Posts Written by Third Wave
By Third Wave Housewife • 12 years ago

Knowing when to stop

Summer’s Eve and their advertising company just do not get it. Please take a look at this relevant graph:

Once again, in case you missed it, you fucked up. You fucked up by making an ad that is both racist and sexist and by branding it as empowerment.

“What do you mean sexist? Racist, too?! I have black friends! Nothing is racist until I say it is!”

The article on AdWeek hits on a couple of good points, and contains a response (from the Richards Group, the advertising group employed by Summer’s Eve to make this campaign) to the backlash against the ads.

There is something to be said for advertising that does not default to representing clients as white (and that something is generally, “Great!”), so I can see how in some initial brainstorming session, someone said, “Let’s represent black and Latina clients in this campaign!” Presumably, that is when the Richards Group’s “in house multi-cultural experts confirmed the approach.”
By Third Wave Housewife • 12 years ago

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

I feel like a stranger on planet earth with all the Harry Potter talk that has been going on. I also grew up with the series as a cultural cornerstone, but I stopped reading the books after #4, and I have never seen any of the films. I admit to being a little jealous, seeing all the talk about J.K. Rowling/the series’/Emma Watson through a feminist lens, but now just isn’t the time for me to get in on the action. So let’s talk about another series with an interesting set of female characters.

The Powerpuff Girls.

That’s one of those shows that clearly had a lot going on beneath its iconically abstract kids’ show exterior. If you need evidence ...

I feel like a stranger on planet earth with all the Harry Potter talk that has been going on. I also grew up with the series as a cultural cornerstone, but I stopped reading the books after ...
By Third Wave Housewife • 12 years ago

Rage against the (douche) machine

Let’s talk about the word “douche.” French for “shower,” in English, the noun form refers to a medical irrigation device; colloquially, an irrigation device for the vagina. Also a verb, “to douche” to use said device to irrigate the vaginal canal or other cavity. Then, there is the slang use: referring to a person as a douche or a douchebag is to call that person a specific type of unpleasant. Personally, I like to keep the slang term true to its roots. When I call somebody a douche, I mean that this person is smarmy, smug, self-important, thinks they know what is best for everyone else…maybe the type of person who kinda hates women and uses some combination of shame ...

Let’s talk about the word “douche.” French for “shower,” in English, the noun form refers to a medical irrigation device; colloquially, an irrigation device for the vagina. Also a verb, “to douche” to use said device to ...
By Third Wave Housewife • 12 years ago

A few (many) harsh words for Erica Jong

Last October, there was a whole lot of talk and writing accusing young feminists of forgetting what their foremothers had done for them, choosing the wrong battles, and letting the progress that had been made slip away. Well, here’s another in that same vein, by Erica Jong.

Her assertion is that young women and feminists have lost interest in sex, and, forgetting (or worse yet, underestimating) the importance of the sexual revolution, are adopting attitudes characteristic of the hyper-repressed 1950s. She fears that this pattern is going to result in feminists losing ground on the issue. The evidence: five essays written by young women…that evince a lack of interest in sex.

Friends, Romans, feminists: are you interested in sex?

Do you ...

Last October, there was a whole lot of talk and writing accusing young feminists of forgetting what their foremothers had done for them, choosing the wrong battles, and letting the progress that had been made slip away. ...
By Third Wave Housewife • 12 years ago

Schrödinger’s Rapist Revisited: Patriarchy Hurts You, Too

(Trigger warning: discussion of victim blaming, rape culture)

I link back to Schrödinger’s Rapist what feels like once a week. I absolutely love this piece. It is incredibly useful in illustrating a uniquely female experience.

The idea of the piece is to explain why women can be so defensive when approached in public. A lot of people surely need the explanation: I’ve had my share of arguments with grouchy dudes who complain that some woman is trying to put a feminist slant on being approached when really, it’s a purely human problem, because everyone gets approached when they don’t want to be! Well, of course they do. Women harass, assault, and rape men, women oppress, women hate, women do horrible things. ...

(Trigger warning: discussion of victim blaming, rape culture)

I link back to Schrödinger’s Rapist what feels like once a week. I absolutely love this piece. It is incredibly useful in illustrating a uniquely female experience.

The idea of ...
By Third Wave Housewife • 12 years ago

Leaving politics at home

It happens all the time: I step out of my comfortable, liberal bubble in which everyone is well aware that I am a loud, proud sex educator and feminist, and suddenly these things don’t go over as smoothly as I’d like. Once, I was in DC to attend the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Young Feminist Leadership Conference, and as my cohorts and I waited for a shuttle to take us from the hotel to the subway, a middle-aged woman and her son came out of the lobby to wait with us. The shuttle pulled up and ten of us piled in and squished seats so they would have room to ride with us. As the van left, she asked us where ...

It happens all the time: I step out of my comfortable, liberal bubble in which everyone is well aware that I am a loud, proud sex educator and feminist, and suddenly these things don’t go over as ...
By Third Wave Housewife • 12 years ago

I’m a nice guy!

I feel like i’m one in a million- One of the “nice guys”. The guy who becomes “too close of a friend to date”, the one who would never take advantage of a girl if she was drunk, or emotionally distressed. As if this con wasn’t enough, it comes with the slanderous stereotypes: nerd, weird, stupid, and any other names that apparently today translate to respectable, timeless, old-fashioned. Does it make me a nerd to want a real, meaningful relationship with a girl? Does it make me weird to actually respect women? Does it make me weird to want more than a physical, one-time encounter with a girl? Does it make me stupid to be equally as turned on from ...

I feel like i’m one in a million- One of the “nice guys”. The guy who becomes “too close of a friend to date”, the one who would never take advantage of a girl if she was ...