Don't Believe The Hype

A teen girl gets active on the skinny model debate..

Y'all have probably seen some comments around this blog from Money Miss... a teen who maintains her OWN coolio blog  called  Feminism and Lipgloss , where she explores important questions about what it means to be a feminist today for young women....and where wanting to be pretty fits in.

Well, she's industrious that one... and she's started a campaign to ask Teen Vogue to use more realistic models in their fashion pages.

Not only is that a worthy goal ('specially since the teen mag genre is shrinking fast with the demise of Teen People and Elle Girl in the last few months....) but it's also a great cause because Money MIss is a young woman speaking out and trying to create change. If you've read my book All Made Up, you might remember that in Chapter Three (which is all about The Media) I chronicle how magazines REALLY DO tally up all the letters of complaints and praise they get, and take note of that when the plan new stories.

So why not join in and see if we can sway Teen Vogue.  Is it possible?  Tough to say.  I mean, they ARE Vogue after all.  But then again, no magazine likes tons of articulate letters telling them what's wrong with their product, and why its subscribers are about to cancel their subscriptions....

Find out more and get involved HERE,

and link to Teen Vogue's website HERE

The many looks of Paris Hilton

...This is just for goofy fun.

http://parisfacial.ytmnd.com/

Thanks, Ran!

Men fighting for women's rights

Eve Ensler, creator of the Vagina Monologues and Jackson Katz, an amazing activist who educates men about women's issues, are teaching a Men @ Work: Men Working to End Men's Violence Against Women and Girls  workshop on Saturday June 24th in New York City

Topics include:

• Redefining Masculinity;
• Recognizing Family Violence;
• "Beyond Beats and Rhymes: an exploration of sexism, homophobia and misogyny in Hip Hop";
• Fathering: Finding the tools for breaking the cycle of violence, and becoming a leader in your community to end violence against women.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

It's for men only, but I'm going to see if I can try and go to at least the opening or the closing of the event.  If I make it, I'll make sure to update you.

All the contact info etc is below and also at the V Day website

Men@Work: Men Working To End Men's Violence Against Women And Girls
Saturday, June 24
11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (light lunch will be served)

 

Location: Columbia University School of Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Ave., 3rd Floor, Rooms 311/312, Between 121st Street and 122nd Streets, NYC

 

Space is limited, RSVP to tony at vdayorg or 212-645-VDAY (8329). Sponsored in part by The Avon Foundation

 

Love your body!

Came across this random sign at a construction site today on my way to the gym.  Just plastered over some posters for new movies and plays etc....

It made my day!

The media finally catch up

Two interesting articles have appeared in the past two days about celebrity hype.... 

One had the good sense to quote me and mention  my book All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty.

Check out a great deconstruction ("Pop Singer Makes Slaving for Beauty Look Ugly") about Pink and Stupid Girls at Women's eNews  and another smart piece about media aimed at young women ("Return of the Brainless Hussies") at Salon.com  (Note:  to read a full article at Salon you either have to be a subscriber or get a 'day pass' which is free.  All you do is click to read the article, but before seeing the rest of the text you have to look at a full page ad.  Perfect time to check your email and then continue to the rest of the piece.  It's well worth it!)

*******

And I just wanted to say how COOOOOL my national radio tour has been.  Like when I was on the Leeza Gibbons show and she kept saying "I LOVE this book."  Or when I got on the line with DJ Karen Clauss KSMG FM in San Antonio.... and she cancelled on me on the spot because she wants to be bring me on for a whole half hour sometime in the next few weeks instead so we can really get into these issues and how they affect young women. (I'll keep you posted about when that's supposed to air).

It's been fantastic... and encouraging to know that the media--the entities that shape our pop culture--are taking about these important issues...

And hi to all my new readers who have come on over from Mariska's blog!  I'm having a blast reading all your smart comments... so thanks for posting!

How F&$^$&!! Cool Is That?

Say TTFN to the Swedish Bikini team....

...Dove is bringing its Campaign for Real Beauty to the Superbowl on Feb 5th! (See USA Today article here)

The audience: 90 million viewers

The price of ads: 2.4 million for 30 seconds

The stakes: high

The message: Real beauty comes in all shapes, sizes and colors

Priceless, priceless, priceless.....

Yay! (I think...)

A few weeks ago there was an article on MTV.com titled "Can't Squeeze Into a Size 2? Neither Can Teen Mags' Newest Models". Accompanying it was the now-famous photo of the Dove girls, in all their plus-sized splendor and sassy white undies.

The articles says "Real girls with real hips are giving the waifs of runways past a run for their money?"

Really?

Cause I've been reading a lot of hate (misdirected and erroneous hate, in my opinion, but hate nonetheless) about how gross it is to see "real" women like the Dove girls in ads. Crap like "If I wanted to see fat people, I wouldn't look in magazines etc."

I'm from the school of thought that every little bit is progress (I love ya Dove for what yer doin'). And if the teen mags think that images of REAL girls sell, and change their content so they can sell more mags and keep making money... wellll, I'd call that the power of the people and their pocketbooks.

And given who's in currently charge at some of the teen mags (the very cool Atoosa Rubenstein at Seventeen, Christina Kelly at Elle Girl and Susan Schulz at Cosmo Girl) , I'm optimistic things will keep improving.

What do you think?

That's What I'm Sayin'!

Actually... this should be filed under "Random Acts of Smartness"...

The editors of Bust magazine have dedicated their Dec/Jan 2006 Editor's Letter to pointing out the hypocrisy and cultural mystery that IS Adam Corolla. They say it better than I ever could, so let me quote a bit:

(Just to give you a little context, the eds are complaining about how there are enormous billboards of his smug, ugly mug right outside their offices...)

"Adam Corolla, who based his career on being a sexist jerk on The Man Show (hey, but it was ironic!) and whose pairing with Dr. Drew on the sex advice talk show, Loveline, is one of the worst possible castings in the world--like walking into your gynecologist's office to find out it's been turned into a frat house.

Adam Corolla, with his perpetual show-me-your-tits-sneer, giant Pez-like teeth, and dude-fro that make him ressemble a Brady brother missing link. Adam Corolla, so much of whose schtick involves discussing what does or does not make a women sexually attractive...

If there was a woman as unattractive as Adam Corolla on television, she'd probably be the first on his list of people to ridicule. But of course, there would never be a woman as unattractive as Adam Corolla on telelvision, because unattractive women aren't allowed on TV. And if, by some miracle, there was an unattractive woman on telelvision, she'd be playing the role of "the unattractive woman." She certainly wouldn't be given her own late night talk show, let alone two TV shows at the same time.

Did you know that there were actually people who complained about that Dove ad campaign? Turns out they found images of less-than-model-perfect women in white underwear to be offensive...."

Too bad no one gets as upset over the double standard that is embodied by Adam Corolla.....