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

Straight up!

Just came across this little gem! Oh, and the term Subvertising as an alternative to culture jamming. I think it has a nice ring to it....subvertising.

Anyways...to the ad.

When I first saw this it immediately reminded me of the "Killing Us Softly" film by Jean Kilbourne, in which she implores us to "'take advertising seriously". The way that women, minority groups and other marginalized people are portrayed is really quite unbelievable once you begin to actually listen and take in what you are seeing. I think that this culture jam is perfect not only because it is straight forward and in your face...but also because "sexism" can be replaced with any number of words including: racism, ageism, homophobia, etc. etc. etc :|| PERFECT!

***Looie***

~~~LADY GAGA~~~


I thought this was a bit of an interesting discovery. Very rarely do I watch Oprah, but I do watch YouTube...a lot! And when YouTube features Oprah...well, I do what I am told...sometimes. Recently, Lady Gaga was on the Oprah show, and any time I see Lady Gaga, she is usually dressed in some outrageous costume with an equally outrageous hairstyle, and so, I can't help but watch...how's that for advertising?


Anyways, before yesterday I never really gave Gaga (as she prefers to be called) any thought besides "Hmmm, she's interesting and maybe a bit attention starved" but since hearing her talk about some of the motivations behind her performances, she got me thinking about her in a whole new way.

Gaga's family is what some would consider the upper side of upper-middle class. She went to school with Paris Hilton, had many opportunities throughout her upbringing including music lessons and private education. Basically she was born into privilege in more ways than one. However, let's look at, for a moment, how her and Paris Hilton are both similar, but more importantly for the point I am trying to make, different. Both women "had/have it all" and to some degree are influenced by the same sorts of things.


I guess, at this point watching the Oprah interview would be beneficial to see where I am coming from...so here it is.

Basically, this is the developing feeling that I am getting from Gaga... I think that she is in her own way a culture jammer. She is jamming the music industry ( a huge form of popular culture) as well as celebrities and their lifestyles. By not conforming to the social policing that takes place within the industry, Gaga has created a space for herself to be very eccentric and watched. In a way, fighting the "normal" and boring stereotypes of celebrity life, she has in turn become a celebrity...and a very famous and influential one at that. The message that she is selling, though not always clear, is one that she has control over. So maybe bleeding to death on stage, or dressing pretty unconventional in the public sphere is not ideal, but whatever she does, she owns. She herself says that her fans are her biggest connection, and that she does not have many celebrity friends.

Again, this is kind of a new developing thought process for me regarding Gaga, but I think it is still very interesting. Although her methods are a bit "out there" and the meaning of her performances may get a bit lost in her abstract representation of her message....she is still quite the performer, and I will definitely be watching with a bit of a broader perspective these days. To me she seems to be a bit of an unexpected culture jammer...with sweet sunglasses!


.....Looie......

The Art of Being Feminine (OMG!)

So I just happened to stumble upon this image online, needless to say it brought on some huge LOLs! Delicate? Quiet spirit? I find it so sad that some people actually believe that this is the true meaning of a woman, people like this only set women and women rights back generations rather than empowering women to move forward. I would like to assume that this is a man describing the true meaning of a woman however its actually a young woman! (Sad).

This image comes from a BlogSpot blog called "The Art of Being Feminine" please check it out @ http://theartofbeingfeminine.blogspot.com/ .

This blog is suppose to be an outlet of information for women trying to "be the best woman they can be" giving tips on "crucial feminine needs" such as "How to Make Men Fall in Love Forever" to "Why Feminine Women are Happiest". This blog is created by a young woman named Melina, most of her influence comes from The School of Courtesan and Geisha Arts.

I thought that this culture jam compliments my last blog post perfectly because is shows how everyday women are still affected by this idea of being the ideal woman. The fact that young women are reading articles that tell them in order to be feminine and "lucky in love" they should have a quiet spirit makes me shudder! In this day-of-age I think that even most men would find that ridiculous!

Citing: Melina. (2007). The Art of Being Feminine. Retrieved January 16, 2010. From http://theartofbeingfeminine.blogspot.com/

*Silver

*The Right Dress Size*

This culture jam is not focussing on a specific brand or label for women, rather it focusses on the affects of branding from labels, to styles, to ever mannerisms.

“I wanted to speak to the lie that we can all wear the right thing or buy the right thing and then we can be American. They said, ‘This is what an American eats and this is what an American looks like.’ I wanted to insert stories about people who don’t fit in or can’t fit in.”-Beverly Naidus

Beverly Naidus,often takes images from 20th century ads and images and turns them into a culture jam by writing the truth (in her opinion) on the image. Naidus has a series of art called "What Kind of Name is That". Naidus puts a large amount of her focus on American culture and the standards of life for WASP's (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) but since this particular jam was about women conforming to what society says is beautiful and "proper" rather than what they themselves think is beautiful I thought it was a perfect culture jam for class, especially since we're had a few discussions in class about labelling and conformity.

Naidus also makes culture jams about Jewish society and stereotypes. I think her work (on various topics from religion to AIDS) makes you open your eyes and see things for what they really are rather than what we've been brain-washed by marketing gimicks to believe.

Check out her book "Arts For Change" http://www.artsforchange.org/

Citing; Barcio,P. (2009). Breaking the Trance:Cultural Jams of Beverly Naidus. Retrieved January 15, 2010, from http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/tag/art/

*Silver

Getting started...

Find culture jammers on the web and research them! Give us as much info as you can on specific groups and/or people, their politics, how they use jamming and why, etc.

The Doctor

QUEERying Culture....

Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!)

“Their efforts are effectual reminders that K.D. Lang is not the only lesbian in the world.”
Collier Schorr, ArtForum

These two culture jammers have one main goal in mind with their public projects: to accurately include lesbians, and lesbian lifestyles in American pop culture. Comprised of two artists, these culture jammers use their own artwork to bring to light lesbian and queer issues through poster campaigns, in publicly recognizable spaces. WHY?? ...If queers are not going to be accurately depicted in media, than why not take the queer image into our own hands and show the rest of the public what it is really like?

To see some of their posters and campaigns click here...

Looie

Testing

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