Category Archives: Challenging Society

The Spooky Reality of Sexy’s Sister, Naughty

Naughty is not so nice when you’re talking about Halloween costumes for toddlers. This year Walmart housed costumes of the animal varieties on their shelves and labeled them as “sexy”, “naughty”, “playful.” However, what Walmart and the Consumerist.com seem to be the most concerned about are not the adjectives describing the costumes, but how inaccurate and non-animal-like the costumes are. Well, I agree with that!

ladies and gents I give you the “naughty leopard”

For instance, as you can see in the photo to the left the “naughty leopard” frock has a tutu and purple leopard ribbon trim—not quite the furry feline we’re used to seeing in the pages of National Geographic. Spoiler alert: Walmart is pulling the costumes from the shelves to do more “research.”

So why am I writing about this ordeal? Well for one, it’s been cluttering the Interwebz for weeks and I just can’t ignore it any longer. And two, why the heck do people (myself included) get irritated when kid things are labeled with sexual-ese language that connotes that something (this costume for instance) is sexual when in reality it’s not? To be real: It’s a dress accessorized by animal ears.

To be real part deux: It’s marketing at its finest. I’m elated to know that people are opening their eyeballs to these marketing tactics and calling out their one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other bluff.

As Jezebel had pointed out, the Halloween costume industry has been a contributor to the over sexualized culture. So now, when we hear “naughty” we (for the most part, admit it!) picture a risqué and lewd version of the actual “thing”. In this case the “thing” is a leopard. BUT WHY!?! Naughty has since the 1600s been a word used to describe someone being mischievous or behaving improperly. The 1900s is when “Naughty” became “Sexy’s” sister.

I know you’re tired of hearing about leopards, soooo let’s use the “naughty elf,” imagery as an example.

What do you picture when you hear “naughty elf?”

Half of you just pictured a nugget-sized human in the north pole clad in a coat with fur trim and a pointy hat, misbehaving or rigging all the toys to make children sad AND the other half of you thought of a hot-to-trot blonde in a mini skirt covered in jingle bells, sporting a cropped-coat that features white fur trim (surely, that thing can’t be warm) sounding out her vowels (ay-ee-iee-ohhh-ouuu *duck face*).

north pole toy maker vs. human hot-to-trot woman ready for a costume party. disclaimer: cartoon elf not true to size (in comparison to woman elf on right)

You get the point. So it’s not about the costume being labeled as “naughty”, but rather what the word “naughty” actually means in our culture vs. the dictionary.

It’s time to send Naughty back to the days of wetting paper balls in our mouths and launching them through straws at our classmate’s head, to eating dessert right before dinner, and getting yelled at for not taking off muddy shoes before walking in the house!

Which imagery do you have when you think of “naughty?” How can we get Naughty to stray from her sister Sexy? Share in the comments!

Pink…Not Always a Girl Thing

little me in my sailor get up complete with earrings, “hair” bow and patent leather shoes similar to those on FDR’s feet.

Today, we are constantly trying to label boys and girls at a glance. We just have to know. Riiiight… now. Enter color codes. Also enter earrings at 6 weeks old and all the double-sided taped on “hair” bows! What? I was pretty much bald until I was three.

Pink and blue were labeled as colors for babies in the mid-19^th century but the two colors were not promoted as blue cap for baby boys and pink cap for baby girls until just before World War I. This is history, folks. (herstory?)

The picture below is of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a youngster. At a glance, to our societal standards today he actually looks like a she, with long locks and sporting a skirt. Yet societal norms of 1884, when FDR at age 2 ½ , dictated that boys wore dresses until they were about 7 years old and this was the time of their first haircut as well. This outfit in those times was indeed gender neutral.

FDR as a youngster sporting his skirt, long locks and patent leather shoes.
Bettmann / Corbis

Developing these color codes for hospital purposes makes sense. It makes the nurses jobs a tad easier by not having to undo a child’s diaper to identify the correct gender before placing them back in what is *hopefully* the correct crib in the hospital nursery. But really, how did we end up with two “teams” for clothing? (which has now transcended and leached into every part of kid culture clearly defining that blue is for boys and pink is for girls).

Jo B. Paoletti a historian at the University of Maryland and author of the published book, Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls from the Boys in America was quoted in a Smithsonian article answering why there is now two sides.

“It’s really a story of what happened to neutral clothing,” says Paoletti, who has explored the meaning of children’s clothing for 30 years. For centuries, she says, children wore dainty white dresses up to age 6. “What was once a matter of practicality—you dress your baby in white dresses and diapers; white cotton can be bleached—became a matter of ‘Oh my God, if I dress my baby in the wrong thing, they’ll grow up perverted,’ ” Paoletti says.

Wait a minute though! According to a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls.” Pink back in the day was viewed as a strong color whereas blue was softer and more dainty. Even Time magazine agreed! In 1927, the magazine printed a chart showing gender specific colors for girls and boys according to the leading department stores of the time.

Soooo I guess pink hasn’t always been a girl thing. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR, RIGHT? So how in the world (literally) did it get flip-flopped to the gender color codes we are beaten over the head with daily? (not literally)

It’s not where, but who and when these gender specific color wheels were established. Year: 1940
Who: Marketers dictating these new norms and pushing “buy in” from the public. (No surprise there) Girls were to dress like their mothers and boys were to dress like their fathers.

Today many parents are struggling with conforming to gender roles or to letting their little one make decisions for themselves. A-list celebrity Angelina Jolie is well known for allowing her 6-year-old daughter Shiloh to dress as she pleases. She told Vanity Fair in 2010 that Shiloh dresses like “a little dude” and “thinks she’s one of the brothers.” I think for a parent it takes guts to allow your child, especially at such a young age, to dictate their own wardrobe choices! I respect Shiloh’s bravery to challenge societal stereotypes and be free (via her mother) to express herself. (Although at 6 she may not realize it)

Another challenge of these color code norms was last week. I was happy yet shocked when a friend of mine who is a dance teacher said on the first day of class when the 7-year-old girls, clad in their pink leotards and tights, introduced themselves saying their name, school and favorite color—five out of the eight girls said blue or light blue. Blue, a color that is predominantly gender specific as being a “boy” color. The one girl who said pink was her favorite looked at my friend quizzically, almost saying with her expression, “what’s wrong with them.”

I wonder why this is? What makes these five girls pick a different color other than pink…they could have picked purple (one did) or green or red…but why blue? Maybe they’re tired of being forced to like pink by society?(coughmarketerscough) Maybe girls are tired of being choked by the pink aisle when they go into the toy store, clothing store, or any store. Remember Riley? These girls in my friend’s dance class are all versions of Riley. Dressed in pink leotards looking for a blue one!

Again, these marketer-created color codes dictate what is “right” for little girls to identify with. Pink is for girls, blue is for boys. That’s just how it is. But they are challenging that, which is empowering and refreshing.

Do you think marketers should change up their color coded equation an offer products similar to Goldie Blox for little girls? Offer more gender-neutral clothing? For example, if a pair of blue corduroys does it have to have a football on them? Can’t they just be plain and therefore gender neutral? And…some girls like to play football, amiright?

For more samples of how gender neutral our society was back in history, lookie here!

Moral Panic Mode: Journalists/Documentarians

Where Media (with the help of Marketers) blurrrr liiinneeess between was it culture and what is commercial!

So far we’ve covered the Moral Panic of Parents and Marketers now it’s on to the media!
Journalists and documentarians have a lot to say about how kids are being targeted by marketers in their daily lives. The documentarian chose the commentary wisely for his film, “Consuming Kids,” which I’ve talked about before. The overall theme of the documentary is disapproval of the media and how it is exploiting society’s youth. Experts in communication articulate their opinion by trashing the media industry and the marketers that take part in commercialization. More specifically, they articulate their frustration with the single-minded approach to marketing, that the basis of all commercial logic is sales (McAllister, 2007). But the fact is the marketers are succeeding. However, the experts cannot do anything to stop the marketers’ grimy yet successful tactics. Sad but oh-so true. During the 1980s the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission were stripped of their authority to regulate children advertisements, which is when marketers decided to run rampant stripping children of their innocences.(McAllister, 2007). Ever since then, researchers, which we’ll learn about a bit later, claim that marketing agencies have been working to blurrrrr liiiiiines (hey, hey, hey…sorry I couldn’t help it) between what’s culture and what’s commercial within children’s media. So essentially agencies’ goal is to make Culture = Commercial and Commercial = Culture to which they are one in the same and we all nod in agreement because we can no longer tell the difference.

Michael Brody, a child psychiatrist featured in the film, went so far as to call marketers pedophiles. Ick, right? Because marketers often struggle between what is morally right by the children and the common goal of the company which is to make as much money as possible. Children’s imaginations are in jeopardy because marketers are telling them that their brains aren’t good enough. For example, one expert in the film said that kids couldn’t play Harry Potter unless they have the official branded wand because it’s not good enough to pick up a stick off the ground (“Consuming Kids”). Seriously, kids it’s called an imagination! Where did all the imagination go!?! If Justin Timberlake can bring “sexy back,” I think Ms. Frizzle and her magic school bus should be responsible for bringing imagination back, yeah!

An exception to media scheming along side marketers, perhaps are the documentarians, who often try to expose truths. Fully aware of the shock-and-awe history of documentarian Michael Moore, his point in “Bowling for Columbine” is to expose the public to the truths of media and debunk the previous coverage that resulted in American adults being “exponentially misinformed” (Mazzarella, 2007, 54). Those appearing in the documentary do not seem to be blaming kids but the media for their destructive behaviors. The film starts with claims that the media was significantly to blame for the behavior of teens, namely Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, gunmen in the Columbine School shootings. Many were blaming their behavior on one musician, the “poster boy for fear,” Marilyn Manson. Moore is out to prove experts and those easily influenced by journalists and politicians that they may want to reconsider blaming Manson.

In an interview between Moore and Manson, Manson said that he “represents what everyone is afraid of because I do and say what I want.” The shooting served as a distraction from what was really happening in the country. “Our president is shooting bombs overseas, yet I’m the bad guy because I sing some rock and roll songs. And who’s the bigger influence the president or Marilyn Manson? I’d like to think me, but I’m going to go with the president,” Manson said. This statement is an example of the adult society in moral panic, “that at root the moral panic is about instilling fear in people, in so doing, encouraging them to try and turn away from the complexity and the visible social problems of everyday life” because it’s easier to identify Manson as a simple solution to a complex problem (Mazzarella, 2007, 48-49). Manson is convinced that the media is a campaign of fear and consumption. The news is nothing but bad news and then break to commercial where marketers want to sell the viewer products. If everyone is kept afraid they will consume (“Bowling for Columbine”).

Journalists are constantly fueling public concern with panic (Mazzarella, 2007). Journalists often forget that not all people that are goth, or in a specific subculture, live the hate lifestyle. The media is powerful and controls how society stereotypes certain groups in society, if they choose to define them or not. For example, the news often mentions the gangs or enemies that exist in inner cities, however rarely is there mention of the enemies that exist in suburban areas (20/20 “Phenomenon of The Goth Movement,” 1999).

Moral of this Panic Mode: Don’t believe everything you read or see, don’t judge a book by its cover, don’t fall victim to the traps that media set up for us through sneaky marketing. Instead take a step back, examine, analyze and decide for yourself! Use your own smarts! And remember that the media is there to not only inform you but in most cases is there to attract your attention and get you to form new opinions or stick with old ones.

What do you think of documentarians exposing truths and debunking media stories? Do you have any favorite documentaries?! I’d love to hear suggestions. Comment below.

Screw Beauty Standards, Natural is Gnarly

Photo by Marc Erwin Babej. Click the photo and scroll to the bottom of the article for a slideshow of the other striking images.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and said, “When did that wrinkle appear?” Or “If only my nose was just a little smaller”? Probably, if not for those two reasons something else. I’ve said it before, we are cruel to ourselves as girls and women trying to live up to the “standards” that are laid out by the media. We’re trying achieve that Barbie look, and not realizing it’s impossible until it’s too late. And for the love of flying monkeys can someone create this real-life-beauty Barbie so our girls can get a dose of what real beauty looks like!

Trolling the Interwebz I found an article in Huffington Post, Women about the “Mask of Perfection,” a project by photographer Marc Erwin Babej. The purpose? To illustrate the difference between a women’s natural beauty and the “correctable flaws” a plastic surgeon is trained to see and thus make a living. He enlisted his plastic surgeon friend, Maria LoTiempo.

Armed with her plastic surgeon perspective and black Sharpie, Maria marked 12 model volunteers all in their twenties, TWENTIES, on the “upgrades” she would give them according to the (unnatural) standards of her profession. Interesting idea I’d say.

However, I did make me have flashbacks to movies that have girls wanting to be part of the “cool” girl group, standing on a table in their unmentionables forced to allow the cool girls to circle body imperfections. ::shutters::

Thank goodness Babej didn’t use the full body approach because I’m certain this post would have sounded quite different. Good move mister, good move.

So what are these “beauty standards” Though the article didn’t clearly map them out I think we all know what they are:
(and please let me know if I forgot any)
1. Wrinkle-free
2. Symmetry
3. Trim nose
4. Pouty lips
5. High/defined cheek bones
6. Trim jaw line

Scrolling through the images of the marked up models I was trying to hard to look for “flaws”, but honestly I didn’t see any, which is the point. These girls are beautiful and naturally so. I appreciate Babej’s project because it adds to the perspective that natural beauty is truly beautiful and for these twenty-somethings to “need” improvements to live up to the “standards” set by the plastic surgeon gods are ridiculous.

What do you think of “Mask of Perfection” and the images slap you (figuratively, of course), the viewer across the face and say “THIS EXISTS.”
What’s your opinion of the images?

More Than a Princess: Disrupting the Pink Aisle

Photo credit GoldieBlox YouTube. Screenshot by ShatteredGlassSlipper

Wandering the toy aisles of your favorite toy store it’s very clear which toys are “meant” for girls and which are “meant” boys. Girls like Riley aren’t happy about these color-coded marketing tactics. Who could blame her? The colors pink and blue have been used to label the different genders since the beginning of time we were born. Blue or pink bonnet anyone?

But in 2012 Stanford engineering graduate, Debbie Sterling, had it with these labels and aimed to disrupt the pink aisle and prove that girls are more than just princesses; they are creators, engineers and inventors. She founded GoldieBlox, Inc.—a startup toy company that combines reading with building, something that we haven’t seen much of in the pink aisle by the way of Legos or Erector sets.

To transform GoldieBlox from an idea to a reality, Sterling set up a Kickstarter campaign for the first production order, raising about $285,000, surpassing her original goal of $150,000. (Woohooo!) And earlier this month GoldieBlox started to be sold on the shelves of toy retailer, Toys R Us! (double whoohoo)!

Seeing a toy like this hit the shelves, become a reality, and inspire young girls makes me get a bit nostalgic and almost kind of jealous that there weren’t really any toys out there when I was growing up that involved a story line and building. Yes, LEGO that means you and your superficial way of inclusion by slapping a pink case around your plastic building bricks, hey look now they’re for girls!

When I was in elementary school I loved science and all the hands-on experiments we were able to conduct, measure the cause and effect, and challenge the dependent and independent variables. (betcha haven’t thought about that stuff in awhile, eh?) But somewhere around high school I fell off the science metaphorical train and landed in the creative and writing side of things, nothing wrong with that!
Growing up I didn’t really know what real career options were available to a science lover besides well…a scientist (mental picture: Albert Einstein). We attended field trips to science museums to see and learn about the great discoveries and inventions by men throughout history and were shown countless episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy (Bill, Bill, Bill!)

The saddest part? I don’t think I ever once challenged or argued where Brenda the Builder or Edna the Engineer was hiding. Because it was “just the way it was.” Shame on my naïve baby self. I accepted the societal norm without really knowing it.

For this reason, I’m grateful for bold women like Sterling who are challenging societal norms and aiming to make change and bring awareness among young girls reaching their highest potential. Sterling is a game changer, she’s not only proving a toy to keep girls’ interest in engineering but also show girls in a hands on way that they can and do become engineers, just like their role model in the storybook, Goldie!
Thanks to Sterling, today’s young girls, like Riley, can feel a bit more comfortable walking the toy aisles.

More on Debbie, how GoldieBlox came to be, and proof in her engineering pudding!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEeTLopLkEo&w=560&h=315]

Thanks to Societal Norms a Quarter Life Crisis is Totally a Thing

So, July has been a bit loco, it marks the halfway point of 2013 also known as “The Year of Me” andddd I turned 25. Yep, that happened. You guys, a Quarter Life Crisis is totally real and yep, I’m kind of freaking out about it. Why? Well because my Facebook feed (pesky social media) is full of people doing awesome things that go both with and against societal norms. With: engagements, weddings, babies galore. Against: Quitting jobs to start businesses or chase the dream job, moving away and raising hell. Me? I’m floundering.

For the first time in a long time I asked myself what am I doing with my life? And for the first time I sit and ponder because I have zero clue but I’m trying pretty dang hard to figure it out.

2013 I have dedicated to me and finding new passions and igniting old ones. I’ve been learning a lot about “my” people, the Internets and my eating habits to create a healthier and happier me!

The Year of Me: Try new things, take risks and seek adventure in hopes of changing the world.

As a young professional woman I feel like there is a societal stigma that says we have to hold ourselves together and be ladies even when we’re falling apart. The awful truth? Harsh reality? I’m 25 and for the first time in my life I don’t have a plan. But I’m a planner, always have been. I have a gazillion-and-one to-do lists, post-it notes all over my desk dictating what’s on my plan for the day, week, month. I’ve been known to have back up plans for the plans. Always be prepared. That’s my motto.

Today, I’m like uhhhh what’s next in this life? (Again, floundering.) I already fulfilled my original plan.
Plan: graduate high school, get into college, study journalism, be the first in my family to graduate college, get a job in the communications/journalism industry. Check, check, checkitycheckcheck. Maybe I let fate and hard work take over? Perhaps. Sounds like a plan. (see what I did there?)

I’m learning to embrace this rite of passage before the next plan/goal/fate-awesomeness in my life comes to fruition, which is to someday have a family of my own. But for now I’m content with working on impressing myself by dating myself. Call me selfish if you must, but there is something to be said for being your own número uno in life! Olé!

Here’s a little ditty of a poem I drafted up for myself as I embark on the next 6 months of The Year of Me! Hope you can relate to it in some capacity and feel inspired to take control of the wheel in this journey of life!

This Life
By Karlyn Williams
Tired sitting side car
This life
Grab the wheel
Floor it
Wind caressing tendrils
Rounding the curves a little too
Fast
This life
Dare to be great
Dare to take chances
Just dare
This life
Drive to seek passion, joy,
Promise to pump the breaks from time to
Time to enjoy
This life
Take care at yellows
Be patient at reds for they will
Flip to green
To go
Seek your dreams
This life

What have you done this year for yourself!? What are you planning to do this year for yourself!? Share it in the comments!

The F Word & Why We Still Need It

As you know I get a lot of inspiration for blog content from the media. And most recently, my friend sent me an article from Buzzfeed articulating “17 Reasons We Still Need Feminism.” (as told by Cambridge University Students)

It really got me thinking again about how we think of Feminism. Is it this giant F-word that gets hushed? Sometimes. Is it a movement? Yup, definitely. Is it inspiring? For me it is!

The University students, both male and female, scribbled down their reasons why they needed feminism on mini whiteboards, held their reason in front of them and posed for a photo. (Be sure to check them out here.)

My Top 5 Favorite Reasons:
I NEED FEMINISM BECAUSE…

I can make my own decisions, and my gender doesn’t mean you can stop me
I do not want my success to make me undesirable
I don’t want to live in a society that discriminates
People still say “but you’re a man” when I tell them I’m a feminist
Everyone can make their own sandwiches

Why do I need feminism?
I need feminism because I am unwilling to accept society’s stereotypes that all too often say to give up on my dreams. I need feminism because I’m tired of not seeing female leaders or protagonists in the media. I need feminism because I want equal respect and compensation for an equal success and a job well done. Oh and this…

I need feminism because…

I need feminism because I love smashing girl stereotypes into tiny smithereens in the present in order to pave the way for the future.

Why do you need feminism? Share in the comments!

It’s So Cliche [a guest post]

Today’s guest post [very first one ya’ll!!!!] is from Janna Hall of My Beautiful Catharsis and serves as reminder to all girls and women: stop being someone you’re not despite what the media is handing you daily and start being you! Because there’s no one else in this world that is better at being well…You! I couldn’t agree more! Around here at SGS we are constantly dissecting and beating those too present stereotypes to a pulp! Thanks to Janna for sharing her thoughts, inspiration and honesty!

It’s So Cliché…but “Be yourself; everyone else is taken” is a mantra that we need to carry on throughout our life. As kids, we grow up wanting to be like the girls on TV. My best friend and I couldn’t sit through a show or a movie without shouting, “I’M HER!” every time the prettiest girl came on the screen. For us, it was Clueless. From the moment Stacey Dash hops into Cher’s Jeep, we thought of every reason to ditch who we were and immediately wanted to look like, sound like, and be Dionne. Or the pink Power Ranger. Or Beyonce. Or in my best friend’s case, Britney. From a young age, we’re almost programmed to want to be everyone else, whether it’s a Disney princess, a pop icon, or the popular girl in school. It’s so wonderful to pretend, but what happens when we’re adults and realize that we’re actually not those women, nor will we ever be them? In the midst of our fantasies, we’ve grown to hate ourselves, not because of who we are, but because of who we aren’t. We aren’t those princesses. We aren’t those girls who, with one quick, flirty glance fall in love and live happily ever after with our Prince Charming. We aren’t those celebrities who have picture perfect bodies. We aren’t them. We are who we are. I am Janna. You are you. Somewhere down the path of pretending, we’ve placed more focus on the body we don’t have than our own reality. Somewhere down that path, we’ve snapped from fantasy land and traveled down the path of self-loathing. We’re obsessed with someone else’s beauty so much so that everything we see when we look in the mirror is repulsive. We’re so obsessed with someone else’s life that our own reality, no matter how fabulous it may be, seems worthless. We wander through life wanting to be someone else, while letting the person we were created to be wither away.

It saddens me to see people hate who they are. What’s the point? You will never be anyone but who you are, and to want anything but that is setting yourself up for disappointment. Society, nor a man, nor a celebrity, can or should make you feel like the person you are isn’t effing amazing. Because you are. And there’s no one quite like you.“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than you.”

Janna Hall

Graduating in 2010 from James Madison University with a degree in English, Janna left her hometown of Richmond, Virginia and headed to New York City in search of something greater than herself. That “something,” she discovered, was the position of Editor for EvolutionaryPress Publishing, helping young writers fulfill their dreams of becoming a published author. A now 7-time published editor, Janna enjoys the thrill of making dreams come true, and continually seeks ways to reach others and make a lasting impact on lives—both young and old. After spending a summer volunteering with New York Cares helping young girls prepare for the upcoming school year, Janna realized how passionate she was about seeing young girls gain confidence in their ability to succeed in the classroom and decided to use her passion to help girls succeed in all aspects of their lives. Now, she works for Girl Scouts of the USA, running the social media channels and pushing the message of building girls of courage, confidence, and character.

It’s Chime for Change!

Source chimeforchange.org

Education.
Health.
Justice.
For every girl.
For every woman.
Everywhere.

If you know me, you know that I love me some televised musical entertainment in the form of awards shows, music videos, reality TV and benefit concerts from time to time.

And on Sunday night live from the Twickenham Stadium in London the sold out benefit concert Chime for Change aired on NBC featuring the musical stylings of J.Lo, Ellie Goulding, Beyonce, Florence and the Machine, Mary J. Blige, John Legend and many more. Wish I was there! There were also celeb spokespeople: Selma Hayek, Frida Giannini, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Madonna, Jada Pinkett Smith and others who spoke about specific causes close to their hearts. The concert was televised in 150 countries in 6 continents. Talk about a movement! Heyyo!

Why were they coming together? To raise their (high profile) voices to make a change for every girl and woman all over the world. It’s Chime for Change (I love a good play on words!)

Chime for Change founded by Gucci (yup, you read that right…more on that later), co-founded by Beyonce Knowles, Selma Hayak and Frida Giannini (Gucci designer), is a new global campaign to raise funds and awareness for girls’ and women’s empowerment. The campaign focuses on three key areas: Education, Health and Justice.

Through the crowd-funding organization Catapult, nonprofit organizations post their campaigns, people can then search, find and fund the project that means the most to them. Simple, easy, to the point—I like it.

What I don’t like is the fact is Gucci is the founder of this campaign. They’re using their international brand recognition for the benefit of making change. I get that and I think it’s great. BUT they should probably practice what they preach, amiright? A great first step in this Chime for Change is to change how they objectify women in their print advertisements, to which they have received controversy over in the past. (Exhibit A & Exhibit B) I have to be honest when I say I was super pumped about this televised concert aimed to empower females around the world, but discovering that it was a project of Gucci I pulled back, I was disappointed, which is an understatement. Until…

Jada Pinkett Smith presented the project “Jessica’s Story.” Three years ago Jessica escaped sexual abuse and trafficking, a nightmare that she had lived since she was six years old. She is just one of the hundreds of thousands of children who are sex trafficked in the United States. For Jessica there were not a lot of resourced to turn to as she sought to escape, that’s why today, Jessica is helping other girls break the stigma, empower them and provide them with resources.
Click to watch her story below!

Silence is Louder than Violence & the Difference Between Being a Bystander and a Do-stander

Men and Boys this one’s for you! I just finished watching the TedTalk by Jackson Katz surrounding gender violence issues. What are gender violence issues exactly?: Sexual assault, domestic violence, relationship abuse, sexual harassment, violence toward children. A.K.A as topics that are icky to talk about for me mainly because they’re so dang controversial. Double Ick. Now hold on a minute don’t X out quite yet, especially you dudes out there! This post isn’t going to be about the ins and outs of the gender violence issues but rather how men often get left out of the conversations surrounding these issues.

When I first watched this TedTalk I was completely overwhelmed with everything Katz had to say because there was just SO MUCH INFORMATION. SO MUCH. In order to help the info digest better in my hungry brain cells I wrote down quotes, aha! moments, and “I can agree with that” points. They are written below in paragraph form as concisely as I could make sense of them. You could also watch the TedTalk! In fact you probably should because I can hear your brain’s cells grumbling from here. Feed them!

Ish-is-aboutta-get-REEL HIGHLIGHTS
Brain Relations: Gender violence issues have been seen as women’s issues because something in the human brain trigger “gender” to mean “women” the same way “sexual orientation” triggers us to think “gay”. Pesky brain. Somehow our brains take these labels steers them down a path to the least-dominant group (in our case, women). In these examples, the dominant group (for the sake of this post, men) is often left out of the conversations. Katz doesn’t see these gender issues as solely “women’s issues that some good men help out with but rather these are men’s issues first and foremost.”

Commonalities: What people forget is boys are affected by the men in their lives, who boys sees as their role model, harming his mother, sister, or another female in the home. He’s traumatized. Yet we as a society turn our heads to the young boy because we focus on the women who were abused in the situation not on the psychological health of the boy who was the witness to the abuse. What’s going on with these boys, why are we forgetting about them?

So to those people that are bashing the female leaders for taking a stand on gender issues and labeling the movement as anti-male you’re a little loco senor(ita). In gender violence instances both men and women are victims. That’s our commonality. This isn’t just a you issue it’s a we issue.
“The same system that produces men who abuse women, produces men who abuse other men,” said Katz. (see the daily evening news for evidence) A vicious cycle.

Societal Roles: As we all know several things play into how we as humans, as a culture, behave, and interact but for men a lot of these roles are defined by race, religion, media, family life, economics, sports, and peer-to-peer interaction also known as pressure. These “roles” define how men should behave in our society and being all gunho about something that has been labeled (again by society errr our brains) as women’s issues is to just not say anything, do not pass go do not collection $200. But you see guys this is the key problemo and a question I want to present is…How can men change manhood as its defined by society?

Simple Answer? Hold on to your britches people