Suzanne Somers appeared on Oprah today and discussed her use of bioidentical hormones which she has sustained for a decade.
Not surprisingly, this fountain of youth can be obtained through extensive time, effort, and cost. Yip, that sounds realistic for the average woman. 60 pills daily? Sure. Estrogen daily? Bring it on. Progesterone two weeks a month? Check. A husband to make me my smoothie each morning to choke down those pills? Yup.
Somers invited cameras into her home to show her daily routine, seen below. First she rubs hormone lotion on the inside of her upper arm, always estrogen and two weeks a month progesterone. She then injects estriol vaginally, which she did not let cameras see.
Then there are her pills, all 60 of them. 40 in the morning with a smoothie and the rest at night. She admits the pill quantity is extreme, saying, “I know I look like some kind of fanatic.”
Hey, you said it.
This is a prime example of the five feminist critiques of the beauty norm in our culture:
1. COST (Hello!): time and money
2. Double-standard: her husband doesn’t seem too tripped out about his age and he looks FAR older than she does.
3. Choice and control: embracing a cult of youth and thinness as established, designed and perpetuated by large institutions that profit from this standard measure of beauty
4. Physical and mental health: dangerous drugs, toxic cosmetics and toiltries, barbaric exercise and food practices
5. Maintaining other forms of inequality: ageism, racism, classism
PETA’s sexy veggie ad has been banned from the Superbowl, sparking controversial debate on both sides:
NBC states: “depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards”
Says a PETA rep: “PETA’s veggie ads are locked out, while ads for fried chicken and burgers are allowed, even though these foods make Americans fat, sick and boring in bed.”
Courtney at Feminisng.com:
PETA’s incredibly ridiculous ad trying to convince all those hot wing munchers to convert to vegetarianism during the Super Bowl has been rejected. Shocker. It contains thin white woman prancing around in their underwear rubbing vegetables all over their perfectly toned bodies. I’m not even going to post the video, cause it’s, well, inane. Suffice it to say that, once again, PETA proves it has no notion of intersectional exploitation.
”They could never make a James Bond movie like any of the Bourne films,” Damon says scornfully. “Because Bond is an imperialist, misogynist sociopath who goes around bedding women and swilling martinis and killing people. He’s repulsive.”
According to Damon, that action hero formula is played out and old skool…kinda’ like sexism. Yeah. Thanks for being a real man and calling misogyny and sexism out as freakin’ tired and unoriginal.
To expand on the previous post, I have included the photo gallery of AskMen.com’s top 10 out of their ranked top 99. The lack of diversity is evident when these images are side by side. Additionally, the uniformity of each woman’s look compared to Michelle Obama becomes even more lucid.
Not surprisingly, there was a tremendous amount of scrutiny paid to Michelle Obama’s inaugural wardrobe choices and the “message” each outfit was sending.
In addition to the fashion police riding up her train, Internet discussions tackled the question of whether or not Michelle Obama is “hot” or not. Case in point, the website AskMen.com. The website has a series of “top” lists from that rank women. There’s the “Top 99 Women: 2009 edition,” “Top 10: 2009 Top 99 Rejects” and “Top 10: 2010′s top 99,” to name a few. But, you get the picture.
In each of these lists, there is very little variation and/or diversity. Essentially, all the chosen women resemble one another and the women of color that appear conform to Eurocentric beauty norms.
Compare AskMen.com’s #1 pick, Eva Mendes, and Michelle Obama and the usual measurement of beauty and Michelle Obama’s departure and transcendence become clear.
Some of the comments to the questions AskMen.com posed, include:
Oi yiddo, you moron! She ugly as hell
OMG like a cow :-S
She kind of looks like a female version of James Brown. Anyone agree?
Baby got back, her hips are wider than my 60′ high def. She’s not even in the same ball park as Palin. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is only skin deep, ugly is to the bone
Michelle Obama, as the new First Lady, is a female role model unlike most that we’ve seen before. It’ll be interesting what the cultural conversation and cultural response will be time goes by.
Will we see cultural changes? Will she inspire young women to move beyond the confined boundaries of femininity that have been constructed? Will the conversation tackle the unequal definitions and expectations that have historically existed and continue to persist in terms of which kind of women are considered feminine and what that acts and looks like?
Happy Martin Luther King Day! Rejoice and celebrate as we approach the inauguration of Barack Obama, an inauguration Dr. King predicted in his 1964 BBC interview.
If you haven’t already hear about 22 year old Natalie Dylan’s virginity auction, start reading here, here or here.
Not surprisingly, the San Diego resident begin the auction on the Howard Stern (the talk-show personality with a reputation for upholding sexism and patriarchal values) show and claims that not only is this an opportunity to pay for her Master’s degree in marriage and family therapy but that she is a feminist and this is, indeed, a feminist act.
More accurately, this is a cultural statement. It speaks volumes about the relationship between the mass media, culture and women’s sexuality. It is also makes lucid statements about the nature of possibilities for women in terms of access to rewards, resources and power. I don’t think it is a benign statement when more and more women see selling their sexuality, their virginity and their eggs for cash to pay for school…or anything else.
Dylan states:
“We live in a capitalist society. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to capitalize on my virginity?” she added.
So far, the bids have exceeded 3.5 million. When people pronounce feminism as dead and/or unnecessary, ask yourself and those people why so many young women still mistakenly confuse selling or giving up their pussies as empowerment and then tell them to read Ariel Levy‘s book Female Chauvinist Pigs: The Rise of Raunch Culture.
