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• 14:53 @geekchick - Ack :( #
• 14:53 Mixed Emotion Theater: pretty spring weather is aggravating my allergies! #
• 14:55 RT @mactavish: RT @Alyssa_Milano: 10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse bit.ly/ck0iDg (via @manikarthik) <-I am guilty of several #
• 19:19 RT @digitalsista: H1n1 shots are being offered at the gates when you land at IAD <- saw same @ BWI in Dec. #
• 19:21 RT @Irishboy51: May this fine, illegally brewed poitín only blind one out of every four of us. #newtoasts #
• 22:26 Went through a few agility exercises. Not sure I feel agile, or worked out :/ #

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alternative to...what, exactly?

Just discovered the Coilhouse blog and it's odd, beautiful, and sometimes thought provoking archives.

One that had me nodding particularly was What does Alt Model Even Mean?. The author rightly points out that even the most "freakish" of alternative models still adheres to at least some mainstream beauty standards: with rare exceptions most are young, thin, and white. IMHO the most obvious exceptions are the "plus size" (I use quotes because a US size 8 is considered heavy in the modeling world) models, who still have thick hair and good skin.

Which makes sense, I suppose: IIRC (can't cite source, regrettably), across all time periods and places, the constants for female beauty are unblemished skin, straight, full set of teeth, clear eyes - humans are animals and it's hard to get outside of that.

Still, I do wonder why Coilhouse's Top 10 Most Preternaturally Beautiful Men still seems to show more variety of facial features, style, and build than their Top 7 Icons of (female) Alien Beauty. To be fair, the uniformity of the latter listing might have a lot to do with styling and photography (the author even notes that #s 3 and 4 look very much alike). Also IMHO most of these women don't look particularly alien, outside the aforementioned styling/photos (except maybe the last, assuming she's not 'shopped).