“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.
“What to Wear to a Revolution” May 13, 2007
Posted by mehass in Orientalism, Paul Poiret, fashion.1 comment so far
This weekend I happened to come across this article by Roberta Smith in the New York Times about an exhibit featuring the fashion of Paul Poiret, one of the first designers of couture clothing and a fashion revolutionary who worked for the “liberation” of women from corsets. What struck me about this article especially, however, was the ways in which it championed his appropriation of fashion from other cultures alongside his work to free women from that constrictive relic of the Victorian Age, the corset. As Smith writes, “His radically streamlined, unstructured, often stridently colored clothes freed women from corsets while evoking exotic, non-Western cultures and a fierce disregard for social convention.” By this model, freedom from constrictive fashion and, by extension, oppressive social roles seems to come by evoking other cultures, whose women were viewed to be somehow “freer” and less sexually-inhibited. Poiret, famous for incorporating turbans, kimonos, and “harem pants” into his designs, created an Orientalist fantasy of opulence and sexual liberty that was particularly popular among the rich and famous. This tradition of (Orientalist) cultural appropriation for the sake of appearing “cool” and “cosmopolitan” continues until the present day, and is evident in a number of the music videos we saw and the preference for cultural hybridity. At times, this fusion of cultural styles is mutually beneficial and successful; more often than not, however, it becomes problematic (as in the case of Gwen Stefani).
In any case, I recommend the article and especially the slide show.
Pussycat Dolls and Tori Amos May 7, 2007
Posted by Wednesday Girl in Beyonce, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Pussycat Dolls, Tori Amos, fashion, identity, race, sexuality.1 comment so far
A critique of Tori Amos’s new album, “American Doll Posse,” compares the album to the Pussycat Dolls. It claims that the members of the Pussycat Dolls are only distinguishable by their skin or hair color and in essence, are the same person. Tori Amos turns this idea upside down by portraying different characters herself, implying that one woman can have many different personalities within her.
The Pussycat Dolls do seem replaceable; I do not even know how many there are. However, I think they are only part of a larger movement. Solo singers are starting to look alike as well. We discussed Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Beyonce, who not only look similar, but also resemble the Pussycat Dolls.
The divide between individuality and all singer looking alike seems to be generational (Tori Amos is older than Brittany Spears). I hope as the younger singers mature they will find their own niche and show greater diversity between each other.
Body Image and Sorority Life March 13, 2007
Posted by rebeccao in bodies, fashion, full-figuring.1 comment so far
I don’t know if anyone else has heard the story about the Delta Zeta sorority scandal at DePauw University, but I recently read these articles and found them really interesting. I didn’t find myself shocked at all by the fact that 23 out of the 35 members of the sorority were kicked out because they were considered “overweight or unattractive” (sorority life is all about image and I came to Amherst in part because of its lack of greek life, although it does seem rather counter-intuitive to kick out 2/3 of your members and then claim it was because they weren’t recruiting enough people…what a lame and totally illogical excuse), but I was shocked when I saw the photos of the girls they kicked out. Just like our discussion of “full-figured” women in Hollywood has been bringing up over and over, these girls are not at all ugly or overweight. The former President of the sorority, who was also kicked out in this “purge” (I wonder if the eating disorder language here is meaningful to the discussion), is a brunette who wears a size 8. She says she doesn’t wear designer outfits and she knows she’s not a blonde, but I wonder if that’s really all that is acceptable in a school with 2200 people? Is every girl supposed to be a size 2 with great highlights and 60 dollar pants that say “Juicy” on the butt?!
With the fantastical world of Hollywood claiming a “full-figured” woman looks like Scarlett Johansen or Anne Hathaway, it’s not so surprising that a girl who’s a size 8 is now considered fat in the real world of sorority politics. Instead of promoting healthy body image and natural curves, this new self-congratulatory message Hollywood has embraced is actually pushing the “natural” and “curvy” to the side in favor of the “slightly curvy” or “only a little airbrushed.”
I’ve copied the links to the aritcles below. Enjoy!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17407419/site/newsweek/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17439126/site/newsweek/?from=rss
Desperate Housewives, and a quick comment on shoes in 9 to 5 March 5, 2007
Posted by rebeccao in Bad Girls, desperate housewives, fashion, female perfection.1 comment so far
I think that the first scene of women going to work in 9 to 5 was a real reminder of the shoe theme in Bad Girls go to Hell. Although I’m not sure that they’re there to mean the same thing – shoes in Bad Girls go to Hell were a lot more about sex and in 9 to 5 I think they were more about showing that women were moving in men’s circles, in fact a symbol of their fight for power (walking on the same streets) in a powerless (still stuck in different shoes) world – but I just thought I’d note the similarity.
Also, Did anyone see the Desperate Housewives episode from last night? For the first time, it was a male narrator instead of Alice (as usual). The theme was the plight of desperate suburban men, and I thought it was a pretty great twist on the desperate women of Wisteria Lane. But there was also this moment about half way through the episode where Edie had left her 8-year old son home alone while she went out and got drunk on a date, and she came home to find that Carlos had taken care of him when he found him out playing in the middle of the street all alone. Carlos didn’t let Edie take her son back home that evening and told her to come back sober in the morning. While she was waiting for her son to gather his stuff at Carlos’s the next day, she made the comment that a “woman can’t be a good person if she’s not a good mother.” (not a word for word quote, but I think it’s pretty close to the actual dialogue). When I was thinking about how gender roles are sometimes challenged in this show, especially by Lynette’s character, I though it was really interesting that it was the episode narrated by a man in which Edie made this serious proposition. Although recently I think the characters of Desperate Housewives have been fighting gender norms and roles less and less (Lynette lets her husband open a pizza place with their savings and he’s now the boss, etc.), the fact that the writers actually had Edie’s character come out and say that she’s not a good person because she’s not a good mother, especially when the episode was all about the men, was a twist I wasn’t so happy to see.
