girl power

Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution In Music

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Having been born in the late '80s, I always felt I missed out on everything cool in music. I wasn’t there to see the birth of punk. I wasn’t there for New Wave. I was too young for grunge, and I was too far away from Olympia, WA for riot grrrl. In the 1990s, I bought Sublime’s self -titled album along with Alice Cooper’s School's Out, and that was the extent of my musical awareness. So I always enjoyed reading about riot grrrl, putting on my Heavens to Betsy CD, and pretending I was more involved in it than I actually was.

Yes, I remember 1991. Sure, I was only five years old, but still, I was there. I expected Marisa Meltzer’s Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music to help me keep up my own personal time capsule, going on the title alone. While the first few chapters do go into depth about riot grrrl’s evolution, the rest of the book moves forward in time from where riot grrrl left off, and this is where Meltzer hypothesizes leaves off as well. Post-riot grrrl, Meltzer traces the evolution of a few obvious late-90s "angry" female artists, such as Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, and Paula Cole, along with all the women from Lilith Fair, but then veers into a weird direction with The Spice Girls.

A lot of this book, in fact, goes into detail about The Spice Girls, and Meltzer keeps attempting to drive home her point that this girl group was actually pretty feminist. Now, this is something I actually was there for (although I try not to think about those dark times). Being a young girl coming of age when The Spice Girls were popular, I never got the impression that they were feminists. Maybe I’m just biased here, but the constant mention of this group kind of rubbed me the wrong way. That being said, Meltzer has some interesting points about them. (The Spice Girls, in effect, got the term girl power out there, and started some little girls thinking about their potential, but calling them feminist still seems like a stretch to me. It was a good, long, head-beating attempt by Meltzer, but by the end of this book, I was not convinced.)

Meltzer also touches upon a few modern day female pop stars, like the young women from High School Musical and Taylor Swift, as she attempts to draw a line from riot grrrl to girl power. This book may be aimed at younger girls in the hopes that it will get them thinking about their own generation of musical trends, and inspire them to look more critically at the media. Girl Power shows a lot of promise for spurring conversations between feminists of different generations, but for anyone born past 1990, Meltzer could leave you feeling bitter and jaded. Then again, maybe it’s just me.

Written by: Jen Klee, February 14th 2010

Girls Rock!

admin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 08:52:00 +0000

Directed by Shane King, Arne Johnson

Liberation Entertainment

Move over campfires and nature hikes, there’s a new Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in town! In Portland, Oregon, campers ages 8-18 discover a fresh summer adventure. During the one-week session, the girls must form bands, choose instruments (which may or may not be familiar to them), and write songs. Helping them in this undertaking are female rockers from bands such as Sleater-Kinney and The Gossip.

Many campers begin their camp experience shy and withdrawn, but find themselves loudly banging on drums and belting out rebellious lyrics by the end of the experience. This is, in part, due to the empowering non-musical instruction the girls receive at camp, such as anger management and self-defense. Wishing you could see this phenomenon for yourself? Thanks to a new documentary, you can!

Girls Rock! follows a group of campers through the entire camp experience: the first day’s meet-and-greet; the drama surrounding choosing band-mates and names; and the fights, friendships, and indescribable bonds and breakthroughs that happen throughout the week. Viewers get to know specific campers through in depth footage of their home lives and candid interviews. We get to see all facets of these girls lives. They are simultaneously charming, annoying, demanding, and lovable, which is to say that they are real girls who are still growing into themselves.

Emotional, funny, challenging, and eye-opening, Girls Rock! will make anyone want to pick up an electric guitar and tell the world a thing or two, especially after you read the shocking statistics dealing with gender disparity that are juxtaposed with the camp’s stereotype-defying backdrop. And if the film's not enough for you, there are fabulous extras included on the DVD that are entertaining and interactive: commentary by the director, camp skits, a follow-up with the campers featured, and DIY rock and roll tips to try at home.

Written by: Amanda Moss, August 2nd 2009

Super Beaver Panties

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:41:00 +0000

By Girlie Pants

I'm the kind of person who cannot tolerate uncomfortable clothing. That's not to say I'm perpetually sweatsuit clad, but I'm certainly not the type to hobble around in six-inch heels just because they're hot. I love fashion, but at the end of the day, I'm not willing to maim myself in order to look good.

Of course, my stringent standards of comfort apply 100% to my undergarments. A lady walks a fine line in this arena. A girl like me needs her undies to walk the walk (be practical) and talk the talk (be fun). The Super Beaver bikini panty from Girlie Pants does just that.

They're cute, that's for sure. The bikini is lemon yellow, one of my favorite colors. Wearing a sunny pair of panties makes your day better, doesn't it? A screen printed beaver sits right up front, wearing a cape, mask, and sweater labeled “SB” for Super Beaver. I tend to bristle at colloquialisms that liken my vagina to a rodent that lives in a marsh, but this design made me smile. It's not so much about the beaver. This time it's about the super, and I can get down with that.

The undies themselves were comfortable and well-cut, so they've earned themselves a permanent spot in my underwear rotation. The size (medium) fit me well, and I can wear them all day without ever thinking twice about them. Girlie Pants knows enough about what women want to make their products out of cotton (you gotta let it breathe, girls!), but with enough stretch so that they're neither baggy nor constricting. I wore this pair four times to test them out, and not once did they ride up or twist themselves into anyplace they weren't invited.

Girlie Pants makes undies that are cute, fun, irreverent, and comfortable, with a side dish of girl power. What's not to like?

Written by: Jess Brock, March 30th 2009

How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time

admin — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:49:00 +0000

By Kara Jesella, Marisa Meltzer

Faber and Faber Inc.

Before female adolescents in America had Oakland/Portland’s Bitch or Chicago’s VenusZine for feminism 101, there was New York City’s Sassy. In How Sassy Changed My Life, readers are given a magazine-size book that reads like a nostalgic love letter chronicling one of women’s crucial marks in journalism's history. Known as the 80s lovechild of founder Sandra Yates of Australia’s Dolly and then 24-year-old Jane Pratt, the youngest editor-in-chief of a magazine, Sassy shunned the “come get me boys” themes of teen publications with blonde, blue-eyed, bulimic models. For the first time, two female writers carefully analyze Sassy’s impact on insecure, teenage girls seeking refuge from YM and Seventeen through interviews with former staff members and the many readers that created an online cult following.

How Sassy Changed My Life starts off by answering the frequently-asked question: why would anyone write a book about a teen magazine? While Jesella and Meltzer give a brief, but convincing explanation for exploring Sassy’s rich, cultural history in American media, the chapters remain faithful in giving an in-depth look behind the magazine’s main competitor. With Seventeen’s “Where to Spy Guys” and “Learn How to Be a Secretary” ads, Walter Anneberg, the publication’s owner (who had a gold-plated toilet seat in his private plane), surely wasn’t risking his sales with features on homosexuality, AIDS and premarital sex. Yet, when Sassy arrived at 1 Times Square in 1988, they covered “The Dirty Scummy Truth on Spring Break (or, Where The Jerks Are),” included ads for Doc Martens and featured pixie-haired models with bandanas. Jesella and Meltzer manage to successfully show with crisp, tight language, the staff’s many personalities that collectively provided a voice for those wanting to learn about their inner girl power with “13 Reasons Not to Diet.” Former reader Sarah Kowalski commented, “The magazine was so personal it felt like a community, like people that you hung out with-that was very important. I was kind of an outsider type. I didn’t have a lot of friends in school. You wanted to find your people.”

One of the major concerns in How Sassy Changed My Life was Pratt’s portrayal in the magazine’s birth and downfall. Pratt, initially viewed as “the extremely charismatic leader,” who made her writers “go through as many as 15 story drafts,” was detested by Sassy_ites for the betrayal known as _Jane magazine. Jesella and Meltzer spoke with Jane’s arch-nemesis, Lisa Jervis from Bitch, who retaliated against Pratt’s vision for a more girl-friendly periodical that even included a column by Pamela Anderson. In responding to Bitch’s “10 Things I Hate About Jane,” Jervis explained, “Those of us salivating in front of the newsstand were hoping for something that took Sassy’s early vision of self-confident girl power and critical thinking a step forward.” Ultimately, How Sassy Changed My Life concluded with Pratt being a pretentious publisher whose feud with Bitch magazine seems more appealing than her celebrity-fueled glossy. While the conclusion leaves readers torn, Jesella and Meltzer lets their audience decide whether Pratt should be celebrated for her role in leading Sassy or hated for her false promise in keeping the dream alive.

Whether you grew up reading Sassy or are just discovering its famous April 1992 cover of grunge's Sid and Nancy, How Sassy Changed My Life is a cultural tour de force that embodies the best of modern feminist writing. Readers will finish Jesella’s and Meltzer’s testimonial feeling confident about their femininity and hopeful for womankind’s future, just as Sassy did for six years.

Written by: Stephanie Nolasco, July 1st 2007

Pillow Fight League: Galapagos Match (1/20/07)

admin — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:23:00 +0000

Pillow Fight League

Pillow Fight League is more akin to roller derby than mud wrestling. Sure, there’s violence, but it’s pillow-related. And yes, there are scantily-clad females, but they’re of all different body types and genders, and their carefully-crafted characters and their costumes are the work of creativity and a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. The result? Hotness.

Pillow Fight League isn’t staged, but it is theatre. The announcer, known as The Mouth, is a big guy who looks and sounds a bit like Penn of Penn and Teller. With the help of loud theme music, he introduces fighters like Betty Clock’er, Sarah Bellum, and Sister Resistor. And with the help of pillows, the women fight (one rule reads, “Loading a pillow with a foreign object such as a brick is strictly forbidden”) until one fighter is pinned or surrenders, or the referee stops the fight. They hit each other really hard. People actually get injured, though rarely. Hot pants and leotards ride up. Sailor hats and false vampire teeth go flying. The crowd goes wild.

The crowd – and what PFL does to keep the crowd – is one big reason why the whole shebang comes off as good clean fun and not the exploitative mess it could be. Largely heterosexual but queer-friendly, packed with women (some of whom volunteered jubilantly for “amateur” fights), the crowd looks more like the folks you’d see at an art opening than a boxing match. And PFL wants to keep it that way – these women don’t play at “adult” venues or sports bars.

However, PFL has some issues. With the announcer and main referee both men, and the judges largely male as well, one gets the uncomfortable impression that boys are controlling the game. And they are. While the PFL is largely women-driven, and was inspired by a pillow fight staged by a burlesque troupe, its “commissioners” are men. It’s girls-only because the commissioners have made the assumption that audiences wouldn’t want to see a boy-on-boy (or girl-on-boy) pillow fight. And – I saved the worst for last – their site is on the Beer.com Network, its logo at the bottom of every page of their site.

PFL needs new partners. Once you click on that link you get to see the much more overtly exploitative, sexist world that of which the PFL is unfortunately a part. And it’s a shame! Pillow Fight League: Hire a female commissioner, get some lady judges up there on that panel, and work with Bust Magazine or Babeland rather than Beer.com, and I’ll call you feminist-approved.

Written by: Ari Moore, February 25th 2007

Bitch (Issue #34: Green)

admin — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:33:00 +0000

B-Word Publishing

Trust Bitch to subvert their very own issue’s theme! In their Winter 2006 issue, they approach what has been become a trend in the magazine world from Elle to Vanity Fair: the “Green issue.” Thankfully, in the spirit of their moniker, the magazine offers a creative response to the very definition of what “green” might entail. Bitch turns its snarky eye toward the color, including such “green” issues as money, jealousy, and, of course, the environment.

Despite the theme’s popularity, Bitch’s approach is anything but typical; I don’t think Elle is offering a articles as diverse as “Wendy Somerson’s Knot in Our Name,” which discusses activism within knitting circles, or articles such as Audrey D. Brashcich’s “Sweet Nothings,” which discuss how girl power became a marketing tool. Along with such obvious topics as Sarah McAbee’s engaging article “Green and Not Heard,” there is also a history and analysis of the Girl Scouts in Aimee Dowl’s piece, “Troop Therapy.” Timely, as always, Hawa Allan’s piece “When Tyra met Naomi” peers in on race issues in the modeling world, particularly focusing on how the fashion world pit Tyra Banks against Naomi Campbell because there can only be one “other” or “minority” supermodel. Moving from modeling to a spiritual mode of money management, Bitch magazine hasn’t lost its diversity of focus and approach.

Written by: Lisa Bower, February 22nd 2007

Comic Book "Girl Power" & "Ladies Night" Tees

admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:17:00 +0000

By 80s Tees

Batgirl has been my hero since I was a small girl. As a young comic book geek, Batman was my favorite comic universe, and I absolutely adored Batgirl, because she had all the cool things that Batman had – but she was a girl. Supergirl was another favorite. I remember being four years old or so, and staring at the cover of a novelization for “Supergirl” the movie; it was frustrating, because I hadn't learned to read, but I liked looking at the picture.

Needless to say, these shirts are a fun homage to my childhood heroes. I'm not usually a t-shirt fan, since they generally look like shapeless bags on me; but these have a flattering cut, and a fun, old-school look. On one, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, and Supergirl are all portrayed on a dark blue background with gold, glittery trim, and a proclamation of “Girl Power!”. One the other, six female super heroines declare that it's "Ladies Night." I love the nostalgic design – not to mention that Supergirl looks like Olivia Newton-John. This tee brought back good memories, and makes me want to do some crime-fighting of my own...or at least get in a good workout at the gym.

Written by: Beeb Ashcroft, January 24th 2007