(iverson's) currentbuzz: Ugly Betty, Body Image and a sea change in women's blogging?

As someone who just doesn't "do" television, I am not above Netflixing select series and watching them without the mind-numbing interruptions of commercial television. Also, I have an idiocyncratic schedule, so I like to choose when I view. We just finished a season of Ugly Betty. Part tele-novela, kind of graphic-novelish, and with exquisite characters (or is it charicatures), its theme, according to those involved is the plight of the "fish out of water" or the regular person who is lovely inside surrounded by the world of superficial beauty where people are petty, mean, and ugly inside. I've been thinking that this show's message might influence viewers and perhaps even empower young people who would watch it. This post from blogher caught my eye, especially as they describe it as a "meme," suggesting this isn't just one or two bloggers taking up the issue:

At BlogHer, we're witnessing a self-acceptance movement that is gathering momentum. The hot viral beauty meme among influential, tech-savvy women who blog is about how we actually look every day when we face the mirror. How we're working to embrace our real selves. And how sick and tired we are of being told otherwise by a media world and a vanity industry that uses computer technology to work against us by presenting increasingly distorted images of human females.

Source: blogher.org

Blogher has an aggregation of blogs that talk about body image as well. The Chicago Tribune has a story that looks at the actress who plays Ugly Betty, and how she got "Barbied" up by Glamour in a recent shoot. So, a girl's best friend these days is Photoshop....

"Studies show that 70 percent of girls and women feel worse about themselves after just three minutes of exposure to these magazines," says Dina Zeckhausen, founder of the Eating Disorders Information Network. "People with a predisposition to eating disorders are highly sensitized to these images, even seeking them out to confirm that their anorexic belief system is 'correct.' "

Zeckhausen is especially alarmed by the apparent transformation of Ferrera. "The message is very clear," she says, "that 'real women' may have curves, but 'real women' don't end up gracing the cover of Glamour. 'Real' is not the look they are courting."

Source: suntimes.com

Well, two steps forward, one click back? We're watching.