Feminist Children's Books On the Rise

The Guardian - Feminist Books for Five-Year-Olds

Viv Groskop had noticed something about her children. Her six-year-old son, Will, had suddenly decided that he didn't want any girls invited to his birthday party. Her three-year-old daughter Vera was "swooning over princess paraphernalia." Will demanded football (soccer, in American parlance) gear. Vera started carrying around a handbag and lip gloss. While previously they had been content to do whatever they pleased, the older they got, the harder it was to resist the "pink-and-blue divide." They were falling into gender stereotypes.

Viv, who often read books to her children, wondered if storybooks could change that. She considered the recently-published Girls Are Not Chicks, a coloring book by Jacinta Bunnell which gives children a feminist message, as well as other books like Pippi Longstocking and Pirate Girl. After reading a number of feminist children's books to her son and daughter, she came to the conclusion that, "You can't teach gender studies to small children in a day, but you can make a start. They have already demanded Pippi Longstocking and Pirate Girl again – and again. Lessons that they have learned? The existence of the term "Ms", which prompted a heated discussion. The idea that marriage is not everyone's idea of a fairytale ending. And that women wielding cutlasses are just as menacing as men – possibly more so."

But other authors are cautious. Natasha Walker, author of The New Feminism, says, "My mother wouldn't buy me Enid Blyton because she said her books were too racist and sexist. But I don't think you need to read in a feminist way to become a feminist." Jacinta Bunnell disagrees. While reading stories as a nanny, she says that, "I found myself editing the words so as not to pass on a sexist message,. In most children's books the girls have pretty frocks and bows in their hair, so I would turn it around – call the boys by girls' names and vice versa."

But is it really so important to start children on this young? My parents started reading to me as far back as I can remember -- the Greek myths, the Norse myths, stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels...they started me young. And not on feminist literature. (Though I doubt my conservative-leaning parents would have attempted that anyway.) But then again, I was an only child. Maybe it's harder to convey the message that as a woman, you can do whatever you want with your life if there are siblings too. Maybe it has more to do with the household you grow up in rather than the books you're read. It bothers me a little that there are books coming out that are specifically targeted to tell girls that they can grow up to be president, that they don't have to fulfill stereotypes, where feminists don't usually consider similar messages for boys. Wouldn't it be better (and more subversive) to do so subtly, targeting boys and girls equally? Or maybe that's outside the scope of children's books. One way or another, this new wave of feminist's children's literature -- sometimes known as "anti-princess reading lists" -- is something to watch.


- K.K.

Photo Attribution Information: Frank Baron/The Guardian

Actually? Sex Doesn't Sell

Women & Hollywood - Sex Does Not Always Sell

The old adage "sex sells" may not be true. A new study finds that movies with sex scenes make significantly less money in the box office than movies without. In fact, it doesn't even impress audiences: most sex scenes in movies are utterly gratuitous.

Canada.com - Sex Doesn't Sell in Mainstream Cinema, Study Says

Surprisingly, movies with less sex and nudity, on average, gross higher than movies with more sex and nudity by as much as 31% -- a not insignificant number, and one apparently ignored or unknown among studio executives, who usually hope that by adding in gratuitous sex scenes, they can attract a young male audience (because, of course, women don't watch movies). One of the two researchers who did the study, Dean Keith Simonton, says, ""The most the market can apparently handle is PG-13 sexuality, and even there, there may be a loss relative to PG or even G." That means that R or NC-17 films are already trailing, even without considering the audiences that won't be going to see an R or NC-17 film because of its rating.

Miller-McCune.com - Bare Breasts Don't Beget Boffo Box Office

The coauthors looked at 914 movies released between 2001 and 2005 and found that "ex and nudity do not, on the average, boost box office performance, earn critical acclaim or win major awards." In fact, the top ten highest-grossing movies of all-time, which include Gone With the Wind and Star Wars, back this up.

Anemone Cerridwen, co-author of the study, says that she became interested in the issue after taking acting classes and found that "things came up in most of the classes that made me feel very uncomfortable (unwanted touching, sexualized content). Then I looked at the kinds of roles available for women, and that made me even more uncomfortable. So basically, I couldn't act, even if I could, because of the roles I would be expected to play."

After the study came out, she felt gypped, because everything she thought was necessary to survive in the acting world as a woman depended on a false assumption. She describes it as "sexual harassment of talent."

"It also is often just plain sexist, holding up women (and leading men) as objects to be consumed rather than people.... I think it reflects and reinforces sexism in society, in general. Even if the performer genuinely doesn't mind having to do this stuff as a condition of employment, it creates a hostile environment for the rest of us: other women on camera, behind the camera, in acting classes, plus women, in general."

- K.K

Photo attribution information: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zero101/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

French government to vote on legislation that would require gender parity on company boards

The Guardian - French plan to force gender equality in boardrooms

Following in the footsteps of Norway, which in 2003 introduced legislation that required company boards to be at least 40% women, the French parliament is considering a bill that would require company boards to be at least 50% women by 2015 or risk closure. The bill lays out a timeline that includes 20% in eighteen months and 40% in four years. At the moment, only 10.5% of France's board members are female.

There is a great deal of skepticism regarding quotas in the business world, though many business leaders, both male and female, state that it may be necessary in order to promote equality in the workplace. While there has been widespread good will towards having more women in positions of power, little has come of it. Anne Lauvergeon, president of Areva, calls the bill "humiliating", but still acknowledges its necessity. France's secretary of state for the family, Nadine Morano, calls it a "necessary evil." Another leading businesswoman notes that the bill is necessary because "things are not going to change on their own."

The bill was put forward by President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, which is center-right. Sarkozy's has taken flak in the past few years for replacing three of the seven women in his 15-person cabinet with men. When he took office in 2007, he was congratulated for the near-parity in the cabinet. Several members of parliament have spoken out against the bill, which would make the business world more equal than the government, which only has 18.5% of seats filled by women. "I prefer people setting an example to those giving lessons," says Françoise de Panafieu, an MP in the lower house.

Norway, which in 2003 introduced similar legislation, now has 44.2% of women on its company boards, the highest in the world. In 2001, the number was only 6%. In the U.S., the number of female directors is 15.2%.


- K.K.

Horrifying Photo Retouches and Other Fun With Images

It's that time again! Yes, it's time for....Horrifying Photo Retouches!

Photo retouching is a fact of life in today's media world. People in and of themselves simply aren't attractive enough for our appearance obsessed society, and that's where Photoshop wizards come in. Their goal? To make reality better. Already gloriously beautiful women are air-brushed, resized, revamped and remodeled to satisfy a viewing audience - some of whom become convinced that some humans actually look like this. Even women who are aware of the trickery behind these images often find themselves subconsciously comparing themselves to the vixens on the magazine covers - and coming distressingly short. Should society step in and do something about this?

Valerie Boyer of France is attempting to convince the government to add disclaimers to photo-retouched images, in an effort to defuse the psychological time-bomb freakishly attractive magazines photos produce in girls and women. I don't support this - hello, free speech - but the concept still gives me pause. Perhaps the media and the social watchdog groups could compromise: magazines could put out a yearly retouching article, or special feature, something, anything, that would make the Photoshop magic exceedingly clear for everyone.


Glenn C. Feron: The Art of Retouching

This unnervingly skeezy site feaures image after image of sex-bomb women engaging in sex-bomb like activities - and all of them are retouched to within an inch of their lives.

This one is particularly frightening: where did she find an entirely new face?!

I'm not sure what's going here with the arrows and all, but, uh, you might enjoy it.

Cleavage MIRACULOUSLY APPEARS FROM NOWHERE!



Demi Moore Gets a Body Double

The already-smoking-hot Demi Moore has her body replaced with a model 21 year her junior on the cover of the November W magazine. (The fact that she looks like an abused goth child is a whole nuther' issue.) One suspects that if body replacements were actually possible, the waiting list would be terrifyingly long.



Photoshop Disasters

This miraculously entertaining site catalogs Photoshop disasters from all over the world - many of them distressingly relevant to the issue of women's body-image. Also: this stuff is funny.

The Hardy Boys in: the Case of the Vanishing Boob

Paula Deen is going to cook up your brains with two whole sticks of butter.



Sociological Images is also a fascinating repository of this kind of stuff, although the images don't deal as much with egregious photo retouching.

Girls playing with boys toys? T'AINT NATURAL! T'AINT RIGHT! 


Dinosaurs...for Girls! (Oy gevalt.)  

All this delightful content should keep you entertained and mildly horrified for at least the next couple of hours. Go forth and discover how the media industry is manipulating you; and then, laugh. 

- F.G

Muslima Anisah in Baltimore provides a haven for battered Muslim women

NPR - Muslim Women's Shelter Provides Refuge, Support

Although neither domestic violence nor aid for battered women is limited by religion, Muslim women often find it hard to stay in most women's shelters. There might be issues such as "men that were there, or there wasn't any place for them to pray, or maybe there was an issue with the food" or even the likelihood that a shelter run by Christians might base the domestic violence solely on the religion of the victim and the abuser.

There is none of that at Muslima Anisah a shelter for Muslim women in Baltimore, which is run by Asma Hanif, who used to be a nurse that treated dozens of battered women before she finally decided to do something about it. A Muslim herself, she knows how to counteract the most common issues found at other shelters, most of which are run by Christians who have no idea of the requirements of the religion of Islam. In this shelter, there are no men, there is an area that is specifically designated for prayer, shoes are removed at the door, and there is no pork in the kitchen.

Most of the women at the shelter are immigrants, hailing from a number of different countries, everywhere from Iraq to Chad. Some of them speak little to no English, prohibiting them from approaching the community for help. Many of them are outcast from their families and their husbands because of their decision to leave their abusive relationships, and society turns its back on what it doesn't understand. But in the shelter, they have found a community of women like them -- women with the same beliefs, the same fears, women who won't blame what happened to them on their religion. One Kurdish woman at the shelter says, "It's very good.... It's helping me...because it's food, it's house, it's everything."


- K.K

Picture attribution information: Dianna Douglas/NPR

Lincoln University makes meeting BMI a graduation requirement

NPR - Pennsylvania college makes BMI a required test

Lincoln University, a historically black university in Pennsylvania, in 2006 began requiring all entering freshmen to get their Body Mass Index (BMI) measured. If it was found to be over 30, the lower rung for obesity, they would be required to take a class called "HPR 103 Fitness Walking/ Conditioning" or risk not graduating. Now, graduating seniors that entered in fall 2006 are being faced with the requirement that many of them have either ignored or been unaware of during their college careers.

Inside Higher Ed - A Different Kind of Test

James L. DeBoy, chair of Lincoln's health, physical education, and recreation department, says in defense of the program, “This country’s in the midst of an obesity epidemic and African-Americans are hit hard by obesity and diabetes,” he said. “We need to address this problem directly with our students.”

In theory, not a bad message. But in practice? The majority of students go to a university to get a degree, not a lesson in healthy eating. As well, the BMI test is considered to be badly flawed. It doesn't help that Lincoln has brought race into the issue as well. At best, about 80 seniors will not be able to graduate because of Lincoln's policy. At worst, this could spawn an outbreak of eating disorders on the campus, which has now apparently equated "healthy" with "thin."

Jim C. Hines - Lincoln U's Big Fat Fail

Too many men and women in America are already attacked by the idea that being outside the range of conventional beauty is unacceptable. In his post, author Jim C. Hines quotes a study that says, "[o]ver half of the females studied between ages eighteen and twenty-five would prefer to be run over by a truck than to be fat." It's not as if this sort of thing should come as a surprise to anyone; just look at how popular Weight Watchers, Atkins, and other diets are. I graduated from a small, rural public high school in 2008; I don't think I ever went a year from 2001 to 2008, probably earlier, without hearing about the dangers of obesity. It's not as if the average American college student is unaware of the subject's existence.

Other universities require all students to take a physical education class. (I know my second choice school, all-female Wellesley College, does, or at least it did in 2008.) Not just the students that don't meet their outdated standards of health, all students. Rather than singling out students that they don't consider to be healthy, Lincoln University should target all its students. After all, it's not as if anyone in America has ever had the problem of being too thin. Worse, Lincoln's students are right in the target range for eating disorders: 12 to 15. Do we really want to add more issues to people that are already targeted for their weight?

According to Lincoln University, apparently so.


- K.K.

BBC National Short Story Award shortlist? All-female, all-awesome.

In a welcome, somewhat startling change from earlier kerfuffles in the literary world, including Publisher's Weekly's all-male Top 10 Books of 2009 list and the British Fantasy Society's all-male collection of interviews with horror writers, the shortlist for the BBC's National Short Story Award is all-female.

The Guardian - All-female shortlist for BBC National Short Story Award

According to the BBC, the National Short Story Award was designed to revive interest in what had been a failing genre, and is now enjoying a resurgence both on the air and in print. In its fourth year, the previous award winners have included Clare Wigfall, Julian Gough, and James Lasdun. The Award describes itself as celebrating "the best in the contemporary British short story." The judges looked at over 600 short stories before choosing the five on the shortlist.

The Shortlist

• "Other People's Gods" by Naomi Alderman
• "The Not-Dead and the Saved" by Kate Clanchy
• "Moss Witch" by Sara Maitland
• "Hitting Trees With Sticks" by Jane Rogers
• "Exchange Rates" by Lionel Shriver

The stories chosen run the gamut from the dramatic -- the issue of Alzheimer's disease in "Hitting Trees With Sticks" -- to the fantastic ("Moss Witch"). Broadcaster Tom Sutcliffe, who chaired the judges panel, says, "I think the short story is freer to explore than the novel – it can be more daring."

So what of the fact that the shortlist is all-female? This past year, all-male line-ups have raised eyebrows across the feminist and literary blogospheres, but a quick Google search using "BBC National Short Story Award 2009" only turns up one hit (besides The Guardian article above) that even mentions the all-female shortlist as problematic. No journalists have called the judges panel on it, the way that Publisher's Weekly and the British Fantasy Society were earlier this year. So is it really problematic? In the past, the BBC National Short Story Award has gone to two men and one woman and will this year definitely go to a woman, making its choice of recipients absolutely even. For such a young award, former sexism cannot be raised. And the panel seems remarkably enthusiastic, not defensive, about how their decision-making process regarding the shortlist.

"What we wanted was the short stories that stayed with us after we'd finished reading them, that's the real secret of the short story I think that its brevity doesn't really matter, because it has a resonance once it's finished, and those are the stories that made it through to the shortlist," said Sutcliffe.

Each short story is being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from November 30 to December 4, or for the non-Brits among us, on this podcast. The lineup of readers include Miriam Margolyes, Penelope Wilton, Hannah Gordon, Jason Isaacs and Julia McKenzie.


-K.K

Photo attribution information: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianclarkmbbs/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Tweets and Tumbles: 11/24 to 11/27

Fri November 27th 
 

Today on WINGS: Kristèle Younès re Iraqi refugees. 8 am WTUL 91.5 FM NOLA + streaming www.wtulneworleans.org. Details: http://ow.ly/GcR8www.wtulneworleans.org. Details: http://ow.ly/GcR8

0 Comments

Today on WINGS: Kristèle Younès re Iraqi refugees. 8 am WTUL 91.5 FM NOLA + streaming www.wtulneworleans.org. Details: http://ow.ly/GcR9www.wtulneworleans.org. Details: http://ow.ly/GcR9

0 Comments

 

 

Nov 26th Thu

On Wednesday on Allrecipes.com, “sweet potato casserole” was by far the most common search term nationwide. NYT http://ow.ly/FVLZ

0 Comments

 

Nov 25th Wed

How to help someone use a computer. (Adapted from The Network Observer. Copyright 1996 by Phil Agre.) http://ow.ly/FIB5

0 Comments

Wikileaks data documentary release: US pager intercepts 11 Sept 2001 event from 3am until 3am 12 Sept: http://ow.ly/FHrB

0 Comments

 

 

Nov 24th Tue 

 

 

RT @Arch4HumanityND: Copenhagen & Imperative for Sustainable Cities in India: Mumbai flooding after 2006 deluge http://bit.ly/634V7z

0 Comments

Belle de Jour, a.k.a. Brooke Magnanti: the science of sex for money http://tinyurl.com/ykuew9z

0 Comments

The Sexual Politics of a Hug http://www.bilerico.com/2009/11/the_sexual_politics_of_a_hug.php

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RT @jranck: RT @solarafrica: RT @phat_controller Mobile phones reinforce gender inequality in Zambia http://bit.ly/747oeC #ict4d

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Men Leave: Separation and Divorce Far More Common When the Woman Is the Patient http://tinyurl.com/ydnmctg

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ADHD website tells women they’re annoying in relationships http://tinyurl.com/ygnq86c

0 Comments

RT @sabinehikel: RT @feministnews Women Ski Jumpers Lose Olympic Lawsuit http://sn.im/teitc

0 Comments

Asian women hit hard by financial crisis, hears summit http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/200911/2748731.htm?desktop

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Eek! Keep those scary bra-burners away from my sexy feminist self! http://tinyurl.com/ylco7de

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For girls, a major bummer | one more reason for the wage gap: what young women choose to study in college http://tinyurl.com/yz9rraw

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Tue November 24th

 

Rape is now a girl’s “secret sex shame” says Brisbane Times http://tinyurl.com/ydsdjzx

0 Comments

RT @womeninhighered: “A Woman’s Nation” report examines women’s roles today and how society can better support today’s workers and famil …

0 Comments

Nearly half of Tajik women “regularly abused” | in Tajikistan, women are raped, abused, and beaten by families http://tinyurl.com/yzf6cw8

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RT @askpatty Car advice every woman should know « real women. real advice. http://bit.ly/81inuS

0 Comments

RT @TechyZone: The Superfriends of Publishing Have a Grand Digital Plan to Save Magazines [Time]: That “Hulu for magazines” is happ… h …

0 Comments

Senate’s Women Could Sway Health Bill | on the list: Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu http://tinyurl.com/ygh2vg9

0 Comments

Check out the 60th Disability Blog Carnival, hosted by FWD/Forward: http://tinyurl.com/ygrl9fj

0 Comments

Barbie in a Burkha | “the message with Barbie for women is you can be whoever you want to be” http://tinyurl.com/yby7o3t

0 Comments

Czech regret over sterilization | government expresses regret over forced sterilization of Roma women http://tinyurl.com/yhqqcse

0 Comments

Forced labor and rape, the new face of slavery in America http://tinyurl.com/yzjebdx

0 Comments

RT @soundmindone: Study says lesbians make better parents
Two thumbs up in my book
Paul Overstreet http://bit.ly/8Y9wh3

0 Comments

RT @jranck: “Men of Quality Do Not Fear Equality”: Working with African Men Towards Gender Justice and Prevention of HIV http://bit.ly/5 …

0 Comments

RT @ekabu RT @guardiannews: Heterosexual couple begin legal fight after being refused civil partnership http://bit.ly/6MBilX

0 Comments

RT @jranck: Sports, sex, and the runner Caster Semenya : The New Yorker http://bit.ly/8BpPVh

0 Comments

Pennsylvania college makes BMI a required test | historically black school claims health concerns as reason http://tinyurl.com/yd3q7z8

0 Comments

 

Today on WINGS: #30-09 Iraqi Refugees (8am WTUL 91.5 FM NOLA)

Escalating violence since Saddam's fall displaced millions who live precariously.
Photo: Northern Iraq (via Flickr)


Listen in New Orleans at 8 am on WTUL 91.5 FM New Orleans or streaming via www.wtulneworleans.org.


The US invasion brough sectarian warfare to Iraq. Millions are displaced internally and internationally, most in countries that offer no official refugee status. They survive by child labour, prostitution, or whatever they must. The Bush administration never recognised the problem -Obama's does, but help is scarce.

Host(s): Stacy Pettigrew
Featured Speakers/Guests: Lebanese-Canadian refugee specialist Kristèle Younès, a Senior Advocate with Refugees International, an independent advocacy organization.

Credits: Recorded and edited by Stacy Pettigrew. Series editor, Frieda Werden

Since 1999, the New Orleans Area broadcast of WINGS has been made possible through the cooperation of WTUL and Newcomb College Center for Research on Women.

In Canada, Facebook photos can lose you your insurance benefits

CBC News - Depressed Woman Loses Benefits Over Facebook Photos

Oh, look, insurance companies are at it again, and this time they're going behind people's backs and (possibly) hacking into their Facebook accounts to avoid paying out.

29-year-old Nathalie Blanchard of Quebec was on extended sick leave for depression before her benefits were withdrawn; her insurance agent described pictures she'd posted to her Facebook account as the reason. The pictures showed Blanchard "having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday — evidence that she is no longer depressed," said her insurance company.

Blanchard said that her doctor advised her to go out with her friends and on short vacations to sunny locations. "In the moment I'm happy, but before and after I have the same problems," she said.

But the plot thickens. Blanchard's Facebook accounts is locked so that no one but the people she can approves can look at it or her pictures, and Manulife (her insurance company) isn't on the list. Which raises the question: Did Manulife hack into Facebook in order to investigate her claim? Manulife confirmed that it does use Facebook to investigate clients, although it also claims that it doesn't use Facebook alone to confirm or deny clients.

Feministe - Insurance Company Revokes Depressed Woman's Benefits Over Facebook Photos

Feministe points out that this is only the latest step in able-bodied people's attempts to prove that those with a disability or mental illness are "faking it", without actually having a working knowledge of what they're criticizing. Not only are they unable to get the accommodations that they need, they're also dismissed as liars or fakers -- unworthy.

Mental illness is no exception to this rule: people think they know what it looks like, that they can spot a person with a mental illness a mile away, and that if a person doesn’t live up to those expectations, they’re either seeking benefits they “don’t deserve,” or seeking attention. And with regards to depression specifically (as it’s the topic of the original article, and my greatest knowledge base), they tend to think that if someone isn’t spending all of their time crying, frowning, or refusing to get out of bed, they can’t possibly have it.

The idea that anyone, especially an insurance company, would judge a serious mental illness on a couple of (maybe illegally-obtained) Facebook photos is absurd. And terrifying.


- K.K.

This Friday on WINGS: Marriage, Land & Power in Uganda (20 Nov 2009)

Women of Bukakata, Ssese Islands, Southwestern Uganda 
(via Xevivarela's Flickr stream)

This week on WINGS: Ugandan women defy tradition to seek security in owning land.

Tune in at 8am Friday 20 November 2009 to WTUL 91.5 FM in New Orleans (streaming at www.wtulneworleans.org) to listen to an interview exploring complex dynamics of law, tradition, security, politics, and violence. The interview is inspired by the online exhibit "Economica: Women and the Global Economy" at the International Museum of Women.

Host: Masum Momaya, Curator, Women, Power and Politics, International Museum of Women

Featured Speakers/Guests: Peace Musiimenta, women's studies lecturer at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

Credits: Interview: Masum Momaya, curator, International Museum of Women. Series editor for WINGS, Frieda Werden.

Since 1999, the New Orleans Area broadcast of WINGS has been made possible through the cooperation of WTUL and Newcomb College Center for Research on Women.

Bitch Media: How they do it

Creepy Food Ads Aimed at Women: Skinny Cow and Only in A Woman's World

Advertisers think women are fat and stupid.

This is a well documented fact: consider the boatloads of advertising campaigns designed to alleviate these twin and depressingly universal fears of woman-kind, the millions of dollars spent on convincing we ladies that we are woefully inadequate in every way, that our inadequacies can be alleviated and soothed if we just buy this particular, delightful product. The food industry is no exception.

Indeed, the food industry sees fit to create some of advertising's weirdest campaigns in an attempt to appeal to women. The reasons are easy to see: many women possess a bizarre, masochistic relationship with food, regard food as both savior and Satan. Calories are dark substances that can at the same time make you feel better and cause your eternal ruin: and in this looks-obsessed nation, this body-focused world, cellulite on the thighs translates immediately into a failing of the soul, a moral peculiarity, something to repent for. (As if the thin and gloriously built had some kind of monopoly on purity and goodness - well, we know how that goes.)

Society at large and especially women within it, describe food and the consumption thereof in religious terms. Food is sinful, food is heavenly, food will "save" you when you're feeling crap and "damn" you when you give in and eat too much of it. Food focused confessional booths, would, I imagine, be immensely popular: they would attract a line of nervous looking women, clutching their sugar-free calorie-reduction gum and thinking of Cheetohs and eternal damnation at the exact same time, with a direct and clear relation between the two.

So what are some of these curious advertising  campaigns, these food-promotions aimed at the gastronomical yearnings of the fairer sex? Here we go.

- The Skinny Cow

The Skinny Cow manufactures low-calorie ice cream treats, carefully positioned to step in when depressed women might otherwise reach for that pint of Ben and Jerry's, the alluring local Nutty Buddy. The company's mascot is where the going gets weird, however: she's an anorexic looking anthropomorphized cow, with big fluttery eye-lashes and a smattering of lipstick across her bovine face, a ribbon of measuring tape eternally wrapped around her waist.

"Skinny" (oh, that's her real name!) lounges seductively around the website, curling one lithe and spotted arm around the page, daring the viewer to be turned on entirely against their will: somehow, she combines sex, self-sacrifice, and ruminants in one bizarre package, a total anomaly. Skinny even is kind enough to give advice, as the site's advice "column" will prove. To quote:


Dear Skinny, Why do you pose with a tape measure? What are you trying to tell us?

My message is simple: You can indulge in my delicious ice cream treats and still look fabulous in your birthday suit. Don't skip dessert — and don't pinch yourself with calipers!

Christ, pinching with calipers. The mental image is itself a horror: an evocation of gym class, of nightmarish rounds of public humiliation. Skinny, it's obvious, is holding us back from the brink, reminding us of the obese and disgusting fate we to will share if we give in to ice cream sandwiches and ranch-dressing covered cheeseburgers. Why would you want to do that, she asks. Enjoy the sweet release of ice-cream sammiches and faux drumsticks - almost as good as the real thing!

More distressing questions arise. Is Skinny actually naked, has she been wearing no clothes all this time? Have we been subjecting ourselves unwittingly to cow  nudie-photos this entire time? And for Christ's sake, who are these women writing in?I like to tell myself that no real blood-and-bone woman has actually written in to seek a talking bovine's advice, but I may be wrong, the questions may be real, I may have to resign myself to horror.

Skinny also dishes out mysteriously worded advice, deemed "Skinnyisms". (None of them revolve around bulimia or laxatives, I'm afraid: I checked.) Observe:

SKINNY ON THE PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT:
“Some open their minds. Others open their hearts. Me, I open my freezer.”

Another:

SKINNY ON ROMANCE:
“I believe in love at first lick.”

And again:

SKINNY ON LOVING WHO YOU ARE:
“Every day my mirror looks me up and down and says, ‘Moo la la.’”

Even the product descriptions are written seductively. Here Vanilla and Caramel Dippers are discussed:

Vanilla and caramel ice cream bars with a splash of naughty chocolate.

And again:

Tasty vanilla and mint ice cream bars dipped in chocolate make being a little naughty oh so nice.


The secondary implications of these phrases are disquieting, to say the least. The Skinny Cow represents sex, sex that can only be conferred upon the skinny, the low-calorie low-sugar ice cream eating Illuminati. Don't you forget it.

You can't, now.

ZOMG BOOBS

- Lay's and Only in A Woman's World

Lay's Potato Chips have alway had an image problem among body-obsessed women. Potato chips are fatty, they are bad for you, they are devoured while watching TV, and, most hideously, they are delicious. Therefore, many women regard a bag of potato chips, sitting on the kitchen counter, as akin in terms of sheer dangerousness to the apple in the Garden of Eden: alluring, delightful and seductive, and so evil, so horrible, so difficult to deny!

Lays, of course, is aware of this: they have their ears pricked up, they have their heads down to the ground listening for the (proverbial) Indians on the war-path. Thus, they decided that they would target women when marketing their re-hauled Baked Lays line: they would go for women's soft spots, target their insecurities, their hopes and dreams. And they would do all this to sell them baked processed-potato snacks. Becky Frankiewicz, Frito-Lay's vice president of marketing lays it on the line: "It may sound cliché, but women are different. Science tells us women’s brains are uniquely wired...Only in a Woman’s World’ humorously addresses and even celebrates the universal conflicts women feel.  At least when it comes to snacking, we want women to know that they don’t have to compromise – they can have their snacks and eat them, too.”

Thank God Lays has come along to permit me to consume snacks when I so desire. My mysteriously wired brain - ah, so subject to menstrual moon cycles, to emotional mood swings, to crying jags without reason! - couldn't have figured out a rational snacking schedule all on its little old lonesome.

The Only in A Woman's World campaign, orchestrated in part with the suspiciously named Glam Media, is peopled by crudely drawn stick-figure like faux ladieess, who wear appropriately sassy outfits, have modest spare-tires around their bellies, and deal with Crazy Wacky Lives Just Like You! They're concerned with their busy schedules, their children and (most importantly) the ever burgeoning size of their butts - and Lays is here to help with their flavorful but low-cal potato snax.

The website, much like our friend the Skinny Cow's enclave, purports to be a pastel-toned lifestyle guide, hosted by four  "funny, fabulous, and fearlessly female girls," complete with personality profiles that reads like a middle-aged Playboy spread. They even have "sassy" catchphrases. Cheryl's saying? "I lost five pounds, but they found me again!" Oh, we all can relate, girlfriend! And don't forget, they all have Embarrassing Imperfections (just like you!) Nikki hides how much she spends on shopping from her hubby!  (I was hoping for "Maya has a raging case of Munchasen Syndrome and enjoys crush videos!" or "Nikki accidentally axphyiated her husband during a vigorous S&M session!" but, ah, nothing of the sort).

You can even play a video game from the perspective of resident harried-house wife Cheryl. As the description tells us, "Pleasing people makes Cheryl feel good!" But she's harried and crazy, she's being taken apart in chunks, she lives in a waking nightmare of demand, demand, demand: "Can you help Cheryl find calm amid the chaos by removing tasks from her To-Do list so she can score a little "met" time for herself?" Of course, Cheryl, my doppleganger, my future-self, the horror I am endlessly approaching. Of course I can. It's a dinky little puzzle game, sadly. I was hoping for a first person shooter that would involve laying waste to mini-vans and stimulating childhood education videos, but that sort of thing probably was not high on Lays agenda.

The wallpaper section conjures up more comedy gold. Nikki, merrily regarding her inflated tits, listens as Cheryl (good god, I've memorized their names) asks, "These things are the best invention since the push-up bra." To which our blonde minx responds, "I wouldn't go that far." Oh, hoho, haa, heehee! Or perhaps the moment where one woman, regarding herself in the mirror, sees a pink and distressed looking cupcake looking back at her. I would argue that there are worst things to resemble then a pink and universally beloved cupcake, but not our heroine: "Whoa...bad mirror," she remarks.

Only In A Woman's World is being pushed hard by Lays, and will doubtless be with us in its maddeningly perky format for months to come. Only in A Woman's world even had a flipping Hollywood premiere for its webisodes, featuring creepily featureless life-size standees on the red carpet. Better start eating dem' potato chips.

Frito Lays attempts to get chips into the mouths and minds of American ladies doesn't stop there. They're even incorporating pyschological warfare. From the press release:

Frito-Lay is redesigning the snack aisle to make shopping easier. If women go down the snack aisle, they are typically shopping for someone else.  Frito-Lay is revamping the start of the aisle to feature the products geared specifically for her. Products will be found in the center of the aisle in traditional stores, and closer to the end of the aisle in stores that are more health oriented. The redesign is about helping women see that there is something for them in the chip aisle.

Bam! Wham! Frito-Lay has done something masterful here: they have painted selling tater' chips to women as liberating, as an effort to get women to take care of themselves for once. Chips and dip in front of Desperate Housewives is no longer just a snack, no longer just an indulgence after a Crazy Day In Your Harried Life. No, eating chips (Frito Lay chips, anyhow) is a strike for women's rights, a stand against injustice, an action that would warm the long-dead heart of Susan B. Anthony herself. I believe that I sense a tear coming to my eye, a tiny one.

Selling potato chips to men requires none of this window dressing. A campaign featuring velociraptors, flaming skulls, and a claim that Lays enhance penis-size would do nicely. Actually, I'm shocked Lays hasn't done that already - flavor the chips like hot sauce and animal fat and they'd sell billions. Women, however - apparently women must be reminded of their own imperfections and failings in order to get them to buy something. We must be guilted into commerce. Makes you feel real warm n' fuzzy about capitalism, huh?

God bless you, Only in A Woman's World. Without you, I would never know that purchasing baked low fat potato chips would render me confident, attractive, and liberated. Viva la sisterhood. Rah rah fight the power.

I'll ferret out new creepy advertising campaigns as I find them. Watch this space.

- F.G

Tweets and Tumbles: 11/17 to 11/12 2009

Tue 17 Nov

RT @jranck: In Evin Prison By Claire Messud http://bit.ly/AaXM4 #iran via NYBooks

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Nov 16th Mon

Good summary re “Confusion Over Where Money Lent on Kiva Goes” - NYT - http://ow.ly/CLLM

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Nov 14th Sat 

 

Loyola Philosophy Professor John Clark re Tue 17 Nov lecture by Slavoj Zizek #NOLA (Vimeo) http://ow.ly/CfKO

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READING: Slavoj Zizek, “The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape: Reality and Fantasy in New Orleans” http://ow.ly/CfIW

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RT @wtul: Come to our record fair till 5pm. Get off St Chas Streetcar at Broadway, walk twd lake to Zimple St #Tulane #NOLA

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READING: Slavoj Zizek - Escape from New Orleans (The Subject Supposed to Loot and Rape Revisited) http://ow.ly/CfOq

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READING: The Lens: Investigating NOLA and the Gulf Coast http://ow.ly/CdNY

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The Sophielab Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

From: ckile
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 7:47 AM
To: willing
Subject: The Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

The key to good gingerbread cookies is purchasing good spices, and refreshing spices every year. It helps to have a good pastry sheet and very good wooden rolling pin, too. Insulated cookie sheets from the fancy store are worth the price.

Royal icing is fun, but clear decorative sugar crystals are fetching and crunchy. Good decorative sugar that doesn’t taste chemical is worth the price.

I leave about 1/3-1/2 cup flour out of the dough for chill, figuring that that much more will get into the dough during handling, especially in the New Orleans climate.

Know your molasses. Langenstein’s keeps good molasses on the first aisle middle bottom row with the syrups and jams.

These taste good made with butter, but work with butter substitutes.

Thank you Wen Zientek-Sico, wherever you are.

CGK


http://www.christmas-baking.com/gingerbread.html

Submitted by: Wen Zientek-Sico, Wen@FrugalRecipes.com.

History
Gingerbread cookies, especially gingerbread men, have always been popular at Christmas time. For years we made gingerbread cookies that, while very tasty, were as hard as rocks. One year I decided to really work with the recipe to get a cookie that would stay soft even when stored for a while that still had all the gingerbread flavor one could want. This cookie was the result - and everyone who tries them instantly agrees that they are the best gingerbread cookies they have ever tried. The cookies are great plain, but I have also added a recipe for Royal Icing which can be used to give detail and features to the cookies if desired.

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsulphured molasses
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
3 1/4 cups flour
Directions
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the molasses and water. In a medium bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, stirring constantly. Divide the dough in half and flatten to a round disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill overnight. (You can freeze half or all of it if desired for later use.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease your cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface roll out one of the disks, leaving the other chilled. Roll to a 1/4 inch thickness, adding more flour if needed. Cut the cookies into desired shapes and place about an inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 6-10 minutes depending on the size of the cookies. Cookies should be firm but not browned. Reroll the scraps and continue to cut and bake until the dough is gone. Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets for three minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling. Frost if desired with royal icing and let dry for 24 hours. Store in airtight containers.

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Nov
13th

Fri

Tuning in the National Women’s Studies Association (@NWSA) annual meeting through Sun in ATL #NWSA09

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“146 Days to Mardi Gras” with Big Queen Cherice Harrison Nelson, Guardian of the Flame (Vimeo) http://ow.ly/BVgu

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Women’s Studies Student Research Grants: DEADLINES: 4 pm 20 Nov 2009 + 13 Mar 2010. All #Tulane students may apply: http://ow.ly/BUH0

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FRIDAYS AT NEWCOMB: “From Buenos Aires to Bogotá: Marta Traba + the Art of 1960s” with Prof. Florencia Bazzano-Nelson. 1pm NCI #Tulane

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FRIDAYS AT NEWCOMB: “From Buenos Aires to Bogotá: Marta Traba + the Art of 1960s” with Prof. Florencia Bazzano-Nelson. 1pm NCI #Tulane

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Nov 12th Thu

RT @TulaneEvents: Women’s Health Research Day Plenary Talk. Fri Nov 13, 9:30-11am. http://riptide.me/5J #tulane

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Rape in America: Justice Denied | (trigger warning) http://bit.ly/1YdaXD

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U.K. headteacher speaks out about fashion, feminism, careers, and motherhood

The Guardian - Fashion not a betrayal of feminist ideals, says leading headteacher

Jill Berry, president of the Girls School Association (GSA) in the U.K., said at a teachers' conference on Monday that intelligence, feminism, and an interest in fashion are not mutually exclusive. "Girls can be highly intelligent and interested in being seen to be attractive – the two aren't mutually exclusive," said Berry, who is also Headteacher of Dame Alice Harpur school. "I love shoes but it doesn't make me shallow. Girls can have fun and also be taken seriously."

She went on to point out that women are often guilty of judging other women, pointing out the stereotypes that say that an attractive woman is unintelligent, or that a woman who is interested in clothes, hair, shoes, and fashion is shallow and vapid. This idea often leads to an idea that an interest in fashion or looking attractive is a betrayal of both intelligence and feminist ideas.

The Guardian - Girls should be 'realistic' about careers and motherhood - girls group head

This comes on the heels of a statement made last week by Berry, where she announced that teenage girls need a "heavy dose of realism." Many women -- especially those that go to elite private (public in the U.K. parlance) schools that the GSA represents -- face an enormous amount of pressure to be "perfect women", both leading career women and perfect mothers. Berry says that it may be impossible for women to uphold these standards, and that there's nothing wrong with a woman saying that she wants to be a stay-at-home mother or only work part-time while raising children.

"Women can feel very guilty, whatever path they choose. It is as if they have somehow compromised their principles. What we can do as teachers is prepare them to have aspirations, but not aim for perfection. We can help them recognise that life is about balance," says Berry, going on to add that, "There is an unprecedented pressure on girls and more women are going back to work early after having children now. It can all work fine, until their child is ill."

Somewhat interestingly, the article also goes on to point out that Berry herself does not have children.

Berry goes on to add that girls (and presumably women) need to be realistic, adding that priorities shift and they don't need to feel guilty about the choices they make.


- K.K.

Photograph from The Guardian.co.uk (Christopher Furlong/Getty) 

News: Facebook Games, In Sickness and Health?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anshu_si/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games? - Time Online

Turns out Farmville isn't as cute and cuddely as it seems. These FB games often run shady cross-promotions alongside all that heart-warming gameplay, often snaring kids in weird cell phone deals or sleight-of-hand service scams. Watch out.

Divorce Risk Higher when Wife Gets Sick - NYTimes

In one of the weeks more depressing headlines, a study found women were much more likely to divorce when they got sick then men. Men, it was theorized, are unwilling to take on the caretaker role in these situations, and may view their mate as "damaged goods". On the other hand, the survey neglected to ask who initiated the divorces - do sick women take stock of their lives and decide to throw the bum out once and for all? It's hard to say.

Cherice Harrison-Nelson: 146 Days to Mardi Gras

Cherice Harrison-Nelson: 146 Days to Mardi Gras from Sophielab on Vimeo.


Cherice Harrison-Nelson is an educator, artist, and third generation Mardi Gras Indian. She is member of the Guardians of the Flame Cultural Arts Society and curator of the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame.

During Fall 2009, Cherice is a Visiting Scholar at Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, and is collaborating with Sophielab on a series of short films exploring the creative process of making her suit for 2010, her work mentoring and teaching Young Guardians of the Flame, and the roles and responsibilities women and girls assume in Mardi Gras Indian culture.

"146 Days to Mardi Gras" is the first film in this series.

Eight Commonwealth Women Head to South Pole

Kaspersky Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition

How's this for awesome ? Marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Commonwealth of Nations (formally the British Commonwealth), a group of eight women from eight Commonwealth countries will begin a 40-day, 900 km ski trip to the South Pole, hopefully culminating their trip on January 1, 2010. Three of these women will be the first woman from their country to complete such a journey; four of them will be the first citizen from their country to do so. (One assumes that the U.K., the odd one out, has already had a woman ski to the South Pole.)

Bitch - On the Map: All Hail the Ice Queen

Funded by Kaspersky Lab, these eight women represent the 52 member countries of the Commonwealth, over 2 billion people, and were selected from over 800 applicants. They come from Brunei Darussalem, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, and for most of them, travel to the South Pole will be a new experience. They will be traveling on skis, hauling sledges with their supplies, and will spend the night in tents on the open ice. Without a guide, they'll have to depend on each other, but modern technology makes it possible for them to keep up with the rest of the world via satellite telephone calls and -- wait for it -- Twitter.

BruDirect.com - 'Polar Girl' Heads for UK To Begin Expedition

Dk Najibah Eradah PAM Al-Sufri, the Bruneian member of the expedition says that, "I want to inspire Bruneian women of all ages to do something and move out of their comfort zone."


- K.K.

Images from Kaspersky Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition website

Recent News in Women's Matters

Afghan Women Still have Much to Lose - Philadelphia Inquirer

Trudy Rubin discusses the ongoing battle to liberate Afghanistan's women - a struggle that is receiving less and less exposure as debate over the USA's Afghan strategy heats up. She highlights the excellent Voice of Women Organization, an Afghan-run group dedicated to improving the status and lives of the countries women. Disappointingly, it appears that the USA's ouster of the Taliban hasn't done half as much as it should have to save Afghan women from poverty, abuse, and murder - and that's part of the Afghanistan debate the USA needs to be having.

Trading Women's Rights for Political Power- NYTimes

An excellent and timely article on the brutal tradeoffs Democrats have made in order to pass the health care bill. How much progress will we have really made with American healthcare, when women will remain unable to afford safe (and often medically necessary) abortions? Observations on the Democrats subtle distancing from the abortion issue are especially disquieting:

The party has distanced itself from the abortion-rights movement in other ways. It has taken to calling Democrats who oppose a woman’s right to choose “pro-life” (and not “anti-choice”). The group Democrats for Life of America, whose Congressional members ultimately led the battle to exclude private insurance companies that cover abortions from health insurance exchanges, was invited to hold a press conference in Democratic Party offices. The party has promoted “pro-life progressives” like Sojourners, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, organizations whose leaders have stated that abortions should be made “more difficult to get.

New York Cities Last All-Female Apartments - NYTimes

This charming story highlights the Big Apple's last ladies-only apartments, vestiges of the oh-so-prudish 50's and 60's. Back in the day, young ladies working in the city were often encouraged to live in these complexes, in an effort to protect their morality and keep them away from the caddish eyes of men. (Sylvia Plath vividly describes her time in the Barbizon in The Bell Jar). The few surviving all-female estates are thriving, however: they offer security, low rent prices, and a bevy of services, including hot meals, maid services, and use of salubrious building facilities. Just don't bring your boyfriend home - unless you'd like to take tea with him in the "beau parlor".

America's Women Thrown Under the Bus Again

America's women have been thrown under the bus by Democrats in the health care debacle.

In an effort to pass the health-care bill at any cost, house Democrats, under the lead of Nancy Pelosi, agreed to bar abortion from federal funding. That's not good by any measure, but it gets worse: under the new strictures, most private insurers accepting people using federal funds will find themselves compelled to drop abortion coverage as well.

This leaves many women with limited financial resources in the lurch, forced to pay out of pocket for an abortion no matter the circumstances. High risk late term abortions - done to save the woman's life - would also be barred from public funding. Not good. The implications could be greater then restrictions on abortion: it's possible that the flap could stall health care reform and re-ignite the abortion debate, which has taken a backburner in the face of two wars, a financial crisis, and a big-time presidential election. The effort could also alienate Democratic women, who have largely expressed outrage over the restrictions. Could there be a compromise lurking amid all the nastiness? Don't plan on it. The relatively conflict-averse Obama administration would rather not use abortion rights as its hill to die on. Women lose.

So is health care reform worth heavily restricting and curtailing abortion rights? I don't think so. We've fought long and hard for the right to choose, and any effort that systematically weakens that right isn't something I can support. Constant talk is bandied about regarding how we are attempting to create a more progressive and (dare I say it) European system - but in those overseas systems, abortion coverage isn't even questioned, it's just done. According to a Guttmacher study, Western Europe (where socialized health is common) features lower rates of abortion then the USA, despite less restrictive policies.  And it's not like restriction has much, if any affect on abortion rates.

The study also found that "abortion occurs at roughly equal rates in regions where it is broadly legal and in regions where it is highly restricted." The study finally concluded that Europe's low abortion rates are due to increased access to and use of contraception's, and access to safe and  legal abortions - a model we supposedly highly-evolved Americans would do well to emulate.

 Globally, abortion causes 13% of women's deaths. It may be unpleasant to consider, but efforts to  illegalize or restrict abortion are efforts that will consign at least some women to an unpleasant and degrading end.

So what should the USA do about this health care mess? Considering that the majority of Americans still feel that abortion should be legal, submitting the good of the majority to the opinions of the minority strike me as a bad call. To co-opt a classic phrasing: don't like abortions? Then don't get one.

President Obama claims the restrictions are nothing new, stating, "This is a health care bill, not an abortion bill...We're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."


Fair enough, but health care reform is all about change - change that would enhance access to safe and inexpensive health care for all Americans. Like it or not, abortion remains a necessary medical procedure for some at-risk women, and a profoundly central right for many others. If abortion is a legal medical procedure under the auspices of US law, should we really practice this kind of discrimination between abortion (not okay) and other medical procedures (ok)?

Further, to repeat a point ad-nauseaum, countries that offer little to no restriction on abortion generally see less abortions. And if women are forced to scrape together enough dough to get an abortion - while pregnant - they're often going to have to seek out a later-term abortion, which are more dangerous, more expensive, and even more of a moral grey-zone then the earlier kind. If we are to cede that abortion should be legal (for a variety of good reasons I won't bother to reiterate here,) then providing funding for such procedures makes an admittedly unpleasant practice more humane and more safe.

Slate.com's William Saletan has a thought-provoking article on the abortion restrictions. To wit: most of us on the Democrat side of the aisle have been pushing hard for health care reform of late, attempting to dispel the popular notion that socialism (in a lite form) ain't necessarily a return to the Iron Curtain and long lines for cabbage.

But as Saletan points out, socialism of necessity means individual preference and volition must be curbed, a notion the fearsomely individualist USA is having some philosophical problems with. A public health system, similar to that of Britain, would indeed make choices for us that we have grown accustomed to making for ourselves. The call on abortion funding is one of those. Therefore, proponents of health care reform need to sit down and really think through the ramifications of passing the bill.

So, let's get real. Have we truly considered the variables and the far-reaching effects of this bill? And are we willing to compromise American abortion rights to achieve the health care reform we've been pushing for?