Miss Platnum- Give Me the Food May 25, 2007
Posted by mehass in bodies, full-figuring, international standards of beauty, miss platnum, music video.add a comment
This is a very interesting song and video that is apparently gaining some popularity in Germany (according to my boyfriend). I think Fat Feminism would especially be interested in the ways it deals with body size, desire for food, etc.
Bootylicious and proud? May 21, 2007
Posted by lana in Beyonce, Women's Bodies, beauty, bodies, female perfection, full-figuring.1 comment so far
Beyonce Knowles says that women should be proud of their figure and not worry about their weight. I agree that women can be sexy no matter their size and state of dress. Sexiness is not equivalent to how perfect your makeup may be or how revealing your clothes are… it’s all about confidence and appreciation for your own body and for yourself. Beyonce’s music backs this idea of loving what you were naturally born with, but it’s still depressing to see the effect that Hollywood ideals can have on an artist as beautiful as she is. It’s one thing for her to say these things, but then to have to go around and lose 20 pounds for a movie role when she hardly needs to…
“Exploited or empowered” May 17, 2007
Posted by Wednesday Girl in Empowerment, Women's Bodies, beauty, bodies, fashion, female emotions, female perfection, feminism, girl power, identity, power, sexuality.3 comments
The article Resisting the Raunch Culture that Objectifies Girls, discusses the effect that risque clothing has on young girls. This clothing, which attracts male attention and leads to increased sexual activity, often results in depression and low self esteem. The writer claims that in dressing more modestly, girls will claim more power and increase self esteem as they will learn to see themselves as more than just sexual objects.
I agree that dressing in skimpy clothing can have no positive effects on young girls, but the problem can not simply be solved by telling them to wear more clothes. I think the focus should be on discussing why girls feel a need to objectify themselves and reclaiming power within themselves first before changing their outward appearance.
Alternative Culture- Marilyn Manson May 15, 2007
Posted by csfogler in alternative culture, bodies, evan rachel wood, marilyn manson.4 comments
Has anyone here seen the Marilyn Manson music video with his new girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood? I know Marilyn Manson isn’t exactly mainstream, but what does it mean for her? She is much younger than he is, and recently she has started to dress/style herself like his ex-wife (Dita von Teese). I wonder if that is at his instigation, and whether or not it is, what that means about her individuality in the relationship.
We have talked about GirlPower being about owning your sexuality. In the video, we see Evan Rachel Wood hooking up with Marilyn Manson- we see overt sexuality from her. The fact that she has chosen to express her sexuality with him in this video interests me as a potential statement she is making.
Warning: incredibly graphic
Does anyone have thoughts about how to integrate alternative culture into our discussions of Girl Power? Is it relevent at all?
Bananarama May 7, 2007
Posted by amyliu in Bananarama, Evolution, beauty, bodies, sexuality.add a comment
I came across this girl group called “Bananarama”; they were created in London in (get this) 1981 and have been around and producing music ever since. I didn’t know who they were at first so I youtubed some of their singles and below are some of the results that I got. It’s really surprising to see the evolution that they’ve made in not only their images but also in the music they’ve created to fit into what was considered ‘pop culture’ at that time. Each video that I’ve posted below was made within a decade of each other (1983, 1993, 2005 – respectively) and it’s so weird to see the last video in comparison to the first because the girls look totally different – and younger! The ‘Cruel Summer’ video made in the 80’s looks like they’re having a lot of fun just dancing around and being silly, whereas in the other two they’re trying to look more sexy. In ‘More, More, More’ the girls are dancing around in their bras, doing the 90’s thing (Madonna also went through this phase.. who could forget her cone boobs!) The last video, ‘Look on the Floor’ alters the girls’ voices to sound more futuristic/pop, this is also apparent in the beats of the song. ‘Look on the Floor’ also shows attractive, younger guys dancing while the girls just sit around and don’t really move much… except to lean provocatively into the fake wind.
Anyway, y’all definitely know these songs (well, the first two anyway). Enjoy!
Aliens and the Specter of the Incontinent Female April 30, 2007
Posted by Marina in Alien, Freud, Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not, Sigourney Weaver, bodies, conception.add a comment
Watching Aliens, I was struck by the consistent references to female fertility that seemed to pervade the most horrific aspects of the movie. Sigourney Weaver’s final battle scenes with the Queen Alien seem to involve maternalism, but Weaver’s surrogate child Newt, being only one child, proves easier to protect than the Queen’s hundreds of eggs. Unchecked, irrational female fertility – as represented by the constantly laying queen, and the multiple larval-things waiting to lay embryos in humans – is a volatile and all-consuming force, as is Burke the greedy bureaucrat’s overly-selfish desire for financial reward. Weaver’s character, Ripley, must balance these two opposing forces of (emotional) self-sacrifice for Newt and (rational) self-preservation to succeed, while vanquishing both Burke and the Queen. Her name, which evokes the “believe it or not” reference, seems like a writer’s pun on the outlandish tale she tells at the beginning of the movie, and her own faith in it despite the patent disbelief of the government and their recommendation of her for psychiatric evaluation. This minor detail becomes relevant in light of the connection between the “hysterical” female mind as documented and labeled by Freud and the pathologized, “incontinent” female body.
These ideas are based on the idea of the male body as the “default,”
and subsequently present the female as the perpetual deviant, the “Other.” It’s not hard to see how a combination of horror and fascination with this other might lead to the construction of the monstrous female body as presented by the female alien.
Ban on Partial Birth Abortion April 19, 2007
Posted by Marina in abortion, bodies, class, conception, politics, president bush, supreme court.4 comments
Check out this article from the NYT. Wednesday, April 18th, the Supreme Court upheld the ban on partial birth abortion passed by a lower court in Nebraska in 2003. The bill does not make any exceptions to allow for abortions in the case of pregnancies that endanger the mother’s life.
As the article reports, “Justice Kennedy, in addressing the need for the health exception, said on Wednesday that it was acceptable for (more…)
Gender and Power in GI Jane and The Terrorist April 18, 2007
Posted by rebeccao in Empowerment, GI Jane, The Terrorist, bodies, military, power, theory.add a comment
The parallels between The Terrorist and GI Jane are easy to spot. They’re both movies about exclusive military or para-military groups, they both feature strong female protagonists, and they both highlight these women’s struggles within a military culture. But when you start to think about the ways in which GI Jane and The Terrorist envision these women’s power, it is through completely opposite means. Whereas GI Jane seeks to show Jordan’s power through her fight to be treated the same as men, I would argue that The Terrorist seeks to show Malli’s power in her difference from the other men in her situation. (more…)
“When She Graduates as He” April 15, 2007
Posted by rebeccao in Empowerment, Queen Latifah, Set It Off, bodies, college, politics, power, sexuality.3 comments
The controversy over transgender students (specifically what’s called “transmen” – women becoming men) attending all-women’s colleges is one that seems to have gotten a lot of attention recently, but this article from the Boston Globe on April 8 is the first one I’ve seen which not only addresses the overall issue of transgendering at women’s colleges but also with issues less commonly dealt with, (more…)
