Breaking Down the Bars - OWN

If you haven't seen Breaking Down the Bars program your dvrs to record the episodes ASAP. The show chronicles the lives of women serving time at Rockville Prison in Indiana. These women are bearing their souls on this show. Rather than reinforcing the difference between offenders and non-offenders, this show highlights the humanity of offenders. BDTB gives the viewer the woman's history, her crime, the traumas she has suffered (and her addiction, if she is struggling with addiction). They show old photos, and tell the woman's story from her perspective. The most amazing part of the show is that they incorporate the family members that are waiting for them to return home, most often this includes their mothers, children, and sometimes their lovers. I love this show because it gives you the good and bad, and what you are left with is this tangled knot of a life. It just feels real to me. In the end, I am rooting for the women to get out of Rockville and back to the people that love them. Some of my favorite people featured on the show:

Larretha is a young black lesbian, a who got caught up in an armed robbery. She was a basketball prodigy, who hopes to play for a college upon her release.

Amanda "Shardea" is a gangsta ass white woman, who used to rob people. She is getting help with her addiction and finding out that their is life beyond thuggin.

Tiffany, is a bi-racial beauty who used to strip and robbed men who offered her money for sex. One of those incidents went terribly wrong when her boyfriend beat a man up so bad that he almost died. She is close to being released and will return home to her children. Tiffany's mother has colon cancer which is rapidly progressing.

Dr. Stephanie Covington, Addiction and Trauma Therapist is a standout. Among the people that work at Rockville, she is the most caring, compassionate and informed. She does not treat the women like offenders, she treats them like human beings. This woman is one of the best listeners I've ever seen on television. Covington is drastically different than the "in-house" prison staff. The in-house staff treat the women like they are their crimes and always lead with their disappointment in the women. It is easy to see how "in-house" prison staff are in the business of making more offenders rather than rehabilitating them. They all act like really bad parents who claim that they want you to do better than shoot down all of your hopes/dreams and laugh at you when you have minor setbacks. Thank the universe for Stephanie Covington and everyone like her.

Many of the women's backstories involve them being sexually abused as
children, which is really sad and it points to the magnanimity of sexual
abuse and, in my mind, reinforces the fact that we need a national
movement against child sexual abuse. We need more than lip-service. We need a national awareness campaign. We need to de-stigmatize mental health therapy. We need low-cost therapy.

Also many of the women are dealing with addiction, in many cases the women turned to drugs when they were trying to numb the pain of the sexual trauma. Marinate on that.

Black Women, Size, and Beauty

I recently joined an online group dedicated to Black women’s fitness. I thought it would be fun. More importantly, I thought it would be a way to maintain motivation through connecting with other women who might share the same issues, such as hair, body type, and skin protection. As a black woman who exercises on a pretty regular basis and has a hard time finding other black women to work out with, I thought that this community was right for me. I started following their website and their twitter feed. I couldn't have been more was wrong.

My first inclination that this group was wrong for me was that their target audience was black women with processed hair. One of the hottest topics on the website is maintaining one’s hair. This is a considerable issue among black women who relax their hair because it is chemically straightened and the more you wash it the more likely it is to “go back” to its natural un-straightened state. I have worn my hair natural for 14 years. I have locks, so I do not worry about them too much. If I have just freshly twisted them I tie them up and get on with the business of working out. Also, there are so many natural hairstyles that are deemed acceptable at corporate jobs, there are few reasons to maintain a perm/relaxer these days. But still, I don’t bash women with relaxed hair, but I don’t like to spend a lot of personal time listening to them complain.

So, I ignored the hair issue because I am still interested in having a community, when I should have seen it as the canary in the coal mine. Then the other day on twitter, I saw them tweeting the following, “Feeling like you want to up chuck means that you worked hard.” Then she adds that her husband told her this little nugget of wisdom. Uh no. In my world, feeling like you need to puke means that you did not wait long enough after eating to work out. Then the woman tweeting on behalf of this group goes on to talk about using running as a way to preserve the sexy. As if the only good reason to workout is to maintain your sex-appeal. Um no. I think that working out to maintain your health, challenge your body, connect with your body and nature, or train for a marathon. I do not work out to be deemed acceptable within the size regime of US beauty standards. Why would I, no matter how much workout I will never be a part of those standards or that regime because it does not include black women, thin or not.

Why do black women need to get involved in the size movement? Because our bodies are considered not the ideal therefore, even when we are not “fat,” many of us cannot fit into the clothes at mainstream stores because of our hips, butts, and small waists. Or we cannot fit because we are voluptuous all over, large breasts and butts, hourglass style. Fashion designers need to accommodate women’s bodies, especially the bodies of women of color. For those of you who are very thin, and do not have a large butt or breasts, who think that you don’t have to worry about this issue because you fit into their standard of what a body should fit, you should join the movement in solidarity with other women. And because there will come a time when you will not fit because bodies are precarious rebellious creatures.

The US Regime of thinness says, that if you don’t fit into clothes sized 00-12 then something is wrong with you. It says: punish your body to get into those sizes. Don’t eat, and workout to the point of exhaustion, perfection is around the corner. To further encourage us to keep our eyes on "perfections," we are bombarded with images of women’s bodies sans cellulite, giggling thighs, arms, etc. And the only time we see non-photoshopped images in mainstream media is when a celebrity is showing us that they are indeed--that thin. Of course there is resistance, youtube and blogs are full of images of real human bodies that are unvarnished, but those places are outside of mainstream media.

Many of the mainstream media outlets do not have any real diversity. What they call diverse is a cafe-au-lait black and Latina women that are barely distinguishable from white women. And there are so few Asian women and Indigenous women it is really embarrassing. For the few that are on network television are relegated to second string jobs, while the white woman is the lead female anchor, who is seen as second string to the male anchor. For example, on The Today Show Meredith Veira is the anchor, a little known fact is that Viera is Portuguese, but today that is defacto white. I digress. The women of color, Natalie Morales, Anne Curry, and Tamron Hall, are all second string correspondents, while Viera is the anchor. Anne Curry has been on the show the longest and was doing the news portion when Katie Couric was still on the show. Was she promoted to anchor? No. Now, The Today Show's 9:00 hour the people of color are allowed to anchor, but that is not so on the main hour. There is a rumor that Viera will leave, I wonder if any of those women will be promoted or if they will find another white woman to be the "face" of the show.

Even when women of color  meets the standards of skinniness, has European features, and demonstrates professionalism they are still passed over for jobs in mainstream media, be it fashion or a daytime talkshow. Check out the film below that follows a black fashion model trying to get booked during go-sees.

The Colour of Beauty: Elizabeth St. Phillip, 2010

Featuring Renee Thompson, Part 1

Part 2

This film highlights all that is bad in the fashion industry. The recent outbursts of John Galliano illustrate how this culture of exclusion is closely related to racialized religious oppression and marginalization. The idea that some bodies are in, and others are out, is the kind of binary thinking that leads to genocide. People are more than bodies. And People Matter.

The story isn't all bad. Some designers want to break with the old rules. I want to say thank you to Christian Siriano for casting mainly women of color in his winning runway show on Project Runway. He specifically said that he wanteH black girls because they are fierce. He did not rant and rave about their hips and butts. he wanted the best models and for him that meant brown skin. Now, some might argue that he was exoticising them, but I would have to disagree because he was admiring their beauty not exaggerating their differences. The history of exoticising in fashion is long and the practice is pretty overt. Here is a prime example:

This image of Alek Wek is an example of exoticising. She is being made to look like an other worldly creature, an animal. She has a headband that consists of two horns, her tongue is sticking out, and she is wearing a black bustier. All of this is done to make her look less human, and allows the viewer to fetishize her dark skin.

The few times when women of color are the inspiration for something in fashion, the product is used to propel racist ideals. Example Rodarte's collection for Mac that was "inspired" by the city of Juarez. Colorlines writes: 

The makeup company MAC released its new “Juarez” collection in collaboration with the high-fashion label Rodarte, with lipglosses named “del Norte,” bloodstreaked eyeshadows in a shade of “Bordertown” and a pale nail polish called “Factory.” The Rodarte designers said they were inspired by Juarez and the lines of women workers who’d make their way to factory jobs in the middle of the night. Sleepwalking, they called it. It was this collection that spawned their makeup line with MAC. (Read more of this article here.)

This line of makeup was appalling, especially when it is coming from one of the few manufacturers of  makeup that is pigmented enough to show up on brown skin. Brown girls in the States know that Mac is a go-to brand because it actually shows up on our skin, unlike many department store brands, which does not have enough pigmentation to do anything, but leave our skin looking ashy. Bloggers took them down and eventually, Mac apologized and donated the proceeds to efforts to help Juarez.

The fight for more inclusivity in the fashion industry is a move against exclusionary thinking, which is the close cousin of racism and oppression. 

Wishful Thinking: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Most people don't know that I love Jazz music, especially singers like Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, and Ella Fitzgerald. I got this love from my mother, Sarah Vaughan is her favorite and by default she is mine too. Okay, not default, Vaughn was a singing virtuoso. I need this song and Vaughan's voice, today,  more than I could ever express in words.  

When she sings, "Someday I'll wish upon a star, and wake up where the clouds are far, behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops; that's where you'll find me." Don't you want to believe her? I do. 

Personal Lent

The picture kind of sums it up, but I will elaborate. My girlfriend and I are having our own personal lent, meaning that we have each decided to give something up for the next 38 days. We are calling it our personal lent because neither of us are religious and we decided to do it after the 'official' start of the Catholic Lent, which was last week. You might want to know why we are doing this. It is strange to do something religious when you are not religious. We are doing it because we just want to remind ourselves that we live in a state of plenty, meaning that we have plenty of everything to make our lives possible, plenty of food, shelter, love, etc. and privileges, when so many people around the world do not have what they need to clothe, feed, and protect themselves. We can live without somethings to help us to remember all that we do have in our lives. Furthermore, our lives are just fine without some of the gluttonous over-consumption that is encouraged and celebrated in the US.

So I'm giving up chocolate. I will miss this dear friend. But I know that its availability in the US is dependent on slave labor conditions and unfair import export rules that govern globalization. My girlfriend is giving up bread and sweets. So there will be minimal bread, sweets, and no chocolate around the house for the next month.

Of course there is whole host of reasons why self-denial is a bad idea for women, who are already well versed in putting themselves last, but for me, this is a personal choice to help me reconnect with the fact that I am a privileged person living in strange days in a country on the brink of something wonderful or horrible (depending on your perspective).

David Foster Wallace Kenyon College Commencement Speech

Here is a portion of DFW's Speech that I found profound:

Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship--be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles--is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.

They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.

And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving.... The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don't just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

"This is water."

"This is water."

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.

I wish you way more than luck.

You can find the begin of the speech here.

Technorati Tags: feminism in action, author, David Foster Wallace

Prince Tribute Part 2

Beyonce, would sing "Pussy Control" for obvious reasons. I would love to hear her do the song mixed with "Check On It." My second choice for this song would be Missy Elliot.

Pussy Control

Lauryn Hill, would sing "Seven" because I want to respect her Jesus. And this will give us a chance to hear her sing. My hope is that she would re-think the melody and do it with a live band. I love to see her with her guitar.

Fantasia, would sing "Money Doesn't Matter Tonight" because she would do the song justice.

Prince - 7 - with lyrics

Prince - Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Fantasia Barrino - Summertime

Hope you like it Prince!

Technorati Tags: music, Pop Icon, BET, Prince

My Prince Tribute, Part 1

At the BET Awards, there was a tribute to Prince. Janelle Monet, Alicia Keys, Trey Songz, and Patti Labelle sung Prince's songs. I do not think that they did him justice. I really wanted them to pick artists that sing really well, which none of the above performers are great singers/performers, except Patti Labelle. I wanted them to imbue the songs with feeling, while hitting some sweet notes.

I grew up listening to Prince, my mother was a fan. She even went to see him in concert, back when he was still stripping down to his underwear. She used to play his records all the time. And when she was away we (me and my siblings) would listen to Prince. We tried to figure out what he was talking about in his songs. One song that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out was "Darling Nikki." I wanted to understand why she was so dangerous. I was like 5 or 6 years old. I sung that song and hummed it in my head millions of times. At the time I didn't understand what was wrong with a woman being a sex fiend. I didn't understand what sex was, all I knew was that grown-ups thought it was something that children shouldn't talk about it. Of course the taboo made me curious about it. I didn't know what masturbating was either, but I knew that I wanted to do it because it made a woman dangerous.

She was masturbating to a magazine, in a hotel lobby! How bold of her. What made the song different from most pop-tunes is that Nikki left Prince after the encounter. At the end of the song, Prince is desperate to see her again. He screams, "Come back, Nikki, comeback!" But Nikki has moved on.

Now, I know what sex is, and I know how to pleasure myself. Thanks Prince! I attribute sex-positivity to those revolutionary songs that made women's desire a thing to be desired, and women's pleasure attainable.

The following is my idea of a fitting tribute to Prince.

Mariah Carey, would sing "Diamonds and Pearls" because this song fits her voice, it is a ballad, and it fits her style.

Prince - Diamonds And Pearls


Usher would sing "Raspberry Beret" because he has enough sex appeal to pull it off. And he sings a sexy alto.

Prince - Raspberry Beret

Missy Elliot, "Darling Nikki" because it would allow the song to remain queer. Plus, Missy can sing. Madonna would be my second choice.

Patti LaBelle, "Nothing Compare 2 U" this would have been better than her doing "Purple Rain." My other choice is, of course, Sinead O'Connor who has already had a hit with her version of this song.

Sinead O'Connor

Notes on Animals, Animal Treatment, and the Supreme Court

Pitbulls and Parolees, a show on Animal Planet, features people and dogs that need second chances. When I watch this show, it makes me cry. I cry because it highlights the way that society throws people and animals away because of social constructions that deem some good and others bad.

Supreme Court decision, United States v. Stevens, dealt with the distribution of media that depicts Violence against Animals, specifically, dog fighting videos. They claim that they did it to protect hunting videos? Bleh! All that they have illustrated is the bias of the US justice system. Micheal Vick, who committed a heinous crime was sentenced to two years (not enough time) and this guy gets to distribute dog fighting videos across state lines to the general public. What! So selling videos about dogfighting is okay, but actually fighting dogs, now that is illegal. Where am I, bizzarro world? Doesn't the Supreme Court understand that by allowing the distribution of the image of dogs fighting, that they are encouraging people to fight dogs!!! Not only that they are encouraging people to make videos of this heinous act. Is animal abuse is only a problem when black men do it, specifically black men with money?



Of course animal abuse is a national problem that is heinous when anyone does it. But is it only a big news story when it is someone that the dominant society wants to take-down a peg? Where was the outrage about the recent Supreme Court decision?

The Huffington Post explains the US v. Stevens decision as such:

This brings us, though, to a second basic principle of First Amendment doctrine: even though speech was produced by an unlawful act, the speech itself may not be restricted for that reason. In effect, the law separates the underlying illegality from the resulting speech. Thus, a person who makes a movie with a stolen camera can be punished for the theft, but the government cannot suppress the movie; a person who illegally wiretaps a telephone call in order to catch a congressman taking a bribe can be punished for the unlawful wiretap, but a newspaper that publishes the story or a television station that broadcasts the tape cannot be punished for doing so; and Daniel Ellsberg could be punished for stealing Pentagon Papers from the Defense Department, but the New York Times and the Washington Post could not constitutionally be prohibited from publishing them.

Basically, The Supreme Court is allowing the visuality of the crime, supposedly to stop the crime of animal fighting. But really they are just allowing people that make money off of other people's crimes to continue their business as usual. What a crock.

The moral of this story is do not support these videos. Adopt an animal because we, humans, have over-populated the planet with cats and dogs, so it is our moral obligation to co-habitate with them and make sure that they have good lives. And landlords that do not allow cats and dogs (under 5 per home) are committing an act of discrimination that encourages the growing number of abandoned animals in shelters.

Furthermore, we need national public service annoucements about proper animal care because it would create a culture where animal co-habitators and non-animal co-habitators would be educated about proper care would do more community policing of animal abusers.

If you want to help or do some advocacy on behalf of animals check out The Humane Society, they are not racist and sexist like PETA.

Building Feminist Community in the Classroom « Pedagogies for the Revolution

Here is something that I wrote for another blog. It is about my teaching and creating a feminist space in the classroom.

This year, I have been thinking about what it means to build feminist community in the classroom. You would think that this would be easy to do within a department of Women’s Studies; however, it is not. Like many feminist goals, this one takes a lot of work in terms of challenging norms, changing minds, and re-directing the momentum of the group.

In trying to create a feminist community, I am often reminded that there is a difference between Women’s Studies and feminism. Women’s Studies is about looking for women wherever they might be and asking questions about the economic, social, cultural, and historical impact of their existence. Feminism, for me, is a political project that seeks to end all forms of domination, patriarchy, racism, colonialism, ableism, heterosexism, capitalism, discrimination based on national identity, and create a socially just world.

Click the Link to read the rest. Building Feminist Community in the Classroom « Pedagogies for the Revolution

Jessica Simpson and Tyra Have it all Wrong: The Beauty Myth Updated

I miss the old Tyra; yes the one that told American beauty standards to kiss her fat ass.

Now, she is on a diet and extolling the virtues of not eating pasta for the last two months. What happened to her? On her talk show, she says that she realized that she was getting too big/fat. Then she started doing a workout regime while watching DVDs of "Sex in the City." The symbolism is hard to deny. Tyra who was attempting to do some good work around opening up beauty standards, succumbed to the Beauty Myth once again. The Beauty Myth is the title of a book by Naomi Wolf that was published in 1991. In this book, Wolf outlines that "The Beauty Myth" is a form of political backlash against the gains that women have made since the 1960s. Wolf writes, "this counterforce is operating to checkmate the inheritance of feminism on every level in the lives of Western women."  So the more political, social and economic power that we gain, the more heavily society weighs on us to be beautiful. She writes that after "the sexual revolution promoted the discovery of female sexuality; "beauty pornography" which..links a commodified  'beauty' directly and explicitly to sexuality--invaded mainstream to undermine women's new and vulnerable sense of self-worth."

On a micro-level, but played out in front of thousands of viewers, Tyra succumbed to "The Beauty Myth." The papparazzi called her fat, she went off on them, then she went on a diet. When she went off on the papparazzi and the print media that carried the photographs I was proud of her. Women and girls all over the country were proud of her owning her body, cellulite and all, telling the world to kiss her ass. Tyra was more than a budding feminist that day. Today, you turn to her show and she a shadow of her former self. Small, hollow-eyed, non-existent. Some might say that I should not have hoped to find feminism in a former-supermodel, but I hoped that she could stand up with other women and for young women, who dare to say that they are more than their measurements. She could have continued to create a space where women are thought of as people who have something to contribute to society and are deserving of respect no matter how they look. Well, that did not happen.

Jessica Simpson has had a rough couple of years. A divorce, the mom jeans incident, and John Mayer. Now she has a new show entitled "The Price of Beauty." She claims that the premise of the show is autobiographically motivated because she has been critiqued for being "fat." So now, Jessica is going on a search to find 'beauty' all around the world and to colonize practices of people from non-Western countries. I hate the whole idea of the show. The first reason I don't like the show is because she is taking her hairdresser and friend, who has had more plastic in his face than Barbie. The second reason is that instead of critiquing the idea of beauty, Jessica goes out to colonize beauty practices of non-Westerners. Basically, she is going on a colonizing mission to find out how the 'natives' live. Bad idea. Third, Jessica Simpson should be telling the media to kiss her fat ass like Tyra did. Jessica has a beautiful voice and is a talented singer. Now, I will admit that because she is not the smartest person in the world her music is not great because their is little feeling or intelligence behind her words. But there is a market for pop princesses like her, so why is she doing reality television? She should be focused on sharing her voice with the world. But, I digress.

As Naomi Wolf argues, beauty is tool used by a patriarchal society to discipline women by making them feel personally inadequate. She writes, "The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called "beauty" objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it. This embodiment is an imperative for women and not for men....None of this is true. "Beauty" is a currency system...Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West it is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact." This system leaves women "to unnaturally compete for the resources that men have appropriated for themselves."

What this boils down to, is that Jessica and Tyra are sadly misguided because it is not that beauty standards need to be more accepting, in actuality, women should refute and rebuke beauty as a standard by which to measure a person's worth in the beginning. The focus should be on what young girls add to our society in terms of politics, social relations, and community, rather than making them feel beautiful. Beauty should be one of the last things a girl worries about in the US because we face a crumbling economy, rampant acts of violence directed against women, and an eco-system that will expire if we continue to consume at this rate. How is beauty going to solve any of these problems. Moreover, how does beauty enable a woman to get the skills that she needs to survive in this world? As a a black woman, I would love to re-write the black female body as beautiful in this racist society, I would rather go to bed knowing that all black children in the US are going to bed with a full stomach and a warm place to lay their heads.

So, Jessica and Tyra both miss the mark. Some will say, Miss Lady, why are you going in on two women about a beauty culture that is patriarchal in nature. Isn't that just another form of bashing women? To that I say, Tyra and Jessica have an opportunity at the big microphone (mainstream popular culture), to actually reach millions of women, and instead of offering something revolutionary they just recycle and sell the beauty myth from a new angle and call it empowerment. Furthermore, in this day and age it seems that they would have some contact with feminist critiques of beauty--don't they research these topics. They must have one intern that is capable of doing a google search on feminism and beauty. Basically, there is no excuse for them to be manipulating young women into thinking that they are just one-step away from achieving beauty.

For now, I will just turn-off the television, catch a break from the beauty industry, and continue to work for social justice.

The Myth of the BFF

This article is very interesting. Although it is about younger girls and friendship, I think it can be helpful for women too. Often we think that friendships are static, but in reality they are dynamic, ever changing.

The Myth of the BFF

Brittany Murphy: A Meditation on Women, Weight and Disability

I've been thinking about the death of Brittany Murphy. I am tired of the media's coverage of her death. Most of the 'news' outlets have been trying to make her death one of individual pathology, missing the issue of the pressure for women to adhere to "The Beauty Myth." Naomi Wolf wrote about "The Beauty Myth" saying that

“Most urgently, women's identity must be premised upon our "beauty" so that we will remain vulnerable to outside approval, carrying the vital sensitive organ of self-esteem exposed to the air.....No matter what a woman's appearance may be, it will be used to undermine what she is saying and taken to individualize - as her personal problem - observations she makes about the beauty myth in society.”

Brittany Murphy was a woman who was trying to fit into harmful standards of beauty. The drastic weightloss and plastic surgery were tell-tale signs of a woman who was trying to alter her body for cultural standards and career advancement. But the media says that she fell victim to inner demons, instead of calling out cultural standards that push women to believe that they are inadequate. Some people will say that this only happened because she was an actress; to that I say, look around. I read facebook status updates where women detail their disordered eating everyday. These updates include people not eating, missing meals, surviving on diet coke. Although we commonly think of the Anorexic body as one that is stick figure thin, we have to remember that there are women starving at every size. While there is no 'normal' when it comes to eating, I would like to see the US move to more realistic beauty ideals that allow women freedom from the tyranny of the size zero. Some women are dying to get to a size zero, while others are eating down the shame that they will never be a size zero.



Images: Clueless; Skinny Brittany Murphy

Although the anorexia angle is important to understanding Murphy's death, there is yet another, the disability angle. TMZ, released information gleaned from police documents. According to TMZ,

"A check of the nightstands revealed large amounts of prescription medication in the decedent's name. Also noted were numerous empty prescription medication bottles in the decedent's husband's name, the decedent's mother's name and unidentified third party names. According to the notes, the medications included Topamax (anti-seizure meds also to prevent migraines), Methylprednisolone (anti-inflammatory), Fluoxetine (depression med), Klonopin (anxiety med), Carbamazepine (treats Diabetic symptoms and is also a bipolar med), Ativan (anxiety med), Vicoprofen (pain reliever), Propranolol (hypertension, used to prevent heart attacks), Biaxin (antibiotic), Hydrocodone (pain med) and miscellaneous vitamins."

Brittany Murphy was a Type 1 diabetic, who had a heart murmur. And from the looks of the medication list, she was also suffering from anxiety and depression. Each of these conditions are commonly known to the general public, but if not taken seriously, each could lead to your demise. Each of these conditions is chronic; and any condition that is chronic is depressing. Type 1 diabetics have to administer themselves insulin every time they eat a meal. Their pancreases do not produce insulin which processes sugars needed for energy.

For many "normates" this is unfathomable because you are used to just putting things in your mouth without thinking. Type 1 diabetics have to think about the amount of carbohydrates in every food item because their bodies do not produce the insulin needed to process sugar, however they need carbohydrates to produce the energy that they need to live--ah, theres the rub. And any miscalculation of the amount of insulin needed to process the food or misinformation about the amount of carbs in the food eaten, can send their bodies into a tailspin. They have to constantly monitor their bloodsugar by poking their fingers and using a meter that tells them the exact level. Anything between 80-120 is normal, but if it is above that it is a high blood sugar, which means that they need to give themselves more insulin, if it is below that they need to eat more carbs. Any miscalculations could lead to spacey behavior, passing out, or coma. In a society where people are encouraged to throw food into their mouths without thinking, there are people for whom that behavior is never an option. So if you are a food 'normate' and throw food into your mouth, just remember that there are people that cannot.

Constantly measuring the level of your blood sugar, and watching what you eat, is more than a chronic condition in this society, it can be like a prison sentence because in this post-modern America manufacturers are constantly lying to the general public, being a successful Type 1 diabetic means being a junior chemist and a food detective. And then there is the pain of being a diabetic. Many diabetics suffer with chronic achey-ness, headaches, and restless leg syndrome (which is a real condition). The combination of these physical pains, the constant measuring of food and insulin, in a post-modern world that promotes reckless eating and locates disease as an individual problem rather than a community experience, can lead to depression. Some people will say that the insulin pump will solve this problem, but there have been numerous deaths associated with the pump, therefore it is not a viable option for all diabetics, furthermore it does not relieve the physical pain associated with diabetes.

There are rumors circulating that Murphy was using cocaine. I am not sure that they are true, but we must consider that people with Type 1 diabetes have moments where they are "out of it" and experience short-term memory loss because of their blood sugar levels. The rumors also suggest that Murphy was fired from an acting job because of erratic behavior. From what I have described you can see that her behavior could have been a result of her diabetes and the higher ups reactions might have been due to ignorance of her condition. They may have rushed to the conclusion that she was a drug addict because they did not understand Type 1 diabetes.

Moreover, because they have to be so controlling of what goes in their mouths they cannot engage in the reckless eating that seems to be Americans' number one daily thrill, so some of them turn to substances. The use of illegal substances may also be a way to alleviate some of the pain associated with the condition.

Finally, the pressures to appear thin, be an object of beauty, chronic illness, and depression came together in Brittany Murphy's life to leave her so physically weak that she suffered a full-heart attack. We, as a society, should be broken-hearted that the pressures on women's bodies can lead them to endanger their lives. Moreover, we should press society to accept and accommadate difference instead of asking those that are different to act as if they are 'normates.' Brittany Murphy's death is not the result of her struggle with inner demons, it is the result of her struggle with societal beauty standards, and societal ignorance about chronic illness.





Technorati Tags: celebrity, Brittany Murphy, anorexia, Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth, chronic illness, diabetes,

The Woods Saga and DV

The fallout over the SNL skit illustrates my problem with the coverage of the Tiger Woods drama. My problems are multiple, but the first is that people are making light of the situation when Tiger was allegedly sporting scratch marks on his face. Additionally, Tiger says that his wife was trying to save him, but two plus two makes four all day long. That woman (allegedly) scratched his face, and was chasing him out of the house with a golf club, which probably why he crashed his truck into a tree and fire hydrant at 2:30 in the morning. Despite his statement that she was trying to liberate him from the car, it seems as though the more plausible explanation, especially after the surfacing of multiple mistresses, is that she was angry with him over his infidelity.

My second problem with the story is Tiger's attempt to cover up the truth. I understand that he is embarrassed, but the truth will set you free. His evasion of the police by refusing to talk to them, just gives credence to the rumor that his wife scratched up his face. If the police saw this they would have to file a report, whether he pressed charges or not, because they have a duty to protect citizens from violence (not that they always do). Furthermore, Tiger's justification for not talking to police, angers me because he is authorizing domestic violence through the right to privacy. By that I mean, that his statement that he should be able to handle this as a private matter authorizes the ability of those in power to cover up unlawful and violent activity because of their status in society. Basically, he called on his celebrity and masculinity to enable privacy in a situation where people were harmed. See if the police let you, average joe citizen, tell them when they can or cannot do their job and you will probably wind up in handcuffs. This is ironic because women had to work very hard to get domestic violence to be seen as more than a private matter by getting law enforcement and law-makers to understand that violence within a marriage is violence against citizens. This took a lot of work because women/wives were seen as property of their husbands and as property law goes in this country, you can do whatever you want to your private property. In 1976, Nebraska made marital rape illegal which helped to change the discourse on women as property. Although women's groups had been working on the issue of domestic violence for many years before this change, it represents a major change in the law and public policy towards women. In 1977,

Washington State Supreme Court makes a landmark decision in State v. Wanrow declaring that a woman defendant's right to equal protection under the law in a murder trial was violated by instructions that require a woman's conduct be measured against that of a reasonable man finding himself in the same circumstances. The use of commensurate force and the perception of an imminent danger might be different for a woman, who is entitled to have the jury consider her actions in that light. Thus the reasonable woman standard. This is the beginning of the battered women's syndrome defense. (from http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/herstory/herstory.html)

The decision by the Washington State Supreme Court decision is important because it allows women to be judged by the reasonable standard of someone in their position, rather than being judged against the actions of men, who are privileged in US society. Furthermore, it introduces battered woman syndrome to the court to enable lawyers to argue that women sometimes go back to situations that are dangerous because they percieve that there is no other option. Tiger might just have battered person's syndrome.


The third problem I have with this situation is that the media and Tiger are making light of the violence that Elin dealt to Tiger. Just because she is a thin blond woman does not mean that what she did was right. Tiger could have died in that car crash. And if she did scratch his face, think about what might have happened if she was attacking him with a golf club.

Although I understand her rage at Tiger, scratching his face and chasing him with a golf club are unacceptable. With my last partner, I had moments where my partner purposely did things to keep me feeling jealous and insecure. I would get so mad I felt like I could have exploded. One time I did explode and I shoved her during an argument. But instead of making that a permenant mode of interaction, I talked it out with friends, my therapist, and family members. And eventually, I realized that this person could not meet my needs, so I ended it.

My wish is that Elin gets her self-esteem in order and decides what is best based on her self-worth, not Tiger's public image.

Reality Television: Fetishization & Women’s Representation

I have grown bored with Reality Television writ large; however, I am enjoying the reality television that is video-blogging (VLoggin). As a person who watched the first season of the MTV’s Real World, I have given reality television more than a chance. But with the advent of the sensational coverage of Jon & Kate Gosselin’s marriage woes, and the fake drama of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, I have reached my limit. I am no longer entertained by this type of media that allows for a voyeuristic pleasure of the viewer and the tyranny of the visual to destroy familial relationships.

As a feminist, I am especially worried about the continued fetishization of the female body that occurs on these types of programs. Although this fetishization of the female body occurs across all media outlets, it is one thing when dominant groups produce images of women that adhere to archaic gender codes, it is yet another to create an environment where women are asked and prodded by producers to contort themselves into these positions for the pleasure of the viewer.

A prime example is the fetishization of the female body is The Girls Next Door. On this show, Hef’s three girlfriends (and I use the term girlfriend loosely), are all young, platinum blonde, thin, and white. None of them work, unless you count being Hef’s girlfriend, and yet the producers seem to be able to piece together a 30 minute show every week that features their activities and thoughts, ‘confessions.’ Clearly, the emphasis of the show is to feature their bodies, which are always scantily clothed and their materialism.

Each girlfriend claims to love Heffner, despite the fact that he will just replace her with another blonde clone, when she decides to leave or grows ‘too old’ to be his girlfriend. The problem with this show is that women are objectified and hegemonic masculinity is revered, even if it is creepy. Although the women are the feature of the show they are not the star. The star of the show is the phallus. Hugh Heffner’s penis, masculinity, wealth, and heterosexuality are the stars of the show. I do think that Heffner exists on the margins of heteronormativity because of his polygamist ways.

But what do we make of our society that says it is illegal to have more that one marital partner, but allows, even applauds, and gives a half-hour of cable television time to men who maintain multiple partners outside of marriage? Ask yourself, how long would a show with a woman who maintains three boyfriends stay on the air. Sure Tiffany (New York) did it, but she lasted three television seasons, while Heffner has been applauded for this behavior since the 70s. Tila Tequila had a bisexual harem for two seasons, but was recently (11/2/09) lamented en masse on twitter for being a “loose” woman.

The sexual double standard still exists and reality television shows exploit it for ratings. The lucky woman is able to turn that exploitation on its head and create a place for complex representations of the female body and subjectivity in the media. Alas, more often than not, by the time the women wise up to confining representational space they are allowed, they are tossed to the side for the next unsuspecting victim.

Some of you are probably thinking that women are not unsuspecting victims in the reality tv show game. I agree with you, to an extent. As reality television proliferates, the women who inhabit the genre become more sophisticated. For example, this year on the Real House Wives of Atlanta there is a pair of friends, Nene and Kim, that have gotten into numerous fights and then miraculously reconciled. When I began to watch the show their friendship seemed to be the most genuine on the show. As the show progressed, they seemed to be at each other’s throats. Now they are friends again, after supposedly getting into a physical altercation at a mall (which was not caught by the cameras). I am starting to think that these two friends are falsifying dramatic situations in order to remain on the show. They are aware that the good girl of season 1, Deshawn, was cut from the show’s line-up because she did not add enough drama to the storyline. I believe that they are falsifying dramatic storylines in order to stay on the show.

Instead of women manipulating money, beauty, and drama to maintain the spotlight, I would love to see women on television that are smart, funny, and talented. There is an audience for smart women lead characters, if only television would allow more on the air.

Introducing...

I am so glad that you came to West Salem Congress. The name of this blog came to me when I was traveling by car in Ohio. I saw a sign that said West Salem Congress and thought that if an entity like that existed during the Colonial period of American history, it would be the one place where witches would get there due. By that I mean, that they would be praised, instead of burned at the stake. As this journal takes shape, you will find that I am a history buff, who believes that there are very few new things under the sun.This blog is the place where witches get their due. It is written from a decidedly feminist point of view. Basically, this blog is a place where I get a few things off of my chest and do it in the spirit of social justice and inclusion.