Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 01/19/2011

Beauty Pageants: What You Should Do Instead

Teresa Scanlan: The 17-year-old Miss America

I usually don’t pay attention to beauty pageants anymore. My reasons for hating them are pretty obvious and I’ve written about them here before. They blatantly objectify women. If they’re boosting “self-esteem,” as pageant promoting talking heads often claim they do, then it seems to me that said confidence is mostly based on being held up as a figure of immense beauty in a global society where beauty is valued above all else. And while confidence is great, that’s a pretty shallow and transparent thing to feel confident about. And I get that a woman should be able to do whatever the hell she wants (within reason) and that entering a beauty pageant is a choice, but if we cut the shit the “ugh” factor…

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Awareness | Posted by Julie Z on 02/9/2010

Gen Eff: What You Don’t Know Can Kill You

I wanted to share this with you guys. This is a new non-profit in my hometown that aims to increase health care awareness among teens and twenty-somethings. Health care is such a huge issue that I’ve been directly effected by – health care has been a difficult thing for my family to get because my Dad is self-employed and my Mom has a pre-existing condition. I know as much as anyone that our country has so many issues with health care. It’s nice to see that people are trying to address them, especially for my generation.

Gen Eff is a new national grassroots movement with one goal: prevent an entire generation of kids from falling through the cracks of today’s health care system. The non-profit organization encourages adolescents and young adults…

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