Bieber Mania

Justin Bieber is more than a pop icon: he is the heartthrob of every tween and young teen girl in America. Yesterday was his 17th birthday, and it certainly did not go unnoticed by his fans. Twitter, more than anything, allows Justin Bieber’s fans to feel as though they can do something to celebrate their favorite boy’s birthday. One of the biggest trends on Twitter today was #happybirthdayjustinbieber, and his personal Twitter page was filled with videos his young female fans taking pictures of themselves posing with t-shirts, signs and cupcakes they made for his special day. These girls also left their own Twitter names alongside these videos, with the hope that Justin will “follow” them to reciprocate their Twitter love for him.
Justin Bieber has 7 million followers on Twitter, making Kanye West look unpopular with a measly 2 million. Admittedly, Bieber fever is a sickness I may have caught as well, but I fear for what it holds in store for the millions of girls who grow up changing their Twitter last name to Bieber, and waiting anxiously for Justin Bieber to acknowledge their Internet existence. There is a famous YouTube video of a girl crying because she loves Justin Bieber so much; who will this girl grow up to be? Given, there are worse guys to worship. Bieber truly loves his fans, and indulges his fans by “retweeting” them as much as he can, but to have such unrequited love at age 11 or 12 cannot be healthy for self esteem.

Rihanna: Reinvented?

Over coffee yesterday, I was talking with a male friend about Rihanna, and her new song “S&M.” The song itself is incredibly explicit; it contains lines like “sticks and stones may break my bones/but chains and whips excite me,” which don’t really leave much to the imagination. My friend then declared that Rihanna’s scandal with abusive husband Chris Brown was “the best thing that ever happened to her career.” While this may be an incredibly offensive and disgusting thing to say, it does not go without explanation. Not necessarily a good one, but an understandable one.
Rihanna’s music was tamer before the Chris Brown fiasco. Two years ago, Rihanna’s then boyfriend Chris Brown physically assaulted her, leaving Rihanna looking victimized and weak. Now, Rihanna is back on the pop culture scene with a vengeance. Her songs now are explicit and about domination, like “S &M” and her song “Rude Boy,” when she requests a rude boy, and asks if he is “big enough,” which does not leave much to the imagination. Rihanna is more popular now, and has more spunk and a louder, more explicit image on the pop music scene.
While I think it is impossible to say abuse was helpful to anyone, I think it is incredible that Rihanna has risen above the scandal, which inherently shows her as weak, and transformed her into a strong, dominant sex symbol. Rihanna could have easily let her abuse scandal be the end of her career, leaving her victimized and weak. However, her knew sexualized image shows her as a courageous woman who is willing to put the past behind her, and be successful and sexy despite what Chris Brown may have done to sabotage that.

Sex Addiction: A Guy's Problem?

I recently read a Time.com magazine article titled “Sex Addiction: Real Disease or Excuse for Men to Cheat?” The article did not answer the question it asks in the title, mainly because at this point in time with the amount of research that has been done so far, I don’t think there is a clear answer yet. However, if it is a disease, from this article it seems that it is mainly a disease held by men. It perplexes me how sexuality has become something that is so inherently male, that men can be prone to sex not only in excess, but to the point where it becomes addiction. While the article uses all encompassing, gender neutral terms in the article, it does not explicitly cite any females in the article, and it only mentions and quotes stories from male sex addicts. The only mention of females suffering from some form of unhealthy relationship with sex in the article is the discussion of nymphomania, an antiquated term that is more often associated with being promiscuous than it is with being a victim of some sort of sexual disease.
Reading one article on sex addiction does not make me an expert, so I certainly cannot say whether or not it is a disease, but if it is in fact a disease, wouldn’t both men and women be susceptible? From the article, it could be understood that women who have too much sex are nymphomaniacs, or just sex crazed fiends, whereas men who have too much sex need treatment and psychiatric help.

Climbin Thru Yo Windows...and Billboard Charts

In the age of YouTube, fame is not what it used to be. You don’t have to have any form of talent, or even a lot of money to make it to YouTube stardom. For instance, take Antoine Dodson. Dodson is a 24-year-old African American male who was interviewed on the news after an intruder came into his house in the middle of the night and attempted to rape his sister. Dodson is a resident of the Lincoln Park Housing Project in Alabama, which is a government funded, low-income housing project.

After the news interview was on local television, it hit YouTube and Dodson’s life changed entirely. Despite the fact that the interview was about an extremely serious matter, the interview became a complete joke. In the interview, Dodson tells to “hide ya kids, hide ya wife, and hide ya husbands ‘cause they’re raping everybody out here.” There is nothing inherently comical about rape. However, once this interview was turned into an autotuned anthem, it blew up on the Internet. The video of the song called “Bed Intruder” has over 73 million views on YouTube, and as of September, the song received more than 100,000 purchases on iTunes. Dodson began marketing this himself, and somehow received the invitation to perform this song at the BET awards.

How is Dodson a proper representation of African American culture, other than reinforcing stereotypes of lower class African American males? The only answer that I can come to is: he’s not. This is a type of joke I thought we had moved past in America—laughing at a black guy in a tank top and a red bandana because he has poor grammar and a Southern accent is really nothing but plain racist in my book, even if it is autotuned.

Liz Lemon

30 Rock is one of my favorite television shows. Tina Fey is one of the funniest writers on television today. However, the one problem I repeatedly have with the show is the constant digs at Liz Lemon, Tina Fey’s character. Liz is presented as overworking, clutsy, and obsessed with fattening food. Liz has trouble dating and keeping a boyfriend, and often talks about her weird quirks. Liz also is portrayed as incredibly geeky and ugly, which is funny to a point, but I sometimes feel that it goes too far.

Tina Fey is an average sized, pretty woman. She is not anorexically thin, and she is not heavily airbrushed. But she also is not obese or disgusting looking! I understand that she is the main writer of the show, and therefore a lot of this is self-deprecation, but at a certain point it makes viewers think “if Liz Lemon calls herself ugly, then what am I?”

Tina Fey is an incredibly positive image in the media—she is smart, hilarious, witty, and made a successful career by her own merit and nothing else. So why are we supposed to feel bad for her character on TV, which we can only assume is based on true life? 30 Rock is an example of how the media polarizes pretty and smart/accomplished women—it is very rare you see an example of a smart woman who men find attractive in the media. Liz’s character is a wonderful alternative to the stereotypical woman on TV, who men find attractive but does not seem particularly intelligent. However, it is about time we see a woman on TV who has beauty and brains.

Fashion is Black

This past Saturday night, I was fortunate enough to attend the UMOJA, BU’s Black student group, Impact Fashion Show. This year the title and theme of the show was Fashion is Black. This was one of the coolest events I have attended at BU in my two years here, and I would never have attended had a friend of mine not have been in one of the participating dance groups. UMOJA and Fashion is Black do not make it subtle at all that their purpose is to create a place for the Black students at BU as opposed to a forum for students of all races.

The show was incredibly well done and entertaining, and the event had a very fun, upbeat vibe so I did not worry whether or not I was out of place for the majority of the event. The event began with the singing of the Black National Anthem, which I had never even heard of before. Listening to this anthem being sung was fascinating and eye opening for me, because it dawned on me that this group, or at least the author and singer of the anthem felt the need to create a separate national anthem. It also occurred me that this is an incredibly rare occurrence, and that it must not be easy being an African American at Boston University. According to the BU website, BU is only 4.2% African American. Therefore, it only makes sense that the Black Students of BU have groups like UMOJA that promote unity amongst Black students on the largely white campus. However, I left the UMOJA event thinking that if only this event had been catered to the entire BU community, many students of different races would have gotten a lot out of it. Either way, I am so glad I attended Fashion is Black, and hope to attend the future Impact Fashion Shows as well.

Big-Little Week, Big Bucks

One of my closest friends, let’s call her Tiffany, is in a sorority at BU. Over dinner, she was explaining to me about “Big/Little Week,” when older members of the sorority pair up with new members to create families. Initially I thought this was a really nice, community building activity. However, over the course of the conversation, Tiffany began to tell me how stressful this was for her. She then explained to me that this was such a stressful week, because she was expected to spend approximately $400 of her own money on gifts for her “little.” This money is on top of the approximately $600 fees per semester to keep her membership to the sorority. The Greek System supposedly stands for camaraderie and sisterhood, but to me, this seems like another way to reinforce stereotypes about sorority girls who don’t understand the value of money.

I am not saying that these girls are dumb or even that they are irresponsible with money, but I don’t understand how these traditions are upheld. BU is a school that prides itself on diversity and inclusion, and yet it seems that to be that the Greek system, albeit unintentionally, polarizes the haves and have nots. I asked Tiffany what happens if girls cannot afford to pay for big/little week, they do not take on a little, but they have to do this after another girl the year before had spent an enormous amount of money on them. Also, girls may opt to take two littles, or twins, doubling the costs.

Fraternities have the same sort of big/little system without the whole showering with gifts ordeal. Why is it that the all-female groups still have to reinforce the ideology that the way to make a girl feel happy and comfortable in a social situation is by spending superfluous amounts of money on her? While sororities may do a lot of good for the greater community, and may create a sense of community in the often dauntingly large BU campus, it really disappoints me that so much of this has to do with how much money you have to spend.

Melissa F***ing Leo

Last night at the 83rd Academy Awards, Melissa Leo took home the award for Best Supporting Actress for her incredible performance in The Fighter. This was Leo’s first Oscar, and in some ways, watching winners like Leo are the most exciting part of the Oscars, because they are so genuinely astonished to see the golden statue in their hands.
Amidst all of the excitement of winning her first Oscar, Melissa Leo accidentally let an “f-bomb” slip, the only curse word of the evening. While this may be a faux pas, using profanity is a pretty common occurrence during awards shows. However, Leo’s slip up seemed to be a pretty big deal. On three separate occasions, different award presenters or recipients brought up or poked fun of Leo by saying things like “I won’t drop the F-bomb because Melissa already did.” Watching this, I couldn’t help but think that if a male star had used profanity first, it would have gone unnoticed, or at least less noticed. Although the Academy Awards is a forward-thinking event, as proven by the egalitarian and multi-racial award winners and nominees, to some extent the Oscars follow a very antiquated cultural style.
While the films nominated may often tell modern tales of overcoming adversity, the show itself still pays so much attention to the small details of the evening itself like the outfits of the actresses nominated for awards or the use of profanity in acceptance speeches. These minute details receive so much attention that viewers may remember them more than the films themselves. Melissa Leo’s cursing caused her a lot of negative attention, but for some odd reason when she cursed dozens of times during the film The Fighter, it was no problem. Audiences of awards shows still expect our actresses to be pristine, demure women in fancy dresses who don’t bite back. What’s most shocking to me is how a woman in Hollywood using a curse word could still stir up controversy in 2011.

“Manly Diet Sodas.” This is one trend I don’t understand. I just watched a commercial for the new Dr. Pepper drink titled “Dr. Pepper 10” here. This new Dr. Pepper product differs from Diet Dr. Pepper, however, because it has only “ten manly calories.” This makes absolutely no sense to me—how can calories have a gender? And how does adding a mere ten calories giving a diet drink a sex change? This ad stoops so low as to tell its presumably male audience that females can “keep the romantic comedies” while men take on manly missions like the gun toting, jungle adventure the men in the commercial are embarking on. The men in the ad posess a Robert Downey Jr.-esque bravado, and heroically ride through the jungle while telling ladies to back off their “Dr. Pepper 10.”
What does this ad say about the contemporary gender divide? For one, that it’s everywhere. Gendering soda far surpasses Pink Think. Gendering toys and baby clothing may be stereotypical, but at least donning your baby boy in blue is based on societal norms. Gendering soda, however, is simply ludicrous. Even when women did not have the right to vote, they still had the right to drink the same drinks as their male counterparts. When the prohibition was introduced, it was gender neutral. There is no reason that in the 21st Century, the most progressive generation to date, should be regressing to an age where we believe that things as petty and universal as soda belong to either the boys or the girls.
While I understand that to many men, nothing seems inherently girlier than diet soda, there is no soda on the mainstream market that claims it is a soda for women. Men may get teased for drinking Diet Coke or even Diet Dr. Pepper, but adding silver packaging and ten calories won’t change that in the slightest.

The Man Repeller

Leandre Medine, 21, is making her living doing what most young women fear: repelling men. Her clever fashion blog has gained tremendous fame; Medine has been featured in the likes of Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times, and has over 12,000 followers on Twitter. Her blog, The Man Repeller, preaches a neo-feminist approach to women’s fashion: fashion’s purpose is not only exclusively for women to enjoy and impress one another, but it is for women to be so unique and over the top that they in fact repel future suitors. On the blog, Medine defines a “man repelling” as “outfitting oneself in a sartorially offensive way that will result in repelling members of the opposite sex.” Man Repelling, Medine explains, includes but is not limited to wearing Harem pants and something she calls “birth control glasses,” which are essentially nerd chic thick rimmed glasses. Medine makes man repelling a fun goal with every wardrobe; she advocates head turning get ups, but not for the classic head turning reasons. Medine does not bare her midriff in pictures; she is pretty covered up. The only sexual innuendo she uses in the blog are in a way that promote abstinence due to crazy clothing choices.
Fashion blogs often show runway models wearing clothing that would freak out anyone other than a true couture fashionista, but what is so unique about The Man Repeller is that she portrays herself as none other than an average girl wearing outlandish outfits on a daily basis. Medine always lists where one can purchase her strange getups like her layered prints and high heeled sandals with printed socks, and often has links on her blog and Twitter of how to shop for man repelling outfits on the cheap. In a strange way, Medine seems to be starting a fashion revolution of sorts.
Medine’s approach may be just the sort of “forget men” boost girls need when looking towards a fashion icon.

Partner Let Me Upgrade U

Beyonce is one of the most positive female role models in the hip hop world. Beyonce is successful, widely respected, and has a hugely successful career completely independent of her husband’s. The video for her 2006 song “Upgrade U (ft. Jay-Z)” is a modern feminist spectacle. The songs lyrics themselves preach a modern, independent femininity. In particular “I’m known to walk alone/But I’m alone for a reason/Sending me a drink aint appeasin’” stuck in my mind. The video itself depicts this image of a successful female; we see Beyonce driving around in a Rolls Royce in a coat that looks like a sleeker, more feminine version of the type of coats often worn by rap moguls in their music videos.

The way Beyonce and director Melina Matsoukas use men in the video is fascinating. For the dance sequences, Beyonce has a dapper crew of male backup dancers. The men are not making moves on Beyonce or even dancing with her, but rather behind her, just as we have so often seen women do in the majority of rap music videos.

Additionally, the song Upgrade U features Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z, and for his opening verse, Beyonce has her hair slick back and wears tight jeans, a white button down shirt and big sunglasses to dress up as Jay Z. The camera quickly cuts from extremely close focus on Beyonce’s face to far away shots that leave the audience wondering if it is in fact Beyonce or Jay Z. Later in the song, during Jay Z’s actual verse, Beyonce is donning the same Jay Z costume, but simultaneously appears on screen in heels and a large men’s button down, dancing for “Jay Z.” My interpretation of this is that Beyonce is preaching a multi-faceted feminine approach. Beyonce seems to be saying that yes, femininity is defined by female sex appeal to a large extent. However, in addition to wearing heels and dancing sexily, you can wear big rapper bling and sunglasses and be the moneymaking breadwinner.

Beyonce and the “Upgrade U” video represent a new wave of feminism. This new feminist mindset embraces feminine sexuality while grabbing hold of the power that once exclusively belonged to male artists and making it something women can don with pride.