Feminism Is For Everyone

Jan 30, 2010,8:27 PM

Miss America

Hey everyone,

Miss America is on TLC right now, and I'm watching it out of curiousity and because I want something that won't distract me too much from GRE studying.

So, I don't know how I feel about this whole thing. Obviously we have some horrible things. We're creating an unrealistic physical expectation of women, along with the 'superwoman' expectation (must be a lawyer, ballerina, and beauty queen!). We've got a ridiculous amount of objectification, and seriously, don't forget how unrealistic their appearances are. To use some GRE words, the specious facade of attainment of perfection is a nefarious form of chicanry. I mean seriously, double-sided tape, butt glue for bathing suits, and hairspray all over your face in order to be pulchritudinous?

....anyway, on the other hand, these girls are encouraged to work hard for excellence in academics and talents, which I think is good. Also, the organization gives like 4.5 million in scholorships to women (cool), and encourages so much community service. I'm sure all these girls do a lot of great things for the world and inspire a lot of people.

But I can't ignore this objectification....bathing suit competition is airing right now (can you hear my eyes rolling?) complete with some rap music talking about bodies or something.

We've got some pretty bad things with some good things thrown in. What do you all think about this?

What could we do to combat this culturally prevelant idea that to be a good role model and do good in the world, you also have to work your ass off to look like Barbie?

Do you feel like wanting to look physically appealing affects you?
I mean, I like to look cute, and even sexy sometimes. For those of you who are facebook friends with me I'm sure you saw me dressed up as Lady Gaga: fishnets, leotard, and black eyeshadow. I've never really questioned the things I do with my appearance...but I feel like my penchant for MAC makeup, black flowy tops and Calvin Klein jeans can sometimes attract people to me who have different values in life than me, for sure. Does that mean I shouldn't play dress-up? I don't know.

Back to the studying....

EDIT: Miss Virginia won, so I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this than you usually would

Labels: body image, eating disorders, perfectionism, women

Sep 30, 2009,2:33 PM

Scantily-clad Halloween

Soon it’ll be that crazy holiday that allows all of us to fly our freak flags for a day (or entire weekend). Halloween! What once was a holiday about being scary or gory or cute in a costume that looked like a character or person has now turned into an opportunity for girls to be as slut-tastic as they can possibly manage in public.

Now, for those of you who like running around naked, more power to you. Feminism is about choice to do what you want, and if you want to do it, then cool.

Personally, I’m not a fan, and have never taken part in the sexy Halloween trend. For those of you living under rocks, this is when girls find some way to clothe themselves as little as possible while still pretending to be something like a cat or a bunny. Maybe this trend was started by the Playboy bunnies? I don’t know. The typical thing would be like a bra or teddy looking thing and some underwear and then a headband with ears on them, and maybe some makeup for whiskers or something. It’s gone on to all types of variations now with Superman, firefighter, female cop, you name it and there’s probably a skin-tight halter-top version of it.

October 31 is f-ing freezing, and I’m not keen on having my limbs fall off in frostbite, so I don’t understand this.

Oh yeah, and I don’t like strange men ogling (or fondling) me like I ogle (and fondle) Michael Kors handbags.

I mean, it’s plain and simple attention-whoring, if you don’t mind me using that term. (I honestly don’t know what term I could use that wouldn’t offend someone and get that point across). Instead of having costumes that require thought or effort and are actually interesting or creative and clever, lots of girls are just putting the goods out there to get some people to look at them. As someone with a sense of creativity and a brain, I’d like people to admire my costume because it was unique…not because you can see my boobs. It’s gotten so bad that people are not even using clothes anymore, but are just using objects (to make themselves objects!). My only thought when I saw this one was “Damn, my boobs would be jiggling around all night, and wouldn’t people grab them? I don’t want strangers touching my booooobs!!!!” PS, extra hate for the blond joke on this site, why is it ok to hate on people for hair color??? Hairism!! Another topic for another day….

In my costume exploration, I came along one costume that just made me cringe because of a more complicated gag reflex evoked….the implicit message that the girl is something that you put something in, a hole to put the plug in. The plug on the male costume was even in the groin area. I don’t need to draw the connection for you.

Maybe I’m reading to much into it, what do you think? Tell me your opinion on Halloween costumes…

This Halloween, regardless of how much clothing you choose to wear, please stay warm and SAFE!

FYI, for those of you who were wondering, some of my past costumes have been Pam from the Office, The Raven (Edgar Allen Poe’s Poem), Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder version), and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas
photo source: link

Labels: body image, halloween, women

Sep 5, 2008,9:56 AM

Being Naked.

Since we were little babies, us girls have had a heightened self-consciousness of our bodies. Bathing suits always covered our chests and nudity was discouraged.

I was always the type of girl that would change discreetly in the changing room instead of in the openness of the locker room, even when I was 7 years old. When I was 10 or 11, I went to Jamaica on a family vacation and there was a European girl at the resort who was my age. She only wore a bikini bottom and the group of American kids I hung out with and I were startled at how comfortably she exposed her bare (still not yet developed) chest. I forget what her response was exactly when we asked her about it, but it was something along the lines of it's no different than boys and I don't have boobs yet so why bother.

This boggled my mind for a long time since I was so self-conscious being naked or partly naked and had been taught that girls have to cover up. It's sad to think that in the locker room, I'm afraid of being seen naked BY EVEN OTHER WOMEN. It shouldn't be that way because everyone looks pretty much the same with just some size variation. As I got older, I became jealous of the elderly women who would roam the locker rooms stark naked like it was no big deal. It isn't a big deal! Even being naked around the opposite gender (or of the same gender depending on sexualities) shouldn't be a big deal because there isn't anything inherently sexual about the naked human body.

THEN LAST YEAR I came across an article in Newsweek's magazine for college students, "Current," called "Shower with Your Roomie and 33 more ways you can save the planet." Basically, the article was discussing how at one college, a few roommates took a group shower to conserve water. A student photographer took some pictures of three girls sticking their heads out of the curtain. Those pictures ended up on the official college website. The picture wasn't objectionable or inappropriate. It was just a shocking way to encourage students to be conscious of the environment.

So I decided to put some feminist ideas to work- loving your body or at least being comfortable with it and eco-feminism. Yes, I showered with my roomie. It was actually incredibly liberating. And we helped the environment. I recommend it.

Labels: body image, ecofeminism

Apr 23, 2008,9:32 PM

sad :(

I feel like i'm invading a private space, but this is the internet and everything is public:

http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/

I was reading Courtney Martin's book (Perfect Bodies, Starving Daughters) earlier and she talked about these "ana" (as in anorexia) online communities... I had heard about them before and so I decided to check it. I found myself completely depressed but also angry. I'm so furious that so many girls have to deal with this. So angry that our society fosters this mentality. It's so incredibly fucked up. How did we get to this point?

Labels: body image, eating disorders, perfectionism