Dear Disney,

I was right there with you during the Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair fiasco. You reprimanded her for a photoshoot which was inappropriate for someone her age and with her being in the spotlight with so much influence over your viewers (or more importantly, being one of your most important cash cows), you made sure she would make better decisions to uphold her image as a "role model".

An even older example of Disney starlets gone wild is the BBV scandal, which I'm sure I don't really need to say much about. But you didn't really say anything about that, and at the time I thought I could let this slide as well.

So I was really surprised to hear that you play the new Jesse McCartney video on your channel. Haha, Jesse McCartney, harmless right?



First of all, one of the opening shots is of the girl in the video with her pants already unbuttoned. Then there's the laying on top of each other on the bed, untying of the bra, fooling around in the back of the car, the obvious sexual tension throughout the entire video...

If you're going to give Miley Cyrus shit about her pictures (I'm not even a huge fan of her), then at least don't half ass it and actually impose your "wholesome only" policy to everything else on the network. I don't think of myself as a prude and hell I even like the song - in a guilty pleasure sorta way of course - and I don't have a problem with the video, but I do have a problem with it playing on your channel if you're going to be a hypocrite about it.

Sometimes I think trying to shove this wholesome image down our throats just backfires. Take for example Disney stars such as the Jonas Brothers and Selena Gomez openly talking about their purity rings and how they are saving themselves for marriage. I think if you want to wait until marriage to have sex, than by all means go for it, props to you for standing by your beliefs. But to have 12 year olds make a purity pledge and talk about it in public? First of all, no 12-year old needs to be thinking about this sort of stuff anyways. Making a 12-year old promise on a decision about an issue they don't even really know about doesn't make sense to me. Second of all, especially if you're a pre-teen, no one needs to know your business about your sex/lack-of-it life. Making your stars talk about such issues only sexualizes them more in my eyes. But whatever, it's as if it's in your guys' contract to say this stuff.

No love,
Me

Sex Sells, Female Chauvinism, etc.

I finally came in to the salon today to chop off a good amount of my hair and almost every girl I know that's done it can agree with me when I say there is something liberating in doing it - my hair isn't SHORT short right now, but I haven't had this length since the 5th grade so it definitely feels like a big step for me. My hair just got too long and bothersome so I wanted to prepare for the summer, but cutting it also feels like getting rid of extra baggage or removing a big weight off your shoulders. It's especially liberating when a big standard of beauty nowadays is a girl with long, flowy hair; a girl doesn't even have to be that cute in the face but if she has pretty hair guys will automatically go ga-ga for her, so in that sense chopping it off can be like an "I just don't give a fck" to that stereotype. I wish I had enough guts to rock a pixie cut or something, who knows maybe someday.

Another thing I wanted to get to are some observations I made after flipping through a Japanese beauty magazine. Everyone knows how female beauty standards are forced upon women in society here in America, but wow looking through those magazines made me realize other parts of the world are just as bad. Every single girl in the magazine had hair that was a medium shade of brown, the same pale color of skin, the same makeup, but I think the worst part about it was the obsession with having big eyes. Double-eyelid surgery is actually very common nowadays in parts of Asia, to the point where although it is plastic surgery, there's no taboo associated with it. Even if the girls didn't get surgery to achieve this look, there were plenty of advertisements for products that give the extra crease for the eye, like this one.

I don't really get it. I understand cosmetic enhancements such as make-up and hair color, but glue for your eyes to make your skin stick together? I find it really sad to be quite honest. Especially if an underlying reason for it is Asian standards trying to conform to Western standards.

The last thing I wanted to bring up was the thin line between sexy & trashy. Last year I religiously watched that Search for the Pussycat Dolls Show (I can't tell if that makes me cool or lame), but I was only able to catch a few episodes of this season of Girlicious. I actually think most of the girls who made it into the group are really gorgeous and from what I saw on the show they were talented, but I was surprised when I saw one of their first official videos. With a name like "Girlicious", you'd think they'd cater to a younger audience than PCD and be, well, really girly. I was wrong. Here's the "Stupid Shit" video I'm talking about:

I know girls want to be sexy and all, but it's just a little bit too much for me. I'm not even sure what their demographic is supposed to be - their stuff doesn't seem old enough for college kids, but then again I don't see the parents of 12-year olds wanting to rush out and buy tickets for their daughters to see a show like that. The blond one Nichole was soo cute on the show, and now that baby prostitute vibe just seems to be coming back to haunt me in this video. I will give them one thing though - they seem to market themselves as exactly what they are and are not trying to hide behind a cookie-cutter facade, so I can at least respect them for that.

I don't know, I don't want to keep ragging on stuff like this because apparently it makes me seem like a hater. Or if I say what's on my mind about these things I'm just jealous. Riiiiight. But really, is it that my views on this stuff are just "not with the times" anymore? Am I a prude? Is it bad that some things people consider "empowering for women" I want to call "misogynistic?" I have to draw the line somewhere, but I just don't know where to start anymore.

This book will be on my must-read list in the near future:

"Meet the Female Chauvinist Pig - the new brand of 'empowered woman' who wears the Playboy bunny as a talisman, bares all for Girls Gone Wild, pursues casual sex as if it were a sport, and embraces 'raunch culture' wherever she finds it. If male chauvinist pigs of years past thought of women as pieces of meat, Female Chauvinist Pigs of today are doing them one better, making sex objects of other women - and of themselves. They think they're being brave, they think they're being funny, but in Female Chauvinist Pigs, New York magazine writer Ariel Levy asks if the joke is on them..."

Random Thoughts Post

So Spring Break already passed by like it was nothing, and today was my not-so-dreaded return to school. I did really well last quarter, so I came into this one with some good motivation and confidence. We'll see how long that outlook holds up (ask me at the end of 2nd week maybe? haha) but I'm taking all biology classes this quarter so I really want to take this opportunity to boost up my Biosci GPA up. I don't have much to say about spring break since I didn't do anything too exciting, so this is just going to be another random thoughts post about stuff here and there.

1. I shouldn't be too surprised, but even during spring break I could not escape the Smash pandemic. In SD or Irvine, late night or in the middle of the day, Smash was there. The surprising part should be that I actually considered getting into the game myself. I played video games like one of the guys in elementary school and I'm pretty good at picking up stuff fast, so why not right? Omg what the heck am I saying.

2. I've been obsessing over American Apparel lately. Their stuff is so comfy and they have a lot of basic pieces that you can wear with anything, even if it is a little on the pricy side. However, I have to say that their ads are LOLtastic sometimes. I was browsing through their site on my lunch break at work and became mortified at this half naked chick in only skinny jeans sticking her ass at the screen while gnawing on her finger. Oh yeah and bare breasts too. Nice. Maybe the 70's porn-inspired advertising is part of the appeal.

Notice the great product placement.

3. I would have thrown such a fit if the Jabbawockeez didn't win ABDC. The West Coast pwns so much at the dance scene, it's crazy. Kaba Modern alum/well-known choreographer Miguel Zarate is going to be on that new Bravo dance show Step Up and Dance, so check that out. I'm also looking forward to the second season of ABDC just to see familiar faces on TV, because you know some of the West Coast teams that we've been watching for years are going to end up on there.

4. I've been so proud of myself for my workout ethic lately. I've been going 3-4 times each week, and I'm going to make sure I keep this going into summer. This is the vain part of me speaking, but I found good motivation in buying clothes that I wouldn't wear unless I was feeling really good about myself (aka little red dress). Because first of all, you don't want to look bad in the clothes, and second, you actually want to try because it would be a waste to spend $$$ on clothes and not wear them, right?

5. So to redeem myself from sounding too superficial, I just want to say I really learned so much during the past quarter in school - and it's stuff that I think is actually relevant to life. I'm more aware and concerned about issues that struck a nerve with me, such as women's rights (or lack of them) around the world and global health issues. An interesting book that I read was "Strapped" by Tamara Draut, which talks about why it's becoming harder and harder for people in our generation to get ahead, from rising college costs, the prevalence of debt among young people, and lots of other issues that really got me thinking about my future. It's somewhat of a depressing read, but an interesting one.