When Allison Iraheta was on American Idol, I really liked her, and was upset when she got voted off. One of my friends fell totally in love with her. “You gotta hear her single, ‘Friday I’ll Be Over U,’ it rocks,” she kept hocking me. I finally looked it up on YouTube and was unimpressed. When my friend kept insisting that I had to listen to the whole album, I got it from the library.
Since this isn’t an album critique, I won’t go into detail about how Allison sold her soul to the Music Industry Devil by singing teenybopper songs when she has more of a Janis Joplin appeal. What I will go into detail about is the plain old anti-woman offensiveness on the album. The songs …
Mad Men, Body Image and Feminist Critiques of Size-Positivism
A few weeks ago variousentertainmentblogs and news sites were running a series of stories about Mad Men‘s Producer Matthew Weiner. Feminist bloggers and health writers soon joined the conversation. Now Mad Men is no bastion of feminist drama and critical theory, but these bloggers were veritably showering praise on Weiner. Why? Because, reportedly, he doesn’t allow his actresses to exercise and encourages them to eat plenty in order to look “soft and voluptuous” like “healthy women.”
F-A-I-L.
I’m going to make this as coherent a criticism as possible, but Weiner’s comments and the subsequent feedback from bloggers anger me as symptoms of much broader problematic conversations. So I’ll break the issues down systematically:
The idea of fattening up or slimming down for a role is nothing new in …
Cat Power is the stage name of American singer/songwriter Chan Marshall (born Charlyn Marie Marshall on January 21, 1972). She is known for her minimalist style, sparse guitar and piano playing, and breathy vocals.
Chan Marshall was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Marshall’s father, Charlie, is a blues musician and itinerant pianist. Her childhood involved much upheaval, with Marshall living throughout the Southern United States (Greensboro, North Carolina; Bartlett, Tennessee; and Georgia and South Carolina), back and forth between parents and her grandmother. In interviews she has openly discussed her childhood and stated that the constant traveling prepared her for the touring life of a professional musician.
After dropping out of high school, she started performing under the name Cat Power while in Atlanta, backed by musicians Glen Thrasher, Marc Moore, …
Saturday Vids: Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Thought Bubble
This video, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, made me feel super warm and fuzzy on the inside. Plus, it’s always nice to hear this message. See, everybody, feminists LIKE being nice!
After what you said to him there was never again any truth spoken in the universe. For the first words out of their mouths when they heard you were lies.
Lilith, the burn of dirt and grass on your back when he pushed you down. Lilith of the earth, legs shoulders breasts breathing clay, and they called your name bitch demon monster whore. The next one was weak, was male-fleshed, was Eve was Mary was mother-virgin was learning as you did that opinions are not a girl thing.
Lilith, you spoke the only truth ever spoken in a language so long forgotten that we are just inventing it. Hail Lilith, full of fight and fire. Blessed art thou among women and blessed are your daughters sisters lovers friends. Pray for …
I’m not happy with the way I look. I may tell you that I am, but I’m not. I constantly worry if I’m too fat to wear certain clothes, too fat to be desirable, too fat to be beautiful. Who should I turn to for support? My friends? My family?
They feel exactly the same way. All of them, every single person I know says the same thing, that thinness is interchangeable with beauty, that skinny=good and “fat” = bad.
Some teenage girls live in a world where nobody, and I mean nobody, can offer support if they’re worried about their body.
Blame the media. Blame my friends. Blame the media for influencing my friends.
I don’t care who you blame because, I don’t see a way to change it …
I remember one day in 5th grade during P.E. class, a particularly douchey male classmate of mine turned to me completely unsolicited and said, “Boys are better than girls at sports, you know.” Now, if this had happened today, you better believe I would have smacked the dodgeball or whiffle ball or whatever sports accessory I may have been holding at the time into his righteous face (just kidding, violence is bad). But I was ten, and even though his statement didn’t seem true to me I just let him get away with it. I mean I personally fail miserably at sports, but that’s due to complete indifference and laziness, neither of which I attribute to my gender or even physical ability. And now that I think about it, this …
As the season changes, so do fashion trends; Elle, Vogue and many other magazines have shifted focus from bikinis to boots. This brought a thought to my mind about something that is supposedly back in style: “The Woman.”
“The Woman” is a trend that was conjured up on the runways of Louis Vuitton and Prada in the 1950′s and 1960′s. Obviously, other designers made clothing for women; however it was those two that were somehow considered to have captured the stereotypical essence of femininity. Both collections displayed subdued hues, midi-length, some sort of hourglass shape and frills. Prada seems to send the message that some ruffles on my boobs will do the trick of enhancing not only my bust but also my view of what it is to be …
