She had been given free tickets to attend the filming of American Idol and was understandably excited. But 19-year-old Ashley Kauffman’s joy soon turned to upset on being told she was ‘too big’ to sit in the front row

There were two [female ushers] and one said: “Oh, I don’t want shorts in front,” about my friend,’…Then [the usher] looked at me and said: “Oh no, you’re too big, too heavy to be in front!” To make matters worse Miss Kauffman and the two other girls were then seated in the back of the theatre rather than directly behind their other friends…

She added that staff had seated two girls who were ‘super skinny and wearing little dresses’ in the front row where [she] and her friends would have been sitting.

Ashley says she is still going to support the contestants on the show, but is speaking out to “make sure it’s known how they treated me.” Good for you, Ashley, and I hope you get an apology–and front-row seats to the finale.

Via Rickey.org.

“Betty White is going to host SNL. Will she wear a [Product Name] girdle? Been known to wear girdles daily, viewers are predicting she will host Saturday night’s show in one of today’s most scandalous fashions.”

Nice dangling modifier there, PR person. (That being said, girdle or no girdle, I’m going to be watching the hell out of SNL this weekend. And Betty White can do or say or wear whatever she wants! She’s a Golden Girl!)

“[Product Name] will established itself as one of the most sought after web sites that provides live feeds and information for people and the media to discover what the country really thinks about current issues. With the heartbreaking end to Kate Gosselin’s professional dance career on DWTS, many are wondering what will happen to the future of post-Kate Dancing With the Stars!”

It was heartbreaking, you guys. Didn’t your heart just break when Kate and her crappy dancing got voted off? Haven’t you been WONDERING ABOUT THE FUTURE ever since?? (The best part is that the website determined 67% of people thought the show would be fine. Okay then! PHEW! Guess we dodged that bullet, America!)

Parents and celebrities alike are turning to the [Product Name] to comfort their infant. Just look at the pages of this week’s People Magazine where you will find Sandra Bullock watching her new baby, Louis, sleep peacefully in a [Product]!

What does this have to do with my blog, anyway? Oh, apparently Marissa Janet Winkotur also uses [Product]. Okay then. Makes total sense!

[Product Name]‘s “Pick an Idol” promotion may offer a glimpse into who might take the American Idol prize this season! Each week, the Idol with the most votes receives a complimentary bouquet of [Product] in a color selected by the fans. Since the promotion began, Crystal Bowersox has been near or at the top every week with Casey James, Lee Dewyze, Andrew Garcia and Katy Stevens also winning.

Yeah, how’s that working out for you, Andrew and “Katy”?

Weirdly, as rando as these press releases are, they all have one thing in common. I guess it’s true what they say: celebrities sell! Or at least, they try to.

(Because she’s sexy she gets to be “pleasantly plump” instead of just “fat.” Got it, New York Post.)

Lane Bryant thinks the net’s executives are a bunch of prejudiced boobs. “The cleavage of the plus-size models, they said, was excessive, and we don’t think that’s the case,” said the source. “It certainly appears to be discrimination against full-sized women.”

Fox also initially refused to air the ad, but then when Lane Bryant argued it was effectively the same as the Victoria’s Secret ad they’d already approved, Fox changed their minds. The ad is reportedly going to air during American Idol this week.

My first thought is that it’s a rarity that a full-figured person is shown as being too sexy for television. But what do you think: is it discrimination? Take a look at both ads and decide for yourself, after the jump.

The Victoria’s Secret ad:

The Lane Bryant ad:

So what do you think?

Overweight and obese individuals whose TVs were fitted with an electronic “lock-out” device to cut their viewing by half ended up burning more calories than they consumed, researchers found…

The 20 volunteers whose TV-watching was electronically rationed burned 244 more calories than they consumed each day. In contrast, 16 similarly overweight individuals who did not have a limit imposed on their TV viewing consumed 57 more calories than they burned each day. The findings were not statistically significant, but suggest that cutting down on TV time can increase activity and improve the body’s energy balance.

I look forward to losing weight now that Glee, Mad Men, Top Chef, and Project Runway are all off the air. Of course, American Idol comes back on in January, and it airs like six nights a week, so my diet will soon be over.

On the new cover…the editors did everything they could to obscure what her body actually looks like. Her right arm is totally invisible and much of her left arm has been cropped out. A yellow dot strategically obscures the area where her butt meets her lower back and white pants against a white background make her legs almost invisible.

According to Jezebel, SELF admitted the photoshopping… while also touting Clarkson as “a great role model for women of all sizes.” Nice hypocrisy there, SELF! Here is the quote from the editor in chief (brackets mine):

“Kelly Clarkson exudes confidence [despite the fact that she is not skinny enough for our cover], and is a great role model for women of all sizes [including you, fattie, so buy our magazine] and stages of their life [sic]. She works out and is strong and healthy [which means she should be skinnier, so we fixed that], and our picture shows her confidence [that media outlets like us are doing our damndest to erase] and beauty. She literally [not literally] glows from within. That is the feeling we’d all want to have. We love this cover [buy our magazine] and we love Kelly Clarkson [more when she is skinny].”

Kelly herself, inside the magazine, says “My happy weight changes… Sometimes I eat more; sometimes I play more. I’ll be different sizes all the time. When people talk about my weight, I’m like, ‘You seem to have a problem with it; I don’t. I’m fine!’ I’ve never felt uncomfortable on the red carpet or anything.” I hope she can keep that mentality going in the face of crap like this from the likes of SELF. And Margaret at Jezebel sums it up well:

Danziger is is right: Kelly Clarkson is a “great role model for women of all sizes.” When the press goes after celebrities for gaining weight many apologize to the public, like Oprah Winfrey or Kirstie Alley, or frantically exercise and appear on the cover of Us flaunting their slimmed down selves like Jennifer Love Hewitt. So far Clarkson has only declared that she’s OK with her body and backed her statements up by performing in clothing that exposes her figure, rather than hiding under billowy outfits. Of course, now Clarkson has appeared with a newly-slim body on the cover of Self, but it’s a decision the editors made for her, rather than a message she wanted to put out herself.

I wonder if Kelly minds the photoshopping this time?

“Making the Curve” — in which talented, plus-size women “prove that they have what it takes to form a hit pop musical group.”

Because… everyone in a band… needs to have… the same body type? This makes no sense as a show concept. As Jaclyn put it, “Dear Reality TV: Must there now be a “big” version of every show? Is this supposed to be empowering?”

I actually would love to see some more fat-themed scripted shows, if only so that fat actors and actresses could get more jobs! In fact, I really think what with True Blood and Twilight and all, the zeitgeist is really calling for a show about fat vampires. We can call it, simply, Fatpires. And I think any network programming executive who’s reading this should contact me immediately. FATPIRES, people. THIS IS A WINNER.

Also in TV news, Jimmy Kimmel recently did a bit about the increase in fat people programming by imagining something called the Lard Channel:

Ah, stupid late-night comedy, where fat actors can get work playing fat people for us to make fun of. This is why America needs Fatpires, you guys. This, and so many other reasons.

(Thanks for the link, Eliza!)

*Avoiding the potentially inflammatory terminology here!

Anyway I LOVE HIM, is my point, and I read his new interview in Rolling Stone eagerly, and found this tidbit:

“I’ve finally checked in to my self-worth for the first time in my life, and the fact that it has coincided with ‘Idol’ is so sweet,” he says. “I mean, I still have moments where I think, ‘Oh, my skin is terrible, and I’m a little fat, I should really go to the gym more.’ But for the most part, when I look in the mirror now, I finally see someone who can do something cool.”

I’ve read things like this before, that Lambert has had self-esteem issues, that he’s had an eating disorder, that he’s self conscious about his weight and his freckles, and that he thinks he needs to lose fifteen pounds. Oh, Adam Lambert. Your insecurity makes you human, and thus even more perfect.

Also, while on the subject, I didn’t know Kara DioGuardi had publicly admitted a binge eating disorder. I admire that she’s spoken out about binge eating, and I do care. But she is not Adam Lambert, and therefore I only care briefly. Here is Adam again!

Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly
Originally uploaded by mo pie

But not only did they photoshop the album cover, she doesn’t mind. She even says so on her blog:

we decided the cover of the album and just in case you haven’t seen it i’ll post it! it’s very colorful and they have definitely photo-shopped the crap out of me but i don’t care haha! whoever she is, she looks great ha!

Oh dear. I mean it’s nice that she’s saying “hey, this isn’t me” but at the same time, I wish she wasn’t being put in that position in the first place. mamaVISION points out one of the other downsides:

Wouldn’t you feel weird cruising around town having people see you in real life and think ing”Wow, she doesn’t look like that cover? She sure as hell is not as pretty.”

Allowing this fake-ery (if that is even a word) is just asking for it. Asking for criticism. Inviting public analysis. And generally just, well, an unwise move.

I lived this crap and it sucks. As a model, you have these amazing pictures produced of yourself. It made me feel like an impostor. The model version becomes your evil twin. The one everyone thinks you are…but are then disappointed when they see the real you.

I mean don’t get me wrong, I love Kelly and am going to buy the hell out of this album immediately. And a certain degree of photoshopping is of course inevitable. But my god people, can we let a gorgeous and curvy girl be gorgeously curvy for once?

Mandisa, a former contestant on American Idol, has an album coming out on March 24. She has also lost 75 pounds “without surgery” as the media always takes pains to point out. And is now talking about it in People magazine.

Following a routine of cardio workouts five days a week, a diet heavy on salads, lean meats and fiber, and counseling to work on her childhood issues, she’s dropped more than 75 lbs. “Being able to fit into clothes I couldn’t before is great,” she says. “To be able to walk into a room and not feel self-conscious, I don’t ever remember feeling this way.”

She plans to continue her new routine for life but remains realistic. “I want to be healthy, and I believe my body will get to whatever it’s supposed to be,” she says. “It could be a size 8 – but personally I like a girl with a little meat on her bones! I don’t need to look like the models on the magazine covers in order to be beautiful.”

I have mixed feelings whenever I hear about something like this: sadness that she couldn’t feel “self-confident” and “free” and unselfconscious before she lost weight; apprehension that as her weight cycles, she’s going to start on this cycle of headlines: MANDISA GAINS WEIGHT BACK! MANDISA DRAMATIC WEIGHT LOSS! MANDISA GETTING FAT! ala Carnie Wilson and ten zillion other celebrities who have been in this position; compassion for what she went through being mocked by the likes of Simon Cowell for her weight on national television; happy that she’s supposedly not dieting herself down to a stick (and that she’s using size 8 as her benchmark of skinnyness, not size 0); sadness that another fat-chick icon is not quite such a fat-chick icon anymore; not wanting her on my team anyway because didn’t she turn out to be a homophobe; feeling that it’s none of my business what size her body is.

Mandisa also linked her own weight to being sexually abused, a link that we’ve talked about before:

The Grammy-nominated Christian singer’s weight battle was borne of early trauma – she was sexually molested as a child and raped at 16. “A lot of girls turn to men to fill that void and some turn to drugs. I turned to food as my drug of choice.”

I am very happy, at least, that she’s going to therapy to work through these issues, and have nothing but sympathy for her as far as that’s concerned.

Via CDAN (who also has a picture of curvy Kelly Clarkson in that entry… Kelly! You are hot!).

This comes from a metal label where, I have it on good authority, “you can count the number of women on the fingers of one hand and most of the people on the label are decidedly chunky hairy dudes”. Amanda’s fans are quite rightly outraged by this shoddy, sexist behaviour and have begun a Rebellyon, posting pictures of their own bellies on fan forum Shadowbox and sending them to Roadrunner in protest.

I first heard about The Rebellyon when my husband (who is going to see Amanda Palmer and her sexy belly in concert tomorrow night, as it happens) forwarded me the link. From Rebellyon:

This issue is not just about Amanda Palmer’s belly. This issue is about all the bellies of the world: big, small, hairy, stretch-marked, scarred, pregnant; every single belly. The aim is to reclaim the belly, to promote a healthy body image for everyone (not just females) and to protest against the “barbie dolling” of artists by record companies and the media…

We promote healthy body images! Love your bellies! All shapes, sizes and colours! What was once only a protest has grown in to a movement to promote healthy body image. The Rebellyon is devoted to getting people comfortable with their bodies.

Whenever I hear about a new hot music star (most recent examples: Leona Lewis and Taylor Swift) they inevitably turn out to be very thin and very sterotypically beautiful. The only fat or even chubby chicks who seem to end up having music careers are the few who have enough talent to somehow make it onto American Idol. And yet they are few and far between.

This whole phenomenon completely baffles and irritates me. We get 100 Jessica Simpsons for one Beth Ditto; regardless of those singers’ relative merits, the disparity there between conventionally and unconventionally attractive music stars is disturbing. Music is supposed to be about who can sing, not adhere to the ridiculously flawed beauty ideal; but somehow, I feel like these days, if you’re a woman, you have to be Maxim-magazine-bramded “hot” to be successful. Please, tell me I’m wrong.