Pop-Culture | Posted by Gina S on 07/18/2012

The Headline Project

As a little project, I recently decided to compile the gender presentation as depicted in the headlines on various popular ‘news’ websites over 3 days. Having rolled my eyes so strenuously as to pop several blood vessels at the ridiculous scandals I’m subjected to each time I checked my email, I decided to monitor sites like AOL, Yahoo, and MSN News to dissect how they depict famous women.

Day 1

AOL’s headlines regarding famous women:

“Brittany Spears flaunts assets”
“See what (Kate Middleton’s sister) Pippa’s wearing at Wimbledon”
“Who’s the British beauty showing off her armpits?” (No, I’m not kidding…)
“Miley Cyrus wears daring LBD”
“Megan shows off baby bump in bikini” – (Translation: “show off” = wearing a biking while pregnant and famous).

MSN messenger news:

“Katy …

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Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 07/8/2010

Circle Contact Lenses: The Terrifying Future of Beauty as We Know It

As Joan Jacobs, in her great book The Body Project illuminated, the idea of teen girls working to improve their bodies in a detached way – as if it were a project with perfection as its goal, rather than relating those alterations to ourselves – is not a new one. Girls have been focused on the pursuit of changing our appearances for at least a century, probably longer. At first it was “slimming,” or reducing what we ate, and wearing specific clothes (thank god the girdle is gone; I take pride in my food babies). And now we’ll do just about anything; whether it’s a diet of dexatrim max and laxatives or a $500 facial, all so that our waistlines, our skin, our [insert body part here] will be more …

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