Monthly Archives: November 2007

Let’s Objectify Women in our Advertising…Shall We?

Posted by mellissahughes on


I kind of giggled at the bikini turkey, and thought the ladies at feministing were kind of over-reacting…… I thought the generic sex-less pencil sharpener was funny… until I had a closer look and realized it was a headless woman getting fucked up the ass….and one would need their head to be willing to get fucked up the ass in my opinion. This little beauty is making a poor attempt at poking fun at rape, which just ain’t funny…. but this is fucked up.

Anytime a woman’s body is represented anyway but in its entirety, it’s kind of an open invitation to scrutiny…. and when those representations are based on common misrepresentations and abilities of our sex(i.e. women are sex toys).. then it’s objectification. Kind of plain and simple….

Via Feministing

TimberBrit

Posted by mellissahughes on

It’s Sunday morning and guess where I’m NOT!!! church!! woo-woo!! Not singing in church this morning has freed me up to meet with a photographer in preparation for my friend Jacob Cooper’s electronic opera based on the lives of Britney and Justin…. I’m Britney, naturally…

Jacob’s idea is taking segments of Justin and Britney’s songs and slowing them down, way down, and re-performing them with live band…. the vocalists are to mimic the mouth movements, consonants, intonation of the slowed down track.. It’s pretty sweet.

In my “research” I’ve had to listen to a lot of Britney, some real time, and a lot slow time, and I came across this video a while ago….Part of why I’m psyched about this project is that it’s forcing me to get comfy with setting up effects racks in Ableton Live, a program that I’m slowly getting comfy with. Because we’re performing these crazy phrases slowed down, we need a lot of chorus, reverb, and other effects in order to keep the lines moving. So give a listen. Despite the fact that her vocals are completely soaked in effects, she still sucks… auto-tune, anyone? Oh, and I admit, did get a little excited when I thought she was actually playing the piano… and then she stood up to sing, and the piano magically kept right on playing….enjoy.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

Posted by mellissahughes on

The madness has begun…. this video is not an accurate depiction of what growing up in my household was, but now that Jack is getting older, I’m trying to do the whole Christmas thing. I am actually looking forward to a trip to the tree farm with Mom and Dad, letting Jack pick the tree out, and later decorating it with my sister while listening to the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton Christmas album…. traditions. Today, that sounds amazing to me.

Maybe one of these days I’ll tell you the story of the year we gift wrapped the living room stereo speakers in protest to our parents NOT buying us a tree. Surprise, once upon a time, I did care about that kind of stuff, and for the sake of my little one, I am making the decision to NOT herald Christ’s birth in song this year, and spend it in NH with Mom and Dad, Heather, Jack and a few bottles of wine….

Anywhoo, have lots to do today, but here’s a little something from me to you on this very merry and crazy day… I think I bumped into this woman on an LIRR train last year… Enjoy

Remember back when Sesame Street didn’t SUCK??

Posted by mellissahughes on

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?? It’s 7 minutes!!! Nobody gets to rock out on Sesame Street for 7 minutes nowadays… This is because Sesame Street has been completely revamped for a younger audience….. (and it’s boring as hell now…..) which means that the Sesame Street that you and I loved, that we’ve signed numerous petitions to protect, the generation of episodes featuring “Ladybug Picnic” and 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12! and Jack’s personal favorite are now being deemed inappropriate for toddlers. Whuh??

Yup, Cookie Monster has an eating disorder, Bert and Ernie are never seen together anymore because of the whole “gay” thing and the shows ratings are completely dependent upon a furry little red thing who speaks in the 3rd person…. and damn it if my son doesn’t freaking love him. Sigh…

Via my bitches at Jezebel

my pussy’s packin’……..

Posted by mellissahughes on

Yay!! A trailer for a film that I can’t wait to see and will drag my bf to, god damn it. (After watching Ichi the Killer this week, he kinda owes me one.) Those of you who know me well, know that I spent five months writing a paper for a Freud class at Yale on the depiction of female genitalia through visual art and media… not exactly a thrilling read, but something I’m pretty passionate about. Regretfully, I didn’t come across Tammy Oler’s paper on pubescent female adolescents in the modern horror genre until I had finished up at Yale, but man, there’s some really good stuff in there, unfortunately, no links to available content on the web. Anyways, I’m beginning to watch horror films in a new light, that is, from the perspective of a feminist… and horror is a film genre that’s unchartered territory for me.

While, I’m all about the exploring, exploiting, identifying, exposing and debunking sexist myth and urban legend in media, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a trailer for something that has the potential to be this powerful, and hopefully will provide some interesting feminist theory critique….this is truly the kind of stuff I live for. Here’s what Sundance had to say about Teeth:

If you get over the rather distasteful subject matter and focus on what’s beneath the surface, you’ll find a flick that’s got a whole lot to say about young women and their fear of burgeoning sexuality, society’s general distaste (and, let’s face it, fear) of the female sex organ, and the ways in which men do a serious disservice to womankind by treating their “naughty bits” as if they’re something to be ashamed of. Teeth covers all this ground (and a whole lot more), and I suspect it’s more open-minded and honest than most of what passes for “sex ed” these days. This movie offers enough meaty subtext to fill three semesters and it does so in a shocking, humorous and strangely compassionate fashion.

Sex as power, or as a weapon is not a new notion, but what director Michael Lichtenstein has done here is sheer brilliance, he’s taken the vagina dentata myth, and flipped it upside down…. while most vagina dentata narratives end with the male warrior conquering/slaying the woman with teeth/monster, (think Medusa in the cave) in Teeth it is the toothed woman/monster-turned-heroine that the audience is left rooting for.