According to an article in Mail Online, Psychologists are updating their bible, The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM, and apparently the new version, the fourth,  is going to be 7 times larger than the original of 1952 and there’s a bit of a hoohah going on!

Read more on Labelmania!(Mark)…

When I was at college doing A level History, my rather brilliant teacher, Mr Biggins, devoted an entire lesson to educating us about how propaganda didn’t suddenly cease with the collapse of the Third Reich. We might have scoffed at how anyone could be so easily influenced as to be taken in by a cartoon of a Jew/rat hybrid creature, but in fact, we learned, we were being just as manipulated, each and every day.

Read more on Fat-Scapegoating: The New Trend for the Teenies (Natasha)…

As I made my way into the Winning Minds office today, the icy winds pounded furiously against my shivering skin and the depressing gun-metal grey winter sky loomed menacingly over the frosty earth beneath. However, despite Mother Nature doing her utmost to dampen my spirits, I positively skipped through the streets of Stortford, smiling at bemused strangers whilst providing my own imaginary world of pathetic fallacy in my mind– a smiling sunshine wearing sunglasses like in the Vitalite advert, friendly blue skies, birds twittering contentedly in the branches overhead etc.

Read more on Sun in the Sky You Know How I Fee-eeel (Natasha)…

Lost Generation

We, the baby boomers have done the damage…to society, to the earth…and our children have to pick up the pieces.

Young people today do indeed feel disillusioned by the world they’ve been brought into. Difficult to blame them really: family breakdown, depression, disrespect, greed, selfishness, environmental degradation are the norm. And yet we’re wealthier than we’ve ever been. There can be no doubt that humanity has taken a hugely wrong turn.

Read more on Lost Generation (Mark)…

Having worked myself up into a veritable frenzy of excitement at the prospect of reading the Times Style Magazine piece on the “curvelution”, I disappointingly found it to be the editorial equivalent of eating a penguin biscuit bar when you’re hankering after a Dairy Milk – It simply didn’t hit the spot.

Read more on An Own Goal in the Beauty Battle (Natasha)…

On the days when I have the time and inclination, I like to create a look for myself inspired by the sirens of the 50s – Strong of brow, long of lash, and pout-y of lip. I like to tease my hair into soft curls and pop on something which speaks of both strength and femininity, enhances my hourglass frame and hints at sexuality, without being overt. Yes, when I can be bothered, this is my “look” (and if I happen to dash out the door, hair still damp, fresh of face, wearing odd socks, furiously typing last minute emails, sending text messages, flinging the curtains back, looking with dismay at last night’s washing up and muttering “b*gger, b*gger, b*gger” under my breath, which is often the case, that doesn’t matter either, because in my mind I’m still 50s siren lady).

Read more on Memoires of a Glamour Puss (Natasha)…

Last week’s Sunday Times article on the film Avatar was a real eye-opener. Apparently the film is causing all sorts of small-minded, parochial outrage particularly in America.

• David Brooks, a rightwing New York Times columnist finds the film offensive with the hero “going native” and leading a “righteous crusade against his own rotten civilisation”.

Read more on Avatar: A Wake-Up Call For Humanity (Mark)…

Recent propaganda would have us believe that anyone under the age of 18 is a shameless thug, desperate to gain their coveted ASBO by committing unprovoked acts of violence on unsuspecting, law abiding citizens. It’s a classic example of the minority being hyperbolized into a stereotype by a scaremongering media campaign which has rendered some people in the UK too frightened to leave their homes after dark.

Read more on Teach Them Well and Let Them Lead The Way (Natasha)…

Yesterday, at stupid-o-clock for a “school night” (11.45pm), I was invited to debate “is curvy the new skinny?” on Eddie Nestor’s late night BBC Radio London show.

Being, as I am, of an Amazonian build, and embodying the notion of genuinely curvy (my bust and hips are 12 inches bigger than my waist), people immediately expect me to be vehemently and unapologetically in the red corner of curviness, a foot soldier for the “curvelution”. In many ways, I am, but not for the reasons you might think. To solely champion curvaceous beauty would contradict my entire stance in the debate: I applaud any image or media message which presents us with something undeniably beautiful, but not in the traditional (and very narrow) sense of the word. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing someone who conveys an unrepentant sense of pride in who they are, "flaws" and all, someone interesting-looking, not bowing to the prevailing Barbie-like beauty aesthetic.

Read more on Is Curvy the New Skinny? – An Inherently Flawed Question (Natasha)…

Hooked on Happy Pills

I’m afraid this is a classic example of modern medicine treating the symptoms and not the causes! There’s been a couple of articles in the Daily Mail this week about anti-depressants and both shake this cornerstone of current British medical treatment in the UK. At last, given that the articles are based around a scientific research study, there may be a crack in the rather complacent way that the medical profession deal with depression.

Read more on Hooked on Happy Pills (Mark)…