Fox News is A Lot of Things

July 5, 2008, category

Such as “a parade of propaganda” and “a festival of ignorance” and not only I think so.

Don’t you just love how as soon as someone speaks up about the amount of one-sided news Fox delivers, they immediately turn your attention to something else so it doesn’t seep into your brain and you start to believe them–Just in case the amount of “McCain is good, Obama is bad” stories and the amount of coverage on Hillary Clinton eventually all leading to sexist remarks haven’t tipped you off yet.

I personally have very, very basic cable and the only news channels I get is Fox News and Cspan, so those channels are all I have to rely on while sitting downstairs waiting for my coffee to brew and just today, the boyfriend commented on how Obama is flip flopping about everything and how McCain has stayed true to what he has been saying while fighting for the presidency all along. I looked at him, dumbfounded, and said “You know, this is Fox News so take what you hear with a grain of salt.” If you also find yourself in this situation, look up the story you’re interested in on CNN or basically any other news channel except for Fox News. You’ll thank me later, I promise.

Don’t you also love how the woman in the video is all “Uhh…But I love Fox News! I mean it, I really love you. I loooove youuuuu! Come on, please listen to me? Is that it? We’re all done? But I haven’t gotten to say how much I love Fox News yet. Oh, alright, we’re done.”

And in classic Fox News behavior, why not throw some sexism into the mix, too? Wouldn’t that be fun!? “Umm yeah, hopefully you missed that little demonstration of us ripping away someone’s free speech, here’s some sexy chicks to take your mind off of it. Remember folks, don’t hate Fox News, we show you chicks in bathing sui…I mean, dresses.”

Via Feministing.

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Sexy Nerd Girl Fanaticism

July 5, 2008, category

media, television

Nerd Girls The fanaticism surrounding “sexy nerds” is not new, however, it is more publicized and when I really got down to thinking about it, what exactly does it take to be a “sexy” nerd? And why are all of videos, blog posts and news stories I’m finding on the subject all making sure that you know that they’re talking about girls when they’re talking about intelligent people? And, as an obvious sidenote, why are they always referring to intelligent females as “girls?”

Wikipedia defines nerd girls as women who often wear eyeglasses with large lenses and thick frames, dresses unfashionably, wears her hair in unfashionable styles, is not popular, is not considered conventionally attractive, is shy and may be somewhat socially inept in groups and may be slightly overweight or notably thin.

The new sex appeal of nerdy women raises a few red flags for me. When the media refers to intelligent women as girls, I simply think that they are making light of the progress women have had over the years when it comes to earning degrees in fields most dominated by men. I say earning degrees in these fields instead of working in these fields because a recent Center for Work-Life Policy found that 52% of women who hold jobs in science and engineering fields, fields most dominated by men, leave their jobs after experiencing harassment on the job and more than half believing they needed to “act like a man” in order to succeed.

The Wikipedia definition, as it may have been true years ago and in the world of comic book and graphic novel cliches, such as Ghost World which was also turned into a movie starring Thora Birch, stereotypes in television and mostly reality television shows are alive and well, such as the nerd guy stereotypes and dumb blond, bimbo brunette stereotypes in Beauty and the Geek. Now, television reality shows are taking another turn–In the direction of nerd girls who have brains and are hot; imagine that.

There are a group of girls at Tufts University who are called The Nerd Girls and are also the subject of a new, reality television show. The girls of The Nerd Girls are engineer students who are changing the stereotype of what “nerds” of the female variety should look like. The Nerd Girls, as seen in a video done on who they are, what they do and how cool it is when they talk to men and receive an array of different responses, typically enjoy the fact that they are seen as hot chicks but know themselves that there is a lot more to them than just that and indeed, they have the intellect. But are they simply reveling in the fact that while they are attractive and while they are intelligent, are they feeding into society’s stereotypes and sexism of women? Are they contributing to this toxic way of thinking by being part of a reality television show that says “Look at these hot babes and you’re never going to guess what makes them so special!” By being surprised that women have looks and brains and making a reality show about how surprising it is that women have looks and brains, it makes me quite sad. I’m also quite glad that The Nerd Girls are engineers and not say, web designers because their website is quite hideous.

When it comes to “sexy nerd girls,” do men really find that, and everything about having a “sexy nerd” girlfriend attractive? You cannot simply put some thick, black rimmed glasses on an attractive woman and call her a “nerd.” Taking some anecdotes from my own life, how hot is it when your girlfriend wastes more time than you playing video games? How hot is it when the happiest day in a month in your girlfriend’s life is not when you made her a romantic dinner or when the two of you cuddled on the couch watching movies for hours, but when the new FireFox came out? How hot is it when you’re talking for literally 5 minutes or even more and your girlfriend looks up from her computer, the screen nothing but text documents of hundreds of lines of code and asks “Were you saying something?”

With the majority of the blogosphere and social networking sites being dominated by women, “nerd girls” are not hard to come by in the least and quite a few of them are indeed attractive; however, we have hit a road block when being tech and gadget savvy and being sexy at the same time is considered shocking. Intelligent women are attractive, so why make such a big deal about it?

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John McCain on Ellen

May 24, 2008, category

2008 election, LGBT, television

John McCain was recently on Ellen, which at first I found odd. I sat here inquisitively thinking “Why Ellen, what are you doing?” And I just have to say, I heart Ellen.

I can just read McCain’s thought process through this. “Maybe, just maybe, if I speak really slowly and don’t make direct eye contact with Ellen or anyone else for that matter, I can leave sooner…Is it working? Can we stop talking about this now? Stop making me look even worse than I make myself look, please!”

Or something like that.

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America’s Next Top Model Goes Sex Work Positive?

March 30, 2008, category

television

This is pretty old subject matter, I know, but I hardly watch television due to the fact that the television is downstairs while my office (and the most occupied room in the house) is upstairs.

I was watching the latest cycle of America’s Next Top Model online (guilty pleasure, sorry!) and after the first minute and thirty seconds of the second episode, I stopped because the intro really hit a nerve with me. Is it just me or does the intro of the last season of America’s Next Top Model revolve around sex work?

In the beginning we of course see Tyra Banks posing for pictures and doing the “I used to be a model and that’s why I have this show” thing. Immediately afterwards, we see her in a glam/dominatrix outfit and walking out onto a runway, but with the lighting, I was immediately reminded of a strip club; not to mention, her entire attitude in the first 15 seconds exudes sex–Not modelesque, look at me kind of sexy, but look at me and give me a dollar bill sexy.

When the America’s Next Top Model hopefuls are pictured, we are given a series of somewhat disturbing images including a few in particular of Kimberly, Dominique and Marvita, who look like prostitutes waiting in a dark alleyway.

Isn’t it Tyra who is always telling these hopeful models to look high fashion and stay away from looking too “hoochie”?

Check it out for yourself and tell me if I’m crazy or not!