Princess and the Frog

Hi! Random thought...but I was watching movie trailers and I came across the trailer for the Princess and the Frog disney movie we talked about in class...it looks interesting! Here is the link...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/princessandthefrog/

Is VH1"s New Reality Show "Tough Love" Really Helping Women?

VH1 has recently aired a show called "Tough Love." The show is hosted by Steve Ward, a successful matchmaker. The show picks eight single women, unsuccessful in love, and puts them into an eight-week "boot camp" with Steve. Occasionally, Steve's mother, also a successful matchmaker, appears on the show to help Steve find love for his loveless female clients. At boot camp Steve gives the women a 'crash course' on the male perspective. He also sets the women up on dates and analyzes their interactions with men. Afterwards, Steve bluntly critiques the women about what they are doing right, but more importantly, what they are doing wrong; in other words, what these women do or don't do that keeps them from making connections with men and finding love with men. So far, the show seems like a great way to help these lonely single women. However, condsider the following....
In one of the first episodes of "Tough Love," Steve brings in a small group of men to give input about the single women. One by one each of the women comes outside and walks by the men and stands there for them to look at and judge her strictly on her appearence. After she leaves, the men then give Steve their honest opinion about each of the women. Most of their opinions happen to be not so nice and very rude and hurtful. Does this seem to be helpful to the women? What kind of message is this sending to viewers? Men stand there and hasrshly judge these women without ever knowing them or speaking to them. I think that this reinforces the idea that women are to be seen and not heard, and also that they are objects to be looked at and judged by men.
In one of the other episodes Steve sets up a game show with a male audience. Each of the men in the audience has a sign that says "crazy" on one side and "cute" on the other. Steven reads aloud a fact about each of the women. After each fact is stated, the men stick up their sign and tell the women that the fact told about them either makes them sound "cute" or "crazy." The men just so happen to think that most of the facts read about the women make them sound "crazy," and many of the women are visibly humiliated by this. Is it really necessary to make a game show out of these women's personal preferences and habits in order to help them find love? Doesn't this again put these women on display for entertainment purposes rather than treating them as individuals? It seems to me that the game show made a mockery of these women for the sake of making "Tough Love" a hit show for VH1.
In another episode the women are once again put on display, this time as sex objects. The women have to participate in a photo shoot, dressed in sexy underwear or little clothing to show off their sex appeal. Then Steve, once again, brings in men to judge each of the women's photos. The women's success with this challenge is based solely upon the feedback of the men.
In my opionion, the main point of this show is to teach women how to gain male approval so that they can find love. Although some of the women say that Steve and his mother have taught them to value and love themselves first before they set them up to find love, these lessons don't seem to make it into the show.
Here are some links that might help you if you have never seen the show or don't know what it's about:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llg4mkcc78Y and videogum.com/archives/reality-tv/vh1s-tough-love-has-an-importa_056141.html?

So what do you think about this show?? Do you think that Steve Ward and his mother are truly trying to help these women or make a good television show? Do you think that the message this show sends is that women cannot be complete and happy until they find love with a man? Talk about your views and opinions of the show.

Stripping a Pro-feminist Act?

It's a simple question: is stripping pro-feminist or does it reinforce negative and suppresive gender stereotypes? However, this question is more complicated than one may think. Sarah Katherine Lewis, a writer and adult entertainer (a.k.a stripper), argues in her article posted on AlterNet, that stripping offers good pay for many working class women. Lewis's mother is a 1970s feminist, who was strongly opposed to Sarah's occupation as a stripper, so Sarah quit. She went back to working minimum wage jobs, such as waitressing, working long hours and feeling objectified by her menial work and low pay. Sarah could barely make rent each month when she wasn't stripping. So finally she went back to it. She says that stripping in itself does not give her a feeling of empowerment, but the ability to pay her bills and the freedom that comes along with that does make her feel empowered. She believes that her stripping does not affect the way that society already views women, so while she doesn't necessarily believe that her stripping makes her a better feminist, she feels that it doesn't make her a worse feminist either.

Read Sarah's article in the link provided. What do you think about stripping? Is it pro-feminist or anti-feminist? Does stripping reinforce negative female stereotypes and set back other women in our society? If a woman can pay to provide shelter and food for herself or pay for college tuition by means of stripping, is it okay? Is it then empowering?
http://www.alternet.org/sex/51408

'Educate a woman ...'

Has anyone seen these Albright promotional videos from the 1950s? I found them fascinating, especially the comments on educating women. It would be great to see promo videos from each decade, no?

What do you think about changes in the college and views of men's vs. women's education? How do these videos reflect the histories we've covered?

Part I (See 4:45 especially)

Part II (See 2:50 especially)

-- Prof. Lehman

Designing the New 2009 BMW Z4

Up until the twenty-first century, there has been notable progress in the professional careers afforded to women. However, it seems as though the traditional ideals surrounding women’s work have not changed. Cheryl Jensen’s article titled, “It’s Macho, Without the Men” says reporters were surprised to find out that the designers of the new 2009 BMW Z4 were women. Nadya Arnaout designed the new BMW Z4's interior and Juliane Basi was the exterior designer. I myself was even surprised to discover that the designers for the new BMW were women. I never really gave much thought to the idea of women designing for a company like BMW because one would assume that the company is dominated by men. Furthermore, society associates men with cars and vice versa. In addition, I was surprised to find out that a woman, named Yrma Rico is President of Weber BMW which is located in Fresno, CA.

I asked several people whether they thought a male or female designed the car and their response was overwhelmingly female. When I asked them why, most agreed that the design of the car was feminine because it had smooth and round shapes. Others agreed that the car’s design was sleek and would be appealing to the female consumer. Overall, people tended to generalize and go along with the traditional ideals surrounding women’s work being feminine. On the contrary Ms. Blasi said, “if you look at the car you should not be able to see whether it was designed by a woman or a man.”

Do you think the traditional ideals surrounding women’s work have or have not changed? Do you think women as the presidents and CEO’s of companies are acknowledged in the same context as men? Does it surprise you that the designers of the new 2009 BMW Z4 are women?

Feminism, Sexuality and Empowerment

According to Douglas, the early 1960s marked the beginning of what came to be known as the Sexual Revolution. Before the sexual revolution women were encouraged to be pure. In the past girl’s have received mixed messages about women’s role in society and women and work. Girls began to receive confusing messages about sex with the emergence of the sexual revolution. Different types of media such as, magazines were suggesting that females were not interested in sex. However, other magazines were saying that some women liked sex and premarital sex was not as rare as people thought. As a result, the mass media was blamed for the emergence of the sexual revolution.

Media ranging from magazines and books to television and film began to emphasize the idea that female liberation came through sex. The pregnancy melodrama emerged at the beginning of the sexual revolution. The majority of female characters in the pregnancy melodramas represented a broad range of female sexuality, from prim and proper to promiscuous. Furthermore, the pregnancy melodramas demonstrated that there was a conflict between traditional, American beliefs and the sexual freedom available to women. Today, television shows such as, Sex and the City represent the fact that feminism is dependent upon a person’s ability to make individual choices. The four characters in Sex in the City constantly make choices that challenge traditional ideas concerning heterosexual feminism. The women are never punished for being sexually active; instead they openly discuss their sexual experiences.

Do you think that sexual freedom and pleasure are central to women’s political liberation or do you think sexuality is a site of oppression and danger to women, or both? What do you think was responsible for the emergence of the sexual revolution? Do you think third wave feminism depends upon people’s ability to make individual choices?

Female Directors

I know this isn't a blog that I signed up for but I did a presentation in my other class on female directors. There is an article and a few youtube clips that go along with it.

Outside the U.S. females in the movie business
· The first African woman film director to gain international recognition was the Safi Faye with a film about the village in which she was born (Letter from the village) 1975
· Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Deepa Mehta and Gurinder Chadha are among the best known Indian women filmmakers
· Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, a writer and a director, is probably Iran's best known and certainly most prolific female filmmaker.
· Marta Rodriguez is a Colombian documentary film maker
· Elvira Notari was a pioneer of Italian cinema
· Marta Meszaros has been making important films for decades in Hungary.
· Sally Potter is a prominent British feminist film maker. British filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah explores the legacies of colonialism

Sofia Coppola- director
· Leading female director in Hollywood
· Wrote and directed The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, and Marie Antoinette

Facts:
· Women’s achievement in filmmaking devalued
· Although the statues of directors grew in the 1960’s and 1970’s, recognition of Hollywood features remained rare.
· In the history of the Academy Awards only 3 women have received an Academy Award nomination for directing a feature film:
o Lina Wertmuller in 1976 à Seven Beauties
o Jane Campion in 1993 à The Piano
o Sofia Coppola in 2004 à Lost in Translation
· Female directors outside the U.S. often receive more funding opportunities for film development
· When women in the U.S. get such an opportunity it is often because their popularity as actors has given them the power to produce or direct. Barbara Streisand, Jodie Foster, Penny Marshall, and Sally Field are examples
· Even by the late 1990’s among major studio executives only a few women held top jobs
· An independent film maker Julie Dash has argues that the a woman’s best chanced of controlling the movie process aside from acting, is to stay outside of the Hollywood system.
· Twilight's $70.5 million amounts to the best opening weekend for a female director ever. Not only did she break Mimi Leder's (Deep Impact) record of $41.1 million, but Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke destroyed it -- bringing her all the way up to the 29th best opening weekend in history (according to Box Office Mojo)


Article

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23626505-details/slumdog%20s%20female%20director%20should%20be%20able%20to%20share%20oscar/article.do

· Slumdog’s female director ‘should be able to share Oscar’
· Slumdog Millionaire is at the centre of a dispute over gender equality.
· While director Danny Boyle is nominated for an Oscar, co-director Loveleen Tandan is not. Now American campaigners are urging Boyle to “make history” if he wins by sharing the honor with her.
· Tandan was initially appointed casting director, but was named co-director by Boyle after her contribution to the shoot became “indispensable”.
· Jan Lisa Huttner of Women in the Audience Supporting Women Artists Now has launched an online campaign to urge Boyle to insist Tandan share his name on the Academy Awards ballot paper. She said: “Women find it harder to be able to make films and have their films seen. That's why this is such an important issue.” No woman has ever won an Academy award for best director and only three have ever been nominated. Academy rules state only one individual can be named on the ballot paper.

Female Directors at the Box Office
· 01 $182 million What Women Want (2000) Nancy Meyers
· 02 $144 million Doctor Dolittle (1998) Betty Thomas
· 03 $143 million Mamma Mia! (2008) Phyllida Lloyd
· 04 $140 million Deep Impact (1998) Mimi Leder
· 05 $140 million Look Who's Talking (1989) Amy Heckerling
· 06 $126 million Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Nora Ephron
· 07 $124 million Something's Gotta Give (2003) Nancy Meyers
· 08 $121 million Wayne's World (1992) Penelope Spheeris
· 09 $119 million Twilight (2008) Catherine Hardwicke
· 10 $115 million You've Got Mail (1998) Nora Ephron



Clips from Youtube


· 2nd Annual Focus on Female Directors
This program heralds the work of industry heavyweights, cinema pioneers, actresses-turned-directors, festival darlings, and the brightest stars emerging from film school.
January 18, 2007 at 7:30pm in the Egyptian Theatre. Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood California
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4HbBjM6gws

· 3rd Annual Focus on Female Directors
Same description as above. It took place January 10, 2008 at 7:30pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ4wlfNfvLg&NR=1