After these past 8 weeks my attitude towards blogs have changed, I see them more as web activism than just diaries or journals. The way that blogs differ from one person to another shows that feminists and feminist agendas differ. I know that many people have misconceptions about feminists, either thinking that they are radical extremists, hate men, burn bras, etc. Blogs offer people the opportunity to see feminism from different points of view and let them clear up those misconceptions that they may have. I think blogs have as much cultural and political activism as newspapers and journals do. Blogs are more easily accessible than newspapers and journals because they are always online and giving feedback is much quicker and less troublesome. The Future of gender and blogging is looking great, more and more blogs focus on gender and transgendered issues which gives people more insight into gender issues. If the blog is written by a transgendered person it gives the reader a personal insight into what it's like to be transgendered. A personal point of view is more more interesting than a psychological experiment or a journal article.

Web 2.0 may greatly contribute greatly into the rise of feminism. As more and more blog readers become interested and eventually become feminists, more feminist blogs will be created. This could result in more feminists and feminism will continue to grow and and spread.

I love reading the Q & A section of the magazines. Ask Amy is the answer to the Q&A section of a magazine but with a feminist touch. They have a variety of categories, ranging from work, children, media and politics. The site lets you go back to before the year 2000 and categorizes all of the questions. It's a very informative site and it may offer more advice than you may think! I read through some of the questions on abortion and though I am pro-choice I like that they take an unbiased stance and don't steer the reader in one direction or the other.

So please check out Ask Amy.

I'm very happy to see Dove's real beauty campaigns and this video made me like them even more. I knew that pictures of models were photoshopped, but not to this extent. They also show real life women in their underwear so that young girls don't realize that all women on TV are victoria Secret angels. They also show older women, and I think that those ads are beautiful! I give Dove two thumbs up for posting real beauty, real bodies and real people in their advertisements. I'm sick and tired of all of the fake ads, all of the ads targeted to young men. Why do we have to feel fat, flat chested or ugly just so that they can market beer to guys?

Often you hear from abortions from the media both liberal and conservative but it's hardly ever heard from the point of view from the practitioner themselves. Abortion Clinic Days is a very interesting blog, the practitioners or abortion doctors tell their side of the story and make you look at different cases of abortions and you understand that it's more than just someone trying to erase a one night stand or their promiscuity.

One of the stories that made me feel a little upset was that of a girl whose mom gave her some pain medicine that her dying father takes. After still being in pain she realized that it was a medicine that terribly damages the fetus. She kept her pregnancy a secret so as not to hurt her father or fiance and to not bring a dead brain or extremely sick baby into the world.

It's worth checking out.

I found Henry Rollins a while back while watching IFC. If you aren't familiar with the channel, it's the Independent Film Channel. Henry Rollins is the lead singer of Blag Flag a punk band. What attracted me to him is that he's a very smart guy, insanely smart. He's also very opinionated on political and social issues and the way he expresses himself is both funny and offensive (at times) at the same time. He has his own show on IFC and if you go to IFC you can see his show and hear all the great stuff he has to talk about. You can also check him out on IFC on Friday nights! I enjoy hearing about his opinions and rants, especially the soap box segments.

I wasn't a very big fan of the movie Borat. I actually thought it was a bit stupid and ridiculous but I did run into this video by Ali G (the same guy as Borat) and though it was funny. It's not offensive and it did make me laugh. I think this proves that women are slightly more patient than men since this lady was very patient with the man, even though he was a big ignorant about feminism and well sex altogether. He has some other videos and just keep in mind that they are satirical and are not meant to be taken seriously. He does interviews with people, much like Stephen Colbert, so you should check out his other videos and have a good laugh!

In response to this post, I was disgusted not only by the commercial but also the fact that these are actors, not the real people who fear the storm.

I watched the commercial one day after class. I was eating lunch and when the commercial came on, I actually said out loud "Are you F***ing Sh***ing me?" Which is kind of weird since I was alone. Haha. In case you guys haven't seen it, here it is.

They're the same people who made this commercial:


I am going to address this in the same way the other post did. The woman who is a doctor who has to choose between her faith and her job. I would assume that a person becomes a doctor to help out those in need, so why pick and choose which lives you'll save? Hypothetically, say a woman comes into an emergency room because she was in a car crash and she is bleeding profusely, is a doctor allowed to not save her life because she is a lesbian? Is it ok for a doctor to just ignore the patient based on her religious beliefs? How would that doctor feel if she was in the same situation, a lesbian doctor not treating her because she's not a lesbian? It's downright unethical!

The second man, who said that his church group was punished for not supporting gay marriage, the blog had this response saying that "The New Jersey church group runs, and profits from, a beachside pavilion that it rents out to the general public for all manner of occasions –concerts, debates and even Civil War reenactments— but balks at permitting couples to hold civil union ceremonies there. The law does not challenge the church organization’s beliefs about homosexuality – it merely requires that a pavilion that had been open to all for years comply with laws protecting everyone from discrimination, including gays and lesbians."

So basically they are being punished for not abiding by the law, not for disapproving of gay marriage. Another way of exaggerating the truth.

The third case is of a woman who has to watch while her children are taught that gay marriage is ok. I don't believe that the teacher actually drills that gay marriage is ok to children, I think that they are basically teaching acceptance of others. Why is it wrong for children to learn acceptance but ok for children to learn about abstinence from a religious point of view? That's a double standard!

How is gay marriage going to change how a person lives? It's not like the law permits gay couples to move into a straight person's house and live there, it's just a really ridiculous comment to make.

A few days after that I watched this from the Colbert Report:


I ran into this while searching for the original video:



I think it's funny that they brought multi-cultural people into the commercial to see how accepting they were of other cultures, but in reality they're just trying to please everyone. They're really not accepting of anything, just their own beliefs.

I wish that the Colbert Commercial Aired right after the N.O.M commercial just so that people can see how ridiculous the N.O.M. Commercial is, and just to get a few laughs, haha.

Anyway, I think that if they wanted to make a stronger statement why not bring in some of those doctors that have to choose between their work and faith? How about members of that New Jersey church? A real mother who is suffering from her children learning about acceptance? Oh right, it would be ridiculous to bring the stories to life and not just have actors tell them instead.

Two thumbs down!

For starters, I believe that removing the film is censorship. There's no argument about that (at least in my opinion.) I'm actually pretty disgusted by some of the movies made today, and I would prefer for those to be removed than a movie that is trying to make a statement, instead of just a bunch of money.

I am actually interested in watching this film and just to see how "offensive" it really is. Seriously, with all the crappy movies that have come out lately, it makes going to the movie a last resort sort of thing. Here is a clip to strengthen my argument.

This is from Disaster Movie, which is basically a spoof of some of the current movies. I loved Juno, I thought it was a pretty good movie. In this clip the guy basically suggests that he should give her an abortion with a coat hanger, how disgusting and obscene is that? It's really no laughing matter, many women are hurt or die by getting abortions by non professionals because they are desperate, why isn't this movie censored or banned?

I don't think it's so much the fault of the gay/lesbian community, I have gay and lesbian friends and they are open to people who are transgendered. I even have a friend who dated a transgendered (female to male) and was very happy. I think it's just a matter of personal beliefs or opinions, maybe a few people from the gay community are uncomfortable with the idea of transgendered individuals, but there's no need to blame the whole gay community.

Unfortunately this showed how strong web activism is, as a group managed to get a film, that in my point of view could be very culturally significant, removed from the film festival.

Another thing that bothered me was the removal of pictures from an exhibit because they were too obscene or controversial. A friend of mine and I were talking about how art is so lazy and somewhat censored as compared to art from several generations ago, everyone is so easily offended and too close-minded to accept different points of view.

I honestly did not get the Dr. Strangelove reference. I've never seen the movie so I guess I'm in the dark about the title. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems pretty funny so I may have to watch it once finals are over.

I was appalled to read this blog post. (It's going to be a long post)

Apparently the Vagina institute wants you to look at your vagina, not as a way to feel empowered, feel beautiful or feminine, but as a way to find out if it's pretty enough. You know that after a long day of classes, work, and projects the last thing you want to think about before being intimate with your partner is if your vagina is pretty enough. You are constantly concerned that the person with who you will be intimate will make a disgusted face or bluntly tell you 'Your vagina is gross, let's just go to bed. Playtime is over.'

Let's face it, in a nation where everything has to be pleasing to the eye (god forbid you have hair anywhere but on your head, then again 'mustaches' and 'unruly eyebrows' or 'short lashes' are frowned upon) we all need surgery because we are imperfect. We've taken care of saggy and small breasts by enhancing them, we have liposuction to get rid of all the unnecessary fat, we have face lifts because no one wants to look at wrinkles, for people who feel self-conscious about their butt we have implants, oh and let's not forget cellulite. So once we got rid of all the stuff you can see while wearing a bikini, let's go for the vagina.

Looking through any magazine you'll feel pretty crappy about your body. One ad tells you that you have way too much facial hair, only men have mustaches so get it removed with a laser, wax and creams. So you go to your local grocery store and walk into the beauty section buy yourself some of that wax, or walk into a doctors office and get your mustache removed by a laser and you feel relaxed! A big hairy burden has been lifted off your shoulders! When you go to the store to buy groceries you pick up another magazine,you go home feeling good about yourself because you don't have a mustache anymore, you're beautiful.

So you sit down to relax, open up the magazine and see an ad in every other page about weight loss. If you buy these pills you'll lose 40 pounds in a week! If you pay about $10 a day you will get meals scientifically proven to make you lose weight (of course they do, you're eating 1/4 of what you're used to). A surgeon can suck that fat out of you or they can do weird things to your insides so that you're not that hungry anymore. So once again the burden is upon you, the weight comes back in the shape of two giant greasy cheese burgers and it needs to come off!

You go to a doctor and ask him for liposuction because you're 10, 20, 30, or even 200 pounds overweight and for the price of a car he will suck what he can out of you or staple your stomach if you're too big. If you can't afford it you call the 1-800 number and order those pills, only to find out a week later that you're not 40 pounds lighter. After that disappointment, you call a company that sends you tiny meals scientifically proven to promote weight loss. After the doctor visit or many weeks, months or years of eating tiny meals you're finally thin, every man's dream! You buy smaller clothes because the others are way too big and those giant cheeseburgers are finally off your shoulders and you drive home to relax in your smaller clothes. Yay!

When you come home you realize that the shirt doesn't fit very well. It must be a mistake, it's probably irregular, there's no way that my bust is not big enough fill in the shirt. Convinced that your body is fine but the shirt is irregular you decide to return it to the store the next day. You lay in bed turn on the tv and after seeing so many beer commercials, Victoria's Secret commercials, and plastic surgery shows you realize, 'OH NO, my breasts are way too small!' The next day you make an appointment with the plastic surgeon and he tells you that your suspicion is correct. Though the burden on your shoulders is in the shape of tiny breasts it's still pretty heavy so you pay the man to painfully insert implants into your body. It takes a while for your breasts to look normal not bruised, cut up, and scarred and you think to yourself 'my breasts are perfect!'

Oh the drive home from work you see an billboard telling you that your teeth aren't white enough and to avoid another heavy burden you rush to your dentist and whiten your teeth.

The next day you fell good so you think to yourself 'I'm thin, mustache free, have white teeth, my breasts are adequate, and I'm healthy. My life is perfect!' But then you run into an ad for The Vagina Institute and it makes you wonder "Is my vagina pretty enough?" There's another burden on your shoulder, this time in the shape of an ugly vagina. You decide to beautify your vagina, you went out of your way to look beautiful, your vagina will not be ugly!

I think that it's ridiculous that after being exposed to so many make up ads, weight loss products/services, hair removal of all sorts, and so much plastic surgery that you can look like a celebrity, we should get a break. Leave our vaginas alone! What is a beautiful vagina? Hair free? Symmetrical? Formed in the shape of a rose? Who decides what a beautiful vagina looks like? Do they take pictures of many vaginas, put them on a wall and have many people take a vote on the perfect one? I don't get it!

Fine, I'll shave my legs, my arm pits, I'll remove my mustache, I'll join a gym, have my teeth whitened, but my vagina is to be left alone. I will let no one modify it, it is to be left as it is until the day I die!

America has put beauty on a pedestal, many women have mutilated their bodies in an attempt to become beautiful. For example Jocelyn Wildenstein who has spent over 4 million dollars on plastic surgery and the result is horrifying!

She was a beautiful woman, and now she looks like the Elephant Man.

So ladies, embrace your beauty, leave your armpits hairy, leave your eyebrows alone, let your hair down naturally, and throw out that makeup, let's all embrace our inner 'Ugly Betty'!

I was baffled to read that people could not believe that an Iraqi woman was actually writing a blog. It made me laugh when I read what she believed to be American assumptions of Iraq, such as they don't have the internet, do not know how to use the internet or well even have computers. I know many people believe that third world countries do not have the same technological advances that we do. I've even heard some people surprised to hear that relatives in Mexico have access to email, much less a computer. I guess all those 'save the children of _________ (insert 3rd world country name here)' commercials have given people misconceptions about many countries.

Though the girl continues to blog and give us her side of the story, people are still critical, thinking that we're saving them from something so horrible (though most people are still unaware about what this war is truly about) and that she shouldn't criticize America or Americans.

I'm very happy that she had the courage to blog, that she brought about the truth of what is happening to her country, since we're just exposed to the very biased and very one sided version of what the news believes to be important enough to air.

The fact that she had a play which presented people with her blog posts means that there are people interested in what she has to say and that they truly believe that what she says is from the heart, not a way to make Americans feel sorry for her situation.

Maybe other women will follow in her path and blog about their conditions in their countries, cities or even homes. We NEED to know what is outside our lives, cities and countries. We need to be more knowledgeable, be less selfish and self-consumed and take a look into others lives.

*This is a long post*

People who are not new to the web or even very familiar with dating sites may know the terms BBW (big beautiful woman/women) or SSBBW (or super sized big beautiful woman/women). I never heard of this term until a few years ago when a friend said she wanted to go to Austin to a BBW club to meet men.

I am still slightly confused about these terms as they are sometimes used loosely. A bbw is much more different than a ssbbw. A search gave me many different sizes, weights, etc. From my understanding a BBW is a woman who is smaller than a size 26 while a SSBBW would of course be any woman larger than a size 26. Another thing that comes to mind is that there could be many women of the same dress size but some would be consiered obese while others would be considered average (this of course is due to height).

Anyway, the reason I came about this blog post after doing a search for BBW blogs. The search came about after being fed up listening to my mom obsess about weight. This didn't bother me before but last Thanksgiving we went to visit my aunt and I spent a whole week stuck in the house listening to my mom and aunt talk and it went a little something like this:

M: Have you seem her? Oh my god, she is so fat! She is just FAT!
A: Oh god yes, but have you seen ******* she gained about 100 pounds she's horribly fat!
M: Oh, did you hear about this actress? She lost so much weight! She is so thin!
A: Yes, I saw but what about ******* she lost A LOT of weight, very thin.

Before seeing my aunt this past Thanksgiving I hadn't seen her in almost 8 years. My aunt was about 220 pounds, which is considered obese for her weight (she's 5'1). When I saw her she was half the woman that she used to be, literally! She is extremely thin, it's actually concerning, she looks sickly thin. She had told my mom that she was so obsessed with her weight that she would exercise for over 3 hours a day everyday.

I then started to realize that my mom is also obsessed with her weight, looking back my mom has always been on a diet, as long as I can remember. I'm obese according to the BMI standard and according to my mom it's also the reason I am a diabetic. Though weight ties in with diabetes, my friend (from the beginning of the post) weighs over 100 pounds more than myself and she is not diabetic. I guess that my diabetes comes from both my weight and genes (my aunt from this post and her father, my grandfather, are both diabetics). Either way, I can remember my mom putting me on diets since I was about 8 or 9 years old. I began to drink diet coke at age 10.

It's safe to say that I have always been self-conscious about my weight, not only did my mom put me on diets but visiting family in Mexico during the summer also resulted in diets and a lot of criticism and bad mouthing about my weight. So when my friend said that she wanted to go to a BBW club to meet men I was confused. I didn't realize that women actually liked the idea of being bigger. My friend has the self-outlook of a super model, she probably has better self-esteem than most average or healthy size friends that I have.

After reading that blog post I looked up BBW on Wikipedia and it's categorized under fat fetish. Has anyone seen a category for average sized fetish or skinny fetish? Why does loving a larger woman have to be a fetish?

A while back I was watching my guilty pleasure Dr. Phil and it was about BBWS and the men who loved them and he brought up a good point. Turning down a woman for not being fat is the same as turning down a woman for being fat. The motives are the same, you want the woman to look as you want her to look. On the same show a woman was upset because she wanted to lose weight for health reasons but her husband didn't agree. The husband would bring home donuts, chips and anything that she said she wouldn't eat to lose weight, he would do this as a way to keep her overweight and to even make her even bigger.

Women shouldn't be forced to look the way that a man wants. A woman should love her body no matter if she weighs 100 pounds or 500 pounds. She should feel beautiful no matter what she looks like. So after many years of being put on diets, being made fun of or criticized by relatives and classmates I am slowly learning to love my body and yes I do want to lose weight but not to change my appearance but to be healthier due to my illness.

So women, love your body it's the only one you're given (unless you believe in reincarnation!).

Silencing tactics when it comes to blogging sort of contradicts the purpose of having a blog. In the case of blogger who was harassed for stating her opinion and had to be silenced, the harassment ruined her freedom of self-expression which is what a blog offers.

In the case of DABA, the thing about the internet is that it's hard to know when a person is being sarcastic or just poking fun. The fact that they got in trouble for doing something that they thought was funny is wrong. Radio DJs make prank calls and they don't get fired if they offend someone, people have a good laugh. They're not silenced, instead they are urged to keep the pranks going, to go even further to make the jokes or pranks funnier and edgier. The radio like magazines, television is a media, and I believe that blogs are part of the media. A small blog could be compared to a zine, and bloggers should have the same rights as journalists.

To truly be able to express oneself in complete anonymity would be to not tell anyone who the author of the blog is and keep it that way. If they threaten the blogger without knowing who they really are, there is no way to hurt them or turn them into their boss or anyone of higher authority. I would say that this is the way to go for someone who is thinking of writing or writing about something that they know is controversial. Bloggers should not feel like they should hold back their opinions, like they should censor their thoughts. I believe that we have the right to say what is on our mind, no matter how many people are going to be offended.

There shouldn't be repercussions for stating ones opinion, there should only be the feeling of freedom not fear.

This is in reference to this blog post.

Occasionally (ok maybe 2 or 3 times a week) I watch Nickelodeon, I love Spongebob Squarepants. I've been watching it since it premiered and I still watch it 10 years later. Every year Nickelodeon hosts the Kid's Choise Awards aimed at their younger viewers. I never watch it and I would have completely dismissed the commercial when I heard that there was going to be a performance from The Pussycat Dolls. If you're not familiar with their work watch this:

There are so many things wrong with a child listening to that and/or watching their music videos. The video is not suitable for young girls, not only that the lyrics are about a girl seducing a man in a relationship and trying to make him leave his girlfriend for her.

I'm just baffled that young girls listen to this music and probably sing that song. They're probably not old enough to understand sex yet they're singing songs about having sex. And as they grow older they will think it's ok to be objectified like the women in the music videos.

Another thing that surprised me were the nominees for favorite song:
I Kissed a Girl:
"This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
I got so brave, drink in hand
Lost my discretion

It's not what I'm used to
Just wanna try u on
I'm curious for you
Caught my attention

(CHORUS)
I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

(V2)
No I don't even know your name
It doesn't matter You're my experimental game
Just human nature"

Don't Stop the Music:
"Baby are you ready 'cuz it's gettin' close
Don't you feel the passion ready to explode?
What goes on between us no - one has to know
This is a private show

Do you know what you started?
I just came here to party
But now we're rockin on the dance floor, actin' naughty
Your hands around my waist
Just let the music play
We're hand in hand chest to chest and now we're face to face"

Kiss Kiss:
"I'm the epitome of this demonstration, I got the remedy
You feelin' me, so why is you hatin' my anatomy?
It's bird like, yeah, you heard right
Girl, I'm the king so that means I'm fly, fly

If you with it girl, get it poppin'
Girl with me, ain't no stoppin'
So get it shawty, we parking lot pimpin' in my dome
I know what you want"

Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
"Cause if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it
If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it
Don't be mad once you see that he want it
If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it

I got gloss on my lips (lips)
A man on my hips (hips)
Hold me tighter than my Dereon jeans

Actin' up (up)
Drinkin' my cup (cup)
I can care less what you think "

I don't know about you guys, but I miss the days of boy bands.

Honestly, before I took this class I didn't think much about blogging or it's ability to serve as political activism. I thought about it more as a way for someone to express opinions or thoughts but that it wouldn't have much of an impact. But today I was more than proven wrong.

After reading the articles I am just amazed and impressed that blogs could have just as big of an impact as other media. I was happy to read that there is a blog about mixed media and interracial couples. I agree and believe that they are extremely unrepresented in the media. We're in an era where there is so much freedom and much more acceptance so why not show it? I've mostly dated outside my race and I never thought of it as weird, different or strange. I think of interracial couples as normal so I am sad to see commercials that feature only same race couples. For example:

or

Web videos like those by Sarah Haskins and Amy Poehler bring to light that not all feminist agendas have to be put in a negative light, that they can be expressed in a way that is both entertaining and informative. I love Sarah Haskins' sarcasm and satire and I enjoyed laughing at all of her observations and opinions. Amy Poehler's show was funny but in an innocent way, Amy interviewing little girls, especially Ruby who was a feminist, made me see that feminists come in all shapes and sizes.

Blogs like Feministing and racialicious are more in depth and informative but without being boring which makes you want to read more. There have been times when I find a blog with a great post but all of the others are just long, uninteresting and just plain boring. When a blog can write informative posts but still keep the reader's attention then it will be very sucessful.

So in conclusion activism can be very successful via blogs.

After reading this post I now have respect for country music. I've never really thought that there would be feminist issues in country music.

One of the most interesting songs she mentioned is "The Pill" by Loretta Lynn. The song is basically about a woman who is dealing with her husband's cheating and decides to end it and go out on her own and reclaim her sexuality. Country music, at least in my experience, is associated with the right wing republicans (especially where I lived) and it's the same people who disapprove of birth control and protest abortion.

The fact that young women can hear this song and understand that it is ok for them to seek out birth control without shame is a very good sign. Though the singer may not be blogging, she may be bringing up personal and intimate experiences to help gain more listeners.

Other country music singers sing about domestic violence and how it is not ok for a woman to put up with it. I've had friends and family members who have dealt with domestic violence and it's a hard thing to understand, though the woman knows that the man is hurting her she still stays. If perhaps a country singer can bring about the subject in her songs and help women overcome the fear of leaving an abusive partner then they have all of my respect.

This post will cover two concepts of the articles I read. Women using sex as a way to draw audiences and the second being over posting about intimate moments in a bloggers life.

Many women (but mostly men) who have been around the web for a while (for me it'll be about 10 years) know about Suicide Girls and a website which is similar called Gods Girls. These two websites have the same concept: alternative porn. Where in what you may want to call traditional porn women are very clean cut and for the most part tattoo free. These websites offer men and women the chance to see women with tattoos, piercings and other body modifications. The reason this came to mind is that a while back I found out my brother's ex girlfriend (they had been together for about 2 years) is a Gods Girl. She barely turned 18 and is now posts naked pictures on the internet.

It would be lesser known had she not posted a link on her myspace advertising her pictures. Which brings up both of the topics, using her body as a way to get more readers. The websites feature blogs which are available for members and non-members to read. As a way to get more readers she uses her pictures as a way to draw attention to the male and of course female population.

In the blogs the girls talk about private moments in their lives such as what went on in their day, trips, etc. The website also shows the location of the girls, which I would think would be a cause for concerned such as a creepy stalker or someone with dangerous motives.

In an age where data is easily available there can be severe consequences and dangers as well as a way to get your word out.

So I came across the 15 most sexist television commercials.

I've compiled a list of the ones that I found most disturbing or offensive.


This commercial is wrong in so many ways. As far as I can remember I didn't like boys until I was around 11-12 years old. This girl looks about 9 or 10 (I could be wrong of course). The second part that bothers me is the fact that she basically assumed that the little boy was going to buy her the ice cream. It's the same as when a girl girls to the bar and winks or flirts with guys to get free drinks. For a young girl that age it's trying to reinforce negative stereotype that girls or women are only out to get free stuff from boys or men.



We all know men can't cook! It's not like there aren't famous chefs who are mainly men! In this commercial the daughters and mothers are worried that their dad's attempt at cooking dinner is going to be a tragedy. This just reinforces the stereotype that women do all of the cooking in the house and the men really shouldn't contribute because cooking is either too hard or women's work.

Last but not least The Flinstones!

I loved the Flinstones growing up, by the time I saw the show they had taken the smoking promotions out of it. The thing that disturbs me (besides selling cigarettes to their viewers which are mostly or are made up of a large majority of children of various ages) is the fact that though they see and notice that their wives are busting their butts trying to clean they don't offer to help. They decide to go somewhere else so that they don't have to see their wives hard at work. It's understandable that a man would think "I work and make money, she's a housewife she doesn't work". I think that being a housewife, especially with children is more than a full time job, you have to keep the house clean and in order all while taking care of a child. It's just a skewed view of how men shouldn't help out their wives.

Though these are old commercials, I believe that commercials in this day in age are worse, much more sexist and way too sexual for day time and prime time TV.

I would like for my blog to focus over the many topics of popular culture and how most is targeted towards men and how women are seen in a negative or a not so positive light. I am also interested in how gender roles are enforced in popular culture and how somethings that are seen in real life are hardly seen in television or other medias (such as interracial relationships or dating).

I would like to focus on different aspects of popular culture such as movies, magazines, television, video games, music, music videos, photography, commercials, sports, celebrities, billboards,fashion, magazine ads, etc. I would also like to focus on the impact (either intentional or unintentional) that pop culture has on little girls, teenage girls, young women and women in the later stages of their lives.

Plenty of research has been done over how media (mainly television) has not only affected American girls, but also girls from many different cultures. Within a few years of being introduced to television, teenage girls in a certain cultured had quickly developed eating disorders and distorted body images. So there seems to be a trend across cultures when it comes to how the media affects not only young women but younger developing girls.

I would like to bring little known things into light and make others aware of things they may not easily notice.

I was surprised to read that only 4% of the political blogs are written by women. Like the article said, the political spectrum when it comes to blogs is so narrow that abortion issues, women's issues and gay rights issues are not considered political.

I think that it's time to reevaluate what is considered political in the blogosphere because there are many great blogs written by women that would otherwise be considered political elsewhere but in the world of blogs.

If men where the first to lay down the foundation for what a political blog is, congratulations, but it's time that women get a say in what they consider political so that more people would listen to their opinions.

Another interesting aspect of blogs is the ability to use a blog against a person, especially in court. I believe that unless a person's life has been threatened (let's say a person were to say "tomorrow I will kill so-and-so"), or there is proof of child abuse, blogs should stay out of the court system. A blog is like a journal, something private and in the case of coming into someone's home and taking a diary or a journal they would need a warrant, why should a blog be an exception?

That pretty much sums up my opinions over the articles.

Warning: This post is on the long side.

I'm a gamer, I'll admit it, anything from old-school Mario to the newer games like Call of Duty.

One thing that has always made me a little upset is that it's mostly, well very targeted to men and this blog entry pretty much sums it up. It's hard to find blogs about gaming from a feminist perspective but I found a few. The three blog posts I read were interesting but the one about the objectification of women in video games seemed to be the most interesting.

It seems that every video game makes women appear way too sexy, we know that there are sexy women out there, but do we need to put them in costumes that show practically everything?

Let's compare characters from the fighting game Soul Calibur IV:
Here we have two female fighters:

And two male fighters:
Well there is an obvious difference between the two, the men are in full heavy armor, while the women are covered by very small pieces of fabric. Not only that but they have huge breasts, unusually huge, which are very noticeable by not only their costumes but by their fighting moves, such as jumping. It would make sense that the women would be wearing armor too or well even more clothes since they are fighting with swords. In a real life situation I doubt that any woman would wear a costume like that when fighting to the death.

The game does let you customize the characters and for a woman to be able to have relatively normal sized breasts she had to be extremely thin (possibly anorexic) which didn't make her much of a fighter due to her weight and size. If you want a medium sized fighter like the women pictured above with armor, their breast size was still very much apparent under their armor.

There are very few (positive) female protagonists in gaming, and most are very weak or have their faults.

First up is Princess Peach from the Mario Bros. series.

She has her own video game called Super Princess Peach. In this game she is the one to save Mario (for once!) from danger. The game play is very disappointing. Instead of wearing what would be considered a fighting outfit (jeans and a shirt maybe?) she wears her long gown and heels. Her powers are very limited and they are controlled by her emotions: Joy, Gloom, Rage and Calm. So this makes her either seem bipolar or going through though PMDD because she is sad one minute, sad another minute and full of rage the next!

Next up is Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series.

Lara Croft is a very confident young woman who is much like Indiana Jones (the game was originally designed to be very similar to the Indiana Jones movies). She collects ancient artifacts and fights bullies. The downside? She of course wears extremely small shorts and has huge breasts. You would figure that a successful, confident archeologist would have no need to run around in a tight shirt and small shorts to show off her figure, but it's more appealing if she does.

And last but not least Alyx Vance

One of the most positive women I have seen in video games is Alyx from the Half Life series. In the game she is a computer savy young woman who helps the main character (Gordon Freeman) throughout the game. She's very brave, independent and caring. Why can't there be more women like her in video games? Unfortunately she is merely a sidekick in the series and only helps out Gordon in very desperate situations, it would have been great for her to have been the main character but I guess men wouldn't be interested in playing the game if that were to be the case.

So to sum things up, women in gaming need to be portrayed in a better light. Women don't need to be objectified to be able to be a part of a game. They should be portrayed as strong, independent and fierce not worried about their figure and clothes. They should look like normal women, not playboy bunnies. If women in gaming were portrayed in the manner previously stated maybe then would the gaming industry get better reviews from feminist gamers.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. This is my 5th blog, I've terminated/abondoned my other blogs due to lack of interest. I started blogging in 2003 when I was 16, I still have my old livejournal (my second blog) to read through all of my teenage angst, haha.

I think that blogs are important, some bloggers are anonymous which can make it easier for the blogger to express their thoughts, ideas and opinions as freely as possible. This can lead to a genuine expression that is neither sugar coated or censored.

As of this semester my passion for photography has reemerged. I've been having fun taking pictures and trying to tell a story with just one image. When I am off to grad school I hope to continue taking photographs and possibly using them to make a statement about both the power and the suffering of women.

After grad school I would like to work with women and children that come from abusive households and help them get back on track to a better, happier and healthier life.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts and opinions!

Take Care.