Facebook
Although the Super Bowl was a few weeks ago, I'm still upset about the ads.
Sure, I knew it'd be full of sexist crap, that's what they always do.
But the number of ads including this call to return "masculinity" and "taking back the pants" was just down right astonishing. Where did this come from?
Perhaps the ad industry has discovered that women are more likely to be educated and work outside the home, therefore changing the 50 year old plus dynamic of the male being the breakwinner and thus making independent women who can make their own way in the world.
Supposidly this is a bad thing? Obviously, as a feminist, I think this is awesome, but why the call for bringing back the 1950s?
Sure, it's the Super Bowl. This is supposed to be the ultimate bro day. The day where "men can be men" (whatever that is), and can stuff their face with chicken wings and beer to their heart's content.
Of course, millions of women watch the Super Bowl too, but ya know, we're only there because we have to be, and quite frankly have no interest in/ have no knowledge of the game. Of course.
But this standard isn't only sexist against women, it's sexist against men. By keeping the old status quo in what "men should be", it's seriously f***ing with men. Men aren't allowed to get away with much considered effeminate, such as paying attention to how they look, because nothing is worse than being called, in essence, a girl. One of the worst things you can call a guy is a "p***y", "lady", and even calling him a girls' name.
We need to change the status quo of what masculinity is and empower men to be proud of who they are, regardless of whether they love sports or love getting their nails done.
(Here's an awesome spoof ad to the Dodge Charger commercial, just because it's awesome.)
Recently, I read an article about how the age of rapists has decreased as of yet.
In the U.K., two ten year old boys were charged with raping and eight year old girl, an eight year old boy became the youngest person to be accused of committing rape, and six years ago a 12 year old boy became the "youngest-known rapist after he was convicted of attacking a nine-year-old girl". He was 11 when he committed the crime.
So what is so wrong that these kids, who probably don't even understand what rape or sex is, that they would rape young girls?
The sad reality is, we live in a society that's messed up the meaning of rape. It's common place to hear kids in my highschool joke about "raping" someone last night or something along those lines.
Further, a recent Cosmopolitan artice featured the issue of "gray rape", the supposed "New Kind of Date Rape". The article tells the story of a girl who was date raped, but isn't sure if anyone else would call it that. Despite her saying "no" (apparently too softly) and having the reaction of a rape victim.
Of course, the only thing that could possibly categorize this as the supposed "gray rape" would be the fact that the woman who was raped felt that she was too empowered to be a victim.
As Jessica Valenti points out in her book The Purity Myth,
There are probably many more instances rape being misinterpreted and misunderstood, and that just furthers the point that the society we live in doesn't truly understand the gravity of how rape affects a person, and what it truly is. It isn't about sex, it isn't a thing that can have a gray area, rape is something that doesn't just violate the body, but the very soul of a person.Of course, many women don't call their assaults rape, for myriad reasons -- pehaps because of the shame and stigma attached to sexua assault, or maybe they shy away from the word because they don't want to admit something so awful happened to them. But whatever the reason, it doesn't change the reality of what happened-- it doesn't change the fact that someone raped them.
So what can the generation of today do about this? How can we stop ten year olds from assaulting young girls? (That's not to say that society is completely to blame for the rapes, but it is a contributing factor.)
Well, first off, comprehensive sex ed is necessary in schools so that kids can be taught how to identify rape, and how to say no. Most importantly, though, an understanding of rape needs to be reached, so people can know that joking about "raping" your friend last night is not funny nor okay.
The younger generations can accomplish this, and hopefully within the new decade.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/16/boys-charged-rape-london
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/tips-moves/new-kind-of-date-rape
I'd like to give a huge fist punch to California Senator Barbara Boxer for making an awesome speech about the double standard that exists between women's and men's reproductive rights.
In the clip, she discusses how it would be unfair if a man was not able to acess certain medications or procedures regarding his reproductive health *cough Viagra cough* and how women need access to medication or other procedures.
She made this speech in response to Senator Ben Nelson introducing an amendment "that would bring Stupack language barring abortion coverage into the Senate health care bill". Thankfully this amendment didn't pass.
Plastic surgery has been used for years to "enhance" women's and men's looks. You know the usual surgeries; rhinoplasties, boob jobs, etc.
But, recently, new surgeries have become available to women. On their vaginas.
Now, obviously this is seriously messed. I don't think anyone can argue that. But, the interesting thing is how these surgeries prove our society's fixation with virginity.
One type of surgery available to women is vaginal rejuvenation. This surgery tightens the vagina and returns it to the "pre-pregnancy state".
Just googling "vaginal rejuvenation" will get you 122,000 hits, many of which are websites for medical offices who perform the surgery. Some of these sites offer before and after pictures; showing normal women's vaginas becoming pornified after the surgery. BUST magazine even ran an article about cosmetic vaginal surgeries, and found that many women who opt to have the surgery infact oftentimes bring pictures of porn star's vaginas as models. Not only does this prove the pornification of our society, but it also pushes the idea that women should look like prepubescent girls. Women are told constantly that to be attractive to men they must have perfectly waxed/shaved vaginas; now they can even make them tighter.
But it doesn't end there. Women can have an artificial hymen inserted. Yeah. I think that kind of speaks for itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_IAN081P8I
Amazing.
My own rep Mark Kirk even makes an appearance!
Ok, I'll admit it. I used to like Twilight. Yeah, I know. I hate it now, too.
So much media focus has been on the books and movies nowadays that it's become it's own phenomenon. Personally, I don't like adding to this fuss, but it is an interesting topic that people will debate you on.
And I've all the awesome articles profiling why this series is so.... vulgar. And I totally one hundred percent agree. But, besides hearing the fangirls (and boys) scream about how “hot” Edward Cullen is, there really hasn't been a large response from fans as to why they follow the series so religiously.
Now, when I first read Twilight I was 13. And, as I began to read it, I thought the book was completely boring. It was just some random girl talking about moving, and I really didn't care. So I put the book back into my closet for about six months. The next time I picked it up was only out of boredom. I had nothing else to read, and the cover art looked cool, so I decided to give it a second chance. And then Edward happened. Which, really is self-explanatory.
I then read all the books with the same conviction as the fangirls you see with their t-shirts proclaiming their love for the characters.
But, there were others things in the book that held my interest. It wasn't just Edward all the time. Thinking back, I actually got bored of reading about Edward and Bella all the time. (I was more into Alice and Jasper myself.) I began to not care about reading what felt like the same thing over and over and over again. The plots began to seem similar, and I was much more interested in the other characters' plots.
Recently, my sister and I watched an episode of the show World's Strictest Parents, which is basically two teens trying to live in the house of (shocker) strict parents for a week. The point is to have the kids learn something about their lives or whatever. You know, its full of all these meaningful moments and is all dramatic and whatnot. So, on the first day, the parents go over their ground rules, i.e. respect each other, work as a team, no cussing, etc. One rule though, I found interesting: the dress code for girls. Basically, no short shorts, no shirts that showed bra straps, nothing revealing. Now at first, I thought this was pretty reasonable; nobody wants to see someone's butt cheeks hanging out of their shorts. But when I heard why the rule was set, I wasn't too sure if I agreed. The mother's main issue was that wearing a one-shouldered shirt meant that girls had no self confidence, and were telling the world “don't get to know me, just look at my body”, something that the mom repeated through the show incessantly. (Seriously, she said that she thought the teenage girl only wore shorts because she had “no confidence”. This is someone she barely knows, by the way. ) Now, I guess fine and dandy, respect your body and all, but I just couldn't fully agree. Why? well, I have a few reasons:
