Hasbro's Rose Petal Cottage Commercial #2 - For Moms

Name three things that are wrong with this commercial.

My three:

1. She asks the bear to "try her muffin".

2. Doing laundry equals using her imagination.

3. A place for "her dream to have room to grow" includes a washer, dryer, oven, and bassinet.

Where is her three piece suit, blackberry, and assistant?

Thanks Hendog.

Edit-- There is a new faster paced version of this commercial without the voice over.

Commonalities Rather Than Differences

I have been reflecting this last week on what to make post on. I have been very excited to see what is out there for feminist blogs and the whole community. I have searching all sorts of neat sites that have to do with feminists who are lawyers, pop culture critics, and activists. While doing this I have been discussing my blog with anyone who will listen. One of those people is a dear friend of mine. He also writes a blog and he is an activist for the disability rights movement. He has recently published an article about selective abortions with a well known scholar Alice Dreger .

Now some history with this friend before I continue my story. We have been friends for like ten years or something and as long as I can remember we have disagreed about everything political. We would spend our vacations home from college discussing politics, current events, and anything else we could think of to get the other yelling. There was always a third member to our discussions who is saving the world working for the Peace Corps., but that is another entry. So, this friend and I have come to many understandings about lots of subjects, I think at least over the last few years as we have developed our academic points of view. When reading his article and talking to him I stated, "You know I disagree with somethings that you state in your article, and if I post on it I may write that." He replied brilliantly, "Kris, we have been doing that since like the seventh grade."

One of the main points of contention at various times over the last few years has been the issue of abortion. I am a liberal feminist and have marched for women's rights. My friend is an aspiring bioethicists and philosopher who has often held a different point of view than mine. Some of which are expressed in his article.

I read the article and I had my reactions, but then I had an amazing conversation with my friend about both of our life's passions. Over the past few months as he has taken on his academic endeavors and working with grassroots organizations. I have been working on the front lines with my cause. There is so much common ground between those working for women's rights and those working with disabilities rights.

So tonight instead of using this space to refute points I want to use it to say that there are lots of ways that these two movements are fighting for against a lot of the same oppressions. And I think that if we listen to each other we can work together to make the world a more tolerant place. I think that everyone needs to be heard, but I also think that more listening needs to happen. I listened and discovered things about someone I have known for most of my life and learned all sorts of new and amazing things.

Pseudo Feminism in Mainstream Magazines

I read lots of magazines, because I love fashion and pop culture. Both fashion magazines and pop culture outlets are not feminist (unless you actively seek them out like magazines like Bust and Bitch etc.) Glamour magazine sometimes tries to be feminist and does stories on third world countries and the activist in them and they have the pictures of the villages and the poverty etc. I usually find them to be puff pieces that rarely truly have any substance to them.

I was reading the September Issue of Glamour and I came across a paragraph with a picture of a thong underneath and it read:

Newly Cool: The Va-Jay-Jay!
"Don't let the door hit you in the vagina on the way out." How hard did you laugh at that line in Knocked Up? Yes indeed, when it comes to humor, vaginas are in vogue. Thanks Oprah, whose "va-jay-jay" talk seems to have inspired joking on Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs. Then there was Alec Baldwin's pickup line in a Saturday Night Live sketch: "You know what part of a woman I like best, and I'm not kidding? The vagina." Seems we've all gotten so comfortable saying the V word we can't stop.

There are so many things that are wrong with this paragraph I am not sure where to begin. First, let's think about how hard people like Eve Ensler worked to get the word vagina to be able to muttered in mainstream America. (Ensler is also featured in this issue of Glamour but that is another post all together.) And that feminists have tried to empower themselves and gain ownership over their bodies only to have a magazine highlight the comedic value of a body part?

I think that the mainstream use of the word vagina is another subversive way that media (which is primarily patriarchal) is selling women a version of what they are supposed to be. It is not an empowering message like, "Own your body and sexuality!" , it is the message that your body (again) is going to be cut into pieces and used by men for what they would like.

The comfort level that comes with women like Oprah using child-like slang for her grown up woman parts shows that there is still that Madonna/Whore syndrome going on. It is fine for women to have sexual parts and to use them as long as they are deemed funny and nonthreatening, or child like so that the masculine sexual power can prevail.

Comments?

Popping the Blog Cherry

I went to a Women's Studies Conference and heard a talk on "blogging" and how it is changing the way the legal system works and more pertinent to me a place where third wave feminists can communicate to each other. There is apparently alot of criticism from second wavers to this third wave medium as being "lazy activism." I starting reading some blogs and learning more about this online community and I have to say I am intrigued enough to put my voice out there.

I have been out of graduate school and in the work force for about a year. I have to say my brain has needed an outlet to be stimulated outside of academia and I think this blog may be just the spot. I don't know if anyone will even read this, but I feel like I have some thoughts on current events and things I see that I can share.

Also, one of my close friends who happens to be brilliant writes a blog very eloquently about his passions. We often have conversations about the intersections of our two movements. So here I go....