Isn't it FUNNY?!

Sometimes I feel this blog is really hypocritical. Here's why...
Over the summer, you can drift apart from everyone. You suddenly realise you don't want to be a sheep, you want to be a feminist...Then it's back to school. Everyone going on about how fat they are, everyone wearing three inches thick of make-up, spending their days really stupidly. You think "why? They're all so pretty, why do they feel the need to compete with models??"
It's nearly rolled around to that time again, and now YOU'RE wearing the make-up, thinking how fat you are and thinking why bother in exams.
*sigh*
Regonize that? I sure do. So let's all take a DEEP breath. Done that? Now take off the make-up, go study, and stop complaining about fat you think you are.
If only if it were that simple. Facts are, it's SUPER hard to be a feminist in 2007. It's even harder when you're a teenage girl, going to school everyday, having to study your ass off so you can pass maths...Is it really any wonder it's so hard? I'm finding it harder and harder to be a feminist each day. But I think that's why it's so important to be one. So, maybe tomorrow I'll skip the foundation (ha! Maybe I'll just use less), not say ONCE how fat I think I am (and try not to eat any chocolate...because chocolate leads to saying "FAT!!! I'M SO FAT!!!"), and not complain about maths. I'll complain about Playboy, wondering why it's so popular.
I'll do a lot of thing, probably. But most of all...I'll try to be a feminist.

The playboy thing

Why is playboy considered fashionable? It's atrocious! (Sorry for the old-fashioned word...but it sounds right!)
Girls in my school have playboy EVERYTHING! It's so stupid...Yeah, it's a cute logo, but don't they know it stands for years of exploitation? I'm sick of it. So think before you buy something as innocent as a playboy pencil case...there's a lot of history behind it.

Think the media has anything to do with it?

In school, self-esteem is low. Basically, everyone feels crappy, wants to feel brilliant....and do what they think will make them that way. It's funny what you can hear in my school---everyone from girls who seem to wants to hide, to girls who need awards, that's how great they are.
"Ohmigod, I feel so bad. I skipped WeightWatchers last night...I have reached the weight I want to be, but I know I'll go up again. It's so annoying! It keeps on happening!"
If you heard this girl in another room, you'd probably picture her as slightly chubby. Guess what? She's stunning, I wouldn't be surprised if she became a model. So what's she doing dieting? And, hello? It's not a healthy way to live. I mean, yo-yo weight? So not good. I mean, come on, we're still growing, for the love of god. So quit it, be happy with who you are.
"Katie, why are you putting so much make-up on? You don't need it, you're as pretty as it is!"
While I'm a feminist who wears make-up, I only wear light make-up---I mean, if I oversleep and can't put it on, I still feel confident. But what this girl was doing in the bathrooms was slathering on a mask. No one should feel so unconfident that they need a whole bottle of foundation to be able to face the world.

So, we've got two different viewpoints---a girl who'll never be happy, because she doesn't like who she is. And a girl who may not know it, but made me think that there's at least one girl in my school who not only looks pretty, but feels pretty.
I mean, can anyone honestly say the media has nothing to do with all this? Do you think if you didn't see constant images beamed at you of skinny girls, with no visible pores, who never get spots, who's hair never frizzes, you'd still feel the same?
I mean, I get low self-esteem sometimes. I'll have five million spots, my hair is kinky, and I have bags under my eyes. Then I'll look in whatever magazine it is, and see these perfect girls looking up at me...how could I not get depressed? I just tell myself that picture isn't real, then eat chocolate or read something fun until I forget I ever though I looked bad.
But not many girls know a lot about all that. They don't think about what happened before and after that picture was taken...that girl had her make-up done, a hair-stylist just for her. Then she had a computer make her look even more flawless...and oh yeah, she's been vomiting up her food.
That's why it has to change. Because it's not just about self-esteem---it's about the things it can lead to. A girl might start smoking to be thin, might stop eating. Or maybe she'll just have her nose slit open to make it smaller, spend a fortune on make-up, and still feel bad. The media may not be responsible for it all, but it's responsible for most of it.

Back to ranting instead of rejoycing...

I'm amazed at myself. I just realised I don't know how to spell rejoyce with the "ing" on it. But never mind that...
So, I read this piece, left a comment, and then Audrey---wait, I'll just post the comment convo:

Fact: I am a teenage girl.
Fact: I sometimes have low self-esteem.
Fact: It's hard to find clothes that fit you if you're not a model.
Fact: I have gorgeous friends who complain about how fat they are.
Fact: Girls in my school (who are perfectly fine) go to dieting classes.
Fact: You say the media has nothing to do with this?
Posted by: Feminism & Lipgloss September 29, 2006 at 11:51 AM
Would LOVE to hear more, in your own words, about HOW you think the media and hype have contributed to your own on/off low self esteem, or what the girls in your classes say.
I mean, do you hear people actually comparing themselves to media images? Or do you think it's more of a subconscious thing?
I think it's really valuable that other readers of this blog hear from young women in their own voices about these effects and how they're dealing with them. So if you've got 5 minutes Feminism and Lipgloss.... rant on!
Posted by: Audrey October 02, 2006 at 02:24 PM
Which gave me the idea of doing a post on how feminism/self-esteem is at my school. I don't want to make this post too long, so I'll post it seperately.

Things get better and better...

My day? Crap. But I sure cheered up when I logged onto Don't Believe the Hype and saw this:
A teen girl gets active on the skinny model debate..
Y'all have probably seen some comments around this blog from Money Miss... a teen who maintains her OWN coolio blog called Feminism and Lipgloss , where she explores important questions about what it means to be a feminist today for young women....and where wanting to be pretty fits in.

Well, she's industrious that one... and she's started a campaign to ask Teen Vogue to use more realistic models in their fashion pages.

Not only is that a worthy goal ('specially since the teen mag genre is shrinking fast with the demise of Teen People and Elle Girl in the last few months....) but it's also a great cause because Money MIss is a young woman speaking out and trying to create change. If you've read my book All Made Up, you might remember that in Chapter Three (which is all about The Media) I chronicle how magazines REALLY DO tally up all the letters of complaints and praise they get, and take note of that when the plan new stories.

So why not join in and see if we can sway Teen Vogue. Is it possible? Tough to say. I mean, they ARE Vogue after all. But then again, no magazine likes tons of articulate letters telling them what's wrong with their product, and why its subscribers are about to cancel their subscriptions....

Find out more and get involved HERE,

and link to Teen Vogue's website HERE

This makes me so p***** off...

So, I came across Girls Go Tech a few minutes ago, and headed over to check it out.
And then got annoyed.
OK, so technology + girls = intelligent, not geeky. And that is what this website claims to be about. Instead, do you know what it does? It treats girls like stupid idiots who don't know the first thing about technology. For example...
While you see a blue square, the computer sees the following:

That gobbledy-gook is actually HTML. Think of HTML as a fancy set of instructions for a computer, almost like a recipe. You tell the computer what you want it to do by using HTML, and then the computer does it!
WHAT?!
They're comparing HTML to cooking?!
Nonononononononono.
So, whaty they're assuming is, every single girl will somehow know about cooking, but not about computers?
What sort of s*** is that?
Now, I don't know the first thing about cooking. But I know quite a bit about HTML. Now, would you see that on a boys website?
Don't think so.

Boys 'n' their toys...But what about girls?

Now, when I was six, I never had any barbies or Baby Born, because my mum is seriously anti. But, all my friends had Barbie and her many outfits, and Baby Born who needed her bottle. While the boys had Hot Wheels and Gameboys. OK, the girls had Gameboys too, but they only played stupid girly games on them. Um, where was I? Oh yeah. So, even from the age of six, we had it in our head that Barbie was to sit around all day shopping, while boys had to go and fix things with their mini toy tool kits.
Hmmm, can anyone see where I'm going with this...?
Now, Barbie is a feminists nightmare. She goes shopping, waits around for some dumb prince in her movies, and seemingly doesn't have a job. And then there were those toy babies. So, basically, according to the toys we have, we're supposed to live off Ken, then stay home and give baby a bath.
Wow, such a...scintilating existence.
Wow, wonder if the Pussycat Dolls had Barbies?
Nah.

I think Barbie should go shopping, but not run up credit card debt, be able to have a sucessful career and have her lipgloss.
I also think that spy books, vampire books, etc. should not be "boys books". And I wish people would stop saying that the above things are for boys.
'Cause Barbie wants to save the world.

Girl Bands, etc.

So, The Pussycat Dolls latest single is called "I Don't Need a Man". Why do I have trouble believing that?
Maybe the fact that you are so over-sexualised, and that the video for this involves you running around in your underwear, and taking off clothes?
Seriously, I was wondering if it was the Playboy channel I was watching.
But what worries me is that they're so mainstream---they're the most popular girl band since the Spice Girls. I'm too young to remember them, but weren't they about girl power or something?
All my friends love them. Um, why? I am continually going to my friends "why do you like them?? They're crap!!". To which my friends respond that they're brilliant.
Um. OK.
They can't sing, the song mostly consists of music, then a few lines of them singing I don't need a man/I don't need a ring upon my finger, then them pulling off their shirt or prancing around in their bra.
Now, give me your honest opinion: do you think these girls would be in the charts if they wore jeans?
That would be a N-O.
It's going to be hard to have feminism if we continually have that sort of stuff everywhere we look.

Oh yeah, go me...

One of my favourite bloggers out there, Audrey Brashich who writes an awesome blog about feminism, posted this comment up, which I am SOOO thrilled about!
Hey all... Miss Money, I've been meaning to post here and tell you that I admire you for writing this blog, and tackling these questions (about femininism etc) at a young age. Talk about a Real Role Model!Since I'm a "feminist author," people luuuuv to try to trip me up by asking me to define femininism or say what feminism means today. And my response it usually that it's really simple...and then entirely NOT that simple.On the one hand, feminism is about equality and respect. Full stop. (that's the simple part). But how that plays out in everyone's lives is so different.I mean, if you're a well-educated, lucky, comfortable person, your feminisim MIGHT play out in cultural discussions about lipstick etc. And those are IMPORTANT discussions. But maybe you're someone who works 3 jobs to makes ends meet and has kids and an abusive husband... and you finally decide to just leave the jerk and try to create a safe, positive environment for your kids etc. THAT can be a feminist action too.So, can feminists wear lipgloss? You betcha. And they can do lots of other things too.....--Audrey (allmadeup.net)
Hear that? I'm a real role model!!!

Start Changing Things NOW!

This isn't a proper post, as I won't be debating anything with myself. Instead, what I'm doing is a...

CAMPAIGN!!!!!
OK, so a while ago I wrote a letter to Teen Vogue to start making their models more real. Then I thought...why don't YOU?!?!?! So, I want every single person who reads this blog to go to your room, find every glossy magazine you read, find the address to send emails/letters to and GO DO IT!
Tips:

• Don't make it too long.
• Stress your points. Say that you want them to stop showing airbrushed, aneroxic made-up girls and start showing real girls.
• Make the point that YOU are their target audience, so they'd better take notice!

Oh, and mention you're part of a campaign on this blog, dontcha? The aim is to get just 100 letters out there. Think how little that is! If one person can make a difference, how about a 100?

Once you've done that, send me a email telling me what points you made. Come on---one little email can be part of something big.

21st Century Feminist

I think it's time for a new definition of feminist. Here's a few things that I think a 21st century feminist should do...

1. Feminists CAN wear lipgloss! And high-heels...And push-up bras...
2. Sure, shopping is fun, but feminists must pay for their Manolo Blahniks themselves, not with daddy's credit card.
3. Feminists do not I repeat, not wear Playboy jewellery. Why would you wear that?! (And don't give me guff about a woman being head of the womens Playboy thingy. She's just a idiot.)
4. Just because you're a feminist doesn't mean you can't love boys. Excuse me, I've got to stare at Jonny Depp...

Beauty and the Geek

Even though I hate reality TV, I've gotten addicted to Beauty and the Geek. Mainly because I'm so disgusted by it.
I mean, why do you have to choose between looking pretty and being clever?
I'd like to think I'm quite pretty, but I'm also one of the top in my class.
What I've noticved in my school is that the popular pretty girls just don't do well in school. Is it because blondes are dumb or is it something more deep---they're afraid to be clever?
I know I'd probably be made a scapegoat for bullying if I let it happen. Instead, I use having a brain to my advantage. After all, would you even be reading this blog if it wasn't for my computer skills? And it's not just blogs I do this with. After all, why be good with maths if you can't have fun with it?
I mean, I suppose you could call me a geek, but has that stopped me from having friends? Uh, no. See, if someone starts trying to bully you, why not throw a few big words in their faces?

But why is it seemingly so bad to be clever?
Why do so many girls rely on their looks so much?
Is it because they automatically fall into a sterotype? They're afraid to put their hands up in class because they'll seem geeky?
Which brings me back to the TV programme that started this.
See, they're reinforcing my point. They've said they rely on their looks. They've said they don't want to seem geeky.
But, persoanally, I think it's time to start being a bimbo with brains. So, stand up and let your brain be heard! We've really got to STOP thinking as clever as geeky, and start thinking it as another string on your mascara bursh.
Now, I'm off to do my homework.
Right after I finish my hair.