A Second Skin You Don't Need

Ah, winter. Holidays, hot chocolate, snuggling by the fire--and fur.

This last is possibly my least favorite part of winter. I am anti-fur, and this can be a problem for someone who a) works in an office located in Manhattan's fur district, and b) rides a train to work that originates in Brighton Beach, a predominately Russian neighborhood where fur is part of the culture. I get great pleasure in both cases walking around with my "no fur" button. The best is when I sit myself down next to a lady covered head to toe in fur with my button front and center. It's worth it to watch her squirm, and to see the looks on the other passenger's faces.

But, being anti-fur can be difficult for a pin-up. Fur is incredibly soft and silky, and associated with sex and luxury, but it is also totally inhumane. My friend at work loves her furs, and the first time she saw me with my no-fur button last winter she asked why I was against fur.

"The animals are dead already," she said.

"Yes," I answered, "because they've been slaughtered, in some cases skinned alive, just to make a coat."

"Really?" she said, her eyes wide as saucers. "I thought they used animals that were already dead."

I further explained to her that no, her coat was not made from roadkill picked up off the highway, and also that there is no reason for wearing fur, as there are plenty of synthetic fabrics available that very closely mimic the look and feel of fur without any of the cruelty. Animals on fur farms are killed using some of the same brutal methods that Michael Vick employed to kill dogs at his Bad Newz Kennelz, including electrocution, drowning and strangulation. No living creature deserves to be treated this way for the sake of a fancy coat. Fundamentally, it's just disrespect for life.

The good news is that the no-fur movement continues to gain ground. Last month, luxury retailer Henri Bendel announced it would no longer sell fur products in its stores, joining fur-free companies like Polo Ralph Lauren, J. Crew, Ann Taylor and others. The celebrity movement against fur is also huge and includes names like Sarah Jessica Parker, Pamela Anderson, Eva Mendes, Christy Turlington and Gisele Bundchen. Each of these women are examples that being a pin-up does not have to include cruelty. (One name I wish I could add to this list is Dita von Teese, who continues to wear furs. I wish she would stop.) If you've got to have the look, go faux. I myself do not, because I believe that faux fur continues to propagate the image of fur as sexy, but I still support faux, as it is still far preferable to the alternative.

There are other materials that are also cited for their cruelty to animals, like leather and some wools. I confess here that I do own and wear both leather and wool garments, but it is a practice I am working to stop for myself. I love feathers, although I don't own any, but was recently pleasantly surprised when I contacted a feather retailer who told me that (at least in the case of peacocks), the feathers are harvested after molting and not forcibly ripped from the bird. I pick on fur because I find it unexcusable. Synthetic leather has never held up for me like real leather, and I am only now finding out about cruel wool practices, but we live, we learn, and we each have the power to change. Be responsible, and check up on the stores where you frequently shop. When shopping for makeup, find out if testing is conducted on animals. Time consuming? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.

Here are some other resources to help quell a habit of animal cruelty products:

• PETA's Shopping Guide to Compassionate Clothing
• PETA Mall
• Choose Cruelty Free--a listing of companies tat don't test on animals
• Request PETA's free wallet-sized Cruelty Free Pocket Shopping Guide

Please feel free to share other cruelty free resources with me and everyone else here--then have fun shopping like a sexy and socially conscientious pin-up!

Pin-up Palin at your peril

I never intended this to be a place for political rhetoric, but given that a) sex/iness has injected itself into the presidential campaign, and b) I'll be furious if I have to keep paying taxes to a Bush-esque administration, all those intentions are out the window. Ever since John McCain picked her as his running mate, Sarah Palin has been the object of ridicule and/or adoration in America. Love her or hate her, the consensus seems to be that she's newsworthy--and also that she's hot. Fellow pin-ups, this is where I draw the line.

I don't care how cute her face is when she wrinkles her nose, or what you imagine she's thinking when she winks at you while debating foreign policy with an opponent who has 36 years of experience in the United States Senate compared to her 20 months in the Alaska statehouse as governor. I don't care about who made her glasses, or how she does her hair, or what color lipstick a pitbull wears. It has nothing to do with who she is, but unfortunately, the fact that she's pretty almost seems to be bigger news that anything she might do in the White House. And the more people hold her up as a thing of beauty, the sicker it makes me.

How can a woman who, at the very least, supported a local policy that women to pay for their own rape kits be considered beautiful? When a woman's body has been the scene of a crime, she should be able to turn to governing powers to help solve that crime, instead of making it as difficult as possible to even report it. Field dressing a moose is not attractive. Aerial hunting is hideous. Blaming the media for daring to ask her such mind-boggling questions as, "What are some magazines you read?" is an act of cowardice unbecoming of a lady, not to mention a leader. Maligning the community organizers who have made this country great by thinking globally and acting locally is plain ignorant, and the use of her office to pursue a personal vendetta is childish.

Tina Fey? Pin-up. Sarah Palin? Absolutely not. I refuse to accept the perpetuation of a myth that beauty and brains are unrelated or that they cannot coexist. Molding her as an object of sex is nothing but a distraction, and she is only reaffirming the same stereotypes that made it so hard for women to break into national politics in the first place. She has been given every chance to show us her abilities as a politician, but instead all we've seen is a scripted talking head. I understand many people consider having a woman on the Republican ticket to be a step forward. In this case, however, it is a giant leap back.

A Bid for Halloween Every Day (with taste)

It's an unfortunate thing that I work in a mall. More precisely, my office is located in a mall, and although there are many reasons why this is such a bad thing, one of them happens to be the state of the mall at this time of year. I imagine it's the same for most shopping malls now, where almost every teen clothing store sections off a part of their shop to outfit young ladies for Sluts on Parade--I mean, Halloween.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about costumes. It's fun to get dressed up, and be someone else for a bit. By the end of it, you've usually learned something new about yourself, and so it can be a truly enriching experience. What fascinates me about Halloween is how so many girls choose to dress as something sexy. When given the chance to be anyone for one night, when given the chance to be held even a little unaccountable for your actions because you were playing a part, most women gravitate towards an overt expression of super-charged sexuality. Factor in that the typical male Halloween costume centers on juvenile humor or gore (or both), and it's an interesting way to guess at who we wish we could be in a world with no consequences.

What's wrong with being sexy on a regular basis? Most of the girls I see on Halloween don't even wear their sexiness well, as they seem to have little idea of how to maximize their assets and dress for their shape. (See ass-baring jeans, tummy rolls breaking out of midriff shirts, birth canals made visible by mini-skirts.) I wonder if this idea that sexy = maximum skin display has something to do with a lack of practice, and perhaps that is why so many women come off looking more like a foal learning to walk instead of a confident tigress who knows what she wants.

(Another great post on Halloween and sex can be found on Chelsea Girl's blog, linked from my naughty drawer. Check out Dispatches from Strip Nation, Part I, Halloween.)