Gender in the Cereal Box

Apparently only women want/need to lose weight. Or at least that's what you might think after watching half a dozen food ads.

Food ads that try to sell products based on their health or weight loss benefits are almost exclusively geared towards women. Special K is a notable example. The ads always feature women trying to squeeze into jeans, then being delighted at their slimmer frames after eating nothing by cereal for two weeks, and often concludes with inviting viewers to take on the Special K Challenge. Since when is eating a low calorie cereal a feminine activity? I know a lot of men who should think about cutting their caloric intake. But I never see men trying to squeeze into low rise hip huggers or even their high school varsity jackets in cereal ads.

Also, I don't think I've ever seen a man eating yogurt on TV. It's all women dreaming about fitting into yellow polka dot bikinis and making orgasmic faces as they discover real fruit on the bottom. Rice cakes and cookies are other food offenders, along with light cream cheese and instant rice. Instant rice ads almost always feature busy moms and magical instant rice dishes. Though occasionally we see a bizarre combination of women, instant rice and implied sexual tension. But that's another post....

When I see men in food ads it usually has something to do with grilling, barbecue sauce, or Slim Jims. There's the somewhat infamous Burger King ad that features men dancing around with hamburgers, throwing off the manacles of mini vans and of "girlie" salads, and singing about how masculine they are. But there's also more subtle ads. Quizno's has a spot where men are asked to compare two meat sandwiches. Quizno's may not be explictitly stating that only real men know real meat with an elaborate dance number, but it's strongly implied.

These ads seem to say, "Watch out guys. The Penis Patrol may revoke your Man Membership if caught with a box of Special K Red Berries."

The labeling of "health food" as feminine is not new. But I find it irritating. Especially when we could all stand to be a little healthier, and the health benefits of food products geared for women are often weight related.

That's why two recent Kashi ads stood out to me. There's one wtih a man and one with a woman who both work for Kashi. They are regular looking people. In the ads the man surf boards, the woman mountain climbs and snow boards. The text is basically the same in each, "We like working for Kashi because we like making tasty health food that lets people have active bodies and attempt new things" then they land on their ass. It's not about losing weight, it's about being active. If you eat this cereal you will not gain magical powers or be more attractive, but you might feel better and lower your cholesterol.

The only other health foods I can think of that feature men and women equally are fiber and prune juice ads. They typically feature older heterosexual couples talking about how the wife convinced her husband to start taking health more seriously. However, these ads are still problematic because once again health/food matters are the women's purview, and it's her job as care giver to convince her mate to start eating right.

All I have to say is this: if your dude thinks vegetables are too feminine to eat, maybe he deserves to get scurvy.

Just saying.....

Invest or Die

I am not rich, but I have a financial advisor.

When I got out of college I was making peanuts, but I was well aware that how much you save is just as important as how much you make. So I squirreled away lots of pennies. And these pennies, along with some free temporary lodging from my parents, came in very handy when I had to unexpectedly quit my job and living arrangements with my boyfriend went up in smoke. Jobless and without a permanent address to call my own, I was glad I had been able to save for a rainy day.

So I continued focusing on saving. Putting money into my savings account religiously ever month.

Then one day I woke up, and realized I was only getting 1% interest on my savings! Basic inflation was kicking my hard earned money's ass, I had to do something!

Even though women are now a substantial part of the work force, are getting advanced degrees, and making more money than ever, they are generally woefully unknowledgable about money and investing.

It might be a hold over from having it drilled into our heads that men generally deal with the dirty business of finances. Or that in some cases women are more adverse to risk. Or in my case, like their money where they can see it, not in some far away mystical Roth IRA. But the fact of the matter is we have a lot of catching up to do.

There's a lot of confusing information out there. Lot's of graphs, numbers, funds, firms and scary paper work. But it's an important thing to start learning about.

Do you know what kind of interest you're paying on your credit cards, student loans, ect?
Do you know what you're credit score is?
If your company has a 401k plan are your participating? Do you know how long you need to work before you're vested?
Have you considered saving for retirement on your own? Do you know the difference between a regular IRA and a Roth IRA?
Do you know the difference between a money market account, a bond, and a mutual fund?
Do you know what a junk-bond is?

Have I made your head hurt yet?

This stuff is important ladies. No one is going to take care of us. Women typically out live men and social security isn't looking very secure. So browse the web, read a book, ask a friend, and get started!

MSN has a pretty decent column called Women in Red written by women who have (or are getting) out of some serious debt. It has some good basic money strategies and advice.

Morningstar researches and rates mutual funds. A good place to start research.

Just Googling women + investing gives you tons of results like:

Like this article from That Money Show on PBS.
This website that spells out a lot of basic investing terms and economic strategies for first time investors.

I'm not a millionaire and I will never be one. But by giving some thought to what my meager money is doing now, hopefully I won't be eating cat food in my golden years.

Math Jokes

Math based humor, puns and jokes.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the Möbius Strip?

A: To get to the same side.

Okay.....that was super nerdy. But dumb blonde jokes are much worse.

When Single Women Roamed the Earth

This article in the New York Times has been getting lots of buzz. The fact that 51% of women are now unmarried seems to be creating enough hot air heat the Hancock Tower. Some people seem to think this is the beginning of the end for men, which is just ridiculous. But it is proof that more women no longer feel the need to be defined by marriage, and that social policies designed to organize people's lives around this institution are silly. Women on welfare need job training, not instructions on how to have "healthy" marriages. And the administration's new push to promote sexual abstinence to 19 - 29 year olds is unreasonable at best.

Personally, marriage doesn't appeal to me right at this moment. But I suspect it's because I received a fondue set for Christmas and I'm in no hurry to get a second one.....

Ladykillers

There was an interesting sidebar in Esquire this month by Chuck Klosterman on Cat Fights and cat torture. I couldn't find an electronic copy of the article so I've transcribed it here.

Please don't sue me Mr. Klosterman/ Esquire.....

"If you grew up in a place where even the richest people were still middle-class, you have undoubtedly encountered a certain kind of young, drunken male who enjoyed torturing cats. Cats, regardless of their gender, always represent femininity. (And dogs, regardless of their gender, represent masculinity.) As such, the kind of male who displayed this propensity was inevitably a closeted misogynist who (perhaps unknowingly) longed to kill actual women; I can't prove this but I know it's true.

The reason I bring this up is that my editor just gave me a copy of Cat Fights Unleashed, a DVD from the makers of similar documentaries like Ghetto Fights 3 is a collection of (primarily African-American) women beating the shit out of each other on bootleg video. And what I found myself dwelling upon while watching this DVD is the origin of the term "cat fight" (and why it is exclusively used for describing skirmishes between females). I think I have figured out why this is. Men sometimes claim they like watching women fight for sexual reasons, but I suspect they are lying; I think certain men enjoy watching women fight for the same reason they enjoyed torturing felines as teenagers (which is why we refer to physically violent females as "cats"). These men has interchanged them. So if you know someone who owns a copy of Cat Fights Unleashed and you can't figure out why, here is the explanation: He is unconsciously hoping to see footage of a woman being murdered."

While growing up I saw a lot of this puzzling behavior towards cats from my male peers. And I've had multiple conversations about the coding of cats as feminine and dogs as male. But the other interesting thing I've noticed is that dogs lovers (not all of them) seem to actively hate cats, where many of my cat loving friends wouldn't adopt a dog from a shelter or pet sit for one, but they wouldn't shoot a dog with a BB gun or drag one behind a car.

Something to think about......

Richard Dawkins has few friends here....

I'm not particularly religious, and I've been known to eat fundamentalists of all stripes for breakfast, but I find Dawkins' rhetoric just as intolerant, narrow minded and self congratulatory as the scourge he claims to be railing against.

My friend Joe, who has a Masters in Theology from Harvard Divinity School (so he's got some street cred), has many interesting and funny things to say, including a rant on Dawkins.

Go read it!

What Has Feminism Done for Computers Lately?

Some say not much.

But this is a pretty diverse paper that touches on some interesting thoughts. Like how do objects (like computers) become gendered anyways? How did women, who were early software pioneers in the 1950's, end up getting pushed out of an entire industry? How can we talk about the paucity of women in computer science without resorting to debates that revolve around essentialism?

Go read it!

Socialism - The Boardgame

Do you ever wish boardgames were more theoretically heavy handed and came with a glossary to describe the sociological theory behind every square on the board? Then perhaps the Canadian game Class Struggle is for you.

I had the opportunity to play it last weekend thanks to a wayward Canadian intellectual who played the game as a child.

You can see a photo spread of the epic event here.

Note: I'm happy to say that the Workers ( Jason and I) beat the Capitalists even though they formed alliances with the Professionals and Small Business Owners. Despite the Workers victory, a new era of "peace, democracy, and equality" has yet to be ushered in. Maybe next time we'll have to play by tournament rules.......

A Questionable Make-Over

I like shoes. They protect my feet from the harsh urban jungle and let me enter places of business.

I also like my feet. Despite being long, narrow, and a little on the flat side I'm really attached to them. And I reject any shoe they tries to pinch, squeeze or generally rub them the wrong way.

But some people don't see things that way. If shoe doesn't fit, change the foot!

Dr. Suzanne Levine will glady remove bone from your toes so you can fit into the Manolo Blahniks of your dreams. And she'll even preform the surgery to shorten and sculpt your feet while wearing heels herself, just to prove she practices what she preaches.

Frankly, if you're not a friend of my feet, you're no friend of mine. And last time I checked friends don't hack each other into tiny little bits.....

Welcome to the Pink Collar Ghetto, Have a Nice Day

This article, 10 Industries Women Rule posted on MSN and CareerBuilder only served to depress me more the other day.

What industries do women rule you may ask? Health care, education, social services, daycare, and the hospitality industries of course! Care giving and service professions that women have been pigeonholed into for a long time.

The article regals us with statistics on the projected growth of these industries, and only gives casual mention to the dismal pay in these fields. Child daycare services are expected to have a 34 % growth, but the annual pay is only $18,400. Which is barely above the federal poverty level for a family of one person.

Amidst all this bluster about how great these fields are for women, two tiny sentences stick out:

"Farr and Shatkin acknowledge that while women are making strides in the job market, they are still underpaid in comparison to men. In fields with an above-average percentage of women, the average earnings for the fields were $27,278, compared to $37,962 in fields with an above-average percentage of men."

It's a term some social scientists call "femminzation". Once an industry starts to attract a larger parentage of women, wages in the field tend to take a nose dive. Add that to the fact women are STILL only making 75 cents per every male dollar, a ratio that hasn't changed in DECADES, the wage outlook for working women looks less rosy. Especially when you factor in the rising costs of education, housing, and (somewhat ironically) childcare.

The one dark horse on the list is the Pharamceutical and Medical Manufacturing which is not a traditionally "feminine" industry. Interestingly enough, it also has the highest pay coming in at about 44,000 a year.

The message of this almost has a reverse effect. If you want a good job, these are the top 10 industries to avoid.

Wisconsin State Journal Gives Dated Safety Advice

I've never been impressed with the content of The Wisconsin State Journal. The news is fluff and the op-ed pieces range from vacuous to narrow minded. But their latest op-ed piece titled Stay Vigilant Against Violence is just plain stupid.

The article is in response to a number of sexual assaults that have taken place in Madison, Wisconsin ( a mostly laid back college town).

The Journal urges women to be "smart" about safety despite the arrest of a suspect. The tips include the tired and trite reminders to:

"Be prudent about how much you drink"
"Be careful about your surroundings at all times"
"Learn self-defense techniques"

ARGH!

Yes, thank you Wisconsin State Journal for reminding me that I should live in abject fear because I'm a woman. Should I also be prudent about the way I dress too?

Safety is a good thing to think about. You shouldn't get into a car of someone you don't know or leave your drink unattended in a bar, and the buddy system is always good to use. But I feel like these "tips" boarder on blaming potential victims.

The article states that public safety is everyone's responsibility. Well how about educating men that women are not objects for them to take out sexual aggression on? Most rapes and assaults are perpetrated by people close to the victim. How well do these tips work then?

They don't.

I guess that means I can only get tipsy in my own home, alone, with the doors locked, with a pair of brass knuckles and while wearing chain mail and a chastity belt. Anything else would be asking for trouble.....

Addendum:

Well look! The Wall Street Journal also has an opinion on the matter. I guess feminists should give up the fight now and just admit that only stupid women get raped.

If anybody needs me I'll be soaking in a tub gin.