Weekly News Update 3

In the Daily mail this week, a story that was broadcasted about 2 years ago has come back to the news. Valeria Lukyanova, Ukrainian women is ‘Breatharian’. Meaning she lives on only air. There are only 3 people known in the last 10 years to be described in this way, and for obvious reasons, we can see why. Valeria is described as the ‘Human Barbie’ and the images below show why she is called this.

Recently, the ‘Human Barbie’ is the label this woman has been given, and she is fighting back saying that the term is insulting and degrading towards her. She first hit the headlines for her surreal doll-like appearance, but has now explained that she finds the terms she is now called offensive because it suggests she is trying to mimic or look like someone else. Valeria insists that her whole appearance is real, except her breasts, yet many readers found it extremely difficult at first to believe she was real. Valeria admitted that she accepted the nickname because it became part of who she was.

Valeria says she was the victim of a random attack close to her home in Ukraine, during which she was 'punched and strangled' by two men on Halloween night, which led to treatment of facial wounds in hospital. Some viewers accused the doll-like model of using the attack as a pretend story when she actually went in for plastic surgery, however Valeria denied this.

I think this story was in the news because it is a strong example of how judgmental the media are on women’s looks. The whole story is to do with her image and looks and how unbelievable it is that she looks like that, when in actual fact, the real shock is that this woman is living only on air which is practically impossible. But the media have made it so that the shock of the story is her being called Barbie.