Wimbledon. I had respect for you. With your penchant for serving tea and strawberries with cream while watching non contact sports instead of artery-blocking glorified fat while watching supposedly heterosexual men throw themselves on one another. I admired you for glorifying the one sport I can adequately play without looking like a complete ass.
But now, apparently Wimbledon has had a change of heart in the “classy” department. They’re putting unseeded and low-ranked women on the best courts (Maria Sharapova- unseededand ranked 60th, Gisela Dulko -unseeded, ranked 45th) because they’re cute instead of the powerhouses like Serena Williams (seeded 2nd) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (seeded 5th). Because Maria Sharapova’s modeling career has been infinitely more successful than her tennis career she gets preference over women who are actually talented tennis players. …
“If your idea of a role model is somebody who’s gonna preach to your kids that sex before marriage is wrong and cursing is wrong and women should be this and be that, then I’m not a role model. But if you want your girls to feel strong and intelligent and be outspoken and fight for what they think is right, then I want to be that type of role model, yeah.” -Megan Fox told the Times of London — via Perez Hilton
As awesome as it is that she said that, if she had added something about how that is a feminist statement, it would have cemented my undying love for her. Alas…at least we got that, right?
It was right around 4th or 5th grade that I, an intramural basketball champ at just under five feet tall, decided that I was going to be a point guard for the “NBA” as I told my parents. “But Julie,” they said, “You can’t be in the NBA.” “Why the hell not,” I may or may not have responded at 9 years old. “Because the NBA is for men. But you can be in the WNBA.” “Whatever.” I just wanted to play — I didn’t really care for who.
Little did I know, back in 2002/2003 that only 7 years before that not only would that conversation never have happened, but the whole concept of me ever becoming a professional basketball player wouldn’t have, either. The WNBA has only …
This week I’m going for Bat for Lashes. She’s relatively new on the scene but I totally dig her.
According to her website Bat for Lashes is “the work of British singer/ songwriter, multi- instrumentalist and visual artist Natasha Khan. Born in 1979, yet combining influences that span decades, Natasha’s work dwells in the elemental, emerging in timeless forms…having spent parts of her childhood in Pakistan, Natasha Khan now lives by the sea in England.”
It’s bathing suit season. Actually, it’s been bathing suit season for kind of a while now, but I still on turn on the T.V. and am being forced to wonder, “This swimsuit season, whose going to win: you or your swimsuit.”
I’m not going to delve into the body issues the media force feeds young, impressionable girls my age, because I think that issue, while still very real, is tired and I have nothing new or original or say about it.
What I want to know is why everything is now coming down to “me and my bathing suit.” And why the commercials I have seen argue that if I eat only bran-based cereals or artificially flavored yogurts I will win this supposed battle.
Almost 2 weeks ago, the NCRW had a conference that featured many terrific panelists. One of the best ones in my opinion was the panel on Popular Culture and Gender Images. The panelists included Latoya Peterson from racialicious (I want to be her best friend),
If they screw this up I will send a multitude of strongly worded letters on my “wild horse” stationary to the execs over at ABC Family. See what they make of THAT.
Okay, I know Father’s Day has come and gone, but I just gotta add this one thing that would really be relevant at any time.
President Obama wrote an article for Parade Magazine in honor of Father’s Day, in which he describes his own relationship with fatherhood and the importance of having present, caring fathers involved in their children’s lives. I encourage everyone to read it: it just makes you think “I’m glad our country finally did something right.”
Some highlights:
“That is why we need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one.”
“We need to set limits and expectations. We need …
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