Instagram is one of the most popular forms of social media today, not just because of the awesome pictures, but because of the “community” — it’s sort of like YouTube, except you create your own world online in the form of pictures. Instagram gets a good rep partially because it seems like a great form… Continue Reading →
Great Super Bowl for women and girls, right? Wrong.
After so many years of incredibly degrading, sexist, and sexualized ads, the ways women were represented in this year’s Super Bowl commercials, overall, were much less problematic and insulting. It sure seems like advertisers have been listening to what gender equity activists have been saying for many years. So this is great. Sexism in the Super… Continue Reading →
Plus Size Princess blog inspires body positivity
Although social media breeds negativity and outrageous haters, it also brings wonderful sites like Plus Size Princess to our attention. I found this website through a YouTube video about dating as a plus size female. Despite the fact that I am not plus size, I love to watch these videos to gain confidence. Reading About-Face’s… Continue Reading →
We’re getting Wonder Woman!
In my last post, I bemoaned the lack of a Wonder Woman movie – but it seems I spoke too soon. DC has announced that they will release a Wonder Woman movie in 2017. Yay! Not to be outdone, Marvel followed with an announcement of a female Captain Marvel movie for 2018. And Sony’s female… Continue Reading →
In defense of the “before” girl
In some ways, I look like the “before” girl in romantic comedies. You know, the one with the frizzy hair and the chunky glasses? If only I would straighten my hair and take off my glasses, then I, too, could be beautiful! At least, so says romantic comedy logic. As Rachel Paige at Hello Giggles… Continue Reading →
Lesbians are girls, too: Why no one’s immune to media
I have a superpower. I am immune to the power of media. Yes, you heard me correctly. Bring on your Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows and Hardee’s ads and watch their influence fall harmlessly away from me. For as a lesbian, I “do not care about the standards of beauty created for me by society.” Wait…what?… Continue Reading →
Now you can change your eye color!
Flipping through a high-fashion magazine (in my case the ever so glamorous Glamour), with a little bit of a media literacy lens, you automatically expect to see images of unrealistic looking women with unattainably smooth, flawless skin, silky, bouncy hair, and an absolutely “perfect body”. (I say that in quotation marks because there are millions… Continue Reading →
I’d like to award The Body Shop with Most Misleading Advertisement of the Year
The poster features a young woman unapologetically holding a protest sign that demands, “DON’T RETOUCH ME.” At first glance, The Body Shop appears to solely be promoting its no-retouch policy and proclaimed opposition to unrealistic standards of beauty. Upon closer investigation, The Body Shop is actually reeling its audience in with a progressive message, only… Continue Reading →
To Rashida Jones: Here I am! One man’s perspective on the “Pornification of Everything”
At the close of 2013, actress Rashida Jones wrote an article for Glamour magazine entitled “Why is Everyone Getting Naked? Rashida Jones on the Pornification of Everything”, in which she discusses pop stars and the trend of exposing as much of their bodies as possible. She talks about how, while she grew up with a healthy… Continue Reading →