Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 09/1/2010

Ellen Hopkins, Censorship and Why We Can’t Tell Teens the Truth

Is that cover DARK AND MENACING? WELL THEN KEEP IT FROM THE CHILDREN!

Crank and Glass, both written by Ellen Hopkins, follow Kristina Snow, a high achieving 17 year old, as she nose dives into a meth addiction, with details on her subsequent rape, unwanted pregnancy and eventual jail time. Now, with just that one line description to go on, I can kind of see what the administrators at the high school over in Humble, Texas were thinking when they were presented with the opportunity to have the mastermind behind the series speak to their students. Who wants their kids exposed to what it’s really like to do drugs? So, they uninvited Ellen Hopkins to their “Teen Lit Fest.” Their thought process, as “concerned parents” sort of makes sense…until you actually read the books.

Both of…

More >

Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Talia on 08/31/2010

Allison Iraheta and the Glamorization of Violence

Alison Iraheta

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 “Friday I’ll Be Over…

More >

Feminism | Posted by Janani B on 08/30/2010

Mad Men, Body Image and Feminist Critiques of Size-Positivism

January Jones / Betty Draper – not allowed to work out?

A few weeks ago various entertainment blogs 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…

More >

Feminism | Posted by Hannah S on 08/26/2010

Struggling With Body Image

Crystal Renn: a role model or a blip on the skinny radar?

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…

More >

Feminism | Posted by Jill L on 08/23/2010

The Sex of the Scientist

female scientists rockkkk

Despite emerging from them under the vague impression that everything had gone well, I am currently awaiting my exam results with a degree of aprehension, multiplied by a summer of post-exam discussion and dissection.
However, sitting these papers confirmed something to me which I have long suspected. Whenever I exited the exam hall, I would be greeted by my contempoaries standing in huddles and, broadly speaking, the conversations would sound a bit like this. I’ll set the scene.

(Tuesday Afternoon, Outside School, Post Chemistry exam, Rain)
Boy 1- How do you think that went?
Boy 2- I aced it. Seriously. Probably did the best out of all of everyone who has ever sat the exam ever. It went brilliantly. It was so easy. Not going to lie, I was fantastic. What about…

More >