Abercrombie sells push-up bikini tops for kids

Abercrombie Kids is selling push up triangle bikini tops. Let me reiterate that these are for kids. According to Sociological Images (where I first discovered this), Abercrombie Kids markets their products towards 7 - 14 year olds, and the average age of puberty is 12. Don't you think their target audience is a little young to be enhancing their cleavage?

I don't know why any of this shit from Abercrombie surprises me anymore. Here's just a sample of some other offensive and sexist clothing they've produced:

• In 2002 Abercrombie Kids had to remove a line of thong underwear sold for girls in pre-teen children's sizes after parents mounted nationwide storefront protests. The underwear included phrases like "Eye Candy" and "Wink Wink" printed on the front.


• In 2004 they got in trouble for a sexist and offensive tshirt that said "L is for Loser" next to a picture of a male gymnast on the rings.


• In 2005 they came out with tshirts displaying sexist messages such as "Available for parties," "Who needs brains when you have these?" and "I had a nightmare I was a brunette."


• A tshirt controversy arose again over A&F's Back-to-School 2009 collection of "humor tees." One shirt proclaims "Show the twins" above a picture of a young woman with her blouse open to two men. Two other shirts state "Female streaking encouraged" and "Female Students Wanted for Sexual Research."
  Source: Abercrombie & Fitch product criticism - Wikipedia
  
  

Calgary woman battles gender-discrimination case for 19 years

The CBC reports on a case of gender-discrimination that has been going through Alberta's court system since 1991.

Delorie Walsh filed a complaint against her employer, Mobil Oil Canada, in 1991 because she was paid less than her male co-workers and her bosses blocked her from promotions and treated her unfairly.

In the 1980's Walsh worked as a junior map clerk at a company that would later merge with Mobil Oil. Her goal was to become a land agenet (or "landman"), but she was apparently told by her boss that "No damn woman will be a landman in the surface department."

Walsh's 19-year battle with this case is now nearing resolution as a week-long tribunal began on Tuesday. I wish her sucess and applaud her for sticking to her guns for 19 years!

Because only Mom's cook dinner...

Thanks to the awesome blog Sociological Images for initially posting this sexist ad.

Calgary Sun’s Sexist Olympic Coverage

Why do we admire our Olympic athletes? Perhaps because of their dedication to their sport, their unwavering desire to push themselves further and become the best. And according to the Calgary Sun, we also admire the female athletes for lookin’ so darn good.



On February 17th the Calgary Sun published an article by Rob Longley about Lindsey Vonn, the American gold medallist in women’s downhill alpine skiing. The article, titled “Sitting Pretty” is all about what a “babe” this athlete is.



The article’s subtitle reads, “With her good looks and incredible talent, U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn commands plenty of attention.” The opening sentence of the article states that, “When she arrived here injured, the American media breathlessly predicted all eyes will be on [her] right shin. Just guessing, but the rest of her anatomy might get a little attention too.” Longley then goes on to call her “the babe of the Games,” and when listing her talents “in no particular order,” guess which attribute is listed first? Her good looks and a recommendation to check her out in the current Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.



Furthermore, next to this article is a side-bar with the headline “Lookin’ good” which lists the other female Olympian hotties. The side-bar states that “Lindsey Vonn isn’t the only female Olympian lauded for her looks as much as her athleticism. Here’s a few of the others competing in Vancouver that are easy on the eyes.” The list includes Canada’s Mellisa Hollingsworth, who competed in the skeleton event.



The media focusing on the physical appearance these women is a serious problem for professional female athletes. So often our female athletes are judged not only on their athletic talent, but on their looks and home life too. In some extreme cases such as the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in America, the team actually has a beauty consultant on staff to help the women dress and look sexy.



Yesterday while watching the women’s skeleton event, the announcers were continually discussing which of the athletes are mothers and how old their kids are. Why are the children of female athletes often discussed, while the children of male athletes are almost never mentioned? No one ever says “Well, here’s the father of two, Jarome Iginla! He’s got two little ones at home, aged four and six.” Nobody talks about the home life of male athletes - and they certainly don’t comment on their physical appearance!



This is just another example of the double standards in our society. Women can rarely be appreciated just for their talents – their appearance and family life are always scrutinized as well.

Surprise, Surprise. Pro Female Golfers Make 1/3 as Much as Men

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour begins today at a golf course just outside of Calgary. The CN Canadian Women’s Open features 156 top-notch female athletes at this world-class event.

I think it’s cool that a prestigious women’s golf tournament is being held here, but when I heard what the purse (prize money) is for this event, I decided to see how much male professional golfers can win in similar tournaments.

The results are exactly what I expected: the purse for the LPGA is about one-third the amount of a typical purse for a men’s professional golf tour. At the current LPGA tour in Calgary, the purse is 2.75 million. In the men’s PGA Tour in Boston from September 4 – 7, the purse is 7.5 million.

Gender-based discrepancies in prize money occur in almost every professional sport. If anyone still tells you that we no longer need feminism because “women have their rights and are equal,” this is just one example you can throw at them to prove that we still get paid less for doing the same job.

Some of the Most Offensive Jokes I've Seen

A few weeks ago I received an email full of "jokes" from a female pal. I was appalled when I began looking through these so-called jokes, and found many of them to be overtly sexist and offensive. I was shocked that a female friend would send this to me. Regardless of the fact that she knows I'm a feminist, how could ANY woman not be offended by these jokes? When people make fun of serious issues like domestic violence, rape and kidnapping, it makes the issue seem less serious than it is, and can also result in victim-blaming and people not believing a woman when she tells someone she has been raped, abused, etc.

"Domestic Violence - Because sometimes you have to tell her more than once."

Well, isn't this a charming little "joke"? The fact that someone would even joke about this topic deeply upsets me. The message here is essentially this: If a woman doesn't do/say/act as a man wants her to, he has the right to beat her until she does. Yeah, real funny.

"Every male teacher that day contemplated the consequences."

Oh, of course! Men are such horny, dirty dogs that they can't keep their dick in their pants, especially not around hot 16 year old school girls [sarcasm intended]. If I were a man, I'd be offended. And another thing... what a woman or girl wears is not an indication of her sexual availability.

"Woman's Sports - A lot more interesting when hot Brazilian chicks play."
(PS - nice typo, assholes. It's "women's" not "woman's")

This is actually a serious issue in women's sports. The less they wear and more beautiful they are, the more media coverage they receive. Athletic women must appear both feminine and beautiful to be noticed at all, and anyone who doesn't is labeled a dyke. A female athlete's physical abilities are rarely applauded, she is usually only well-known and celebrated if she is also beautiful.

Just kidding, there's no candy.

Because luring and kidnapping young girls is so hilarious. The violent undertone in this "joke" is deeply disturbing.

Sexism at Wimbledon

According to British feminist blog, The F Word, there's a lot of sexism going down at the Wimbledon Championships - the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.

The All England Club, which hosts the tournament, admits that it schedules matches between “attractive” female players for centre court. Less attractive players, such as Serena Williams, are relegated to court #2, even though Serena is a two-time champion at Wimbledon.

Club spokesman Johnny Perkins said, "Good looks are a factor," and an unnamed BBC source is quoted as saying "No one has heard of many of the women now, so if they are pretty it definitely gives them an edge. Our preference would always be a Brit or a babe as this always delivers high viewing figures."

Absolutely appalling.
Click here to see pictures of the ladies that made centre court, court #1 and court #2. The relationship between the court's rank and their physical appearance is obvious.

Why are Alberta Politicians such Anti-Feminist Dorks?

It hasn’t been a great week for feminists in Alberta. First of all, Alberta’s Finance Minister, Iris Evans, made inappropriate comments about how children should be raised (see my post from June 19). And now Doug Elniski, a conservative MLA from Edmonton-Calder, made sexist comments at a Grade 9 graduation ceremony.

Elniski’s speech, which he posted on his blog (and has since removed due to the controversy it caused), included this advice to young girls: "Ladies, always smile when you walk into a room, there is nothing a man wants less than a woman scowling because he thinks he is going to get shit for something and has no idea what."

He went on to say, "Men are attracted to smiles, so smile, don't give me that 'treated equal' stuff. If you want Equal, it comes in little packages at Starbucks."

Rachel Notley, an MLA for the New Democratic Party is “very concerned that this is the kind of message that may be being given at junior high schools” and says the message is “hurtful and it sets the issue of women's equality back." At least one of Alberta’s politicians is as disgusted and disturbed by these sexist comments as I am.

How the hell can this joker get away with saying crap like this to kids? And on top of being incredibly sexist, he also throws in the s-word. How on earth can this be justified as appropriate for a Grade 9 graduation ceremony? The mind boggles.

Click here to read the CBC's coverage of this story.

A Shocking T-shirt?

Diagram labels: Depth Gauge, Awe, Shock

So, a friend of mine came over last night wearing this t-shirt. When I realized what it was, I said to him, "Dude, you know I'm a feminist, right?!" Then he looked all sheepish and was like "... yeah."

Anyhow, I'm not really sure what to think of this shirt, I just knew it somehow irked me. Even though I don't find it overly offensive (because I don't think its inherently sexist) it still bugged me. I think more than anything it's the name - "The Shocker." Maybe if this "technique" was called something else, it might be cool. After all, this is essentially a diagram of how to pleasure a woman, right? So in that sense it's cool... I just don't like the name. Maybe we can rename it to "The Handy Dandy" - I like that one better!