In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Category: Media & Media Literacy

What’s wrong with skinny?

That’s what Lisa Hilton asks in the Daily Beast this week — although she’s actually asking, “What’s wrong with living off of coffee and cigarettes? Better than being fat!”

Katie Drummond over at Slant/Truth gives Hilton’s piece a great take-down, pointing out that while official eating disorder diagnosis rates may not be skyrocketing, a lot of women engage in disordered eating without having a diagnosed eating disorder. But Hilton isn’t just concerned with what she deems “hysteria” over super-skinny models; see, she’s worried that for all of our obsessing over skinny girls, we’re actually really fat. Obese, even! And don’t you know that being obese is unhealthy?

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The Super Bowl and Madison Avenue Misogyny

A guest post by Kate. Kate is a freelance writer and full-time law student. Follow her @itscompliKATEd on Twitter.

Superbowl ads are sexist. This is well trod ground: Marketers objectify women and play up stereotypes in order to sell things to (heterosexual) men. But we knew this year was going to be special. This year there was going to be some extra anti-feminist flavor. This year, there was going to be Tim Tebow.

We’ll come back to Tim and his anti-choice ad in a second. But for now, let’s take a look at the companies that decided that it would be a great idea to isolate half the population from their consumer base.
There were fewer half-naked women and dick jokes this year. Instead, the 2010 Superbowl Ad Mantra seemed to have one common theme: “Feeling castrated? . . . by women? Man up.”

Dodge Charger: Man’s Last Stand

A male voice-over starts with a first person monologue of the mundane life of the American male (“I will walk the dog, I will have fruit for breakfast”), as the ad cuts to shots of men staring blankly, blinking at the camera.

“Yeah, life is boring,” you think, “a car could fix that.” But then there’s an eerie crescendo, and it becomes clear that this voice isn’t just listing his gripes with the world, he’s listing his gripes with a person — and not just any person, a woman: “I will say yes, when you want me to say yes . . .I will take your call, I will listen to your opinion of my friends. . . I will be civil to your mother.” Simultaneously the voice-over seems to be getting angrier as the shots get tighter, finally focusing on the twitching eyes of a man in a suit. “Because I do these things, I will drive the car I want to drive.”

The ad is actually frightening. Not only because the voice-over gets more incensed as the tasks get more mundane (putting your underwear in a hamper? you mean being an adult? you think you deserve a car for that?), but because it’s maybe the most explicit misogyny I’ve ever seen in a Superbowl ad. “Feeling emasculated by your wife?” the ad seems to be saying. “Reaching your boiling point? We know you probably want to hit her, but buy a car instead.”

Oh, and did I mention that a television serial-killer (Michael Hall who plays Dexter) does the voice-over? That’s not creepy or violence promoting at all.

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Support GRITtv

Just wanted to spread the word for our friends at GRITtv. We’ve posted their segments on here a few times, including Jill’s appearances, and I think it’s important to keep supporting media as much as we can. Here’s the post from GRITtv’s blog:

We’re sure you’ve heard about the ending of Air America Radio. We’re sorry to see our friends and officemates go, and wish them the best. We’re also stuck in a tight spot. GRITtv has broadcast from the Air America studios from the start, but now have to find a new home. It’s not going to be cheap! We’re looking at nearly $50,000 in moving expenses, equipment purchases, and cost increases, and we have to raise it fast.

Every donation you make will be matched dollar for dollar by Free Speech TV, and will go to helping us move to new studio and office space to continue bringing you your GRITtv fix with as little interruption as possible. We know we are going to end up with even better space and an even better show for you all. We’ve got other new, exciting features coming soon as well.

Every contribution helps. We appreciate all your support in helping us make GRITtv even better.

Mothers, be good to your daughters: Keep them the eff away from John Mayer

Regular readers know how I feel about John Mayer.* In case there was any doubt as to why John Mayer is such a horrific human being — in addition to his horrific music and horrific rape-y comments to a female journalist and his general annoyingness and his lack of talent and his seemingly endless misogyny — allow me to point you to his latest Rolling Stone interview. Including shirtless cover photo, showcasing his butt-ugly tattoos and six-inch-tall hair. And who doesn’t love sleeve tattoos? I love sleeve tattoos! Yet John Mayer may have just ruined them for me, because I can’t stop picturing him lounging in his Costco sweatpants** with that slack-jaw look on his face opining about pitching tents on vaginas (I am not kidding, read the link).

For the love of Christ, John Mayer, PLEASE GO AWAY.

UPDATED to say that this was so much hotter when Gavin Rossdale did it in 1996. God he was great in my middle-school years. (thanks, Ann).

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*I HATE HIM.
**Yes, I own those sweatpants too. But I am not on the cover of Rolling Stone. I am blogging. In my bed. Alone.

Newsy reads for today

The Times: BBC bows to age rage and brings back mature women. Three women over fifty, Fiona Armstrong, 53, Julia Somerville, 62 and Zeinab Badawi, 50, have been hired as presenters on the BBC News Channel. This is a pleasant change in a world in which older women mysteriously disappear from news programs, when women are allowed to report/present “hard news” at all. Related: here’s a good article from a few years back on women in the news by BBC news presenter and feminist Fiona Bruce. She’s commonly asked ‘What do you wear under the desk?’ and ‘What is your favourite recipe?’ Also check out the Global Media Monitoring Project, which follows trends in gender in the media around the world.

AP: Serena Williams is 2009 AP Female Athlete of Year. Would you like to know the runner up? It was a horse.

Times of India: Bangalore police want ban on women bartenders. This follows the abduction (and rescue, don’t worry!) of twelve bartenders on their way home on Saturday. As interviewee K.S. Vimala says, ‘Sexual harassment of women is happening in other work places. That does not mean, we’ll stop them from working altogether. What is needed is proper safety and security for women at their work places’. The Bar and Restaurant Owners’ Association is stepping up security.

LA Times: In Iran, a blind musician leads the way for a women’s orchestra.

DailyCamera.com: Healing Nepal: All-female guide company empowering women one trek at a time. ‘After hearing from several disgruntled female tourists, complaining of male guides disrespecting them, the sisters — armed with basic mountaineering skills — opened the country’s first female-owned trekking company, run by and for women.’ The three Chhetri sisters have also opened a children’s home for girls age 7 to 16 who have been rescued from child labor. And 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking has a non-profit arm called Empowering Women of Nepal, which has a number of programs that sound amazing.