One of my friends sent me this funny video knowing that I’d appreciate it, given my embarrassing love of music by teen stars like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Selena Gomez.

I’ve been feeling ambivalent about how Disney “engineers” teen stars.  Lately, I’ve been having trouble watching “Hannah Montana” or listening to Selena Gomez and not feeling guilty about participating in these teen girls being turned into brands and sort of, dare I say, exploited by Disney?  I used to joke about my immature taste in music being innocuous, but I personally think the Vanity Fair photoshoot with Miley Cyrus over the summer was a pretty creepy situation (it really seemed like it boiled down to adults who should know better than to take advantage of a girl too young to be able to spot when people are going to use her to sell magazines) and we’ve seen what has happened to Lindsay Lohan, probably the oldest of the actors who were Disney stars during my lifetime.

What’s your take? Do you think Disney interacts with its young stars in an ethical way, or is there a conversation to be had here about how Disney can promote teen stars without commanding their identities? (again, exhibit a: Lindsay Lohan)

For irony’s sake, check out my new favorite song by Demi Lovato:

After some serious thinking, I’ve decided that I’m going to start asking myself “What would Maureen Dowd do?” and “What would Liz Lemon do?” I think that about covers my role model deficit for now.

(As a person of faith, every now and then I channel Jesus for advice and support, but I don’t think Jesus ever had to deal with the blogosphere and constant anxiety over his hair)

While I’m on the topic of Maureen Dowd, Liz Lemon, and other things tangentially feminist, there is a really interesting article in the Daily Beast that discusses the new cover of Ms. Check it out!

I just saw this YouTube video (not appropriate for work) and I think it’s positively hysterical; the kids in the video all go to the high school I graduated from, and actually, part of it is shot in my HS alma mater.  I feel a little creepy posting this, but I think it’s really clever, actually really well-edited, and a jumping-off point for a rather important sociological discussion.  (Plus, the song sounds vaguely like one of my favorite songs, “One Year, Six Months.”).

Given the 5-10 “enlarge your penis” spam e-mails I get a day, I’ve been thinking more and more lately about men’s anxiety over their penis size.  The logical segway would be to compare this anxiety with the stress women have about their weight.  After all, if we were going with society’s rather limiting constructs of gender, bigger penises make men more masculine and being skinny and smaller makes women more feminine.  Both genders’ size anxiety is something they can do virtually nothing about (given that 99% of diets fail, and cosmetic surgery to “remedy” both anxieties are limited to people of very elevated socioeconomic status).  It’s interesting that both the ads for penis enlargement pills for men and diet pills for women both come from the angle of “Do it to please the opposite sex!” which I think implies that these sizes issues would be a much smaller problem if people weren’t hardwired to do everything possible to entice the opposite sex.  And it’s also interesting–and COMPLETELY FRUSTRATING–that the second one checks of which gender she or he is on Facebook, Facebook users are bombarded with sidebar ads for diet pills and penis enlargment pills, respectively.

Anyway, enjoy this funny video.

Between August of 2006 and March of 2008, whenever I had an ethical, professional, or even personal question, I asked myself, “What would Eliot Spitzer do?”  I was positively in love with Eliot Spitzer.  He gave me an award when I was in high school for my feminist activism and for those two and a half years, he was probably my favorite man in New York.  I so admired how he stood up for people who were underprivileged even though he came from a place of great personal privilege and how he always stood for doing what was right. I also really liked watching him give speeches; he had such an electrifying energy and he just made me feel like I was part of something big and important (like New York State)!  This is completely embarrassing, but for awhile I had his picture hanging above my desk, and he consistently reminded me on hard days why I remained a feminist, a progessive, and a writer, when all of these things can honestly be rather difficult sometimes!

Needless to say, my admiration of Eliot Spitzer came crashing down last March and it became very clear that he actually stood for none of the things that I thought he did.  And I haven’t quite found a new role model to take his place.  I really love J.K. Rowling, but she seems to stay out of the public spotlight and doesn’t explicitly touch on political topics in her writing (although I would argue that the later Harry Potter books, particularly the fifth one, are very overt protests of what happens when governments are given too much power and they have major religious and spiritual themes).  I totally look up to Carrie Bradshaw, and I often find myself thinking, “What would Carrie Bradshaw do?” but Carrie Bradshaw isn’t a good person for a gal to model herself after, because frankly, as stylish and empowered as Carrie is, she is also somewhat of an overgrown adolescent.

As I prepare for my book to be published and to enter the spotlight in a very new way, I need a new role model, for professional, ethical, and style purposes (you have to admit, Eliot Spitzer did have style).  Any suggestions?  Who are your role models, career-wise, ethics-wise, or otherwise?

I have no idea while I’m not better at blogging.  I’m on Twitter all day and I’m really good at updating it, so I have no clue while I can’t devote myself to a social media site devoted to… me! (aka this blog)

So, for now on, I’m going to blog way more often.  Or at least try.

I’m really pleased to announce that I’m in the process of setting up a blog book tour for Supergirls Speak Out to build some momentum around the book.  I have really great blogs so far on the schedule, and when I have the whole month of March lined up, I’ll post my schedule here. I got the idea to do a virtual book tour from Rachel Kramer Bussel, a fabulous author and probably the queen of do-it-yourself book publicity.

What are some of your favorite blogs to read?

Christmas Eve is one of the most magical days a year to me. I positively love it; late at night on 12/24, there seems to be this majestic, somewhat dark feeling in the air (think “Carol of the Bells”) that I find really electrifying.

I’ll be spending the next few days at home with family, probably eating Christmas candy and cookies for breakfast and then passing out on the couch from a sugar coma at 11am. Good times.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

xoxo,
Liz

Back in my feminist activist days, my “main issue” (most activists have one or two issues that they focus on the most) was the sexual exploitation of women in the media.  Nothing bothered me more than music videos where female celebrities–women famous and rich enough to exercise some creative control over their work–would get naked and grind while they sang their songs.  When I was in the 11th grade and my freshman year of college, I organized two protests outside the MTV studios in Times Square to take on how the television programming and music videos MTV aired portrayed women as stupid and as worthwhile only for their sexuality; at the second protest I organized, forty people showed up and marched up around outside the MTV studios with signs that said “I Don’t Want My MTV!” and “SEXISM, RACISM, MTV!”  I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of anything I’ve done than that protest.

In the following years, I chilled out.  I witnessed sexism and misogyny far more extreme in college–especially because of the hook-up culture and the rather macabre sexual rituals in my generation–and MTV didn’t seem as threatening.

But I can’t stop thinking about the music video for “Single Ladies,” Beyonce Knowles’ new single.  Beyonce looks like she is trying really hard to be a piece of ass, gyrating to a point that looks like it’s physically uncomfortable for her!  Maureen Dowd wrote in her book Are Men Necessary? that our society is “so derangingly sexualized, it’s not a sexy society.”  And I think that’s the case with the “Single Ladies” video.  Beyonce looks like she is trying so hard to be raunchy that she looks positively ridiculous.  This bothered me.

But then I saw this SNL skit with Justin Timberlake, and it has me thinking even more about the exploitation of women’s sexuality in the media.

This video is intended to be funny (and it totally is!) because a) Justin Timberlake and two SNL actors (including one of the actors from the eponymous Bro Rape viral video!) are pretending to be presumably-gay backup dancers in heels and tight black leotards, but b) the guys are pretending to be pieces of ass alongside Beyonce! But it looks so bizarre (and frankly, a little gross; I’m totally not turned on by guys in heels) to see these guys putting themselves in the positions of submission that we usually only see women in, i.e. scantily-clad, dancing provocatively for a video camera.

And I can’t stop thinking about it! Lately, “my issue” has been taking on the pressure on young women to be perfect (in my book, naturally), but I’m wondering whether I might return to my high school activist days and see if there are ways that I can challenge the ’sexploitation’ of women in the media again. In the meantime, I’m turning the radio off when “Single Ladies” comes on.

I have a new feature up at Ypulse, about how college students and recent grads who want to work in the media are suriving and thriving in the face of the sad state of the media industry.

Personally, the state of the media and job prospects is something that I’m constantly thinking about, but I really believe that things are going to turn around within the year and in the meantime, I think that there is a really thick silver living in the face of the dismal job prospects and layoffs.  In other words, aspiring media employees: although it seems like right now we’re bringing sand to the beach by joining this industry, don’t fret–there are definitely things you can do in the meantime to up your professional ante!  Check out the piece for more!

I know, I know, I should be completely embarassed, but I JUST LOVE these girl celebrities that the Disney Channel exploits churns out. My like of music geared towards ten year old girls is mostly based in my hatred of misogynistic hip-hop and rap, but Radio Disney music is just so damn perky!

My new favorite is Miranda Cosgrove, who I predict will eclipse Miley Cyrus in fame within the next year.  I am OBSESSED with this song:

This very well may be the highlight of my career thus far! I wrote the cover story for the Times Union’s perspective section today about JuicyCampus.com, a pernicious new gossip web-site for college students. Check it out! I’ve been reading the Times Union daily for years–it’s the newspaper that serves the area where I grew up, Albany, NY. So needless to say, I’m totally pumped to finally be published in their print edition! (I had written a blog for their web-site for years prior).

In terms of my op-ed, JuicyCampus.com really makes my blood boil. I’m relieved to say that the site hasn’t caught on at my college the way it has at the University of Albany or the University of Delaware (another school where JuicyCampus.com has really taken off), but I think it’s really horrible that a corporation is profiting off of college peers being cruel to one another. While censorship isn’t necessarily the key (although I do think many of the posts on JuicyCampus should be removed), I think the most important step to take is for college students to stop reading the site! If no one reads JuicyCampus.com, there would be no point posting to it! So there.