they may throw in someone with a large bust, tiny waist and perhaps with darker skin tones (a-la Kardashian). The women are still ALWAYS thin. By not having any diversity in the imagery, it is implied that this is the way women are meant to look. They do this not by overtly telling us that that is what they expect women to look like, it's almost insidious and they do it by virtue of never using anyone other than generally white and thin women in their imagery.

The mainstream media also use women who don't appear to have any "flaws". What are those "flaws", you ask? Well, the reason we know these women don't appear to have any "flaws" per se, is because we don't recognise ourselves reflected back at us when we stare at the imagery. Our perception of "normal" is the women we see on the streets, relaxing at the beach, or staring back at us in our mirrors every day - we identify with these women, their shapes, sizes and differences. And yet all of the differences and variants we recognise as normal are removed in mainstream imagery and marketing. Therefore, if they need to be removed then they must be "flaws" - not to be seen! Most women have cellulite, stretch marks, different skin tones, wrinkles, off-white teeth, are different races, and are not all a size 4-8. The average size Australian woman is actually a size 14 and slowly nudging towards a size 16 and yet the imagery getting hammered at us is actually telling us that we should be a tiny size 4-8 person (and there is nothing wrong with being this size either). What this imagery is telling us, is that the way most of us look is wrong. The imagery tells us, that unless we look like white, thin, flawless women, then we look wrong. Inadequate. Flawed. Unusual. It tells us that the shape mother nature provided us was a mistake. Now how can that be helpful for womankind? Want to know why so many of us have really bad body image issues? Well, we can start with the changing the constant and unrelenting implied messages that most women are all inadequate looking. This starts with diversity in our imagery and not using photoshop to alter any part of a woman's body.

So to try and come full circle with this commentary, there are many things about the Feminine Form that Marvell Lane celebrates and will continue to celebrate. We will ensure that we create beautiful imagery that celebrates all the commonalities of women. We will not remove this from our imagery.

The curve of the hip. The shape of the breasts. The dimples of our cellulite. The strength of our quadriceps. The character of our stretch marks. And lastly, the privilege of being old enough to have wrinkles. All to be cherished.