feministcupcake

Born in Port Chester, NY, I’m the daughter of a gypsy queen and a gynecologist. My parents are divorced, but they jointly support all my wacky endeavors and play a mean game of scrabble. My childhood was filled with rainbows and cotton candy, and I believe that if all children had parents like mine then world peace would be right around the corner. As a young woman I lived in both conservative, Greenwich, CT and whimsical, Santa Fe, NM. I spent my high school years soaking up all the fancy Rye Country Day School had to offer and in 1996 I entered Rollins College. Much fun was had, resulting in a degree. After College I studied at Oxford University and following that moved to Paris to drink wine and eat cheese. After my European sojourn, I completed my MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College and I am now hard at work at a PhD in Women's Studies in sunny south Florida. I’m married to a dreamer who calls me pumpkin poop and makes me feel like burping hearts. I laugh heartily and sometimes giggle too, (depending on how attractive you are.) Advocating gross consumption of popular and not so popular culture, I rent five movies or buy three books at a time because I want to watch or read them all and just can’t pick one. I also freely offer to share my oatmeal chocolate chip cranberry cookie recipe, which is by far the best in the world. When I'm not busily reading the mind aching works of feminist philosophers, I am the Chair of English and Communication at Keiser University - where I bust open and enlighten young minds everyday.

Posts Written by feministcupcake
By feministcupcake • 12 years ago

Ellen Page – Can she tell us what a Feminist is?

Originally Posted @feministcupcake.com

Academy-award nominated actor and notorious converse sneaker wearer, Ellen Page repeatedly calls herself a feminist and speaks in an informed manner about a number of feminist issues. She’s “very much…pro-choice.” Gender-based socialization makes her “wanna vomit” (complex.com), and she’s frustrated that women “get paid less than men” and that their bodies are “treated like ornaments” (uncut.com). Popular Feminist blogs, magazines, and other media outlets[1] celebrate her as a representation of Feminism, on and off the screen, and in the 2007 article, “Ellen Page, Playing ‘Honest, Whole Young Women,” journalist Neda Ulaby explained that Page  “is often approached, admiringly, about her appetite for, taking on feminist roles.”

In other words, fans and interviewers perceive and interpret Page as a feminist. With this understanding of Page as representative of feminist, I’ve come to realize that an examination of Ellen Page is necessary because looking at Page allows us to define how our society represents a feminist.

Page definitely reveals kind of a feminism, one which seems to promote female empowerment gained via an assimilation of traits associated with hegemonic masculinity: emotional stoicism, self-reliance, aggression, and violence. In contrast to the current and arguably negative representations femininity, Page is framed as the subject in images and film, rather than the object, but at the same time the images of her as subject are coded as masculine ...
By feministcupcake • 12 years ago

The Age Old Question: Is Lady Gaga a Feminist?

Originally posted @feministcupcake.com:

A few weeks ago – okay, maybe it was a few  months ago - V - of The Porch fame brought up the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities. The topic raised concerning this list was the fact that Lady Gaga had sprinted past the big O earning the #1 spot. At the time I was pretty flabbergasted and called for an explanation – I wanted details – I wanted to genuinely understand the credentials that made one eligible for this position and it turned out that in this case the argument was quite limited. The list only dealt with a year at a time, and it was Gaga’s domination of ...

Originally posted @feministcupcake.com:

A few weeks ago – okay, maybe it was a few  months ago - V - of The Porch fame brought up the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities. ...
By feministcupcake • 12 years ago

Italian Vogue’s Curvy Cover…Is this continued objectification?

Originally posted @feministcupcake :

So the feminist blogosphere is talking about the “plus-size” models on the cover of Italian Vogue.  This year I am presenting a paper at NWSA that deal with issues I think this image is raising yet  again – My paper was concered with an image in Glamour Magazine in 2009 – Perhaps you remember it:

The Glamour article entitled “Oh. Wow. These  Bodies are Beautiful.”[1] looked to prove plus-size[2] models equal in Beauty to their super thin counterparts. The article questioned the beauty/fashion industry’s obsession with thinness and announces Glamour magazine’s pledge to start a “body confidence…revolution” (Field 241). As you can see above, the visual ...

Originally posted @feministcupcake :

So the feminist blogosphere is talking about the “plus-size” models on the cover of Italian Vogue.  This year I am presenting a paper at NWSA that deal with issues I think ...
By feministcupcake • 12 years ago

15 Books Every Feminist Should Read

Originally Posted @feministcupcake

1. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

2. Gyn/Ecology by Mary Daly

3. Borderlands/La Fontera: The New Metiza by Gloria Anzaldua

4. The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor

5. Goddesses and Monsters by Jane Caputi6. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature by Val Plumwood

7. Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

8. Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace by Sara Ruddick

9. Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture by Janelle Hobson

10. The Unbearable Weight by Susan Bordo

11. Pornland by Gail Dines

12. Guyland by Michael Kimmel

13. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

14. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center ...

Originally Posted @feministcupcake

1. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

2. Gyn/Ecology by Mary Daly

3. Borderlands/La Fontera: The New Metiza by Gloria Anzaldua

4. The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjoo and Barbara ...
By feministcupcake • 12 years ago

All Feminists are my kind of Feminists

Originally posted @Feminist Cupcake: So recently I have encountered two things that deal with questions of masculinity and the oppressions that men suffer a blog entry by Pris Killingly @R]Evolutionary Witticisms in 4/4 Time entitled Our Boys Are Being Failed – A Primer and an awesome masculinist blog called No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz? – which I mentioned yesterday or the day before.   A conversation regarding questions like do men belong in the feminist movement might clarify for some of you ideas about  social justice. If you read my blog regularly you’ll remember a post I made a few weeks ago about inequalities in social justice. With reference to these ideas, I have often ...

Originally posted @Feminist Cupcake: So recently I have encountered two things that deal with questions of masculinity and the oppressions that men suffer a blog entry by Pris Killingly @R]Evolutionary Witticisms in 4/4 Time ...
By feministcupcake • 12 years ago

Social Justice is about everyone, isn’t it?

Originally posted @ Feminist Cupcake: So lately I’ve been encountering some troubling stuff. Stuff that makes me question my allegiance to the feminist tribe. (Well, sort of.) In particular I have encountered three conversations with feminists that make note of the idea of limiting the sphere in which one can truly be a feminist.

The first instance was a comment from a good friend – one I know to be an active advocate for social justice of all kinds. In fact, I would argue that I have almost never hung out with her without discussing some way in which the current social systems are hurting or inhibiting the needs and desires of honest hard-working people or animals.  ...

Originally posted @ Feminist Cupcake: So lately I’ve been encountering some troubling stuff. Stuff that makes me question my allegiance to the feminist tribe. (Well, sort of.) In particular I have encountered three conversations with feminists ...
By feministcupcake • 13 years ago

Currently, I’m Diggin’ The Hunger Games

Originally posted @ www.feministcupcake.com

The word on the street was I needed to read Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games. (By street I mean my super cuddly but totally badass women’s studies  friends, right?) And to be honest, this recommendation wasn’t just at a low hum – this was a full on YOU – YOU with your interest in feminism and YA lit, YOU MUST READ HUNGER GAMES came from the A-1, top of the heap, head of the coven, the most righteous feminist I know, Jane Caputi. (<—- that’s a link to her books, but If you don’t know Jane you can check out an old interview with her by clicking here). ...

Originally posted @ www.feministcupcake.com

The word on the street was I needed to read Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games. (By street I mean my super cuddly but totally badass women’s studies  friends, right?) And to be ...
By feministcupcake • 13 years ago

So, I went to the movies – no strings attached.

Those of you who know me personally know that despite my feminist leanings and my best intentions, I am still a sucker for hollywood. In particular, I love romantic comedies and teen  flicks, (not to mention teen television and YA novels). When it come to these often patriarchal films, I am not a complete push over – and by that I mean I don’t just sit there and sop up the cheesy without thinking about it, and I certainly don’t take chauvinism lying down. But, I know that merely buying the ticket is a donation to the kind of media that promotes a male dominated asymmetrical gender dynamic.

That said, I saw No Strings Attached this weekend. For those of you who don’t know, ...

Those of you who know me personally know that despite my feminist leanings and my best intentions, I am still a sucker for hollywood. In particular, I love romantic comedies and teen  flicks, (not to mention teen television and ...