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By jessmess • 16 years ago

Women smell!

Last night my fiance and I were watching the Bill Maher documentary "Religulous". I won’t speak too much about the content of the doc itself, but just of a comment that Bill said during that bothered me.

He was speaking of the absurd tales of the Bible, specifically the one where Jonah gets swallowed by the whale for 3 days. (Whale or big fish, who knows). Then he jokes that yeah, in Japan, people go into a large tuna for 3 days for spa treatments. "When they come out and they’re all refreshed but smell like pussy."

WTF!

My first thought was how he equates the fish smell with the p-word and why. (Hearing a guy like that say the p-word just absolutely squicks me out). My second thought was "What kind of women is he having sex with?" It’s like he thinks that every woman’s nether regions smell that way. As women, I know we’re sensitive to our smell down there, thanks to the beauty industry and men like Bill.

Anyone care to put into words more eloquently why I’m disturbed by this?
By jessmess • 16 years ago

What defines a feminist movie? Ruminations from The Wire….

I loved the commentary following Rose Afriyie’s post, "The Wire’s Gender Problem" http://www.feministing.com/archives/018754.html.

Everyone brought up great points, and since my SO and I are big fans of the show, we had a great discussion at home about it.

He brought up a question: What would be a feminist show/movie? What would it entail, who would it focus on, what would be a good plot?, etc. 

As far as The Wire goes, I am of the belief that it was showing patriarchal systems that don’t always include women (unfortunately) so it stuck to its’ "authenticity" in that way. Yes, it didn’t have the women’s experiences that I would have liked, but again, it was mostly framed from male-dominated fields.

I explained that there may ...

I loved the commentary following Rose Afriyie’s post, "The Wire’s Gender Problem" http://www.feministing.com/archives/018754.html.

Everyone brought up great points, and since my SO and I are big fans of the show, we had a great discussion at home about ...
By jessmess • 16 years ago

Sexism at the movies, but not on the screen: My viewing of Julie and Julia

Greetings, all! I saw Julie & Julia this weekend and absolutely loved it, but I’m not here to give a review of the movie. Instead, I wanted to share about the experience of a sexist asshole movie theater employee.

He was taking our tickets and commented to my fiancee on our movie choice, "Ah, J&J, don’t expect her to cook like they do in the movie!" To which my fiancee responds that I already do.

No problem, we get in to the theater and settle down. Before they start the previews, the real fun began.

The same usher comes to the front of the theater and gets everyone’s attention. He starts by surveying the crowd and saying, "Oh, this might be a record, ...

Greetings, all! I saw Julie & Julia this weekend and absolutely loved it, but I’m not here to give a review of the movie. Instead, I wanted to share about the experience of a sexist asshole movie ...
By jessmess • 16 years ago

Male Privilege: How to make someone recognize it?

I need some help from my Feministing friends: How do you help someone to recognize their privilege?
Namely, my boyfriend. I try to explain to him what ‘male privilege’ is and he just can’t get it. All I want to do is help him to recognize it and be more aware of it, but he seems to think I come at him aggressively or very blame-y when I try to explain.
Even on here I can’t really articulate anything.
-I explained that he doesn’t have to experience pay discrimination for equal work like some women do-he then turns around and says that I’ve never been discriminated at work, and you know what? I haven’t.
-I told him how a woman ...

I need some help from my Feministing friends: How do you help someone to recognize their privilege?
Namely, my boyfriend. I try to explain to him what ‘male privilege’ is and he just can’t get it. All ...
By jessmess • 17 years ago

Consent Question

We’ve been talking a lot about the huge fallout of consent/rape issues in the new Seth Rogan movie ‘Observe and Report’ here on Feministing and elsewhere.
The issue with that scene is consent, and whether it ever occurred. I’m not going to rehash the clip, but I would like to bring up a similar instance of ‘questionable’ consent.
I was watching Sex and The City on tv last night while cooking and it was the episode where Miranda meets the handsome cop after Carrie gets mugged. She is nervous on her date with him and proceeds to get very very smashed on probably more than 4 double vodka martinis. After their date, they head to her place. She’s slurring her ...

We’ve been talking a lot about the huge fallout of consent/rape issues in the new Seth Rogan movie ‘Observe and Report’ here on Feministing and elsewhere.
The issue with that scene is consent, and whether it ever ...
By jessmess • 17 years ago

Career Advice: Feminist degrees and jobs

I dropped out of college because I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do. Now I’m re-enrolling this fall and want to pursue something in the women’s studies area.
There are a lot of talented and intelligent women and men on here and I need some advice: What are some good careers for a feminist to go into? What are some good areas of study?
Any advice would be well appreciated!

I dropped out of college because I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do. Now I’m re-enrolling this fall and want to pursue something in the women’s studies area.
There are a lot of talented and ...