help - printing

I am having a problem with printing my posts - does anyone know of a good way to do it?

Thanks,
-puddle jumper

i win!

This year one of the nobel winners was for microcredit, this individual talks about microcredit and women's empowerment. you can find it here

Also - another hilarious blog

interpellation was my childhood best friend

About once every week I go and visit a house full of boys that I lived with last year. They DO make fun of me for taking women studies, being a feminist and above all telling them what I learn in class. But in their defence they have all taken intervention and mediation training on sexual assault. The only channel that really exists at their house, sadly, is mtv canada, and to my HORROR there was the worst...'public service announcement' I have ever witnessed in my life. It was put on by equalityrules. What happens is a girl of visible minority walks into a 'unidentified fast food chain' to order a double cheeseburger, and the service personnel a pimply narly nasty boy sneers at her telling her that she can't and shouldn't eat such shit because she looks horrible anyways. The girl then walks over to the next service personnel and orders an even larger burger. Then two slides show "It's not okay here........not okay from your boyfriend". At first I was like WHAT?!!?!?!??! I hope to God this is NOT a public service announcement. Then one of my friends turned to me jokingly and said, "YAH [insert my name here]!" as in, you should take something away from this message!!!

This 'public service announcement' is ineffective two fold: 1. Baudrillard says that such created scnarios and images are useless/hyperreal unless significantly reflected upon and 2. This 'public service announcement' (PSA) was over-dramaticized that it makes you think only boys can verbally abuse girls, AND it has to be a boy who is hitting puberty and not easy on the eye at all. Also, the 'proper' response as dictated by the PSA is, not John's lovely outline of getting out of the box, but just ignoring verbal abuse and not teaching the abuser how to NOT verbally abuse. This 'public service announcement' IS hyper-real because it is completely unbelievable even if you reflect on it. Although maybe an attempt of the organization to make a provisional interruption this interruption distorts our views of verbal abuse as being only a male to female interaction. Whereas I am positive that verbal abuse between females is much more common and detrimental (ie) calling each other sluts, whores, cunts, bitches, fat etc; this was demonstrated in mass culture with Meangirls. These hyper-real PSAs are what distorts people's interpellation to assault 'culture' that creepy men in trenches jumping out of bushes, and gross pimply boys are the only ones who committ abuse or assault. What is up with that?

Kipnis, Baudrillard, Althusser

Where do I fit in??? - From Mulan to Sandra Oh

In my 201 class we concentrated on the downfalls & critiques of the political spectrum types of Feminism rather than theory. In this class we are to critically engage how pop culture can be a place of dissent for Feminism. I believe that because I am a first generation (immigrant born?) – I don’t know the proper term, but anyways, I am the first in my family tree, on both sides, to be born in Canada. Sadly, I think I am so far assimilated that I don’t question things nor did I realize that Canadian or second wave Feminism didn’t really ‘include’ my cultural/ethnic background until 201. So what are Asian (defined here as encompassing China, Japan, Korea etc.) Feminist doing in pop culture to create dissent? …..wait is there even a group of Asian feminist? Bell Hooks cites “the central problem within feminist discourse” as the, “inability to either arrive at a consensus of opinion about what feminism is or accept definitions that could serve as points of unification” (1). Furthermore, “many women are reluctant to advocate feminism because they are uncertain about the meaning of the term” (1). There is no black and white definition of what Feminism is – meaning this is what makes pop culture a very fluid vehicle great for our fluid definition of Feminism to create interruptions.

The “Exoticize This!” website is a fine display of empowering nihilism because Asian women have often been portrayed as excessively subservient prostitutes or geishas, however the webmistress takes those definitions, exaggerates it and throws it back(2). The first time I saw Sandra Oh (a visible Asian in television/sound film pop culture) she played a pregnant lesbian in Under The Tuscan Sun – way to push those boundaries! However now in Grey’s Anatomy, I think she’s been type-casted as the very smart, hard working Asian, fulfilling all Asian parents’ dreams for their children to be the occupations of all upper-middle class occupations; a super successful physician. Is Sandra Oh speaking up for any Asian Feminist or even creating questionable dissent in pop culture like Cagney & Lacy taking up space in generally male-dominated roles? I think what Sandra Oh is creating on Grey’s Anatomy is comparable to a repeat of Cagney & Lacey in that Sandra is taking up space in the generally male dominated roles in Medicine, however at the same time she is fostering racial stereotypes (4). Is there anyone making Asian Feminist interruptions on my behalf in pop culture or are we still left out? Black people have 50, Lesbians have the L-word…….where am I within this mass production? Otherwise I only have Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh, and that Hawaiian “exotic” looking lady in the Rock’s movies who are sex kittens that can perform Karate and have awesome tea pouring skills….Hey! as I tell my friends I tea with: anyone who can pour me tea will make a great Asian daughter one day!

1. Hooks “Feminism: A Movement to End Sexist Oppression” pp. 22-27 [Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre (Boston: South End Press, 1984), 17-31]
2. Hooks “Postmodern Blackness”
3. Rhodes “‘Substantive and Feminist Girlie Action’: Women Online” p 132.
4. White “Ideological Analysis and Television” pp. 181 – 183.

It feels good to be on top: the orgasm of perfection

***warning: may spoil for movie shortbus

I saw the new movie shortbus with a few friends last night. One of the lines, so elegantly written I swear came out of Baudrillard's piece. I am just going to warn you there may be 'spoilers' because I'm going to set it in the 'scene'/context. It was like Freud was in there with Baudrillard.

The protagonist is 'pre-orgasmic', according to Freud neither experiencing a clitoral or vaginal orgasm. Accordingly if you did not experience the vaginal orgasm, "achieved through deep penile thrusting during coitus", was theorized to be a sign of immature sexuality (Rathus et al. 80). This measurement in maturity devalues women who have yet to experience an orgasm, ever despite participating in coitus. The protagonist claims that maybe the orgasm doesn't really exist because it is so elusive, and that it isn't reality because all women are obsessed with attempting to achieve it (the orgasm being a sign of the perfectness of the act of sex). That automatically made me think of Baudrillard, and made me the only one in the theatre laughing because maybe orgasms are hyperreal!

I think Baudrillard's theory is twistedly flawed in the sense that his argument makes 'perfect' sense. Maybe Baudrillard's argument isn't real, because it works out so perfectly. Why or what feeds our needs for this sense of perfection? A consequence of majority of things being socially constructed, the idea of an orgasm, then is not real defined by Baudrillard, because we are in search of the perfect sex --> with orgasm. Today we live in a very instantaneous society and expect things to happen for us right away like instant noodles or soup. However when such results are not reproducible we go crazy, out of our way to achieve the result; as shown by the protagonist visiting shortbus in attempts to achieve orgasm.


In relation to school.....I am not sure if its a false need that feeds my desire for an orgasmic A in grades. However, I do like to be on top of it in school, and I'm not going to lie, I do feel orgasmically amazing when I do get a 'perfect' grade and am on top of the class. There is a great song with the lyrics, "perfection is perfect hell"

Rathus et al. essentials of human sexuality. 2nd Ed. Pearson Education Canada Inc. Toronto, 2005.