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There are always plenty of articles lamenting how advertising and media in the US gives us all body image issues. This isn’t meant to be one of them. It’s just some random observations I’ve made recently:

Recently, my husband and I took the kids to a circus that was in town. It wasn’t the fanciest circus in the world, but the kids loved the experience, and that’s what matters. One of the things I noticed was that several of the performers seemed to be significantly older than what I expected. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with a lion-tamer in his 50 to 60s. It’s just not what I anticipate. Society has taught me that lion tamers should be in their 30s and heavily muscled. However, if you think about it, it’s very impressive to have a middle aged lion-tamer. It implies he’s good enough to have gone this long without getting eaten by one of the lions.

When I watched the Swedish film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I was slightly surprised with some of the choices of actresses. I remember thinking, “Wow. There’s no way an actress who looks like that would be cast in the US version”, because in the US, we tend to have a more narrow view of attractiveness. It’s almost as if the Swedish entertainment industry has acknowledged that average looking people have sex too.

For all the Poetry in Yarn photo shoots I’ve done so far I’ve asked friends to be the models. They always seem slightly taken aback that I would choose them. It’s as if there is some secret little voice that has been put in their heads saying, “Me? Model? No one who looks like me would ever model!” So far, they always agree, and it’s great to see how confident these women become at the photo shoot. I like that I’m showing my patterns on a variety of body types, because knitters and crocheters really do come in all shapes and sizes. And that’s nothing to be surprised about.