July 12, 2008

As soon as Obama was even considered for the presidential candidacy, Fox had been showing their true, biased and racist colors by digging anything and everything up they could about him and when he landed the Democratic nomination, they went out in full force after him and his family. The smears against the Obama family have been so ridiculous that on Barack Obama’s website, a section titled Fight the Smears has been added specifically to fight the right wing smears that keep getting thrown into the mass media.

In addition to the smears being put out by right-wing media and being eaten up by the right-wing population, when one person runs for president, not only are they a target of the media, but so are their families and the controversy that has been going on about Michelle Obama is astounding. But what scares the crap out of me on an even bigger level is that whatever is put in the media, people will believe and not even question it.

Fox News has a long and ugly history of racism and while throwing racist remarks and stereotypes left and right out there about Michelle Obama, they have also referred to a fist bump shared between Michelle and Barack Obama (which is nothing more than say, a high-five) as a “terrorist fist jab” and after Fox apologized for that story, they then referred to her as Obama’s “Baby Mama” because apparently, they didn’t feel as if they had enough to apologize for already. But to really see the shit that Fox News will let air, take a look at this video:

According to Fox, Michelle Obama is just an angry, bitter black woman who hates America; in fact, they even go as far as to say that all black women who are on the news, on television and in the mainstream media are all angry about something.

It’s time for Fox to stop talking shit and if you agree, go sign the ‘Stop Smearing the Obamas’ petition now!

July 5, 2008

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.

July 5, 2008

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?

July 4, 2008

The last edition of Feminism at its Finest was put on hold for this month on purpose and what’s even more important, is that it was held for today, specifically.

I don’t celebrate the 4th of July; in fact, I don’t celebrate any holiday that is meant to celebrate a country who won’t fight for its people, but expect its people to fight for it so instead of celebrating the independence of a country consistently screwing over its citizens, I am going to celebrate feminism and intelligent feminist writing.

Amber Yoder presents Shove It: Part 2 - Don’t write a poem about rape posted at The Buffaloe Pen.

Amber Yoder submitted her mother’s blog post of a personal story about writing a poem about the rape of someone very close to her. Upon submitting it to a literary journal, she received a six-page, single-spaced letter in return from the editor that was a frightening rant against women. The letter said that he would never, ever publish a poem about rape because most women who are raped have it coming just by the way they dress and act around men. He said, in exact words, that he was “sick of wenchy women poets who are always bashing men.” He said that he was sick of hearing women whine and moan about the subject and that the subject of rape is “too baggy” and long and said that no poem should ever be longer than 15 to 20 lines. I urge you to go read the poem posted, it’s amazing and was also published in the summer 1992 issue of Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women.

Andrew Heath presents Abortion - Why It’s Important to Serve Everyone’s Rights posted at Rants of a Gay Lunatic.

A “semi-objective” view on abortion and why it is necessary to keep the option of abortion open for those cases that it is needed.

First Lady Of Poker presents Don’t Listen to the Fashion Police posted at Shopping Blog, saying:

“One of the most important things to remember about fashion is that it’s not meant to be the center of anyone’s world, but rather a tool for expressing your individuality and uniqueness “

Ian Welsh presents Clinton’s Legacy: Never Say Die posted at Firedoglake.

This is a fabulous post on the legacy Hillary Clinton has built for herself through the Democratic primary to the presidency. Even if she lost the candidacy, she did not give up until there was absolutely nothing else that could be done. While a great deal of Americans bashed her through the primary and are continuing to do so after, Hillary Clinton was the fighter in this primary election and as Ian Welsh explains, her second wind simply came too late and even though the Oval Office will not be hers in November, she built a legacy not only as the possibility of a woman president, but simply as a person who never gave up.

Jason presents 1950: Milada Horáková, democrat and feminist posted at Executed Today.

A look at the life of Milada Horáková as well as her death and last words. The letter written to her daughter and a few words written to her loved ones just before her hanging still hold more truth than most of what I have ever read in my life. She was a firm, fighting woman and while she died, she did not once ever go back on what she had believed was true.

Jenny presents The Media Makes Mom’s Look Unrealistic posted at the so called me.

How many moms out there dress like they’re going out on a hot date when they go to the grocery store with their kids? The media makes moms look like they have it all under control–The house, the husband, the kids, the dog and themselves. The media portrays moms as more as Stepford Wives than as real people, struggling along with the rest of us.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Is Olbermann Turning Into O’Reilly? posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

A limerick on Olbermann’s narcissism and misogynist commentary.

Sarah McClellan-Brandt presents Wise words from former boy band member? posted at Fort Worth Feminism.

A fabulous post about former NSync boy band member turned judge on America’s Best Dance Crew, JC Chasez voicing his disappointment about Distorted X, a group comprised mostly of beautiful women, was named one of the bottom two teams as a result of “America’s” vote and in turn said that “society hates seeing a beautiful woman succeed.” I also agree with Sarah when she says that she would expand that sentence to “Society hates to see women succeed.”

Sarah McClellan-Brandt also presents Tracy Roberson posted at Fort Worth Feminism.

Interesting post on Tracy Roberson, a woman from Fort Worth, who was released on bond after being sentenced to five years in prison for a murder her husband committed.

Shaheen Lakhan presents Woman Comparable to Men in Domestic Violence: Stereotypes and their Consequences posted at GNIF Brain Blogger.

An in depth look at violence against men and studies done on how violence against men is not taken as seriously by the media, legislators, and even some women crisis centers.

Tali presents Contemporary Pinup Dilemma: Classic Sweetness Vs Modern posted at The Pinup Blog.

Tali’s post asks the question is contemporary pinup considered porn after receiving comments on her blog, which speaks a lot about classic and modern pinup art, asking where all the “real women” were, as they obviously weren’t being granted material to stroke to by visiting her blog.

Tali presents 10 Reasons Why We Love Pinups posted at The Pinup Blog.

10 reasons why people not only love pinups, but why pinups are especially important when it comes to art and peaking into a time capsule of what the world looked like then and what it is now, as pinups have progressed with society and the times.

And that’s it for this edition, please submit your posts for the next Feminism at its Finest carnival, to be up on July 31.

June 9, 2008

The items people come up with for children astound me. First we have the toddler-sized kitchen sets which absolutely disgust me, sewing machines and kits for children, the insane popularity of dolls, and so on. Our culture does nothing but put out toy versions of the lives women have had to live for centuries. Women were and many still are expected to prepare all the meals, so little girls are given toy kitchen sets. Women must act as baby machines, so little girls are given dolls. Women must act as seamstresses and know how to replace a button, put in a new zipper, hem clothes, let them in, let them out, and so little girls are given tiny sewing machines and sewing kits. What this is doing is simply telling little girls “This will be your life in a few decades so you better get used to it and lucky for you, we’re easing you into it by first brainwashing you into thinking that it is fun.”

As more time goes by, people continue to manufacture absolutely fucked up toys and accessories for small girls and I think this trend has just hit a new low.

Heelarious is a company that sells high heels for babies. Yes, babies from 0-6 months to be exact. For $35 each, the first thing that popped into my head was “Who would do this to their child?”

While this isn’t the first astonishingly inappropriate item to be marketed to people too young to really make use of them, this has to be one of the first items to hit the consumer market that targets babies who aren’t even able to walk or talk yet. While Heelarious claims that their idea is “extremely funny” I feel a bit differently. It’s pretty much along the same lines as a baby corset or perhaps a baby garter. High heels are most commonly known as the “sexy shoe” and they most importantly do not belong on a small child.

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