A Feminist with a Boob Job

I went to get my hair cut last week and as I was waiting in the waiting area I picked up Skirt! and started reading it. I found a GREAT article in this months issue titled "Do Feminism and Cosmetic Surgery Mix?" Even the title drew me in right away. I've often wondered this same question myself because I feel like most people see cosmetic surgery as superficial. The article is amazing. It is written by Kelly Finley, who has been a self proclaimed feminist for years and often lectures at UNC Charlotte in the Women's & Gender Studies department. It isn't very long but she discuses that she struggled for years with wanting nicer boobs since she'd lost them to age and child birth. My favorite quote in the article is this, "Feminist don't police-we empower every woman to be free, even free with her breasts." I have the link below. Please read the article! It's great!

http://www.skirt.com/essays/do-feminism-and-cosmetic-surgery-mix

Minivans

So, I recently did a lot of driving this week and i've been trying to watch out and see how much I reinforce Heteronormativity. Let me start this by saying that I am not a slow driver, especially on the highway. With all the driving I did, I realized that anytime I got behind a minivan that was going slow (for me atleast) I would get mad and assume it was some soccer mom. If I finally got to pass them, more often that not, it was a man driving. Which honestly really surprised me. I also talked to my mom about this, who drives a minivan, and she said it makes her so mad when people assume because you drive a minivan, you drive slow. That got me thinking that whenever I see a truck, I assume the driver is a man, which also isn't always the case.

Gender Stereotypes

I've been searching for old ads that enforce the idea that women should be dainty and quiet, while men should men and I found this really great ad. It just enforces to the public that women and men should not behave the same. And it really makes me mad because I'm sure its made more than one woman afraid to be whoever and whatever she wants. Like it's wrong to drink beer. Supposedly women are confined to dainty mixed drinks instead. After I found this picture I kept looking and I found another one that speaks to men kind of the same way.

The Absolut ad drives home the idea that "men should be men" in the way that if a guy can't perform the way he should he is no longer a man.

Upon reading Derricks blog about masculinity in Disney movies, I searched for videos on femininity in Disney movies. I didn't really find a video that was very good so I kept following related videos and I found this really interesting video of interviews with children asking them about gender roles. I never realized how young we begin to accept cultural norms of what men and women should be like. I tried to post this video along with my writing but couldn't figure out how so here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWc1e3Nbc2g