Weekly Links: Where Sex, Green Gold, & Lip Gloss Collide…

Are sex, food and beauty the modern major food groups? is booze a food? Does liberty and modern society, feminism, equality, give women the right to be whatever we want, even if it means being a functional high-level junkie?

These are the questions that came to mind after reading about the NYC media news that is the departure of Cat Marnell from xoJane.com because of her addiction to dolls.

Marnell was at Lucky and then went on to xoJane. It was all over New York press when the website revealed that Cat is no longer writing for them, post one rehab stint. Pop the top for one of her first person pieces for Xojane. I rather enjoyed the Vice piece because they raise some other issues – namely that aside from possibly glamorizing drugs, Marnell is pushing for someone to at least acknowledge that there are loads of women out there popping pills, and no one is talking about it. And that we are always defined as a female ___ blank – ie we are not just bloggers, singers, writers, actors – we are called lady bloggers, lady writers, lady singers … do they call guys male bloggers? And that for writers, the medium isn’t always the message. Just because we are on WordPress, does not all of a sudden turn the words we string together into the product of a blog, rather than the product of a virtual pad or typewriter. Finally, though, that the media just continues to tell us women that what we need to make us happy is: a man, a new gloss that will stay and not stick, and flat abs.

Lucky magazine Founder and former EIC Kim France has a new website called Girl of a Certain Age. She had a brief yet poignant post on the HBO hit show Girls, which many think is a more realistic take on being single in The City, versus the unrealistically fabulous scenes in the former HBO show.  In this post, France said this about the kinds of relationships we see in girls episodes and really, how I feel often as an independent 34 y.o. professional and MBA student with her own apartment – that many men are not OK with women being on the same level…

Don’t get me wrong; I liked Lost in Translation a lot. But it inspired some crazyass projection. The same kind that’s possibly explaining why Girls—which I love—is so popular with the fellas. For a certain kind of guy, the notion of a very young, intelligent woman who hasn’t quite found her footing in the world yet can be quite attractive. She can be his equal, but never his peer. - Kim France, Girl of a Certain Age

Now, ask yourself, have we changed much? Is it time we all had home parties to watch Miss Representation and have a moment of silence for possibly the most important academic when it comes to women’s rights and how the media still wants to sexify us – Jean Kilbourne.

In related news, The Los Angeles Times reports that LA’s Roosevelt High School is partnering with Planned Parenthood to try and get kids to use some form of birth control. The partnership was formed after the school’s clinic noticed a high rate of teen pregnancy. I say kids because anyone under 18 is a kid. Talk to your children! FYI Costco and BJs sell condoms and you can order them online… Hell if your kid has a .edu account, get them free Amazon prime and they can order condoms and get free two-day shipping. They’ll be there in two days, in time to prevent the next possible pregnancy.