Links Round-Up

This week at ShoutOut!:

HannahGrace points out that history was made this week, as two same sex marriages were hosted at West Point, a prestigious military academy. The act that was made possible by two events last year, the lifting of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and the legalization of gay marriage in New York. The marriages are an emblematic victory of the long battle homosexuals have fought to be accepted within the military.

With the holiday season upon us, you might have noticed the many gendered toys filling the aisles of you local stores – pink kitchen sets, “for boy’s only” science sets, the list goes on and on. One blogger shared her frustrations with this and other misogynistic aspects of Christmas , including an interesting feminist reading of holiday classic “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”

Classifiedsarcastic  sent in this article, which details how the feminist movement is still plagued by stereotypes and some of the negative impacts that these still have.

And this one, which argues that feminism’s work is done, that women have in fact won and the so-called “war on women” is irrelevant. Is this true??

Visionsofourfuture sent in the following:

I remember when I was younger and I used to read Seventeen magazine, so I was shocked when I heard about their new online BMI Calculator — that specifically tells teenage girls that being underweight is healthy. By telling a 17-year-old that the BMI of a 15-year-old is healthy, Seventeen Magazine is perpetuating a terrifying image standard to their young readers who are still trying to come to grasp with their own bodies.

And, if you read Fox News’ oped piece on ‘The War on Men’, you were probably just as frustrated as me to hear how women only need to surrender to their “natural femininity” to allow men to “provide and protect” for us. But don’t worry! Suzanne Venker, the author of the piece, came out and explained what she really meant by arguing that she should have written about “husbands and wives” instead of “men and women” — apparently that makes all the difference in making sweeping, harmful generalizations about genders.

JGrand50 enjoyed an article detailing how the latest Toys R Us catalogue in Sweden depict swapped gender roles for the first time ever. The advertisement shows girls playing with “boy toy” Nerf guns and shows a boy playing with a pink dollhouse. Trivial? Or an interesting sign of societal progress?

In more somber news, the Ugandan government is yet again voting on a “kill the gays” bill– legislation that would punish homosexuality with life sentences or death. Various groups are petitioning to end this idea once and for all.

Eszenyme sent in this article, which summarizes why supermodel and former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is definitely NOT a feminist, namely, because this generation doesn’t need feminism any more….Thoughts?

And this article (comically) discusses the sexualization of young girls through Elizabeth Hurley’s swimsuit line. How young is too young for leopard? Thoughts?