Yes, I am just as sick of reading all of those "best of" or "looking back" lists about 2012 too. And yes, I am also just as prone as you to get sucked in to their bullet-pointed seduction techniques. I figured as long as I am reading a ridiculous number of them anyway I might as well compile a list that has to do with women and feminism.
If you have any others to add, please let me know about them in comments!
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Seventeen Magazine Promotes Body Hatred
In unsurprising but nonetheless saddening news, Seventeen Magazine undermined the entire notion of a "Body Peace Project" by partnering with the Biggest Loser in order to encourage girls to learn to love their bodies. Sound contradictory? That's because it is.
Nina Bahadur calls Seventeen out in her article for Huffington Post. Excerpt below.
Nina Bahadur calls Seventeen out in her article for Huffington Post. Excerpt below.
The Seventeen blog features Chandrasekar's "Biggest Loser" audition video, in which the 16-year-old from New York tells viewers: "I want to love myself... which is something I find hard to do at times, at this weight. Secondly, I want to look fabulous for prom." The tape also features Chandrasekar's mother, who states, "It is really my greatest regret in life... that my daughter has gotten into the vicious cycle of weight gain."
Meanwhile, Seventeen's Body Peace Pledge, signed by almost 90,000 young women to date, invites them to vow to "know that I'm already beautiful just the way I am" and "not let my size define me."
Seventeen introduces the "Biggest Loser" partnership in the wake of other recent body image controversies. In late 2012, the magazine came under fire for featuring a BMI calculator on its website. The aforementioned calculator indicated that a girl with a BMI of 14.8 was "healthy," when, according to the Center for Disease Control, such a BMI renders a person "underweight." Seventeen took down the BMI calculator from their website after 3,000 individuals signed a Proud2BeMe petition demanding its removal.
Humor that's funny
I came across a gif this morning that featured this quote from Ellen DeGeneres, "Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else's expense. And I find that that's just a form of bullying in a major way. So I want to be an example that you can be funny and kind, and make people laugh without hurting somebody else's feelings."
I love this quote. I love it because it calls out people who tell jokes that are mean-spirited and perpetuate a culture of bullying marginalized groups but also points to a positive example of humor that doesn't fall into that bullshit.
As an example I feel the need insert a piece of comedy from Ms. DeGeneres that is subverting, rather than playing into, sexist stereotypes (unfortunately I don't have a transcript for this but if someone else does I will love you eternally if you put it in comments).
If any of you have other examples of comedians who are funny without resorting to laughing at other people's expense, let me know! I am always down for a giggle fest.
I love this quote. I love it because it calls out people who tell jokes that are mean-spirited and perpetuate a culture of bullying marginalized groups but also points to a positive example of humor that doesn't fall into that bullshit.
As an example I feel the need insert a piece of comedy from Ms. DeGeneres that is subverting, rather than playing into, sexist stereotypes (unfortunately I don't have a transcript for this but if someone else does I will love you eternally if you put it in comments).
If any of you have other examples of comedians who are funny without resorting to laughing at other people's expense, let me know! I am always down for a giggle fest.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Feminism and Tattoos
So because I am self absorbed and (as I mentioned in my last post) newly marked my very own feminist tattoo, I feel the need to make a post full of some articles, blogs, etc which I have come across recently that have to do with feminist ink. If you have your own feminist tattoo and something to say about it or have another online resource about feminist tattoos, I would love to hear from you in comments!
- An article by a graduate student reflecting on both the pros and cons of publicly displaying her feminism in the form of her tattoos
- The Survivors Ink Project (pretty self explanatory, but I love that this community has a space)
- A collection of images and stories of feminist tattoos which can be found on Tumblr
- A brief look at some of the historical and cultural context surrounding women and tattoos
- A reflective look "On Ownership, Marking the Body, and Tatooing as a Feminist Act"
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
I'm baaaaacccckkkkk
So I am not going to be so presumptuous as to apologize for taking over a year-long hiatus from blogging here. I assume all of our readers have been reading other great feminist blogs and have been carrying on just fine without my witty commentary on topics related to feminism. But I am sorry I have taken such a long break because having the opportunity to be heard in this forum is something I really appreciate and have missed. I hope that you all aren't so annoyed by this blog having been inactive for so long that you won't start reading again.
There are lots of reasons why I took a break from blogging which are fairly uninteresting and typical: I had my senior year of college to contend with, I got lazy, etc.
However, the reasons I want to start blogging again are more interesting (to me, anyway). I want to start blogging again because of the following:
1. I watched this talk by Anita Sarkeesian and was incredibly moved an inspired.
2. I got the woman symbol tattooed on my foot yesterday (I will blog more about my journey to this tattoo at a later date). While I got the tattoo because I was already passionate about feminism, in the 24 hours I have had it on my body it has only served to fuel my feminist fire.
3. I had a really bad experience with a boy one year ago today. Becoming more involved with the feminist community again is my way of saying to him, "FUCK YOU, I WILL NOT BE OPPRESSED! HEAR ME ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The wound is still too fresh to talk about this more now, but I plan to write about it later.
4. It is a unique privilege to be able to think through issues that are important to you, write down your thoughts, and have other people actually bother to read them. I don't think I realized how cool blogging for Female Impersonator is until I spent a year missing it.
5. I want to.
There are lots of reasons why I took a break from blogging which are fairly uninteresting and typical: I had my senior year of college to contend with, I got lazy, etc.
However, the reasons I want to start blogging again are more interesting (to me, anyway). I want to start blogging again because of the following:
1. I watched this talk by Anita Sarkeesian and was incredibly moved an inspired.
2. I got the woman symbol tattooed on my foot yesterday (I will blog more about my journey to this tattoo at a later date). While I got the tattoo because I was already passionate about feminism, in the 24 hours I have had it on my body it has only served to fuel my feminist fire.
3. I had a really bad experience with a boy one year ago today. Becoming more involved with the feminist community again is my way of saying to him, "FUCK YOU, I WILL NOT BE OPPRESSED! HEAR ME ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The wound is still too fresh to talk about this more now, but I plan to write about it later.
4. It is a unique privilege to be able to think through issues that are important to you, write down your thoughts, and have other people actually bother to read them. I don't think I realized how cool blogging for Female Impersonator is until I spent a year missing it.
5. I want to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
