Bratz dolls creep me out, a lot, but I've always agreed with the author's main points that toys are really not that big a deal compared to, y'know, the world. I'd like to extend this to animated movies, as well. I never felt inadequate compared to Barbie or Jasmine or Ariel or Sailor Moon (!)--but once I started noticing Cosmo covers, insecurity starting kicking in. In my experience, kids know well enough that Barbie is made of plastic, and Jasmine is a cartoon, but when airbrushed, size-double-zero models are presented as a reality to which we can actually aspire... therein lies the problem.

Seriously, I'm not a child psychologist, but I don't think most little girls are like "I WISH MY BOOBS WERE TRIANGULAR AND NIPPLELESS LIKE BARBIE'S." And Barbie is a gymnast, a doctor, an astronaut, a vet (never a mother, though if that's your thing you can get the Midge that comes with detachable belly and fetus @_@), always single, always caring more about fun with friends than fun with loser Ken (another thing that bothers me about Bratz is how much the commercials emphasize boy-craziness). My Barbies trekked the Arctic, yo. Kids have imaginations, and they are way more powerful than the fact that Barbie's feet only fit high heels.

The story regarding the sorority in Indiana really got to me. I was a member of a sorority in my college days. We often had the highest cumulative GPA of all the sororites and were across the board in terms of majors and extracurricular activities.

I believe we are a fantastic group of women, whom I considered to be like family, especially while combating depression and homesickness during my first year. However, as a member, executive council member and Panhellenic officer, I really resented the image consciousness that went on. We were one of the smaller chapters on campus and were under pressure from our National HQ to boost our numbers. Other sororities on campus were tight knit with the fats on campus, and were thus well known, while we were rarely given the time of day. We were discouraged from describing ourselves as "diverse" during recruitment because it could be construed negatively, however most of us saw it as a fantasic quality and it is said we often attracted girls who aren't the "sorority type" (what the hell does that even mean anyway?)
There were always the same three sororities that dominated recruitment, they had the better images and the connections with the fraternities on campus. Apparently we were considered the "ugly" girl sorority.
As much as I loved the girls in my chapter they are my dearest friends and i still keep in touch with many of them, I secretly hated the system we existed within.

I love the crazy aunt story. She reminds me of my sister and I am so glad my daughter has a fun aunt!

I don't care for those Bratz dolls, if anything, they promote consumerism. One thing that annoyed me was the Mei Lin doll, her name is Chinese, yet she passed on as being Japanese??? Whoever designed the doll was ignorant towards Asian cultures. And they're a bit over sexualized.

It seems that states are taking matters into their own hands as far as Sex Ed goes. I'm glad Colorado is taking this step, and I hope more states will follow.

"Women’s bodies have always been theater, and this is just another act."

That's from the article about the supermodels, which is really interesting to read. I think it sums up the whole female celebrity obsession rather nicely. Watching women's bodies have always been a form of entertainment, from the clothes to the size and shape. Time will only tell how far this is going to go, but it's going to get worse before it gets better.

As for Britney Spears, I'm putting myself out there as mean, but I can't bring myself to feel sorry for her. Nor can I feel sorry for Nicole Ritchie or Lindsay Lohan, etc. etc. I think it would be great if we would move away from the celebrity obsession we have and Craig Fergeson had a great point about this not being funny anymore, but it's so self fueling.

The supermodel article was fascinating. I like that the author acknowledges the complexity of the problem, instead of simply thin=bad. That said, I don't think women's bodies have always been theatre. A look back into clothing history reveals that up until the 1000 CE, clothing was fairly unisex, and after that until about the era of the suit, men's fashions were more important that women's, and much more varied than our current landscape. That's not to say that women haven't been shifted and shaped into a million different styles, but I am not sure we have a natural inclination towards watching the female form. Of course, since its also been going on since the corset, I am not sure how much we can blame on tv, the internet, or anything else.

Jen,

You're right, I totally agree that we don't have a natural inclination to watch the female form. The excuse of "The female body is more beautiful than the males. With all those CURVES" makes me want to puke every time a guy (or woman) pulls it out. Within the Roman/Greek days it was the MALE form that was thought of as beautiful and desirable, where you'd see fully nude male sculptures while the female would be clothed or partially clothed.

But look how far we have to go back to find that. I think that's what the author was getting at, we've been looking at the female form for so long it's taken on a whole new dimension and we can't see anything else.

Oh I definitely feel bad for Britney, but that's probably because I know that if I had a million people chronicling my every move, there would certainly be accidentally-flashed vag, booze-fueled partying, and the occasional dropped baby. People do crazy shit when nobody's watching, but what if someone was always watching? On CNN the other day, they were interviewing some psychiatrist who doesn't treat Brit (I've never understood this phenomenon, but that's another rant) and the interviewer was asking if there was any way an outsider could get her "committed" because she was obviously crazy, after shaving her head. Sounds like I'm going to have to commit my dad and brothers and my best friend too... oh wait they're men so that's just looking sharp. Sheesh. It really throws gender in your face if people are so shocked when a woman removes her hair (from her head - everywhere else should of course be hairless).

The whole women's bodies are more beautiful has always pissed me off too -- I feel like asking, "To WHOM?"

On the whole, though, not a bad run down - nothing TOO terrible going on this week, I suppose.

Funnily enough, earlier today I wrote a post bashing Britney. Like UltraMagnus, I'm sorry, but I can't bring myself to feel sorry for her.

Re: the whole Britney debacle.

I confess a real weakness for celebrity gossip. I enjoy it. But this...it's like going to the circus and suddenly realizing that the tiger is attacking the horses and the clown is waving around a real cleaver. I just want to look away. It also strikes me as kind of tragic, because all the money and handlers, and clearly this woman has no close friend who cares about her who can say "Sweetie, I'm worried about you."

Hey, here's an idea: do you think that maybe, just maybe, marketing a teenage girl as a sex object for pervy older men (Bob Dole) and propelling her to the height of fame before her 20th birthday just might not be in her best interest? Gee, what a surprise.

As to head-shaving as a form of breakdown/empowerment--doesn't that depend on context? Spears is pretty clearly losing the thread in a big way, with the multiple checks in and out of rehab and stuff. Now, she may well have reason to, but there's no way I can buy the idea that her head-shaving is empowerment.

Heh. I can't believe I devote this much time and consideration to this stuff. We all have our vices, I guess.

Also, re: bodies and curves.

I hate that nonsense too--have none of these people ever seen a man's body? Last I checked, they're often full of curves as well. Different curves, in different places, but curves all the same! And those curves can be very nice to look at indeed. If you like men that way.

Speaking of the HPV vaccine, did anyone else here see this article about men who want it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6342105.stm

"but once I started noticing Cosmo covers, insecurity starting kicking in."

...and once I started noticing the other girls sitting in the same classroom as me, my insecurity started kicking in.

"Seriously, I'm not a child psychologist, but I don't think most little girls are like 'I WISH MY BOOBS WERE TRIANGULAR AND NIPPLELESS LIKE BARBIE'S.'"

BTW, how unrealistic are Barbie's proportions when clothed? I heard part of the problem with Barbie is that if you scale up the doll clothes to "life size" then the fabric in the t-shirts would be one inch thick and so on, so it's hard to make a doll that's proportionate no matter if clothed or unclothed without doll clothes made out of extremely thin fabric.

Critics have argued that for a woman to have Barbie's body, she would need to be 7 feet 2 inches tall, weigh 115-130 pounds, have 30 to 36 inch hips, an 18 to 23 inch waist and a 38 to 48 inch bust. Additionally, she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate. (Wikipedia)

I really don't expect any better from the greek system. As a student representative when I was an undergrad, I and several of my cohorts would constantly try to shut down their funding on the basis they discriminated by sex. It blows my mind that the institution still exists.

About the sexual assault rate article, I totally missed the age thing... on the other hand, it's consistent not just with the explanation that attitudes have changed but also with Levitt's Roe effect theory. The easiest way to test that is to see if the same age differential in the reduction in crime holds for other violent crimes; unfortunately, to my knowledge no NCVS predating 1995 is publicly available.

Barbie's proportions, when clothed, were not so scary when she first came out. Certainly she always had a narrow waist, large breasts, and wide hips. I think that she looked thinner & thinner in clothes as the fabrics got thinner, but didn't they redesign her bod sometime in the 90s to be less unrealistic/more in tune with modern fashion? It was after my Barbie collecting years, so I can't remember if that remodel stuck.

At any rate, my Barbies did everything from a months-long safari in the backyard (during which Ken lost an arm and Skipper was tragically decapitated) to, yes, having sex and babies (my parents told me the facts of life early on). And while I felt some pressure to look like her later on (I am blonde, blue-eyed, and developed earlier than my peers, who accused me of looking like Barbie at about 12), I think I recognized that it was not an attainable body for a young teenager, or pretty much any real person.

Learning early on about the history of that iconic doll definitely helped--I knew her proportions were made to fit her clothes long before it even occurred to me to want to resemble her. Yay for my mom.

That age thing seems odd to me--is there a reason why they don't have stats on women older than 24 being raped? I find it hard to believe it doesn't happen. In fact, I know it does.

To clarify, I look nothing like Barbie and really never did, except maybe the hair color. 6th graders will really reach for a reason to ridicule each other.

EG, the article mentions residents age 40 and older.

"The youngest teenagers presumably those raised with the most modern attitudes show the biggest declines of all. Over the last 30 years, rape arrest rates have fallen by 80% among Californians under age 15, much larger than the 25% drop among residents age 40 and older."

I think feminism gave young women more self-esteem to 1) stay away from hypermasculine, backwards, frat boy assholes with daddy issues who may be rapists and 2) to take more precautions.

Thanks Donna--I must've missed that.

I'd like to think that feminism also changed popular visions of what what sex is. Instead of those appalling 1950s "comedies" in which men chase women around tables and then get together blissfully at the end. Maybe now, women are getting a healthier sense of their own sexuality, and men who would otherwise have been socialized to think that female resistance was normal sexual interaction are learning otherwise.

Hey--an idea. Jessica et al, remember that "I blame feminism" thread? Could we have a "Thank you, feminism!" thread? It would be nice to have a thread in which we could list feminism's accomplishments.

There was a meme like that a while back, Five Things Feminism Has Done for Me.

Yeah remember those horror films where women would just sit there and scream instead of resisting?

Well, not all women - only those who had sex. The virgins tended to survive.

And John Carpenter says the puritanism was entirely unintentional, and what turned people into Michael Myers' victims wasn't having sex but not being aware of him.

Funny how they were never distracted from him because they were praying intently, huh?

And those curves can be very nice to look at indeed. If you like men that way.

Hell, even if you don't "like men that way", they can be.
I don't think you have to want to have sex with a guy to look at and appreciate the male form. I'm not particularly interested in dick, but I've seen some really amazing photography/sculpture/paintings of men's bodies. Personally, I think the human body is a pretty amazing and beautiful thing, regardless of the gonads.

Thanks for posting the article about the soldier being sentenced for rape.
This is definitely not excusing what he did, but what else can we expect from the military culture, which teaches soldiers to think of the enemy as less than human? I doubt this is an isolated case & as the war progresses we'll find out more. Hopefully, it won't take another My Lai to wake people up about the brutality of spreading democracy at the barrel of a gun.

I'm not sure I buy John Carpenter's explanation for Halloween. Michael Myers' first victim sounded like she was in the throes of ecstasy, not being stabbed to death.

To all southern, specifically Mississippian, activists out there, I am in need of a bit of clarification.

I have heard differing reports. The current proposal regarding the sonogram/heartbeat is causing confusion. I need to know if it passes: must it be OFFERED to a woman to see a sonogram and hear a fetal heartbeat or will it be REQUIRED she do so before an abortion? I oppose both situations, but I find it far worse if it will be required (as some politicians misguidedly claim) that a woman "see her baby" before she makes the decision.

I find this a waste of time and resources in clinics, or clinic, I should say, since there is only one in our state.

Also, I am glad you link to the Clarion-Ledger for news, but you should also check out www.jacksonfreepress.com, as well. It's a progressive weekly that reports the news.

For example, a great commentary just ran a couple of weeks ago: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=12630_0_7_0_C

Also, if you are in the MS area, I would appreciate more information on organizing. I have tried to join up with a couple of activist groups in the area, but never seem to get a response. I am trying to be involved and fight, but it seems the fight is a bit closed to those not already involved. Let me know how I can help ... I will respond to a post.

Tom Head is in the Jackson, MS area. Tom?

"The current proposal regarding the sonogram/heartbeat is causing confusion. I need to know if it passes: must it be OFFERED to a woman to see a sonogram and hear a fetal heartbeat or will it be REQUIRED she do so before an abortion?"

...and what if there's no fetal heart yet? Would they still want to push her to have a sonogram when the sonogram would prove her embryo doesn't look as baby-like as they claim it would?

Heh. That's a reaction I always have to some of the more grotesque pictures anti-abortion demonstrators wave around: "That? That semi-developed newt is in my body? Ew, get it out!" That's a problem--embryos for the first few months aren't all that cute.

Speaking, as always, as someone who is a sucker for the cute baybeez.

I just want to comment on the Bratz dolls phenom...
Of course there are other, more important feminist issues occurring all over the world, but when I am with my young female clients (I am a children's community mental health counselor), it is not the atrocities around the world that catches their attention, it is the back of the Bratz dolls cover that states, "Because it's not just about winning, it's about how you look when you win!" I didn't make that up, that's what is on the back of the special edition Sportz Bratz dolls collection. So where do the feelings of inadequacy start? When a young woman is thirteen and starting to watch the news and notice inequalities, or the four or five year old who receives this message for Christmas? Why are pop culture references always dismissed with the mentality of "Well, I played with so-and-so and I turned out just fine." Maybe some did, but perhaps it did hit some harder than others. I don't know the answer to that question, but am wary about dismissing the potential harm those "small" issues can do to our young children. Again, I was more upset with the quote on the back of the box than with how the dolls looked. I definitely don't think it is a black and white issue. It is complicated.
Keri