media

While watching Miss Representation, I thought about this youtube video, "Sexism Sells, But We're Not Buying It." It was created by the Women's Media Center and contains several clips of overt sexism in the media. (A few of these clips were actually played in the documentary.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-IrhRSwF9U

Hi All,

I am a suscriber to the "Daily Beast" and came across this page of 'Women in the World'. Since we are talking about women making an impact in media I thought many of you would enjoy this page. We are so focused on the western world and our country in our own media, that we fail to recognize the horrors happening around the world: imprisonment of women for moral crimes, female genitalia mutilation, and other issues women around the world are bringing awareness too. Check it out.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America [CFDA] has been under increasing pressure to set firm guidelines for the appearance and health of their models. Runway models have become increasingly skinny to fit into sample clothes that were made not for a woman's body--which includes hips and breasts--but for a pre-pubescent body with no curves. This has lead to the industry hiring younger girls. Occasionally, magazines and designers will feature plus-size models, which will raise the issue of body image in the fashion industry again.

While Dancing With the Stars is, admittedly, a lightweight, trashy show, this season is pushing the gender portrayal bar by including transgender activist Chaz Bono and gay activist and actor Carson Kressely. Whether or not the shows producers are actually including these men to advance the In addition to these activists, though, the show also includes Hope Solo, who was continually upbraided for not being "feminine" enough in her first outing on the show last night.

The author of this blog post did a statistical breakdown of the Young Adult novel market. She found that while less than one percent of the market contains GLBTQ (she omits queer in her terminology, although she did look at books that had both transgender and genderqueer characters) characters, the number of novels with GLBTQ characters has been steadily increasing, although there was a precipitous drop in the number published in 2010. 

Hello everyone,

I thought you might find this story on a phone app that lets parents experience what it's like to be in an abusive relationship in today's digital environment interesting for class discuss. Both the "Love is not Abuse" campaign and the app itself would make interesting final projects. 

http://www.womensenews.org/story/parenting/110912/phone-app-wakes-parents-teen-dating-abuse