Google Search

So I've titled this post google search b.c what better way in finding an gendered website then by searching "websites for girls" or "websites for boys"

Not surprising when searching for girls i found this website www.gurl.com
I am still deciding whether or not I like this website because as i continued to browse some things were actually helpful to girls but at the same time it is very very gendered.

One thing i took note of was the advertisements for jewelry, tampons, and cheerleading. BUT further looking into it is open to more types of sexuality not just the heterosexual.

At first sight too the website seem for "teeny boppers" but further looking into the website also suggests otherwise as the questions on the "ask heather" section are for older girls, but i guess at the same time a safe place for young girls to ask questions about sexuality sex and growing up in general.

THis website has just left me with a lot of questions about itself and how its connecting to the broader social ideas

as for searching for websites for boys i had much greater difficulty ..most things that appeared were websites for games for kids. Fun interactive games for kids. Do boys not need this advice column or these fun interactive games to make your own sweetheart? what about a website of blogs and questions about homosexuality and heterosexuality in the same place so that they can i have a safe place to learn more if they are still nervous or scared aorund their friends and family...

just lots of questions that i have on this one .. let me know what you guys think


-Kate Bauer

PETA Ads

Hey Everyone! I'm sure that you have all seen these PETA ads in various magazines. I personally am 100% pro PETA, I think they are amazing advocates for animals and animal-rights. However, when they started this new ad campaign that features nothing (and I mean NOTHING) but naked celebrities and cheeky quotes I couldn't help but feel disappointed.

I understand their marketing gimmick, sex OBVIOUSLY sells so lets sex up these ads as much as possible in order to attract a much larger audience and therefore hopefully find/influence more vegetarians,anti-fur wearers, etc. Here are my reasons for finding fault in these ads;

1) Many people make the decision to become vegetarians at a young age, (I would guess around the tender age range of 11-13 yrs.) and in my opinion it is just wrong for pre-teens to be bombarded by these sex ads when they are simply searching for information/reasoning behind vegetarianism.

2) It would be very hard not to notice that every single one of these ads feature a stunningly beautiful, woman with a killer body! Alike Vegetarianism, body image diseases like Bulimia and Anorexia often begin in the early stages of adulthood when bodies begin changing from puberty and there is very good chance that young girls viewing these images may consciously or even unconsciously feel instantly self-conscious about their own bodies (I know I sure did!).

3) Are only women vegetarians? Where are the male ads?! I guess the idea is that men will enjoy seeing these gorgeous women naked and women will viewing the ads will be thinking "Hmm maybe I could look that way if I stopped eating meat?!?".

4) Most people that are vegetarians choose to live their life that way first-and-foremost because of their love and respect for animals therefore why are their hardly any animals in the pictures?

Vegetarians come in every age, shape and gender yet PETA chooses (for this particular campaign) to ignore all those factors and focus on drawing people into the sight of beautiful naked girls. I think they should of at the very least, scripted the ads with the terrible truths that animals suffer for the use of their fur and meat.

*Please leave your feedback I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about the PETA ads.

XOXO Silver.

Photo citing: http://images.google.ca/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=sexy+PETA+ads&sa=N&start=18&ndsp=18

'ESCAPE', from the root of the problem.

Haha, finally. I love this image - the woman up top, visibly trying to 'Escape' from 'Calvin Klein' (an image of a male photographer, reaching up for her in rage because she's attempting an exit).
I think this, in general, stems from the way virtually all cologne/perfume ads (and almost every OTHER ad, for that matter) involve a presence of 'domination' over one sex - more often than not, the dominated sex being female.
Additionally, as you can see from her bottom-half being revealed, the woman in the image is revealing much of her body. The question is: Is this by choice, or is it the way the photographer of this Calvin Klein ad wanted her to look? Producers of the ad (and similar ads) would most-likely want the woman in the frame to look sexualized and feminine. An easy way to do this is by removing her clothing.
Further, I think that it's also important to note that even judging from just a bottom half/leg shot of the woman, she is fairly thin. (I would 'educatedly' guess, quite thin if we were to see her entire body). This Culture Jam may also be a reflection of this. The way in which pretty much all models in ads such as this, are extremely thin, and the notion that they are this way as a result of popular demand; as a result of the world we live in today and the media.

*ctime

*Blog Blog Blog*

Hey Feminism & Culture Bloggers,

I was thinking now that we have quite a few posts up and have played with a few different ideas maybe we should start brain-storming on what our final product should be for our conclusion! :) Via email I assume.

Chat with you all soon.

*Silver

Sarah Haskins...aka "The Girl Who Rocks My World"

For quite some time now I have been and avid watcher of "Target Women" hosted by Sarah Haskins. My fave episode, for now, is the beauty contraption episode...absolute genius!

I think what makes Sarah so good at getting important information across to the audience, is her ability to show you just how ridiculous some of these things that women do and are sold, really are. So far she has covered: chocolate, illnesses, Broadview security, doofy husbands and many more.

Once you watch one episode you will see how well she does at poking holes in the media's extremely inaccurate portrayal of women.... enjoy!

***Looie***

"Why are You Trying to Look like Someone Else?"

For this particular post I decided to do something a little bit different. With all the publicity Heidi Montag a.k.a. "Cat Lady #2" has been getting in the last week over her drastic change in looks as a result of ten (or more) plastic surgeries in one day. I wanted to talk about how women have become so focused on looking like this idealistic 'perfect woman' rather than themselves. Apparently, Heidi went under the knife to change her looks because she so desperately wants to become a pop-star and this is what she believes it takes. Although Hollywood is very focused on looks and is basically the whole reason women all over the world believe they are not beautiful enough, for Heidi to say that she needed DDD sized breasts and a totally new face is just ridiculous! If she actually had talent she would have made it in the music industry along time ago! I mean look at Susan Boyle, or even Lady Gaga (Gaga prides herself in not being a stereotypical beauty). What are Heidi's children going to think when they realize their Mommy has changed every one of her body parts that they have? My guess is that they will feel like ugly monsters and go under the knife as soon as their old enough, resulting in yet another generation of girls suffering from low self-esteem and everything that goes along with it such as eating disorders.Maybe I'm crazy but I want my children to have the same genes as me...flaws and all!

So on my quest for juicy before-and-after plastic surgery pictures/jammers I came across this great website
www.about-face.org

"about-face" mission is to "Equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect self-esteem and body image". This site is made by women for women and has become a huge success in empowering women for who we are and what we stand for rather than what society thinks we are. On a side note...Pleazzzzz forgive them for having Dove as one of their main sponsors, sisters need to eat y'all! LOL.

Please check out this inspiring and painfully truthful video; http://about-face.org/blog/archives/2058

Citing: About-Face. (1998) Retrieved January 24th 2010. From www.about-face.org, IBBB.(2008) Pre Fame, Post Fame. Retrieved January 24th 2010. from www.blogspot.com

*SILVER

Motivating?

Around the internet these days you can easily find tonnes of "fake motivational posters" so I thought I'd try to find some that could count as culture jammers.

Although there were many different types of the inspirational posters most were helping conform to negative stereotypes. Such as this one:



But I did find at least one that seemed to fit our criteria as a culture jammer. It seems that back in the day (not entirely sure when) if you typed "she invented" into google. It came back with this result, which someone made into a fake motivational poster.



(interestingly enough both of those links come from the same site, and on the same month)

I did some checking and google no longer asks you what you may have meant when you type in "she invented" into it's search bar.

Lastly, I found a link to a website that allows people to create their own motivational posters quickly and easily. I tried making one quickly, and I'll admit it isn't very good nor funny, but I still tried it out.



Anyways, here's the link if anyone wants to make their own motivational posters:
http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php

--The N3rd