Lady Sovereign: Does Being Anti-Feminine Still = Girl Power May 15, 2007
Posted by Rob Anne in Uncategorized.2 comments
As I watched this video, I can’t help but wonder if Lady Sovereign’s statement that “just being herself” really is the meaning behind girl power. She rejects the feminine, the conformity of female-hood and adopts a more androgynous or mannish look. But her message is still girl power to me – the “I can be anything I want to be” girl power that the Spice Girls kick-started. What do you think?
Male Gaze and the Female Robot May 15, 2007
Posted by Rob Anne in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Creepy as all hell:
Website for Svedka Vodka featuring a sexy gynoid as its spoke model.
She keeps winking at me! *shivers*
Blonde Ambition May 11, 2007
Posted by Rob Anne in Uncategorized.5 comments
Working Girl remake with extra misogyny, hold the talent and the wit.
This has to be the worst trailer I’ve ever seen. It almost looks like a parody of a bad trailer. This movie looks:
a) awful
b) ridiculous
c) stupid
d) unfunny
e) badly acted
f) A cheap rip-off of Legally Blonde (complete with Luke Wilson!)
The fight over the veil May 7, 2007
Posted by Wasik in bodies, careerwomen, controversy, fashion police, Female Power, feminism, ideology, in the news, iran, islam, morality, nationalism, politics, religion, the state, The Terrorist, Uncategorized, women and war.add a comment
[This started out as a comment to sindhub’s post on Women’s Bodies and Ideology, but then quickly became very long so now it is a normal post. But sindhub– thanks for bringing this topic up!]
The debate about traditional islamic dress for women– loosely referred to in Western discourse as ‘the veil’– is probably the most complicated, intricate and endlessly controversial way in which, as you mention, nationalist and religious (though the two are often inextricably tied) movements use women’s bodies to enforce ideology.
In Western media and popular culture, the issue is often presented very one-sidedly, ignoring the nuance involved which has perpetuated this debate for so long. I distinctly remember one episode of “Seventh Heaven” in which taking up the veil was seen as an absolute tragedy to be lamented; throughout the episode, Mrs. Camden was haunted by visions of her daughters veiled and oppressed, and the end of the program featured many of its actors speaking out against the treatment of women in states under sharia law. (more…)
motherhood trumps all? April 25, 2007
Posted by Wasik in bodies, careerwomen, female bounty hunters, Female Power, gender, motherhood, Sri Lanka conflict, the state, The Terrorist, Uncategorized, women and war.1 comment so far
Both “The Terrorist” and “The Long Kiss Goodnight” raise the question: when a woman’s kickass body is an essential tool in her job (in the former, because she is a suicide bomber, and the latter because she is a counter-assasination agent for the State Dep’t), is it possible for her to also be a mother?
(more…)
That’s Pretty…Pretty Deadly! March 29, 2007
Posted by jsaffold in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
The March issue of Cosmopolitan and the April issue of Glamour both featured a full-page, double-sided ad for these new Camel cigarettes, “Camel No. 9.” The new brand is blatantly intended to appeal to women with its sleek packaging and hot pink and teal accents. Even the usually cartoony Joe camel image is substituted with a small, probably intendend to be sophisticated camel logo. When I first saw the ad I immediately thought of the perfume Chanel No. 9, which is obviously being imitated with these cigarettes. This article explains how the new brand is an attempt by the cigarette company, RJ Reynolds, to attract more female consumers. Apparently, Camel is a brand consumed mostly by men. When I first saw the ad, I couldn’t really believe it was for cigarettes. It was printed on stockcard paper, which made the magazines open right to the ad, which was located right in the middle. I was attracted to the colors and design of the ad and it took a few seconds before my brain registered that it was a cigarette ad. Even though I am an asthmatic and thus an adamant non-smoker, I couldn’t help but be “wooed” by the ad’s bright color scheme, flowers and fun, whimsical design. It is troublesome that this type of ad is so prominently featured in magazines like Glamour and Cosmopolitan, which, as the New York Times article says, have many young readers in their late teens and twenties. I suppose that this type of advertisement is not quite as bad as the television ads and billboards that show young, glamorous women smoking and having a fabulous time, but it seems highly hypocritical to run such a big ad when the same magazines offer tips for quitting smoking, getting clearer skin, becoming more fit and healthy, and so on, all qualities that smoking directly hinders. All I could think was that perhaps the payout was too big to resist, but even that doesn’t seem to justify running an ad so opposed to what these health-beauty-fashion magazines supposedly stand for. With this advertisement, women are obviously being targeted, especially with the associations and allusions to high-end perfume. This relates to the Barthes article we read for class–merely by looking at the ad and its “light and luscious” text (linguistic message), women are meant to think of a glamorous lifestyle, in which these cigarettes would play a part.
real meet March 27, 2007
Posted by jenniferlewk in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
i saw this commercial for quiznos about 5 seconds ago and was immediately repulsed by this particular vignette. it would be great if someone could tell me the woman in question is actually talking about deli meat.
March 27, 2007
Posted by kblack10 in La Femme Nikita, Uncategorized.add a comment
When watching La Femme Nikita, I found myself becoming annoyed from the beginning that such a strong impact was being placed on Nikita’s transformation into a more sexualized, desirable “object” as she was basically controlled and owned during the time that she lived in the factory. The scene in which she is sitting at the older woman’s dressing table staring into the mirror reminded me of Lacan’s idea of the mirror stage where a person comes to realize their “self” with their first encounter with a mirror. The first time in which Nikita stares into the mirror, she seems to not necessarily have any qualms about the “self” staring back at her, and though she accepts the wig from the older woman she is later seen snatching it off of her head. At this point in time, it appears as if Nikita is content with who she is, yet when the film jumps to a scene three years later on Nikita’s birthday, much seems to have changed. As she painstakingly attends to her eyelashes to perfect them, this conveys the idea that Nikita is no longer happy with her “original self” that stared back at her from the mirror several years before.
Also, I was looking at the new version of La Femme Nikita that came out as a TV series, and it is very clear that while the woman is supposed to have the same tough, “I can kill you” mental attitude, her physical appearance is much more pronounced than the older version of Nikita. The picture is of the newer version of Nikita. https://girlpower2.wordpress.com/wp-admin/upload.php?style=inline&tab=browse&post_id=69&action=view&ID=68
“Heavy” Metal March 14, 2007
Posted by Rob Anne in Uncategorized.add a comment
So, I was fiddling with my YouTube account and I randomly decided to sample a Kittie song. For those of you who don’t know, Kittie is a Canadian all-girl heavy metal band that found popularity in the late nineties. When I was younger I thought they were scary, but now I find them quite tame. Now, let me point out that 95% of metal music lyrics rarely deals with relationships. It’s all about politics or ethereal/religious imagery or personal crises – but hardly ever about love. So when I put on the video for “Charlotte”, I was taken aback by the nature of the song and the images on screen. (more…)
The power of “she”. March 12, 2007
Posted by kblack10 in Uncategorized.2 comments
Today when I was sitting in my econ lecture listening to my professor, I noticed something that I had never really heard much before. When giving an example, he referred to the individual as “she”, contrasting the typical use “he” often used to represent a person in an example. Perhaps many may think this is miniscule and not worth mentioning, but I find it rather empowering that the use of “she” is becoming more mainstreamed. I then noticed that in my major textbooks for psychology and economics, whenever an individual is referred to in a hypothetical situation, the individual is of the female sex. Has anyone else noticed this or know exactly when the primary gender in textbooks became female?? I clearly remember being in grammar school with older textbooks that specifically were very male oriented, particularly science books. I find the usage of “she” in recent books to be liberating and enjoy knowing that “girl power” can be found in places that I hadn’t originally noticed!
Girlpower + 1 