Children at play: The war on pink There is a resurgence in response to the wash of pink aisles for little girls, by those who object to the gendered way toy marketing is being done, writes Judy Crozier. PINK FILLS THE GIRL-AISLES of toy stores, because everyone knows what little girls want, what little boys want. Isn’t that so? We know the categories from which to choose — boys have go-get-‘em toys like trucks, things you can build, models of muscle-bound heroes or villains. Girls have domestic toys — the tiny ironing board, the dolls, the little toast rack. So that’s clear. Many of us don’t think that’s so. Way, way back when I was a new mother, we visited a family with two young boys. The boys’ mum turned to me, raised her eyebrows and said: “I just don’t know what they do with them for hours!” I looked at those little plastic figures scattered amongst the sandals and socks, and it came to me: "Well, after all, what did we do with dolls?’" So I made my boys a dolls’ house and a splendid one it was, too. She looked at me:
Van Badham battles the Brosphere: On women, trolls and the Australian media in 2013 Social media is the new democracy of Australian opinion. Not so long ago – like, you know, the dark ages of the 1990s – participation in the contemporary political discourse was a privilege of, well, privilege. If you didn't have the time and money yourself to create your own publication and distribute it (hello, The Chaser!) The selection process of the latter were, of course, drawn from the unacknowledged, systemic prejudice that talks about "merit" even as it seamlessly restocks its ranks of middle-class, white men. Now, one no longer requires a broadsheet masthead above a headshot to claim a public media platform, and Twitter is the new distribution. Perhaps due to the phenomenon of watching Australia's first female prime minister forced, position notwithstanding, to suffer the sexist indignity so familiar to Australia's working women, local feminist commentators have found a ripe readership for their opinions. Participating in this discussion and its activism is exhilarating.
When God Was a Woman When God Was a Woman is the U.S. title of a 1976 book by sculptor and art historian Merlin Stone. It was published earlier in the United Kingdom as The Paradise Papers: The Suppression of Women's Rites. It has been translated into French as Quand Dieu était femme (SCE-Services Complets d'Edition, Québec, Canada) in 1978 and into German as Als Gott eine Frau war in 1989. Ms. Stone spent approximately ten years engaged in research of the lesser-known, sometimes hidden depictions of the Sacred Feminine, from European and Middle Eastern societies, in preparation to complete this work. In the book, she describes these archetypal reflections of women as leaders, sacred entities and benevolent matriarchs, and also weaves them into a larger picture of how our modern societies grew to the present imbalanced state. See also[edit] References[edit] Philip G. External links[edit]
SmartSafe Rape in India: Satirical Video About Victim-Blaming Goes Viral A comedy group in India, fed up with rampant victim-blaming demonstrated towards women who've been raped, decided to fight back—with comedy. The parody video from "All India Bakchod" features Bollywood actresses gleefully (and sarcastically) explaining to women that rape is "their fault." The joke here isn't the act of rape itself, but the excuses used to perpetrate it. As they state on their Youtube page: Every sexual assault case in India inspires a string of stupid and hateful remarks against women. The video has already gone viral, gaining over half a million hits in three days. And as it lambasts every tired argument used to blame victims for their own attacks—your skirt was too short, you were walking on the street at night, you're too friendly with men—the similarities between India's rape problem and the one in the U.S. are evident. Stateside too, sexual assault remains a crime where victims are routinely held to higher scrutiny and scorn than their perpetrators.
Anna in Frozen: Her eyes are bigger than her wrists. Courtesy of Disney Philip N. Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland at College Park, writes frequently at Sociological Images about the way that physical differences between the sexes are exaggerated to uphold the narrative that men and women are "opposite." His latest post chronicles the way that Disney films magnify gender differences between male and female characters, particularly if they are portrayed on screen as eligible for romantic attention. The apparent need to make the male characters seem so much larger and sturdier than the female characters manifests to a comical level in how male and female wrists are drawn: Female wrists in Disney films are a fraction of the size of male wrists. Courtesy of Disney In Disney movies, men's wrists are often three or four times larger than women's wrists. Obviously, proportions in cartoons are quite different than real life because the exaggeration adds visual interest, personality cues, and a sense of playfulness.
Sports Direct under fire for 'Girl Stuff' toy cleaning set Emily Gosden – Published 06 January 2014 03:05 PM SportsDirect has come under fire for encouraging sexism after selling a toy set of cleaning products branded “It’s Girl Stuff!”. The set, which includes a dustpan, brushes and spray bottle, is sold in a bright pink packaging adorned with flowers and a “female” sign. The retailer, controlled by Mike Ashley, was tight-lipped about the product on despite a growing backlash online. Twitter users have reacted with dismay to images of the toy set, made by manufacturer Kandytoys and being sold for £5 on the SportsDirect website. One, Em Murphy-Wearmouth, a director at Octopus Communications, described it on the social media site as “outrageous” and “the most disgusting sexism I have seen targeting young girls”. Louise Mensch, the former Tory MP, joined the backlash, writing: “Wow. ”I just wouldn’t label it girl’s stuff – it’s just so unnecessary and restrictive for both boys and girls.” A spokesman for SportsDirect declined to comment.
'Too Much Estrogen': The Golden Globes, Chris Christie and Men Who Don't Want to Share Culture | Soraya Chemaly Brit Hume thinks Chris Christie is paying for a "feminized atmosphere," in which his naturally tough guy (read: male) behavior has been erroneously cast as bullying. Meanwhile, the NY Post's film critic Kyle Smith's take on the Golden Globes was that there was just "too much estrogren." These are just this weekend's examples of men having a hard time-sharing culture. Sounds an awful lot like my 3-year-old brother, who used to chant, "Mine! "Guys [like Christie] who are masculine and muscular like that in their private conduct, kind of old-fashioned tough guys," explains Hume, "Run some risks." Smith, in the meantime, thinks that the Globes should have just been called "Girls." You can't argue with the way people feel. The Globes red carpet and crowd shots suggested a nice gender parity, everyone seemed to have a spouse or a date, usually of the opposite sex. Horrors. First, let's put Smith's disgust in context. Likewise, Hume's casual concerns about "feminized atmosphere."
What Does it Mean that Most Children's Books Are Still About White Boys? | Soraya Chemaly This article is updated from a version published earlier this year in Role/Reboot. One day when my daughter was in third grade, she had to explain to a classmate what sexism was. Four kids -- two boys and two girls -- had been put in a reading group together, given a basket full of books and asked to talk about them and decide together which one they wanted to read and discuss. As they went through their choices, the boy picked up a book whose cover showed an illustration of a woman in a hoop skirt. "Do you know how many books with boys in them I read?" Frankly, today, I'm pretty certain that what she, a 9-year old, told her classmate was more than most adults can muster. Do you know what percentage of children's books feature boys? 57% of children's books published each year have male protagonists, versus 31% female. There are so many exceptionally good books with strong female characters, but not nearly enough, and boys are not encouraged to immerse themselves in them.
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