Cross-posted with permission from Interview4Obama Jennifer Pozner comes out swinging as she takes aim at the "Reality TV" industry and its ever-growing universe of so-called "harmless" shows in her book REALITY BITES BACK: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV, published by Seal Press. Pozner uncovers sexism, racism, classism, stereotyping, violence against women, phony psychological [...]
Archive | December, 2010
what about this weekend
Reading Materials: A valuable collection of articles that were previously published in the National Women’s Association Studies Association Journal explores "visibilty" in both perfomance and visual culture: Being and Becoming Visible: Women, Perfomance, and Visual Culture (more info via elevatedifference). If you want to learn about the interesting and complex personality of Julia Child, you must [...]
Rally For Girls Sports
Rally for Girls Sports Day was yesterday. So to begin – I clearly should have done this yesterday. I’m sorry. As an athlete for much of my young life, I know the benefits of playing team sports. I never occurred to me while playing soccer, basketball, softball and volleyball that I was lucky to be [...]
Divorce in Iran: A Subtle Revolution
William Yong published a fascinating piece this week in The New York Times about the skyrocketing divorce rate in Iran, and the cultural changes this statistic reveals. The divorce rate there has tripled in the past 10 years: while 50,000 divorces were performed in 2000, close to 150,000 occurred in 2010. Yong attributes the rise [...]
Code Blue: Tracking Sexual Aggression in Men
The Daily Mail recently reported that an employer in Norway has started requiring female staff members to wear red bracelets when they are menstruating. You see, the employer was getting concerned about the loss of productivity because of how much time employees were spending using the restroom, and this employer wanted to give women the benefit [...]
what about this weekend
Reading: If you were looking ideas for holiday presents, there’s nothing better than a good book. Hugo Schwyzer has some great ideas for non-fiction books on gender and sexuality. Aza Nafisi, a best-selling author who wrote "Reading Lolita in Tehran," is back with her second book “Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories” and gives us details of [...]
McEdiocrity
(Hollye) For years my husband has pined for a woman President. He believed there would be no unnecessary wars and the world would be a better place, as women are the mothers, nurturers and healers of the world. But that was before he got a load of Sarah Palin, Christine O Donnell, Jan Brewer, Carly [...]
Last Names
I showed up late to a meeting recently, and introduced myself to everyone. I was promptly asked what my maiden name was. When I repeated what I’d just said I was given an odd look, which I returned with an odd look. Thinking about it later, I realized, at 28, people may well expect that [...]
The Feminist Community: The Problem with Problems
I’ve been doing some light reading lately, specifically Gail Collins’s When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. I’m aiming to fill a few holes in my knowledge of the women’s movement(s), which somehow my education has thus far neglected. I blame the men! In the book, Collins notes [...]