Tag Archives: feminism

My Day At Stiletto Spy School

Justine FieldsAugust 12, 2009 //

Angelina Jolie in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” Jennifer Garner in “Alias.” Pretty much every Bond girl, ever. There are few things I love watching more than a woman who can look crazy hot while simultaneously firing an automatic weapon and outsmarting the bad guy. So, when I heard about Stiletto Spy School, which teaches women in New York and Las Vegas how to be über-femme fatales, I couldn’t resist registering for a class, or as they call them, “missions.” I signed up and, on Saturday morning, headed to school for an eight-hour class. I knew that, over the course of the day, we’d be performing four “operations.” Only, I had no idea what I was actually in store for. Keep reading »

British Youth Get Domestic Violence 101

Ami AngelowiczAugust 11, 2009 //

During grad school, I worked part-time in a gift shop for extra money. I’ll never forget the day glamorous, model-esque bookkeeper Lucy came into work wearing dark Chanel sunglasses. I could tell something wasn’t right. “What’s going on?” I asked. Lucy lifted her sunglasses to reveal two black eyes. Thus began my crusade to help Lucy get out of her abusive relationship, which resulted in me picking up her and her suitcases on a dark corner at night, her boyfriend threatening to “beat the crap” out of me, and Lucy heading straight back to him eventually. This was my first but sadly not my last time seeing the destructive domestic violence cycle. It left me feeling angry and helpless, wishing there was something more I could do. Keep reading »

Airbrushing Facebook Photos Is The Vainest Thing I’ve Ever Heard Of

Jessica WakemanAugust 11, 2009 //

Airbrushing: It used to be only for average-sized women on ladymag covers and Gisele’s pregnant belly. Now, according to The Sun, some Facebookers are touching up their personal photos to plump boobs, flatten bellies, and whiten teeth. One British photography shop said customers who want their photos airbrushed have increased 550 percent. Keep reading »

Confessions Of A (Maybe?) Excessive Drinker

AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 //

Last night, I got drunk. (A few too many Blue Moons.) The night before that, I got drunk. (Vodka tonics.) The night before that, I got really drunk and accidentally made out with a dude two degrees skeevier than I would normally go anywhere near. (Shots followed by champagne.) The night before that, I … got drunk. (Blue Moon. Again.)

I bet you’re starting to notice a pattern here. Keep reading »

Today’s Lady News: Sonia Sotomayor Sworn In As Supreme Court Justice

Jessica WakemanAugust 10, 2009 //
  • “Wise Latina” Sonia Sotomayor took the judicial oath of the Supreme Court on Saturday morning. She is the first Latina and the third woman to sit on the Supreme Court. [New York Times] — Her first case will be a snoozy-sounding campaign finance matter. Unless you’re into that sort of thing.

    • Keep reading »

Love-Shy Men Blame Their Virginity On Women

Wendy AtterberryAugust 10, 2009 //

An article on Times Online introduces us to the term “Love Shyness,” a rare psychological “condition” (it’s not included in the American DSM-1V — “the clinicians’ bible for psychiatric diagnoses”) that affects only men. Love-shyness is a kind of chronic shyness that makes it nearly impossible for a man “to initiate or to engage in romantic interplay.” That’s not only foreplay we’re talking about — love-shy men have trouble even making eye contact with someone of the opposite sex. They have a hard time carrying on a conversation with women, shake uncontrollably in their presence, and sometimes even sob. Not unsurprisingly, these men are “terminally, heartbrokenly, virginally lonely,” and if their message board on Love-Shy.com is any indicator, they blame women for their sorry state. Keep reading »

We See Chick Flicks: “Julie & Julia”

Leonora EpsteinAugust 10, 2009 //

Starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams
Directed by Nora Ephron

The Lowdown: Here’s what I wish the title of this movie was: “Julia.” Period. No Julie, just Julia.

Julie, who you probably know as the blogger and author who cooked through Julia Child’s recipes in a year, is a drip. Julie (as played by Amy Adams) is a self-acknowledged failure on the brink of 30, who had striven to publish a novel and instead wrote only a portion of it before settling for a dreary Manhattan office job. A painful commentary on the state of professional women, there’s the lingering stereotype (and, admittedly, partial reality) of the “lost” thirty-something woman that hangs over the climate Julie exists in. Keep reading »

Is The Secret To “Mad Men”‘s Success The (Mostly) Female Writing Team?

Jessica WakemanAugust 7, 2009 //

After “Gilmore Girls” and “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” went off the air, us smart ladies looking for strong female characters flipped through the boob tube channels, alone, confused, and bleating for someone, anyone to come to our rescue. (Sorry, but Liz Lemon on 30 Rock never fails to piss us off for always coming around to see her boss’ point-of-view by the end of the episode.)

Female leads we could identify with—um, no you, Kate Gosselin, are not what anyone would expect to find on a show about the boozy, womanizing, frat boy culture of a 1960′s Madison Ave ad agency. But the nail polished fingerprints of the seven women who comprise “Mad Men”‘s nine-person-strong writing team are all over every episode. [Wall Street Journal] Keep reading »

“Asian Trophy Wives”: A Label We Could Do Without

Jessica WakemanAugust 7, 2009 //

See that older white man over there with the younger Asian woman on his arm? That might not be love—that might be an Asian lady fetish. Author Ying Chu suspects as much, a subject she explores via an uncomfortable trend piece in Marie Claire about rich men like Rupert Murdoch and Woody Allen and the ladies she suspects are their “Asian trophy wives.”

“…[A]fter two or three failed attempts at domestic bliss with women of like background and age, these heavy hitters sought out something different. Something they had likely fetishized.”

Keep reading »

Female Iraqi Wrestlers Face Hardcore Opposition

Nikki DowlingAugust 7, 2009 //

Girls on Iraq’s first all-female wrestling team in Diwaniya are being threatened and ostracized because people believe their participation in this sport is a “transgression” and could lead to promiscuity, loss of femininity or worse. Four girls have already quit out of fear, and I’m not surprised. One sexist tribesman said those who continue to wrestle should be “slaughtered.” Keep reading »

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