While trolling the interwebs because I may (like oh, millions of people) be out of a job soon, i found this gorgeous nugget under the heading "Looking for Massage/Waitress girl for Poke Game":
'We are looking for a massage/waitress girl for a Home private Poker Game. With the economy so horrible this gives you a great chance to earn extra income especially around the holiday season. Must Be Attractive, willing to give massages to guys while they play poker, and order and serve them food. Money is anywhere from $300-500+ a night. Game is played in UES doorman building. If interested please send pics and contact # ASAP."
So they are using the economy to lure women into UES penthouses now? Talk about old-school.
In Cairo, Sharif Gomaa pulled his van alongside Noha Rushdie Saleh last June and grabbed her breast so hard that she fell. Now, he's going to jail for three years - the first time an Egyptian has EVER gone to prison for sexual harassment.
But it wasn't easy to take him there. In Egypt, grabbin' a boob is almost like saying a very naughty hello. According to a Reuters poll, an insane 83% of women have been harassed but only 3% ever report the incident. Police don't listen to complaints and most Egyptians think if harassment happens, usually the woman brought it on herself because she didn't wear a veil or hijab - yet harassment occurs even in those cases (72% of the 83% polled)!
After the harassment occured, Noha called out for people to help her, but they told her she was crazy. She jumped on the hood of her attacker's car to keep him from driving off. Noha and her friend managed to drag Gomaa into the police station - where a policeman refused to investigate the complaint. She actually had to put Gomaa and a policeman in her car and drive them to the booking station herself.
Even though the judge called the case "trivial" (for shame!), Noha got her man in the end, and for that we're going to say "cheers" over some tea and cakes.
Abortion is on the rise in Mexico - but wait - not because of any "liberal" abortion policy there. In fact, Mexico damns abortion with all of its might! There are extremely intense legal restrictions in the country that, even though abortion is technically legal, make it extremely difficult for the average Mexican woman to obtain an abortion. These legal restrictions have pushed Mexico to an unsafe place - an above average rate for abortions worldwide at 33 abortions per 1,000 women of reproduction age. Legal obstacles and fear and lack of access = these kind of numbers:
In 2006, 149,676 women were treated in Mexico's public hospitals for complications resulting from unsafe abortions.
Yeah, yeah, this has nothing to do with America per se, but it has a little something to do with WOMEN. This could easy be "149,676" American women, like your daughter, your sister, your aunt, your best friend. Would you want to see them in the hospital because they had to go to some back-alley doctor?
My mother grew up under Communism in Romania - no access to birth control, no abortions - because Ceausescu (glorious leader) wanted to grow the population to work on the farms. He didn't care that babies were being born into families that didn't want them, not because they didn't love them, but because there was no food for them. Babies should be born into families that can give them a chance to survive and thrive, not just because they "should be" born.
This nugget of truth means you MUST (I'm talkin' to you South Dakota, Colorado etc. etc.) vote NO on the anti-abortion measures being proposed on the ballot in November. See a list here.
In case you haven't been watching television, we live in America, the land of non-accountability. Nobody ever blames themselves for their actions - you can see this behavior from your boss, your kids, and Chairman Fuld of Lehman Brothers.
But when it's your ex-husband blaming you for his own infidelity, that is just so disrespectful and mean-spirited.
He has an interview with Barbara Walters for 20/20 coming out this week. During the interview, he goes on about how Brinkley wasn't there for him emotionally (he wasn't getting a "thank you now and then") and that's why he had to cheat.
It's called counseling, it's called family. Sometimes they are supportive, most of the time they don't say thank you. Not an excuse!
Gay, but a lover of all things womanly, Simon Doonan (of Barneys New York fame), said something that made me smile.
He bemoans the rise of "porno chic" and notes that there is "a lot of conformity, a lot of blonde hair ... I often wonder if feminism was just a dream. I can't believe how women feel so scrutinised, and they're still so self-critical - I thought they would have let go of that now but they haven't. There's a very masochistic thing with women now that I didn't used to see. My girl friends in the punk era weren't like that at all." He looks slightly forlorn. "You know, at least once a week someone calls me up and says, 'Don't you think it's terrible when fat girls have muffin tops over their jeans?' And I say, 'Not if they're happy.' Who cares?"
Flipping through my Marie Claire yesterday, I see a small piece (better than no piece at all!) about the "Worst Places on Earth for Women".
Some of the nations they included are: Sierre Leone, Haiti, Moldova, and Nepal.
Even though the U.S. economy is in a tailspin and we're going to have to bring back the W.P.A. and people are going to be begging from a slice of bread, our human rights have passed the crude, physical assault stage. Instead, we modern society types focus on emotional, subversive, "intellectual" woman-focused assault. We (they?) install a "glass ceiling", refuse to adjust the gap in female vs. male pay, don't offer maternity leave. These are hallmarks of our "modern" society out here in the Western world.
In less developed spheres, ideas like "literacy", "hygiene" and "sexual assault" are only now beginning to enter their societies and become national issues.
A sampling, from Human Rights Watch:
Human Rights Watch has found that Russian government officials reject complaints from victims, refuse to investigate rape, neglect to refer victims to forensic doctors for evidence collection, and drop cases when they believe the victim is “at fault.”
Similarly, in Pakistan, women who attempt to file rape charges face police harassment and disbelief, and may themselves face arrest and prosecution for engaging in extramarital sex.
Women in India face daunting obstacles in prosecuting rape cases, beginning with lodging reports with the local police to confronting judges’ insensitivity to their plight. If an Indian woman is poor, belongs to a lower caste, or lives in a rural area, it is even more difficult for her to access the justice system.
Chuck Lorre, he of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and A Half Men" producer fame, loves writing these "vanity cards". They are on the end part of his shows and usually are extremely sarcastic of other producers/Warner Brothers.
I'm a particular fan of Vanity Card #215, although when I read this aloud (in "the voice"), my boy told me to please, stop.
You know, for their Stepford brides. No, seriously, a study in the United States suggests that "old-fashioned" men, the ones who think women should stay home and make meatloaf instead of mergers, consistently out-earn more than their modern-thinking counterparts. The tune - an extra $8,500 a year!
The study, consisting of 12,686 men and women interviewed in 1979 and three more times in the following two decades, ending in 2005.
Questions floated around during these interviews, like "do you believe a woman's place is in the home", "do you believe that the employment of women leads to higher rates of juvenile delinquency" and others plucked from "Freakonomics".
On the other side, women with "modern" views made $1,500 more than "traditional" thinking women. I bet those "traditional" women are at home baking cookies, perchance?
Dr. Magdalena Zawisza, a psychologist involved in the study, noted that there may be several theories which explain the difference,
"It could be that more traditionally-minded men are interested in power, both in terms of access to resources - money in this case - and also in terms of a woman who is submissive."
Or...
"Another theory suggests that employers are more likely to promote men who are the sole earner...to those [are] not..."
But what about the woman's position - any single mothers out there? Thoughts?
There are definitely people who can't hack a miniskirt. But trying to say that the miniskirt is suddenly indecent after it's been out since the Swingin' London days of the 1960s is a moot point, right? Uganda isn't (by far) the stupidest country in the world. There is a 66% literacy rate and official
language is English and the country seems relatively peaceful considering the neighbors. So why then is the miniskirt suddenly indecent?
Roman Catholics dominate religious thought in Uganda, is it that? Maybe. But I've been to Brazil and it's very Catholic there as well...and I'm sure we've all seen Brazilian cut bathing suits.
The minister also claims that "indecent dressing"is just one of the vices facing Ugandan society. Right, along with
"Theft and embezzlement of public funds, sub-standard service delivery, greed, infidelity, prostitution, homosexuality [and] sectarianism..."
A democratic and free society doesn't impose a dress code on their citizens, especially one that is so shamelessly biased toward women.
I don't like banana hammocks but I don't find it necessary to completely ban them. Maybe if they were banned, we wouldn't have all this "greed" and "theft" we've been hearing so much about from Wall St. lately...
China is having some issues. While the Beijing Olympics were pretty much a hit, they were critiqued for subjecting a young girl to the harsh reality of the entertainment industry (re: lipsyncing) and also for their highly shady documentation of their national gymnastics team. Their human rights practices in Tibet are a national tragedy. We here in the States are pretty upset over their tainted dog and cat foods which are poisoning our pets.
I'm sure the Communists are upset that they can't just make us all shut up, because the sh*t has really hit the fan over there now. Tainted baby formula has been found in Chinese homes and has contributed to acute kidney failure in as many as 158 babies. The total number of babies sick from a poisonous additive - melamine - in the formula has risen to 6,244.
Melamine, an industrial chemical usually used in non-food products like fertilizer, glue and flame retardants, was the chemical that was found in the poisonous pet food that gave us a big scare earlier this year and led to the deaths of more than 8,000 pets.
Sanlu, the parent company of the tainted milk powder suppliers, has seen 22 of their brands contaminated with melamine, mostly in the Gansu province of China (picture above).
China (no matter what they think) is still a developing nation and does not have the regulatory controls set in place to oversee all the milk formula factories. It's like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" over there. My opinion of China and their governmental policies is clear - they have changes to make and those changes will cost them their status if they do not give freedom to their people.
"Authorities are bracing for possible long-term effects from the children's exposure to tainted milk, and pledging free health care for the affected children, many of whom live in poor rural areas where families are less able to afford imported milk brands. Many of the children are suffering from kidney stones, which otherwise rarely occur in infants"
Even if this quote is insincere, it is refreshing to hear that the "authorities" are treated rural Chinese with some sort of humanity.
Sorry readers, I've been out of the country for many weeks now - but I'm finally back! Regular postings (because, it seems, I have not stopped objectifications) will commence...soon.
Another day, another day of "interesting" opinions. I simply can't tell if this guy is being tongue-in-cheek, a big "f-u" to "politically correct" terms, but I'll continue to cringe at every word posted by "Large" of Take A Report. It's like a fascination to me now though. I'll read it, and re-read it, and try to figure out things, and I've realized that Take A Report is like a really quaint idea of some over-the-hill bluehairs think. Really? Cut off Renee's ear to make her prettier? Awkward.
And, snap! He was fired (from Citigroup!) for, you know, being a misogynistic turd nugget.
It just doesn't get any better than this. With Cheney looking on and smiling brightly, ear to ear, behemoth defense contractor KBR made the announcement that they would "ban the use of personal cell phones by its employees in Iraq". While this seems 1984 in its own right, this news comes quick on the heels of numerous allegations of rape by KBR employees, specifically one who was raped, then held captive for days until a sympathetic guard (not one of the rapists) let the woman use his personal cell phone to escape.
This woman, Jamie Leigh Jones, has a foundation to assist victims of sexual assault. It seems like Halliburton and KBR have a history with these pesky rape cases. Draw your own conclusions, but it seems like women should stay away from these places of "employment" if you don't want to be raped.
Working events (besides the Jonas Brothers event in the Hamptons!) is never fun. I've helped out my friends on their hoity-toity promo events and...while I have sometimes reaped the benefits, chaos still can occur.
Matthew O'Sullivan (37) of Los Angeles, has been a very naughty boy. The "Girls Gone Wild" cameraman allegedly lured a 20 year old woman on their bus and she accused him of unwanted sexual contact a few moments later.
I've been to parties with these silly men running around. Please, a free shirt in exchange for keeping my integrity and ability to watch late-night television with my father? If you want to bail Mr. O'Sullivan out, he's going to be arraigned at the First District Court in Central Islip today.
While as a general rule I avoid discussion with many conservatives because of their...weird woman (mommy) issues, I can't help but halfway agree (only to an extent, people!) with Tory education spokesman Michael Gove on the ladymags so popular in Great Britain. Are they corrupting male culture? Are they ruining the desire of the men who read these mags to be fathers?
"Titles such as Nuts and Zoo paint a picture of women as permanently, lasciviously, uncomplicatedly available"
And that's never good.
"The images they use and project reinforce a very narrow conception of beauty and a shallow approach towards women. They celebrate thrill-seeking and instant gratification without ever allowing any thought of responsibility towards others, or commitment, to intrude."
A little lunchtime conversation was turned on its red-hot-sex-me heels today. Meeting with R & A.D. in Bryant Park today and lookie what we talked about.
It started innocently enough, and I don't know who brought it up. Maybe I was discussing my aggressively strappy shoes (because foot circulation is so 2007). Maybe we were talking about cupcakes (Crumbs v. Magnolia...no this was later). Oh! I remember, an overweight woman left her expensive handbag on a B.P. table, and when she had come back to retrieve it, R noticed she needed some support in the boobular area. A.D. starts it off.
I remember I had a less-than-supportive day once. I started sprinting down the street and a BUM, a bum! yells "bouncing, bouncing, BOUNCING!" Well needless to say I was holding my boobs up for the rest of the run.
I continued, with a story from last week.
I was helping my boy's parents with their luggage and as we were walking down the street, I hear "you got a nice little body for a white girl". He continued, essentially screaming at me as I walked by: "how bout I take you home and give it to you better than your husband!"
I think we all have many such stories. Disclose, anonymously, at femasculist@gmail.com.
Steven Hirsch, man with camera, has a new blog,"Courthouse Confessions". He stands outside the Manhattan courthouse at 100 Centre Street and photographs "criminals" walking out of their hearings/trials. It's mostly bullshit that is congesting the court systems - lapsed speeding tickets, right to assembly arrests, "stolen" property and also an "assault" by Nina Montanez. A guy called her out on the street, she defended herself against him, she got a black eye, he called the cops on her, she wound up getting arrested.
Here is her description of what happened before the "assault"
If you want to approach me, you tail to me in a different way. You know what I mean? You don't talk to someone, you don't try to get somebody's number by saying you got a big butt or nice breasts. You know what I mean. I'm a grown woman. I don't like disrespect.
I'm trying to keep this tres equal between the genders so, while sexual objectifications of women have been joked about & discussed for oh, since the dawn of man, men are now getting to be the brunt of the jokes and catcalls as well.
Besides individual anecdotal accounts, advertising is the most saturated way citizens see imagery. Advertising, in theory, tells us how to feel about products. Look at David Beckham. He's smokin' in these Armani underwears. Yet, Beckham will never be in YOUR bed wearing these underwears, so why do we care? Young men aren't going to do any self-examining of their physique and, unfortunately, your boyfriend probably won't do more pushups.
The traditional gender role for men emphasizes power. Making sure we're all on the same page, Beckham looks supplicant, right? He's saying "look at me!", almost desperately. Thinking beyond the fact that he's in an underwear ad, he's there for women (and some men) to look at, hungrily, longingly.
So we're here to talk about that too.
Don't get so down though, I'm not saying men don't deserve to get the "bedroom eyes" from women...just it may not work out so well (and vice-versa). Case in point:
Look, I know we're all here to procreate and spread Man everywhere (blah blah blah) but sex at work...my, isn't that just 2005?
A Russian judge tossed out a perfectly good court case today involving an executive and her touchy-feely-in-a-gross-way boss. The judge even went as far (probably not to him) as saying: "If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children,"
There have been only two successful cases of sexual harassment in Russia, one in 1993 and the other 1997. What is wrong with people? If you honestly think that slapping a woman on the ass means she wants to take you to a conference room and give ya one, there is something wrong with you.
Women are second-class citizens in too many countries. Even in supposedly modern societies like the U.S., women (and men) still have to deal with unwelcome ass-grabbing.
Article 19 of the Russian Constitution specifies says that men and women are to be considered equal. What is equal about this situation?
I'm going to say it, I'm sick of being a sex object. Since puberty, it's been a nonstop barrage of "hey baby" this and "give me your number, sugar tits" that, and maybe I'm just giving myself room to vent, but I think sexual objectification, in all its forms, needs a niche in the public discourse. S.O. is always going to happen, but instead of being mad about it, I thought it might do some good to talk about it.
Thinking of the public good, I decided to name this here blog "femasculist" - a mash up of "feminist" and "masculist". Both offer similar feelings on objectification.
To educate the poor souls:
"Sexual objectification is objectification of a person. It occurs when a person is seen as a sexual object when their sexual attributes and physical attractiveness are separated from the rest of their personality and existence as an individual, and reduced to instruments of pleasure for another person.
The concept of sexual objectification and, in particular, the objectification of women, is an important idea in feminist theory and psychological theories derived from feminism. Many feminists regard sexual objectification as objectionable and as playing an important role in the inequality of the sexes. Some feminists and non-feminists, however, argue that increased sexual freedom for women and gay men has led to an increase of the sexual objectification of men. Thus, the objectification of men is an important idea in masculist theory."
Come away with me...as I chronicle my current life and retroactively post my past (bad fashion, bad hair, bad choices?). See how I find my absolutely full to the brim lifestyle. My travels. My loves. My friends and my family. My books. My clothes. My teeny apartment in New York City. My being in grad school. My vintage fashion obsessions and ridiculous love of shoes. My newest acquisitions. My ETSY. My background. My alma mater. My definitely not singing in the shower. My turtle. My cravings for chips and salsa. My cooking. My trusty DVF luggage. My life, packed in here.
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