Tim Abbott

What Matters Now

Seth Godin asked over 70 writers and thinkers to share an idea and then published it as an ebook which you can download for free here.
I downloaded it a couple of days ago. Very inspiring indeed.

Girls and body image

Half of secondary school girls considering cosmetic surgery, Guides study finds.

This new study for Girl Guides found that 46 per cent of girls aged 11 to 16, and 50 per cent of girls aged 16 to 21 would consider cosmetic surgery to make themselves thinner or prettier. And 42 per cent of girls aged 11 to 16 were controlling to excess what they eat to stay slim.

What was particularly concerning was that the impact of negative body image seemed to be happening even before puberty. While 60 per cent of 7 to 9-year-old girls said that they were very happy with their appearance, the figure dropped to 27 per cent for 10 and 11-year-old girls. Which suggests that by the time we first meet them in secondary school at Year 7, about three quarters of girls are already uncomfortable about the way they look.

Just to explain the apparent mild fixation with body image on this blog, we're working on a new project for schools that addresses this area. More news soon.

Dunbar's number, or The Monkeysphere

Seth Godin on Dunbar's number.

There's a limit to the number of people with whom we can effectively maintain a relationship and that number is a maximum of about 150. Interesting that the gathering of Jesus' followers after his ascension numbered about 120.

There's a brilliant exposition of this theory by David Wong, What is the monkeysphere? (some-rude-words alert) which roots it in everyday life, even if you don't entirely agree with all of David's conclusions.

Something happens when we get more than 150 people together - we lose touch. Think about the churches you know. What do the ones with up to about 120 people feel like compared with the ones that have 180 or more? Interesting!

Creativity and Creeds

"The Christian movement which ditches the creeds and covenants in favor of total experimentation finds itself looking less and less Christian. The movement which favors creeds at the expense of innovation finds itself theologically correct yet culturally irrelevant. However movements which are able to find the perfect point of tension between creativity and creeds have the ability to become something truly special."

Creativity and Creeds by Mark Sayers

Body Image - 1

By now you've probably seen this image and the story behind it circulating on the web.

It is, allegedly, a Ralph Lauren ad featuring a ridiculously photoshopped model, Fillippa Hamilton. (Here she is on the Ralph Lauren web site looking relatively normal) As the image started circulating Lauren started issuing DMCA takedown notices to offenders (will they be calling here I wonder?)

Boing Boing has a full rundown of events.

Going after companies who posted the image inevitably invokes the Streisand Effect whereby an attempt to censor stimulates the multiplication of the information across the internet. Lauren subsequently admitted that they were indeed responsible for the "poor imaging and retouching" and that they have "addressed the problem".

There are a whole lot of unanswered questions, like, Who did the original artwork? and, Who signed off this image for publication? Surely no fashion house with the resources of RL would allow an image like this out by mistake. And no one seems to have been able to come up with the original ad in print or on the web. All of which makes me wonder what's really going on...


UPDATE, 15 Oct
Well, it seems the original of this ad was a display poster for a Japanese department store. But no matter, Fillippa Hamilton has now been sacked by Ralph Lauren "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us" which apparently means she was too fat. Hamilton is a UK size 8. More details from The Times

Fake and real protests from Christians

Phil Cooke reports on a Christian protest that wasn't.  Video game maker Electronic Arts staged a fake Christian protest to market a new third person action game, "Dante's Inferno" hiring in actors with placards and setting up a fake Christian website.

If ever the sub-culture of Christian protest needed a wake up call, perhaps this is it. If our most potent protests achieve so much free publicity for the very thing we find offensive (and I don't deny that some things are genuinely offensive to Christians) perhaps it's time to look again at how we make our feelings known in public. I wonder what really makes a positive difference to people outside the church, a big protest about something, or lots of Christians getting together to do something that will be a blessing to their area. I know which one I'd rather be involved in.

So where does that leave the sticky issue of things that happen that really are offensive to most Christians? If I'm to follow the way of Jesus, I can't help feeling he didn't leave me much useful advice about how to protest effectively, though he did mention that we are blessed when people have a go at us.

Perhaps the trouble is that when we protest in public we end up looking worse than the thing we're protesting about. The protests organised by Steven Green and Christian Voice was the best gift of free publicity that Jerry Springer: The Opera could have wished for. So it's no wonder that the marketing industry has finally cottoned on to the immense promotional power of a big Christian protest.

I expect we'll see a few more of these 'fake Christian' protest things. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if some marketing companies now work to deliberately stir up a Christian protest in advance of the launch of a new product. After all, that would achieve all the same marketing objectives at even lower cost. Where does that leave real Christians who are genuinely offended by something that strikes at our faith and at the Biblical world view?

If we shout at the world about things we find offensive, like standing in a big crowd all pointing at an abomination and saying, "Look at that," it should come as no surprise that people take a greater interest in the thing we're pointing at.
May I suggest that the best alternative to shouting at the world is a conversation with the person next to us. They're more likely to listen, to dialogue, to think about the issues and perhaps even to agree with us

The influence of TV

The all pervasive influence of TV has claimed another victim.

My 19 year old beer connoisseur son has been watching back to back episodes of Frasier and has thus been inspired to start drinking sherry. As a responsible father I have felt it necessary to help him in his research.

We need a revolution of the self

Wise words from Mark Sayers about what's missing in our conversation about the reimagining of church.

Links for today - 080312

Here are some links to useful stuff and fun stuff...

First the fun stuff;

Stuff White People Like  Wryly observed commentary on our middle class western lifestyle.
[Thanks Joel]

Useful stuff;

Free Mac Software does exactly what it says. Simon Elliott is a teacher in Cornwall and the brains behind thefreemac

And dafont is a site with nearly 8000 free or nearly free fonts all neatly organised and regularly updated.
[Thanks Tom]

Unphotogenic

Research by Canon (UK) reveals that 86% of Brits believe they're unphotogenic. The report goes into greater detail about our greatest worries (stomachs and chins, apparently) and the various ways in which we try to look our best, even resorting to re-touching.

Of course, I refute these findings absolutely and present my Facebook profile picture in evidence.