Hey everyone! This is Genevieve, sometimes known as UneFemmePlusCourageuse. I’ve read and commented here for a while, and I’m one of those new people who will be writing this column. Sooo, let’s have a go at it, shall we?
Over at Pajiba.com, a review of The Rachel Maddow Show, probably the best news show out there now (at least for crazy liberals like myself).
Sarah Haskins of Target: Women has been everywhere in the feminist blogosphere in the last few months, and Jezebel has an interview with her.
Several bloggers…among them Cara, Lynne of The F Word, and Renee, have been calling attention to Pepsi’s latest horrible ad campaign. Because apparently women are worth no more than soft drinks.
Chevy plays to the stereotype of the ridiculous materialistic woman–and with a gas-guzzling SUV, no less. From Feministing.
Beyonce has an interesting new video exploring gender roles in relationships. From the Feministing Community Blog.
Ampersand from Alas, a Blog writes about the new Watchmen adaptation and how its directors just can’t seem to allow a character to be fat.
Jesse Taylor and Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon review Rock Band 2.
Kate Smurthwaite of Cruella Blog talks about some awful headlines in British free newspapers.
MzBitca of A Crazy Random Happenstance discusses the awesome female characters of Harry Potter, focusing particularly on Molly Weasley.
Carrie Brownstein, of Sleater-Kinney and the blog Monitor Mix, wrote a funny list of songs that could save a person’s life (and how.)
Sweet Machine over at Shapely Prose has an open thread up about Halloween costumes. And Kate Harding discusses what an asshole Denis Leary is (personally, I have despised Denis Leary for a long time.)
And something I’ve been enjoying…and being unnerved by…lately–Linda Hirshman’s serialized novel Red State over on RH Reality Check.
And because I’m not above self-linking…Hannah Montana is racist.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Welcome.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
Thanks for the link!
Ampersand(Quote) (Reply)
Thank you. Glad to be here.
Genevieve Dusquesne(Quote) (Reply)
It should be noted that the ad in question isn’t actually an ad from Pepsi. Of course, the fact that any advertising company thought that was a good pitch ad is pretty vile, but Pepsi didn’t buy the ad.
Anna(Quote) (Reply)
Ugh, that anyone would create that and think nothing of it bothers me. Publicity stunt, accidental leakage, whatever.
sbg(Quote) (Reply)
Both Renee and Cara’s posts on that ad got goblin infestations trying to defend it; that sickens me about as much as the ad itself does.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, I saw the ad goblins. And essentially what all of them are saying is: “don’t look at this the logical way. Look at this the illogical way! Then there’ll be nothing wrong here!
Ugh.
Genevieve Dusquesne(Quote) (Reply)
As far as Beyonce’s song goes-like a lot of her songs, I feel it’s a great sentiment but she gets bogged down on her appearance. It’s about how, if she were a guy, she could ignore her parner, turn off her phone so people think she’s single, enjoy the attention of her colleagues while expecting her partner to be faithful, accept her parnter’s lavish attention then flirt with colleagues in front of them and have the audacity to say ‘why are you jealous, it’s not like I’m sleeping with them’. Then it flips so HE’S the one taking HER for granted.
Great play on the double standards… but in both scenarious, she’s svelte and fashionable while he’s casually dressed. In the first scenario, she wears a skin-tight, low-cut cop uniform with hat tilted, it looks like an unoriginal guy’s fantasy.
And this is the problem I have with Beyonce in general. A lot of her lyrics are empowering but the outfits she wears negate that. Even when she’s talking about the double standard, she meets it by having her persona be far more overtly sexy then his.
Scarlett(Quote) (Reply)
Anna, I can’t remember where I read it, but someone discovered that Pepsi has bought ads from the company that made this one. Pepsi claims the ad company made this spontaneously and they rejected it, and then *somehow* it wound up on the internet. It strikes me as bizarre that an ad firm would “accidentally” leak a commercial which is their intellectual property, which could be re-tooled and sold to another client, without somebody getting fired. I would expect Pepsi to be yelling and the ad firm to be publicly apologizing and explaining how good their security procedures normally are. I mean, if they would leak this one, they might leak one Pepsi actually wants, and ruin the surprise when the ad shows up on TV, right?
It is therefore not unreasonable to speculate the whole thing is a publicity stunt in which Pepsi is a full participant. They may even find the ad objectionable, but not be above using it to generate some buzz.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Ah, here’s the link:
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/10/calling_bullshi
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer–
I believe I linked that article in the “Lynne” hyperlink in the original article. I did have a tendency to believe what she said, rather than what the Pepsi people wrote back to Cara.
Genevieve Dusquesne(Quote) (Reply)
Oh, yep, you did. Sorry, I missed it.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)