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..