Tonight: Women in Film, Theatre & Television

Tonight on the show we interview Carol Whiteman, President & CEO of Creative Women Workshops Association. Carol organizes the Women in the Directors Chair Workshop to mentor and celebrate women working in film, theatre and television!

After our interview with Carol we’ll discuss the following recent events and issues:

• No jail time for rapist because victim “wanted to party” – The National Post, Feb 24, 2011
  Related: Do a tube top and high heels say, ‘Go ahead, rape me?’ – The National Post, Feb 24, 2011

• Anti-abortion billboards in New York and Los Angeles target Black women and spark outrage
  
  
• Protesters in 55 cities worldwide gathered for International Walk for Choice day on Saturday, February 26

GQ's November issue turns Glee into porn

Is this Glee photo shoot too sexually explicit for the audience it courts? I think so. Glee is a hugely successful television program that's popular with tweens and teens. It's also wildly popular amongst adults too, but the producers of Glee have to remember that if youth are a big part of their audience, the actors shouln't be posing like porn stars.

The racy photo shoot features Dianna Agron (Quinn), Lea Michele (Rachel) and Cory Monteith (Finn). The Los Angeles Times has a really good article about this, and these two paragragraphs were stand-outs for me:

Monteith is, of course, fully clothed. Not so his female costars, who bare their midriffs and décolletage, bras and panties, in thighs-spread, derriere-hoisted poses made more than slightly unsettling by their school-girl ensembles. Michele, in particular, seems to be auditioning for a live-action version of Japanese anime porn.

The result is not so much saucy and in-your-face as it is predictable and depressing -- oh look, more young women being asked to assume the position, this time complete with pom poms and lollipop. No doubt Agron and Michele did it to be sexy and playful, and were not at all manipulated by forces that have put generations of young women in precisely the same poses for precisely the same reasons -- to feed the fantasy, promote the show and sell magazines. And that just makes it worse, doesn't it?

First, it upsets me that young girls look up to these actresses and here they are posing like porn stars... great. Second, I'm so fucking sick of the same old "sexy" poses: girl licking lollipop seductively, guy with two girls, girls sticking their butts and breasts out, etc. I mean really. Get some god damn originality. Third and finally, I know that all the people in this photo shoot are adults, but they play teenagers on a television show. GQ is a magazine for men, and considering that these photos are set in a school, the photographer has essentially served up over-sexualized images of school girls to grown men.

Any other Glee fans out there? What do you think of these pictures? Today, I am sad to report that I've lots a little bit of respect for Glee.

The Threesome. Super creative and original!

The crotch shot. Another classic.

Oh, the lollipop in the mouth! Another CLASSIC!
And by classic I mean completely unoriginal.

Monday's Show: Fat in the Media

On Monday July 12th we’re discussing fat – in particular, reality TV programs about fat people, celebrities that deal with weight gain in the public eye, and the pressure that every-day women feel to maintain a slim body.

In recent years there has been a huge influx of reality TV programs about fat people trying to lose weight, fat families, kids at fat camp, and much more. How do these programs affect the viewers – especially viewers who identify as fat? How do the programs affect the people who participate in them? Is reality television exploiting obesity?

Just like us regular folk, celebrities also deal with fat. The only difference is that when they gain a few pounds, it becomes a massive media frenzy. In 2009 Jessica Simpson gained 10 pounds and it was splattered over the tabloid covers for the ENTIRE YEAR. People are STILL talking about it. For shame! A few other celebs we’ll be discussing who have dealt with very public weight gain are Kirstie Alley, Oprah and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Images of "Fat" Celebrities
(Wow, "fat" celebrities look pretty regular to me...)

These pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt were all over the media. She was slammed for her saggy ass and cellulite on her thighs.

Jessica Simpson's infamous "Mom jeans incident" which graced tabloid covers throughout 2009.

This is a clip from Jessica Simpson's recent reality series, The Price of Beauty, where Jessica and two friends travel around the world to see the extremes that women go to for "beauty."


Related articles/websites:
Biggest Loser finalist says the show gave her an eating disorder
Oprah and her weight
Jessica Simpson talks about her weight gain on Oprah
Kirstie Alley’s weight struggle
Something Fishy - website about eating disorders

On Monday we're reviewing Sex and the City 2 - send us your reviews too!

On Monday June 14th we'll be reviewing the movie Sex and the City 2. We will discuss feminist themes from the movie and compare them to themes from the first movie and the television series. We would be happy to share thoughts and comments from our listeners and blog followers on the program. If you have thoughts on the movie (or thoughts on Sex and the City in general as it relates to feminism) then please post your comments below. You can also email your reviews to yeahwhatshesaid@gmail.com. We will incorporate as many of your comments/reviews into our show as we can!

Listen to our show on Monday June 14 from 8:00 - 9:00 pm on CJSW 90.9 fm in Calgary, or you can listen online at cjsw.com. And remember, we podcast too, so subscirbe already!

Where are the fat females in cartoons?

The other night I was watching TV when I saw an ad for a new adult cartoon show called The Cleveland Show. Normally I wouldn’t pay much attention to this type of thing, but something caught my attention and I couldn’t stop thinking about it: The male characters in this show are really fat, and the female characters are slim to average. It got me thinking about other adult cartoon shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy, and I realized that in all these shows there are some seriously fat male characters, and little-to-no fat female characters.

To prove my point, I came up with this nifty little list.

The Simpsons
Fat male characters: Homer, Bart, Chief Wiggum, Dr. Hibbert, Nelson, Comic Shop Guy and Barney.
Fat female characters: Patty and Selma


Family Guy
Fat male characters: Peter Griffin and Chris Griffin
Fat female characters: none

King of the Hill
Fat male characters: Hank Hill, Bobby Hill and Bill Dautrieve
Fat female characters: none

The Cleveland Show
Fat male characters: Cleveland and Cleveland Jr.
Fat female characters: none

So, a quick tally shows that on these four shows there are 14 fat male characters and two fat female characters. Why the discrepancy?

We all know there are serious double standards in our society when it comes to fat.
We fear female fat and forgive male fat. Fat men can easily get married, find a good job, and generally be successful in life, but the same isn’t true for fat women.

It seems that the cartoon world is simply portraying how we think about fatness in the real world: essentially, that it doesn’t really matter if a man is fat, and fat women are… well… invisible. And when they do exist, as in the case with Patty and Selma, they are single, lonely, childless and unsuccessful.

We Are Girls

I love this commercial, "We Are Girls" from Concerned Children's Advertisers (Health Canada). It's all about empowering girls to be their best and stay true to themselves. Right on!

Best Blow Job Quote Ever

Sex and the City is one of my all-time favourite shows. I've watched all six seasons over and over again, and I never get sick of it.
Last night I was revisiting season 3, episode 9, aptly titled Easy Come, Easy Go. In the episode, Samantha is sleeping with this guy, Adam, who has "funky tasting spunk," and eventually she refuses to give him another blow job. This, my friends, sets the scene for possibly the best quote on blow jobs ever.

Adam: C'mon, give me a little BJ! Up and down a couple of times, you're done. It's easy!

Samantha: Easy? You men have no idea what we're dealing with down there. Teeth placement and jaw stress and suction and gag reflex. And all the while bobbing up and down, moaning, and trying to breathe through our noses. Easy? Honey, they don't call it a "job" for nothing.

So true!

Trash TV With A Feminist Twist?

I love trash TV, and I especially love reality shows that give my critical mind something to mull over while I watch. Last night I saw an advertisement for a new TV show that will be airing on W Network, which I believe is channel 23 for most Calgarians. The show is called Miss Naked Beauty and it premiers on Tuesday April 7th.

On Miss Naked Beauty, beauty is only half the package - you need to be strong and brave enough to challenge beauty preconceptions, bin the make-up, say NO to the knife and the needle. Fashion consultant Gok Wan is the show host, and he will reveal the ugly face of the beauty industry and prove that natural really is best. From fake science to beauty addiction, and the perils of cosmetic surgery, he'll dispel the myths and reveal the risks we undertake in our pursuit of the latest look.

Sounds like an interesting show - if anyone manages to check it out, let us know what you think!

Wild Girl, Virgin, or Something Inbetween?

Jessica Valenti, founder of the kick-ass feminist blog, Feministing.com, was recently featured on the Today Show. Check out the video - the women are chatting about young women's sexuality and the abstinence movement. I think some of the points that Jessica makes are really important - especially her point that when it comes to women and sexuality, there seems to be only two options: you're either the promiscuous girl gone wild, or the chaste virgin. In reality, most women fall somewhere inbetween the extremes of wild girl and virgin, yet those are the only two options for female sexuality that we are presented.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Real Housewives of Orange County - WTF?

So, last night I shamelessly watched The Real Housewives of Orange County. Wow. It's really hard to believe that such consumer driven, beauty-obsessed, self-involved, plastic-botox-peroxide princesses really exist. I felt a little ashamed to be a human being while watching it.

It seems that their biggest concern in life is "who is the hottest housewife?"

Anybody else seen this show? What do you think about it?