At the recent Comic-Con Convention in San Diego, costumed female cosplayers were on the receiving end of much sexual harassment and are fighting back against the creep factor. Jerry and I get into it over the concept of “personal responsibility.” I pointed out that there is no way to put the responsibility on a woman for her mode of dress as this speaks to the rape culture in...
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Media outlets are abuzz with Chelsea Clinton’s announcement that she and husband Marc Mezvinsky are expecting their first child this fall. Sharing the joyful news at a “No Ceilings” event for young women in New York, Chelsea said, “I just hope I will be as good a mom to my child and hopefully children as my mom was to me” while Mama Hillary looked on,...
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Last night, at the apex of her career, standing before a TV audience of one billion, Cate Blanchett held the Best Actress Oscar in her hand and chided ‘filmmakers “who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them, and in fact, they earn money.”’ Blanchett’s championing the...
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Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb’s NY Times Magazine article, “Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?” shares sociological studies examining “Egalitarianism, Housework and Sexual Frequency in Marriage,” which posit that as couples become equal breadwinners and caregivers, the satisfaction they gain from sharing the chores is somehow dampening their desire for each other. One study claims: “The less gender differentiation, the less sexual desire.” In other...
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Laura Willard posted a great video on Upworthy that has since gone viral, entitled See Why We Have An Absolutely Ridiculous Standard Of Beauty In Just 37 Seconds… This is the best example I’ve seen of the destructive power of the endless “Barbie-izing” of women and girls. Both sexes get an exaggerated and unrealistic vision of what women look like. Who can meet these expectations? This sets us up...
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The Brave Girls Alliance is a magnificent group of women of all ages working to take back mainstream media and show young girls just how fabulous they already are. Airbrushed, hyper-sexualized images need not apply, thanks. Having made a small contribution to this cause, I was surprised to see my tweet wind up on a 25-foot billboard in NYC’s Times’ Square! This is only one of many positive...
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CBS’ Person of Interest deserves kudos, not only for sharp writing, but for the way its female characters are treated and portrayed. The show’s producers go to the head of the class for adding new series regulars: Sarah Shahi as an uber-capable government agent, Amy Acker as a soft-spoken, enigmatic sociopath in addition to Taraji P. Henson’s even-handed policewoman and the fabulous Paige Turco, in...
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Friends Without Benefits, Nancy Jo Sales’ disturbing essay in the current Vanity Fair offers evidence that teen preoccupation with social media is changing the nature of their interactions, with kids emulating the behavior of porn stars, “hooking up” carelessly for what can barely qualify as casual sex. The abstract of this article states: This year, 81 percent of Internet-using teenagers in America reported that...
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After giving a speech on the effects of media bias (a light topic, I know!), a student asked, “How is anyone going to hear your message when they are obsessed with the Kardashians?” I pulled a scientific sounding response out of my…er …left ear, but I suspect her question was better than my answer. Dr. Michael Beckwith once advised, “Be involved; not enthralled.” How do we...
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There is nothing I can add to the critique of Miley Cyrus’ and Robin Thicke’s tasteless display at Monday night’s VMA awards. With her tongue sticking out in every direction, sporting a nude-tint bikini and an outsize foam finger glove as she simulated sex acts about the stage, Cyrus telegraphed a girl desperate to shed an image she has outgrown, that of Disney tween queen,...
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