Ugh! Men are so Primitive!

The opposite of the title now seems to be true. Recent data gathered based on genetic studies seems to show that men are more highly evolved than women.

The study tested chromosomes in relation to the closes relative: Chimpanzees. The X Chromosome differed by only 2% when put side-by-side with chimpanzee chromosomes, whereas the Y Chromosome (exclusive to Males and intersex individuals) differed by 30%!

This will be one of my shorter posts, since I don't really know what else to talk about in it...just found it interesting!

Higher IQ than Average?

Results of a new study show that a higher IQ means that people are more likely to be liberal, atheists, and a higher IQ in males shows a greater amount of sexual exclusivity. 

According to the results, males with higher IQs are more sexually exclusive, whereas there is little-to-no correlation with females. Scientists believe that there is this difference between the sexes because evolutionarily, there is no benefit for females to have more than one partner, whereas in human history, it was deemed beneficial for males to have multiple partners to ensure the spreading of their genes. 

One of the scientists, Bailey, said that "these preferences [of liberalism, atheism, and sexual exclusivity] may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ". 

Liberalism, as they define it for the sake of the study, is, "concern for genetically nonrelated people and support for private resources that help those people". The definition leaves out other areas of "liberal" politics such as gun control, gay rights, and abortion, etc.

I just find this whole article interesting, but particularly the section about the difference between males and females. I have always found the evolutionary role very interesting. 

I see, looking through the comments, that there is much controversy (go figure) raised over this article. What people have to remember is that this is just a generality, and that it does not apply to all people. And although I do not agree with this article entirely...This makes me want to take an IQ test...

Booty Booty Booty Booty Rockin' Everywhere

So one of the sites that I frequent is called Cracked.com. This site, updated daily, is a humor site. Every day there are three new articles or videos, or a combination of the two. One of the relatively recent articles (December 31st, 2009).

The author of the article, "Seanbaby", looks at popular songs of the recent years (more specifically hip-hop songs) and has a mathematical formula (somewhat simple, with interesting stipulations) to determine the amount of booty in each song.

The rules for his interpretation are as followed (As found on this article's page)

Booty Per Second Booty Rules
1. The song has to be serious. It’s OK if it seems silly to you, but the artists who wrote and performed the song had to be completely sincere about wanting your ass to shake or be placed on his or her mouth.
2. All synonyms for booty such as rump or junk are acceptable. This is obviously a bit clouded by metaphoric interpretation, so all results should be considered to have a variation of ± .05 Booty Per Second.
3. Always brake for monster booty.
4. The word “it” does not count, even if “it” is clearly referring to a butt. For example, in the Backstreet Boys’ hit, “I Want It That Way.” Or in the end of this sentence: Ha ha suck it, Backstreet Boys.

Now personally, I find this whole website hilarious at many times, despite their seemingly overt heterosexism and sexism. While I would never argue that this site is NOT either, at most times, it is (depending on the author) done tastefully. (Side note: I will say that not all of the authors of the site come off this way, for there are some articles and authors that show great support for feminism and the LGBTQ movement, back to the blog).

The number 1 "winning" song is:

"The Booty Call" by Bass-n-Effect coming it at a whopping .45 Bootys per second!

So what exactly does this mean? It seems to mean that society (or at least Hip-Hop) is absolutely obsessed with the female butt. Part of this, I feel, relates directly to the amount of African-American artists in that group. Almost all of the artists listed there (group artists) are exclusively African-American. The exception is the Black Eyed Peas, but even that is primarily African-American.

This most likely stems from the hyper-masculinity that has arisen in the African-American community. From early in the U.S. History (dated back to colonization and slavery), Africans (and even now to a point African-Americans) are seen as hyper-sexual beings. Apparently, any man (or any race, ethnicity, or national origin) should strive to get "booty" (in all meanings of the word), but more specifically, female booty. Hah! As if that was the case...

Aside from my fair amount of research into this topic (I wrote a paper last semester on the hyper-sexuality of the African-American community), I see this just about every day living in the Residence Halls here on campus or even going to class. There is this notion (that goes beyond the African-American community) that all men should be doing is having sex with women. Just listen in on any given conversation between two "men" (I put that in quotes for very specific reasons, take a guess?) and see how often they are talking about women. You may find the results rather interesting.

Absolutely Furious

American Apparel apparently has absolutely no qualms objectifying women...or men. In a new contest on their website, women and men are asked to submit a picture of their butt wearing only underwear. In the contest, people can then rate the submissions with "the best butt". Although the winner is picked by the staff in the end, there is still this idea of a rating system. Two winners, one male, and one female, will be lucky enough to be flown to L.A., where they will be photographed and be the next "butt" models for American Apparel. The rating system is in place to decide the best ten butts who will each receive a gift bag of AA goodies valued at $300.00!!

In terms of rating, right now, the top two "butts" are: (SucreRoux (Left) and Maria (Right))
                                       

Maria tops out the chart at a 4.19/5 whereas SucreRoux remains strong at3.95/5.

Do women have better butts than men!? The whole foundation upon which I built my world has been cracked!

                                        
So there it is, another corporation creating that standard of beauty, or are they? Are they merely finding out what the public decides to be the standard of beauty for men and women. I feel that it is the first one. They are telling people that only certain women or men are worthy of being their models. One really has to wonder whether or not any of their employees (aside from their models) fit this "standard" that is constantly created and reinforced by corporations as well as the public.

This is exactly the problem, particularly with westernized societies. All of the advertising (aside from a select few campaigns) create a standard of beauty that is relatively unattainable by a majority of society. Well, it can most certainly be attained, but with a LOT of work. Sometimes more work than it's worth.

Just try to imagine a world where people were happy with their bodies and didn't feel the need to "perfect" their bodies, since there would be no "perfect" body.

Oh what a wonderful world that would be...

What really makes me mad about this whole contest is not so much the contest itself (granted if there was no contest, my anger wouldn't exist either) but the comments on the pictures that people post. One girl in the top ten female butts has over 150 comments. Some of these comments include:

(She listed L.A. as her hometown) "You can definitely see why it's called the city of angels!"
(Or, sticking with the religious theme) "The face of god.!!!"
"that is one FINE piece of american apparel ass! hubba hubba wowza weeeeee!!!" (pardon the swear)

It's these objectifying comments that really infuriate me, for it is these comments that create the standard or what is desired. How many girls would have a butt like this? Probably not many. My estimate would lie around 1 out of every 100 girls, maybe? Either way, it's an incredibly small amount. Regardless of the number, it shouldn't matter what your butt looks like!

Apparently there is a "best butt" on the face of the planet and American Apparel is set out to find it!

Just remember, men and women, it shouldn't matter what you look like, you're all beautiful just the way you are!

Lesbian Acts Up!

So I was perusing my usual daily sites, and I came across this interesting Advocate article.

To summarize, Kitty Lambert, a lesbian living in Buffalo N.Y., and her partner wanted to get a marriage license. They were denied. 20 Minutes later, Kitty was married...to a random stranger she picked up at the City Hall. The man agreed to marry her, even though he had never met her previously.

Strolling through the comment sections on this article, many people seem to believe that this was a stupid stunt, that it only hurts the cause of getting marriage rights for the LGBTQ community. In fact, some of the commentators seem to be upset with Lambert's decision, that it just proves to "the religious right", as one person referred to them, that relationships of the LGBTQ community are not taken seriously. I however, believe that it neither supports, nor hurts our cause. If anything, it only shows the whole straight community the flaw withing their own system; that anyone can go get a marriage license, so long as they are a male, and a female. Also, it shows how easy it is for two opposite-sexed people to gain the 1000-something rights afforded to married couples (one of the biggest arguments against Civil Unions)It's an interesting way to protest a system that will not let you in.

I will say, however, that Lambert's protest, although it may affect change within the minds of those who read this article, or those near her while it happened, overall, I feel that it won't have much of an effect.

If Brittany Spears' 55-hour long marriage didn't change how people felt about the institution of marriage, this certainly will not. I am not saying that Spears is the public figure of the time, but everyone knows her. I do admire Lambert's ideals, as well has her willingness to marry a random stranger on a whim.

Iranian Female Skier: Will She Bring Home the Gold?

Marjan Kalhor, a female from Iran finally gets her chance to be in the Olympics this year in Canada. This is monumental in the history of the country. She is the first female to be entered into the Winter Olympics from Iran (they have had females in the Summer Olympics). One of the reasons why females have not been able to compete is stated in this article. The basic principle of it is that since they are representing Iran, they must bring the culture of Iran, and in doing so, they are required to wear the traditional Iranian female clothes. As Kalhor points out in an interview, "Skiing is a sport where you have to be fully dressed. So there is no problem with clothes" (Simone).

With this issue, I am rather torn. Part of me is excited that Iran is finally working towards a more balanced team (the team they are sending for the skiing competition is composed of four people, Kalhor and three men). The other part of me, however, is disappointed that it has taken so long for this to happen. Of course, when any event such as this happens, I am generally more excited than I am disappointed. I feel that this is a big step in regaining some of the country's reputation, at least in my own world view. While this may not be the most exciting news for the public at large, for a feminist (oh yes, I will call myself a feminist) such as myself, I believe this to be a very important event.

Generally for the Winter Olympics, I only tend to follow the incredibly exciting sport of Curling...

Oh yes, you can really feel the intensity

This year, however, I do believe I will need to follow skiing, if for no other reason, to root for Kalhor. I want her to show Iran (and other countries with similar ideals) that Women can bring home the gold!

A change in Style, in Topics, and in Attitude

Originally, this blog was made so that I could blog about Humor in our lives, and how it related to the topics discussed in my Rhetoric of Laughter class. However, with permission from my new professor, I am able to change this blog from humor to Gender (which I had intended to do anyway even before I started this class - see this post) in order to further my studies.

Although humor may still come into play for this blog, the focus will be primarily on gender and how I see it, what is changing, and how far we've come. I hope you enjoy reading this!

P.S.: Professor Rensing, please do not count this as my first blog post, this is for my other followers...all four of them!