In Her Image Blog

Soapbox's Feminist Winter Term

2011-01-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

Today I was thrilled to do a workshop on body awareness at Amy Richards' and Jennifer Baumgardner's Feminist Winter Term. This amazing program gives savvy, passionate students and professionals a platform to come together for a week of feminist powwow. Yes! It's these sort of groups and events that help negate cynicism and feelings of futility.

And you can jump in at their Feminist Summer Camp (or of course, next year's Winter Term).

Standing up for open internet = standing up for everything you care about!

2010-12-03T15:06:00.000-05:00

Free Press writes: "After more than a year of waffling on Net Neutrality, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski just announced plans to issue weak regulations that give just about everything to giant phone and cable companies, and leave Internet users with almost nothing."

This rule goes to a vote on Dec. 21, so now's the time to sign the Free Press petition!

I think this is *the* issue of the moment. Here's my soapbox pitch on why true net neutrality is so important: 

With a privatized internet, communities who work toward every other type of social and political change won't be able to connect and move as freely. People who can't afford to pay for 'privileged internet' will fall behind in education, job searching, cultural production, and more. Companies who now champion free, open source internet tools will probably cave to deals with multi-national corporations...

Augh! The same transition happened to TV back in the day -- don't let it happen to the internet! We don't need one more venue where companies can push products and values on us. We need a venue where people can speak freely, connect with each other, and make media that reflects the diverse face of our nation.

Sign, Tweet, post, stand on chairs and shout about it. This is our last chance.

Dear Victoria's Secret, get your paws off my feminism

2010-11-01T16:01:00.004-04:00

Alright. Victoria's Secret has really outdone itself this time.

It's bad enough that this corporation promotes narrow ideals of beauty and sexiness that have horrible consequences on girls' and women's self-esteem, self-image, and co-ed relationship expectations. But, in recent years, they've gotten hip to the fact that lots of us are sick of our bodies being chopped into scrutinizable bits by ads, and they've begun co-opting our media literacy efforts.

First they featured the "Love Your Body" ad campaign, which twisted the Dove and other non-profit messaging intended to help women love their bodies and see themselves *apart* from commercial standards. Now, they're touting the "Incredible" bra, which is advertised with a play on 70's bra-burning feminism: "Burn my old bra! This one's incredible!" They may as well say, "Burn that old-fart, unappetizing sexism! The coy, submissive woman is back!"

These 'clever' marketing techniques not only confuse public awareness while they poke fun and delegimitize the serious public health issues involved in low body image and sexism, but they go one step further in reaffirming and promoting the oppressive norms bra burning and self-acceptance initiatives try to combat.

I'm tired of living in a culture where women are taught to compare themselves to each other, to be jealous and competitive over men, and to never feel perfect or deserving enough to inhabit themselves fully. I'm tired of living in a culture where women feel they must be like porn stars to make male partners happy, where the freedom to be sexually active has been usurped by the same old corporate interests, and male-pleasing, porn-performance promiscuity inserted where empowered fulfillment and true intimacy ought to be. It's hard enough to get out a message celebrating uniqueness and real, personal beauty over the din of dollars and cents accumulating, without that same commercial monster using my cause...for their own profit, yet again. Way to add insult to injury!

My panties certainly ARE in a wad. Hm. Maybe that'll be their next tagline.

After all this time, is acting 'like a man' still the most powerful thing a woman can do?

2010-09-15T17:56:00.005-04:00

Today I attended the stellar Women Who Tech TeleSummit. (Thanks coordinators, speakers, and sponsors who helped make it cheap enough to go to!)

The panel that gave me the most food for thought was called "Self Promotion: Is This Really a Rant About Gender?" The main question, riffing off of the debate stirred up by Clay Shirky's article, "A Rant About Women," was: "Is it necessary to be a self-aggrandizing jerk to get ahead?"

So yeah. Some questions that were debated were: What does it mean to get ahead? What's the difference between aggression and assertiveness? How do you handle the double standard wherein men can act 10 times as aggressive as women while women get called a "bitch" when they act confident and powerful? How can we change the standards on both the supply and demand sides?

One conclusion of the panel I found particularly salient and helpful was that when people moan about sexism and double standards, the retort "stop blaming men" makes no sense. Demanding diversity on panels, at schools, in work places (minorities as well) is not a way of blaming men, but a way to improve the quality of, well, everything, by widening the pool of excellent candidates. It was also pointed out that creating systems that invite women and people of color does not "lower standards" (I can't even believe how prejudiced a comment that is, but it's a common repsonse!), but rather acknowledges and addresses the issue that there are a bajillion qualified people out there, yet usually the white, male, "jerks" (to use Clay Shirky's word) are the ones viewed as successful and enjoying that so-called success.

As a result of all of this, I revisited Deanna Zandt's post, "Shirky to women: ur doin it wrong." Definitely worth checking out her articulate post, as well as the debate that went on in the comments. The blogosphere firestorm stirred up by Shirky's article may have subsided, but these issues are far from solved, so this is all certainly worth a read, a think, a comment, a talk with a friend about over coffee. Who knows, it might even inspire you to hire a different employee, stick up for someone in the classroom, or go after what you think you deserve. (For the record, I *do* think you can do that without being a self-aggrandizing jerk, a quality of modern masculinity that I hope we can all grow out of someday.)

30 Allies in 30 Days

2010-09-09T13:00:00.000-04:00

Hardy Girls Healthy Women is highlighting 30 Allies in 30 Days leading up to their SPARK Summit on how to fight the sexualization of girls in media. You've got to check out all the inspiring things these women are doing and join them in their efforts! I'm honored to be included as today's sister ally. See you at SPARK!

[Re-post] The Dating Game: Sluts Don't Get to Be Happy

2010-08-07T14:29:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to re-post this article from Bitch Mag by Megan Carpentier   ...definitely some great food for thought for the ongoing debate. (I'm not saying I agree with all of it, but I like how she digs in and provokes thought.)

If you haven't heard, there's only one possible result when you're a "slut"—particularly if you have the audacity to do it without shame and—clutch your pearls, ladies—talk about it in a public forum.

Power, Money, + Sexism - A personal tale and feminist action point

2010-08-01T23:08:00.000-04:00

Today I received an enewsletter from ING (I have an account there) of which the first headline reads “Is that a bank branch in your pocket or...?”--the rest of the phrase as we all know, is, “or are you happy to see me?”

This really stuck out to me – a sexual innuendo that places men on the top of a sexist power dynamic should not be a ‘cute’ headline from a financial institution, yet sexism is so embedded in our culture that this headline could seem harmless, attention-grabbing, or funny.

I wrote an email to DailyWorth (a great blog with financial tips and resources aimed at women) to see if we could harness reader power in the form of letter or petition: I want to let ING know that sexist old boys’ humor and modern money management don’t go together. I'll let you know if I hear from DailyWorth, and in the meantime, feel free to write your own letter or make some calls!

I’m a big fan of ING and the services and information offered me as a patron, and I often recommend the company to my friends—seems it’s time to remind them that women are among their smartest and most independent, loyal customers too (and that their most lucrative male customers will be thinking with their brains, not their...er, pocket bank branches).

Whad'ya say, activists?!

Guest Post: Beauty and Popularity

2010-05-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

by Nancy Gruver

Peggy Moss’ wonderful new book, One of Us, got me thinking about the definition of beauty and how girls decide if they fit into it or not. The book takes us along with Roberta James, the lively and open main character, as she navigates the cliques on her first day at a new school.

As various groups tell Roberta that “you’re one of us,” only to say she doesn’t really belong with them as they learn more about her she begins to feel she doesn’t fit anywhere. Nearly all of us have felt like this one time or another.

To soften the blow of rejection, Roberta even starts telling groups she doesn’t belong with them before they tell her that. She’s internalized the message that she can only be part of a group if she’s like them in every way.
Fortunately for readers, a group has formed around being different from each other. They welcome Roberta as she is.

In its simplicity, the story provides wonderful opportunities for readers to observe and relate to the many differences between people. It gently conveys the limited divisions we impose on each other and encourages us to transcend them.

One of Us will start great conversations with girls and boys of all ages who are seeking ways to make peace between who they are and who the outside world wants them to be. Read it and share it.

Nancy Gruver is Founder of www.newmoon.com - a creative online community and magazine for girls ages 8 and up where girls also like being different from each other, even when it’s hard.

The real beauty issue

2010-05-25T13:53:00.000-04:00

Some great reading for girls...

Check out New Moon's mag issue on real beauty and recommend these books to girls you know for their summer reading list!

(Full disclosure: I'm a New Moon affiliate--but I am because I believe in what they do and want to promote it!)

Ms. Blog: Don’t Be Shamed by “The Weight Talk”

2010-04-13T17:12:00.002-04:00

by Jessica Holden Sherwood

I recently had my annual physical, and I got The Weight Talk for the first time. Luckily, I had come prepared. While driving to the appointment, I even rehearsed in anticipation.

When I got The Talk, I responded by saying that I will never count calories. I asked the doctor in earnest why he would care about my weight if I had good health, good blood pressure and so on. I listened to his answers. And a week later, I sent him a copy of Health At Every Size (a book which also has a website).

After all this time, fat is still a feminist issue...

Read more on the Ms. Blog

Press release: NewMoon.com’s “Beautiful Girls” Raise the Value of Inner Beauty

2010-04-12T13:51:00.000-04:00

Spreading the word...!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Girls Fight Harmful Beauty Messages:
NewMoon.com’s “Beautiful Girls” Raise the Value of Inner Beauty

Flashing zits on a virtual face seek to convince girls to retouch “unflattering” Facebook photos so no one will “gawk at them.” Relentless media and marketing tell girls that their looks are far more important than their minds, spirits, or talents.

Girls have had enough.

Now, girls are fighting back with NewMoon.com’s “Beautiful Girls” campaign. Starting today, through June 30, anyone worldwide can honor a girl or woman for her inner beauty: her accomplishments, passion, creativity, compassion, and all the other things that make up a wonderful person by completing a brief nomination form at www.newmoon.com.

Starting May 1, all the nominees will be featured in the Beautiful Girls section of NewMoon.com: the safe, ad-free, creative community made by and for girls. This powerful campaign counteracts unhealthy messages like those at PicTreat.com, where “face detection & correction technology … can smooth out skin, remove skin flaws….

PicTreat is just a new example of the age-old messages that led 90 percent of the teen girls questioned in a 2009 Girl Scout Research Institute study to say they couldn’t measure up to “beauty” standards.

“Stuff like that makes me furious,” says Nneoma Igwe, 13, of New Moon’s Girls Editorial Board. “We girls know that what we do, think and care about is more important than how other people think we should look. With this year’s “Beautiful Girls” online event, and our What Is Beauty magazine (in bookstores May 1) we tell the world what really matters!”

New Moon Girl Media Founder Nancy Gruver says, “For 17 years, New Moon has believed in the power and beauty of girls being themselves. This year, we’re in the leadership group convened by the American Psychological Association and Girls Scouts of the USA to support H.R. 4925 the Healthy Media for Youth Act. Girls need it desperately.”

According to the American Psychological Association, three of the most common mental health problems among girls — eating disorders, depression or depressed mood, and low self-esteem — are linked to sexualization of girls and women in media.

Gruver says, “But there’s better news among the thousands of New Moon girls: when asked to define beauty for the May-June issue of New Moon Girls magazine, our members tell about their inner beauty shining out in creativity, courage, and compassion; the only beauty that can keep them feeling happy and fulfilled. “

Anyone can nominate someone (even themselves!) to be a New Moon Beautiful Girl—just go to www.newmoon.com/form/11/beautiful-girl-nomination and fill out the simple entry.

Then look for that girl’s first name on NewMoon.com in May, June and July.

“After all,” Nneoma says, “Real Beauty isn’t about how we look. It's about who we are and what we do.”

Break the Cycle (Kotex*) – Finally, an ad campaign I like

2010-04-08T15:50:00.000-04:00

Wow, finally an ad campaign I like!

This Break the Cycle site set up by Kotex encourages women to be real about their periods, and to share their experiences. I dig that "Break the Cycle" is a very transparent campaign--it focuses on its product to sell its product (rather than showing a women's body to sell something unrelated like alcohol or cars)--and pokes fun, Sarah Haskins style, at traditional ad campaigns for pads and tampons that treat periods as a taboo subject.

I also like that, unlike other campaigns that have allied themselves with you, the consumer, to sneakily get you to still feel bad about yourself and therefore buy their product (see Victoria's Secret's latest "I Love My Body" campaign still advertised on the standard thin, buxom models), the "Break the Cycle" site is itself a public service to women while selling a product actually helpful to them.

All that said, not sure how I feel about the mainstream part of the "U by Kotex" ad campaign that features a stuffed animal beaver...but still want to give kudos where kudos are due.

Great summer media literacy programs!

2010-03-24T18:50:00.000-04:00

Just got wind of a couple great media literacy programs this summer:

Press Pass TV Media Camp
Project Look Sharp Media Literacy Institute

And I'm sure there are more...so please add them in comments!

Women's History Month guest post: Why Women’s History?

2010-03-24T17:18:00.004-04:00

by Barbara J.Berg, Ph.D.

“I’m not a hero,” said Jesse Ames. “I’m only doing what is right.”

What Jesse is doing is running the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, North Dakota, the only medical facility in the state available to women who need to terminate their pregnancies. Although Cass County, where Fargo is located, counts in the 88% of all U.S. counties lacking an identifiable abortion provider, two female physicians, one from Texas, the other from Minnesota fly to Fargo and perform abortions twice a week, Jesse explained. The health center sees approximately 1,300 women each year, some drive over five hours to get there, many have no health insurance, but each one leaves with some form of birth control in her hands.

Red River has thus far escaped the violence inflicted upon other clinics in the nation, but the threat is ever-present. Jesse has had to brandish a stun gun to fend off aggressive protestors. She takes a different route home from work each day, always checking the rear view mirror, and her children use a different last name.

When I asked what led her to this work, she answered simply, “I took women’s history in school.”

Jesse is an heir to the rich legacy of second wave feminists’ determination to challenge the all-male canon and bring women into the historical narrative. We looked for inspiration in the lives of those before us, many from the civil rights movement, many excavated from the rich yet untapped soil of our distant past. Isabella Graham, defying formidable male opposition of the early republic, ventured without a chaperon through the notorious Five Points District in New York to assist the destitute of her sex; Harriet Jacobs, born a slave in North Carolina, endured unmitigated hardships, hiding in an attic for seven years so she could stay near her daughter and away from the horrific abuse of her master; Sarah Winnemucca, author of the first autobiography of a Native America woman, Life Among the Piutes, remained a tireless advocate for the rights of her people. Crippling restraints and staunched dreams had carved inner beings of indomitable strength.

We called these women role models. Our icons. Connecting to them urged us to continue fighting for equal footing in a soul-deflating society systematically forcing women into second place. Their stories served as both life raft and compass in the perilous uncharted seas of sexism. Not because they were perfect, but because they weren’t, they empowered us. We believed it was crucial for women and girls, but also for men and boys, nurtured on masculine superiority, to realize the sweeping range of women’s fortitude, tenacity and achievement.

I started teaching women’s history at Sarah Lawrence College in the late-1970s under the mentorship of the esteemed Gerda Lerner, a pioneer in the field. On my office door, I hung a poster proclaiming: Women’s History is a World Worth Fighting For. Our struggle back then, to establish the field as a separate discipline, was enhanced by the formation of the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) in 1980 by Molly Murphy MacGregor and four of her colleagues. The NWHP’s goal, “to broadcast women’s historical achievements,” initially took the form of lobbying Congress to designate March as National Women’s History Month, now celebrated all over the country.

The incorporation of women’s history into the curricula at colleges and universities across the nation created a sea change in how Americans viewed our past. Over the course of the next decade, feminist scholarship exploded, stimulating ever-more research and encouraging the formation of interdisciplinary courses. As women of color called for a more complex approach to women’s experiences, Black Women’s History emerged as a field in its own right. The abundance of organizations, conferences, journals and monographs dedicated to analyzing the interconnections of gender with class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, cultural and, more recently, global disparities, have deepened our understanding of the relationships between different groups of women as well as between women and men.

I have been fortunate to have watched the delight and enthusiasm of students for whom women’s history is an ongoing discovery, a source of profound intellectual engagement, pride and self esteem, sometimes transformative, often a prod for action, but always a gift. It offers girls and young women an opportunity to understand the distribution of power and privilege in society as it affords them a new visibility in development of our nation..

The benefits of knowing one’s past seem so obvious, I assumed, naively perhaps, that women’s history would remain a permanent fixture in our national consciousness. But after surveying nearly 400 women of different ages and backgrounds, I discovered sadly that over the past fifteen years women are once again being marginalized in the master historical narrative. The majority of the respondents, especially those 35 years old and younger, had no opportunity to study women’s history and confessed to knowing very little about women’s accomplishments, challenges, or even their rights.

Women’s history courses today are an endangered species, according to Molly Murphy MacGregor, currently Executive Director of the NWHP. There have, of course, always been the naysayers like Conservative writer and policy-maker David Horowitz. His academia-bashing One Party Classroom, cataloguing what he considers the worst 150 courses taught at American schools, highlighted 60 focused on women and gender. Horowitz’s charge—women’s studies courses are taught by ideologues rather than scholars—is nothing new, but in the current economic climate, with women’s studies courses (which include women’s history) on the chopping block, right wing propaganda can have a destructive impact.

The late educator Myra Sadker once said, “Each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history, she learns she is worth less.” I would go even further and suggest that she learns that the lives of those before her are also worth less. The Stupak Amendment’s addition to the House Healthcare Reform Bill stimulated much discussion about the generational divide within the pro-choice movement. Women, born after the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, do not feel the same sense of urgency about choice—so the argument goes—compared to older women whose lives were shaped by the illegality of abortion. And while many members of Gen X and younger are committed to fighting for reproductive justice, there are others who told me they “simply can’t imagine a world without access to abortion.”

Understandable. Also rectifiable.

It’s hard to read pre-Roe stories (such as those reported by Dr. Edward Keemer of Washington, D. C.) and not imagine the absolute desperation of his young patients: “I had treated a woman…[who] still had the straightened-out coat hanger hanging from her vagina… Over the years I was to encounter hundreds of other women who had resorted to imaginative but deadly methods of self-induced abortion.…A sixteen-year-old girl…died after douching with a cupful of bleach...”

We forget the dark and tragic stories of long ago at our own peril. Not knowing your past is a banishment of sorts, cutting you off from powerful connections and deepest parts of your being. It limits the opportunity to understand the multiple experiences that have shaped the nation, shaped your life as a citizen in it and will shape possibilities for the future. “Writing Women Back Into History,” the NWHP’s theme for its Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration, hopes to reverse this trend.

Throughout the month, workshops, symposiums and speeches honoring the vivid heritage of diverse American women will be held across the country. Even if you can’t get to one of the formal events, there’s much you can do: visit your local library and take out some books on women’s history to read to your children or talk with their schools about how the contributions of more than half the population are woven into the curricula, not just in March but for the entire year. This might be a good time for your book club to add women’s memoirs and diaries to its roster or to ask your elderly neighbor about her youth, I bet she has a story or two to tell.

As for me—I’m going to dust off my Women’s History is A World Worth Fighting For poster, hang it up on my door again and get to work.

Barbara J. Berg, Ph.D. is on the Board of the National Women’s History Project and author of Sexism in America: Alive, Well and Ruining Our Future (Chicago Review Press, Sept. 2009).

**Celebrate Women's History month with girls in your life at New Moon!**

Sexism at Work: Young Women, Newsweek, and Gender...and Race

2010-03-23T16:56:00.004-04:00

I'm joining the Ms. Blog in its hearty hoorah to female Newsweek staff (and to Newsweek itself!) for publishing "a brave and candid piece calling out sexism at the magazine and in the publishing industry as a whole"...and also want to include Allison Martell's response piece pointing to the issues of race not addressed by this article.

I'm impressed that instead of silencing or punishing the authors, Newsweek is running a story that at first glance doesn't make the magazine look too great. (At second glance, of course, running the article is a hip, face-saving way of not having this expose printed *about* them somewhere else. But still! Let's commend honest media.)

However, it's painfully true that, despite representing a cross-section of age (kudos for making women past 35 visible!), there are no women of color in the photo. Does this reflect a creative oversight or the larger fact that in a more just society, Newsweek would have more women of color on its staff?

Newsweek's sexism authors Jessica Bennett, Jesse Ellison and Sarah Ball are blogging at Equality Myth, and are upset that discussions of racism divide feminism, diminishing the power of women's efforts in an already-anti-feminist mainstream culture. Martell replies to their call for feminists to "stick together":

"I just don’t accept the premise that feminism is an easier sell without anti-racism. All of the major outstanding feminist issues are deeply entwined with issues of race, in ways that I think a broad, mainstream audience understands. By ignoring race, we only make ourselves more irrelevant."

If Newsweek had added women of color to "correct" their photo, is this not just a form of tokenism? Isn't it offensive to think that all minorities should be satisfied by the inclusion of a few (or as often happens, only one) in a photo?

I agree with Martell that pretending that race issues don't exist to show a veneer of unity only creates resentment and more reluctance to take part in a feminist movement. I also believe in the virtue of critique and speaking up as pointed out by another blogger, Doree: "feminism can only get stronger when we allow ourselves to think critically about what it means and who it represents." Surely debate is the enactment of democracy and many horrifying historical events could have been stopped by louder dissent. But, speaking from personal experience, I also resonate with the Newsweek authors' point that women fighting women--no matter what age, class, race, or background--negatively impacts our larger fight for common goals.

With these issues being as complicated as they are, how can we truly address racism and sexism at a deeper level? And how can we do so in a way that builds strength, rather than more division and disenchantment? I would love to learn how, without glossing over or ignoring the various issues at hand, we can support each other and continue to make progressive change.

All women are "real women"

2010-03-21T02:01:00.000-04:00

Great rant by Andrea Owen about the dangers of anti-eating-disorder mentality. I've definitely been guilty of using the phrase "real women" and am grateful for Andrea for pointing out how exclusionary that is!

Neural Advertising: The Sounds We Can't Resist

2010-03-11T02:00:00.000-05:00

by Jeffrey Kluger on Time.com

"If you're like most people, you're way too smart for advertising. You flip right past newspaper ads, never click on ads online and leave the room during TV commercials.

That, at least, is what we tell ourselves. But what we tell ourselves is hooey. Advertising works, which is why, even in hard economic times, Madison Avenue is a $34 billion–a–year business..."

Read more.

Caught between casual sex and domesticity, women find regrets and false promises of empowerment

2010-03-05T11:58:00.001-05:00

I'm liking this article by Jessica Grose, The Shame Cycle: The new backlash against casual sex, for the way she succintly ties feminist history and today's climate to real women's lives.

Grose talks about about why women might regret their casual sexual encounters and instead hanker for domesticity; one idea I want to add to that pot is--what ever happened to valuing the quality of relationships? We don't think it's liberating, empowering, or fun to have a short, meaningless friendship, so why would having a sexual fling *not* take an emotional toll? In wanting to be tough and independent, women have no space to think they deserve a loving, committed partner--and as Grose points out, when we crave that closeness with someone, we reprimand ourselves for being a crybaby who may as well aspire to '50s housewifery. Women try so hard to deflect the demeaning stereotype of femininity as emotional PMS-induced hysteria, that we end up isolating ourselves socially. And what exactly is powerful about that?

American pop culture tells us that sexuality is empowering. But, in a way, not much has changed from women's powerless historical role: for today's Kill Bill-inspired feminists, sexuality remains wrapped in the pressure to *be sexy* for someone else...and to add insult to injury, we're now expected to somehow own and enjoy that feeling.

Rachel Simmons sums it up well in her post on hook-up culture, "As authors like Ariel Levy and Jean Kilbourne and Diane Levin have shown, the sexualization of girls and young women has been repackaged as girl power. Sexual freedom was supposed to be good for women, but somewhere along the way, the right to be responsible for your own orgasm became the privilege of being responsible for someone else’s."

Update: More on the freedoms and debate about hook-up culture by Shira Tarrant.

Deisel is Stupid

2010-03-01T01:20:00.000-05:00

Has anyone seen Deisel's new ad campaign, which plays on the age-old stupid = cool, sexy, and delightful / smart = nothing desirable, fun, or valuable? I passed a slew of these in the subway, and decided to take a picture of this one--just a little sexism, promotion of irresponsible sexual activity, and the like--before going on my merry way. Sigh.

Action Item: American Apparel Hits Rock “Bottom”

2010-02-12T16:54:00.000-05:00

Hardy Girls is leading the protest against American Apparel's new search for "the perfect bottom," an ad campaign which encourages girls to post online pics of their derrieres in American Apparel intimates. Sign this petition and spread the word!

Some more mixed messages for the feminist file...

2010-02-10T17:23:00.001-05:00

Just got a kick out of this juxtaposition of articles on a women's site someone sent me. No wonder we're all so confused!

Eve Ensler's new book for girls

2010-02-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

Eve Ensler’s Mission: Awaken the Girl Self

By Marianne Schnall

Eleven years after the launch of V-Day, Eve Ensler sets out to do for girls what she did for women—uncover the truth of their experiences and create a global dialogue. Her new book is being published February 9...

Read more.

New Moon "You Are Beautiful" ecard

2010-02-08T14:48:00.000-05:00

From the wonderful girls' media company, New Moon: "This is just for fun and just in time for Valentines Day. Let people know they are beautiful just being themselves."

Create your own "You are Beautiful" ecard and make someone's day!

Diane Levin on the bigger meaning of Senator Brown’s “available daughters” comments

2010-01-28T16:46:00.002-05:00

Diane Levin comments on why Senator Brown's “available daughters” comments are not light and funny.

Posted using ShareThis

NY Times: The Triumph of the Size 12s

2010-01-15T00:02:00.001-05:00

...as usual: great that we're expanding (no pun intended) our notions of beauty, bizarre that size 12 is considered "large."

Read the NY Times article here.

Posted via email from

Size Ate: One-woman show about body image and eating disorders

2009-12-29T18:28:00.001-05:00

Just heard about this one-woman show on body image that will run Jan 14-16 in NYC...

Posted via email from

The (Female) Cost of Living

2009-12-17T13:55:00.002-05:00

via dailyworth.com

It sounds almost silly: A survey of drug store goods, in the January issue of Consumer Reports, found that items aimed at women tend to cost more—sometimes 50% or 60% more.
What's disturbing is how pervasive and financially poisonous the so-called gender price bias is—especially when you consider that, on average, women earn about 23% less than men with comparable credentials...
Read more at http://www.dailyworth.com/blog/312-the-female-cost-of-living#

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...and the Buying for Equality Guide

2009-12-10T14:30:00.002-05:00

Add this Equality Buying Guide from the Human Rights Campaign to your "good" shopping list...

Posted via email from

Holiday gifts that do good

2009-12-08T16:17:00.001-05:00

Sick of supporting consumer values every holiday season? Check out these gift guides that help you truly get into the spirit of giving.

Change.org
Commercialfreechildhood.org

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New mammogram guidelines say 50+

2009-11-17T16:50:00.000-05:00

Lucinda from the Feminist Peace Network shares new government recommendations on (not) getting mammograms.

More good news: Finally, a UN Women's Agency with Muscle

2009-11-11T13:21:00.001-05:00

Finally, a UN Women's Agency with Muscle
By Colette Tamko

Recently the UN announced approval of a new agency for women-an event that followed years of complex organizing by individuals and advocacy groups around the world. Here, one of the principle coordinators of that ongoing effort explains what it means for women, and the work that still remains to ensure its success.

Click here to read the article.

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CBS "Plus Size Models Take Charge"

2009-11-09T00:17:00.002-05:00

Another drop in the bucket...but again, I find myself saying--why, if the average woman is considered "plus size," don't we just call it "regular"?

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Coke to give health advice - can we say conflict of interest?

2009-11-05T12:43:00.001-05:00

Published on Thursday, November 5, 2009 by the Associated Press

Coke to Bring You Advice About Health and Soft Drinks

Family doctors group loses members over Coke deal

by Lindsey Tanner

CHICAGO - Advice about soft drinks and health from one of the nation's largest doctors groups will soon be brought to you by Coke.

The American Academy of Family Physicians has prompted outcry and lost members over its new six-figure alliance with the Coca-Cola Co. The deal will fund educational materials about soft drinks for the academy's consumer health and wellness Web site, http://www.FamilyDoctor.org...

Read on.

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Help save New Moon - 3 easy options!

2009-11-04T15:54:00.001-05:00

Just got word from the fantastic girls' media company that despite tightening their belts, they will go out of business in December unless everyone can take a second to help! Here are 3 really easy things you can do:

* Sponsoring memberships for libraries, schools and programs serving low-income girls. It's quick and easy to sponsor one, ten or 100 girls - every dollar matters! http://www.newmoon.com/donate
* Buying memberships for all girls 8-14 that you know. Our holiday special saves you 50% after the first order. http://www.newmoon.com/offer
* Telling everyone what you value about New Moon. Link to us, and follow us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2226635075 and Twitter http://twitter.com/nancy_newmoon and share with your FB friends and Tweeps.

I urge you to act now so the media universe for girls won't be totally dominated by Stardoll.com, Seventeen magazine, and worse. There really is nothing more important than nurturing a creative, confident next generation of girls, so please do anything and everything you can to help New Moon survive!

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Mixed messages from Victoria's Secret get customers coming and going

2009-10-25T16:56:00.000-04:00

Glad to see that Victoria's Secret has picked up on the fact that women should love their bodies...but not glad that their skinny, super-sexualized models help set impossible beauty standards that make women feel like crap about their bodies. When a company that objectifies women's bodies to sell their product comes out with a "love your body" contest, I'm highly skeptical. Appearing socially conscious is a great marketing move, is it not?

CCFC Victory: Baby Einstein video refund

2009-10-24T13:58:00.001-04:00

Just got a great announcement from the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC):

"CCFC's ongoing campaign to stop the false and deceptive marketing of baby videos has had a stunning success. We've persuaded the Walt Disney Company to offer a full refund to anyone who purchased a Baby Einstein DVD in the last five years...Recent research shows that screen time is not educational for babies [and The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under two]. Now parents who purchased Baby Einstein DVDs, mistakenly believing the videos would make their babies smarter, can recoup their money."

The refund is only available for a limited time, so make sure to act now! Also, share this fact sheet from the CCFC with parents you know.

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Cancer Society, in Shift, Has Concerns on Screenings

2009-10-22T13:02:00.001-04:00

The American Cancer Society has changed its tune a bit on the importance of cancer screenings. Check out this NY Times articles for more.

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Today (and every day I hope) is Love Your Body Day

2009-10-21T17:09:00.003-04:00

Today is Love Your Body Day! Here's the deal (official press release from NOW):

For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906

Unrealistic Images of Women Make Love Your Body Day More Important Than Ever

October 15, 2009

For years now, advertisers and fashion magazines have airbrushed photos to turn models into the latest beauty ideal. Women and girls are constantly bombarded with these artificial images -- fantasies they can't possibly live up to in real life.

This Photoshopping of models and celebrities has really gotten out of hand lately. Self magazine felt the need to digitally slenderize singer Kelly Clarkson before putting her on the cover of its "total body confidence" issue, even though Clarkson has said that she is comfortable with herself just the way she is. Model Filippa Hamilton recently revealed that she was fired by Ralph Lauren for being too big, despite being a size four. Hamilton is the same model who appeared in a Ralph Lauren ad that was so aggressively retouched that she appeared emaciated and completely out of proportion.

If models can't catch a break, how can the rest of us hope to have a healthy self-image? Starting at younger and younger ages, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and a preoccupation with appearance plague women and girls, sometimes with disastrous results. "In my teenage years, I was hospitalized for anorexia," said eating disorder survivor and NOW Action Vice President Erin Matson. "I remember a fellow patient winning a modeling contest while she was on a pass from the hospital. The only way to end the glorification of unhealthy beauty stereotypes is to stand up proudly for real women's bodies."

That's why the NOW Foundation is celebrating its 12th annual Love Your Body Day on Oct. 21. This campaign is a giant shout out to the fashion, beauty, diet and advertising industries: No more fake images! Show us real women, diverse women, strong women, bold women. And to the women and girls who are targeted by messages telling them that the key to success and happiness is manufactured beauty, we say: It's okay to "Be You" -- the true you is beautiful.

Many different kinds of Love Your Body events will be held across the country on Oct. 21. Contact the NOW Foundation to learn more.

More Information:
Kelly Clarkson Photo Retouched to Make Her 'Look Her Best', Janet Mock People Magazine
Size 4 model: I was fired for being too fat -- Former Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton is 5' 10" and 120 pounds, Today MSNBC

Fat Talk Free Week

2009-10-20T02:58:00.002-04:00

What are you doing for Fat Talk Free Week?

Girls Write Now wins 2009 Youth Thrive Award!

2009-10-15T14:17:00.001-04:00

Check it out.

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Operation Beautiful

2009-10-15T14:14:00.001-04:00

Eliza wrote, “The other day at work, I put a note in the bathroom that said "YOU are BEAUTIFUL!" The next week later, I used the bathroom and was standing at the sink washing my hands...

More at http://operationbeautiful.com

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Sick of Pink

2009-10-14T15:39:00.002-04:00

Boston Globe Sunday Magazine

The Health Issue

Sick of pink

This month, like every October, a sea of pink ribbons washes over products from sneakers to snacks. While the effort raises research dollars, it leaves some breast cancer survivors feeling that companies are profiting from their pain...

Hottest Hip Hop Glorifies Pimping

2009-10-14T15:36:00.000-04:00

Experts: Hottest Hip Hop Glorifies Pimping | Womens eNews

Source: www.womensenews.org

Hip hop is commercially hot, culturally influential and replete with references to pimping and prostitution. Critics say this not only sends teens a pro-pimp message, it puts some girls even more at risk for becoming prostitutes.

Keith Olbermann, Misogyny Is Not A Progressive Value

2009-10-14T15:33:00.000-04:00

Air America article on Keith Olbermann's misogynistic treatment of blogger Michelle Malkin.

Tweens convene for learning, support on body image

2009-10-13T12:08:00.001-04:00

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — When 12-year-old Chloe Harris sees a large-screen image of a stick-thin model in a new ad campaign, the seventh-grader from Alexandria, Va., says the picture makes her "feel sick" because the model looks so "unnormal."

Read on...

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Plus Size Models Get Naked for Glamour Magazine

2009-10-09T16:02:00.002-04:00

Today's Examiner has an article about Glamour's plus-size model spread.

Interesting step...and maybe one day we can stop calling "50% of women in this country wearing a size 14 (the average size of a plus size model)," plus size.

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Friends Don't Let Friends Fat Talk

2009-10-09T14:54:00.001-04:00

Fat Talk Free Week starts early at Lululemon Athletica in San Antonio. (Fat Talk Free Week is a five-day effort to draw attention to the damaging impact of fat talk and the “thin ideal” on women, starting October 19.)

What will you do for Fat Talk Free Week?

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It's time to challenge casual sexism

2009-10-07T13:38:00.001-04:00

Check out this article from the Times UK about challenging the casual culture of sexism that we all accept.

I love the author's point that we all stay silent because eh, what's the big deal--we want to be cool, not uptight. And when we do speak out, we get the response, "Geez, why can't women take a joke?" We can take a joke, but sexism isn't funny.

Now go read this really articulate, awesome article!

Addendum: I was just reading Lucinda Marshall's blogpost on "Objectifying and Belittling Women In The Name Of Breast Cancer Awareness," when I got to her line, "At the risk of being called a humorless feminist [this campaign is] sophomoric and deeply insulting to both men and women." There it is folks. The humorless feminist is a total stereotype, a dirty joke. Our aversion to standing up for everyone's right to act as a full human being (yup, that's my definition of feminism) is our own obstacle.

And in the meantime, this cancer awareness campaign is a perfect example of casual sexism, where the physicality of boobs as objects is used as the attention-grabbing aspect of their ads. But what else are companies to do than concoct a sexy message to garner support and awareness? Perhaps if the general public were to make some noise and let them know we don't need ads like this to care about the *people* we're losing to breast cancer, companies wouldn't need to rely on sashaying body parts to get the word out.

German women's magazine to ban professional models via Feministing

2009-10-06T15:12:00.002-04:00

Reposted from Feministing:

Lately, Europe seems to be eons ahead of us regarding their recognition that the fashion and media having a significantly unhealthy effect on women's body image. The latest is Germany's most popular women's magazine's announcement of their intention to omit professional models from their pages in an effort to combat unrealistic social beauty standards:
The editor-in-chief of Germany's bimonthly Brigitte told reporters that, starting next year, the magazine will feature a mix of prominent women and regular readers in photo spreads for everything from beauty to fashion to fitness.
Andreas Lebert said the move is a response to readers increasingly saying that they are tired of seeing "protruding bones" from models who weigh far less than the average woman.
"We will show women who have an identity -- the 18-year-old student, the head of the board, the musician, the football player," Andreas Leberts said in Hamburg, where the magazine, published by Gruner+Jahr, is based.
I like this sentiment; we should humanize models not just as "more realistic" subjects of voyeurism. I just worry these kinds of efforts (cough, Dove, cough) often end up having some contradicting issues to contend with - like if the new magazine's campaign consists of shaming underweight women, that's not very productive either.
Either way, it's interesting to see how fast the efforts to combat body image issues and eating disorders are spreading among the fashion and media industries on one continent, while others (ahem) seem to be at a standstill.

Posted by Vanessa - October 06, 2009, at 10:14AM | in Body Image , International
-->
Email post to a friend |

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Egypt: 'Artificial Virginity Kit' Opposed

2009-10-06T12:41:00.002-04:00

Yup.

INTERNATIONAL / MIDDLE EAST | October 06, 2009
World Briefing | Middle East: Egypt: 'Artificial Virginity' Kit Opposed
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Conservative lawmakers have called for a ban on imports of a Chinese-made kit meant to help women fake their virginity.

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Why does this "Anna Rexia" Halloween Costume even exist?

2009-10-05T13:26:00.002-04:00

Why on earth does this Halloween costume have to refer to anorexia? It just looks like a skeleton to me. X-Rays, Zombies, bones--all that is ghoulish enough to fit with Halloween.

The description for this costume is the worst part: "If Anna Rexia doesn't want to put it in her mouth there is nothing you can say to change her mind. You can stop trying to sell her on the point that there aren't any carbs and it's all protein because Anna Rexia just doesn't want anything to do with it. Make no bones about it this girl is as disciplined as they can get. Anna Rexia costume is anything but bare bones! Costume includes headband, choker neckband, removable "Anna Rexia" badge and ribbon tie belt. If you're starving for attention, this costume will be sure to put you on top of the world."

It seems that the prevalence of anorexia has turned it into a common cultural fact, so part of our collective consciousness that, as with ads, we're almost immune to how serious (and unnecessary) it is.

Gross. And not in that fun Halloween way.

Fat Talk Free Week

2009-10-03T00:58:00.000-04:00

Passing on word from the AED:

"Join AED and Delta Delta Delta in supporting Fat Talk Free˙ Week (FTFW), a five-day awareness campaign to challenge and begin to reverse the prevalent and damaging pursuit of the "thin ideal" by women of all ages.

The goal of FTFW, October 19-23, 2009, is to shed light on an underground and pervasive thought cycle practiced by many women by demonstrating how "fat talk" can damage self-esteem and set strong patterns of unproductive behavior.

The approach and interventions promoted during FTFW are based on the Reflections: Sorority Body Image program, a peer-led body image program developed through the joint efforts of AED members Carolyn Becker and Eric Stice and the Delta Delta Delta organization. The AED has endorsed this program as a model for community-based collaboration and the effective integration of research and practice. Reflections is active on 34 college campuses nationwide.

Interested in hosting your own FTFW event? Click here for details.

Visit the Reflections Web site for much more, including tips for promoting positive body image, and more details on Fat Talk Free Week.

Academy for Eating Disorders
111 Deer Lake Road, Suite 100
Deerfield, IL 60015 USA
+1-847-498-4274"

New book out -- Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat? The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby

2009-10-01T20:48:00.001-04:00

Claire Mysko and Magali Amadei's new book, Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat? The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby is now out! They do amazing work. Check it out.

Other things you can do to help:
1. Spread the word to the moms and moms-to-be you know.
2. Sign the Healthy Beauty Pledge and add a badge to your blog or website.
3. Know of a moms group, birth education class, retail store or book club that would be interested in a signing or workshop? Contact them at doesthispregnancy@gmail.com.
4. Join the discussion on Facebook and/or follow on Twitter

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Parents' role in fomenting kids' eating disorders

2009-09-30T14:22:00.003-04:00

What do you think about this take?

http://www.channel3000.com/education/21154458/detail.html

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Vanity iPhone app

2009-09-25T14:08:00.006-04:00

Seems like so much effort to "find out" if someone's beautiful by some inane mathematical standard... I mean, won't I just know if I find someone particularly striking? And do we really need to spend more time making ourselves feel not-good-enough? Aren't there so many better things to do with one's time, even *on* the iPhone itself?!

At least this app doesn't pretend to be about anything other than what it's about (it's not a Photoshopped ad that pretends to be real beauty), but rating oneself about *anything* on a scale of 1-10 seems really shallow and hurtful to me. People are beautiful and amazing to be friends with because they're complicated, interesting, ever-changing, alive. Calcifying human beauty with a score doesn't represent anything real or truthful, yet that human want to please and be at the top drives our curiosity to see what score we "are."

The score is meaningless anyway! Go get an app where you can note all the great things about yourself, keep track of your talents, get loving messages from your friends--oh wait, I think that's called Facebook.

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France Mulls "Health Warning" for Fashion Photos

2009-09-25T01:11:00.002-04:00

...and more fashion and health intersection... France mulls over the idea of slapping "health warning" labels on digitally-altered photos of models.

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London Fashion Week stylist resigns over designer's decision to use size 14 models in show

2009-09-25T00:57:00.003-04:00

via dailymail.co.uk

My reactions:
1. Hooray, someone used normal sized women to display fashion!
2. Ick, women on the runway still look like mannequins. Who cares what size we are when we're still objectified and obsessed with looks?
3. Who is this dude who resigned and what is *that* about?!
4. Why isn't the headline "Fashion Designer Uses Normal Sized Models"? Is the fact that that's *not* news, good news? Have teeny steps actually been made in an altered public consciousness? Or is there no attention being paid because nothing has changed and no on cares about a drop in the bucket?
Lots of mixed feelings here, folks. Help me out.

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New affiliation with New Moon!

2009-09-23T13:52:00.002-04:00

I'm excited to announce my new affiliation with New Moon, a great ad-free magazine and web community where girls 8-12 can truly be themselves! Sign up for a free trial today!!

via newmoon.com

New Moon Girls is an online community and print magazine where girls create and share poetry, artwork, videos, and more; chat together; and learn. All in a fully moderated, educational environment designed to build self-esteem and positive body image. Membership is just $29.95 for 12 months unlimited online access + 6 bimonthly issues of New Moon Girls print magazine.

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Donate to help Women, Action & the Media transition into its new organization!

2009-09-22T18:26:00.002-04:00

Women, Action & the Media

READ BELOW FOR A MAJOR WAM! ANNOUNCEMENT

BIG NEWS!

The Center for New Words is transforming into WAM! (Women, Action, & the Media), which will now be an independent national organization.
Jaclyn Friedman, co-founder and director of WAM!, will head the effort to move WAM! into its new role as an autonomous organization. In its first five years, as a program of CNW, WAM! has already grown from a small-but-spirited gathering of 100 women to an influential national force that this year convened more than 600 activists and media-makers from 29 states and 9 countries, and recently forced the Washington Post to revise its editorial policy after WAM!mers publicly protested yet another sexist slur aimed at Hillary Clinton.
There is some bad news: in order to focus on the strategic planning, leadership development and fundraising required to launch an independent WAM!, we have postponed the next WAM! conference until 2011.
We won’t lie — it’s not going to be easy. In order for the new WAM! to succeed, we have to find brand-new sources of funding at a time when many funders are having a hard time even fulfilling their existing commitments. But we have one thing most organizations don’t have: YOU.
If you’ve ever considered yourself a part of the CNW or WAM! community, this is the moment to be counted. What you do right now will determine WAM’s future.
Yes, we are asking you for a donation. One that means something to you. We are trying to raise $30,000 by October 20. These crucial funds will not only be the seed money from which we can begin to grow the new, independent WAM!, they will also demonstrate to potential large-capacity funders that WAM! has the broad grassroots support to be a national force to be reckoned with.
But we’re not going to make that goal without everyone pitching in. Can you donate to WAM! right now?
With your support and Jaclyn’s leadership, WAM! is now poised to take another great leap in power and influence.
In the next two years, we can launch thriving local WAM! chapters in major cities across the country, which will foster on the grassroots level the kind of cutting-edge thought and action WAM! already inspires nationally. We can build an engaged online WAM! community through monthly webinars on timely topics, a brand-new WAM! website designed to foster action, and of course, our ever-flourishing listserv. And we can ensure that the next WAM! conference — now planned for Chicago in March 2011 — is the largest and most influential yet, creating an unstoppable force for gender justice that will change the media landscape for good.
New Words has a 36-year history of responding creatively to changing times. In 1974, we opened New Words Bookstore. Thirty-two years later, we evolved into the Center for New Words, where our events and programs have galvanized feminist voices and ideas. Our evolution reflects larger changes in the publishing industry, the women’s movement, technology, and the economy.
Every day, WAM!mers help each other place op-eds and articles, get powerful media jobs, leverage new technology, hold the media accountable, produce and promote books, films, and other projects, get stories told about our lives and work, and change the very structure of the media itself. You can continue your support for New Words’ legacy and join this growing movement by making a contribution today. Please donate now to join the WAM! movement. Once you do, you’ll receive regular updates on our progress and ongoing opportunities to shape our new direction.
With your help, we can ensure that everyone will be hearing the loud, wise “new words” of women for many years to come.
Jaclyn Friedman, Director, Women, Action & the Media
Tina Brand, CNW Board President
P.S. Here’s that button again. Please donate today.

We use Google’s secure server to receive donations. Your donation will go directly to CNW and will be used to support and grow the new WAM!.

via centerfornewwords.org

I just donated and you should too--If you have $5, 5 cents, or 5 pieces of pocket lint, give them to WAM!. This is one of the most important, helpful, and sisterhood-focused group of people...now becoming an organization. Reach into those pockets--even a little help will really make a difference!

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Safe cosmetics

2009-09-20T02:23:00.002-04:00

Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group.

via cosmeticsdatabase.com

Trying out Posterous for the first time with this link to Skin Deep safe cosmetics (which is definitely worth checking out...scary what's in our daily products).

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Another reason why the beauty industry is bad for your health

2009-09-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

Check out the work being done at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics....

Contest for women 18-24

2009-08-28T14:44:00.000-04:00

Similar to The REAL Hot 100, this contest is looking for an "It Girl"--who's "It" based on her passions and work, rather than looks. (Different than the REAL Hot 100 which is a grassroots effort, this content is corporate sponsored by Ortho Women's Health & Urology™, makers of birth control pills.) Jennifer Kohanim is promoting this contest and writes:

"The “It Girl” Essentials contest –which has a deadline of August 31st– is a search for confident and reliable women who have a passion for changing the world through the arts. The contest calls on participants to tell their story, either by submitting a video (1-2 minutes) or essay (500 words or less) via www.itgirlessentials.com."

More positive talk from Glamour

2009-08-28T14:38:00.000-04:00

The buzz from Glamour magazine's photo of a "real" woman continues... The model herself as well as Glamour's Editor-in-Chief talk about their reactions and hopes for women on the Today Show:

Women Love Real Body Photo in Glamour Magazine

2009-08-21T12:43:00.003-04:00

Women recently responded with thrill, relief, joy, and love upon seeing a photo of a real woman--with a stomach, ooh aah--in Glamour Magazine. While you all know that I have my qualms about the mixed messages fashion mags send out ("love yourself"/"you're not good enough"), I am very happy to see this reaction.

If real women expect themselves and other women to look like, well, real women, our problems with hating our bodies and feeling physically inadequate would literally be over. (That would leave so much more time for enjoying and taking part in, well, real life!)

It's refreshing to me that Glamour readers didn't respond with "Ew, yuck!" to a photo of a real human body, but rather, "That's beautiful! We want more of that!" And I'm also excited that this photo was outside of something organized like the Dove Campaign for Beauty...perhaps our efforts to expand into healthier, more realistic notions of beauty are seeping into popular culture. (Albeit slowly, but still--I'm an optimist!)

Please give more positive feedback to Glamour editor, Cindy Lieve, who blogged about this positive outpouring. After all, editors publish what sells, and if the public demands more un-photoshopped images, we just maybe could get them.

Gold Awarded Amid Dispute Over Runner’s Sex

2009-08-21T03:09:00.000-04:00

Whoa.

From the NY Times:

BERLIN — As an 18-year-old runner from a village in South Africa received her gold medal in Olympic Stadium on Thursday night, activity away from the track had put her at the center of an international dispute: doctors here and in her home country were examining test results to determine whether she has too many male characteristics to compete as a woman....

Read more

Vote to help fund In Her Image!

2009-08-03T18:47:00.000-04:00

Ok folks, I need one second of your time to help fund In Her Image!

For the past five years, I have been lucky enough to present my media literacy/body image program and facilitate accompanying workshops nationwide at schools, conferences, clinics, and universities. Now, to continue this work toward social change, I need some funding!

So a few days ago, I applied to the Nau Collective’s Grant for Change. This grant is exciting because it’s partly decided by public vote — which is where you come in! Please help fund "In Her Image" by logging in and giving 5 stars on the "rate/share" tab!

Thanks so much for taking a second to vote by August 31st. There’s also a “share” feature — if you want to help spread the word about voting that would be amazing too. I'd also love if you want to stick this post on your blog, Facebook profile, dorm-room bathroom wall, wherever you think will help get the word out!

Sign TODAY: Stop Hollywood from marketing violence to young kids

2009-08-03T18:27:00.000-04:00

The Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood continues to fight the good fight... Please sign this petition TODAY to stop Hollywood from marketing violence to young kids.

Power of the arts toward social change

2009-08-02T22:57:00.000-04:00

Click to view trailer

So we all know what a big fan I am of using creativity and the arts for social change efforts. Creative endeavors help people to think through ideas, be honest with themselves, grow, and open up to each other. And this isn't made-up malarkey.

On Wed. night, I was lucky enough to attend HBO's Latino Film Festival for the premiere of "Stages," a documentary about a theater program for senior citizens and at-risk youth. This amazing piece details the true story of how people of all ages and backgrounds are brought together and transformed through performing and speaking out.

Beautifully shot and beautifully told, the film was made by the Meerkat Media Arts Collective, a very talented group of artists who produce films collaboratively--and in this case, who meaningfully mirrored the collective theater process they were documenting.

In the film, the seniors and youth were equally surprised at how much the other group had to offer and how much they learned from each other, and together they created a community based on trust and discovery. Doesn't that sound like a great basis for the kind of thoughtful, peaceful, vibrant world we'd all like to live in?

Post Script: Just tonight, "Stages" took home the Audience Favorite and Best Documentary awards at the HBO Latino Film Festival awards ceremony! Hopefully this will just be the first stop as wider and wider audiences are moved and changed by "Stages."

My even greater hope is that our culture as a whole will value the power of the arts, and put more of our nation's wealth and respect into its support. The MetLife Foundation only gave money for one year of the Evolve Theater Project that "Stages" followed. What progress could be happening right now if they or someone else would renew this funding?

Women in politics get discredited over appearances yet again. Disgusting.

2009-07-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

Regina Benjamin, Obama's pick for Surgeon General, is getting slammed as a bad choice for this position because of her body weight. This seriously pisses me off. Her job would be to assist the *public health* of our country, and in general, a person's individual health is separate from her job description.

Besides--we've had overweight Surgeon Generals before, drug czar's who couldn't quit smoking, and so on, yet no one ever found their personal states important to their professional capabilities...but they were male. I am thoroughly sick of women in politics being attacked for what they look like. This distraction tactic is not only demeaning to women on the whole, but it undermines the incredible contributions the bullied individuals can make to our government, country, and world.

Why on earth do we find a woman's weight, thigh size, pant-suit taste, or other looks- and fashion-based information newsworthy?! I'm disgusted that our media has sunk below the realm of reality TV, and I'm sad at the sexism, discrimination, and twisted sense of health this infuses into our culture.

Mixed messages don't get more confusing than this

2009-06-26T01:40:00.000-04:00

I just came across a Fox newsflash about a Shape Magazine article, called "Country's Leading Ladies Discuss Body Image, Confidence and Jessica Simpson!"

In this piece, Martina McBride, Julianne Hough, and LeAnn Rimes talk about their concern for young women who base their beauty ideals and self-esteem on "what they see in TV or in magazines." They also talk about how hard it is to maintain self-confidence and be a star under scrutiny.

But wait, yup, their photo on the cover of the magazine shows them in bikinis, looking teeny and flawless (next to other cover article headlines about losing weight and looking good). These women are famous because they are *musicians,* yet their appearance is just as important to their success as a model's. While they recognize that being ostracized over appearances can be really hurtful, they also contribute to the social norm that being worried about 'being beautiful' is important: “I’m 26 and I’m still a little self-conscious about my looks," Rimes admitted. "When I was a kid, I had psoriasis over 80 percent of my body. Luckily, I’ve found a medicine that helps control it, but I never know when it will stop working or if I’ll have to deal with it again. It’s still a struggle, but as you get older, I think your perspective changes."

So while the stars try to be candid and encourage women to feel confident, they are simultaneously icons on the front of a magazine who fall into the same shape and size as the prescribed ideal.

Is there any way for celebrities to break out of this mixed messaging? Is there any way for everyone else to stop our collective obsession with looks?

L'Oreal's hiring practices found to be racist

2009-06-26T00:05:00.000-04:00

The cosmetics giant, L'Oreal, was found guilty of racist hiring tactics in their French market. Their fear that French customers wouldn't buy products sold by diverse models reflects the French cultural climate where anti-semitic acts seem to be increasing, a burqa ban is being debated, and so on. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the [social and cultural] beholder.

Sex just keeps on selling...augh

2009-06-24T21:12:00.000-04:00

Check out this "Social Media Roundup: Sex and Drama" by Allyson Kapin... Interesting as always to note who owns what and what goes on behind the scenes because of it.

Poor response to rape on cruise ships

2009-06-22T21:37:00.000-04:00

Wow. I have to say, even after years of thinking about women's issues, the issue of rape in the trapped space of cruise ships had never crossed my mind 'til I read this article: Melissa McEwan of Shakesville writes about the fact that cruise lines should step up their no-tolerance to rape aboard their ships.

Self care and respect: S.T.O.P.

2009-06-05T17:17:00.000-04:00

Check out RespectRx's personal and truly helpful blogpost on self-care using the S.T.O.P. acronym.

I love that the author, Courtney Macavinta, points out that often we think self-care is about filling life with something fruity smelling or whacking down that credit card, but then we wonder why we still feel incredibly stressed and in need of quality alone time. S.T.O.P. stands for Savor, Talk it out, Opt-Out, and Pause, and the post really gets down to it about what respect means and looks like.

I love that Courtney is honest about how S.T.O.P. applies to her life, and that S.T.O.P.ping really has some meat to it; her post is neither a too-shallow advice column nor is it a too-deep pedantic "method" that makes for an ill-fitting overlay in real life.

Check it out. Really.

Women Rule in Business

2009-06-05T12:46:00.000-04:00

Gee, turns out women running businesses is actually, well, great for business.

NYT article: "Women Will Rule Business"

Well said

2009-06-02T00:27:00.000-04:00

Katha Pollitt writes on the inaccuracies and "house-dividing" consequences of the feminist wave labels. Right on, well-said, thank you for putting it out there!

To society at large, feminist in-fighting and blaming only serves to highlight women's demands as disorganized at best and hysterical at worst. As a relative young'un who has instinctively resisted the wave label (yes, Katha, I *don't* think pole-dancing is "empowering"), I'm finding many young women who, like me, are turning to collaboration and understanding as the way to change.

Bingeing on Celebrity Weight Battles

2009-06-01T13:57:00.000-04:00

From the NYT Fashion & Style section...

Bingeing on Celebrity Weight Battles by Jan Hoffman

The tagline is: "The dieting sagas of the stars might be more frustrating than inspiring to overweight women"--and I'd add, to everyone, regardless of size. These stories are meant to inspire health but they promote self-loathing and an unhealthy obsession with appearance. How can we encourage a healthy weight for heart care, diabetes, etc. separate from unhealthy cultural standards of beauty?

Selling Chips to Chicks

2009-05-27T21:42:00.002-04:00

Frito-Lay's latest ad campaign is based on women's guilt about eating--and sadly, it was designed with women in mind, in order to appeal to women.

Advertising generally plays on our insecurities (and tells us to buy things to fill those holes or shortcomings), and the usual "guilt-free" commercial tactic often used for yogurts and snack foods is plaguing enough. But making a cutesy website of gabby cartoon women with men-focused personalities and back-stories seems to me to show just how far off-track we've gotten.

Who knew that eating junk food could bring such little fun? I mean, if we're not eating for the enjoyment of salty, crunchy, bad-for-you-ness, can someone tell me why we'd be eating chips at all? Revamped health-food-colored packaging and accompanying cartoons about women waxing their bikini lines does *not* make me want to buy or eat chips.

Frito-Lay tried to max out on demeaning stereotypes of women and our culture's guilty obsession with food and appearance--so not cute. At all. Hmph.

Off the Scale

2009-05-12T22:16:00.000-04:00

Check out this Australian article, "Off the Scale," about how obesity panic can go too far...

2009-05-08T15:26:00.000-04:00

From the Feminist Daily Newswire, two gay rights items of note:

California Supreme Court Will Not Hear Appeal in Sexual Orientation Expulsion Case

The California Supreme Court ruled last week that they will not hear an appeal in a case where a private Lutheran high school in the state expelled two students in 2005 based on suspicions that the students were lesbians. The 4th District Court of Appeals ruled in January that the school legally expelled the students. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar dissented.

According to an ACLU filing with the California Supreme Court, "The opinion could be construed, to contain a wholesale exemption for any private school that in its mission statement claims to 'inculcate [its students] with a specific set of values." The ACLU also wrote that the ruling confuses "when the Unruh act applies in the private school context" and also challenges "one of the express reasons Unruh applies to 'business establishments' -- the refusal of a private school to make its facilities available to African-American students," The Recorder reported.

The lower court's ruling PDF argues that although the California Lutheran High School accepts tuition, "it is not a business establishment within the meaning of the Unruh Act; hence it [can] legally discriminate based on perceived sexual orientation." The ruling relied heavily on a 1998 CA Supreme Court ruling that allows the Boy Scouts of America to legally exclude individuals on the basis of sexual orientation because the Boy Scouts are "not a business establishment within the meaning of the Unruh Civil Rights Act."

Maine Legalizes Same Sex Marriage

Governor John Baldacci signed a bill yesterday that legalizes same sex marriage in Maine. The state Senate voted 21 to 13 in favor of the bill in a final vote yesterday. The state House voted 89 to 58 earlier this week in favor of the bill.

Baldacci told reporters "In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions….I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.", according to the Morning Sentinel. Prior to final passage of the bill by the state Senate, it had been unclear whether Governor Baldacci would sign the bill.

The law will go into effect in September, 91 days after the state legislature adjourns. However, under Maine state law, a people's veto effort can delay the law from going into effect. According to the Bangor Daily News, more than 55,000 valid signatures are needed to place a repeal of the law on the state ballot. A recent poll showed 47.3 percent of Maine residents support the same sex marriage bill and that 49.5 percent oppose the legislation, reported the Associated Press.

Maine is the fifth state to permit same sex marriage in the United States after Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont. Similar legislation is currently under consideration in New York and New Hampshire.

While Tony Snow Fights Cancer, Dana Perino Takes Over the Press 'Gaggle' ...with her "Big Girl Panties" on?

2009-04-29T01:57:00.001-04:00

According to the Washington Post, Dana Perino, deputy press secretary who's stepping in for Tony Snow, was told by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to "Put your big-girl panties on." In the same 'tough panties' vein, PoliticsDaily has a sub-site called Woman Up. The motto: "Woman Up: Where Big-Girl Panties Are Always a Fit."

There's been some debate amongst feminist circles lately whether phrases like "woman up" and "put your big girl panties on" really do women any favors. I'm especially intrigued with the panty reference. Are we saying that being a larger, more mature woman is where the power is at? Or are we yet again just talking about something kind of petty and taboo (mature women's sexuality), and hindering women's real power?

I do like the "big girl panties" phrase because in it female power is cleaved from sex/beauty and put in a legitimate arena (i.e. gaining a political job takes qualifications and hard work, not thong underwear and blowjobs).

But, it bothers me that when a woman takes a powerful position, this news is often accompanied by media queries or jokes regarding if she's tough enough (the second sentence in the Washington Post article talks about Dana Perino sobbing), as well as references to her appearance and sexuality or asexuality that distract--and detract!--from her validity (the third sentence is, "Three hours later, her face freshly powdered and every strand of her neat bob in place, Perino crisply fielded questions at a televised briefing").

Hillary Clinton's media treatment during her presidential campaign was a case in point: She was picked on for showing weakness when she cried at the same time as she was put down for being too tough (the infamous "b*tch" label). Criticisms (and reactions to criticisms) of her "ugly" pantsuits and the size of her thighs garnered more attention than the content of her campaign speeches.

Repeatedly, women are depicted as emotional roller-coasters who vacillate between complete hysteria and total dictatorship, while the importance of their looks is played up. Doesn't all this negative and contradictory focus on gender maintain levels of sexism and prevent women from concentrating on the work they want to do? (Nobody was quoting cutesy lines in major newspaper articles--at least to my knowledge--about Obama putting his big boy undies on...) I'd say that in this climate, references to big-girl panties probably don't help to put the spotlight back on women's legitimacy and brilliance.

Marketing Earth Day (and Other Stuff) to Children

2009-04-23T15:23:00.000-04:00

Another great point from the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood:

Marketing Earth Day (and Other Stuff) to Children
By Susan Linn and Josh Golin

Have you done your Earth Day shopping yet? Between greeting cards, jewelry, mugs, and teddy bears commemorating the day, its roots in environmental activism have all but been forgotten. Now corporations use Earth Day to sell us on the belief that we can buy our way into ecological sustainability. We can't.

Reducing consumption is essential to preserving the earth's resources and preventing its degradation. The same companies that are painting themselves green depend on the profits they earn convincing us to buy more than we need.

Nowhere is this more obvious, and more troubling, than in the world of children's media and marketing, where companies like Disney, Sesame Workshop, and Nickelodeon are eco-marketing as never before.

Read on at the Huffington Post...

SpongeBob uproar continues

2009-04-21T00:13:00.000-04:00

Joanne Bamberger of the blog PunditMom gives her take on the SpongeBob Burger King commercial on NPR...

SpongeBob isn't sexy

2009-04-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

Lots of hullabaloo about Burger Kind's latest commercial that mixes SpongeBob and a bit too much booty. The CCFC offers a way to speak out against it and take action against sexualized marketing to kids:

"Our campaign to get the infamous SpongeBob SquareButts commercial off the air is gaining momentum. More than 7,000 of you have told Nickelodeon and Burger King that SpongeBob and sexualization don't mix and our campaign has been featured in newspapers, blogs, and on television -- including this morning's Today Show.

We've already cast an important spotlight on this reprehensible ad and the depths that marketers will sink to in order to interest children in their brands. Advertisers will now understand that they risk a significant backlash from parents if they include sexualization in their child-directed marketing. Burger King and Nickelodeon are clearly on the defensive, and are now disingenuously claiming the ad - which is for Kids Meals and features perhaps the most popular children's television character - was aimed at adults.

But the ad continues to run and, according to reports, aired this week on American Idol, a top-rated show for children under twelve. So let's keep the pressure on by signing this petition of disapproval to Burger King and Nickelodeon. Please let others know about our campaign by using this tell-a-friend page or by writing directly to friends and family and urging them to visit send their messages too. And please, keep spreading the word on blogs, social networking sites, and Twitter.

Thanks,
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood"

Women and Major Magazines Cover Stories Monitor

2009-04-10T14:55:00.000-04:00

According to Beverly Wettenstein at the Huffington Post, "The year 2008 was considered to be transformational for women in politics and the broader perception of women in the media and society." Check out her article, Second Annual "Women and Major Magazines Cover Stories Monitor." What's your take on the coverage?

Marketing to Youth (Culture)

2009-04-10T14:33:00.000-04:00

This article geared toward photographers (and somewhat toward advertisers) spells out the do's and don't's of marketing to youth. Thinking from the angle of a photographer, the photos used in ads would, alone, be beautiful portraits of unique people and relationships. (There are some gorgeous examples in this article.) But, when incorporated into ads with taglines and messages, photos become props to spark whatever feelings and connections marketers want us to make...to buy their product.

Marketing to youth and about youth culture particularly irks me because advertisers are cashing in on a stage in people's lives where they figure out their identity--which means they try many things and are open to change and suggestion. Exploring yourself and the world around you sound like such a magical, great thing (and it can be!), but many teens and young adults feel immense pressure from an intangible source to be all at once sexy, perfect, smart, rich, and in command. These pressures are part of our larger culture and of course not created solely by marketing, but the wiley way marketing reflects and tweaks who we want to be seems to head many people down a bad road.

I'm posting this article because I think it's valuable to continually point out just how planned the images around us are. If we are aware of this manipulation, perhaps we can start appreciating ads for what they are, and peel them away from of our definitions of beauty, meaningfulness, and success.

Working Mothers, Careers and Ambivalence: What Else is New?

2009-04-09T02:25:00.000-04:00

I'm digging the post and comments on Working Mothers, Careers and Ambivalence: What Else is New? by Cynthia Samuels, at BlogHer...

Better late than never

2009-04-08T17:48:00.000-04:00

I've also been meaning to post about SWAN Day, a new holiday celebrating women artists around the globe on March 28th of every year. Check out the amazing stories about how people celebrated, what projects women are working on, and the inspiring video of Sandra Oh interviewed about her favorite woman artist.

Film Clip: "Beauty Mark"

2009-04-08T17:43:00.000-04:00

Brought to you by the Media Education Foundation, this film clip of the month is from "Beauty Mark," a movie that "explores the harmful factors that can lead to athletic bulimia and distorted body images."

*Note: Hit the small "play" button at the bottom left hand corner (not the big one in the middle of the image) to get the video to play.

Let's Stick to the Topic

2009-03-25T14:56:00.000-04:00

I have to hand it to Meghan McCain (Senator McCain's daughter) for writing so eloquently on weight criticism--especially in the media--as "one of the last frontiers in socially accepted prejudice." She points to the fact that women from Hillary Clinton to Oprah are "victim[s] to...image-oriented bullying," and that women in power can be publicly discredited if they are the "wrong" size or wear the "wrong" outfit.

This article was written in response to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham's dig about McCain's weight. And why did she want to insult McCain? Because she didn't agree with some political statements McCain made in an online column and an interview with talk show host Rachel Maddow.

I think political debate is fantastic--but let's stick to the topic, please. At the least, women can show respect for themselves and their gender by responding to ideas, not appearances. (And if one doesn't have a response, let's not go back to the middle school solution of making fun.)

Good to see coverage of girls' safety--but not in the Style section!

2009-03-19T18:09:00.000-04:00

In light of the Rihanna/Chris Brown coverage, Jan Hoffman authored a great New York Times article about why teenage girls stand by their men, even when they're abusive. The thing is, the NYT published the article in the--wait for it--STYLE section. I feel like a broken record with all the times I've been chagrined about which section the NYT deems appropriate for articles involving women. Tristin Aaron at the Women's Media Center posts on this diminishing categorization eloquently.

Camel aims nicotine at kids...again.

2009-03-17T01:59:00.000-04:00

From Shaping Youth - Like Taking Candy From A Baby: Camel Trots Out Nicotine Tricks (Again)

If only Camel could put their marketing genius toward health and self-esteem programming, windmill energy, or homeless shelters...

Obese Barbie?

2009-03-16T15:40:00.000-04:00

In an effort to raise awareness about obesity, a company called Active Life made ads with obese toys and dolls--including Barbie. While I agree that true obesity is a health problem that people should be aware of, and I fully believe kids should eat healthy food and have an active lifestyle (as should we all!), I'm not sure I love the common public understanding this ad campaign relies on: that Barbie is ugly and not cool when she's fat. That obese Barbie is lazy and sits around eating food out of cartons while surfing the web and watching TV.

This visual reinforces mean stereotypes about people who aren't skinny, and again re-entangles beauty and health motivations. While obesity may contribute to heart problems and diabetes, our culture is obsessed with labeling it as a (social) disease because we are obsessed with appearances and have such a limited standard of attractiveness. Unfortunately, this to me, is what this ad series is all about. And promoting an insecure body image to children certainly does nothing to boost their health.

Female Force comic books

2009-03-15T00:25:00.000-04:00

From Jill Zimon at WritesLikeSheTalks.com..."Female Force" comic books.

I have to say, I feel unsure what they're about. Is the idea that real women's lives are heroic? That any woman's story can end in success? Maybe it just irks me that when seen together, the fact that all "powerful" women are one step behind a man, becomes crystal clear. And that's certainly not the fault of the comic books, but just another reason why feminism still needs to be going strong. But then, my "media watchdog" kicks in and I start to wonder if creating comic book versions of real people turns them into fantasy characters where hardship and adversity don't exist or can't affect them. ...And now I sound like I want a comic book about "Joe the Plumber" (which would truly be propaganda). Sigh. I clearly need to mull this one over more with your help!

Obama Creates a White House Council on Women and Girls

2009-03-13T03:35:00.000-04:00

Way to create something new, Obama! I'm curious to see how this will actually work. No matter what, the existence of a White House Council on Women and Girls is immense. And I like the fact that I randomly happened to be wearing my Obama shirt today when I got wind of this news. (Yeah, ok, so it's time to do laundry, but still.)

Chris Brown Withdraws from KCAs

2009-03-13T02:44:00.000-04:00

Following up the post I made the other day...Chris Brown withdraws from the KCAs. Citizen Mom writes more and links.

Interview with Liz Funk, author of Supergirls!

2009-03-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

Liz Funk, author of the new book, Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Crisis of Overachieving Girls, is on a virtual book tour--and a mission to widen everyone's tolerance and respect for being the imperfect, interesting, great people we all are.

In this interview with yours truly, Liz talks about how girls today feel they need to be perfect, gives insight into why trying to be perfect diminishes quality of life and relationships, and shares some tips on how to cherish being genuine. Enjoy!

JB: You’ve done a lot of research and interviewing for your book, Supergirls Speak Out, where you indicate that many girls and women today feel they have to be perfect, or “supergirls” who can do and be everything. Why do they have this feeling? What is particularly going on in our society that makes women feel so pressured?

LF: Girls today want to be a perfect 10. They want to excel at everything they attempt; in short, they’re perfect. Sadly, I think many young women get the message from the media, from their peer groups, and most notably, from themselves, that they have to be perfect if they want to be loved. It’s largely caused by sexism in society (especially in high schools and teen youth culture), the media, and our fast-pasted culture that doesn’t really encourage young people to spend much solitary time alone with their thoughts—they’re too busy blogging, and tweeting, and Facebooking!

JB: Is this an issue unique to the current female generation? Or, how does it tie in with past generations’ struggles for gender equality?

LF: The first draft of my book actually had a chapter about how the Supergirl dilemma is nothing new; it’s just the new century’s version of “the feminine mystique” that plagued women in the 1950’s! However, the tone of the chapter didn’t quite work, so I cut it (my initial major in college was women’s studies, so sometimes I have a tendency to write in a very academic way and bring up Friedan and Dworkin when it’s not the right place to do it. Haha…). Anyway, I think that what we are seeing here with the Supergirl dilemma is actually the exact same problem as “the feminine mystique” with symptoms that are the exact opposite. In the 1950’s; women were told that there was one way to be a woman—to be a loving homemaker mother who kept herself extremely busy with being pretty, having the latest swirling skirts and washing machine, and jetting off to PTA meetings and social committees, all in an effort to distract herself from the fact that society’s prescribed role for women was very limiting. Today, girls are told that there’s one way to be a girl: be a good daughter who keeps herself extremely busy with being pretty, having the latest season’s miniskirt and sweaters from American Eagle and the Gap, and keeping extremely busy with school and work and extracurricular activities, all in an effort to distract herself from the fact that society’s prescribed role for women is very limiting. There is the obvious difference that in the 1950’s, young women weren’t encouraged to be smart or intellectual or leaders, and today, young women are required to be intellectual and leaders, but at the end of the day, I would argue that the Supergirl dilemma is the second major crisis for young women since “the feminine mystique” that mostly arose because feminism’s work hasn’t been finished yet. We need to teach young women that it’s good to be a girl, and that they don’t need to feel confined to adhering to a very limiting female ideal in exchange for their community or their peer group’s approval.

JB: In your opinion, how does today’s media play into how women feel about themselves? What particular sources have what effects?

LF: I think the biggest problem in today’s media is that the women in the media look perfect. Female celebrities have never been thinner—Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, Nicole Richie, etc. etc.—but also, we’ve never had celebrities all conforming to one limiting female ideal before: long hair, charming and giggly, and not particularly rebellious, like Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, and Jennifer Aniston (although I do love all three of these actresses). I don’t think that Angelina Jolie could have ever gotten famous today in her punk-rebel stage, because every female celebrity we see is well-groomed and nice and extroverted. Also, there are a lot of fictional Supergirls that influence how the girls at home feel about themselves: Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, the girls of Gossip Girl, and even Hannah Montana—although these are lovable characters, they give even the youngest girls the idea that beauty and success are simultaneous requirements and that you should make it look as though both come easily.

JB: What role do you feel women have in contributing to each other’s self-esteem or lack of confidence?

LF: Once young women observe perfect women in the media, they emulate having a perfect exterior, and then that model of perfection starts to take off in peer groups. I think that once one girl in a social circle—whether we’re talking in high school, in college, or among twentysomethings—starts to appear effortlessly perfect, her friends and her peers try to imitate that, and it snowballs from there.

JB: What are the consequences of trying to be perfect for individual women, their relationships, and even society or the world?

LF: Statistically, more young women than ever before are considering suicide, and I think it’s no coincidence that this is happening simultaneously with the rise of Supergirls. There are other mental health repercussions that I observed amongst girls, like anxiety, eating disorders, OCD, and depression. And I think the broadest problem is not having a sense of self; not having an identity outside of being a Supergirl or a hard worker.

JB: What are some tips you have for girls and women to positively feel they can be and do whatever they want, without feeling they must be perfect?

LF: First and foremost, girls should get some hobbies. Find things that you enjoy and that you feel passionate about that have nothing to do with work. For example, I just took up the oboe, I love to paint, I love to go to art museums, I love to read novels, and I love stupid movies (like Grandma’s Boy, Superbad, and Little Nicky). Make collages with pictures of random things that you find intriguing. Turn off the lights in your room and listen to music with your eyes closed. Meditate. Find your center! And the most revolutionary thing women can do is look in mirror and say aloud, “I love you. I appreciate you. You matter.” Say it enough, and I think the Supergirls will start to mean it, and see their Supergirl selves fading away.

Young women need to find their sense of intrinsic worth—why they matter regardless of what they look like, what other people think of them, how they make others feel, and what they’ve accomplished. Everyone has worth and everyone has value, and girls need to realize that when they are sitting on their couch in their jammies at 3pm on Saturday afternoon with their hair greasy and their nail polish chipping, they are just as special and just as important as when their hair is blown-dry and they are in a minidress and leggings out on the town for the night with a cute date! What I recommend is that young women spend as much time as possible embracing their creativity, developing their tastes and their personality, and finding themselves! Young women need to find their value, and I think the best way to do that is to be alone with one’s thoughts, spend time alone with oneself, and start to enjoy spending time alone and enjoy listening to one’s internal monologue.

JB: You mentioned that, under the pressure to be perfect, girls and women are oftentimes afraid to be themselves. What are some ways girls and women can feel comfortable exploring and being who they are?

LF: I absolutely love the movie Juno. Casting aside the movie’s puzzling treatment of abortion, I love the character Juno and how unafraid she was to be herself; she liked guitars and punk music and sarcasm and funky clothes. And I think that if more girls could embrace their inner-Juno, and be exactly who they want to be, regardless of whether it would affect how others see them or their place on the social totem pole, we’d be in great shape.

Supergirls on lizfunk.com
Supergirls on Amazon

Excessive Drinking is Apparently a Turn-Off to Guys

2009-03-11T17:49:00.000-04:00

Brought to you by Australian Yahoo news: "Young women who think drinking to excess makes them more sexually attractive to men are mistaken, a new international study shows." Read on.

I love studies that show men are humane and have brains too. Gender equality both ways, folks.

And a quote from the article that seems relevant to much more than just who's drinking how much and for whom: " 'I don't want to portray that women are always out to do what men want ... but there is some confusion with equality being seen as having to act in the same way'." Concise and thought-provoking. In my opinion, feminism should not be about imitating men, but it can be an easy trap to fall into when there seems no other way to express female power.

And the Worst Choice Award Goes to Nickelodeon

2009-03-11T02:25:00.000-04:00

Chris Brown is up for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award, even though his abusive behavior toward Rihanna (who's also up for an award) makes him a hurtful role model for kids. ...Check out the release at PRNewswire.

NYT Video: Sex, Lies, and Photoshop

2009-03-11T02:19:00.000-04:00

This New York Times article and video says we ought to give credit where credit is due: Magazines should credit their photo retouchers. Why? Because their craft is an art that takes talent and effort, and after all, results in graphic creations that bear no relationship to how real bodies do and should look.

In Her Image Blog

Soapbox's Feminist Winter Term

Standing up for open internet = standing up for everything you care about!

Dear Victoria's Secret, get your paws off my feminism

After all this time, is acting 'like a man' still the most powerful thing a woman can do?

30 Allies in 30 Days

[Re-post] The Dating Game: Sluts Don't Get to Be Happy

Power, Money, + Sexism - A personal tale and feminist action point

Guest Post: Beauty and Popularity

The *real* beauty issue

Ms. Blog: Don’t Be Shamed by “The Weight Talk”

Press release: NewMoon.com’s “Beautiful Girls” Raise the Value of Inner Beauty

Break the Cycle (Kotex*) – Finally, an ad campaign I like

Great summer media literacy programs!

Women's History Month guest post: Why Women’s History?

Sexism at Work: Young Women, Newsweek, and Gender...and Race

All women are "real women"

Neural Advertising: The Sounds We Can't Resist

Caught between casual sex and domesticity, women find regrets and false promises of empowerment

Deisel is Stupid

Action Item: American Apparel Hits Rock “Bottom”

Some more mixed messages for the feminist file...

Eve Ensler's new book for girls

Eve Ensler’s Mission: Awaken the Girl Self

New Moon "You Are Beautiful" ecard

Diane Levin on the bigger meaning of Senator Brown’s “available daughters” comments

NY Times: The Triumph of the Size 12s

Size Ate: One-woman show about body image and eating disorders

The (Female) Cost of Living

...and the Buying for Equality Guide

Holiday gifts that do good

New mammogram guidelines say 50+

More good news: Finally, a UN Women's Agency with Muscle

CBS "Plus Size Models Take Charge"

Coke to give health advice - can we say conflict of interest?

Coke to Bring You Advice About Health and Soft Drinks

Family doctors group loses members over Coke deal

Help save New Moon - 3 easy options!

Mixed messages from Victoria's Secret get customers coming and going

CCFC Victory: Baby Einstein video refund

Cancer Society, in Shift, Has Concerns on Screenings

Today (and every day I hope) is Love Your Body Day

Fat Talk Free Week

Girls Write Now wins 2009 Youth Thrive Award!

Operation Beautiful

Sick of Pink

Hottest Hip Hop Glorifies Pimping

Keith Olbermann, Misogyny Is Not A Progressive Value

Tweens convene for learning, support on body image

Plus Size Models Get Naked for Glamour Magazine

Friends Don't Let Friends Fat Talk

It's time to challenge casual sexism

German women's magazine to ban professional models via Feministing

Egypt: 'Artificial Virginity Kit' Opposed

Why does this "Anna Rexia" Halloween Costume even exist?

Fat Talk Free Week

New book out -- Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat? The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby

Parents' role in fomenting kids' eating disorders

Vanity iPhone app

France Mulls "Health Warning" for Fashion Photos

London Fashion Week stylist resigns over designer's decision to use size 14 models in show

New affiliation with New Moon!

Donate to help Women, Action & the Media transition into its new organization!

Women, Action & the Media

Safe cosmetics

Another reason why the beauty industry is bad for your health

Contest for women 18-24

More positive talk from Glamour

Women Love Real Body Photo in Glamour Magazine

Gold Awarded Amid Dispute Over Runner’s Sex

Vote to help fund In Her Image!

Sign TODAY: Stop Hollywood from marketing violence to young kids

Power of the arts toward social change

Women in politics get discredited over appearances yet again. Disgusting.

Mixed messages don't get more confusing than this

L'Oreal's hiring practices found to be racist

Sex just keeps on selling...augh

Poor response to rape on cruise ships

Self care and respect: S.T.O.P.

Women Rule in Business

The real beauty issue

Good to see coverage of girls' safety--but not in the Style section!