Tag Archive for "media portrayals"

Posts Tagged media portrayals

A song of faith and sexual fire: How roleplaying game religions work as moral tools

When one grows up in a traditionalist household, which only ever admitted spirituality of the most reactionary and narrow sort, it is easy to see faith as a rusted chain keeping your head forcibly turned to the leaping shadows of Plato’s cave. My resentment at my Roman Catholic upbringing boiled over into unchecked rage against any and all people of faith, who I blamed for various and sundry ills—like Richard Dawkins, I saw in religion the “root of all evil.” For 18-year-old me, newly flush with age-of-majority status, I celebrated my newfound freedom by ditching the faith of my upbringing and ruthlessly scorning any people of faith as “ignorant” and “backward” people barring the way to true freedom.

People ...

By Chloe Angyal • 10 years ago

Why did TIME think this was a good idea?

I mean, it’s not “Hey you guys have you noticed that Chris Christie is like a big fat elephant?” bad, but I’m pretty sure it marks the official starting point for the next two years of talking about Hillary in the same old bullshit, sexist tone: she’s scary, she’s pushy, she’s stepping on men – guys, she is LITERALLY STEPPING ON A MAN IN THIS PHOTO – and oh, her high heels and her pantsuits.

By Amy S. Choi • 11 years ago

I can’t stop thinking about other people who can’t stop looking at Korean women

Last week, Jezebel ran this story: “I Can’t Stop Looking at These South Korean Women Who’ve Had Plastic Surgery.” The subtitle: “UNNERVING PUSH TOWARDS UNIFORMITY.” (Emphasis original.) The piece discusses the penchant, among South Korean women, to elect for cosmetic surgery. One out of five women in Seoul, in fact. The writer looks at these pictures and finds them very disturbing.

One excerpt:

What’s really unnerving is the push towards uniformity. Instead of celebrating quirks or camouflaging flaws, these photos show a burning desire to fit inside a very narrow scope of what’s seen as beautiful. It’s not about what’s inside, it’s not about character, it’s about an artificial ideal. What would the average South Korean teen think about ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Guest post: Shaming and taming teenage girls

This is a guest post from Australian feminists Nina Funnell and Dannielle Miller.

Nina Funnell is a social commentator and freelance opinion writer. She works as an anti-sexual assault and domestic violence campaigner and is also currently completing her first book on “sexting,” teen girls and moral panics.

Dannielle Miller is the founder and CEO of Enlighten Education, Australia’s leading provider of workshops for teen girls (Enlighten works with over 20,000 girls every year). Dannielle is also the author of The Butterfly Effect – A positive new approach to raising happy, confident teen girls (Random House, 2009). She blogs at The Butterfly Effect.

“America’s favorite shame machine, Lindsay Lohan, has embarrassed herself yet again! …Look away now if you ...

This is a guest post from Australian feminists Nina Funnell and Dannielle Miller.

Nina Funnell is a social commentator and freelance opinion writer. She works as an anti-sexual assault and domestic violence campaigner and is also currently ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Quick hit: Lori on the role of race in the Cleveland, TX, gang-rape case

Do not – I repeat, do not – consider your analysis of what’s going on in the media coverage of the horrific gang-rape case in Cleveland, TX, complete, until you’ve read what Lori has to say about it. From The Grio:

When a situation arises that seems to fit the stereotype — in this case, that some black men do rape — people become frenetic in their deflecting the stereotypes, going so far as to invoke other stereotypes to protect a historically targeted group. This helps contextualize, but certainly does not justify, some of the inconceivable media and community backlash against the young Latina rape survivor, which pointed to her clothing and behavior to attempt the suggestion that she was ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

The Feministing Five: Anita Sarkeesian

Anita Sarkeesian is the founder of the fabulous blog and video series Feminist Frequency, where she analyzes depictions of gender in pop culture in an accessible, entertaining way. Sarkeesian believes that popular culture is a powerful force, one that can shape how we think about the world, and that it even though it can seem silly, it deserves serious analysis: she wrote her master’s thesis on representations on strong women in scifi and fantasy television.

Feminist Frequency is also about keeping that serious analysis accessible to those who aren’t well-versed in academic feminist thinking, or who are just learning to apply a feminist lens to the world around them. And it’s really good stuff. Check out her analysis of Kanye ...

By Rose • 13 years ago

Moms and media spokeswomen rep their natural hair

Love this video. It has been making it’s rounds on Facebook racking up quite a few likes and YouTube views. I enjoyed the video so much because it is straight forward about the harms of adhering to the straight, long-haired standard of beauty and reminds me of one of the things that was so rewarding about interning at the White House.

The video makes no bones about discussing the health harms of straightening chemicals, extensions and weaves, connecting these practices to permanent hair loss and traction alopecia. Additionally, the video discusses that young black girls are harmed too, developing insecurities about their hair. One mother even transitions into a natural hair style to give her daughter a sense of pride about ...