http://jezebel.com/marvels-spider-girl-costume-is-pink-and-frilly-because-1445139444
This article shows a Halloween costume at a store that turns the traditionally male-worn Spider-man Halloween ensemble into a costume meant for girls. However, it ruins the entire concept of a superhero costume. Because it is meant girls, obviously they had to turn the costume pink, add a skirt, and add go-go boots. Why can't a girl just be Spider-man for Halloween without having to completely fit into a specific gender identity. We have already discussed in class about children's costumes being more and more sexualized, but with this, the costume completely limits young girls from thinking that they can be anything but girly and pink. I know when I was younger, it was the exact same thing. I was a tomboy and I always wanted to be something like a superhero, cowboy, or pirate. All of those costumes were always made frilly and girly and it made me feel ashamed of not wanting to wear it. It tried to establish gender identities and young girls are extremely susceptible to going along with it.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
The Scientific Connection Between Sexist Video Games and Rape Cutlure
In class we briefly talked about video games and how they influence men. But today I came across this article about the scientific connection between video games and rape culture.
A study was conducted at Stanford to examine the harm that overly sexualized avatars in video games do to young women. The researchers found that women who played these types of video games were more conscious of their own bodies afterwards but more alarmingly the study found that the subjects (who were women) whose own faces were displayed on top of these sexualized avatars demonstrated higher levels of agreeing with blame-the-victim rape myths.
One of the researchers explains this by saying, "The sexualized self might have triggered a form of self-defense: that is, participants might have attributed blame to rape victim because they did not want to image themselves in a similar situation."
While this study seems to be small and the the first few of its sort I found it to be interesting because when I mostly think of video games and how they affect women I think in terms of male gamers but this article shows how female games are affected with in their own selves as a result of the games and also how they view others as well.
Sources:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/the-scentific-connection-between-sexist-video-game-and-rape
http://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2013/fox-chb-sexualized-virtual-selves.pdf
Blog post for October 28-November 3
I have another rant to talk a little bit about. It’s about Kim Kardashian. I actually like the Kardashians, I
think they are funny and they remind me of my family. Besides that though, I have a lot of issues with how the
media is treating Kim after she gave birth to her daughter, Nori. When she went to Paris for the fashion
show every headline was like, “How could she leave her daughter? She’s a
terrible mother!” In fact,
everything she does now, everything she wears, says, or thinks is all proof she
is a “terrible mother.” She is in
Vegas this weekend and every post I see is about how a terrible mother she is
because she is leaving her daughter.
Where are the headlines about Kayne being a terrible father? He was with
her in France and he is with her in Vegas, and you’re telling me that there are
NO headlines about that? The double standard that’s ridiculous. I’m not saying
Kim is a good mother because I HAVE NO IDEA. But how can you accuse her of
being a bad mom when Kayne is doing the same things? Ugh End rant.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Misogyny in Gaming
While cruising around Youtube, I happened upon a discussion about misogyny in gaming, particularly the game "Grand Theft Auto V." Just to provide a bit of background for those who may not know, the Grand Theft Auto series is comprised of open world "sandbox" style 3rd person shooter, where the player character is able to do almost anything they imagine. One of the consistent criticisms of the game series is the allowance, and perhaps even encouragement of violence against women (e.g players can gain small amounts of cash by injuring the sex workers depicted in the game). During a discussion of the game, a popular game critic (Adam Sessler) raises the broader topic of misogyny in the Grand Theft Auto series.... and awesomeness ensued!
I'm posting a video of this discussion not because I necessarily agree with Adam, but because he addresses two of the concepts that we've discussed in class:
1) The idea that critisism of certain aspects of a brand/product does not always mitigate ennjoyment of said brand/product
2)Privilege- Most of the panel is comprised of men, however, that isn't the cool part. The cool part is that for perhaps the first time ever, I saw a reviewer start off by acknowledging their privileged as a "white dude" (in their words)!That's a huge bonus, whether or not one agrees with him or not!!!
Adam's argument begins at about 22:30, and I'd encourage everyone to give the video a watch!
I'm posting a video of this discussion not because I necessarily agree with Adam, but because he addresses two of the concepts that we've discussed in class:
1) The idea that critisism of certain aspects of a brand/product does not always mitigate ennjoyment of said brand/product
2)Privilege- Most of the panel is comprised of men, however, that isn't the cool part. The cool part is that for perhaps the first time ever, I saw a reviewer start off by acknowledging their privileged as a "white dude" (in their words)!That's a huge bonus, whether or not one agrees with him or not!!!
Adam's argument begins at about 22:30, and I'd encourage everyone to give the video a watch!
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Women's Studies Event... Sort of.
So the other night I went to Prolife feminist talk and I
feel like I am still processing everything that happened. For the most part she discussed things
that I feel are important. Here
are a couple points I did find important:
·
There needs to be more options to help women
when they are pregnant and in school. Housing for families, scholarships,
daycare centers, and health centers that understand situations like these.
·
There needs to be more education about these
options.
·
Continue to provide emotional and financial
support for women who have been abused or in abusive situations.
·
End parental rights for rapists
That’s pretty much all though. The discussion got a little “iffy”
for me when we discussed birth control.
When someone in the audience asked her companies position on birth
control she replied “we don’t have a stance on it. We don’t decided on either
side. We help women after they get pregnant” This raised a lot of questions for
me. She also called herself “pro-mom.”
I have no issues with women wanting to be mothers or being mothers. But what does pro mom mean? Does that
mean you want every person to be a mother? Is that why you don’t support birth
control? Why wouldn’t you want to
put women in a position where they feel ready to have kids and make birth
control more accessible? Suddenly it felt that they were pushing motherhood
onto women. Ehh… I didn’t like it. The more I think about it the more
uncomfortable I get.
Post for the Week of October 21, 2013
I just want to vent for a second because it’s really been
bothering me. This is totally related to gender and pop culture because it has
to do with snapchat and videogames. Zach received a snap chat from a friend the other day saying “Hey
dude, we really need to play gaylo sometime!” When I asked him what gaylo was, he said: “oh we use to play
halo all the time when we were suppose to be studying, but no one likes the
game that’s why we call it gaylo.”
Okay… so I do not care if they like halo or not but I cannot STAND them
calling it gaylo. Like really? If
you don’t like something you have to associated it with it being gay? How does
that make any sense? This is related to something so much bigger. I recently read an article on CNN about
a kid who brought two guns and a knife to school to kill another kid who called
him gay. How is this still going
on? I understand that homophobia exists but why does it have to be so prevalent?
THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING. People
need to understand that even calling something “gaylo” isn’t appropriate. How
can you not understand that by saying that you are completely disenfranchise an
entire group of people AND making yourself look ignorant.
Okay, I will stop with my little rant. I just had to get
that out there.
Friday, October 25, 2013
#stopactinglikewhores
This week Rashida Jones went on a twitter rant instructing female celebrities to stop acting like whores. Her rant was geared to celebrates who "come close to showing the inside of their vagina" and the problem it creates. I get where she was going with the rant and think its a good argument but I kind of have mixed feelings about how she worded it, especially the " #stopactinglikewhores ".
Whore is one of my "feminist issue words" (like bitch, and slut etc). Reclaiming these words and even simply using them to put down other women is something that I'm iffy about in my own personal feminism so her use of the hashtag kind of threw me off of her argument. She probably meant to be funny but I didn't really find it funny. It was a good argument none the less.
Twitter Rant:
Source: Rashida Jones calls out female celebrities: ‘Stop acting like whores’ - NY Daily News
Whore is one of my "feminist issue words" (like bitch, and slut etc). Reclaiming these words and even simply using them to put down other women is something that I'm iffy about in my own personal feminism so her use of the hashtag kind of threw me off of her argument. She probably meant to be funny but I didn't really find it funny. It was a good argument none the less.
Twitter Rant:
Source: Rashida Jones calls out female celebrities: ‘Stop acting like whores’ - NY Daily News
Women In Power and Fashion
I ran across an article that featured Aja Brown who is the mayor of Compton, California. The article talks with the mayor about her life and discusses what she's doing to improve the city.
We have often talked in class about how women in power are viewed in the media and in pop culture so what caught my attention was that this article was featured on Vogue.com, which is a high fashion magazine. Normally when we analyze high fashion and gender we associate it with problematic issues so I found it pretty interesting that Vogue wrote this article.
I don't read Vogue magazine and I don't know how often they have features of women like this one in their publications but I did subscribe to TeenVogue when I was younger (until I grew disinterested in fashion) and I don't recall them ever having those types of articles either.
Overall I thought the article was great and interesting read about a women in power handling one of the worlds most notorious cities in America.
http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/you-can-call-her-mayor-brown-how-aja-brown-is-transforming-the-city-of-compton/#1
Thursday, October 24, 2013
A Glimmer of Hope in HIMYM
HIMYM Child-free Life Choice Option
I was cruising the Bitch Flicks website that Chrissie put up on her last post. I was looking through the list of movies and TV shows that have been written about and came across an evaluation of Colbie Smulder's character, Robin, of How I Met Your Mother in terms of her not-really-a-spoiler alert childless future. I know and understand a lot of the criticisms that HIMYM receives as I feel that I have a love/hate relationship with the show because of the obvious sexism and other social issues present in the show. I thought the author of the critic made an interesting connection between Robin's pregnancy scare and later discovery of infertility as a small shining light of sorts for women who do not want children. She mentions that it would have been interesting and brave of the writers to pursue an abortion story line but knew that had Robin ever been written as pregnant, she would have been written to have the child.
I know this doesn't seem like that much of a big deal given the show's other faults, but for women who don't want children (I count myself among them for now), it was refreshing for this strongish female to be written as a career woman who didn't have children because that's what is expected of women. The writers could have had her adopt as done on other sitcoms such as Friends and King of Queens when the couples of those shows were revealed as infertile. But they didn't. They allowed Robin, as Ted reveals to us in his closing speech of that episode, that Robin instead became an traveler, business woman, and a journalist. He also mentions that just because she wasn't able to have children (not that she had ever wanted them as illustrated throughout the whole series), doesn't mean that she ends up alone. I thought that this last point lies in direct opposite of how society tends to view women who don't want children: that we will end up alone because what man (or anyone!) wants a woman who is not a "real" woman as she doesn't fulfill her "biological" function. It was/is also illustrated throughout the series that Robin doesn't really hate children as she is pretty involved in Ted and Lily's children's lives.
I just hadn't really thought of Robin's future in this light, but as I was reading this article, I found myself agreeing with many points being made.
I was cruising the Bitch Flicks website that Chrissie put up on her last post. I was looking through the list of movies and TV shows that have been written about and came across an evaluation of Colbie Smulder's character, Robin, of How I Met Your Mother in terms of her not-really-a-spoiler alert childless future. I know and understand a lot of the criticisms that HIMYM receives as I feel that I have a love/hate relationship with the show because of the obvious sexism and other social issues present in the show. I thought the author of the critic made an interesting connection between Robin's pregnancy scare and later discovery of infertility as a small shining light of sorts for women who do not want children. She mentions that it would have been interesting and brave of the writers to pursue an abortion story line but knew that had Robin ever been written as pregnant, she would have been written to have the child.
I know this doesn't seem like that much of a big deal given the show's other faults, but for women who don't want children (I count myself among them for now), it was refreshing for this strongish female to be written as a career woman who didn't have children because that's what is expected of women. The writers could have had her adopt as done on other sitcoms such as Friends and King of Queens when the couples of those shows were revealed as infertile. But they didn't. They allowed Robin, as Ted reveals to us in his closing speech of that episode, that Robin instead became an traveler, business woman, and a journalist. He also mentions that just because she wasn't able to have children (not that she had ever wanted them as illustrated throughout the whole series), doesn't mean that she ends up alone. I thought that this last point lies in direct opposite of how society tends to view women who don't want children: that we will end up alone because what man (or anyone!) wants a woman who is not a "real" woman as she doesn't fulfill her "biological" function. It was/is also illustrated throughout the series that Robin doesn't really hate children as she is pretty involved in Ted and Lily's children's lives.
I just hadn't really thought of Robin's future in this light, but as I was reading this article, I found myself agreeing with many points being made.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Blog for the week of October 14, 2013
In this article, a mom of three young kids poses in her work
out clothes as a “inspiration” for moms to get fit. I thought I would share this with everyone because I am
curious on everyone’s thoughts. I can see two arguments to be made:
1.
She wants women to get into shape. As someone who has recently discovered
a new found love for eating healthy and working out, I understand this. It makes me worried when people don’t
take their own health seriously. I
started working out more and eating healthier when I realized that diabetes and
heart disease were in my family history.
So I understand that aspect
of it.
2.
However… I also see how many people would react
negatively to this article. She is
almost saying “why aren’t you as skinny as me?” There is this expectation (that we have talked about in
class) for women to get back into tip top shape after having a baby. There is this expectation that you HAVE
to do this or else you are not being a good mother.
I am leaning more towards the second argument… does anyone
else have any thoughts?
Sunday, October 13, 2013
24 Bad*** Halloween Costumes
Halloween is almost here! Halloween has always been a favorite time of the year for me, even though I didn't celebrate the holiday growing up. Candy and dressing up seems like the perfect combination! It was always weird to me that the choices in the stores for girls were either some version of a princess or a witch. Getting into high school, the choices seemed to be greater. The only catch was that everything was Sexy Something. On Halloween, girls would come to school in a sexy cat costume or a sexy nurse, a sexy devil, etc. The choices were endless if you could tie it into being sexy at the same time. It was terrible. This article post is a few examples of costumes that are empowering to little girls and women, instead of making them feel like the only thing they have to worry about is looking cute or sexy.
Costumes that Empower Girls
My personal favorite is Frida Kahlo. My challenge for myself this year is to convince my three nieces that their choices for Halloween costumes don't always have to be a princess. I'm sure it won't work but we'll see. Anyway, enjoy the cute pictures of these awesome costumes!
Costumes that Empower Girls
My personal favorite is Frida Kahlo. My challenge for myself this year is to convince my three nieces that their choices for Halloween costumes don't always have to be a princess. I'm sure it won't work but we'll see. Anyway, enjoy the cute pictures of these awesome costumes!
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Blog Post #6 : Bitch Flicks
http://www.btchflcks.com/about-us
Though we just had this conversation today that about the concept of referring to woman as 'bitch' I just wanted to bring up this website that I really enjoy. This site covers everything from older women in film, to films by women, to the misogyny in marketing strategies. There are articles about women in politics, about the idea of rape culture, and there are movie reviews about films that are considered 'feminist'. I had not really looked at the About Us section of this website until now, but I thought it contained a very good reflection on why this website was created. In particular, I noticed this quote:
Though we just had this conversation today that about the concept of referring to woman as 'bitch' I just wanted to bring up this website that I really enjoy. This site covers everything from older women in film, to films by women, to the misogyny in marketing strategies. There are articles about women in politics, about the idea of rape culture, and there are movie reviews about films that are considered 'feminist'. I had not really looked at the About Us section of this website until now, but I thought it contained a very good reflection on why this website was created. In particular, I noticed this quote:
"What we don’t love about movies, however, is how rarely we see smart, complex women represented. In October 2007, Jeff Robino—President of Production at Warner Brothers Films—declared that the company would no longer greenlight films with female leads."
Obviously, this is not ok. This site wants to celebrate women in film and give these studios a reason to feature women as something more than an object for the male gaze. I think this website is amazing and I encourage everyone to visit it and read a few articles.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Mother dresses her daughter up as 5 kick-ass women instead of Disney princesses
I came across this on Facebook today and thought it was pretty cool. This mom was tired of how little girls are limited to dressing up as Disney princesses for Halloween and took some pictures of her daughter dressed as Susan B. Anthony, Coco Chanel, Amelia Earhart, Helen Keller, Jane Goodall, and a presidential candidate. I love everything about this! I think this could actually be pretty powerful for a little girl... reminding her that being smart, powerful, inspirational, and strong like these women is cool not just being pretty like a princess. I always remember dressing as something I wanted to be and I think most kids do that.... boys as firefighters and girls as princesses. I definitely think it's important and empowering to encourage little girls to want to be something besides a pretty princess.
http://www.beautyexists.net/humanity/mother-dresses-her-daughter-up-as-5-kick-ass-women-instead-of-disney-princesses/
http://www.beautyexists.net/humanity/mother-dresses-her-daughter-up-as-5-kick-ass-women-instead-of-disney-princesses/
It’s important for us to remind girls that they can be so much more
than princesses.
- See more at:
http://www.beautyexists.net/humanity/mother-dresses-her-daughter-up-as-5-kick-ass-women-instead-of-disney-princesses/#sthash.YybhhCh9.dpuf
Monday, October 7, 2013
Blog for the week of October 7, 2013
Spoiler alert for those who want to see Gravity.
Saturday, I went to go see the new movie Gravity and it was really good. The main character is a woman named
Ryan (sorry I can’t remember her last name) goes into space and ends up being
left alone in space after a series of events that leave her stranded. Although the main character is a strong
intelligent female, I have some issues with it:
1.
There are several scenes within the movies where
she talks about how she can’t handle landing the machinery because each time
she practiced on earth she crashed it.
It’s frustrating because even though the woman is a “smart” woman she
still can’t handle the machinery. By the end she is able to land the whole
thing by herself.
2.
There is a scene where George Clooney’s character
and Sandra Bullocks character are able to meet up. The entire time Bullock’s character (she plays Ryan) is
always in a panic while Clooney’s character is totally calm. Again, there is this image that women
can’t handle being in situations of danger.
3.
In on of the last scenes she is in space alone
and she’s in a shuttle that won’t launch.
This is when (spoiler alert!) Bullock’s character decides to die. Then Clooney’s character comes in and gives
her a pep talk and explains how she can get back to earth (this is her
imagination, because at this point Clooney’s character is assumed dead in
space). It bothered me because
AGAIN she couldn’t come up with the idea on her own, someone else (a man) had
to explain it to her.
4.
The last thing that bothered me about the movie
is out of the three characters one was a person of color and you didn’t see him
till he was dead. Ugh.
Besides the overly critical mind of mine thinking about
these things through out the movie, it still was pretty good and by the end she
was able to get back to Earth.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Post 6: Xena
Our discussion of female centric television shows
got me thinking about a certain show I haven’t seen in years……Xena!
In case anyone was wondering who/what I’m talking
about, Xena was a television show that debuted in the 1990’s that followed Lucy
Lawless as the title character Xena’s backstory includes a time spent as an
Amazon warrior, a dastardly warlord, and the personal favorite of Ares, the
Greek god of war, all culminating in a more fitting title…… the ultimate
bad-ass! As you might guess, Xena has become something of a feminist icon, as
she along with a selection of other characters (including Buffy) paved the way
for the acceptance of female characters in action shows. An alternate list of
reasons why Xena is considered a feminist icon, check out this video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKsjO8BpoLM
(admittedly, some of these reasons are jocular)
For a more academic perspective on the character, I
was able to find an article titled “The
female hero, duality of gender, and postmodern feminism in Xena: Warrior
Princess”. The article is divided into various sections, one of which
is specifically focusing on the character through both a feminist and
post-feminist lens. I’d invite everyone to check out the article (posted
below), and leave thoughts they might have!
7 Beauty Expectations That Make It Way Too Expensive To Be A Woman
*Warning: Not the most thought-provoking post!*
So this is going to be a super silly post but I decided to share it anyway! I was recently discussing with friends about how I am tired of working so many hours but I need to to be able to buy the things I need, etc. What I didn't realize during that conversation was that some of these things that I 'needed' I don't necessarily need at all (so many hair products, make-up, etc)! There are certain beauty expectations that are out there for women that subconsciously a lot of women are following. Sometimes women are not even subconsciously doing it but because they feel like they have to!
7 Beauty Expectations That Make It Way Too Expensive To Be A Woman Link
1. Progressively more intense forms of hair removal
2. Luxury hair stylists
3. Quality makeup
4. Photoshop-level skin
5. Sexy shoes that are impossible to walk in
6. Classy-yet-cute-yet-durable work clothes
7. Sexy underwear
So I can't say that I can necessarily relate to all of these things but it is something that got me thinking about my expectations for myself and where those expectations came from. Anyway, if you have any thoughts please share!
So this is going to be a super silly post but I decided to share it anyway! I was recently discussing with friends about how I am tired of working so many hours but I need to to be able to buy the things I need, etc. What I didn't realize during that conversation was that some of these things that I 'needed' I don't necessarily need at all (so many hair products, make-up, etc)! There are certain beauty expectations that are out there for women that subconsciously a lot of women are following. Sometimes women are not even subconsciously doing it but because they feel like they have to!
7 Beauty Expectations That Make It Way Too Expensive To Be A Woman Link
1. Progressively more intense forms of hair removal
2. Luxury hair stylists
3. Quality makeup
4. Photoshop-level skin
5. Sexy shoes that are impossible to walk in
6. Classy-yet-cute-yet-durable work clothes
7. Sexy underwear
So I can't say that I can necessarily relate to all of these things but it is something that got me thinking about my expectations for myself and where those expectations came from. Anyway, if you have any thoughts please share!
Emma Watson defends feminist nature of Hermione Granger
Related to our discussion of women's representation in film, I found an article about Hermione Granger being feminist, as defended by Emma Watson (the actress who played Hermione in the films, in case anyone isn't familiar). I personally am already a huuuuge Emma Watson fan, and seeing this post from her made me SO HAPPY.
This article describes a twitter interaction between Watson and a fan. September 19th was Hermione Granger's birthday, so Watson tweeted, "Happy birthday Hermione Jean Granger." As the character would be turning 34, a fan replied with (spoiler alert) "She's probably Hermione Weasley by now."
HERE'S WHERE IT GETS GOOD - Watson replies with "I actually reckon Hermione would have kept her maiden name." The author of this article explains that Hermione was proud of her heritage and all of her accomplishments throughout the series, so she would have wanted to keep her identity as Hermione Granger.
The rest of the article goes on to give "reasons" why Hermione was a feminist, but I found those examples to be sub-par. Regardless, I love the portrayal of Hermione as a strong, independent woman, Emma Watson's defense of that character, and both of their presence as feminists (or women with feminist-y thoughts, at least) in popular culture.
This article describes a twitter interaction between Watson and a fan. September 19th was Hermione Granger's birthday, so Watson tweeted, "Happy birthday Hermione Jean Granger." As the character would be turning 34, a fan replied with (spoiler alert) "She's probably Hermione Weasley by now."
HERE'S WHERE IT GETS GOOD - Watson replies with "I actually reckon Hermione would have kept her maiden name." The author of this article explains that Hermione was proud of her heritage and all of her accomplishments throughout the series, so she would have wanted to keep her identity as Hermione Granger.
The rest of the article goes on to give "reasons" why Hermione was a feminist, but I found those examples to be sub-par. Regardless, I love the portrayal of Hermione as a strong, independent woman, Emma Watson's defense of that character, and both of their presence as feminists (or women with feminist-y thoughts, at least) in popular culture.
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