#feministfriday

Fridays are great for a lot of reasons: the end of classes, a relaxing weekend, the chance to step away from academia with a good bottle of your choice of poison and let loose with your friends. 

But I'm going to take a moment to promote something here at SRU that Fridays are all about: feminism. 

The #feministfriday pins worn weekly by FMLA

This semester, the Slippery Rock chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance celebrates feminism by tweeting out reasons why they celebrate womanhood and equality with the hashtag #feministfriday. Members of the organization also wear pins (like the one pictured here) around campus on Fridays to spread the word and get people talking about gender equality. 

The discussion is a simple one, and a hashtag isn't going to fix the gender disparity in this country, but it's a good place for a group of undergraduate activists to start.

By making a solid effort to take part in #feministfriday, FMLA and SRU take part in a national conversation about feminism and gender equality; on October 30, several feminist organizations took to Twitter using the hashtag to discuss women's healthcare, women's roles in the workforce, and women's safety concerns. 

The goal is to talk about women's issues until they become everyone's issues and must necessarily be addressed.

Take a moment on this rainy Friday to consider what equality means to you, and to celebrate the women in your life.

And happy #feministfriday, y'all!

This photo (taken from the SRU FMLA twitter) is why #feministfriday is important

I'm too tired to fight the workforce

Last week, a friend of mine got the internship of her dreams. Naturally, I was ecstatic for 
her . . . until she came home on her first day looking severely discomforted. When I asked her what was wrong, she said that nothing had happened, that the day went fairly well -- except her new boss had asked that she not wear heels again.

The shoes with the power to eliminate my friend's credentials 

Why?

"Because the heels made her taller than the men in the office, and really, how can you expect the men to respect you professionally when you're taller than they are? It's just  not right."

That's right: my friend, an accounting student who had beat out fifty other applicants to get this position, was told that she would not be treated fairly, or judged on the merits of her work, if she was taller than the men in her office.

Hopefully this sounds as absurd and offensive to you as it did to me. I had hoped this was an isolated incident, but I wasn't surprised that it's not.

Women already have a more difficult time in the work force when it comes to wage disparity and expectations from employers to lean in (a concept introduced by Sheryl Sandberg), but apparently, in some workplaces, this is not enough: women must also take care of their coworkers egos.

Graphic courtesy of  Brandon Gaille

This isn't uncommon: one-third of all women report feeling some sort of bias or discrimination at work. What's disappointing is that it isn't uncommon.

I don't have a solution for this, or frankly, much energy to fight it. The sad fact is that we live in a world that necessitates articles that teach women how to get respect in the workplace, but coddles men who feel threatened by female colleagues, or even fight back against female bosses for the sake of their fragile masculinity.

Tomorrow, my friend will return to her internship, hoping to advance in the company but perhaps to join the ranks of the one-in-three women who are sexually harassed at work. 

Regardless, she'll do it in flats.

Design Post #2

In keeping with the theme of finding inspiration while getting dressed in the morning, my next design inspiration came from my mascara wand. What I really liked about the design of the wand's label is the combination of the label colors, the shiny effect, and the typographic effect of in the "A."

The colors fade from green, to navy, to purple, to magenta. There is black in the mix as well; the effect is striking because it is dark, but also a bit feminine.  It makes me consider changing the colors of my blog to something a bit darker, because I tend to like darker colors myself anyway. 


The shine on the packaging is attention-grabbing, and although it would be hard to recreate a metallic shine in a blog, I could work on making my blog more attention-grabbing.

Finally, the "A" in the word "LASH" has a typographical effect; it swoops up beyond the rest of the letters, almost connecting to the brand name above it. This is a unique effect, and it inspires my thoughts of typography on the blog. Using dimensions outside the normal Roman fonts could be quite attractive, or at least set my blog title apart from other texts.

A Feminist Movie Review: Crimson Peak

The official movie poster.

At the risk of stepping on the toes of my classmates who run film review blogs, I would like to take this opportunity to write about a film I saw recently and loved, not just for its aesthetics (which were gorgeous) or its plot (which was spooky) or its gore (which was a little too much for me, but was all artfully done, so I handled it).

I loved Crimson Peak because it was a true tribute to women in film -- all because it didn't make a big deal about being a film about two women.

Just so you're warned, there will be spoilers beyond this point: read at your own risk!

Set in the turn of the 20th century, Crimson Peak is the new movie by director Guillermo del Toro of Pan's Labyrinth fame. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, and Tom Hiddleston, it follows the life of Edith Cushing (Wasikowska), an aspiring writer (and young feminist) as she falls in love with a mysterious man (Hiddleston) and becomes engaged in a dark scheme involving his sister Lucille (Chastain). Edith ends up further entrenched than she ever bargained for, and finds a well-suited sparring partner in Lucille.

And that's what I loved about Crimson Peak. Although it is a love story between a woman and a man, and although the love is real, the real struggle is between the Edith and Lucille: they are matched in wit and intelligence, and, by the end of the film, with weapons. Because finally, when Edith has reached the climax of her story and she must fight for her life against dark forces, she is allowed to do it for herself; no man saves her from her own fate. 

(A fate, which, incidentally, is allowed to be as bloody and brutal as any battle a man is allowed to fight. Edith and Lucille do not sacrifice brutality because they are feminine women. The effect is visually striking and politically reverberating). 

A moment from the final battle

It's also worth noting that there is a sex scene in Crimson Peak, and unlike nearly every other sex scene in cinematic history, it is the man who is undressed, all so that the overall message was that the woman in the scene could take control of her own sexuality. A conscious choice made to further the feminist ideas of the characters? I was shocked and loving it. 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Bechdel test for movies (Does the movie, 1) have at least two female characters, who 2) have a conversation with each other about 3) anything but a man?) 

Crimson Peak didn't just pass the Bechdel test: it bludgeoned it over the head.

(If you've seen the film, you'll know I just made a joke. Yay!)

Even more thrilling was the research I did after I saw it, when I found out that del Toro took a pay cut on his own salary to convince the studio that funding a female-centric film was a worthy venture.

SO MUCH STABBING

If this was a review blog, I would give this film five stars; even if you're not particularly interested in its feminist tones, it is still an aesthetically beautiful film (as del Toro always delivers) with a good story, twists and turns, plenty of blood, and one particular twist which had me shouting "OH GROSS OH MY GOD" to the person I was seeing the film with. 

Design Post #1

I have this bracelet, handmade in Colombia, which has seven colors in it, all delicately strung together. This bracelet could inspire the design of my blog because of its masterful use of color and balance.
I like the way the colors look together, even though there are seven of them; the bright pink near the center almost overpowers the rest of the colors, but since the central color is still the pastel pink, the eye is not overwhelmed by the brightness. 

The other colors on the bracelet are, from the outside in: brown, beige, green, yellow, and red (followed by the bright pink and then the pastel pink centers). Even though these are bright colors, they fade into the background of the visuals of the bracelet because of the bright pink near the center; however, the presence of the beige connects to the light pastel center, which ties the whole look together. This could be a lesson in complementing colors and bringing them together around a focal point.

The pinks also make this bracelet seem feminine (although a man could certainly wear it too, and it also incorporates traditionally masculine colors like brown and green), and femininity is the subject of my blog, so it suits my blog. The delicate way the strings are arranged is also inspiring to me. Even though the colors are vibrant, the bracelet itself does not overpower the visual field because each color is made up of a very thin string, woven carefully in lines around the whole wrist. The juxtaposition of the bright colors and the delicate construction comes off as a balance of beauty and power.

While this might be too many colors to incorporate in one blog consistently, this shows me that I could use all of these colors in various capacities without clashing. 

Happy (Sexy) Halloween!

October's ending, and you know what that means: Halloween! Spookiness, free candy, and the opportunity to dress up in costume and let your creativity and fun flow for one night. 
It's hard not to get excited walking through the stores and seeing their best set up for the festivities: jack-o-lanterns grinning, spider decorations looming, and sexist Halloween costumes displayed for the buying.

Honestly, nothing gets my blood pumping like a sexy Minion.
Who doesn't love Halloween? 
(Incidentally, I don't, but it has less to do with the sexist Halloween costumes and more to do with wanting to get Halloween over with so the real holiday -- Christmas -- can begin.)

Disclaimer: this post is not about what you should or shouldn't want to be for Halloween. If you happen to love dressing up as a sexy Luigi, good for you. I'm here for your empowerment (and Laci Green does a wonderful video about why self-expression is important on Halloween). This post is about the shameless oversexualization of almost every major Halloween costume in the market.

Don't believe me? Watch how this funny Buzzfeed Guys video nails the hypocrisy of Halloween costumes. (Seriously. Click that link.)

I'm not going to insult your intelligence and explain why the blatant sexism of Halloween marketing is bad; you can piece that one together for yourself. Instead, I'm going to point at the elephant in the room and make you look at comparison photos of men's costumes versus women's costumes.

So without further ado, we now come to the main attraction: 

My Top 10 Favorite Sexist Halloween Costumes of 2015!

10. Sexy Patrick Star

Because nothing screams "sex appeal" like the animated friend of Spongebob Squarepants, right? My favorite part about this particular costume is that, if you take away the cartoon face on the woman's torso, there is absolutely nothing tying that minidress to the chubby, dopey cartoon friend.

9. Sexy SWAT Team 

This one's really authentic; I bet she can do all sorts of functional things SWAT members do in those knee-high boots, and I bet her boobs don't get in the way at all. (And, just wondering, where's her bulletproof vest?)

8. Sexy Monkey

I can't even joke about this; trying to be a sexually attractive monkey is tiptoeing a little too close to beastiality for my comfort level.

7. Sexy Military

Look, women in the military have enough hurdles to jump for equality without having to worry that the civilian world is sexualizing their profession. Bonus points to this one for being a child's costume. I could have done an entire series just on the children's costumes, but honestly, it was making me sick.

6. Sexy Prisoner

Well thank God that if there are going to be horizontal stripes in prison, they'll at least be pink. Are those boots regulation? 

5. Sexy Nerd

Has anyone ever actually seen a nerd dress like this? Honestly? 

4. Sexy Astronaut

Something tells me her dress is not zero-gravity safe. Has anyone contacted NASA? His suit looks pretty legit, but is that what female astronauts wear? 

3. Sexy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

For when you want to relive your childhood and be desperately uncomfortable all night! Again, why are we sexualizing children's characters? Which are turtles?

2. Sexy Pilgrims

 

Is this what our country was founded on, people?

And last, but not least, just as I promised:

1. Sexy Minions

Perhaps the real problem with Halloween is that it forces us to face the fact that apparently people are sexually attracted to characters from children's cartoons.

The Most Difficult Test to Pass

This test is harder than your AP Physics exam, more difficult than Advanced Chem, more strenuous than any SAT.
The Bechdel Test: a measure of gender disparity in movies.

Bechdel's original comic.

Developed by Alison Bechdel, a lesbian cartoonist whose graphic novel Fun Home has garnered many awards (and even a hit Broadway show), the Bechdel test is comprised of only three simple questions:

1. Does your film have at least two named women in it?
2. Do the women speak to one another?
3. About something other than a man?

You'd be shocked by the number of movies that don't pass. The bar is so low that filmmakers are tripping on it. 

Think of your favorite movie. Apply those question. Does it pass or does it fail?

Mine fails.

My favorite movie is, and always has been The Princess Bride. It's a wonderful film that is funny, clever, and romantic, and although it features many women who speak (including a strong female lead in its Princess Buttercup), none of them every speak to each other. 

I know it is, Vizzini. I know it.

It's . . . inconceivable! 

But Amanda, you might be thinking, The Princess Bride only has one primary female character. That's part of the story. You're being harsh.

To which I say: Maybe. But I'm justified.

Because even films about women, with multiple female characters, fail. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II fails. The Avengers (which features two of the strongest women in Marvel history, Black Widow and Maria Hill), fails. In the entirety of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there are only three significant female characters, and none of them ever even meet (my heart breaks to type that; damn you, Tolkien). 

And that's just sci-fi. 

It's not like movies with women don't make money; in fact, a 2013 study found that films that pass the Bechdel test actually make more money than films that don't. The chart below further details that money gap.

This is not the end-all, be-all of film criticism, though. The Bechdel test isn't the only measuring stick that should be used to gauge gender disparity in movies; sometimes films scrape by with just a single scene of women chatting about something other than a man, without much real substance, when other films feature empowered women who don't speak to other women at all. But the Bechdel test is a great place to start. 

Next time you watch a movie, notice. Ask yourself, "does this movie pass?" Because really, why shouldn't it?

I mean, if Anchorman can do it, shouldn't everyone be able to?

***

2013 study shows that movies that pass make more money