Don't Believe The Hype

I wanted to write about something happy... or inspiring today..

But I can't find anything to mention...

Besides, I'm totally obsessed with the whole firestorm surrounding author Kaavya Viswanathan (who's a student at Harvard) and her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.

Here's quick recap:

1) A few months ago EVERYONE in book publishing was talking about this upcoming book because it was so fantastic and the author is so young.  And authors like me were salivating over the fact that Kaavya got a $500,000 two book deal, a 100,000 print run AND that the book was optioned by DreamWorks before it even hit the stores. Press appeared everywhere from the teen magazines to USA Today calling the book great!  Fantastic! etc

2)  I started reading the book about a week ago.  I bought my copy last month, and finally settled down to it.  It's not bad, but there are product placements on nearly EVERY page, making it read like a Gossip Girls book... and as you know, that's just not my thing.

3) SUDDENLY this week, there's press everywhere saying that Viswanathan plagiarized passages/sentence structures from noted Chick Lit author Megan McCafferty, who wrote Sloppy Firsts.  A few web sites even put the paragraphs in question side by side... and you really can see how they are just about identical.
 

It's still not known exactly how much plagiarism was intended, or whether or not the book packager , 17th Street Productions, had something to do with all this..

(A book packager is a place where you can go with a story story idea, like say, about an Indian girl who wants to get into Harvard... and they're the ones to be like "YES! and we can make it Young Adult Chick Lit!  And we'll get all the right product and celebrity names in it so it will really speak to teen readers etc")

And so now, Opal Mehta is being recalled (a HUGE HUGE financial loss and embarassment for the publisher) and Viswanathan will probably have to go on Oprah to apologize even though she's never been on there to be praised.

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So what does all this have to do with the subject of this blog?  Not too much, except for that fact that even book publishing is always looking for the next star (a HARVARD student!  Who's Indian!  and HOT!  Quick sign her up and talk her up like she's a star!).... because we live in a culture that revolves around celebrity.  One can go from an overnight sensation--literally the best thing ever--to well, someone who might have trouble getting a job after graduation.

Oy Men! Again with the pitting women against each other business.

A few weeks ago, I posted a rant about how a male reporter chose the "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful" approach when writing about Salma Hayek.

Today, the New York Daily News chose the same lame ass approach when reporting on Gwyneth and baby Moses.

"Here's another reason to envy Gwyneth Paltrow: She just had another baby, and she's slimmer than ever.

"Last time you saw me, I was out to here," the 33-year-old mother of Moses told friends at the Food Bank for New York City's Can-Do Awards dinner Tuesday honoring REM front man Michael Stipe. She put her hands out a foot in front of her - then patted her perfectly flat tummy.

The lithe Gwyneth, in black slacks and jacket, sported open-toed heels with a matching dark maroon manicure-pedicure and a freshly highlighted ponytail.

"He's so cute, he's so great," Moses' mom gushed while her husband, Coldplay's Chris Martin, posed with Stipe and kissed him on his forehead. "We have to get home soon," Martin told the honoree....." (for the rest, link to the article)"

MAN. I know this is out of a paper that isn't known for hard hitting news coverage and that it's on a gossip page, but the writer gets paid (way more than I do!) to come up with THAT?

And why would anyone ever lead with such a theme? So that all the women reading who aren't genetically programmed to have a "perfectly flat tummy" or to be "lithe"--or who don't have a nanny, trainer, gym membership etc--can hate themselves because they don't resemble what's "enviable." So EFFING WHAT?! I say.

The part that really gets me is that guys always remark about how girls really dress up for other girls, not for them...because it's the girls who are so crtical. There is truth to that... but we weren't born that way, ya know. It's because we clue in at a pretty early age what traits have status and cachet, like say, oh, being "lithe" and having a "perfectly flat tummy" (as aptly pointed out in this article).

THAT'S what gets noticed. THAT'S what gets praised and held up as something worthing wanting... So women and girls figure out how to get it for themselves (eating disorders, plastic surgery, etc ) and along the way learn (from major newspapers) to hate the women who have it easy.

ENOUGH ALREADY....

It's a Marketing Bonaaaanza

Talk about trading on celebrity hype (not to mention further blurring the line between advertising and editorial content...)

The new website, SatrStyle.com lets you buy the things you see the stars using on TV.

You like the pink bedroom shown on The Real World Key West? It's yours.

You want to wear the sweater worn by some air head on The Young and The Restless? Kaching.

All you do is click on the item, and the site tells you what stores carry it....

I know some purists will say that this is no great transgression. That that line has long been crossed; that women's magazines are nothing but ads (hello Lucky!); that TV shows are just vehicles designed around ad slots.

And that's all true. But this just seems like one more step down a slippery slope.....

"Hands OFF" I said

Today, Reuters reported that female commuters in Rio de Janeiro now have a choice: they can be groped and assaulted in the main carriages of many buses and subways OR they can choose the Ladies Only cars, which have pink stripes on the doors and windows.

Apparently Mexico City and Tokyo have also instituted similar measures....

I know I live in a (feminist) dream world... but imagine if all the money spent on retrofitting public transit systems was spent on a public awareness campaign instead... something that actually aimed to try to change the culture that encourages or allows men to grope women who are just minding their own business on public transit.

I know that's a long shot because changing culture is hugely difficult. But since it's my blog and all... I thought I'd put it out there. Because the who pink stripe-y cars might protect women while they're on public transportation, but it really doesn't do much to help them, say, on the walk home from the bus stop in the dark.

Plus it's a little too much like a Burka, ie men can't control themselves... so cover the women!

I've got a new boyfriend....

"What scares me with pop culture is...looking at my younger brother and sister and their friends, seeing my little sister's friends looking, like, to Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton--I just don't think that's anything to strive for. I don't think those girls are too happy. And it's like, the culture os so focused on a more self-oriented, luck-based mentality. It's like get what's good for you. It's a herd mentality that's really about making money...."

--Josh Hottie Hartnett in the New York Post from uh a few weeks ago (My mom sent it to me in the mail!)

On Friday night, I sat in a room with greatness

And her name is Eve Ensler (author of the Vagina Monologues)

If you haven't read the Good Body then good GOD woman, stop reading this blog and go get a copy... because it's the most brilliant take-down of commercially-driven beauty standards ever written...adn a great inspiration and comfort.

Eve's performance was outstanding... and she drove home really salient points like:

1) the American Dream when it comes to what a woman should look like has become the American Nightmare for so many women today striving to achieve it

and

2) There is no joy in perfection... so we should just stop thinking it's so important.

Promise me you'll read it? I gave it to all the women in my life for Christmas last year. It's THAT important....

I mean really, who has the time for this crap?

I flipped through the March 2006 issue of this fine magazine (that I've never written for...yet!) at the gym today and found this useful article...soI just have to share a few choice tidbits:

Add Boutique Touches to Your Closet: You'll be opening its doors every day, so why not make your closet as pretty as the wardrobe inside?

1) CREATE ATMOSPHERE
Make your closet feel like a chic boutique, "a place you want to linger," says Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York. "You'll have fun getting dressed and feel better about how you look." Have a comfy chair nearby so you can sit as you try on shoes.

[Audrey's Reponse: What kind of jack ass advice is that? How about advising women to linger less in the closets...and spend more time getting out there to change the world. NOT that I expect that kind of advice from In Style. That would be cuckoo of me. But REALLY. Imagine how different the world could be if we all spent less time having "fun" in our closests as we sat on comfy chairs playing dress up.]

2) GIVE IT PERSONALITY
Inject signature elements into the space--pick a paint color or wallpaper you love, add moldings to chelves, or install vintage hooks. Line It to the Limit organizer Ruben Lopez suggests covering shelves with fabrics, as he recently did for Demi Moore. "She chose an ultra suede to give shelves a finished but rough look."

[Audrey: Note to self, find out what celebrity trends are hot in closet shelf coverings this season and come up with plan to earn extra money in order to hire closet designer to the stahhhhs to come in and give my closest its own 'look' that when people see (cause sometimes we all hang out in there to have fun) they'll think 'That's SO Audrey!!!!']

3) SPLURGE A LITTLE
If there is one thing to indulge in, it's nice hangers, say organizers. 'For a uniform look, swap out your hangers with walnut, birch or maple ones," suggests Lara Greenberg. "It pulls everything together."

[Audrey: Egads! Someone try to get that genius Lara Greenberg on the line for me, wouldja? Because APPARENTLY, she's figured out that if I used all the same of one product--it'll look uniform. (In truth, that's not the genius part. It's that she got quoted as an expert in a top magazine for saying such drivel.)].

4) SEE YOURSELF CLEARLY
A full length mirror is a must--as is good lighting. Jessica Duquette, of In Perfect Order, likes incandescent lighting: "It's bright enough to illuminate the entire closet. You'll get some shadows, but you'll have a more natural light to see how colors match up."

[Audrey: a) Is this woman seriously telling us to rewire our closets so we can 'match up' colors--which she makes sound harder than brain surgery in her quote.
b) What if the closet designer I hire isn't also a lighting specialist? THEN what? I mean clearly you have to be well-versed before you can even enter this highly competitive industry. Well versed, AND wholly capable of coming up with a snappy name for your company like Order in the House or Just Hanging Around.... (watch, someone is going to steal those from me. I should trademark them FAST to protect my intellectual property... but I don't have time.... I gotta go figure out which kind of paint best helps preserve clothes made of natural fibers....

Two things that are bumming me out today

Now I'm not going to get all political but (which means I totally am....)

Today I got this in an email from Planned Parenthood (an organization I support)

"An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to one of Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group — one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic, and was designed expressly to lure our patients and deceive them.

The group took down the girl's confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their "other office" (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there — the "crisis pregnancy center" had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.

The "crisis pregnancy center" staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl's home and calling her father's workplace. Our clinic director reports that she was "scared to death to leave her house." They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion."

That story disturbs me greatly. So much so, there's no need for comment.

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The other thing I have to vent about today is Miss Jamie Lynn Siegler Di Scala No Just Siegler Again. AKA Meadow Soprano.

In an interview last month with Steppin' Out magazine (No, I don't know what kind of publication that is. YES, I do work in magazines. But I try to work for ones that people actually read), JL apparently said this:

"Steppin' Out: You've been on the cover of Stuff and Maxim magazines. Are those magazines still something that interests you, or are you over it?

Sigler: I'm over it.

Steppin' Out: Never again?

Sigler: No."

And yet lo and behold....

Now if *I* had been Steppin' Out's interviewer, I would have put my ace journalistic skills to work for them and asked the big question (wait for it):

WHY are you so over lad mags Jamie Lynn?
Is it because of the way they portray women? Are you trying to do the right thing when it comes to the many girls who look up to you since you came out 'the closet as someone who once suffered from an eating disorder?

I'd also risk pissing off the Steppin' Out editors and use JL's contact info to call back on a "fact checking" call to verify her comments while pointing out that the May issue of Maxim was compromising her journalistic and personal integrity.

But that's just me....

Over privileged college athletes + Strippers + today's pop cutlure = a BIG problem for Duke

Did anyone read Tom Wolfe's book I Am Charlotte Simmons last year?

Well, it's about a shcool that's an awful lot like Duke University and the preferential treatment that star basketball players receive (ie better housing, free tutors to help them pass their classes, etc).

Apparently, Wolfe spent time researching the attitudes and actions of star athletes at several east coast colleges and determined that they use phrases like "cum dumpsters' for the chicks they hook up with but don't care about. The brilliant portrait he paints of them was gross and offensive... but frankly not all that shocking.

And now in a case of what might be life imitating art, several Duke university lacrosse players (who are white) have been accused of raping a black female stripper they hired to dance at an off campus lacrosse party last month.

There's already a lot of controversy around the case, like the fact that it took the woman 3 weeks to lay charges, and the fact that there isn't DNA evidence to support her claim (it's gonna be interesting to know if that's because she didn't go to the hospital, or if because the hospital didn't do proper tests on her because she is a black stripper.) BUT the best quote so far to come out of this mess if from Bill Thomas who represents one of the lacrosse captains. He told the New York Times:

"All 46 young men [on the team] said a crime did not occur, so who she picks, and which men would be involved, is sort of like spinning a roulette wheel," he said, referring to the player or players the woman has identified. "You can imagine that this is a very stressful time for all of those men and their families."

I mean puhlease. As if any of the brothers on team would go against one of their own? That's just comical to even TRY to use that as a defense. Not to mention that every time one of these trials surfaces, there's still always the subtext of "maybe the woman is just bringing these charges so she can have her 15 minutes." Riiiiiiiiggggght. Cause this is exactly the type of experience that leads to fame and fortune. And it's fun, too, to be painted by the media as a feminist gold digger with a grudge.

NOT TO MENTION the fact that no one is asking this basic, important question: WTF were a bunch of college kids doing HIRING a stripper to come a party--off campus or not. I mean, how is it that these "men" are being painted as the victims of false accusations, and NO ONE is commenting on the fact that this isn't really appropriate behavior for college guys.

And while we're on the Stupid Girls tip...

Let's talk about Paris for just a sec:

In one news report I read today, Paris is trying to fashion herself as an independent woman--one who is taking control of her own destiny and making it.

"I am so happy to have so much success," she says. "[My forthcoming] album is sexy and fun and you will want to dance to it. People will see that I am talented. I think people like me because I am very real myself and I lead an exciting life. There is no one like me. I am unique."

and

"I worked hard for all this. I tell girls that if you basically work hard all your dreams will come true."

Perhaps.

Then I see a photo like this (of her and her BF Stavros the-Second-Greek-Guy-She's-Been-With at an LA Lakers game):

And all I see is a desperate girl trying to get a guy's attention by fawning all over him in the most inappropriate manner and place...

So I'm just not buying her as tomorrow's entrepreneurial role model for young women...

But that's just me.