I think there will be a tendency for a lot of folks who read this in the US to be all “well, that’s that backwards country of Mexico with all those latin machismo lover, of course there’s sexual harassment…but not in my country!” Which is bullshit because of the actual street/bus whatever you want to call it harassment/groping that does happen to women by men.
On the former blog, one of my earliest and most popular posts for some reason was something I wrote about Natasha Bedingfield and specifically, a song that she had talking about how she’s single and she doesn’t have a problem with it in this cosmo/teen-vogue boyfriend=self-worth society. I know to some folks it’s cheesy/doesn’t matter as she’s a pop singer and she’s hugely successful but I’ve always liked her stuff and her new album (Pocketful of Sunshine) which was released in the US today is great as well. Say what you will but after working and talking to hundreds of young girls and boys, I know that (and I know i’m not making some startling discovery here) self-esteem is a huge issue for young girls in particular.* If our modern media systems tell young girls that basically, as Jean Kilbourne says, women shouldn’t have pores (among other disturbing things), then you can damn well bet that “the pretty girls” shouldn’t have freckles either. I know it’s a metaphor, which is why it works so well, but compared to a lot of the other crap out there, i’m glad that there’s at least someone who has consistently (and I mean consistently) been a positive female role model in music while sticking a giant middle finger to the men’s magazines that want her to pose for their covers.**
*I’ve written about this before but i’ll briefly say it here. The parents that I talk to when they tell us why they want their daughters enrolled in the program they always specifically say self-esteem. They almost never say this for boys. Do boys have problems with self-esteem? Of course they do, but it says something when it’s to the point where mothers and parents will be so specific as to say so and use thatword.
**According to her wiki, she refuses to do men’s magazines shoots. Go NB!
[One of the trailers shown before Cloverfield]
If this is supposed to be our generation’s “The Karate Kid” then we are in trouble.
I don’t like the growing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts. But on one hand, I guess that popularity takes away from the audience of WWE and TNA wrestling which is good. But WWE and TNA were/are bad because they of course emphasize the tough guise model while crafting misogynistic, homophobic and racist storylines. MMA meanwhile cuts the crap and just goes straight into fighting which is actually real. And that should worry people. Part of the large cultural worry with wrestling was kids doing backyard wrestling and killing themselves, not the overarching cultural message sent to boys and girls. When the stakes are higher and MMA is real and kids are now wanting to train to do all of these things in real life, then yes the worry about backyard MMA won’t so unfounded anymore. But it’s not as if there aren’t any media implications. There just doesn’t seem to be as much because MMA is still growing. And as it grows and advertisers and investors start to catch on, it’ll be interesting to watch if it continues to go down the boxing macho trash talk big title fight route or if the new media Don Kings of today turn MMA into some mutant form of the WWE where they realize that they can draw bigger crowds and make more money by turning it into a soap opera. In either case, I think unfortunately MMA is here to stay. Barring several athletes dying straight in the ring, I don’t see this going the way of some sports fad and for that we’re worse off.
They’re going to blow up huge when they go public in a few weeks. I have a few invites left if you want to join in on the fun before then.