suZen's Finds

"Why Society Still Needs Feminism Because to men, a key is a device to open something. For women,..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:46:59 -0700

“

Why Society Still Needs Feminism

Because to men, a key is a device to open something. For women, it’s a weapon we hold between our fingers when we’re walking alone at night.

Because the biggest insult for a guy is to be called a “pussy,” a “little bitch” or a “girl.” From here on out, being called a “pussy” is an effing badge of honor.

Because last month, my politics professor asked the class if women should have equal representation in the Supreme Court, and only three out of 42 people raised their hands.

Because rape jokes are still a thing.

Because despite being equally broke college kids, guys are still expected to pay for dates, drinks and flowers.

Because as a legit student group, Campus Fellowship does not allow women to lead anything involving men. Look, I know Eve was dumb about the whole apple and snake thing, but I think we can agree having a vagina does not directly impact your ability to lead a
college organization.

Because it’s assumed that if you are nice to a girl, she owes you sex — therefore, if she turns you down, she’s a bitch who’s put you in the “friend zone.” Sorry, bro, women are not machines you put kindness coins into until sex falls out.

Because only 29 percent of American women identify as feminist, and in the words of author Caitlin Moran, “What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? Did all that good shit get on your nerves? Or were you just drunk at the time
of the survey?”

Because when people hear the term feminist, they honestly think of women burning bras. Dude, have you ever bought a bra? No one would burn them because they’re freaking
expensive.

Because Rush Limbaugh.

Because we now have a record number of women in the Senate … which is a measly 20 out of 100. Congrats, USA, we’ve gone up to 78th place for women’s political representation, still below China, Rwanda and Iraq.

Because recently I had a discussion with a couple of well-meaning Drake University guys, and they literally could not fathom how catcalling a woman walking down University Avenue is creepy and sexist.
Could. Not. Fathom.

Because on average, the tenured male professors at Drake make more than the tenured female professors.

Because more people on campus complain about chalked statistics regarding sexual assault than complain about the existence of sexual assault. Priorities? Have them.

Because 138 House Republicans voted against the Violence Against Women Act. All 138 felt it shouldn’t provide support for Native women, LGBT people or immigrant women. I’m kind of confused by this, because I thought LGBT people and women of color were also human beings.
Weird, right?

Because a girl was roofied last semester at a local campus bar, and I heard someone say they think she should have been more careful. Being drugged is her fault, not the fault of the person who put drugs in her drink?

Because Chris Brown beat Rihanna so badly she was hospitalized, yet he still has fans and bestselling songs and a tattoo of an abused woman on his neck.

Because out of 7 billion people on the planet, more than 1 billion women will be raped or beaten in their lifetimes. Women and girls have their clitorises cut out, acid thrown on them and broken bottles shoved up them as an act of war. Every second of every day. Every corner of the Earth.

Because the other day, another friend of mine told me she was raped, and I can no longer count on both my hands the number of friends who have told me they’ve been sexually assaulted. Words can’t express how scared I am that I’m getting used to this.

Because a brief survey of reality will tell you that we do not live in a world that values all people equally and that sucks in real, very scary ways. Because you know we live in a sexist world when an awesome thing with the name “feminism” has a weird connotation. Because if I have kids someday, I want my son to be able to have emotions and play dress up, and I want my daughter to climb trees and care more about what’s in her head than what’s on it. Because I don’t want her to carry keys between her fingers at night to
protect herself.

Because feminism is for everybody, and this is your official invitation.

”

- Caitlin O’Donnell, Drake University. (via on-another-note)

popculturebrain: Leading Men Age, Leading Women Don’t |...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:14:37 -0700

popculturebrain:

Leading Men Age, Leading Women Don’t | Vulture

There are more charts if you click through.

Why Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" Video Makes Me Uncomfortable... and Kind of Makes Me Angry

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:43:30 -0700

jazzylittledrops:

So this video started going around my facebook today, with about a dozen of my female friends sharing the link with comments like, and “Everyone needs to see this”, and “All girls should watch this,” and “This made me cry.” And I’m not trying to shame those girls! I definitely understand why they would do so. And I don’t want to be a killjoy. But as I clicked the link and started watching the video, I started to feel a slight sense of discomfort. I couldn’t put my finger on why that was, exactly, but it continued throughout the whole thing. After watching the video several more times, I have some thoughts…

Read More

ze-tarts: Done doing these so here they all are in one place!...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:00:19 -0700

ze-tarts:

Done doing these so here they all are in one place! Fully Dressed Redesigns of Superheroines.

Point of this: An exercise in character design, attempting to clothe the heroines nearly all the way and not making them painted-on, while still keeping the look of their original costumes in some way. Hopefully keeping them looking as iconic as the originally were. Just showing what can be done with a costume breaking outside the barrier of the norm.

NOT the point of this: some moral code I’m trying to push on you

Sorry if there was a character you wanted me to do that I didn’t get to!

tangledupinlace: alithea: i hate shit like this because it...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:37:25 -0700

tangledupinlace:

alithea:

i hate shit like this because it puts the onus of responsibility on, presumably, the woman, and no responsibility on the society who raises you to not love your body. it frames it like one is the good choice and one is the bad choice without speaking to why we are socialized to make the “bad” choice.

for that matter, part of loving your body is choosing to do with it what you damn well please without the consideration of what others may think or want. somebody who gets breast implants or buys tubes of lipstick or gets their hair highlighted doesn’t love their body any less than somebody who, uh, i guess takes a 1,200 mile road trip or takes a fucking canoe trip or whatever.

^^^^^^

wellokaymaybe: stfuconservatives: Tweeted by @suZen: What...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:18:55 -0700

wellokaymaybe:

stfuconservatives:

Tweeted by @suZen:

What the. Plus sized women get “Manatee Grey” while standard sizes are “Dark Heather Grey.” @Target #notbuyingit pic.twitter.com/nzHNYoytnp

(ETA: two things - 1) yes, this is real. feel free to Snopes it or check out the website yourself. not ‘shopped. 2) the kimono thing is also immensely problematic.)

WAIT GUYS. No. Stop. This is seriously a simple mistake. I’m a designer and I can see how easily this can happen.

When making commercial clothes designers pick LOTS of versions of colors until they’re picked. All of these colors have weird names, usually according to Pantone or similar color system. These names are often reflected in the file name when sending them to a vendor. What it looks like happened is BOTH of these dresses were meant to be Manatee Gray because Heather is a different type of fiber and neither of these are Heather.

Somewhere along the way the non-plus size dress was accidentally still named Dark Heather Gray in the file name and it was published on the website. A mistake a designer would catch but a website guy wouldn’t.

If you want to direct your mass anger at someone maybe Pantone or Crayola would be a great start because of their stupid color names. But that’s it. This was a mistake and Target has apologized and as I theorized, they’re BOTH Manatee Gray.

Guys. Pick your battles. This is not one of them!

Thanks for the clarification.

Now that Target has addressed the discrepancy, a few people are insisting this is fake. So let me address what has happened since I tweeted this a day and a half ago.

It’s not fake. As several others have said, it’s real because they checked it yesterday before they removed the gray item from their plus-sized dress listing. Target apologized and you can find that on my twitter feed not long after the original post.

That said, it wasn’t intentional on Target’s part and they quickly provided an explanation in a Forbes.com article. I trust and believe what Target is saying there. Manatee grey is a common color for their merchandise, not associated with size/shape, and it was inadvertent that the two items’ colors were named by different people. These were sorted out in quick order in the conversation attached to the original tweet.

This was an example of social media WORKING - I tweeted them and asked about it after hearing about it from a friend and putting together that different sizes had different names. Target responded. They provided a further explanation - likely because it had enough traction to merit a response - when a reporter asked them about it.

And now we can go back to the important issues we address already. For the people insisting “it’s just a color.” Yes, it’s just a color. But the implication was there to be discussed. In our culture, where many feel it’s their business to comment on other people’s body shape and size, people may get upset when another example of perceived fat-shaming presents itself from a company they trust. That’s what happened here. In this case it was a non-issue and was addressed.

Now if I can just get them to rename these gorgeous chairs Manatee Grey.

stfuconservatives: Tweeted by @suZen: What the. Plus sized...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:43:31 -0700

stfuconservatives:

Tweeted by @suZen:

What the. Plus sized women get “Manatee Grey” while standard sizes are “Dark Heather Grey.” @Target #notbuyingit pic.twitter.com/nzHNYoytnp

(ETA: two things - 1) yes, this is real. feel free to Snopes it or check out the website yourself. not ‘shopped. 2) the kimono thing is also immensely problematic.)

I never realized this would spread like it did when I tweeted it last night.

when a freelance client thinks they don't have to pay me because they decided not to use my work

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:16:59 -0700

thisadvertisinglife:

This Advertising Life: the top 10 so far

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:33:39 -0700

This Advertising Life: the top 10 so far:

thisadvertisinglife:

Here are the top 10 posts after the top 7 so far post:

1. looking back over some of my old work

2. when I suddenly remember I have something due by end of day

3. when I open an email containing a mock up the client made to “show me what they’re talking about