Nancy Upton is my newest hero(ine)

Hello friends (/people who found this blog by googling ‘foreskin’),

First of all, I apologize unreservedly for my recent absence from the internets, and the resulting dullness of this here blog.  I’ve spent the entire summer staring into my computer screen, editing my MS, and I’ve only just handed the latest (never say finished) version in to my agent, so I’ve been a bit preoccupied.  Nonetheless, I’m slowly deflating, stress-wise, and will hopefully have interesting things to say soon, once the grey matter in my skull has sufficiently replenished itself.

In the meantime, check out this amazing woman, Nancy Upton.  Apparently (I hadn’t caught wind of it because I live an isolated European existence) American Apparel, otherwise known as That Shithole With The Crappy Expensive Clothes And Bad Attitude Toward Sizing, recently ran a contest looking for plus-size models for their new range of larger sizes (they’re branching out from their usual teeny-medium (also known to AA as ‘L’). And apparently the wording of the contest was really condescending and offensive.

They’ve since taken the page down, so I don’t know for sure what they said, but it was bad enough to incite Nancy to use her time, money, and photography connections (not to mention her awesome sense of humor and social justice) to enter the competition with some particularly thought-provoking photos.

Go to Nancy’s website to see the pics, which I find hilarious and touchingly honest and brave.  She’s beautiful and clever, folks – the hot bod is just the icing on the cake.

PS if you want to read some of the public discourse on this issue, there’s a forum here where I’ll probably spend the rest of the night obsessively reading everyone and her mother’s opinion.

PPS yes, that is what a size 12 looks like.  I’m a size 12, so I should know (although my hips are wider and, alas, my breasts are much smaller).

PPPS/UPDATE: the contest page IS still up, just not the link I’d tried.  And yes, the language they use is totally condescending and offensive.  We’re not teacup poodles.