On this day in history...

91 years ago, the 19th amendment to the constitution was certified giving women the right to vote!

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any States on account of sex.  The Congress shall have the power by appropriate legislation to enforce the provisions of this article."

Votes for women were first seriously proposed in the United States in 1848 at Women`s Rights Convention.  
Battles for women`s suffrage were won state-by-state by the early 20th century as Alice Paul and the movement began staging demonstrations, marches, and going to jail. 
Thousands of ordinary women took part in these.  In 1913, 8,000 women marched on President Woodrow Wilson`s inauguration day. 200 were injured in the violence that broke out. 
 During his second inaugural in 1917, Alice Paul led a march around the White House.
The well-organized and well-funded anti-suffrage movement argued that most women didn`t want the vote, and they were probably not qualifed to exercise it anyway.   
The Women`s movement argued with humor when they wrote:

Why we don`t want Men to Vote.

*Because man`s place is in the Army.

*Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.

*Because if men should adopt peaceable methods, women will no longer look up to them.

* Because men are too emotional to vote.  Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government.

When thirty-five of the necessary thirty-six states had ratified the amendment, the battle came to Nashville Tennessee.  Anti and pro suffrage forces from around the country descended on the town, and on August 18th, 1920, the final vote was secheduled.  One young legislator, 24 year-old Harry Burn had voted with the anti-vote forces up to that time.  But his mother had urged that he vote for the amendment and for suffrage.  When he saw the vote was close, and if he voted anti-suffrage, it would be tied 48 ot 48, he decided to vote as his Mother had urged him, for the right of Women to vote!

 So Tennessee became the deciding 36th state to ratify it!

And so on August 26th, 1920,the Nineteenth Amendment became law.

Woo-hoo congrats Ladies,
Now lets make sure we use our voice that these strong women before us fought so hard for! I just thought this was a little fun fact for the day. And a reminder that anything worth having is worth fighting for! Hopefully we can use these same classy tatcics to win the battle of hate over same sex marriages and rights!  
Enjoy! 
XX-D

The Price of Beauty

Who decides what is beautiful? 

Who gets to decide what beauty is? 

Can beauty be defined by age, gender, color, body shape or size? 

More IMPORTANTLY who gets to decide?

The media tends to play a MASSIVE role in defining what a woman should be like.

The fact is sex sells, especially a sexy woman.  

They take a naturally beautiful girl and photoshop her to be their version of "perfect"

 (see Britney photo)

I mean they erased her cellulite-- gosh forbid a woman with 2 kids would have cellulite! 

This leads young girls into believing that what they see on a magazine is natural, and thats what they need to look like. 

Which puts more pressure on girls. 

Some of which turn to plastic surgery...

"Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery."

FACT:  It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion

BILLIONS DOLLARS a YEAR is going to tell us we aren't good enough?!!? WOW!

"The average size for a woman in this country is a 12, so technically, "plus-sized" starts at 14. In the modeling industry, however, models larger than a size 4 usually find more work doing plus-sized."  
Larger than a size 4 are you kidding me?! 
And let's discuss this whole "plus-sized" term; Could anything sound MORE degrading?! 
The fact IS you CAN be healthy and beautiful without being a size 4.  
It's ideas like this that causes eating disorders, such as bulimia or anorexia. In fact One out of every 100 adolescent girls has the disorder. Approximately 95% of those affected by anorexia are female, most often teenage girls, but males can develop the disorder as well.
Maybe our country as a WHOLE needs to start thinking this way: "plus-sized" is just average-sized, healthy women. Just like straight size models, who represent average women, are much, much smaller; plus-sized models are not actually plus-sized women, we're just bigger than the average model.

This PLUS SIZE bra AD was banned from TV recently for being "too sexy" 

REALLY?!?!

BUT THIS ISNT "TOO SEXY"....

ridiculous. absolutely ridiculous. 

Listen up girls- you ARE beautiful no matter what size, race, age you are! If your curvy- embrace it! If your skinny- EMBACE IT! Love yourself for WHO YOU ARE. Thats more important. 
XO- D

Sources:
/www.stylelist.com/2009/10/14/naked-plus-size-model-jennie-runk-glamour-photo-shoot
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm
http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/06/29/global.beauty.culture/index.html?hpt=hp_c2