What is porn, anyway? Is this porn? Is this? How about this? How do you know? It’s been said that porn is hard to define, but “you know it when you see it.” So what do we see when we see porn? Documentary filmmaker Rashida Jones… Continue Reading →
“Era of the Big Booty”? No thanks.
I’m not a prude, and I don’t like to judge other women’s personal choices. But I do care an awful lot about how women are portrayed (and portray themselves!) in the media. We’re now averaging 13.6 hours of media consumption per person per day, which means the stories we see played out in the media… Continue Reading →
Cause for celebration? Sports Illustrated discovers plus-size women
Yesterday, About-Face’s executive director, Jennifer Berger, was published in the San Francisco Chronicle with an op-ed (that is, “opinion editorial”) about the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. In it, Jennifer praises Sports Illustrated for running the images of the larger models, but also states: On the other hand, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is really just… Continue Reading →
Why the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover brought me to tears
Why did the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover bring me to tears? (Hint: It had nothing to do with wanting to look like the model.) It was because I have no idea how I’m going to explain the image to my two sons (ages six and eight), who love sports and are about to be… Continue Reading →
The feminist value of Amal Clooney’s beauty and brains
“Some readers may wonder how a woman described by Elle magazine as having ‘stunning looks, flirty dresses, tailored pants, colorful heels, and gorgeous hair’ is involved in such a complex legal matter? … It may be astonishing to most people that Amal Alamuddin, now Mrs. Clooney, is much more than a pretty face! In fact,… Continue Reading →
Punching out sexism with Agent Carter
I think I’m in love. I’ve started watching Agent Carter, and so far it’s amazing. Agent Carter is a short television series about Secret Agent Peggy Carter, filling in the mid-season break in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. We first met Peggy in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger when she played a supporting… 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 →
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 →
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 →