The Biggest Loser Picks on Kids

[Content note: discussion of fat shaming of kids and unhealthy weight loss methods.]

Here's two things:
1) The Biggest Loser is one of most visible and successful sources of fat shame in this country.
2) I can't stand it when society bullies fat kids about their weight.

Up to this point, The Biggest Loser hasn't really done much with kids. They've kept their horribly dangerous methods and body bullying mostly limited to adults. Of course, these fat shaming messages make their way to kids when they watch the show, or when the trainers scream, "Do you want your kids to grow up to be like you!?" at the contestants. But the actual sites of their fatphobia has only been aimed at people at least legally able to consent to their participation.

Not so anymore.

In recent promos, it's come to my attention that the show will be working with kids, although they are not actual competitors. I was pretty outraged about this, so I was relieved when I saw that Ragen Chastain had written a petition against this abhorrent turn of event. (Go sign it!) As the petition states:

"The Biggest Loser" wants to put children on a show under the direction of trainers who insist that contestants ignore the advice of dieticians (sic) and doctors while screaming supportive words of encouragement like “I’M BORED WITH YOUR PATHETIC STORY!” and “GET ON THE F*CKING TREADMILL” in their faces. 

Healthy habits are good for kids of all sizes, and humiliation is bad for kids of all sizes, and if we want to help kids develop a lifelong love of healthy habits, we can do way better than this.

You know, fatphobia in general makes my blood boil. I'm just so incredibly sick of being told that only a certain kind of body is right. But when that message is aimed at kids, it goes to a whole other level of WRONG. And, unfortunately, so much of fat shame is routinely aimed at our youngest citizens.

Kids are a vulnerable population. That is why we have laws that protect against child abuse and require a minimum age of consent. We all know that a young mind is an impressionable one. Many of us carry the psychological scars of what happened to us in childhood for the rest of our years. And when it comes to the pressure to be thin, there is a reason that the average age to develop an eating disorder is 12. Your sense of self is just being formed and outside forces (like the media or what adults say about your body or their own bodies) can have an enormous effect on you.

I wish that we could stop The Biggest Loser all together. Unfortunately, it is an extremely popular show (a testament to how deep fatphobia runs in our society) and NBC, motivated by money over social conscious, will chase viewers and ad sales at all costs. But the very least we can do is keep children away from their dangerous methods.

I assume I am preaching to the choir on this one, but please, please, please do not support this show, and if you know people who do, please encourage them to think critically about what is really happening. I understand how alluring the show can be. I watched it as recently as 2007. But we've got to understand what is really going on. Millions of dollars are pumped into the program to make it convey a sense of "inspiration" and "accomplishment" while carefully editing out their disturbing side. They have the illusion and formula down to a science. That's why it's our job to tell people who watch the show that the constants aren't being healthy. They often dehydrate themselves to "lose weight." They are on a seriously restrictive diet and exercise six hours a day. Ask them to think critically about that. Ask them to really think for a minute about what it must be like to be screamed at by the trainers. And tell them to think about the messages we are sending our kids.

The Hawkeye Initiative--A Good Start

Have you heard of The Hawkeye Initiative? It's a new Tumblr project getting a lot of attention. It aims to point out the ridiculous and oversexualized poses that female comic book characters are drawn in by redoing them with Hawkeye from the Avengers.

[Image shows both Hawkeye and what I assume is Spider Woman (?) in the same strange position where both their chests and butts are visible--a common, physically impossible pose that comic artists draw for women. Images from the Hawkeye Initiative page.]

It's a great start at dismantling the sexist culture of comic books. And it's also a pretty popular technique right now. Here's a couple of other images that have floated around in the past year, which show the same:

[This photo show the original Avengers group picture and asks, "What if all the other Avengers posed like Black Widow?" In the second photo, all the male Avengers are reimagined with their butts out "sexily" and Black Widow is taking a strong, authoritative stance.]

[Image depicts Wonder Woman saying, "If I don't get pants, no body gets pants." It has a number of male super heroes in skimpier, stereotypically feminine versions of their suits.]

I titled this post "a good start" because I think that's exactly what this is...looking at these images and noticing the sexism in them is a good start. When male superheroes are posed/dressed in ways similar to females, and we think it looks absolutely ridiculous, then there is clearly something amiss. 

However, what I'm concerned about is that without follow up action and discussion, these pictures will just be seen as funny, and the momentum will end. 

Many male comic book readers (and people in general) are so entrenched in sexism, that a picture project like this won't actually resonate with them. It won't give them pause. It won't affect their purchasing behavior or the lens through which they view comics. Seeing Hawkeye in these poses could be written off as funny and that's it. Typically things of this nature speak to "geek" women who already think critically about these issues because of the sexism they face on a daily basis. But what if you've never thought about sexism? What if you truly have no idea what this all even means? 

We're got to have an actual discussion that extends beyond the LOL first associated with these images. I hope that discussion is had. I'm not sure who will lead it, but lord, I hope that discussion is had. 

Kiss My Pasta Loving Butt, Eat This, Not That!

It's been everywhere. Lady Gaga gained some weight and the media goes crazy. So she comes back with a "Body Revolution" project on her website and discloses that she has been struggling with anorexia and bulimia for over a decade. It's all interesting, and if you haven't heard much about it, I suggest you check out the coverage and discussions at Feministing or Bitch. (The integrity of her "Body Revolution" project, for example, is very much the center of a debate in many fat positive and feminist spaces right now.)

But what I'd like to talk about was brought to my attention last night when I saw that Zerlina Maxwell tweeted:

[Tweet reads: "hey guys Lady Gaga also said she had an eating disorder so how about now using her for your tweet. thx. @EatThisNotThat]

I couldn't help but wonder, what exactly had Eat This, Not That said?

[Tweet reads: "Lady Gaga blames her recent 25-lb weigh gain on pasta. To avoid a similar fate, stay away from these 7 pasta crimes.]

Oh how lovely.

Leave it to a member of the 60 billion dollar a year weight loss industry to try to capitalize on someone's body related vulnerability. Lady Gaga reveals something deeply personal, talks frankly about her body and her struggles with it, and Eat This, Not That turns it into a food shaming discussion intended to help us "avoid the same fate?"

Really?

You know what would actually help us "avoid the same fate" (here meaning the further spread of eating disorders)? A culture where all different bodies are appreciated and valued. One where certain foods are not coded "good" and others as "bad." One free from food policing. One where we stop putting celebrities' bodies (and all of our bodies!) under extreme scrutiny. One where we all emphatically agree: there is no wrong way to have a body.

No, Yahoo. No.

For some reason, Yahoo really likes sexism. A few days ago, this story popped up on the Yahoo homepage when I went to go check the email inbox that I use for all spammy things:

[Yahoo story title reads: Jessica Biel: Soon to Be Mrs. Justin Timberlake! 5 Fun Things You Should Know]

So now Jessica Biel is "soon to be Mrs. Justin Timberlake?" Last I checked, Biel is a celebrity in her own right...I mean, if she started going around identifying as Mrs. Timberlake, it would be one thing (I'd disagree w/ that decision, but at least it would be her choice...) But this is Yahoo just being dumb.

They're used to it...

[Yahoo story title reads: 15 things women do that turn off guys]

What? Did you want to do things just to be you? NAH! It's about what guys like,  you silly womern. And just today, they're making sure they play their part in another media catfight watch. Gross.

[Yahoo story reads: Mariah Carey: No feuding with Minaj on "Idol" yet]

You'd think with their new CEO, one of the most powerful women in the business world, Marissa Mayer, they'd be a little more female empowering. But you'd be wrong. 

Lana Del Rey in GQ: Sexual Expression or Objectification?

I'm sure by now you've seen this image floating around. Lana Del Rey was featured on GQ's cover nude as their "Woman of the Year." That alone is not surprising. But when you see the four other covers featured as the "men of the year" and notice that they're all wearing tuxes, the situation gets a bit trickier.

[Photo: the male covers featuring James Corden, Robbie Williams, Tinie Tempah, and John Slattery all in tuxes followed by Lana Del Rey nude]

Teaching Kids Fatphobia

Yesterday, I happened to catch Amanda Levitt's thoughts as she tweeted watching Matilda for the first time since she was a kid. She had some interesting observations. Here are some of her tweets consolidated:

Watching Matilda as an adult is really shocking when the last time you watched it as a 10 year old. The way fatness and gluttony are treated like mortal sins makes me really sad so many kids had to watch this. I do find it really interesting how conflicted the body of the villain, Miss Trunchbull, is. Not only is she physically strong, which is used as a way to harm the kids at school but also used to devalue her. Ms. Honey is portrayed as a delicate flower who speaks softly and the first kind person Matilda has ever met. Matilda is a great film to show how we teach children fat stigma.

Levitt got my wheels turning on this subject. I think it's pretty well known how poorly fat people in the media are portrayed as a whole, but when you take a look at the media children are consuming, it becomes disturbingly clear just how clearly we are teaching fatphobia to our youngest citizens.

Not a Teen, but Loving Rookie

As my friend Meghan recently brought to my attention, there is a contingent of us 20 somethings who love Rookie Magazine. Are you aware of Rookie? I've mentioned it before (because it's awesome.) It's Tavi Gevinson's online magazine that features absolutely amazing information for teen girls.

As Amanda Hess said in her Slate piece on the subject:

As for us adults? Rookie allows us to believe that had it been around 10 years ago, “maybe I wouldn't have done half the self-destructive shit that I did to myself at the time,” my friend told me. “And maybe I wouldn't be so fucked up about some of these things now.” 

But beyond wishing I had something like Rookie 10 years ago...what's not to love? It's kind of my dream--a media space created for (and more importantly) BY teen girls. It's not a bunch of stale, pale, male executives trying to conjure up they *think* teen girls would like. It's girls talking to each other. It's real, fresh, fashionable, friendly, and fun. It features advice from Sady Doyle, and Gillian Jacobs, encourages girls to have healthy relationships, builds self esteem, introduces the Diva Cup, and makes feminism look really damn cool.

Like I said. It's kind of my dream.

I work every day with girls who are steeped in the teen world and sometimes it can a tough place to be. Not knowing where you fit in...feeling ashamed of your body...worrying about what people think of you...feeling alone. But spaces like Rookie work with me to 1) remind girls they're not alone 2) give them a voice 3) provide wonderful information and support and 4) highlight the best of girlhood.

So yeah. I love Rookie. It makes me happy. What of it?

Racism + Guns

On July 20th, James Eagan Holmes shot and killed 14 people at a movie theater in Aurora, CO. On Sunday, Wade Michael Page killed 6 people at a place of worship in Oak Creek, WI. On their face these incidents seem extremely similar, right? However, the reaction I have seen has been quite different.

Racism: Olympics Edition

Gabby Douglas is an incredible gymnast and now an Olympic gold medalist. But that might be hard to realize, because if you are listening to the media and general Olympics coverage, Gabby is not getting a fair shake. From people criticizing her hair and her mother, to her invisibility in some promotional photos and NBC's coverage, it certainly feels like racism in action.

Due to my traveling schedule, I missed out on all of the gymnastic events so far. But I wanted to round up some of the best coverage I've seen on this for further reading. The linked pieces below get into much greater detail about how Gabby is being treated. Check them out!

Sexism and Body Snarking: Olympics Edition

As I recently mentioned, I kinda love the Olympics. I'm a sucker for them. I'm not sure what it is, because I do not enjoy any other sports related thing. But every two years (winter/summer) I'm stuck at my TV.

I think one thing that I particularly enjoy is that women seem to receive as much attention and almost as much legitimacy as men's competitions. That's a rare thing. For example, I'm so used to people going gaga over the NBA and totally forgetting that the WNBA exists. (PS, why isn't it the MNBA and the WNBA--oh right, men are considered the standard. *Eye roll*)

But NBC is really crushing my spirits with their coverage. Last night, I turned into the late night segment and caught a discussion between Bob Costas, Shaun White, and John McEnroe. Apparently, McEnroe is at his first Olympics and White is there for the first time as a spectator. So they were chitchatting about their experience watching women's beach volleyball. And of course, it dissolved into a dude bro yuk yuk session about the women's bodies. Objectification to the max. (And LITERALLY while I was writing this, another male NBC commentator just talked about how when he went to the beach volleyball game, it was "sensory overload" because of the women's bodies.)

I stewed for a bit and then moved on. I wish I could say this is the end of it, but of course there's more. The media takes every possible opportunity to comment on women's bodies, and Olympians are not exempt.

Follow up to Dennis Croft on Small Town Security

I haven't been writing much anything in depth lately because I've been on vacation. Tomorrow evening I fly back to my humble abode in Austin, so I should be back to the norm the latter part of this week. In the meantime, I wanted to do a quick follow up on a recent post. As I wrote last week, after my weekly dose of Breaking Bad I caught a quirky new reality show called Small Town Security. The "twist" of the first episode was that Lt. Dennis Croft is a transman, born Denise. I held out hope that the show would deal with his story fairly and with compassion.

Fast forward to now. I've got two more episodes under my belt and I'm growing more concerned. In the second episode, a major plot point was how the whole security crew reacts to Croft. Things were far from perfect, but overall people were making an effort to address him with male pronouns...everyone it seems except for the captain, Joan Koplan, who made repeated references to "it" "he, she, whatever" and etc. It was particularly heartbreaking because Croft is admittedly in love with Koplan and waits on her hand and foot. When the producers asked Croft what he thought of the way Koplan was responding, he said that he knew she was trying.

I'm not sure exactly how long ago Croft transitioned, but it is alluded to it being at least years ago. It got me wondering how much leeway Koplan is supposed to get. I had only watched her behavior for half an hour and I was already annoyed. I could see how clearly that it takes an immense amount of patience to deal with misgendering and having to constantly correct people on a regular basis. But I'm someone watching it all from a feminist perspective, with at least a basic level of awareness--what message is everyone else getting?

The third episode wasn't focused on Croft. Instead, it centered on Koplan's husband's hoarding problem. But regardless she made a joke that Croft would "grow a full penis and testicles" before her husband would clean his office.

We're still very early in the series so maybe things will turn around, but as of right now, it certainly feels like Croft is dealing with at least mild transphobia on a regular basis. Sadly, I would expect that is fairly reflective of many trans* people's experiences. However, without story lines which allow us to hear a bit more from Croft directly, it feels almost like an affirmation of Koplan's behavior, and an exploitation of Croft's life.

Small Town Security: A Surprisingly Interesting Move for Reality TV

I've been down on reality TV lately. As a television genre, it seems to so often highlight the worst of our society. You know that we all love to talk trash about it. We love to hate it. So much so, that despite being a widely despised form of entertainment, it flourishes. We're watching it.

Last Sunday, I was at a friends' place to catch the return of Breaking Bad on AMC. (I don't have cable.) All through the premiere, they kept showing previews for their latest reality show, Small Town Security...which to be honest, looked awful. It became the joke of the night to talk about how we were going to watch it since one of our friends went ballistic at even the mere suggestion. So we did watch it, of course.

STS, overall, is stupid and kind of boring. The name tells you everything you need to know, it's about a small town security company in Georgia. And, as with the reality genre in general, the aim is to exploit the people and laugh at their "backward" ways. I have to mention--I kind of loved a few things about it. Like for example, the company and the television station in town are both owned by women. (Even if the women did get on my nerves.)

But that's not the interesting part. At the end of the premiere, we find that the company's most dedicated employee, Dennis Croft, is a transman, and currently the only one on reality television. It was a surprisingly compassionate look at Croft's experience...at least so far. It was sort of treated as a cliff hanger, so it is yet to be seen how this will all play out. GLAAD featured an interview with Croft. Here's an excerpt.

GLAAD: What was it like coming out as transgender in your Georgia community?
DC: I haven’t really felt a change…those who know me and about me haven’t flinched. I found that surprising. It has not been what I expected of others and I see that folks are not the typical haters of my kind that I thought. The South has grown up from the childish games of prejudice. 

GLAAD: Is there anything you hope viewers take away from watching the show? DC: Be unafraid of who you are. Do not let yourself nor anyone tell you what you should be or how to live your life. Reach deep into yourself and see who you are and live that. That is your truth and it is the truth to all.

I've got to give major respect to Croft. I'm pulling for AMC to continue to treat him with dignity and compassion (well...as much as any reality TV character can expect!) I do think the whole "Oh my gosh! He's trans!" situation in the opening episode was a little stereotypical, but I'm holding out hope that this is ultimately a move in the right direction for the representation of trans* people in the media.

The Dark Knight Rises: Women Can Be Badasses. But Just Two of Them.

This is part of my series on the gender of the 2012 big budget blockbusters. Check out the others: The Hunger Games, Prometheus, MIB3, The Avengers, Brave, Snow White and the Huntsman, Ted and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Magic Mike, The Amazing Spiderman.


Last night, I went to a midnight showing of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, the culminating piece in his gritty Batman trilogy. It's a movie I've been waiting for all summer so I've decided that it will conclude my summer blockbuster series. I, of course, will continue to write about the gender of movies that strike me in a particular manner, but I'm not going to write about them with this frequency until another series idea strikes my fancy. (Maybe Oscar season? Who knows?)

Anyway, while there are a few failures, my overall reactions to the gender situation are positive. The two main female characters, Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) are strong, independent, and pretty much badasses. It was a shift from the previous main character in Nolan's Batman universe, Rachel Dawes, who much more fell into the stereotype of the goodhearted woman who needs to be saved.

Spoilers to follow, I'm sure.

A Nonsense Moment Reflecting on VH1's Horrible "Reality" Shows

Sometimes it's fun to track your brain where it goes...or at least, it is for me. Maybe you have to have an odd brain to think these thoughts.

Last night, I learned that actor Michael Clarke Duncan recently had a heart attack and was allegedly resuscitated by his girlfriend, Omarosa Stallworth. Remember Omarosa? She was the "villain" on the first season of The Apprentice...or at least she was constructed to be that way by the show's producers. This got me thinking about how it seemed like there was a period of time in the mid 2000's where if you were a woman of color with an opinion, you were sure to end up as the villain on a reality TV show, once all the editing was done. (Maybe this is still happening now? I don't know, I don't watch the stuff. But seriously, what was up with that?)

Tiffany "New York" Pollard

From here, my mind went to Tiffany "New York" Pollard. Oooooh New York. Perhaps here you are lost and I commend you, because it means that you didn't spend 2006-2010 watching extraordinary shitty TV on VH1. And if that describes you, I suggest that you bail out now, because this probably won't make much sense. But if you're with me, then maybe you'd like to stick around for this reflection on how I spent way too much time in the mid-late 2000's watching the worst of awful TV.

Infidelity is Infidelity, Right?

You know I have a well documented weakness for really, really crappy TV, right? Well today, I'm off work for the afternoon as I have an appointment with an ENT to try to get to the bottom of my mysterious dizziness. But in the meantime, I'm watching The Talk.

Women's Bodies Can't Win

(TW weight talk)

Sociological Images has up a story about "reverse photoshopping." It's really interesting and you should absolutely check it out. Apparently, reverse photoshopping "is the practice of photoshopping models to hide the health and aesthetic costs of extreme thinness." (For what it's worth, I think photoshopping is photoshopping and I think the "reverse" is a bit of a misnomer.)

Anyway, they site this image of Cameron Diaz:

While the image of Diaz is not extreme, the differences are noticeable, particularly through the filling out of her thighs and waist. Here's a quote from the article about the lengths this retouching goes to when non-celebrity models are extremely thin:

Thanks to retouching, our readers… never saw the horrible, hungry downside of skinny. That these underweight girls didn’t look glamorous in the flesh. Their skeletal bodies, dull, thinning hair, spots and dark circles under their eyes were magicked away by technology, leaving only the allure of coltish limbs and Bambi eyes.

This is pretty revealing. I don't want to shame anyone's body and suggest that the extremely thin models are disgusting, but I think we can all agree that these changes don't send a realistic message to society.

To me, this stands as further proof that as a woman, you just can't win. The issue here is two fold.

1) Stereotypical models' bodies which conform to the traditional beauty standard of thinness are still not good enough. So they are change. And, just like always, the images we are left with are, for all intents and purposes, fake.

2) It erases the toll that extreme thinness takes on a person and perpetuates the myth that being as thin as possible is healthy and best. It's the creation of a mythical "perfect" person whose body weight is extremely low, but doesn't look gaunt.

Miss USA Pageant Circuit Never Fails to Make Me Cringe

Listen...I don't want to hate on pageants. I'm a big proponent against the disparagement of traditional femininity. But pageants and the Miss USA circuit in particular (run by the wonderful *gag* Donald Trump) keep giving me fodder for big time eye rolls. They're making it easy to just dismiss them all together.

So it's no surprise that Miss Ohio, Audrey Bolte, had this to say Sunday night when she was asked if women are portrayed positive in the media, and if so, to cite a positive female role model:

"I think it depends on the movie. I think there are some movies that depict women in a very positive role, and then some movies that put them in a little bit more of negative role. But by the end of the movie, they show that woman power that I know we all have. Such as the movie 'Pretty Woman'. We had a wonderful, beautiful woman, Julia Roberts, and she was having a rough time, but, you know what, she came out on top and she didn’t let anybody stand in her path."

I don't know what's worse...that Bolte answered Pretty Woman for this question or that she reportedly later said she didn't know that movie was about a prostitute who was essentially rescued by a rich dude. I mean, if you're going to cite a movie as the answer to a question on national television, you had better be damn familiar with the movie. Even if it's a really horrible example to cite: at least know the material!

To be fair--all of the media snark and cyberbullying that follow these pageant gaffes don't really help anyone. It feels like it's constructed to make these women fall into the "stupid hot girl" trope and make sure that at least one of them each year goes home feeling like shit about herself. I mean, I couldn't tell you who won Miss Teen USA in 2007, but I sure could do a mean impression of Miss South Carolina's horrible "such as...South Africa...such as...and the Iraq" answer.

So I'm not going to dwell in my disdain for Bolte's answer anymore...but I'll leave it at this: if you're asked if women are portrayed positively in the media and your first thought is a Julia Roberts character from the 90s who depends on a wealthy man: JUST SAY NO.

I'm Sending You an Eye Roll, Verizon

You know, nothing makes me want to buy a cell phone more than a little gender stereotyping. Around mother's day, Verizon featured this commercial which shows a mom and daughter reduced to blubbering incoherent mess to the point of needing subtitles, at the prospect of living 4.2 miles apart.

It got on my last nerve. But now we have a nice "dads and grads" follow up which depicts a father and son who have such an emotionally stunted relationship that they're incapable of actually expressing how they feel, so we, again, require subtitles.

SIIIIIIIIGH.

I guess at least Verizon is making sure they offend everyone, right? Oh wait? That's not a good thing you say? Huh. Who knew?

S.E. Cupp Uses a Horrible Situation to Hate on Other Women

12 hours ago I didn't know who S.E. Cupp was. But apparently she's a conservative political commentator. Or so that's what I've gathered from the last 12 hours. Apparently, the ever woman-hating jackasses over at Hustler photoshopped a penis into S.E. Cupp's mouth. So of course, the tweets that I follow blew up over this in defense of the fact that it doesn't matter if a woman is affiliated with the right: when this type of shit happens to her, it's bad for all of us. Misogyny is misogyny no matter who it happens to and it is wrong and disgusting. 

Larry Flynt--shudder--responded with this pearl of wisdom: "That's satire." LOLZ, what? Last time I checked, satire meant when "vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon."

So I ask you in all seriousness, how the HELL is putting a penis in a woman's mouth intended for the improvement of society? What is the greater purpose here? Without that over riding message, as mastered by individuals like Stephen Colbert, all you have is the ridicule--and in this case, extremely misogynistic ridicule.

Sadly, Cupp isn't doing herself, or any other women, a favor when she says stuff like this:

Cupp balked at the chance that any feminist organizations will come to her defense. "The National Organization for Women, NOW, will not come out and say liberal women deserve more respect than conservative women and we are not going to defend conservative women. They're not going to admit to that but let me tell you that is exactly how they feel."

She believes that "clearly by anyone's standards this is worse" than Rush Limbaugh's having called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a "slut," which resulted in national outrage. "The outrage of Sandra Fluke will not be matched on my side," Cupp told The Blaze.

"It seems that feminism has devolved into an institution that has picked losers and winners and has decided that some women qualify for respect and other women do not."

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I follow a majority of the most high profile feminist bloggers, commentators, and organizations on Twitter and, as mentioned, my feed was blowing up with indignation on Cupp's behalf. Not only has she ignored a chance for ALL women to serve as allies to one another against misogyny, but she's also tried to create some false hierarchy/competition of "fucked up shit men do to women."

Listen to me Cupp and all of your friends on the right: we will never end these types of attacks on women if we use them as an opportunity to tear each other down. There is no solidarity in ignoring the women who are rallying behind you simply because you don't like their liberal politics. There is no sense in dragging other women down when you've experienced something heinous. Once again, I stand behind S.E. Cupp and what has happened to her is truly disgusting. But I, and the other feminists who have come to her defense, don't appreciate being ignored and insulted in the process.

Time Magazine Asks, "Are You Mom Enough?"

Sigh.

Someone passed me this story earlier today and I can't help but throw in my 2 cents. Time Magazine is running a cover story about attachment parenting and they are clearly trying to be edgy and controversial about it. In fact, the cover story reads, "Are You Mom Enough?" and depicts a woman who is breast feeding her preschool aged son.