Evian Takes our Obsession with Youth to the Next Level

Have you seen this commercial for Evian featuring the 'roller babies'?







Not only do I find the manipulated images of babies insanely creepy, this commercial also exemplifies our society's obsession with youth. Evian's new tag line is "Live Young," and the commercial claims that Evian "supports your body's youth." There's a bullshit marketing line if I ever heard one!



Anyhow, I suppose this post isn't particularly feminist... but I just felt the need to rant. This commercial seems fairly innocent and fun if you don't scrape past the surface, but I think Evian has really taken our obsession with youth to a new level here. Yes, I know it's just supposed to be silly and funny... but the message behind this is that drinking bottled water (which is an environmental atrocity) keeps us young. And in a society like ours that worships youth, a lot of people will believe anything advertisers say in their efforts to keep looking young.

Study Says Educated Women Are Heavier Drinkers

Interesting...

I found the following post at Asylum, a self-proclaimed men's lifestyle site whose viewpoint I'm not entirely sure I trust in relation to these kinds of things. The ending remark in the original post sort of threw me off; I haven't included it here since I figure it doesn't have much credibility but feel free to respond accordingly.

A new study reveals that the better a woman does in school, the more likely it is she will grow up and abuse alcohol.



Researchers from the London School of Economics tracked the lives of roughly 10,000 men and women born during the same week in 1970. They discovered that women who scored "medium or high" marks in primary school were 2.1 times more likely to drink every day as adults than their less academically successful counterparts. Intelligent guys also drink more, but the correlation isn't nearly as extreme.



There are two explanations the researchers offered for this phenomenon. One is that brainy women often delay motherhood, giving them more time to develop a social life based on alcohol consumption; the other is that higher-achieving females are more likely to work in male-dominated fields, which have cultures that are heavy on drinking.

The VaJayJay Monologues come to Calgary

The VaJayJay Monologues is showing in Calgary from April 29 to May 8, 2010.



Showing Tuesday – Saturday @ 8:00pm

2:00pm matinee on May 2nd & 8th

$10 Artist’s Matinee on Thursday, May 6th at 2:00pm

Pay what you can preview 8:00pm April 28, 2009



$22.00 for adults

$17.00 for students/seniors/equity artists



For tickets call 403-263-0079 or visit Urban Curvz.

a twist to your benedict

mmmm... here is the recipe that i found in Style At Home magazine but changed up to my own recipe...
saute some sweet potatoes chopped up with spanish onion, olive oil, garlic, and a touch of salt
place this mount of orange deliciousness on a place...
then add some fresh spinach leaves on to this....
then poach an egg (this is harder than it sounds... i just dropped mine in a pot of boiling water and flipped it around between spoons...would have worked better if i had a special poacher/pot)
place the poached egg on top of the spinach and voile! you have yourself a yummy meal... i also added some creamy cheese with herbs on top for a kick of taste to compensate for blandness...

toolazytotakephotosofmyselfandwhatiliketowear....willeventuallygetbackintofashionmode-stayedtuned

Tonight's Show: Interview with a Sexual Educator

Tonight we interview Patty Thille, a former physical therapist with an MA in Women's Studies. While writing her MA Thesis she took a job at Venus Envy, a feminist sex toy shop in Halifax, which lead her into the field of sexual education.



Patty teaches numerous workshops on sex and aspects of sexuality. Some of the workshops include; I'm Coming! A Guide to Women's Orgasm, Going Down: A Guide to Fellatio, and Up Yours! Anal Pleasure and Health. To stay informed about Patty's upcoming workshops, join her Facebook group: Venus Envy Sex Ed in Calgary.



Tonight we'll be discussing the workshops, sex toys, and myths about female sexuality and orgasms. It should be a delightfully sexy show! Tune in from 8:00 to 8:30pm on CJSW 90.9 fm in Calgary. You can listen from anywhere in the world on cjsw.com, and don't forget to subscribe to our podcast!

Canadian Women Earn 21% Less Than Men

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) recently posted this graph showing the gender wage gap between median men's and women's wages. I was surprised to see that Canada's gender gap is 21% - substantially higher than the average (17.6%) for OECD countries.



This means that for every $100 a Canadian woman makes, a man doing the same job makes $121. Canada even scored worse than the USA, whose gender gap is 19%. Poland, New Zealand and Belgium are leading the way in closing the gender gap - in these countries the gap is 10% or less.



The OECD reports:

"Even though most OECD countries have laws requiring equal pay between the sexes, women still earn less than men on average... Why do these differences persist? Discrimination is part of the answer. Women are also more likely to be in low-paid occupations and less likely to get promoted – in most countries the earnings gap is bigger among higher-paid workers. Childcare responsibilities mean women are also more likely to work part-time."

Pattinson's Pretty Props

Robert Pattinson (a.k.a. Edward the vampire from Twilight) is on the cover of the March 2010 issue of Details magazine. And so is a woman's crotch.



Every photo used in this story includes random naked women. Their bodies are used as objects or props - perhaps they're meant to add "mystery" or "beauty" or "artistic merit" to these photographs - but using beautiful naked women as props in photography is the oldest, sleaziest trick in the book. The women's bodies are dehumanized - they look like mannequins, and their purpose is the same as a mannequin - look good and be silent.



Gwen from Sociological Images comments,

"What struck me was the way that the photo shoot uses naked women as props for Pattinson’s masculine display... It’s not just that there are naked women as props or backdrop; it’s that in some cases, he seems utterly disinterested in them... It’s a double form of objectification: women’s naked bodies are used as stage decorations in masculine displays, and yet their presence is not even necessarily interesting to the male protagonist."