Here's To Beach Bodies and Not Waiting!

[Content note: body talk, fatphobia]

Ah yes, it is the time of year when we hear messages around us like, "Is your body beach ready?" and "It's almost bikini season! Get into shape now!"

Our culture is deeply fatphobic and one of the many ways this plays out is by insinuating and outright stating that the leisure activities of swimming or hanging out on the beach are reserved for people with a certain body. Or if you are a fatty and you dare go to the beach anyway, you sure better not wear a bikini because bikinis are reserved for those elite who have this certain body that they often worked really hard to get. But don't worry...if you don't have this certain body there's a billion people with products, diet plans, and medicines to help you get that "beach body."

Intentions Are Irrelevant

I've had this post in my queue with just a title for over a week. I've been trying to formulate what I want to say, and I'm going to take a stab at it...but I'm not convinced it will come out right at all.

Oh well, here goes.

In the social justice/feminist world, when we are called out for a racist/sexist/heterosexist/abelist/cissexist or otherwise bigoted remark, the gut reaction we all have is to fall back on, "but that's not what I meant."

Gender, Race, and Star Trek

This is a guest post by Sarah, who blogs at Radical Madre. It was reposted with permission. I wanted to feature her thoughts as a compliment to my own recent post on the new Star Trek film. Welcome, Sarah! --A. Lynn

Recently I’ve started watching Star Trek the original series on Netflix. One of the first things I noticed when I was watching it was the fact that there is an impressing representation of men and women (i.e. at least 1 woman to every 3 or 4 men) with the women playing supporting roles on the show. The cast is also pretty racially diverse with characters like Uhura and Sulu playing a predominant role.

Star Trek: Into Status Quo

This post is a part of my summer blockbuster series. I'll be tagging the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters. And if you want to check out last year's series, it's 2012 blockbusters. (BTW, I take a pretty loose interpretation of "blockbuster.")

So. Star Trek into Darkness. Let's talk about it. I'll try to keep this spoiler free as possible.

[Image text Spock and Kirk Start Trek into Darkness poster]

I'm not a Trekker. I don't think I've seen many of the previous movies and I've probably only seen a handful of episodes of any incarnation of the TV shows. But when the franchise was rebooted in 2009 (how was it that long ago?!?!?) I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately the second installment didn't hold up the same. Not only was the gender situation disappointing (as I will detail below) but I also from a "was this a good movie?" perspective. I just found it to be overall kind of meh. There wasn't much that pulled me in and I felt the story and action were a bit sloppy.

But enough of that, let's get to the meat of what this summer blockbuster series is about: the gender messages of the film.

Angelia Jolie and the Patriarchal View on Breast Cancer

This is a guest post by Casey Edison. Casey is a blogger/writer living in northern NJ. She's been writing stories since she could spell and has been a feminist since the first time she was told she couldn't be on the New York Giants when she grew up because she's a girl. She runs a Misogyny in Comic Books Tumblr and is currently working on two books: a mystery novel and a book about sexism in geek culture.


On Tuesday, May 14th, Angelina Jolie made an announcement that shocked many fans: She had a preventative Mastectomy, after having found out that she had BRCA+1, a cancerous gene that ensures breast cancer. Her many male fans took to the internet to proclaim their sadness over her loss… Wait, her loss? Yes, as it turns out, her fans weren’t happy she had gotten a surgery to greatly reduce her risk of getting a horrible disease, but rather sad- sad she had her breast tissue removed. In a move that greatly showed the patriarchal sense of entitlement, many men wrote RIPs for her breasts, as if there wasn’t a woman attached to them. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this very serious form of cancer has been sexualized.

Take Aways from The Great Gatsby

This post is a part of my summer blockbuster series. I'll be tagging the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters. And if you want to check out last year's series, it's 2012 blockbusters. (BTW, I take a pretty loose interpretation of "blockbuster.")

Carey Mulligan and Leonardo
DiCaprio in the new film

Confession time. I'm one of those rare birds that made it through a K-12 education in the United States and never read The Great Gatsby. As such, watching Baz Luhrmann's new adaptated film was my first real exposure to the story. I think that a story which is 88 years old shouldn't require a spoiler alert, but just in case, consider it alerted. 

Why Feminism Is Important

This is a guest post by Mackenzie Busch, who blogs regularly at Fetus Frolic. 

I’ve identified as a feminist for quite a while now and in that time I have never been called angry (to my face), but since I’ve started writing with feminist-laced posts on my personal blog I’ve heard it a lot lately.  Of course it is discouraging and I want to defend myself, but I don’t have to, my words are defense enough.  I am angry, and why shouldn’t I be?  We are fighting to be heard in a world that often undermines a female voice. 

Selena Gomez's Come and Get It...FAIL

When I was in Indy this past weekend, I was without my precious satellite radio, and therefore had to listen to the local top 40 station. One of the tunes they kept playing over and over was Selena Gomez's latest, "Come and Get It."

It's one of those songs that serves to be like a virus in my brain and although there's nothing I "like" about it, I found myself absentmindedly humming the chorus today and I decided to check out what the actual lyrics are about...so here you have it:

With the Patriarchy, You Just Can't Win

[Content note: mention of abelist slurs]

After a short excursion out of town, I am back!

I just wanted to drop a quick note, as I've been thinking about a few examples of how the patriarchy traps women and basically punishes us for following its own rules.

Both are related to dating and male attention...I recently wrote this exchange on Tumblr to summarize how I see this playing out:

Woman: I'm not really into him that way, but he's a good friend.
Patriarchy: Ew, friend zone level one billion.
Woman: I like to hook up with him, but I'm not looking for a relationship.
Patriarchy: Slut!
Woman: I'm happy being single.
Patriarchy: Haha, good one. You need a man.
Woman: I love my girlfriend!
Patriarchy: Hawt. Y'all looking for a third?
Woman: I love my boyfriend!
Patriarchy: Jeez back up, you're smothering him.
Woman: He dumped me and that sucks.
Patriarchy: God you psycho bitch, get over him!

I mean, think about it...we're told at nearly every turn that it is some kind of magical leveling to a higher plane of existence if we "have a man." The message is that we're not really fulfilled unless we are attached to a dude. But then, when women internalize this message or even when they don't and they just have a tough break up, they're labeled "crazy bitches" who are "obsessed" with the guy.

You can't win.

Take another case. I was recently made aware of the Facebook page "Girls with daddy issues and the approval seeking sex that comes with them" (vomit.) In this case, the patriarchy deprioritizes parenting for men. The result is that many fathers are absent. And then it says that being caring and nurturing are feminine traits so that many physically present fathers are emotionally unavailable. And as a final 1-2 punch, it teaches women that male approval is critical but slut shames/takes advantage of us when we seek it.

You can't win.

This blog has strict comment moderation intended to preserve a safe space. Moderation is managed solely by the blog author. As such, even comments made in good faith will be on a short delay, so please do not attempt to resubmit your comment if it does not immediately appear. Discussion and thoughtful participation are encouraged, but abusive comments of any type will never be published. The blog author reserves the right to publish/delete any comments for any reason, at her sole discretion. 

That's Soooo LA

This is a guest post by Mackenzie Busch, who blogs regularly at Fetus Frolic. 

Awhile back this video was released:

...entitled, “Women of LA” and it is chock-full of every -ism and phobia you can fit into five minutes. A little fat-shaming, gold digging references, racism, homophobia, and gross generalizations of women based solely on their geographic location. They even have a clever line about being unable to get a woman drunk enough to sleep with them, but in the their defense you can’t have misogyny without a little rape culture thrown in, right?  Toss in a few B-List celebrities and you’ve garnered 1 million + views of your unsubstantiated male opinions. 

Welcome, Mackenzie!

So in looking for contributors, I realized that a friend of mine, Mackenzie Busch, was looking to write more about feminism. I have been admiring her personal blog for a while, so when she said she'd like to write here, I was more than happy to work with her.

I'm going to publish her first post about LA stereotypes and a horrible "joke" video, in just a moment, but in the meantime, here's a little bit more about Mackenzie!

Mackenzie Busch was born and raised in in the small town of Monticello, Indiana and moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to pursue a career in writing and entertainment. Mackenzie currently works for an Entertainment Advertising Company where she has been lucky enough to explore her writing and to be involved with numerous non-profit charities. Mackenzie runs her own low rent, intelligent, and underrated blog according to five of her closest friends at the self-titled mackenziebusch.blog.com, Fetus Frolic. Mackenzie is a proud 2008 Radio/TV/Film graduate of Indiana State University.

This blog has strict comment moderation intended to preserve a safe space. Moderation is managed solely by the blog author. As such, even comments made in good faith will be on a short delay, so please do not attempt to resubmit your comment if it does not immediately appear. Discussion and thoughtful participation are encouraged, but abusive comments of any type will never be published. The blog author reserves the right to publish/delete any comments for any reason, at her sole discretion. 

The Bad Wrap Against White Feminists is Totally Deserved

Early last week, a shit storm was a' brewing on my Tumblr. Someone decided to troll a bunch of feminist blogs and asked,

Are you with those blogs that think it's okay to be racist to white people?...There are several blogs against white privilege and many people agree, but if I made a blog against Indian privilege I'd get massive amounts of hate. What do you think?

Iron Man 3: A Mixed Bag

It's that time of year again! I'm kicking off another series analyzing the gender portrayed in the summer's blockbusters. I'll be tagging the whole thing as 2013 blockbusters. And if you want to check out last year's series, it's 2012 blockbusters. (BTW, I take a pretty loose interpretation of "blockbuster.")

So let's jump into Iron Man 3. Mild spoilers to follow.

Speak the Truth, Even if Your Voice Shakes

[Image text: an old boarded up house with graffiti that reads,
"speak the truth, even if your voice shakes."]

[Content note: short mention of emotional abuse.]

I'm not one much to have personal mantras. Throughout the years, when other people have found inspiration in quotes and shared them everywhere as the words they live by, I've often thought, "oh how nice" and nothing more.

A few months ago I saw this image shared somewhere online (I can't even remember where) and for the first time words just kind of spoke to my soul. "Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes."

Dispatches from My Brief and Terrifying Forray into The Pick Up Artist Corner of the Web

[Image text: Some of the "stars" of VH1s
short lived TV show about PUAs]

So, someone recently asked me about pick up artists (PUAs).

HAHAHAHAHA. HA HA. HEE HEE. HO HO. HAHAHAHA.

Sorry, had to get that out of the way, because I had (happily) forgotten that PUAs were a thing. But because of this reminder, I did a little research and Google led me to some awesome sites and forums (awesome said with the most possible sarcasm that you can imagine.) I'm totally not linking to them, because why give them traffic or draw attention to myself? But you can just Google around and find this stuff for yourself, if you want.