Archive for the 'Gender' Category

Mother’s Day is the Opiate of the Mamas

Ariela Haro von Mogel May 9th, 2009

I am a dyed-in-the-wool Mama’s girl and an adamant feminist. Yet, I still believe Mother’s Day, as a national holiday and institution, is a crock of bull plop. Bull plop! How about I be nicer about it…. Mother’s Day is a Sham Holiday. Sham Wow! (Hat tip to Why Women Hate Men). Anyways, I just realized that I have never really gotten my Mom anything special for Mother’s Day. I’m sure as a kid I did something lame like give her some burned-a** waffles in bed and skipped off back to my room. But other than that, I haven’t given her some stereotypically feminine gift that was pink and red and exclaimed “Happy Mother’s Day.” Continue Reading »

Rock on my Egyptian Sisters!

Ariela Haro von Mogel April 24th, 2009

According to much of the mainstream media, you would think nothing good ever happens in this world. Apparently, horrible things are easy to report and receive a lot of attention. But yesterday, I finally heard something good on the news. As I was listening to the BBC, I learned that Egyptian women are finally fighting back against Egyptian men who sexually harass them in public. As with almost every single place that has ever existed on the planet, women have almost always been second class citizens compared with men and have been perpetual victims of sexual assault.

Personally, I have always been in favor of feminist vigilantism when the law and society does not come to your aid.

Feminism – Malcolm X style! Continue Reading »

The Flimpsons

Ariela Haro von Mogel February 22nd, 2009

Homer Simpson once said that the world would be a better place if the Simpsons and the Flanders’ joined together and became one family. Well, I think the world would be a better place if female and male characters got equal representation on television. I know, you may be thinking, wow, this woman really has too much time on her hands to be analyzing the female to male ratio representation on The Simpsons. Well, that’s fine. I don’t have that much time on my hands. I just like to prioritize when I need to complain. And The Simpsons is one of my favorite shows and the quintessential American cartoon. Almost everyone you know has heard of The Simpsons.

I never really thought about this until a good friend of mine from high school pointed out the male-bias in The Simpsons. And he is right. More episodes center on Homer and Bart than on Marge and Lisa. Precious few are about Maggie (though she is a baby, so that might be kind of boring). But the part that really gets to me is the fact that the side characters are so heavily skewed towards male characters.

Let me illustrate. Continue Reading »

Typical A** Movies

Ariela Haro von Mogel August 19th, 2008

Okay, I have a bone to pick right now. Last weekend, I made the mistake of watching Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Well, not really a mistake. I did enjoy most of it. The movie played on a lot of stereotypes and the scenes with Doogie Howser were pretty funny. But, if there’s one thing I can’t stand is when a movie shows partial or total female nudity and only shows an ugly guy naked or totally hides some essential schlong shots from you. God, it makes me sick!!financial planning software australia? Buy CA Personal Firewall 2009 Buy cheap PhotoShop CS 2
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Continue Reading »

Interracial Dating

Ariela Haro von Mogel June 15th, 2008

It is often argued that interracial romantic relationships are considered taboo in a lot of sectors of society, and that it is better to go out with someone of your own race in order to keep it safe. I would highly disagree. Interracial dating is a lot more complicated than that. My fiance is an American of European heritage and I am an American of Mexican heritage. We are technically an interracial couple, except, I am white-looking, so we are considered acceptable as a couple pretty much anywhere we go. If I was an American of Mexican heritage that looked Mexican, we would be classified as an interracial couple and deemed unacceptable in most circles. I am of course, speaking for society in very general terms. Continue Reading »

Notions of Race in Eating Disorders

Ariela Haro von Mogel May 29th, 2008

For about 20 percent of my life, I suffered from anorexia and binge eating. I went for days eating like a bird, and then I would eventually scarf down a voluminous amount of food in one sitting. This, of course, caused me an incredible amount of pain. I would usually crouch in a fetal position, holding my faux-pregnant belly, yowling in pain. This was my own private pain. Only once was I caught. My mother found me on the floor when she came home from work early one day, and it caught me off guard. She was very worried and asked what was wrong with me. I told her that I just had an extremely bad stomach pain. She told me that stomach pain that extreme is not normal, so she called a doctor and made an appointment. The next day, I went to the doctor with my mom. Continue Reading »

In which someone notices I’m a man

kjhvm April 29th, 2008

Yesterday morning, Ariela and I were up at the crack of, no, actually we were up before dawn, racing down to WORT 89.9 fm in downtown Madison for a show of Other Voices. From 5-8 AM Ariela was playing some classical music performed by and/or conducted by women. This was, after all, a show intended to highlight the contributions of women to classical music.

You can listen to the show online here at this link, but it is not available to be downloaded as an mp3. (This will be available from now through May 4th 2008 – on May 5th next week’s show will record over it)

For the first hour and forty-five minutes, Ariela went solo, playing music performed by women, and its good stuff if you want to listen to it. At the 105 minute mark (you can skip ahead if you want to), Ariela cut the music that was playing to introduce the next topic: Holst’s The Planets, and some of its influence on science fiction film music. Let me tell you a little about its genesis, and what happened off the air during the show. Continue Reading »

It’s Ms. Ariela Haro von Mogel

Ariela Haro von Mogel March 13th, 2008

I’m getting married this year, and as such, a bunch of traditional bull plop is being heaped onto my lap like someone’s mangy dog. I know I’m being vitriolic – that’s the fun of being a feminist!

First, it was the White Dress. Yes, the sacrosanct virginal dress. I have never wanted a white wedding dress. It has always seemed boring to me (as a penguinal tux is boring to me also). Since I was an adolescent, my favorite color has been dark turquoise. I absolutely adore this color. So naturally, I want a dark turquoise wedding dress. When my Mom heard about it, she tried to bribe me into getting a white dress with some turquoise on it. She said to me, in a sing-song voice “I’ll pay for it!” To this I responded, “Mom, you are going to pay for my dress anyways!” Then sadly she said, “Oh yes, you have a point.” Continue Reading »

Patriarchal Pornography Done Messed up the Cake!

Ariela Haro von Mogel December 4th, 2007

Men, in pretty much all societies, are handed “all things sexual” on a silver platter, while women have to use their imaginations and come up with their own corny sex fantasies. Heterosexual men are given a disgusting plethora of pornography to which they have relatively free access to. They can visit prostitutes of the opposite gender who are there expressly for them. They visit strip clubs when their heart so desires. And, if that wasn’t enough, they can see women personified as sex incarnate everywhere in our culture – from television, movies, books, and advertisements. Women, on the other hand, are given the damn crumbs of the cake where it concerns their sexual fantasies. We don’t have sexual fantasies or desires, because we are the sexual fantasies and the desired. Continue Reading »

Slutty Halloween Costumes

Ariela Haro von Mogel October 31st, 2007

Seriously. What is up with slutty Halloween costumes for women? Ever since I began college, every year, without exception, I see half-naked, freezing women as scandalous Lil’ Bo Peeps or nasty Lil’ Red Ridin’ Hoods. In my humble opinion (it’s actually not very humble, but loud and uncouth), these Halloween outfits are for the uncreative, unimaginative, and the lazy.

But you know what really chafes my hide is the fact that they take legitimately cool costumes and ruin them (okay, maybe not for frat boys and other segments of the male population). It is NOT okay to wear a silver miniskirt, a silver shirt showing all your boobage, a little silver hat, and call yourself The Tin Man. That is a Tin Ho. Continue Reading »