Beauty Inside

Wacoal Thailand is the Thai division of the clothing distributor, Wacoal. Lately this company has been trending a great deal on YouTube, as well as blogs across the world. 

The reason for this sudden burst in popularity is due to the latest three short films that Wacoal has created and distributed across Thailand entitled, "My Beautiful Woman".  Each film is based on a true story, and follows the lives of several women who have demonstrated courage, strength, and unconditional love. Each video is touching and emotional in a unique way, narrated by someone who was affected by the actions of the featured woman, and describes her as being truly beautiful. 

Instead of focusing on outward beauty, the short films emphasize and display Wacoal's mission statement: "Wacoal believes all women were created to be beautiful...Beauty inside". This is a powerful message that counteracts society's depiction of beauty--the aesthetic. 

The video featured below is one of the three short films Wacoal recently released. It focuses on Jane, a young and single mother struggling to raise her daughter, June. By all accounts, Jane is a normal teen mom trying to give her child excellent opportunities with her head held high, while attempting to ignore the vicious judgement around her. 

Those around Jane look down on her because they believe she became pregnant by her "sugar daddy", and talk about her behind her back. However, we see in the film that there is much more to Jane than what meets the eye. 

The twist in the Jane's story is seen when her friend, June's art teacher, asks Jane why she does not tell people the truth about her daughter and clear her name. Jane responds simply, "It is not necessary...I would rather them talk about me than talk about June".

The truth that Jane refuses to tell society around her is that she did not bear a child at all; June is not her baby. A flashback scene shows Jane walking home from school one day, and heard the sound of a baby crying. The cries were coming from a suitcase in the middle of a field, clearly an attempt to abandon a child and let it die in the elements. Jane became overwhelmed with emotion and picked up the baby, then made the life altering decision to keep her and raise her as if she was her own.

The reason why Jane refused to tell others the truth about June's life is simple: she did not want her daughter whom she loved more than anything, to feel set apart for being abandoned as a baby. The fact that June is not truly her biological child is irrelevant according to Jane, for she loves her unconditionally and the bond between them is so powerful.

This is only one short film that Wacoal released, all of them being equally emotional and inspiring. The truth is, women are all created beautiful, just like Wacoal expressed at the end of the film. True beauty does not come from the outside, but it comes from within. Mass media and popular culture have unfortunately redefined beauty, and have overemphasized the physical appearance rather than the virtue and character of an individual. Wacoal, a clothing company, is revolutionizing the retail world by emphasizing the fact that despite what society preaches, what makes a woman truly beautiful is her character, her strength, her compassion, and her virtue. Wacoal is arguing that true beauty cannot be seen on a magazine or on someone walking down the street, it is seen in someone's heart.

Gender Equality of Olympic Proportions

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi marks the first time in Olympic history that women are permitted to compete in ski jumping.

For many years, the International Olympics Committee (IOC), has given excuses as to why the sport for women is not recognized in the Olympic Games. One reason they gave was that the sport had few female participants, and it would not be an equal playing field amongst countries, seeing that some countries don't participate in women's ski jumping at all.

However, many female athletes believed that this was more of an equality and discriminatory issue, than merely a lack of competitors. Since the Victorian Era, there was a stigma against female athletes, particularly those in this sport. It was a common theory during that time in history that the impact of landing on skis would actually damage a woman's reproductive organs, since according to medical doctrine of that time, women were very fragile and could not sustain the impact as well as men. Even in 2005 the President of the International Ski Foundation, Gian Franco Kasper, stated: 

"Don't forget, it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view". 

Lindsay Van, an outspoken female ski jumper responded to Kasper in a very creative and colorful way:

"It just makes me nauseous. Like, I kind of want to vomit. Like, really? Like, I'm sorry, but my baby-making organs are on the inside. Men have an organ on the outside. So if it's not safe for me jumping down, then my uterus is going to fall out, what about the organ on the outside of the body?"

Very true, Lindsay! Both she and fellow female ski jumper, Jessica Jerome sought to gain equality for the sport of ski jumping for many years. They took the IOC to court and sued for the opportunity to compete in the Olympics in Vancouver, but lost the lawsuit. Finally after many years, the IOC announced in 2011 that women's ski jumping would be a sport featured in the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Jessica Jerome, who is also the 2009 world champion in ski jumping was overjoyed when she heard the news that she would finally be able to compete in the Olympics and fulfill her athletic dreams. She told The Rappler: "I can't really put it into words, it just feels great and it feels like we belong".

It is magnificent that women's ski jumping has finally, after 90 years, been accepted into the Olympic Games. It is no doubt due to the persistence of the female jumpers themselves, who fought for years for equality and the opportunity to compete in the games. Needless to say, this is one giant step--or jump--for women everywhere.

Super Bowl Ads--A Step in the Right Direction?

While watching Super Bowl XLVIII, it was clear that advertisements this year were much more appropriate and less offensive than they have been in previous years. There were less commercials with sexual themes, which many women and families were happy about. 

Comparatively, last year's Super Bowl was noticeably more sexual in nature than Superbowl XLVIII. A notoriously shocking company, GoDaddy.com, has been infamous for ads that are usually always sexual; most recently, the very unorthodox (and very uncomfortable) ad featuring model Bar Rafaeli and a nerd making out, symbolizing the "sexy" and the "smart" sides to GoDaddy.com. 

Surprisingly, this commercial wasn't very well liked among viewers, and was actually one of the lowest rated ads of the night in 2013. Fiat also had a provocative ad campaign last year. As shown in the commercial, a bikini clad beach-lounger is displayed lying on the sand with the camera slowly making it's way to her back, where a scorpion snips off her bathing suit top. 

These are only two of the several sexual advertisements that were shown to families across the country. 

However, this year there were noticeably less sexual advertisements, and more patriotic, feel-good ads. The Coca-Cola commercial featuring different groups of people singing "America the Beautiful" received very positive reviews, along with the commercial from Budweiser documenting a soldier returning from Afghanistan and being welcomed home like a hero. The lieutenant who was being welcomed home seemed to be genuinely touched by the experience.  These commercials were appreciated because they were wholesome, feel-good commercials that everyone can watch together and not feel uncomfortable. 

Some people viewed the change of pace for advertising to be a good thing, most of them being parents or women that are tired of being objectified in the media. A viewer told Fox News Latino that he enjoyed this year's ads more, because they overall lacked raunchy content that would be inappropriate for parents with younger children: "The ads are less funny, but it's easier to watch the Superbowl with your family". 

Many women were also offended by the constant sexually based commercials (like GoDaddy), and refused to purchase the products endorsed by any company that promoted women as merely a way to sell merchandise, because after all, "sex sells" in today's society where women are usually objectified. The reason for the change of content in commercials is greatly due to the fact that companies, GoDaddy for example, actually lost business and as a result tried to change their marketing to be more appropriate and mature. 

Overall, many view this year's Super Bowl ads to be a step in the right direction, as they are noticeably less sexist and inappropriate. Hopefully, this trend will continue in the future and viewers will start to have higher standards on what they are willing to accept from the media.