Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

The famous Victoria's Secret Fashion Show airs tonight and the show always manages to stir up a lot of mixed feelings. The show consists of the famous Victoria's Secret Angels who walk down a runway wearing close to nothing while famous musicians perform on stage. Victoria's Secret produces the show every year to promote their sales for the upcoming holiday season. Some people dread the show and refuse to watch while others can not wait for it. 

Is the Victoria Secret show a good thing or bad? Do girls have a reason do dread watching stick thin models strut their stuff or should we be embracing our sexuality and the beauty of the human body?

Those who love the show (mainly the male population) view it as a celebration of beautiful women. Some girls watch it for motivation to start working out or eating healthier. Some watch for the glitz and glam of the show and the artists who perform. Although there is nothing wrong with appreciating beautiful women, I believe there is a lot of harm that comes from watching the show.

Even the girls who couldn't wait to watch the show, often find themselves regretting watching it afterwards. I have seen an endless amount of tweets and statuses tonight about girls joking that they are never going to eat again after watching the show or plan to workout until their legs fall off.  

Since when is it funny to joke about issues as serious as eating disorders? I remember talking to many girls last year who said after watching the show they felt their self-esteem was lowered and watching these supermodels walk in their skimpy lingerie made them feel worse about themselves.

The show seems to feed negative emotion into a part of society that is already suffering from body dissatisfaction. The causes of mental and physical harm after watching the show do not seem worth it to me, and there should be more messages about women loving and cherishing the body the way it is now, instead of trying to reach an unrealistic ideal.

Public Harassment

Living on a college campus, it is almost impossible to walk the streets and not get publicly harassed. It is highly likely to occur during nighttime on the weekends, when many people are intoxicated and more likely to shout whatever comes to their mind. Our class discussion today on public harassment reminded me of an instance a few weekends ago.
My friends and I were at a party when a guy grabbed my friends butt. Now I have seen this plenty of times where a random guy will grab or smack a girls butt and the girl either laughs it off or just yells "PERVERT" and walks away. Although no one wants to be called a pervert, neither of these actions will prevent the random guy from grabbing another girls butt. My friend took a slightly more humiliating approach.
After the brave young man grabbed her butt, my friend whipped around, pinned him up against the wall and firmly said "touch me again and see what happens." The look on this random guys face was priceless and he quickly turned bright red. There was a group of people who witnessed this incidence and everyone was slightly in shock that my friend called out this random guy for grabbing her. The guy tried to deny it but my friend said "don't EVER grab my butt again" and a few people applauded as she walked away. The guy practically ran out of the party due to the humiliation he just faced for being called out for sexually harassing a girl he didn't know.
I was so proud of my friend for standing up for herself and not allowing herself to be another victim of public harassment. If more people are willing to stand up to the perpetrator and not accept the molestation, we will take steps towards eliminating public harassment.

Toys by Gender

Now that it is December and Christmas is right around the corner, there is a big emphasis on presents and toys for the holiday season. As a student in Women's Studies, it is impossible for me to not notice all the gender segregation of toys.
I went the to the Target online website and you can narrow your search by clicking which age you are shopping for. Nothing wrong with that, but there is also an option to narrow your search by gender for toys by clicking "Girls Toys" or "Boys Toys." The girls toys link redirected you to all the "top toys" for girls. The toys included mostly dolls but also materials for arts and crafts, dress-up clothes and stuffed animals. These are all stereotypical toys that girls, through gender socialization, are taught to play with from a young age. The boys link, on the other hand, takes you to the most popular toys for boys. These toys included action figures, riding toys, and lots of Hot Wheels and Nerf guns.
By separating the toys by gender, we are applying gender socialization on children at a very young age. It is not wonder people grow up to be sexist because as a society, we are teaching our children a binary understanding of gender. By giving the option to "shop by gender" we are enforcing the binary of gender to separate girls and boys. Why can't you buy an action figure for a girl? Why would it be frowned upon to give a boy a doll for Christmas? If we expect gender segregation to stop, we must put an end to the binary understanding of gender.

The Hangover 2 Controversy

For one of my Adventure in Women's Studies events, I attended the "Q is for Queer" event on campus. While at the event, the movie The Hangover 2 was brought up during discussion. A girl at the event discussed the controversy of one of the scenes in the movie that really opened my eyes.
The scene she brought up was when the guys in the movie are trying to figure out what happened to them the previous night and Alan remembers they were at a strip club. The guys go to the strip club that they were at the night before to see if they can find anymore clues about what happened to them. While they are at the strip club, the guys find out that Stu engaged in sexual intercourse with one of the strippers. Stu, who is engaged and has his wedding in a couple of days, is obviously upset to hear that he cheated on his fiance with a stripper. The guys reassure him that everything is okay and try to play it off as no big deal. Phil even tells Stu that he technically isn't even married yet and the guys laugh about what happened.
The scene becomes controversial when Stu and his friends find out that the stripper is transexual. Based off of a heteronormative viewpoint, the guys all assumed the stripper was straight. This takes things to a whole new level. Stu quickly turns from being disappointed in himself to being embarrassed and disgusted that he participated in a sexual affair with a transexual person. His friends are all in shock and now all of a sudden him cheating is a huge deal.
The girl who brought up this scene at the "Q is for Queer" discussion opened my eyes to how controversial this scene is. Why is it not a big deal if Stu would have had sex with a straight stripper, but since the stripper was a transexual it is all of a sudden not okay? The men in The Hangover demonstrate a homophobia and a strong sense of compulsory heterosexuality.

I did not include the link to this scene because it is highly inappropriate but it can be easily found on Youtube.

Romantic vs Stalking

A couple of weeks ago in class we discussed how easily romantic gestures can turn into forms of stalking. These overly romantic actions can be found in just about every Lifetime or romantic chick-flick movie ever made. I am a sucker for cheesy, romantic movies so I should be considered a pro when it comes to knowing romantic movie scenes. My all time favorite movie is The Notebook and there is a famous scene in the beginning of the movie when Noah first meets Allie. Noah spots Allie while they are at a fair and quickly approaches her. When Noah tries to talk to Allie she denies him immediately and shows no form of interest. Instead of backing off, this encourages Noah to try harder and he ends up climbing into the seat of the Ferris Wheel in between Allie and another man. This is where things get "romantic." The man in charge of the Ferris Wheel stops the ride and yells at Noah because three people are not allowed to sit in the ride at the same time. I am not sure what the ride owner expected Noah to do considering the fact that he stopped the ride at a very high point, but Noah being the hopeless romantic he is, decides to climb out and hang from the ride. This act of love is extremely dangerous but suppose to be the most romantic thing a man has ever done. He continues to hang while asking Allie if she will go on a date with him. Allie refuses until Noah makes the situation even more dramatic and hangs by only one arm. While everyone is shouting at Noah to knock it off and get back into the ride, he responds by exclaiming "not til she agrees" meaning not until she agrees to a date with him. Finally after Noah's single-handed grip is starting to slip, Allie agrees to go on a date with him.

Before taking this Women's Studies class, I would never have considered this type of gesture as "stalking." I mean, what girl doesn't want a guy to risk their life by begging them to go on a date with them (especially Ryan Gosling)? Not until after the class discussion did I realize how quickly romantic gestures can cross the line and turn into stalking.


Here is a link to the Ferris Wheel scene from The Notebook: http://youtu.be/3Up9NA6YLNA

Love the Way You Lie

While reading the article "Battering and Physical Abuse" I instantly thought of the music video from the song "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem and Rihanna (I included the link at the bottom of this blog). The song is about domestic violence and the music video shows an intense example of an unhealthy relationship to put it lightly. The video shows a couple (Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan) who are trapped in an abusive relationship and although the article from the book tells us that women are "5 to 8 times more likely to be victimized by an intimate partner" this music video shows both the man and woman are both contributing to the abuse. The video starts with the couple cuddling in bed and within seconds they are wrestling each other and Megan spits into Dominic's face.

While watching the video and seeing the couple constantly emotionally and physically fight you wonder why doesn't one of them leave the unhealthy relationship? I believe the video does a very good job of showing the cycle of violence that is discussed in the book. The book states "first comes the buildup of tension when violence is brewing, second is the violent episode, and third is the honeymoon phase when men tend to be especially remorseful-- even horrified that they could have done such a thing-- and ask for forgiveness." The couple depicted in the music video goes through these phases multiple times and it appears to be an endless cycle for them. Something triggers off a fight (Megan found a phone number written on Dominic's hand) then they scream at each other until one gets pushed over the edge and commits an act of violence. The couple will be slapping and grabbing each other, and then within moments will be kissing and passionately making out. The honeymoon phase may be a bit overly sexualized in this video but at one point Dominic presents Megan with a teddy bear asking for her forgiveness. The cycle continues on and on and it shows how hard it may be to leave a relationship with someone you love, no matter how physically and emotionally harming it may be.

Fun Fact: I read somewhere awhile ago (when the video first came out) that Megan Fox donated the money she made from the video to a shelter for abused women and children.

Here is the YouTube link to the music video: http://youtu.be/uelHwf8o7_U

Divorce and Gender Division of Housework

After discussing the topic of "Gender Division of Housework" on class on Wednesday, I kept thinking of how housework was divided in my family and in other families that I am close with. I noticed how what I think is "normal" for my families division of chores and house work isn't normal for everyone else.
Growing up I never had to do chores on a regular basis. My mom would keep the house very clean and tidy and did all of the inner housework herself. The only time I was expected to "help" (I quote this word since we learned about the negative connotation it carries) was if a special occasion was coming up (a holiday such as Christmas) and I was only expected to dust the family room or vacuum for a little while. Many other families I know have weekly schedules of chores that the children are expected to complete and I always felt so bad for my friends when I was younger because I couldn't relate to the "torture" they were being put through.
 As I have gotten older and more mature, I am starting to realize now how much I took my mom and all the work she does around the house for granted. Helping me realize how lucky I was to have such a hard working mom is my boyfriend who's parents divorced when he was in middle school. My boyfriend lived with his dad all throughout high school and only has one older sister who moved out and was not around the house often. Due to the lack of women in his house, there is obviously a huge difference in the division of housework at his house compared to mine. He has been taught for awhile now to clean his own clothes and dishes, clean up after himself, prepare food for himself, and many other "chores" that my mother still to this day does for me. It's very interesting, at least for me, to see the difference in lifestyles between him and I due to the differences in our upbringing. My boyfriend is very independent and self-reliant, while I am still very dependent and rely on my mom for a lot.
I suppose the moral of this blog post is how big of an impact the division of housework can have on someone's future and although chores may seem like a pain when you are young, they can teach important values you will use throughout your life.