Pop-Culture | Posted by Magda K on 08/11/2011
Hacked Photos Being Used On Adult Websites
A couple of weeks ago, an article on Mookychick highlighted an issue of hacked photos on adult websites. It’s a practice that’s going on for a little while, but it’s starting to trend, and it’s misogynist and tantamount to abuse.
Essentially, a crop of websites are hacking into photos uploaded to social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Tumblr – websites that most of us use, and many of us upload photos to.
Pictures of women and teenage girls are being hacked into and published entirely without the girls’ knowledge or consent – on adult websites. It appears to be a legal practice, as it largely keeps within the privacy terms and conditions of social network sites.
For teenage girls and women, it’s a nasty catch 22. No …
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Feminism | Posted by Becka W on 06/21/2011
Weinergate 2011
I feel as though I should provide full disclosure here: I follow Anthony Weiner on Twitter. As a representative from my general area (Queens/LI), I like to hear what he has to say – plus, his hashtags were always witty and hilarious, just like his speeches to Congress. Up until last week, this was simply a weird factoid about my twitter following list. Now, I feel like I’m somehow part of some major scandal (also, I’m a little bummed that I wasn’t on twitter the exact moment he tweeted that infamous picture… I would feel like I’m part of some elite club of the hyper-politically-aware).
First and foremost, Weiner handled this in literally the worst possible way:
1) He lied about it and thought it would just go away. …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by Cherokee S on 01/20/2011
Get Thin or Die Trying
In outrage, my mum showed me an article in UK newspaper The Evening Standard and told me to read it. More or less, after finishing the article, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe what I had just read. What was it about, you ask? Well, if you have been alive on Twitter over the past week, the online universe has blown up over one certain former Big Brother contestant, Kenneth Tong.
Young, impressionable girls already have enough pressure on them as it is when it comes to their bodies and being deemed ‘beautiful’ and ‘attractive’ in the eyes of society, but when Kenneth Tong, with his idea of introducing a ‘Size-Zero Pill,’ fires attack after attack, claiming that girls who aren’t a size-zero are “disgusting,” and, “to be skinny …
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Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 01/3/2011
Teens and Technology: A Feminist Issue
The media would like you to believe that every time you log on to Facebook or – god forbid – the evil black hole of narcissism that is Twitter, another nail is inserted into the coffin of your general ability to function as a capable, well-rounded human being. Every time you update your status, every uploaded picture taken of yourself on your macbook, every “100 Things You Didn’t Know About Me!” note you write, a modicum of self-awareness and empathy seeps from your pores. Essentially, the social networking sites that virtually our entire generation frequently uses are turning us into self-obsessed, unfeeling robots who will contribute nothing of worth to society.
Now, I don’t know that this is entirely true. But if I see one more teaser for the 11:00 …
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Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 06/24/2010
Girl Scout and Dr. Phil to Testify at Congressional Hearing on Cyberbullying
The advent of new media in recent years has been both a blessing and a curse to the youth of the world. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, we can hop on the computer and have a conversation with somebody half way around the world in thirty seconds or less - or more commonly, we can learn that the girl that sits behind us in History who always wears black and scowls actually has an intense love for narwhals and unicrons, by clicking on her photo album “I Love Narwhals and Unicorns.” We’re able to instantly connect to others in a way no other generation has previously experienced, but we’re also exposed to the darker side of rapid, often anonymous, communication. Cyberbullying, defined as when someone is “tormented, …
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Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 07/28/2009
Twitter and gendered language
Of all the things to spark a debate over the lack of gender neutrality in language, I really hadn’t expected Twitter.
Twitter seems to get a lot of flack. Upon telling people that I have a twitter, they usually roll their eyes or laugh in my face.
They tell me it’s Twitter promotes the death of language and creative thought.
They tell me that it’s weird to update people on everything you do (nobody cares) [OH BUT THEY DO] and it only promotes stalking.
But Facebook, which not only has a status update feature, but allows users to take stalking to a truly comprehensive level, by letting them read your conversations with others, view photos of you, and learn about your “interests and activities” — no that’s fine. …
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