Dov Charney Owns Your Eyebrows

An American Apparel employee contacted Jezebel last week regarding an in-house newsletter distributed by company head Dov Charney. Item #29 in Charney's newsletter is titled "Bad Eye Brows VS. Good Eye Brows" and provides photographic examples of each.

The anonymous employee wrote to Jezebel, "As an American Apparel employee I am appalled at being told how I have to groom my eyebrows. I am also appalled that this rule seems only for women. I love the idea of "made in USA," but i do not love the idea of being told how to wear my eyebrows by a disgusting creep." Most workplaces do have guidelines for acceptable standards of employee appearance. One might even argue that similar standards are required of men in that some workplaces require men to be clean shaven.

On that note, here's a picture of Dov Charney:
This isn't Charney's first crack at regulating employee appearance this year. Back in July another American Apparel tipster wrote to Gawker: "Our company holds weekly conference calls that every store manager world/nation wide are required to tune into. We discuss sales, which stores need displays, which items are doing well, etc.

Summer is supposed to be a great sales season for AA. Needless to say, with the state of the economy, sales haven't been going so well. Dov usually gets on the conference calls and talks to people, but one week, he went on a huge tirade and made stores that weren't doing well send in group photos. Why, you ask? He made store managers across the country take group photos of their employees so that he could personally judge people based on looks. He is tightening the AA 'aesthetic,' and anyone that he deems not good-looking enough to work there, is encouraged to be fired. This is blatant discrimination based on looks.

Dov personally judged each person in group photos that were sent in, and if you weren't to his liking, then boy... watch out. The comments that he made were raging from childish ones to insulting ones. Managers that don't comply with these new standards are afraid of losing their jobs. Employees who aren't up to Dov's "look" and whose work ethic is "just ok" are being targeted and scrutinized and the minute they make small mistakes, they are being fired. But it's only because Dov wants to weed out the "ugly people." It's ironic that he would rather have gorgeous slackers who don't move the product [or lift a finger] working there than normal looking people who are really aren't that bad looking, but are A+ sellers and great at customer service. The real irony here is that he is no [looker], himself. He's asking for a class-action lawsuit and i hope that when it rains, it rains hard. Worst place to work, ever. This is happening at many stores across the country."

Charney fired back by contacting the Globe and Mail denying the allegations made by the anonymous tipster. "At American Apparel, we strive to hire salespeople who have an enthusiasm for fashion and retail and who themselves have good fashion sense," Charney said. "But this does not necessarily mean they have to be physically attractive."

Maybe American Apparel employees should jump ship to Abercrombie & Fitch... unless of course they have prosthetic limbs.

Drew Barrymore "Not Completely Sober"

In a recent interview with Parade magazine Drew Barrymore confessed that she's not completely sober after spending the majority of her childhood and teenage years struggling with drugs and alcohol.

"No, I'm not [completely sober]. And I don't claim to be — quite the opposite. I've tried to find the balance. I hope it's balanced."

Drew's issues with addiction reportedly began at age 9 when she first tasted alcohol and began smoking. A regular at Studio 54, Drew soon graduated to harder drugs, smoking marijuana at 12 and snorting cocaine at 13. Drew first entered rehab at the tender age of 12. After discharge Drew attempted suicide and entered rehab again at age 13.

I find this interesting because most rehabilitation and treatment centers discourage continued use of alcohol and drugs after treatment and provide tools to recovering addicts to help them resist partaking in substance use. There are maintenance/harm reduction focused programs which exist such as Moderation Management and DrinkWise that do not require addicts to completely abstain following treatment.

A 2002 American follow-up study of alcohol-dependant individuals conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) revealed that 17.7% of individuals diagnosed as alcohol dependent more than one year prior returned to low-risk drinking. However, this group showed fewer initial symptoms of dependency. A follow-up study, using the same NESARC subjects that were judged to be in remission in 2001-2002, examined the rates of return to problem drinking in 2004-2005. The major conclusion made by the authors of this NIAAA study was "Abstinence represents the most stable form of remission for most recovering alcoholics".

So the question is, can recovering addicts ever return to moderate substance use or are most bound to relapse?

Making a Mountain of a Molehill

Remember last year when Sarah Jessica Parker was seen sans mole and everyone freaked out? (A quick google search of "SJP mole" will provide enough results for you to refresh your memory.) Sarah Jessica Parker finally addressed her decision to remove her mole on David Letterman (video).

In the interview, Parker claims her decision to remove the mole wasn't planned far in advance - that she never had objections to it but she just didn't care for it. Parker recalled that a woman approached her on the beach saying, "I'm so sorry but I don't know why you did that! That was your signature!"

Sarah reflected, "My mole was my signature? Isn't my brain my signature?" She admits that all she could think about for the next 15 minutes was that she may have made a terrible mistake.

While this is sort of a funny story it illustrates that women's bodies (celebrity or not) are often regarded as belonging to the public. The co-optation of women's bodies is apparent from just a cursory glance at the magazines at the supermarket check-out. The covers are filled with headlines reporting who is pregnant, who dropped the baby weight, who had plastic surgery and so on. It is clear that we are a nation obsessed with the changes in the bodies of women we sexualize.

The comments made by the woman at the beach are indicative of how much the public invests in celebrity bodies. Recall the public reaction when Jennifer Grey got a nose job or when Keri Russell cut her hair short. Both women experienced EXTREME backlash over their choice to modify their appearances. Grey had difficulty landing new acting jobs and Russell was essentially blamed for the huge drop in ratings for the series "Felicity". Consequently new policies were created that required hairstyle changes to be approved by network executives.

This begs the question, to what extent do women have ownership of their bodies?

Sex = Power?

The photo above is from Rihanna's recent interview with men's magazine GQ (the full interview can be found at http://www.gq.com/women/photos/201001/rihanna-video-photos).

Rihanna has been adept at provoking audiences as of late, and no doubt these photos are meant to accompany and illustrate the theme of her new album entitled "Rated R". The use of one's sexuality to sell themselves sparks that old debate about whether this sort of thing is to be seen as empowerment or exploitation of the self. I've found myself on both sides of this debate from time to time, but what interests me the most in Rihanna's case is that this is all on the heels of her Diane Sawyer interview in which she finally addressed ex-boyfriend Chris Brown and the abuse she endured. (In fact, the Sawyer interview hadn't even aired when the GQ interview took place.)

Women often say that they feel their power is in their sexuality. I would make an educated guess that Rihanna felt a loss of power throughout her abusive relationship and in the months that followed once news of the abuse went public. She was criticized for her return to Chris Brown following the abuse and in the Sawyer interview it seemed that she felt a bit of shame in her decision to take him back. As we all know, she did eventually decide to end the relationship.

I have to wonder if her choice to market herself as a "good girl gone bad" is her way of empowering herself again. If there is power in sexuality, then might she be re-asserting herself through these racy photographs and provocative lyrics?

Some snippets from the GQ interview:
"On another track, she talks about getting her hair pulled during sex."

"Rihanna's image—so carefully crafted and handled and managed from the moment she was plucked, at age 15, from a girl group in Barbados by a producer who would squire her to his home in Stamford, Connecticut, get her a record deal with Def Jam, and send her on her way to superstardom—had gotten all twisted up in the "Chris Brown thing." In the record business, domestic violence isn't just a tragedy; it's an image crisis. So now Team Rihanna had to decide how to "handle it." Their plan was this: She'd talk about it for the release of the album. She'd do Diane and Glamour and announce that she wanted to help young women who'd been in her position. "

"[Interviewer]Okay. Well then. How did the cover shoot go? I heard the pictures are really hot.
[Rihanna][giggles] It's very sexy, yeah. At one point [chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group] L.A. Reid came into the shoot, and he was like, "Rihanna, put some fucking clothes on!"


Maybe I'm just reading waaaay too much into this and she is just following the adage "sex sells" like so many other young female starlets.

What do you think? Is Rihanna using her sexuality to regain some sense of power? Or is this as simple as the idea that sex will sell her image and albums?

Welcome to Fame and Flaws

This is a blog dedicated to the examination of real or perceived body image struggles, addictions and insecurities of celebrities and everyday people. This blog will cover a wide range of issues, including (but not limited to) body image, healthy and disordered eating, exercise, body dysmorphia, rehabilitation and relapse. It is not my intention to inundate the internet with yet another celebrity weight watch blog, nor is it my intention to provide "thinspiration" for anyone looking for such a thing. It is also not my intention to criticize celebrities undergoing difficult times during their moment in the spotlight. To the contrary, I find flaws make celebrities and reality stars relatable and interesting to watch. I find myself drawn to people (in real life and on the tv screen) that have imperfections and allow themselves to be vulnerable in a sincere manner. I would rather watch Intervention, Celeb Rehab or Hoarders than Entertainment Tonight or eTalk.

A little about me: I am a Psychology graduate and my areas of interest include disordered eating, body dysmorphia, addiction, gender identity and most recently the "reborn" baby phenomenon.