Tag Archives: sexist

Jon Hamm: Mo’ Betta Male Role Models

4 Oct

Here’s reason #109 to love gorgeous Jon Hamm. Turns out he only plays a 1960′s sexist, womanizing cad on TV (AMC’s ‘Mad Men’) because he clearly knows women—and what he knows is our society needs better male role models. He spoke out against rape and its life-ruining legacy, and called for a more respectful culture. Now THAT’S swagger!

Spread this beauty.

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GQ Full Of ‘GLEE’: Sexing Up Teens

21 Oct

Oops!, pouty teen girls draped on school lockers did it again. That is, made ya double take with fascinated (or –ingly faux) shock, and then stare blatantly. Parents groups are going bonkers and for the Parents Television Council, GQ’s November photo spread “borders on pedophilia” by sexing up the teen characters (played by Lea Michele and Dianna Argon, both 24, and for which Aragon somewhat ramblingly apologizes) of the hit high school TV show ‘Glee’. A show about an underdog clique. Huh. For those unfamiliar with the show, these images are absolutely not truth in advertising. Furthermore, as if illustrating how conflicted and split our culture’s views of sexuality (and girls, and youth) are, the day after the cover was announced, People’s reader poll was a close shave at 51-49% Yes the photos are too racy.

But all this hoo-ha isn’t as much about a men’s fashion mag (GQ: Look sharp, Live smart) sexualizing female youth (‘Glee’ male co-star Cory Monteith is fully clothed, with his hands on his co-stars’ booties) in a medium readily accessible to impressionable children’s eyes and minds — it’s predominantly a really, really great press stunt to sell more GQ mags at the expense of sexualizing female youth and warping impressionable minds of future loyal readers.

If this was really about borderline pedophilia, where was the outrage over actual teenaged Taylor Lautner’s (confusing because like Michele and Aragon, he’s of age at 18) bemused but non-patronizing profile and spread this summer pimping sartorial porn ($625 button downs and $745 six-pack-hugging T-shirts, and jeans that have such difficulty staying buttoned, apparently the wearer would be wise to lay down on a bed topless to do so)? Ever since I was an impressionable child under the 18-end of GQ’s 18-49 year old demographic, my vague sense of GQ was that it was a men’s fashion magazine with eh-so-what metro sexual (just not labeled that then) if not biblically strongly homoerotic leanings. To both, so what? If I equally vaguely recall feeling that it was cool guys had a mag that told them how to rag fashionably (if a bit staidly back in the day), I do clearly remember semi-gloating that its great looking glossiness would never evoke emotion (precisely because of its staid airs and implied correct rules of dressing) as much as the pervasive women’s pubs that did the same thing (albeit with a lot more pink lipstick) — and isn’t that how we buy something/-one?, via emotional impulse/response?

So is this new fangled trend all the kids are doing now of selling things with sex going to irrevocably warp their minds and provoke the ire of sexist terrorists the world over? I say: probably, because if it ain’t broke… The one thing I’d like to see change is our culture’s attitude that a young girl/woman’s sexuality needs more lamblike protecting than that of our young boys/men’s minds, attitudes, and actual sexuality (Mary Kay Letourneau/Debra Lafave much, anyone?).

How does the GQ sexed up images of styled-as-under-aged girls in an adult men’s magazine make you feel? Will you let your young son or daughter look at it? Why or how is the sexualization of young girls/women worse than that of their male counterparts?  — PopSmarts

Image: Terry Richardson/GQ

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© 2010 Simone da Rosa and PopSmartsZen™. All rights reserved.

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Rhianna: Influential Siren for Anger Management

8 Sep

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn

Well that’s alright because I like the way it hurts

Just gonna stand there and hear me cry

Well that’s alright because I love the way you lie

I love the way you lie

—Rhianna’s chorus, Love the Way You Lie

No matter what key you sing it in, those are some controversial lyrics. This Eminem and Rhianna ditty also ranks #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, Rap, and Ringtones lists for the past 10 weeks. Those are the words kids have been listening to on TV, in heavy rotation, and every time their phone Pavlovianly rings for two and-a-half months during their summer break by two of the most popular and controversial music artists around. After Rhianna’s beating by ex-Disney ex- Chris Brown earlier this year, how do you feel about her serenading your kids that she likes how it hurts by her B/F? What about the perennial down and hard-core Eminem’s so-called cleaned up self coming back after a three year hiatus crooning:

Don’t you hear sincerity in my voice when I talk?

Told you this is my fault, look me in the eyeball

Next time I’m pissed, I’ll aim my fist at the drywall

Next time? There won’t be no next time

I apologize, even though I know it’s lies

I’m tired of the games, I just want her back. I know I’m a liar

If she ever tries to fuckin’ leave again,

I’ma tie her to the bed and set this house on fire

I’m just gonna

One mommy of tween girls is disgusted by the abuse of Rhianna’s powerful sway over young girls (and women much older) and says, “These women have not only personal responsibility, but a professional responsibility. I get that Rihanna may not actually have a clue about the effects of what she’s putting out there just by her personal life—patterns of abusive men 1) manager who stole all her money, 2) Chris Brown 3) new boyfriend accused of abusing his last girlfriend—but let’s face it, a song condoning getting hit and threatened by a boyfriend should clearly register with her brain as this is not an ok message to send. You know, that’s why there are laws that you can’t tell people to kill someone or commit violence on the radio or TV. People listen to this info from celebs and think differently about it. Crazy, silly and scary…but true. And let’s be real, Rihanna is no one our girls should be emulating.”

While another friend and mommy of teenaged girls tells me, “Is he rapping it for her or is she singing it for him or vice versa. They both lived it, the day it happened, my girls took Chris Brown off their iPods and he’s never been back. They think she’s watching this happen to her but because she THINKS thier love is so intense, she makes excuses but eventually, she gets burned (not literally) cause she’s only fooling herself. For him, he knows he can lie and she will stay until he can’t live with himself for doing this but won’t live without her, not so far fetched…..sadly. The message is, look what’s happening if you’re on the outside, this is what it looks like, wake up or this can happen.”

I think clearly there is an age and guidance issue at hand — hey!, maybe that old Tipper Gore’s Parental Advisory thing wasn’t sooo far off the mark, despite its (lower case) nazi tendencies. I very much doubt 11-year old PopSmartie pants would have thought this was a pro-violence song, but that would be directly because of the world I live/-ed in. What about those of a malleable age who live in homes with less responsible adult guidance, environments and school cliches where it’s considered “strong” to be abusive, and so many other places where it’s awesome just to have a man…any man?

Hear it & watch it and sound off in Comments.

Image: Aftermath Records

SITE IMAGE NOTICE: The images used on this website are believed to be public domain. If you feel any of these images or videos are violating your copyright, please contact (popsmartszen@gmail.com) and we will remove them as soon as possible.

© 2010 Simone da Rosa and PopSmartsZen™. All rights reserved.

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When Perfectly Good Pussy Is Bad

26 Jun

Here Kitty Kitty

“Dont’ be a pussy” is a sexist statement to my ears, and it’s my generation’s version of today’s school kids calling things that aren’t cool “gay.” I come from a city where calling someone gay is not an automatic insult, plus I’m a writer who thinks common slang is the poetry of human anthropology, so it took this aware smarty pants a painfully long time to hear what these kids were truly saying. I think something similar but different happened to/for me with the anti-pussy dis. “Don’t be a pussy,” I finally realized, was always like nails on a chalkboard to me. But in my urban, P.C.-addled mind, the discomfort this phrase made me feel, instantly defaulted me to over-intellectualizing and trying to rationalize away the anxiety and anger feelings (as in, “Hey!, maybe it’s just my old Catholic imprinting that says this is a sexual word and, you know, that’s what make it (note the use of “it” outside of me) seem so bad”). All that contortion — anything but — accepting that this phrase clearly means being a woman is dreadful, or to be lesser than in our society.

My point is that insidious blandness becomes blind acceptance of language and catch phrases (i.e., marketing taglines; character/movie catchphrases that induce a feeling or sell lifestyle) is common to our existence. We hear something over and over and until we believe, accept or start buying into it. Ubiquitousness numbs, and that is what marketers and politicians count on to sell us stupid crap (including identities and ideas) we don’t need but for “some reason” feel we need to keep up or get on board with…lest we be considered gay.

Let’s get back to being a pussy. In our testosterone culture (even in the movies and shows I most love “The Sopranos,” “Big Lebowski,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” et al), calling someone a pussy is a common way to put some poor, usually thoughtful, guy down. [Now even women are being called pussies when they are considered to be weak! When “pussy” is made to be a gender neutral insult, that is the ultimate cultural sterilization of female power.] It’s meant to liken the poor guy to being weak as a woman. Apparently, we’ve been told over and over, it’s the lowest thing you can label a real man. Not only does its throwback ignorance piss me off regularly, but as someone who finds humor in nearly everything, I despise that the phrase usually ends with someone(s) laughing. This is untenable.

I take my power back on this one by speaking up and sharing my view that this is a sexist statement whenever I hear it being used. And that makes me feel a bit more connected to and empowering of my second chakra and I have noticed an opening up (and inner smiling) of my third chakra which is the will and power center.

I’ve firsthand heard men laugh at the notion this is a sexist phrase and pooh-pooh it as a “Get over yourself”-ism. As if someone like me has ever been accused of being overly sensitive. I think…the patronizing is due to…me being…a woman. What do you think? What does this debatably disgraceful and definitely tired phrase mean to you, your daughter, your son?

Beware of cunning linguists.

SITE IMAGE NOTICE: The images used on this website are believed to be public domain. If you feel any of these images or videos are violating your copyright, please contact (simone.popsmarts@gmail.com) and we will remove them as soon as possible.

© 2010 Simone da Rosa and PopSmarts™. No materials may be used without expressed written permission.


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