Scribbles About Feminism

Allright... so I think I've decided Thursday is going to be more pop culture type of reviews and Tuesday is going to be more how I've experienced feminism or something about being a woman that has effected my life... or how pop culture has had a larger impact on feminism... or something along those lines. So first off... there's no difference if you wear makeup- if you don't wear makeup. If you're a girl and you wear makeup, if you're a girl and you don't... if you're a boy and you do or don't if you're trans or gender non conforming or whatever you identify with. It doesn't matter if you wear makeup or if you don't. There was something on the news where a woman said it was unprofessional not to wear makeup and I think the other woman said it was unprofessional to wear makeup... it honestly makes no difference either way. People wouldn't call men unprofessional for having a more expensive tie or something like that... I think ther...

Alrighty... so my last installment in the Star Wars Feminist Reviews for the time being... I'm sure there will be more... but those will wait a while lol. Anyway I don't have too much to say about this one... but Leia saves Han... and that's a huge deal. This is one of the biggest movies ever... one that a lot of kids watch when they are little... I watched it when I was little... and after seeing a lot of movies about the Prince saving the Princess... it was nice to see the Princess saving the man for once. And it was romantic and surprising and it was kind of dramatic after seeing The Empire Strikes Back. It was just really cool. I also like how she handled the situation with the Ewoks... she didn't know what the Ewoks were or what they wanted... she just kind of talked to them calmly and handled the situation really well... and they respected her for that and made her their queen. It was really pretty awesome. There's probably a lot of positive and negative...

Alrighty... so I'm sure this won't be the last time we talk about Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series on here... but I just have to kind of mention why I like this type of character so very much. Here  is a video from the Super Carlin Brothers that explains this definition. Basically it is a Wacky character that isn't Wacky because they're stupid or wrong... they're wacky because the way they see the story is different than how the rest of the characters see the story. They're usually very intelligent... they just seem like they're a little bit off. Luna Lovegood is maybe the best feminist definition I can think of for this. Because JK Rowling did really need the comic relief as the series was getting darker. Luna Lovegood first showed up in The Order of The Phoenix- after Cederick had died. She's the only other person at the time that could see the Thestrals... and that made Harry feel like he was crazy because he thought Luna was crazy... bu...

We're sticking with these Star Wars reviews for a little bit... and again I have not sat down and watched this movie since December... so it might be a little bit off. So The Empire Strikes Back is the first introduction between the love story between Leia and Han... and it is the BEST! I feel like this is the feminist way to do a love story and that is why I've always admired it. Han and Leia were equals... the love story added to that more than it took away from that. There was a little bit of jealousy between the two of them and with other characters as well. There was sort of a love triangle even... but Spoilers... Luke is Leia's brother and she didn't love him...  so there was that. Han and Leia pretty much only argued before getting together... and they didn't really stop after. They just kind of showed their respect for each other instead of only fighting. Leia would question his decision making... but she also trusted that he knew what he was doing and...

So... I mentioned last week that I don't think we need a dumb female character on TV or in movies and it just doesn't really add anything to the story if there's just a dumb character... of either gender really. It's a cheap gag for laughs... and girls should know that it's not just funny to be dumb... and that people won't like you any better if you act dumb... it's okay to be smart. I'm smart... I don't think I'm the smartest person in the world... I'm sure if I said that many people reading this would disagree... lol. But in school I usually got good grades... maybe not in Science or Math or any of those types of subjects... but English, history. Those are my friends. And as far as English classes go... I was the best student in several of my classes and I'm proud of myself for that... The thing is... I feel like a lot of people won't believe me about that because at some point in my life... I've acted "dumb" beca...

So I think all of the Star Wars movies... maybe aside from the prequels have a pretty strong feminist message... and it starts off with A New Hope... which is maybe the strongest of the series! We first meet Leia as a hologram that seems like she'll just be a damsel in distress... but when we meet Leia in real life... we learn she is anything but that! She gets help from Luke and Han Solo... but she doesn't really need it. She's sort of sassy and feisty about it. She has a different attitude than any other princesses in movies. And that is pretty damn cool! I just like how she carries herself... and that she is a total boss, but she isn't like any other Princess. And she kind of starts the resistance! Right? It was back in December when I started re-watching this- but Luke wouldn't have really gotten involved without Leia's call for help to Obi Wan Kenobi! Her cry for help isn't just her crying for help... she's trying to start something... and she...

So I came up with this idea in the shower... and I think I have 3 different posts that I want to talk about this subject with... so I'm going to do that... I'm starting with this one because this is something I kind of think is a problem. As a kid, I always laughed at the "dumb" characters in things... and as an adult- I'll admit I still do... but I think it kind of has negative impacts. Girls may act less intelligent because "it's funny." And I'll get more into girls acting "dumb" and calling other girls "dumb" in the next blog... but for now... do we need the dumb characters? No... we really don't... and here are some pop culture examples where there is no dumb characters... so let's get into it. Crazy Ex Girlfriend is one great example. There are a lot of female characters... in fact it's mostly female characters... and they all might make mistakes or do things that seem dumb or clueless... but everyone is i...

I thought that the Netflix series based on the book 13 Reasons Why did a great job of showing a lot of different problems that are hard to deal with for girls or for parents... and there were some very disturbing scenes that I believe critics have been insulted by...but I thought it was a good series with a lot of good character development and multi-layered characters... which is a word I think I just made up- but that's something refreshing to see in a teen drama. I've never been through a lot of the stuff that Hannah has been through in the show... but they still made her very relatable. The feeling she has that no one likes her- that is a very real thing that I've thought of often... the paranoia that everyone is looking at her and laughing at her... that is very real. All of her little joys but then in the end no one was listening to her and she couldn't get the help that she needed... that's upsetting and although I haven't really been through anything l...

So I feel like I need to address this news recently. For International Woman's Day the "Fearless Girl" statue was put on Wall Street near the bull. It was put there by an organization for Woman's equality... and it was done without the permission of the original artist of the Wall Street Bull... and he is angry at that and although he does think there is a powerful message behind The Fearless Girl, it is a copyright issue and he would like to have that removed... And my thoughts on that: You don't really have to be a jerk about everything. Pick your battles! I understand the artistic integrity that the sculptor of the Bull is concerned about... but I don't think the symbolism behind the bull is diminished because of the Fearless Girl. In fact, I think it actually has a much greater message. The Bull was created after a Stock Market Crash I believe and it was a symbol of strength... that we can overcome anything... and I really like it. The Fearless Girl- t...

So... yeah. I have some ideas... I'll probably post next week... I might not post for a while after that... getting all my thoughts and ideas together. Hope you guys understand... it's hard to be so active on 3 blogs... and this one is probably the hardest to write and come up with ideas for... So I may end up just posting my Feminist posts on Scribbles About Life... but I think I'm going to see how I like this for now- keep it going and we'll see what happens. I still think now more than ever we really need to talk more about women and I think Women in Pop culture and knowing about female news all helps... but right now it's gong to be here... I'm just trying to figure it all out! Hope everyone understands and I hope you're having an amazing weekend! Byeee! -Shannon

I had been wanting to see Black Mirror for a while, and this is the episode Netflix decided to play for me. Oddly, they have Black Mirror starting from the Most Recent Season and then going back to the first season… so it’s the opposite of what they normally do.   Also, in case no one knows, Black Mirror is a horror/sci fi series kind of like The Twilight Zone, but a lot darker and scarier. So each episode is different, different cast different characters, different story… so its kind of like its own movie… but a little bit shorter.  This one stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a woman living in a world where Social Media is everything. People have something attached to their eye that brings up everyone’s profile whenever you look at them, you can see their “Score” which shows how popular they are. 5s are the highest… most people are in the 4 range. Bryce Dallas Howard’s character is in the mid-4’s and she’s looking to bring herself up to a higher 4. There are advantages to ...

So for some reason… I’ve seen Imaginary Mary 4 times… and I wasn’t really planning on doing a feminist review on it or anything… but I thought that Alice, played by Jenna Elfman and Mary, voiced by Rachel Dratch are strong female characters with a unique story that women can relate to.   So the premise of the show is that Alice’s parents got divorced as a child and as a way of coping with that, she created an imaginary friend named Mary who is cute, fluffy and sassy and helps Alice deal with problems. She feels like her mom is neglecting her and she doesn’t want to commit to anyone because she doesn’t want to be like her mom. So when she dates a man with 3 kids… Mary comes back to try to help her with that situation. Also it shows that Alice has a very good job and that she’s very powerful on her own. Most of the story is just her with her thoughts… and I think that is well done.  So I kind of like that Alice isn’t seen as “crazy” with Mary… she was kind of hallucinat...

So... I don't really know if this is a feminist review or not... but I think this album is something super relatable even if you aren't britney spears... and it's just a really good one! So there's no specific song on this that's a "Feminist" song the way that I can say "Hey Girl" is a feminist song... I just think there are lots of specifically female themes. Most of the songs are about sex... which is something I think it does in kind of a powerful way. Britney Spears is a sex symbol... and in this album I think she embraces that title with a lot of pride. It's very apparent and it's very confident. And I feel like this would just kind of boost confidence when hearing it. Idk. There's nothing about different body types being sexy or not being sexy... which is something I'm noticing a lot with pop music now... there are lots of conflicting views of body image in pop songs... this isn't really like "Ohhh you don't...

So here's a quick recap about last week's episode of Blackish... which had a pretty good feminist/ intersectional theme to it... so I thought that I would share it on this blog. There were actually 2 pretty femin-ish stories... also if you're wondering where the word "Feminish" came from... it's blackish lol. Anyway the main plot of the episode was about Andre creating an ad for a Champagne called "Ovoo" with a rapper named Richard Youngsta. The ad that Andre came up with was a funny little advertisement with Richard Youngsta pouring champaign on different things and it improves them. Some guy is in a regular chair- he pours some Ovoo on it and it's a nice chair. Then he pours some Ovoo on a black woman that is "yelling" at Youngsta so he pours the champaign on her and it turns her into a white woman that dotes on him. While it goes over the kids heads and they just laugh, Bo and Ruby point out that that is a bad message for him to be...

I used to watch this movie all the time, I haven't in quite a while... but watching it this time around I noticed that there are a lot of strong, feminist themes in the movie... and it kind of shows how women were treated in the 1920s and what has changed since then... and probably what has not. I'm mostly going to discuss the characters in this review... maybe I'll sort of compare this to other famous 1920s pop culture things later... Not really sure, just thinking out loud- let me know if you are interested. Anyway, onto the review! There are not many men in this story at all really. I've seen the play, and I think the play does a great job showing that, but I think that's an interesting choice to show a movie mainly about women. There aren't a lot of really positive characters either... Most of the women in the movie are murderers, most of the men have cheated on their significant others, or they're just kind of selfish. I think Richard Gere's portr...

Heyyy guys! Trying to get a little more back on track with this blog... There is a lot that I can talk about- a lot I want to talk about... but nothing has been inspiring me as of late... so yeah. Anyway... I remember hearing this song on the radio a few months ago and I really loved it because I thought it was something I need to hear every once and a while. It is such a very strong powerful song and it was written to end the impossible "Beauty Standards" and showing... you know what the standards are? Everyone is beautiful. It seems that people often say "There is beauty in everything" But I never seem to hear a lot of "There is beauty in EVERYONE!" And that is what we need to focus on. The name of the song always confuses me. "No Scars To Your Beautiful." I think it means, no matter what scars you have, what you've gone through in life, nothing can scar your beautiful. And messages like "You don't have to change a thing, the w...

Beauty and The Beast gets a lot of criticism... and I have to admit- I do agree with a lot of it. There are quite a few plot holes in the cartoon version... and after just seeing the Live Action version I feel like that explained a lot of those really well- which is why spoiler alert: I liked the Live Action version a little bit better. I'm not sure if I'll have a feminist review on that up on Thursday or not...I'll have a review of it on my other blog today though- so check that out- I release those at 11:30pm.  Anyway one thing that I think people have said about it is why is Gaston the villain? He was only trying to help the woman he loves from a beast that kidnapped her... why does he deserve the title of villain.  Consent. Consent is why he deserves the title of villain. No means no, Belle says "No, Gaston. I have no interest in being your wife. Let me read my book!" She and Gaston have NOTHING in common. Belle wants MORE than to cook and clean for her...

So this isn't a feminist post... this is a little appreciation about a woman that I admire and think is interesting. It's just kind of a fun fact that I wanted to give some perspective on... so I thought this would be a good blog to put here. I saw  this  video by my favorite youtuber, Justin Scarred and he is on vacation in Florida right now and he stopped by Walt Disney World's Contemporary resort. I haven't been to Disney World since 2009 and I don't think I've ever spent much time at the Contemporary, but he pointed out a mural by artist Mary Blair. Mary Blair is the same artist who designed the look of It's A Small World and she obviously painted a similar looking mural that is hanging in The Contemporary. In the Mural there is a 5 legged goat... which was not done by accident. Mary Blair included one Goat with 5 legs because she was following a principle in Islamic art that said no man made creation can be perfect, only God can be perfect. So she a...

Zootopia is a really great Disney movie with some great messages about accepting others... but I also think this is a good feminist movie also. Disney has a lot of strong female characters, especially as of recently... Disney does sort of underrepresent women in movies because of marketing. I swear... all The Force Awakens toys I saw were Kylo Ren... and that isn't okay... but anyway this is kind of cool that it isn't marketed as a girls movie or a boys movie but the main character and -SPOILERS- the villain in the story are women. Judy Hopps and Assistant Mayor Bellwether have a lot in common also. They are both "Meek Prey," they are both trying to succeed in a field that is mainly filled with male predators... they're both very ambitious, smart characters. They have similar dreams- they just get there in different ways and handle their mistakes differently... which defines them as a hero vs a villain. They don't really mention the difference between me...

So I did a post yesterday about international Woman's Day... but I thought that I would talk a little bit more about the movement of "A Day Without Women" and some of the activism going on around to support women and equality. So yesterday many women participated in a "day without women" movement where some woman took off from work- if they were able to- and they tried not to buy things if they could prevent it. There were a few Facebook posts I saw about supporting small female owned businesses and some places giving free coffee and discounts for woman's products or female authors. Some members of the cast of Hamilton donated a portion of their wages for the night to Dress for Success for Women's day.... and I'm sure they raised a lot of awareness for the charity in the process. They put in an insert in their playbill and they posted it all over their social media pages. Mandy Gonzalez (who currently plays Eliza in the broadway version) has 34k ...

So I wanted to post something on here for International Women's Day and I wanted to do a makeup look using woman owned brands (or that have a female founder) So... I thought I'd post it here instead of on my beauty blog. showing a picture in my glasses because Benefit did an ad that had a woman in glasses and it said "yuck" and I like how I look in glasses... so yeah!  Face  I don't actually have a primer from a Woman Owned Brand... most of the Urban Decay founders are women and I do have a makeup forever primer and the founder of that is also a woman... but for the most part I use Smashbox... so I actually improvised and used the It Cosmetics CC Cream as a primer. This feels a little sticky... but I kind of like it. For foundation I used the Fiona Stiles Illuminating Foundation Concentrate. I love Fiona Stiles, she does makeup for celebrities, Lilly Collins is one of her clients... but she also takes the time to respond to instagram posts and she actually...

So in March I think I'm going to try to watch a different movie every night... and if I think there's a feminist message in it- or if it was important to pop culture for women... I'll write about it! I'll start off with Amelie. I didn't really know what this movie was about... I just knew that it was in French, I thought it looked like a love story... and from the previews it looked beautiful and interesting. And I was right... kinda. What I thought was powerful about this movie from a feminist standpoint was that, even though it was a love story... that wasn't the focus of the movie at all. The focus was mostly on a strange girl that kept to herself most of the time and had a vivid imagination... even as an adult. Although she was quiet and didn't really interact with people... Amelie is quite a strong character. If she doesn't like someone, she'll do something about it right away and create a certain sense of justice. In contrast- if she does...

So this is kind of an interesting one... I haven't seen this play... but on Apple Music I found that they have the soundtrack to the original cast recording of The Great Comet of 1812- before it was on Broadway... So in 2013 it was off broadway and then now there is a Broadway musical currently starring Josh Groban as Pierre... I'm not sure who plays Natasha... but I'm mostly going to talk about the female characters in this and mainly Natasha played by the amazing Phillipa Soo, who has played many strong female roles since then including Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton and currently Amelie in the musical adaptation of Amelie! I haven't seen that movie yet... but it is on Netflix so I think that review will be coming soon! Anyway... this is going to be a little bit spoilery... I don't really see how I can go through this without spoiling it all. I haven't seen the broadway play... so this might be totally different when you see it on stage and they might have chang...

I feel like this is going to be an ongoing series of why I'm pissed off at the Patriarchy... I feel like there's good reason to be. Especially when its like "Ohhh feminism is a bad word?" Seriously? I'm a real snowflake for wanting to be treated equally I guess... sorry. My mistake I'll go back to the kitchen... actually maybe I will go to the kitchen we have candy... jk OKAY FOCUS! Lol... so  this brilliant man  decided he was a chiropractor with no vagina... so he was the clear authority on creating products for feminine hygiene... and decided "Hey! Let's make a lipstick to glue a woman's labia shut when she has her period so that she's not disgusting anymore!" No... no... NO! So from this article we see the ad. It says "You know how your  lips stick together when they're dry and you can separate them and its kind of fun." Like... really? Is that really that fun? That's what this guy thinks fun is? He needs to go...

So this is one of my favorite songs from Lady Gaga's Joanne. It might not be my absolute favorite right now after listening to the cd a few times... but it is the song that I initially really loved from the CD. I think Gaga and Florence have really great voices, both very unique and they just sound really really nice together. Plus it's awesome because it has such a nice feminist message... here are some of the lyrics I find the best. "Hey Girl, Hey girl. We can make it easy if we lift each other. Hey girl, hey girl. We don't have to keep one-in-up one another." It's such a simple thing to think of... but such a hard thing to actually DO! I'm guilty of trying to one-up people all the time... and it's mostly because I think everyone is trying to one-up me. For the most part... people probably are trying to do that... but that doesn't mean I have to give in. It's just kind of bringing me to an ugly level and I don't need to do that. I can...

Today I woke up on the wrong side of the bed... which means I basically woke up and the news was on and I don't like what's going on in the world that much... anyway I also have been seeing a lot of criticism of Beyonce's Grammy performance... and I get that people don't like it... but I feel like people aren't understanding how art works... so I'm going to explain that a little bit too as why I'm a little angry at the controversy surrounding it. I thought the performance was really good! The song was good, I like Beyonce's music. I thought the idea of looking like your mother is something pretty powerful that women can relate to. Blu Ivy looks a lot like Jay Z more than Beyonce. Beyonce's father has very dark skin and her mother has lighter skin... that's probably hard to deal with growing up... and not even speculating or anything...  but looking like your parents is something people talk about. I thought the imagery was really pretty. There ...

Here's the more negative thing that happened at the Superbowl this year... Lady Gaga performed the Superbowl this year and she wore typical outfits that every dancer would wear. They showed her stomach and she's a very fit woman... she works out like all the time and is in very good shape... but she's still a human and has a stomach. I can't even say she has flab or a little pudge... she looked fantastic... but somehow people were saying she was too fat to dress like that... here's how she dressed. I'm not sure what exactly people are seeing here as "fat." It's totally TOTALLY baffling to me. Men are allowed to go around shirtless... and they have more of a comfortability doing that. Not that they aren't body shamed as well or if they feel totally insecure or not... but there are lots of times when men do yard work like mowing the lawn or something and it's hot so they take their shirt off... men do this no matter what their body look...

Hello! This week I have some Super Bowl-related posts... so I'm a little bit late... but it honestly took me some time to think about how I wanted to sort of address these topics! So... yeah! It was really pretty awesome that they got three of the original cast members from Hamilton to sing America the Beautiful for Superbowl 51. Phillipa Soo,(tony winner) Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Jasmine Cephas Jones sang the very powerful song "The Schuyler Sisters" in the play Hamilton. They were the only 3 female characters in the main cast of Hamilton and they played the 3 most important women in Alexander's life. Sure, Peggy Schuyler wasn't depicted all that much in the musical... Cephas Jones also played Maria Reynolds... more info about the parallels between Eliza and Maria Reynolds right  here ! Anyway I think it was cool that the Superbowl put them in the show in the first place... I don't think I've ever seen 3 broadway stars performing at the Superbowl.....

I saw Hamilton last month and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE! I know there's a ton of hype to it right now... but trust me- it FAR exceeded the hype! I absolutely loved it! There are spoilers to some key visuals to the show  One of the best things about the musical was the way that it portrayed women in history. There are lots of women in history... but they're very underrepresented. History remembers Alexander Hamilton, but we don't remember Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton and all that she did for America also... this musical really shows everything that she did for America also.  If you've listened to the soundtrack till the very last song, you know how she pretty much dedicated her life to preserving her husband Alexander's legacy after he died. She made sure that his story was told, that his friends that fought by his side were remembered, she raised funds for the Washington Monument and established the first private orphanage in New York City. Eliza had what A...

So there wasn't much feminist-y news that I wanted to talk about... so I'm going to do a couple more reviews. First off... I think it's awesome that there are so many female driven comedies now. 2 debuted just this week: Powerless on NBC and the darker comedy The Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix. Powerless Let's start off with Powerless because I think that's kind of important. I'm going to do a review about the episode itself on my Scribbles About Life blog sometime soon... and I think I'll even do a tie in on my beauty blog too because I loved the makeup Vanessa Hudgens had on in the episode... but moving on. Anyway, I thought they did a really good job showing women in charge. The super hero at the beginning of the show was a woman, there were lots of women working at Wayne on inventions, and the Vanessa Hudgens character, Emily, was hired as the boss. I think that's pretty cool because when I was growing up women weren't really in super hero ...