Sexist Friends on Facebook

So, I was checking out Facebook today and I noticed something interesting. Some of my friends joined this group.

Basically, it's called, "Why do women go to college? they don't need a degree to make a sandwich".

What makes this really interesting...is that most of the friends who joined it...were women! Clearly, they have not taken this class.

This is one of those isolated incidents that to those who joined, doesn't mean anything. They see it as a joke. Of course we know that this is not the case. Each of these isolated incidents perpetuates the stereotypes and negative attitudes towards independent women.

It's just frustrating that people do not realize what this really does. In addition, they just don't realize what it says about them.

As mean as it may be to say, I am interested to see how many negative experiences people have due to their Facebooks: pictures, statuses, groups, etc. All of these may affect job opportunities in their future. If only they listened during Freshmen Orientation!

The Menaissance - Brett McKay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AxLaCltp2o&feature=player_embedded
Link is in case you want to view the features of youtube. Some of the options are cut off due to the style and layout of the blog.




One of the first questions posed by Brett is "What happened to real men?"

To answer this, he goes on to talk about the "three lame excuses for manliness": The Metrosexual, The Dumb Dad, and The Manboy.

He then claims that there are three reasons that these three types of men came about: Feminism, Absent Dads, and Consumerism.

McKay angers me...for the most part.

The one aspect of his presentation that did not upset me is when he said that "there are some things we should leave in the dustbin of history like sexism, homophobia, and racism".

Most of this clip, however, does annoy me, because he claims that there is a "real man" out there; to McKay, men are strong, individuals, and rugged.

There is apparently no room for emotions within McKay's "real men" world.

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!

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!