Bling Ring; America's Obsession with Bad Behavior

   Sofia Coppala's new movie "Bling Ring" is out now, and right when I saw the ad I decided that I wanted to see it. So, I did and it was kind of disappointing.  I thought that she missed a lot of great opportunities to talk about a very interesting topic; Americans obsession with bad behavior.  She glimpsed over this theme slightly but not enough, and in my opinion, this theme is what the whole movie should have been about.
   Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohen, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton.  These are all celebrities who America pays (or at least paid) tons of attention to for bad behavior.  DUIs, public sex tapes, stealing, drugs, the list goes on.  We've all seen articles about these celebrities and even read them or skimmed them and thought "Gosh some people!" The fact that these celebrities continue to be publicized and looked up to by the American public is extremely fascinating.  We don't exactly support their behavior, but we do put them on the front page in all capitals.

   Americans find this celebrity bad behavior entertaining.  Televisions are filled with reality programs like "The Hills", "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", and all of the "Real Housewives" shows.  Magazines like "People" and "Star" crowd our counters plastered with photographs of celebrities and their most recent escapades; "A Night on the Town!" "ANOTHER DUI?", you get the picture.

   In "Bling Ring" Coppala could have created a fascinating layered movie about this odd obsession.  The characters in the movie have the same obsession, they break into houses of celebrities known for their dramatic or out right bad behavior and then take selfies of themselves to show off.  Already that is an extremely interesting combination, people doing immoral things to people known for being immoral and then publicizing the actions and being looked at as "cool" or "fun".  This continues to be captured throughout the film, the characters are all over the media after being caught, fan clubs are created on the internet for their wrong doings, and one character, Nicky (Emma Watson), goes on to USE her recognition from the law cases to become famous.  People can become FAMOUS by manipulating their bad behavior into fame, and that in itself is interesting, but the fact that the American public is obsessed with this "fame" makes it even more so.

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Mother, Daughter and in the Spirit of Holy Women

   The news these past few days has been FULL of amazing women.  I don't think I can truly describe the sentimental love and pride I feel for women who are involved and are willing to stand up for not only their rights, but my rights, your rights and every other women; young, old, middle-aged, rights.  The women who have been out and about and whom you have most likely heard about or read about at this moment are Senator Wendy Davis and Senator Leticia Van de Putte.

  In the past 24 hours, these women have truly inspired me.  I did not know who either of them were until yesterday while I was skimming through my twitter feed when Wendy Davis' named popped up.  I then began watching her filibuster in the Texas Senate.  Senator Davis was opposing a bill that would make it impossible for women over 20 weeks pregnant to get an abortion and would also close down all but 5 abortion clinics in the state.  I already thought that was extremely impressive, any women who is willing to stand up for women's rights in a room that is mostly filled with conservative Texan senators has guts.  I became even more touched by the tweets and other posts on the internet supporting this women.  I don't think I've ever seen so much positive support for a women on the internet EVER.  I was talking to my mom about it and began tearing up.  Imagine being a women in a room where you are (most likely) going to get negative feedback and to have thousands of women and men online saying "Hey, you, thank you, thank you for giving me a voice because I need one." "Thank you for sharing my opinions thank you for making them be heard." It makes it even more touching because Senator Davis literally did nothing but stand up to Texas' Senate for 11 hours STRAIGHT. In Texas Senate, during a filibuster the leader cannot lean on anything, cannot drink, eat or go to the bathroom.  For 11 hours this women stood there and stood up for us, and as a young woman I can proudly say that Wendy Davis is my hero. 

    I was really into the senate filibuster when Senator Leticia Van de Putte came up to the stand and asked the President for a Parliamentary Inquiry numerous times.  I wasn't paying too much attention until she said a sentence that to me, truthfully embodies women fighting for equality.  "At what point does a female senator need to raise her voice to be heard over the male colleagues in the room?" I have watched the video of her saying this and it almost always makes me tear up.  She is so passionate, so powerful.  Women of America, these are the type of women who are fighting for our rights, they go out there and are ready to ask hard questions, they are ready to stand up for what they believe in in a room full of people who disagree with them.  

So, overall, lets stand with these women.  Let's continue to give positive feedback, to stand up and talk about these issues.  Let strong women like Hilary Clinton, Senator Davis, Senator Van de Putte and others like them to inspire you.  Imagine the feeling of having thousands of people saying "Thank you for giving us a voice." and be a part of that group! Because maybe eventually, you will be that person, the politician who inspires young women or the speaker or even the mother. Get informed, get inspired, get involved.  

 THANK YOU WENDY DAVIS, LETICIA VAN DE PUTTE AND ALL THE OTHER STRONG WOMEN WHO ARE GIVING US A VOICE AND INSPIRING YOUNG WOMEN TO GET INVOLVED!  

(Photo Courtesy of Daisy from tumblr her blog is rad so check it out!) 

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SUMMER JAMS PLAYLIST

Newest playlist: Summer Jams
Songs that make me feel like summer feat. Vampire Weekend, Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, Real Estate, Cults, The Beach Boys, The Tom Tom Club, and Girls
Sit on a porch on a sunny day and enjoy!

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Trending Interent Topics: Sexism and Rape Culture (trigger warning yo) (Part 1)

     So like lots of teenage girls, I'm online a lot.  Tumblr is my go-to website *click here if you want to check it out*  and I follow lot's of blogs that are very vocal about feminism, equal rights, basically everything I believe in.  One of my favorites is sexistfacebookdudes, which calls out social networking accounts that are either a threat to women or making offensive comments towards us as a whole.
     To be 100% truthful with ya'll, I knew some stuff about feminism and I identified as a feminist but I hadn't even known about some of the CRAZY bull that is online.  One of the things I saw was a website called creepshots (BEFORE OPENING WARNING: NSFW, TW: RAPE, NONCONSENT), a blog that posts pictures of unknowing women and sexualizing them.
     Basically this is a scenario of how lot's of the pictures on there get taken.  You go out in a pair of yoga pants to get yourself an iced tea from the Starbucks in your neighborhood.  After you get your drink, you are probably going to go back home and shower and then go to work or something.  As your waiting in line, a man standing behind you is like "that bitches ass is fine imma take a pic and post it online".  So your butt gets posted online for thousands of people to see, and the caption says "Mmmm some sexy ass wakes me up in the morning".  You don't know about this picture, but lots of people are seeing it and using it as a sexy picture.
     Thats basically what the blog is, pictures of women without their consent online with captions like "She's not asking for it, she's begging for it." Feminists on Tumblr are pouncing on this gross blog and theres a petition to get rid of their social networking accounts (Facebook is down but Twitter and Tumblr are still around).  You can sign the petition here.
      I knew that there were creepers, but I was really surprised at the idea of this blog.  I guess you could call me naive, although I had never thought of myself as that.  I was outraged and freaked out and actually a little scared to wear a sports bra to the gym, or wear my shorts out even though it was super hot outside.  At first the idea is disturbing by itself, the fact that these women are unknowing, but after lots of thinking, these kinds of blogs actually communicate a lot more about modern technology and its part in society then they seem.
      Blogs that post pictures of women being sexualized without the women's knowledge are extremely different to porn, or at least in my opinion they are different.  Many women in porn find it empowering, or even they don't, they always know that the video or photograph is sexualizing them and they are okay with it because they are, more or less, in control of the image and how they are portrayed.  The pictures posted on blogs like creepshots are different because these women don't even know they are being photographed.  The defenders for blogs like creepshots think that someone not saying no is the same as someone saying yes.  Women shouldn't have to turn around to a stranger and say "Oh hey btw you cannot take pictures of me", it should be an unspoken rule.  The idea of not saying no being yes supports rape culture, the idea that women not having consent over the sexuality and their bodies is normal and completely okay.
      This of course brings in a lot of other  issues, like celebrities.  Would it be less immoral for someone to zoom into a picture of Janet Jackson's nip slip, or Britney Spears without underwear? This is when the line gets a bit blurred.  On one hand, these celebrities did not say yes, but on the other hand they are fully aware that pictures are being taken and that they are constantly in the public eye.
This line has become even more thin because in the day and age, we are always being watched.  Almost everyone has a camera on their phone, and anyone can take out their phone and snap a picture of stuff.  This is an upside and downside to modern technology,  on the upside we can use this technology for good and to inform (Part 2 of this article will adress this), but on the downside it also means that people can overshare and share things that aren't even rightfully theirs.  What do you think about all of this? Part two will be here soon!

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Tobias You Blowhard!

To Celebrate Season Four of "Arrested Development" being released, Tobias Fünke, analrapist/actor, came and answered some burning questions for us with his knowledge of love, life and fame. 

Dear Tobias,
  I just finished my first year of college and have gained much more then my "Freshman fifteen", it's more like my Freshman Fifty.  I'm not used to my new body and I've been pretty self conscious about my looks since the middle of last semester.  I really want to boost my self confidence (I don't really want my self confidence to be based off of my looks though).  What are some ways for me to gain my confidence back without loosing all the weight?
Sincerly,
Freshman Fudge

Dear Fudge,
It's only natural for humans to want to look their best! It's no surprise that you lost so much confidence when you gained so much weight.  Although I could tell you the "feel good, it's not important how you look if your a good person, your beautiful" stuff that others might tell you, nor will I tell you what others consider confidence boosters like doing good deeds, or telling yourself you're beautiful.  I'm sure you've heard all of that hub bub from your loved ones, but listen to me, a analrapist you have never met, when I say, all of that stuff is kind of ridiculous and old fashioned (that advice was sooooo 2010 am I right?) In my opinion you should try some surgery, or how about a corset!? That will make others approve, which just HAS to bring back that self esteem! (Plus you'll look cool, I've heard vintage is hot hot hot!)
My apologies on your gain,
Dr. Tobias Fünke 

Dr. Tobias,
I just graduated from high school and have decided to move away from my hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina to the BIG city (Los Angeles) to become rich and famous! It's been my dream to become a hollywood movie star, like Kim Kardashian meets Meryl Streep (doesn't that sound so dreamy?) But now that I'm about to make the move, I don't know where to start, its so overwhelming.  I was wondering if you knew where I could start on the road to becoming a star! 
xoxoxoxoxo
Starla 
  
Oh young Starla, you have come to the right man!
As an actor, I know an infinite amount about showbiz, or as I like to call it "the biz".  As an aspiring actoress in the City of Angels, you must be strong and determined.  You will be let down time and time and time again, and over and over you will sit in your shower at night sobbing and scrubbing, just trying trying to get the stench of rejection of your disgusting middle-aged body.  But, I continue, to succeed you must have the skin of an elephant.  Also, get connections.  I'm a pretty great connection to have already (I know Carl Weathers PERSONALLY) but you should make as many friend in Hollywood as possible. "Connection, connection, connection" we in the biz like to say.  So if you happen to know anyone who is friends with Tom Cruise or even better Billy Crystal, kiss their behinds like there is no tomorrow!
Best of luck, you need it
Tobias Fünke, Actor Extraordinaire  

Mr. Fünke, 
I've been having troubles catching ladies.  I bought lots of good bait, but nothings biting. Got any tips for a man who needs love?
- Loverless


Dear Lover(less),
I know how you feel; although it's hard to believe looking at me now, I used to have lots of problems getting the lady folk.  But all you need is some self confidence! You are a man worthy of a thousand women's love.  Also a few pick up lines can always come in handy, my favorite is "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" Try it out it works (sometimes). 
In hard times, I can give you all the lovin' you need good sir!
With all the love in my huge heart.
Tobias Fünke, Lover

 

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GIRLS RULE

Girls Rule from evasoph on 8tracks Radio.

Mix of music made my girls!!

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selfie

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