Needless to say, I think this study is likely a crock of she-ite.
I have not read the Twilight books nor seen the Twilight movie. I have a long standing policy of not criticizing things that I haven't watched or read myself. However, I've heard enough about the Twilight series, from a number of sources that I trust, to feel like I have a pretty good grasp at what's going on. (I'm certainly qualified to comment on Buffy and Angel issues, having watched every single episode of both.)
This mash-up video, created by a group of Buffy fans, sums everything up nicely. Edward is creepy, Bella is a passive loser who thinks that his stalking is somehow attractive, and Buffy is a sensible girl who would kick Edward's ass. And rightly so.
There are a lot of interesting discussions that come out of comparing Buffy and Twilight. It's not nearly as clear-cut as "Buffy is awesome and Twilight sucks." Buffy, too, fell in love with her stalker (Angel). One difference between them is that the show recognized the error of Buffy's ways, while Stephanie Meyer does not. By all accounts, Meyer essentially celebrates and honors stalking and general creepiness as a way of showing affection.
Then again, we can't fully have this discussion if we're going to continue to pretend that "that episode" of Buffy, the one with the "incident" with Spike, didn't happen. Hey, I understand why you'd want to pretend that. The show was a lot less problematic if you overlook "that episode."
In a recent NYT article, the writer examained the current trend of Asian-Americans' preference for boys in the United States, which been reflected in the actual number of boys born in the United States in relation to the number of girls born. (The researchers also stress that not every Asian-American does this.) According to the article:
"In general, more boys than girls are born in the United States, by a ratio of 1.05 to 1. But among American families of Chinese, Korean and Indian descent, the likelihood of having a boy increased to 1.17 to 1 if the first child was a girl, according to the Columbia economists. If the first two children were girls, the ratio for a third child was 1.51 to 1 — or about 50 percent greater — in favor of boys."
After writing yesterday's blog post, I started thinking about the economics of selling crafts. The most obvious reason for why crafts earn so little money is that they are traditionally women's work. It is almost impossible to earn a decent amount of money for making a craft.
Just as an example, it will take me about 50 or 60 hours to knit a sweater, plus between $60 and $100 for the yarn. However, I can go to Target and buy a perfectly good sweater for about $20.00. When someone asks me to knit a sweater, they are usually shocked at the price that I quote them. My standard quote is the cost of materials plus $10.00 an hour. This is a fair cost for me, but most people are appalled.
Via Metafilter today, a long and elaborate discussion regarding women selling crafts on the Internet. The bloggers at Slate's new feminist blog feel that Etsy is a ghetto for women who have been sold the dream of working from home and making a living selling crafts. This is the conclusion they have drawn from the fact that most Etsy sellers are women.
It is very true, as the article points out, that very few people selling on Etsy are making a living from it. For most people, Etsy is a way to finance their hobby. That doesn't stop people from dreaming that they can make a full-time job out of it. But hey, it doesn't hurt to dream, right?
The Guardian has an interview with former model Sara Ziff regarding her new documentary, Picture Me, about the poor working conditions in the modeling industry. It is perhaps not surprising that models - young, female, pretty, entirely under the control of whoever happens to be running the shoot, and isolated from their previous lives and support systems - are subject to what can only be called institutionalized sexual assault.
Newsweek magazine has a fantastic watchdog article posted to their website, with a surprisingly direct attack on Oprah's long history of shoddy medical advice. I found this article useful for several reasons - not least being because it helps explain why several recent trends have gained such a huge foothold in the public's mind: ahh, they were on Oprah! I understand now.
Brooke Shields regrets not having sex earlier. Apparently, the model/actress/spokesperson for postpartum depression and foe to Scientology did not do the deed until the age of 22. I'm thinking that although she is a litttle bit older than me, that this was a little above average in the age depression for losing the big "V".
