Just when you think britney spear's younger sister Jamie lynn is the opposite of her sister and a positive role model for young "tweens" everywhere, she gets prgnant. Role models today are hard to find. I would say the best example would be Raven symmon. She hasn't fallen under pressure to be skinny in hollywood and although being introduced to the industry at a early age, she has held her ground and hasn't gone crazy. She has her own show on disney and has a clothing line as weel. She is a multimillion dollar lady who young irls should aspire to be like.
May 17, 2008
May 13, 2008
Blog Post 3: Lily Allen
So, not a super strong image but the context in which it is in is very impressive. According to many British women, Victoria Beckham is their role model. Ridiculous, huh? Well, Lilly Allen is brave enough to take on one of the biggest superstars [wives] in the world. She is also using her fame to be an activist against teenage pregnancy - she is pregnant - not a teenager - and refuses to design a maternity line because she feels that her demographic is young girls and teenagers and this is simply not suitable for them.
Allen is also an avid bike rider, and of a healthy weight. There has been much talk about her more curvy figure, and she blasts rumors that she is insecure about it.
Also, have you guys listened to her lyrics? Very powerful. She's a strong woman.
May 08, 2008
Role Model
So this is very very late but I figured since I had some time I should use it wisely and look back at what we have covered in class, and that includes the work that was not done when it was due. Any who, I looked on the web for role models especially role models that would be good for young girls and even teenage girls alike. I found a few but have realized they have pretty much all gone bad by this point. However, one person who has always presented themselves in such a mature and elegant fashion has been Raven-Symone. She got her big break on the Cosby Show at the age of three and her career has been nonstop. This has not affected her image as a role model. Other teenage girls hit that plateau where they no longer want to worry about their actions and decide to go out partying or what not and having photos snapped of them and put out there for their young girl following to see. If in fact they were good role models would they ever really do such things? I can understand that you are just young once but then they need to make that clear and let everyone know they are not this Disney protcol child that your young daughters should look up to. Raven on the other hand must have an incredible up bringng that has kept her an excellent role model over all these years. Yes, I am certain she has had her issues too but nothing that has tarnished her coveted spot as one of the best role models out there to date for young girls.
March 27, 2008
This Image
In an add for an organization I support and believe in, I unfortunately found an image that was somewhat questionable in its message. The organization was PETA which is a promoter if animal rights and good and fair treatment of animals. In an add promoting vegetarianism there is a woman "dressed" like Uncle Sam in the iconic "I Want You" poster but she is wanting us not to join the army but to become a vegetarian. She is in a bikini top and her breasts are the focal point of the picture. She is a blond, tan, and extremely made up woman.
This image is gross. Sex is used as a manipulation through exploiting woman and there bodies. Its upsetting. I absolutely would have noticed this image before class because its off the wall!
Images of Women
So before I get into my analysis of my image, I liked to point out something that shocked me during my search. I went to Yahoo and started to search "Black...." and the first thing that popped up was Blackplanet, a site kind of like facebook but that primarily caters to the African-American community. The second was "black big bootty". I knew that the images I would find from this point on would not be very pleasing to me as a feminist; and they weren't. The oversexualization of bodies of color, and especially Black bodies has been a historical problem in America. However, after encountering so much negativity, I decided to pick an image that I actually thought was beautiful and told a better story about bodies of color.
View Image
I thought this picture was so beautiful. Especially in comparison to the many pictures of negative body images I came across during my search. It immediately made me think of the boxes of beauty that women are placed in in America, and how there really isn't a place for in mainstream America for beauty such as this picture except to be described as "exotic" and "different". I think if more positive images of women of color were introduced to mainstream America that maybe then a difference could be made about some of the confining definitions of beauty in America. Presenting different definitions of beauty and letting young girls know it is okay to be and look different and that different can also be beautiful is an important message to send out, and maybe pictures like this are a small step in the right direction.
March 06, 2008
Libby Lu- Turning little girls into mini Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears
http://pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=25&size=550x550_mb&ptp_photo_id=305934
Sorry... I couldn't get it to link
Most people that look at this image of these little girls would think that this is cute that the little girls dressing up in fun clothes. Yes, that is the case but these little girls are wearing things that show way too much skin. Take for instance the girl on the far right, she has a top that is cup off that shows her entire stomach. That girl in particular looks like she is about to work the pole. Parents shouldn't be letting their children dress like this because, it is encouraging them to grow up too fast. I think that shows on television and all images in society today send the message to young girls that it is okay to dress provocative. Girls learn from a small age that dressing like this is going to make you attractive or make you popular which is sending them the wrong message. In the article "Between Girl Power and the Reviving Ophelia", young girls are taught that they can do whatever they want in life and to stand up for what they believe in. I agree but, I think having little girls prance around in skimpy outfits doesn't relay the message that they are displaying "girl power". Also, the girls are wearing way more make-up them i have ever seen any woman wear. I think they are trying to hypo-sexualize these girls from a young age. Drilling this image in young girls that you need to dress provactative to get anywhere in life is wrong, because this will carry with them throughout their lives. Overall, if you take a look at this image most would agree that they don't want their little girl to dress like this because, it is sending the wrong message to others.
Miley Cyrus...the future of female teen role models, hopefully.
http://www.mileycyrus.com/movies/index.htm
There's a really good chance that the link above didn't work...but here's hoping.
It is a link to the Miley Cyrus official website, and I have to say, with the Jaimee Lynns, Lindsey Lohans and Ashley Tisdales running around, it's refreshing to see what I believe to be a more positive role model for teenagers today. The photo gallery in her website is fairly tasteful, and in my opinion, though they are some pictures with too much make-up on, mostly they portray a happy, natural, spunky teenage girl. I especially like the way they dress her, because in contrast to Jaimee Lynn's skankalicious outfits in Zooey 101, Miley/Hannah Montana dresses modestly, and looks her age, which I believe to be very important.
The first time I saw Hannah Montana was the week before we had our class discussion on Disney and female teen role models. When I saw it, I kept thinking that her sense of humor was surprisingly realistic, not overdone, and honest. I liked her best friend (I don't remember her name...) but all in all, I thought the show was incredibly appropriate, and funny at the same time. Yes, I enjoyed Hannah Montana, and I'm not ashamed.
Though it may not have occurred to me at the time, perhaps the reason I enjoyed it because I felt like it was a better model for teens, and pre-teens to watch. However, I am definitely more aware of the impact of shows such as Hannah Montana since our discussion in class last week.
Blog 3:Jessica ALba too?
I googled Jessica Alba and I was very surprised to see that she had disturbing pics up!? Well I just always looked up to Jessica Alba and I was proud of her because she was one of the few only women that didnt have sexual pics up. I was always used to pics of her just normal smiling pics and even some of the bikini ones were fine, but after I saw this pic, I thought that this must be the claim to fame. I have noticed that all the Hollywood stars start off being innocent and portraying innocence, until they become a little bit more comfortable and start shedding the clothes. I would have to say that my reaction would have to be negative because although she looked sexy and very seductive, it was also a bad image to be viewed as on the web. I know that lots of young girls look up to her, and after seeing that pic some of the younger girls are going to want to be like her and want to dress and lool like her. In this photo her hair dyed a very platinum blonde and I think that is the hedgemonic image, the white blonde and skinny women is the ideal image and this is what Jessica Alba is portraying, she is trying to look like the girl next door, and younger women want to look like this. check this out!
http://temple3.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/jessica-alba-wallpapers-3.jpg
Blog 3:Jessica ALba too?
I googled Jessica Alba and I was very surprised to see that she had disturbing pics up!? Well I just always looked up to Jessica Alba and I was proud of her because she was one of the few only women that didnt have sexual pics up. I was always used to pics of her just normal smiling pics and even some of the bikini ones were fine, but after I saw this pic, I thought that this must be the claim to fame. I have noticed that all the Hollywood stars start off being innocent and portraying innocence, until they become a little bit more comfortable and start shedding the clothes. I would have to say that my reaction would have to be negative because although she looked sexy and very seductive, it was also a bad image to be viewed as on the web. I know that lots of young girls look up to her, and after seeing that pic some of the younger girls are going to want to be like her and want to dress and lool like her. In this photo her hair dyed a very platinum blonde and I think that is the hedgemonic image, the white blonde and skinny women is the ideal image and this is what Jessica Alba is portraying, she is trying to look like the girl next door, and younger women want to look like this. check this out!
http://temple3.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/jessica-alba-wallpapers-3.jpg
Britney Spears circa 1999
We all know Britney is easy to trash these days so I decided to go back and consider one of her older photos. This is from the music video for "Hit Me Baby One More Time" (which if googled pops up many undesirable sites FYI). Here is the photo hopefully:
View image
See whole video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bsniYwSaWg
Demographics show that it was girls who bought this album and watched this video when it came out. Heck, I remember watching it and I still know all the words (please do not shun me for this). But the girl who was so supposed to be so innocent and sweet is running up and down the hallways of her school with her uniform popping off. Having two cute little pigtails on the top of your head just emphasizes the "naughty school girl image" rather than having a song about her waiting for her love and that she believes he'll come for her. The front of the album is actually quite correct for the image she was trying to convey (and tried and tried and tried). Cute little shorts and nice top. Good smile, white teeth. Nice tan. Britney grew up on the Mickey Mouse club and it shows on the cover of this album. The videos don't match however and lots of parents aren't (or weren't) willing to research the music itself enough to learn what Britney was all about. So the kids figure it out on their own and moms don't know why they went to school with pink feathers in pigtails for weeks on end.
Teen Magazine ("Gross")
This idea of the "marketable feminist" is really interesting to me. I took a look at the Teen Magazine website in order to better understand their stance on important issues for young woman who look to these glossy pages for answers. I chose this magazine because they are very mainstream and do impact the ideas that young woman have about the world and themselves. What I found didn't so much surprise me (I was unfortunately ready for the flood of heteronormative, white supremest, superficial and consumer based answers) but did upset me.
I found advice to girls to be the most upsetting. Some of the things I read included bleaching or shaving your unsightly body hair from your arms and stomach. Tips on how teenage girls can stay fashionable by wearing the "correct shoes" with the right pants. And don't forget "How to maintain the long and lush lashes you desire."
I do recognize that this magazine isn't claiming itself to be a feminist magazine but it is imposing false, superficial, and patriarchal ideas about being a woman, on young vulnerable minds. That to me is very closely related to "girl power" feminism and is just as decremental if not more decremental to young woman.
It is this feminists opinion that its things like these that operate both under and in favor of patriarchal powers. "Man Is there no hope?!"
Baby Bratz
I chose an image I found for a Bratz baby doll named Leah. I was unfamiliar with Bratz dolls until we discussed them in class. It's ridiculous how much makeup the dolls have, and how freakishly they are proportioned. I was shocked to see that they made Baby Bratz who have the same amount of makeup on, and essentially look the same as the original Bratz. The only difference being they come with a bottle instead of a purse. The babies also have long perfect hair and a face fit for a stripper. Who thought this was a good idea, or even made any sense? If you thought the regular Bratz dolls were disturbing, check out these ones.
too much jamie lynn
Ok so I was looking around for stuff on miss Zoey 101 and found out that she is going to be in an upcoming episode of a show called Miss Guided on ABC. I found a still from the show on the access hollywood site- she is climing out of the car after making out with her boyfriend. Here's my beef- other than the fact that as a whole Jamie Lynn bugs the shit out of me- after not being on the air in Zoey 101 her fans are going to be excited to see her... and then there she'll be in all her glory- ta tas hanging out and all. Is this really the best move on ABC's part- heck no! Clearly they are not thinking about her bazillion of young fans and are only thinking of exploiting the fact that she has become a pregnant teenager to the rest of the world. Lame ABC... Lame.
Blog 3
I was thinking back to our class, and That's So Raven came to mind. So I searched for images of Raven Simone and to tell you the truth I only found pictures that were tastefully photographed and portrayed her as a positive role model for younger girls. The picture I posted is probably one of the very few pictures of her dressing in a more mature way, but even then she is dressed conservatively. She is a good roll model because of the healthy body image that she has. Just as we had discussed in class, her television show addresses important issues and also teaches children about morals and values.
Blog 3
I think I may have failed miserably at getting the picture on here. Work with me.
I googled Vanessa Hudgens, an extremely popular teen star of today and I found a Teen magazine cover that featured her. I had no problems with the picture of Vanessa...she was tastefully clothed and looked a tiny bit more wholesome than the usual teen stars (ie. Lindsay Lohan, Hillary Duff, etc.). It was the other article topics mentioned on the cover that I wasn't a huge fan of. Stories such as 'how to be popular', 'the best makeup tricks' and '4 guys every girl should date' dominated the cover and magazine. I was curious about the age demographics of Teen Magazine's subscribers and found out that they target girls aged 12-17. I feel like there are a lot more important issues that could be discussed with these young girls than 'how to be popular.' I think our society forces little girls to grow up a lot faster than they need to or at least makes it desirable to act a lot older than their age. When twelve year olds buy this magazine to read about their favorite High School Musical star, they get makeup and boy tips along with it. I don't think this done anything to help raise strong, confident females.
Blog post 3 - Olsen Twins
Although we did not discuss specifically the Olsen twins last class I couldn't help but think of them when I read the assignment. Naturally, as I have seen most of us have done already I went to Google images and typed in Olsen twins. To avoid making anyone feel uncomfortable I decided not to include the photo I found but anyone of course can type Olsen twins into Google to find this image (it was on the first page of images). Without posting the photo I will just let you all know it was quite revealing and although I know the two (or was it just one?) have had some rough times I was still surprised to find this image especially when I merely searched "Olsen twins". More disturbing yet were the comment below the photo. Comments included "This photo is silly...Look at any picture of them - they don't have big boobs like that. Also, both of the real twins are way skinnier than the two girls in the photo. Super hott though!" and "I want to grabby grabby on bothy bothy" and after a few accusations of photoshopping we find the truly concerned commenter who goes beyond comparing the tone of their faces to their boobs saying "i don't think that's really them, they havent worn their hair like that in a while".
After having enough filth thrown in my face for one day I ventured on to find another image of the two. At http://celebritytoejam.blogspot.com/2007/10/olsen-twins.html I found some pretty cute photos of the sisters though the theme of the photos was focused quite a bit on their feet which I found a little weird. Should've seen it coming from the web address. I was about to place my kiss of approval on the site when I came across an ad at the bottom of the page and although the ad did not pertain to the Olsen twins it was still on the site which any child can access. The ad flashed the website address, a few nude pictures, then "where the winner fucks the loser". I realize I cannot blame the Olsen twins for this and I actually am not sure I can even blame them for their own photo on the other site considering it may have been photoshopped but all this has left me completely confused and disgusted.
Blog Post 3
www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu
When I searched the web to find things about girl role models, I found an image that stated Strong Women, Strong Girls. When I clicked on the picture, it came up with a bunch of tips about what the goals of strong girls and strong women included. These were the tips that they gave:
-Building positive self-esteem
-Promoting peaceful relationships and improved communication skills
-Teaching skills for life-long success and introducing them to powerful women who possess these skills
-Creating positive women-girl role model relationships between the girls and college-aged women
I would have to say that I have a positive reaction to this and that I really liked it. I think it is good to go ahead and teach women and girls how to be "strong". I think it is also important to give them tips on how to be a unique individual and stand out from their male counterparts in the world. I don't think that I would have really thought about this image and article before our class because before reading the goals for being a strong woman, I would have considered myself a strong woman and wouldn't need to present the information to myself again. Reading over these things again just kind of reminds me of the qualities that I do have and also makes me want to assure other women in my life that they too are strong, although they don't quite realize it.
Disney.com- TV
http://home.disney.go.com/tv/
When deciding what to choose for this blog posting, I immediately thought that I'd further investigate the stations that air the shows like we viewed last week. I went to Disney.com and clicked on the TV link. The main page stood out to me. At the top are pictures of the characters in nine shows, and there is an obvious lack of diversity. Almost every single show has caucasion characters. This is much like the clips we watched in class. I think it's strange that instead of integrating people of different race and ethnicity into one show, stations like Disney have "white" shows or "black" shows.
There has been a lot of discussion in our class about concern over what young kids are seeing to shape their world view. Many students posted about young girls seeing sexualized images of women. However, I feel that this lack of diversity in shows is much worse. Kids viewing disney shows might start to think it is normal that races are separated. Putting people into groups based on race only encourages the thinking that people with "differences" can't interact fully with each other. I don't know why Disney can't just make more shows where everyone is treated equally.
This class and women's studies classes in general really make me notice things more often. Also, instead of just letting these injustices make me angry, GWSS classes have taught me to use a critical eye to analyze them and discover ways to make improvements.
Spears' Empire
I googled "role model" and found a picture of Jamie Lynn Spears. Are the Spears' really role models? While I do not agree with bashing celebrities and judging a celebrity lifestyle, I think that there is a thin line between respect for an individual and considering that person a role model for society. I find it mildly problematic that media is exploiting Jamie's pregnancy as an atrocity to humanity. We easily overlook the fact that there are thousands of girls who become pregnant under age in this country, however, we find it "effective" to poke fun and judge a celebrity who experiences the same mistakes that girls everywhere do. Apparently I digressed here, because I wanted to go into this blog entry by showing that she is an inept role model and found myself, instead, arguing against exploitation. So, as it is seen, media/role models/etc are a sticky situation and I think we, as a society, should find ourselves more accepting and less quick to judge.
Blog post 3
web.cornell.edu/ studentblogs/jenna/?p=155
When the question came up to find an image that would relate to class and the readings last week, i tried to think of someone who was a role model for young girls, and has gone bad. Immidiately I thought of Britney Spears who else!! This girl started out her career by being on the mickey mouse club with a squeky clean image. She then started singing and had music videos that were starting to get risky, and a little provocative for the young women who would be watching them. Little girls were wanting to wear short skirts and fluffly hair pieces along with the belly shirt. Then she goes later to get married to her high school friend, well i think we all know the rest of the story. I found this image of her with her shaved head and her taking an umbrella to K feds car. The commentary for this picture is by some women who seems to be validating this behavior. What kind of image is she sending little girls now, its ok to be violent, to not wear underwear, to be neglectful to children, and long as you drink and do drugs you will have a great life. I am just outraged and flabergasted by all the things she seems to continue to do when will she learn. She needs major help but really is this what you would call "girl Power", getting back at your boyfriend when he breaks up with you? what a poor disney character gone wrong, not to mention the infamous Lindsay Lohan. I just wonder what Disney has to say about these women, or what they do to try and prevent this people from portraying certain images. Obviously stars grow up but their fan base is so much younger then them, how do they portray themselves to younger audiences and still grow up at the same time? I really can't think of a star who has had a young fan base and grown up to continue to have them, and not fall into the slumps of hollywood.
Blog post 3
web.cornell.edu/ studentblogs/jenna/?p=155
When the question came up to find an image that would relate to class and the readings last week, i tried to think of someone who was a role model for young girls, and has gone bad. Immidiately I thought of Britney Spears who else!! This girl started out her career by being on the mickey mouse club with a squeky clean image. She then started singing and had music videos that were starting to get risky, and a little provocative for the young women who would be watching them. Little girls were wanting to wear short skirts and fluffly hair pieces along with the belly shirt. Then she goes later to get married to her high school friend, well i think we all know the rest of the story. I found this image of her with her shaved head and her taking an umbrella to K feds car. The commentary for this picture is by some women who seems to be validating this behavior. What kind of image is she sending little girls now, its ok to be violent, to not wear underwear, to be neglectful to children, and long as you drink and do drugs you will have a great life. I am just outraged and flabergasted by all the things she seems to continue to do when will she learn. She needs major help but really is this what you would call "girl Power", getting back at your boyfriend when he breaks up with you? what a poor disney character gone wrong, not to mention the infamous Lindsay Lohan. I just wonder what Disney has to say about these women, or what they do to try and prevent this people from portraying certain images. Obviously stars grow up but their fan base is so much younger then them, how do they portray themselves to younger audiences and still grow up at the same time? I really can't think of a star who has had a young fan base and grown up to continue to have them, and not fall into the slumps of hollywood.
Blog 3 - Image
I'm not sure if I copied the image in here correctly but it is the cover of Jane magazine(September issues) that features Hillary Duff on the front. She definitely looks much more grown up than what you see her as on the Lizzy Maguire show. I did a search for "Disney Girl pics" on google and this popped up. What I thought was interesting is that the front cover features her very skinny skinny body in a very adult dress next to the headlines/feature articles of "Hillary Duff - dating older men, her new teeth and what she does when mom isn't around." Below this there are a couple of articles featured in this same issue that say "party all night and go straight to work looking rested" and another one one about eating disorders. I was actually pretty shocked by the cover as most of her following probably is a younger crowd. I was definitely more bothered by this after our discussions in class about role models & Disney characters/shows. Normally, I probably wouldn't have looked at this twice but I thought it was interesting that this is one of the images that was displayed when typing in "Disney Girls." Especially a more negative message if a younger child was looking online for pictures featuring their favorite "Lizzy Maguire" actor - this is not a very good "role model" or positive message.
Blog 3
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/images/homepage/0902spiceginger.jpg
I was searching the internet with my little cousin and we were looking up girls rolemodels. I found this picture right away. It is one of the spice girls, girls i grew up looking up to and my little cousins still grow up looking up to. But looking at what the girls look like and the way they are percieved by the public is far from flattering. The picture that I found shows one of the girls in a tiny dress, hair dyed and flaunting everything she has. My cousin says in passing, "when I grow up im going to look like that!" and goes to put little dresses on her barbie dolls. There is something wrong with that idea, and this picture is a prime example of what is going on today
-Ashley
Images
http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/09/vanessamickey_450x300.jpg
So to find this image, all I did was go to Google Images and typed in Disney stars. Sadly, this was the fourth result that came up. If you can't tell/can't see the picture, it's Vanessa Hudgens of the High School Musical Phenomenon, completely naked with Mickey Mouse faces photoshopped onto "certain areas". I think it's really sad that there are many young girls that idolize her, and she has images of her like that on the internet. I was just appalled that it came up as the fourth result for "Disney stars". I think it's a negative side effect of our society that our children can aspire to be someone like what they see on the television, when in real life what the star is doing is completely inappropriate. I probably wouldn't have noticed this image before this class, but only because I wouldn't have gone searching for it. I certainly heard all about the Vanessa Hudgens sex images scandal, but never thought I would actually ever see the images of her on the internet. I didn't realize that you could come across them when you weren't even trying to.
My Super-Ex Girlfriend
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a name of a movie that popped up when I was searching for this week’s blog. Under the title of the movie reads, “He Wanted a Break, Now She Wants Him to Break.” The first thing I noticed about this was the cover itself.
Arianna Konkel blog 3
http://blog.nj.com/southjerseylife/2007/09/PARTYmain.jpg
Here is the link to the picture that I found. It is really disturbing because it is a bunch of little girls dressed like hookers. It is an ad for the fashion store (they have one in the mall of america sadly) Libby Lu. This store is marketed towards 8, 9 10 year olds and they give them makeovers, do their hair and dress them in scantily clad clothing. It is a disgrace! This reminded me of how Zoey 101 and Lizzy Mcguire were dressed, way too old for their age. It is no wonder these girls dress and act this way when they have "role models" like Britney Spears, her pregnant sister Jamie Lynne, and Paris Hilton.
PETA selling women to save animals
http://www.peta.org/feat/pinup/dt/swain-800.jpg
This advertisement was really frustranting to see. Due to the school setting of this advertisement it is clearly being directed at 22 years of age and younger. I don't like this advertisement because it is exploiting the school girl image even more than it has been before (at least when Britney Spears did it she was still wearing clothes). It seems that there are many other ways to advertise for animal rights to this age group rather than objectifying women for their bodies. Although, through her facial expression and even kind of through her body language she seems to be trying to be powerful while standing up for her beliefs, but she is naked which projects a kind of vulnerabillity that seem unnecessary. After looking through other PETA ads I have noticed this seems to be a theme; having a naked women prominetly displayed while metioning they are that way because of their love of animals.
This reminds me of the readings and the discussion last week through the fact that preteens see images in their everyday life and take them into their own lives. This ad is especially a problem because girls can relate to this picture through the classroom setting, and unfortunately the message of no fur isn’t nearly as shockingly prominent as the idea that this is what a normal school girl looks like. I'm sure before this class I would have still been disturbed by this picture, but because of the reading by Banet-Weiser about Nickelodeon's work at potraying girls more positively I think I may be more upset about this image being something of a step backwards.
March 05, 2008
Girl Power?
I typed "girl power" in google images, just to see what would come up, and was quite appalled at the first three pictures that matched. The first two pictures seem to be a female singer named "Cookie Cutter Girl" who's website says:
"My name is "CUTTER" and I am FREEING WOMEN
everywhere from the mold in which society holds them captive!
Join me on my MISSION of STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY."
Ok, so this sounds uplifting, but in the picture, she is laying sexually on the top of a huge yellow truck in skimpy clothes and high heels. Is this a joke?
The next picture was from a comic book of a superhero named "Power Girl". From what I can tell from the text, she just saved a man's life, but he doesn't thank her because he is too busy staring at her enormous cartoon breasts.
To think that if a young girl were to google "Girl Power" looking for pictures of the Spice Girls or something, and those pictures would be the first things she would see makes me sick. The girls we watched in class on Thursday (Zoey, Raven, and Hilary) and the images that came up first when I googled "Girl Power" really are a testament to what those words mean in our society. To be a "powerful" girl, you are sexy, bossy, bratty, and loud--but you still like boys, want their affection, and accept them in end. So as not to be a complete pessimist, I think shows like these are definitely a step in right direction, but still need a lot of work when it comes to showing young girls how to be "powerful."
Here is the link to a picture that the 12 year old I work with was trying to put as a wallpaper on the family computer.
http://www.teenhollywood.com/wallpaper/400x300/405/hannah-montana-wallpaper.jpg
When I saw this picture, I immediately thought of our discussions in class and about the readings we had done for last week. What first comes to my mind in this picture is how white (or orange with the fake tanning) it is. Granted, I think that they are family, but it is very reflective of the whole show. Having token characters of color in a show, or talking about racism as individual acts rather than a systemic issue in our society only helps to perpetuate racism and the hegemonic view of what it is to be “American”. The picture also made me very conscience of my own appearance, because the young ladies in it look older than I do. Also, the dad looks nothing like any dad I have ever seen, and more like a teen surfer. I think that I would have noticed that something was off with this picture/show, and that I didn’t like the message it portrayed, but if it weren’t for this class I would not have known exactly why.
February 29, 2008
Blog 3
Search the web and find an image , article, or advertisement of a woman or girl that speaks to the issues we discussed last week. What is your reaction? Is it positive or negative? Would you have noticed this image/article/advertisement before our class?