Posted in Men's Rights on May 28th, 2009 by Morgan Elizabeth
If it’s unacceptable to objectify women in ads, the same should hold true for men, as well.
When this ad debuted on an Australian billboard, it was celebrated as “a satirical comment on a patriarchal world.”
How can this be considered witty and respectable? If there were nude women on a leash held by a man, critics would tear the ad to pieces. It’s humiliating for men to be treated like dogs, and it’s shameful for some women to seek power through discrimination – the same type of discrimination they claim to abhor.
Posted in Sex & Sexism on May 21st, 2009 by Morgan Elizabeth
A Romanian teenager just sold her virginity for £8,800.According to the UK’s Daily Mail, Alina Percea, barely 18, auctioned her virginity on a website last week, so she could afford to pay for college.
The auction winner, a 45-year-old Italian business man, paid for her flight to Venice, met her with a box of chocolates, and took her sight-seeing before they checked in to a hotel. There, she had to provide a certificate verifying her virginity before she was paid for the service.
She said the man “didn’t say if he was married or had a family, and I didn’t ask him.”
Percea isn’t the first to profit from society’s virginity fetish. Most notably, Natalie Dylan sold hers for $3.7 million back in January of this year. Alina Percea credits Dylan with giving her the idea, saying she was “inspired” when she read the story on a German erotic website.
Dylan, a 22-year-old from San Diego, began her online auction in the fall of 2008. Bidding reached $243,000, until a breast augmentation and the added publicity of Howard Stern’s radio show rocketed her into multi-million dollar territory.
Natalie Dylan, Before and After
Since prostitution is illegal in most of America, she completed the transaction through Nevada’s Bunny Ranch brothel.
Unsurprisingly, these events have sparked a series of international debates, a mixture of public intrigue and outrage. Some laud the girls for making widespread perversions work in their favor. After all, they’re raising money to get an education.
On the other hand, at least in Dylan’s case, it’s arguable that America doesn’t practice what it preaches. With very few exceptions, our national laws decry and criminalize prostitution. However, the media rewarded Dylan’s behavior with incredible attention and financial success, not unlike the pseudo-celebrities whose careers were launched by sex tapes. She has since been paid to make appearances at parties, and recently signed a book deal with David Black Literary Agency.
The obsession with virginity is a widespread phenomenon that’s existed for centuries. If so many people are preoccupied with being “the first”, is it really about the appreciation of purity, or merely about conquering un-touched territory? Are they captivated by the presence of innocence, or just relieved there’s no frame of reference for comparison?
Britney Spears made a name for herself as a happy, wholesome pop star who was saving herself for marriage. Her image was shaped as a virginal lolita, a persona of “innocent seduction” that launched her to superstar status.
Former Spears lawyer Eric Ervin, however, said in November, 2007, that the “virgin” image Spears portrayed was a “PR blitz.” He’d been engaged in the media cover-up of her sexual activity from the time she was 14. They chose to hide it from the public because “virginity is a hot commodity, even if it’s an illusion.” And, it worked.
Punishing pedophelia is borderline hypocrisy in a culture that promotes rampant over-sexualization of teens and preteens. Young actresses and pop stars are harassed and objectified by men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers. Stars like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen twins even had fan websites with countdown clocks to the very minute they became “legal”.
The Olsen twins, at ages 15 and 17
Britney Spears, at ages 16 and 17
Lindsay Lohan, at age 17
Many young female celebrities are promoted with implicit sexuality before they’re 18, and immediate explicit sexuality the moment that fateful birthday arrives.
In a recent CBS Sports Community discussion entitledWho’s On Your Countdown Clock?,one father writes, “mylie cyrus will be 18 soon,and i can finaley throw that bag of candy thats been under my truck seat away…besides im tired of bribeing my son into watching hana montana…lmmao” [sic].
Miley Cyrus, at age 8
Miley Cyrus, at age 16
Interestingly enough, the latest generation of tweenie-pop princesses (primarily Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale) have spawned from Disney shows and movies. With their images strictly managed by the Mouse, the girls are now the ones sexualizing themselves, as evidenced by Miley Cyrus‘ MySpace photos, above.
It’s no secret that America is obsessed with youth. But the insatiable appetite for seductive young virgins has led hoards of minors to ooze sexuality, often before they’ve even hit puberty.
They’re taught to seek unhealthy amounts of attention that they couldn’t possibly be emotionally equipped to handle. Is it any wonder why Britney, Lindsay, the Olsen twins, and more, have emerged from their teenage years so maladjusted?
If our society claims to be more civilized than generations past, we need a severe re-evaluation of this ever-present fetish.How can we raise our children correctly, if we’re so obsessed with taking their innocence?The quality of life for our young people, not to mention the future they’ll mold and create, is in serious jeopardy.
Posted in Business on May 17th, 2009 by Morgan Elizabeth
Finally! Girls can use computers, too!Dell launched a website this month geared towards women, called “Della”. It originally featured tech “tips” recommending calorie counting, finding recipes and watching cooking videos as ways for women to get the most from a laptop.
TOP 5 WORST FEATURES
ON THE ORIGINAL DELLA SITE
5. Detailed instructions on how to use simple online tools, including Google and Flickr. For those of us who just discovered the internet.
4. Promoting laptops as hot new fashion accessories, because that’s the only reason we’d buy anything technological.
3. Frequent use of the words “totally”, “adorable” and “cute”,because that’s like totally the way we all talk n’ stuff.
2. Offering ways to track calorie, carb and protein intake, and plan “awesome workouts”. Because weight is way more important than education or professional skills.
1. Informing us that, “Once you get beyond ‘OMG-that’s-so-cute-I-want-one!’ (a totally understandable response)…”, you’ll find that it can do more than just check e-mail or shop online.
It was only a matter of hours before the backlash began.Women and men bombarded Dell with complaints and hate mail, followed soon by countless scathing online reviews. This forced the company to rapidly reevaluate their approach, and remove some of the most inflammatory features. Della’s site editor recently acknowledged the new changes, saying, “You spoke; we listened. Thank you for your ongoing feedback.”
However, some sexist clichés take longer to strike from the collective subconscious. In other words, even though Dell claims to have amended its patronizing, stereotype-laden marketing campaign, there is still some work to be done. Just a few short paragraphs below the editor’s response to critics, the site suggests women use laptop tools like “Gyminee [to] help you track workouts and reach your fitness goals. You can even map out new running routes via sites like Map My Run.” This was their way of “tastefully rephrasing” the applications which monitored weight and calories.
Della wants you to know their laptops are sweet n’ cute, just like that chihuahua you carry when you get a manicure! And they know thinness and low weight are top priority, emphasizing how the netbooks can be as thin as 1.1″, and a waif-like 2.5lb. If Dell was marketing to men, they would surely use a completely different vocabulary when describing compactness and portability.
And since women apparently know much more about fashion than technology, Della’s made their new “Adamo”ad look more like a fashion editorial piece than a computer commercial. Who cares about practical and professional applications, when you can have a hot new clothing accessory?
Excerpts from Della’s new ADAMO commercial
That trend, so to speak, continues with Della’s current featured spokesperson, fashion expert Robyn Moreno. The site makes no attempt to explain by any stretch of the imagination how she could possibly be relevant to computer technology.
Andrea Learned, a marketing expert and author of “Don’t Think Pink — What Really Makes Women Buy”, says Dell’s attempt to reach the female demographic is “condescending to women… There’s a level of consumer sophistication they’re missing,” and “that’s when they start getting into trouble.”
Laptop Magazine’s Joanna Stern was among the many outraged by the site. “Guess what, Dell?” she writes, “Women ARE tech-savvy and shouldn’t be placed in a separate box when it comes to technology. We don’t need aPetticoat 5“or a site instructing us how to use a laptop. “It is my hope,” she says, “that we can say Ciao to Della, very soon.”
