Bridalplasty cont..

I just really hate this show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shBZENi9NYA&feature=related

I love how this clip mentions Heidi Montag and that this is just another reflection on where we are in society.
Also the clip mentions that the beauty industry is a billion dollar industry, the fact that we talked about this in class was awesome too. The clip says in a sense that society weighs so heavily on looks and on beauty for women, but when we see it on TV in this form we are appalled.. when really it has been like this all the time we just choose not to see it.

Heres another clip..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu6TdZRQpSE&feature=related


In this clip an actual plastic surgeon talks about how dangerous this really is. The fact that the show is showing that plastic surgery is not a serious concept where in reality people do die from surgery.
Also the clip features a psychologist that talks about the actual psychological problems someone can face by going through this kind of "rushed" surgery.. the acceptance of the new body and look can take time and the show clearly rushes it.

Bridalplasty

I won't lie I have never actually watched this show.. but I have obvious reasons why I won't watch it.

sneak peak video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKFTd6ZEV1w&list=SL&playnext=1

The entire focus of this show is to completely change how a bride looks, which is outrageous to me considering the fact that  their fiance should be marrying them because of who they are not what they look like, but the fact that these brides want to completely change their look based on what society is telling them is beautiful is sad. These brides are looking to be just like celebrities on tv and not like the people they were when their fiances agreed to spend the rest of their lives together.

It's sad to see how much of an influence society has on what we consider to be beautiful. All of the women on this show are pretty and if they weren't competing against each other I'm assuming they would be pretty decent people as well who clearing have insecurities that are based on what society has told them to be "pretty".

Here are some more clips..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxCnJVbuFwE&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtb44V5PDus&feature=related

Leaders

An article I found posted on Feminist.com talks about women as leaders. Titled A New Kind of Toughness by Marie Wilson talks about "tough-as-nails" women in today's society.

The article talks about Sarah Pailn and Angelina Jolie (role in SALT). The article then goes on to explain that yes indeed these films and figures "are showing women in a new light, but is this the case of art imitating life or vice versa?".  The article then goes on to state that this year, a new type of female political candidate has risen that is similar to the "summer's screen heroines of audacity of tone, speech and point of view".

All of the women listed in the article up to this point have had to balance their "tough as nails" approach. A study done called "Barriers and Opportunities" conducted shows that the requirements of dress, language and content were different for men and women seeking a leadership role.

The rest of the article talks about alot of what we did in class.. about the "Mamma Grizzly" approach to things and how that may affect our country or the views of individuals. The article takes into consideration that yes the "Mamma Grizzly" approach is effective but is it effective when it comes to legislation in our country.

http://www.feminist.com/news/womensleadership.html

An article posted by feministblogs.org talks about an article written about the military becoming more accepting of gays and lesbians in service. The article uses information from ABC/Washington Post polls that asked whether or not gays and lesbians should be able to serve in the army AND whether or not they should be allowed to serve while openly disclosing their sexual orientation.


The "Don't ask don't tell" (DADT) policy was passed in 1993, less than half of the people surveyed thought that gays and lesbians should be able to openly serve, 60% however did support them being able to serve as long as their sexual orientation was not disclosed.

17 years later the same question was asked..
The graph shows the results..

The blue line represents "Do you think that homosexuals who do NOT publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military?"
The red line represents "Do you think homosexuals who DO publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military?"


In 2008 75% of those surveyed thought it was okay for gays and lesbians to serve with out any restrictions.

If the government chooses to revoke the DADT policy is up in the air.. but the support from the general public is clear.


http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/12/02/increasing-u-s-public-support-for-gays-in-the-military/

Omega Male

A recent commercial for Crayola is an advertisement for some sort of molding clay. The man in the commercial ends up playing with the toy and the women in the commercial steps in and says something along the lines of, "hey those are for the kids!". This made me think of when we talked about the Omega Male in class. The commercial brings to light the whole Omega Male idea by having the male be a "man child" and with out the female he is lost and plays with toys. Men are targets of sexism just as much as women are.. they are subjected to the same social norms and "molds"; what they should be and should not be, what it means to be a man, etc.
Other commercials do the same thing along with many TV shows on today. Men are suppose to be these primitive creatures almost that are completely lost with out a women. A women allows them to be clean.. get to work on time.. have goals or an agenda for the day. The women is portrayed as the "glue" that holds everything together, a superwomen.
Its sad that men are portrayed this way, that a man is just a lost child with out a women in his life.

The beauty double standard

I was watching Knocked Up and the scene where Allison (Katherine Heigl) and her sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann), are sitting outside after being denied access into the club. The women are talking and Debbie says "the older he gets (her husband) the better looking he gets, the older I get the worse looking I get". This ties into with what we talked about in class and the fact that getting older is viewed as a good thing for men, but not for women. Women growing up are viewed as ugly, and men as attractive. When we talked about the beauty double standard in class, we covered this topic as well. Women are suppose to be young and always look young, growing up and being mature is not attractive. The opposite for men.

An article posted on feminist.com covers the issue of rape. The article is titled Men's Voices, Men as Allies. The article touches on the subject of men being raped, a topic not usually brought up. When thinking of rape the common thought is that women are raped.. or when we think of a rape victum a women normally pictured. The article states that in reality 10-20% of men are sexually violated. The article continues by talking about the issues men who are raped face. The ariticle then sums up by describing how rape can be stopped.

Over all the aricle on the cite brings up a topic not usually talked about and it's intresting to read.

http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/mensvoices1.html

feminist.com

Feminist.com is a website that has everything from news articles to information on how to get involved in activism opportunities. The website features a tab called Ask Amy.. There readers can ask Amy a question. Amy has a book titled, Opting in: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself. This part of the website allows readers get really get involved. The cite reassures readers that there are no stupid questions and that all questions are welcome!

The website also has information on anti-violence and multiple resources. Links include violence against women articles and also articles on rape.

The website as a lot of great articles! (I would recommend anyone who is having trouble finding stuff to look here!)

oops!

oops its feminist.com

Sorry!

I found an article posted by Shelby Knox! Looks like she hasn't stopped fighting for what she believes in. The article was posted on feminism.com

here's the link
http://womensmediacenter.com/blog/2010/10/exclusive-why-christine-odonnell-is-not-a-joke/

The article talks about Christine O'Donnell and the issues surrounding her.
Thought it was interesting to hear from Shelby again!

Fantasy Football

Ahhh football season. This blog entry in no way is aimed toward insulting fantasy football. I don't see anything wrong with playing fantasy football or enjoying fantasy football. What I do however have a problem with is the images posted on some of the backgrounds on the site. Fantasy football is aimed towards men mostly but women can also play too. Now when you log onto the website, just like creating this blog, you are able to pick your background. The backgrounds range from camouflage, golf, race cars, beer, and women holding footballs in string bikinis.

Now there is no rule that you HAVE to be male to play fantasy football. Therefore there should be backgrounds that are for both male and female. The one with the women in bikinis looks like this..
http://www4.myfantasyleague.com/2010/home/38391?SKIN=46#0

Now the thought the man is thinking is "fantasy football?" while picturing the half, well more then half, naked women holding the footballs. Now if you scroll down the page there is no equivalent of this picture in terms of men looking like that.

As a woman I should be able to log on to a fantasy football site and scroll down to find a picture just like the one of the women but of men. Why cant there be a background of men in nothing but football pants holding a football with a "sexy" look in the eye and a woman thinking "fantasy football?".

Again this has nothing to do with fantasy football itself. I do know plenty of women who do play the online game and enjoy it very much. But should these women have to be subjected to the pornified version of fantasy football?

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago

The art piece created by Judy Chicago named The Dinner Party is a controversial piece created during the feminist movement of the 1970s. The art piece features 39 place settings around a triangular table, each recognizing an important woman from history. Each center plate was created from ceramics and is contorted to represent the woman's accomplishment in one way or another. Along with the 39 place settings, the piece includes 999 names of women inscribed in the center of the entire triangular table set. A total of 1,038 women are honored on this table. The Dinner Party now stands in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

When the piece was first created it was subject to harsh criticism from media, other artist, and even politicians. The piece had a hard time trying to find a permanent home in a gallery because of the criticism it received. People were not viewing it as art but as a ploy into the political controversies around the feminist movement at the time.

Take a look at the art work and just see what you get from it...

I learned about this piece in my art class. When we watched the video about the piece, the creation, and criticism it received the reaction seemed to be the same through out the class... whats the problem with it?

We learned that Congressman Robert K. Dornan (R) said that the art piece was "ceramic 3-D pornography".

After hearing his comment almost everyone in the class was shocked and had the basically same response... we didn't see anything pornographic about the piece. And even if the piece was in some way coming across as pornography the feminist movement was about embracing women's bodies? I personally did not see anything wrong with the piece. The piece was meant to represent women in history that had been looked over and was put together during the feminist movement. By being put forward during the feminist movement the piece was guaranteed criticism by many. Women featured in the piece include Emily Dickinson, Georgia O' Keffe, and Virginia Woolf. The shape of the table is an equilateral triangle which is suppose to represent equality.

Many, even including some feminist, have pointed out issues with the piece along with other artists and politicians. One the other hand many feminist have agreed with the piece and the meaning behind it.

You decide..

Gender Gap

An article posted on the New York Times website and writen by Nicola Clark summarizes the gender gap around the world. The artcle titled Nordic Nations Remain Gender-Equality Leaders recieves their information from World Economic Forum, which is a nonprofit organization based in Switzerland. The forum rates countries based on how much they have reduced the gender gaps. The forum takes into acount reduction in economic participation, education, health, and political empowerent. The leading country is Iceland followed by Finland. The United States jumped 12 spots from the previous year and made the top 20 for the first time since 2005. The majority of the jump for the United States is due to the high number of women now in political office. Countries near the top of the list have shown that each year they keep improving on closing the gender gaps. Also it is shown that women in these countries are staying with in the workfeild and have less of a deline then men. Although the economic gap is closing, it still has the largest percentage that still needs to be closed. The article states, "96 percent of health gaps and 93 percent of education gaps have been closed; Yet only 60 percent of economic participation gaps have been closed".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/12gender.html?scp=3&sq=gender&st=cse

Gotta love youtube..

Just click and watch! Thought these were intresting..


Part 1

Part 2

"I have to work for you so you don't lose your job"

Tonight flipping through the channels I stumbled across family guy. I do enjoy the show and it can sometimes be very funny. The one that was on tonight was titled "Whistle While Your Wife Works". Peter has fallen behind at work and needs Lois to help him catch up. Lois goes to the office and helps Peter with his work. As that happens Brian starts to date a very pretty but very stupid girl, who happens to be blonde of course, named Jillian. This episode depicts alot of the topics we discussed in class starting with Lois having to not only help Peter with his own office work, but also run the household. The episode also taps into another topic that we covered in class. The "lady in the street but a freak in the bed", because Lois is helping out Peter in his office, Peter wants him and Lois to have sex right there because he thinks it will be "hot". When they do have sex Lois's whole demeanor changes and she actually initiates it, where Peter responds by saying "Thanks for having sex with me in my office, I knew I'd get you". While Lois is helping Peter with HIS work he says, "It's like your my secretary". Wait? isn't she doing the exact same work he was assigned to do, but when she does it she is some how below him in job status. The title of the show should be Family Women, not Family Guy. Lois holds the family together, what does Peter actually do?

I also mentioned that Brian is dating a girl named Jillian. She is tall, skinny, blonde and has big boobs. Did I mention that she isn't very bright. Jillian can be beautiful but why can't she be smart too? The show depicts the "perfect looking" women, but she can't be smart at the same time.

Boys and Girls Value

In the article posted by The New York Times and written by Jenny Nordberg Afghan girls will cut their hair and wear boy clothes in order to receive the same treatment and benefits of the boys. Families will disguise their girls as boys so that they can gain economic success and because boys are more "valued". The child is usually disguised until puberty. After this the child sometimes can become confused at what "gender" they are.. the "girls" may not feel like girls anymore because they were raised to be a "boy" in society.

The children may have become confused because they were acting out a different gender then what they were told they were when they were born. Gender is also influenced by the environment, if the children are growing up in an environment where males are valued over females. Children would have learned that in order to have any type of respect of the community they need to be "males".

Photo by Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/asia/21gender.html?_r=1