After so many years of incredibly degrading, sexist, and sexualized ads, the ways women were represented in this year’s Super Bowl commercials, overall, were much less problematic and insulting. It sure seems like advertisers have been listening to what gender equity activists have been saying for many years. So this is great. Sexism in the Super… Continue Reading →
In defense of the “before” girl
In some ways, I look like the “before” girl in romantic comedies. You know, the one with the frizzy hair and the chunky glasses? If only I would straighten my hair and take off my glasses, then I, too, could be beautiful! At least, so says romantic comedy logic. As Rachel Paige at Hello Giggles… Continue Reading →
Lesbians are girls, too: Why no one’s immune to media
I have a superpower. I am immune to the power of media. Yes, you heard me correctly. Bring on your Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows and Hardee’s ads and watch their influence fall harmlessly away from me. For as a lesbian, I “do not care about the standards of beauty created for me by society.” Wait…what?… Continue Reading →
To Rashida Jones: Here I am! One man’s perspective on the “Pornification of Everything”
At the close of 2013, actress Rashida Jones wrote an article for Glamour magazine entitled “Why is Everyone Getting Naked? Rashida Jones on the Pornification of Everything”, in which she discusses pop stars and the trend of exposing as much of their bodies as possible. She talks about how, while she grew up with a healthy… Continue Reading →
You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Cosplay
There are a million ways to be cruel and ignorant in geekdom, and Halloween is a riot for the exclusive boys’ club nerd culture has built. Cosplay, shorthand for “costume play,” is defined by Wikipedia as a “performance art in which cosplayers wear costume and fashion accessories to represent a specific character or idea that… Continue Reading →
Free The Nipple does more for women’s bodies than any push-up ever could
A half-moon shaped incision was made and my nipple was flipped open. Then a slice of my breast was cut out, containing a tumor. It had to happen. The tumor was uncomfortable, at times painful, and without taking the whole thing out and analyzing it, cancer couldn’t completely be ruled out. I still think it’s… Continue Reading →
Are breasts scandalous?
Did you know that bikinis used to be completely scandalous? When they debuted in 1946, their inventor Louis Réard couldn’t find models willing to wear them. Réard named them well — after an island atoll where the US had recently been testing atomic weapons, in the expectation that the tiny bathing suits to create a… Continue Reading →
Tropes vs Women in Video Games examines women as background decoration
Video games are a multibillion dollar industry and a form of media in their own right. Which is precisely why it’s so important for people like Anita Sarkeesian — a media critic and the creator of Feminist Frequency — to speak out against sexism and misogyny in games. Her web series, Tropes vs. Women in… Continue Reading →
A rock and a hard place
Let’s look at this picture for a moment, shall we? I’ve not seen a more powerful illustration of how there is no winning for girls and women – of how much both the media and other people judge a woman’s character based on what she wears. In the picture, a student has drawn 10 options… Continue Reading →