In Conclusion...

I signed up for Women's Studies for two reasons. 

1. I wanted to piss off my dad

2. I needed more credits to fill out my schedule

I definitely got way more out of it than I thought I would. I'm not usually one to completely invest myself into every class I take, but I know I looked forward to coming to class every week to discuss, debate and break down social constructions, internalized sexism and all that jazz. The fact that the class was discussion based was definitely the reason why I feel I got so much out of it, compared to classes where we just talk about readings and everything we need to learn is found in text books. 

I was nervous about starting a blog because I always thought I had nothing much to say. But forcing myself (in the beginning) to have an opinion made me realize that I do in fact have something to say. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at my social life, my interests and life in general through the lens of feminism. (side note- I had no idea what feminism was before taking this class. thanks dad). Since as a class we were allowed to blog based on our own interests, it made me do a lot of research on what I plan on doing with my life: movies, showbiz and comedy. That being said, in a way I learned about more than just feminism because of this course. 

Lastly, I'm so glad to have taken this course because I realized how hard I am going to have to work to get to where I want to be in the film/comedy world as a woman. Oh and also, it's given me some great topics to debate with my father, since we were definitely running out of things to fight about.

On Facial Hair and Other Hairy Situations

During the presentations in class a few weeks ago, one group spoke about hair removal. Hair removal has become a part of people's daily repertoire whether it's shaving or plucking or waxing. I'm not sure when hair removal started, probably when people started seeing it as "un-hygenic" I guess, but I don't think that then they knew how it would affect our daily lives now or that it would be such a moneymaker.

Today, women have to go through so much to keep every hair in place. We get trims, we shave, wax, pluck, laser it off, spread smelly substances to melt it off and more. (Has anyone heard of threading?) I don't understand why it's acceptable for some parts of women's bodies (yes I'm talking about the part between the legs) to look like they did when we were in kindergarten. 

I'm not saying it's just women that have to go through this. Men have the option of waxing their chest and back, men who aren't lazy take a razor to their face and shave every other day, I'm sure men pluck their eyebrows too. I'm not saying it's unfair that women have to go through more hair removal, but it does kind of suck that dark hair that grows on a woman's inner thigh is seen as unattractive when men who wear flipflops are allowed to sport hairy cave man toes and no one says anything. 

In class we also discussed why women and men go through hair removal and who they're really doing it for. Personally, I have been waxing since I had noticeable body hair at age 12. My mother tells me that the hair wont grow back by the time I'm 35 so I still have 16 more years to go. But I'm not always walking around with completely hairless legs, the hair does grow back and there is an inbetween period before its long enough for some asian lady to rip it out of my skin again. Who do I do it for? Well if I seriously think about it, I don't want (noticeable) hair on my legs because I somehow think it is seen as unfeminine. There goes that internalized sexism. I mean, if I saw a guy walking down the street and I noticed that he had no hair on his legs, I would probably question his masculinity. But he could be a swimmer, or maybe he just isnt a hairy guy or maybe he just doesn't like hair on his legs either. 

Speaking of masculinity, facial hair to me is just gross. I have an issue with facial hair on men. I think that men under the age of 25 should NOT let their facial hair run wild in whimpy little patches on their faces. To me it just looks like face pubes. I also think that men who let their face pubes run awry are just lazy. I mean COME ON. Women go through so much to have smooth skin, hairless armpits and legs and a neat bikini line, but young men can't keep their scraggly beards in order?? 

When I express my views on facial hair to men my age, they just shrug in agreement. They are lazy. But you know what, fuck it, maybe this summer I'll be lazy. I mean, I'm going to work at a summer camp that is miles away from a nail salon that offers hair removal services, and no way am I going to waste 6 years of waxing by shaving my legs. Besides, I don't think my cute hairless eight year old campers will care if my legs are hairy or not. So there.

Pixar's Issue with Sex/Gender

During our class discussion on tuesday about men and feminism, Pixar's gender/sex issue came up. I am a huuuuuuge Pixar nerd, but I never really thought about how unbalanced their films were in terms of the male to female character ratio.

This article I found really breaks it down into detail, but I'll give you the basics here.

Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Monsters Inc, Ratatouille (kind of) and Up are all "buddies" movies that focus on two male characters that are friends that have to go on some kind of quest or mission or something. Yes, they do include female characters, but only Toy Story 2 and 3 include a more important female role (Jessie) who has personality and stuff. Ratatouille has Linguini's love interest (blah, boring) and thats about it for female roles in that group.

Finding Nemo is a father/son movie and yes, they've got Dory who is pretty much there for comic relief but thats it.

What's interesting about Bugs Life is that they completely flipped gender roles in the ant world for the sake of the film. All male ants really do is eat and fertilize eggs, while female ants do all the work. What's up with that Pixar? It's similar in Wall-E. Wall-E and EVE are both robots, but why do they even have sex/gender? Why couldn't Wall-E be a feminine character? Why did he have to have a gender at all?

Cars was the worst. The only female characters in cars were the love interest of the main character and the car groupies. I wonder if in Cars 2 it will be different.

The Incredibles did have a few good female characters like Helen (Mr. Incredibles wife) and his daughter too. We also had the quirky E who made costumes and Syndrome's minion girl. But still, the movie focused on Mr. Incredible.


I've read in a few places that Pixar may have made these choices in character because males are seen as the neutral role, while females are "particular". I've also read that Pixar mostly have male writers and that it would be difficult for them to write a compelling female role. Oh please. If you're a good writer, you could write any kind of character no matter what sex/gender they are.

Now, we all know Pixar is coming out with Brave in 2012. We're all thinking, finally a Pixar film with a female lead! Don't get excited too soon. Keep in mind that Brave is also Pixar's first fairy tale which also takes place in mythical Scotland. Gee thanks Pixar. So not only is Pixar being completely unoriginal by making their first female lead in a film be a princess, they are making it take place in a mythical setting. Because having a female lead is so outrageous, people wouldn't see it if it took place in reality. It makes me mad because even though not all Pixar films take place in the "real" world, they still go above and beyond with creativity in terms of filling out their fictional settings to model them like the real world. (see Nemo, Monsters Inc, Cars, Bugs Life). Hopefully they will at least do the same for Brave in "mythical Scotland".

It could be that Pixar is totally aware of their gender/sex issue, but in the end it's about money and maybe the films with male roles just sell better. Which also sucks. When I think about it that way, not only is there negative connotations that go with the word "feminism" but there could be some kind of negative connotations that go with lead female roles in movies as well. Maybe negative is the wrong word, but as I've learned in film studies, people go to the movies and know what to expect depending on the genre of the movie. I mean what would have happened if Finding Nemo was about a mother looking for her daughter? What if Up was about an old woman who's husband died? Would they have been as successful?

And the mother of the year award goes to...

So I read here that there is this mother in San Fransisco who is trying to prepare her daughter for a life of stardom, fame and success. No, she's not sending her to performance schools or letting her taking voice lessons. Instead she chose the fast and surefire way of getting your kid to be famous, yeah you guessed it, botox injections and virgin waxes. (which kind of worked, since now she's in the papers, theres a start!)

excuse me? She's eight years old. She should still be playing with dolls, not worry about when she's going to get her nose done! What has this world come to?

What baffles me most is that this mother isn't even giving her daughter a chance to reach for goals of her own. And that issue doesnt just apply to girls, it applies to boys as well. It's (almost) the same as a father forcing his son to play football so he can become a football star... minus the extremely unhealthy beauty treatments. It makes me sick.

Sexism in the Classroom

I am taking intro to cinema production this semester with a male teacher. Three months into the course, I am starting to see how he truly favors the work of my male classmates over my female classmates. It could be true that the productions from the males are possibly better, however each project varies in content and style so no one can really say which is "better" or "worse". The boys also create more somber, edgy films about death with shots of roadkill in comparison to the girls who create films with a different kind of mood and subject matter. It angers me though, that when giving feedback to the boy's projects, he goes more in depth, gives more compliments and just seems to care more. I have talked to some other girls in my class and they agree. 

This is not the first time I've noticed sexism in the classroom. I remember in eigth grade, my male science teacher gave straight A's to the pretty blonde girls who were no better at creating static with balloons in an experiment than the rest of the class was. I hope I'm not the only one who finds that creepy, I mean we were 13.

However, it's not just the male teachers that can be sexist. In my high school spanish class, my teacher totally favored girls. She is the sweetest, most caring teacher I've ever had. She always gave the girls good grades, including me, and I did NOTHING in that class. However, the boys in the class always walked all over her and she got no respect. We probably had Spanish class three times a month because we could complain about our lives and how much homework we had and she would let us go. That would never happen with a male teacher, I believe. 

I'm sure that teachers don't realize what they're doing if they happen to favor boys over girls or vice versa in the classroom. I've read that boys get more air time then girls, and girls can charm male teachers into giving them good grades blah blah. But going back to my cinema production class with my chin up gets harder and harder each time. While I appreciate constructive criticism and getting praised on my work only when I've really earned it, I know I'm not the only girl in that class who feels like she can't make good films because she's female and isn't interested in shooting dark, creepy, sad movies about death and stuff. 

In class I know we've talked about what women had to go through to even be allowed to go to school and get educated for more than home ec stuff. However I'd be interested to hear what the rest of the class has to say about this aspect of sexism in the classroom. 

Barbie Saves the (Cinematic) Day?

Ever since the first few weeks of Women's Studies class, I have been thinking about female heroes in movies. It's kinda confusing to me.

I know that the mainstream movie business is an industry that caters primarily to its audience. The audience expects and wants to see certain things in movies. The women may want to see strong female characters and stuff and the men wanna see some "jiggle" right? I mean, I don't necessarily think that, but I know that's pretty much what Hollywood thinks (basically). 

What confuses me is how we have heros like the Charlie's Angels (I have only seen the remake with Cameron Diaz etc) who kick ass AND look hot at the same time. What is that saying to the audience exactly? I mean I know that the girls wanna see girls kick butt and the guys just want to see butt.. but that pretty much says that girls can run shit, but they should look good while doing it. 

It's not fair. It's actually impossible. And we've discussed this in class; the images of women portrayed in the media aren't real, but some women still strive to look like Angelina and Cameron (or we're told to.. by the media or whatever). 

My question is, is a movie like Charlie's Angels good for the image of women or bad? Maybe Charlie's Angels isn't the perfect example. I read an article online that describes it perfectly.

Something very interesting that the author says is: 

"Even as a character within a so-called chick flick, whose audience was primarily female, she still manages to reinforce the images of the ideal women that we are meant to picture. Perky, vacuous, tan and well-endowed, and above all else Blonde, she overcomes all obstacles in her path with seemingly no more weapons than a blindingly bright smile, all while maintaining her inner equilibrium and stunning fashion sense. Any girl watching from the audience is presumably meant to come away from the film inspired by the thought that maybe, perhaps, one day, she will be able to marry the twin virtues of style and perseverance the way that Woods does. And perhaps these goals are to be appreciated."

I just wonder where the real women who can also be heroes are in film. And I wonder if a movie that is about a real looking woman who saves the world from exploding would actually be successful or not. 

Women in Comedy (part 2)

Here at Ithaca, I am a member of various clubs, two of which have to do with comedy. One is comedy club, we meet once a week, and we do stand up and improv. Another is Comedy Sauce where we write and shoot sketches and put them online. 

Let me start with Comedy Club. I remember the first meeting, and the first thing I realized was how male dominated the whole club is! Its gotten better throughout the year, more girls show up eventually, but none of them are really brave enough to do stand up, and if we do choose to sack up and do stand up, the guys tease us for not being funny. I even tried to stand up a few times and I found it so difficult to write stuff that would be funny to males AND females. So I took the easy way out and wrote a bit about breasts. 

In Comedy Sauce, the female to male ratio is much more balanced, but the skits we shoot and record mostly have male characters! That makes me so upset. I try my best to write sketches with female characters, but they have to be absolutely off-the-wall hilarious to be chosen to record (no luck yet, still trying). 

My dream is to work for (write for) Saturday Night Live one day. 

I was doing some research about various casts, and I mainly looked at the casts from 2000-2010, but I also skimmed through from 1975-1995. SNL started with 3 women in the cast, it went down to 2 women some years in the 80's and early 90's. In the 00's, there have been 4-5 women in the cast. 

And you have to realize, the total of cast members varies from 10-17 people. 

Seriously?? When I think about it, it makes me livid. 

I was watching the episode that Dana Carvey hosted a few weeks ago, it was pretty funny, I loved seeing the return of Wayne's World, but I noticed what a lack of female-driven sketches there were!! Many times men played women too, which is hilarious... But still! What the fuck SNL? 

I mean, at least we have Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig and among other hilarious females in the world of comedy but we need MORE WOMEN. And enough of this men playing women thing, it's gonna get old soon. 

Is There No Room for Women on Late Night TV?

I am a huge fan of late night talk shows. I watch them all the time with my dad. When I'm home we never miss Jay Leno, and I love Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. But here's the thing, where are the women on late night talk shows? It really bothers me. I mean, what would be so bad or different about having a woman hosting a late night talk show along side the big boys?

In this article, Linda Lowden discusses the issue. She asks the question, how long will we have to wait until there will be a female late night talk show host? I know that at one point, there weren't even female anchors on news networks, and that changed at some point, so when will the networks that show these late night talk shows follow suit?

The thing is, its more than just women not being on the screen as hosts on these late night talk shows. It's also behind the scenes, there is a huge lack of women. Ok. Maybe I can't say that for all talk shows, but I went to a live recording of the Colbert Report over break. I was appalled at the fact that I hardly any females on the set of the show! I was so surprised too! The only women I saw were the ones who touched up Colbert's makeup, showed the interviewees to the set, and there was one woman who was handing a lynx that was on the show too. That's it.

It made me so fucking angry because I am interested in television and movie production, and I love being behind a camera! There are women in the TV-R majors! Are they ALL going to be the makeup girls? What's the deal? Where are the female producers? Directors? Writers? where the fuck are they?

If by the time I'm 40 there isn't a late night talk show hosted by a female, I will do all that is in my power to make it happen.

Mother, Father

My mother majored in philosophy to get back at her dad for sending her to her safety school instead of one of the great colleges she got into.

She married and had kids pretty young (she was 27 when she had me) and was starting her career in marketing. At some point when I was maybe 8 or 9, she started her own company from the office at home. As far as I know, my father was supportive. 

Now, her company is extremely successful and she is an accomplished euntrepenuer.

But that’s not all she does. Besides having two kids and a full time job running her company, she is also an actively competing ball room dancer. That’s right. My mother has won the national pro/am (professional/ametuer) dance competition two years in a row.

My father grew up in Israel and is the oldest of six. Most of his family are males. Most of my cousins are males as well. I guess it just runs in the family. 

When my mother was pregnant with me, he was CONVINCED that I was going to be a boy (despite the fact that my sex was not a surprise…)

My dad is your typical Israeli misogynistic douche bag. I love him, but he’s extremely insensitive. Being an ex-army guy, he always has to be tough. And he always has to objectify and make assumptions about women. For  example, my dad, my younger brother and I were in car. Even though I was listening to music, I could clearly hear that they were discussing girls who work at Hooters. Then I heard my dad jokingly say that I should go work there. Needless to say, I didn’t think it was funny.

I think you get the picture.

My mother and father are now divorced for reasons which are pretty obvious to me. My mother followed her dreams, my father who did support her, wanted someone or something different. Also, he doesn’t respect women.

I feel bad for him though because the divorce did not help how he feels about women. If anything, it made him more of a misogynist.

Misogynist: hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women.

While watching the film, Who Does SHe Think She Is one of the interviewees mentioned something about household chores and how in her house it wasn’t split up like: the girls do the dishes and the boys do outdoor work. My house is the opposite. My little brother complains to this day about how my father never makes me carry anything heavy or do hardy handy work. If he delegates chores, I’m in the kitchen, I’m cooking, I’m weeding the backyard.

My father LOVES my brother. He loves me too, but when they are together it’s absolutely disgusting. My father will turn to my brother and say “hey didja see the tits on that girl?”. Whenever we’re out to dinner, my father flirts with the waitress, and my brother follows suit. 

My father and I have had plenty of struggles in the past, but things are better now that I demand respect from him. For awhile I felt that I had to prove myself to him. 

I’m happy that I grew up with both sides. On one side I have my mother who is a career woman, definitely doesn’t need a man, and always supported me and my creative abilities, and on the other side I have my poor father who goes through women like a hormonal teenage girl goes through tissues, objectifies and disrespects women and definitely doesn’t see much potential in me or my future in the film industry. That situation has made me a very strong person.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

Just a side-note,
I was in the gym today and I overheard these guys talking about what sounded like a track meet.
The conversation went like this.

Guy #1: I've never seen a chick run so fast.
Guy #2: Yeah I remember the first time I got beat by a girl.

I almost started laughing. Is it any different than being beat buy a guy? Oh jeez.

Who gets to pay?

I've been dating since I was 16 years old, and the same thing happens at the end of every date. You know, it's that awkward interaction, you each pull out your wallet but you don't really know who's paying for what and then you have to discuss it.. It's strange.

Does the person who set up the date pay? Should I always expect the guy to pay? Should we split? Maybe I should pay?

I remember my first date with my high school sweetheart. I paid for it, and he HATED that. Even to this day I still make fun of him for shvitzing about it. But what's the big deal? I get the tradition, it's like the guy being a gentleman, taking the girl out yadda yadda. But isn't that a little outdated? Then, that was just something I did to make the point that I didn't expect him or want him to pay for everything. We were kids, we didn't work and we didn't have a lot of money to spend. So why not take turns paying, why not split?

Even the guy I'm dating now at college 90% of the time refuses to let me pay for anything. I think that's really sweet of him, but it still irks me a little bit.

At this point, I always expect to just split it. I don't need a man to pay for my food.

On the other side, my best friend just had a huge fight with her boyfriend because she expected him to pay for the whole meal, but he assumed they were splitting it. She was mad because she wanted him to be all gentleman-like.

I was reading this article about the same issue. A lot of things that author said I agree with. One interesting thing that she brought up was that "if you like a guy you let him pay". That correlates to the whole idea of a guy winning a girl over until she gives in and they start dating or whatever.

But why can't I express my interest by paying? Why can't I take him out? (Well I can and do, but my friends think I'm nuts) And really, it's not just about who gets to pay; it's the whole game. Usually the girl is supposed to play hard to get and the guy has to chase her. But I was never good at hard to get, and I love the chase.

There really needs to be more balance in the world of dating.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

While reading the selection for class in Feminism is for Everybody by Bell Hooks, I found the chapter about body image particularly interesting. At one point Hooks says that in some of today's fashion magazines, there will be an article about how bad eating disorders are but right next to it could be an ad for Victoria's Secret with a half naked Adriana Lima in all of her rail-thin Brazilian glory.

It's so true, so many fashion/beauty advertisements feature photoshopped and airbrushed women. I will admit, like many other girls my age I have anxiety about my body when I really shouldn't. I mean, I can't say that I work out to look good for the opposite sex. I work out to maintain my healthy body. If I didn't go to the gym at all but continued to eat campus food a few times a day, I don't think my body would appreciate that. Then again, I grew up in my mother's house. She's a health nut, and she's a slave to the gym so I guess I got it from her.

I'm rambling. The point is, is that trying to be at a healthy weight, working out and caring about your body isn't exactly always a response to body image anxiety or how women are portrayed in the media.

As for makeup? Form fitting clothes? High heels? What if I just like wearing them to feel pretty? I love Victoria's Secret, whenever  I go in one of those stores it makes me so happy. Could be all the bright colors and perfume.

But really, can feminine feminists exist?

Females in Film

In my film analysis class last semester we spent a few days studying the role of females in film and feminism in film. I thought after last semester I would be completely done with film theory for awhile, but I found myself flipping through my notes about feminist film theory and paging through the one text book I have left to brush up on the subject.

The stereotypic representations of women in film peaked my interest the most. Bill Nichols, author of Engaging Cinema says that women fill certain stereotypic roles in film. These rolls include the virgin, wife, mother and the vamp-seductress. These basic stereotypes have existed since the early days of cinema.

Bill Nichols' stereotypes:
The Virgin- represents a male projection onto women of profound innocence and vulnerability.
The Wife- at the center of the complex dynamics that fuel family life. the wife supports or impedes her husband.
The Mother- represents the be-all and end-all of a woman's life. She is devoted to her family.
The Vamp- aka Femme Fatale, she is a projection of male anxieties about autonomy. She leaves the male blameless for his loss of independence. Kind of like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.


When focusing on feminist film theory in class, we viewed three films. They were: Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), Jennifer Reeve's Chronic (1996) and Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl (1966). I'm not exactly sure if these films are considered to be feminist films. However, as we were watching them, the teachers called attention to the fact that none of the main characters (all of which were female in these films) fit any of Nichols' stereotypes and in the end, they all committed suicide. To me, it proved in a way that if a woman in a film (with a main role) that doesn't fit one of the stereotypes is doomed to die, disappear or be forced into one of these roles.

Think about it. Look at Thelma and Louise. Thelma left her husband, Louise left her boyfriend and in the end they both died. But imagine if they did make it to Mexico and lived. I'd like to think that they probably would have settled down and started families there, therefore putting themselves back in the role of wife/mother.

Another example is Million Dollar Baby. Hilary Swank doesn't marry, she doesn't have a love interest in the story, she isn't even the "virgin" stereotype. She does something different that deviates from these stereotypes and in the end, dies.

In class we were told that when the main female in a movie does in fact deviate, there is no way to retain order in the plot. (Most films have the order/chaos/order plot formula). This pisses me off, but it's so true. So many commercial Hollywood films end with a uniting couple (Even Fight Club ended that way among many others...) that it seems to be the natural way of ending a film.

I was talking about this with my mother and she tried to rebut my argument with the film Baby Boom. Diane Keaton is a Harvard graduate with an awesome job but then she gets a baby dumped on her (forcing her to be the mother) and loses her job and busy city life. So she moves to Vermont, makes applesauce and becomes successful on her own until she meets the sexy doctor and falls in love with him or whatever. I told my mom that even though she was successful, she was still forced into the mother/wife stereotype, otherwise she would have died or something in the end.

Of course, movies are not real life. That's just what sells. There has to be a beginning, middle and ending (in commercial films at least). In real life, a woman wont get killed off if she isn't the wife/virgin/vamp/mother.

Oh, and my favorite females characters in film...
I love:

Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct)
Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening in American Beauty)
Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago)
Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep in Doubt)
I also loved that young girl in True Grit. 


I think my favorite stereotypical female character is the Femme Fatale. That was a hard question for me to answer since I have far more favorite male characters in films than female characters. Not sure why.

Feminism?

I'm taking intro to women's studies for a couple different reasons. One is that I'm fascinated with gender and the roles that each gender plays in the world, the other is that my mother is a feminist, and my father is an anti-feminist. Also, as an aspiring film maker with a strong interest in drama, I am hoping to get good ideas for movies out of this class.