Not a "Good" Boyfriend? There's an app for that

A tweet from @TheUndomestic brought this iPhone application to my attention. At first, I thought it was a joke, but no, it's real and can be purchased.

What is this iPhone app that I speak of? It's the Girlfriend Keeper App! Because men forget birthdays and woman can be programed (in the words of TheUndomestic).

I started reading the description of the app and I seriously did think it was a joke, until I found it in the iTunes App Store. With this app, you can set it up to send automated text messages or emails to your significant other at certain time intervals based on the seriousness of your relationship. You can even enter information such as anniversary dates, birthdays, and eye color. The text messages that this app randomly generates to send to your significant other are not the kind of things that I would want to be recieving. Here are some examples:

"I just drove by a brown barn and it reminded me of your eyes."
"It is 268 days until your birthday..."

I don't know if having your eyes compared to a barn is something that is romantic. And I find it kind of creepy that it sends text messages that are "it is ___ days until your birthay." That sounds kind of stalker-like (unless your birthday is only a couple days away).

But don't worry, you'll never be caught off guard when your significant other brings up an automated text message...there is a history function so that you can review all of the messages that you have sent.

Let's get to some of the reviews of this app:

"My first three wives divorced me because I always forgot anniversaries. I am pretty sure my fourth marriage will work thanks to the Girlfriend app?" Mark, 22
"Great app but change that icon. For us married types the wife is going to flip when she see's that. Make it look like an excel spreadsheet and label it GFK."

Wow, sounds like some great guys that are using this app.

This app is not only offensive to women -- thinking of women as "programmable" and appreciating of stalker-like text messages -- but is also offensive to men. Men are obviously not capable of a "real" relationship where he actually cares for his significant other and wants to be involved in that person's life. Men are obviously not capable of remembering a birthday or the color of someone's eyes. They need an application to help them.

Post Grad [Movie Monday]

I went to go see the new movie Post Grad, starring Alexis Bledel, this past Friday. I wanted to see it because it looked like a movie that was about my life right now. I saw it as being about a young woman who has recently graduated from college and has to struggle with not being able to find a job and living with her parents. [Warning: there will be some spoilers, but the movie is so predictable that I don't know if it will matter]



While that is definitely part of the story, I was hoping for something more. I was hoping that the movie would delve deeper into the struggle that many people (including myself) are facing right now of going from the (limited) independence of college to the dependence of being unemployed and living with your parents while everyone else is out doing something fantastic. It's an internal struggle that many people would be able to identify with in this current economic climate.

The first part of the movie touched on this struggle. But then the movie just turned the predictable route. Ryden (Bledel) lands her dream job in publishing out of the blue. I would have liked to see her try some other jobs (other than working at her dad's luggage store for a total of 2 hours) and struggle in minimum wage work before the "happy ending" of landing that dream job.

After she lands this dream job, she has another dilemma to face: how does she reconcile going for her dream with keeping the people that she loves in her life? Oh, poor Ryden, she has to choose between a great job that can lead to a lot of great things and a cute guy that has been in love with her for four years and she finally realizes that she's in love with him too. And what do you guess she chooses? That's right, the guy. Because dream jobs come and go (even though she had to struggle to find the first one) but you are never complete without that guy by your side.

Maybe it's just the point that I am at in my life right now and the way that I was raised, but I would like, for once, to see a strong woman choose her career goals over the guy that's making her decide. To be fair, the guy in Post Grad didn't exactly make her decide between the two, but still.

Oh romantic comedies that try to pass themselves off as something else but end up being the same old formulaic movie. I was hoping to be able to see a little bit of myself in this movie. I guess I could say it's the story of my life right now with the exception of the dream job and the cute guy. While it attempts to show some of the struggles faced by recent graduates, it just ends up being the happily-ever-after -- with the guy -- story that is oh so common.

All About Obsession

What the hell is with this movie?! This trailer for All About Steve has always rubbed me the wrong way.



Sandra Bullock plays a woman named Mary who is set up on a blind date with Steve (Bradley Cooper). Steve is soooo not into it, but Mary sooo is. She's so into that she somehow thinks that he loves her too so decides to follow him to where he is working -- filming a hurricane (?). She's obsessed and pretty much becomes a stalker.

What kind of message is this sending about women? The trailer tries to claim that the movie is all about being yourself and not changing for anyone. Ok, I can see that. Mary doesn't change her obsessive/stalker tendancies. This movie just portrays women as desperate and obsessive when it comes to relationships.

Romanitc comedies (and other genres too) have the tendancy to portray women as not whole unless they have found that "one" guy. Women cannot have a successful career, great friends, and by happy with that. She will never be happy (even though she thinks she might be) until she finds a perfect guy...and that guy will probably make her realize that she is too committed to her career (see my review of The Proposal).

All About Steve seems to take this to the extreme. Mary herself feels like she will not be complete unless she can land her perfect guy, Steve...to the point of obsession.

Portraying women as obsessive and stalker-like when it comes to relationships just reinforces the stereotype that women are desperate relationship-seekers, even if it masks itself as promoting self-esteem and self-expression. I just hope that at some point we can get past portraying women as incomplete without a man in mainstream movies.

I Don't Want To Be a Hepburn or a Hilton

Yesterday I heard about the book How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World by Jordan Christy. This book is all about how women nowadays are waaaay to accessible and that women should let men chase them instead of the other way around.

To me, this just sounds like the same old thing: the virgin/whore dichotomy. Men don't want women they can get too easily (aka "whores" or women that are too accessible); men want the pure virgin that they have to fight for. Yawn. How many times have I heard this? It's amazing that people still make money off of this tired thought

But what's really amazing is that people still think that women have to be one or the other, one of two extremes: the virgin or the whore. Women can't be anything but pure or dirty -- there is no in-between space. As soon as women do the tiniest little thing that isn't "pure," they are automatically labeled a "whore" or "slut."

This is no new thought. It's just a shame that it's still around. This unrealistic and oppressive dichotomy of virgin/whore is indoctrinated into women (and men) and functions to make women feel ashamed of themselves. If you are interested in learning more about this dichotomy, I suggest you read The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti.

Relationship advice books like How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World, thrive off of the continuation of this dichotomy. Relationship books are meant to make women feel ashamed of themselves or that they are less than. This makes their sales go up, because after all it is all about sales. If women feel bad about themselves, they are going to buy more dating books.

Further Reading:
To snap a man, let him do the chasing [Today Show]

This Week in Blogs: August 9-15

I'm thinking of having a post like this more than once a week since the list of amazing posts from other blogs is getting to be really long. Look for a post along these lines on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as Sundays from now on. Sorry for the late posting time today. I was at my cousin's wedding this weekend and didn't get home until Sunday afternoon. I'm always looking for new blogs to read! Leave your links in the comments!

Victim's don't "get raped": on blaming, passivity, and verbs - Deeply Problematic
A great post on the language we use surrounding rape. No one "gets raped," they "are raped." Also don't forget to check out RMJ's ongoing 50 Books for Problematic Times.

5 Reasons We Still Need Feminism - Appetite for Equal Rights
Some people think that feminism is no longer needed (not me!), but here are at least 5 reasons why we still need it!

They tried that in the 90's - FBomb
Where are all the shows that accurately represent the lives and worries of teenagers?

Nonmonogamy and Feminism: A Happy Couple - Feministe
How do "open relationships" and nonmonogamy fit into feminist values?

Kelly Clarkson should consider moving to the UK - Feministing
On the use of photoshopping in the US and the UK and more on the Kelly Clarkson Self cover.

The "Sixteen Candles" date rape scene - Salon Broadsheet
I love John Hughes and "Sixteen Candles" but don't forget about that date rape scene...

So, why do we blog, anyway? (I am deeply disturbed) - Small Stokes
Ashley takes on some of the trends that she sees in feminist blogging that worry her.

Filament magazine and the female gaze - Swimsuit Issue
There's a new magazine out geared towards women that features smart stories and hunky men.

What We Can Learn From the French - The Undomestic Goddess
What do the French have that we don't?

A "feminist wedding" is an oxymoron - Womanist Musings
I've been thinking a lot about weddings recently as I just attended my cousin's. How do feminist values fit into the patriarchal norm of weddings?

Reconciling Taylor Swift

I'm often fascinated by pop music. What's popular? What makes it popular? I often find myself singing along with these songs, even though I often don't agree with the message that they send. One of the artists that I follow new singles of is Taylor Swift. I know, weird, right? Her songs are just catchy and I find myself singing along with every word and sharing her songs with friends...mainly as a joke or to make fun of the song, but still. So how do I reconcile my feminist beliefs with the music of Taylor Swift?

Most of Taylor Swift's songs (that I know at least) are about getting the guy, not being complete without a guy, etc. One of my friends (who also has a weird love for Taylor Swift) once asked me: have you ever noticed how many of Taylor Swift's songs end in marriage? I don't know about that one, but most of them end in getting the guy or keeping up a relationship with a guy.

Let's get to some examples:

"Love Story" - all about a guy that her father won't let her see, so they have to sneak around (think Romeo & Juliet, pretty much exactly). Then the father approves and the guy proposes. Ends in a proposal.

"Our Song" - all about being in love with a guy. That's pretty much it.

"You Belong With Me" - all about being in love with a guy who has a girlfriend, then in the end he dumps his girlfriend for her.



"Picture to Burn" - maybe the one song that of hers that I know that doesn't end in getting the guy. But...it's about breaking up with a guy, so it still centers around the male gender.

How, as a feminist, can I like the songs (or released singles) of a singer who only sings about her relationship with guys? If you only sing about relationships with guys, it shows a dependence on guys. If you have a dependence on guys, you can't be an strong, independent woman.

There are some things about Taylor Swift that do indicate that she is a strong woman. For instance, she was one of the producers of her last tour so that she had a say in how things were done. That's great, especially for a 19 year old. But you would never know this about her through her songs.

I don't know if I can, right now, reconcile my attraction to Taylor Swift's music with my values in feminism. It's something that I think about every time one of her songs comes on the radio. There are some things that can't always be reconciled and maybe shouldn't be reconciled. There are always going to be things that people enjoy doing that might not align exactly with their values, it's a part of the society that we live in. I think that as long as you recognize the problematic attributes of things and question how they fit into society, then it might be ok to partake in things that might be anti-feminist.

Analyzing the anti-feminist attributes of certain parts of society, like music for example, is an important part of my feminism. I guess that's how I reconcile Taylor Swift with my feminism.

This Week in Blogs: July 26 - August 1

There has been some great writing going on this week! Here are some of my favorites. Don't forget to leave your links (that you've been writing and reading) in the comments!

Thin Privilege 101 [Dolly Speaks]
Labyrinth as Feminist Myth [Hoyden About Town]
Twitter and Gendered Language [The F Bomb]
On the abortion ban in Nicaragua [Appetite for Equal Rights]
The Feminist Lens: Catcher in the Rye and Feminism and Relationships [Small Strokes]
Can we achieve a real "common ground" on abortion? [Feministing]
Shocker! Tiller's Murderer Going to Trial [Feministe]
Oppression, Masculine Power, Duality, and Kant [Gender Across Borders]
HBO Working on Another Feminist Show? [Women & Hollywood]
Julia Child: Feminist Icon? [Jezebel]
"More to Love": That Means FAT GIRLS too! [Womanist Musings]
Breasts: Ready to Go Public? and No Hang Ups on "Hung" [The Undomestic Goddess]
SETH ROGEN IS OUTRAGED, some more [Tiger Beatdown]
"Body Lexicon" for Aging Female Bodies [Sociological Images]
From ax-wielding psychos to she-devils [Salon: Broadsheet]

What to Do With Those Doofy Husbands

Sarah Haskins' new Target Women video about doofy husbands and the women who stay with them.

Welcome to Cougar Town

Many times when I have gone to see a movie over PG lately, I have been subjected to this promo for the new fall ABC show, Cougar Town, starting Courtney Cox (of Friends fame):



So, Cougar Town...a show about a 40-year-old divorcee who decides that getting back into the dating world means dating younger men. So many things wrong with this promo/show, where to begin...

How about at the beginning? The promo opens with Courtney Cox scrutinizing every fault of her body. First of all, I don't think that is actually Courtney Cox's body. Other promos have her in underwear and she does not have any "flab." Second of all, the body that is shown (whether it is Cox's or not) is an amazing body. Scrutinizing a body like that not only shows the fear of aging (prevalent throughout the show/promo) but also the impossible body standards that women have to live up to.

The show is all about the fear of aging. Women are going to "shrivel up and die." Throughout society, everyone fears getting older, but I feel like there is a stronger fear among women. A fear that men will no longer be attracted to them when they get older. Because age does not equal beauty. Age equals wrinkles and flab and death.

How does divorce equal "shrivel up and die"? There is nothing wrong with being an independent woman and living the life you want to live. While I think that is the message the show is trying is doing what she thinks is expected of her. I may be wrong, I mean it is only a 30 second promo. But the show does seem to say that a woman is incomplete without a man, even if that man is just a young "boy toy."

And why is that older women who date younger men are called "cougars" but older men who date younger women is a bachelor or a playboy? Cougars are predatory animals, so this implies that women are preying on and attacking young men where as men are congratulated for dating younger women.

Courtney Cox was so great on Friends, so why does she have to go and make a show like this (but Jennifer Aniston is really the only one of the cast that has had any major success after Friends)? Maybe the show is supposed to be some sort of commentary about the fear of aging in society. But if the promo starts out like this with scrutinizing every little imaginary fault on a body, I think it is just reinforcing the fear of aging.

What's In a Name?

Right now I am no where near getting married, but I decided a long time ago (before I defined myself as a feminist) that I was not going to change my name if/when I get married.

My mom kept her name, which I remember causing a lot of confusion among my friends growing up. It seemed so normal to me because that's what I grew up with. But I would always feel a little upset when my friends called my mom Mrs. Sundstrom instead of by her own name, not that they knew any better at first. When I was very young, I didn't understand why my friends just assumed that my mom shared my dad and I's last name. As I aged, I came to understand that it was societal convention that the woman has the same last name as her husband.

Going into late elementary school and on, I would sometimes get asked if my parents were divorced when my friends found out that my parents had different last names. Because in my conservative community (and in the rest of society), the only way that a woman can have her maiden name is if she is divorced from her husband.

Certainly my mom had some influence on my decision to not change my name, but once I started learning more about feminism, I was finally able to express some of my real motivations behind this decision. I do not want to change myself when I get married. My name is part of who I am. And part of who I am is also an independent woman and I feel that as an independent woman, I should not have to change my name to enter into a partnership with a man.

Via a tweet from Ashely at Small Strokes, I learned of an article at The Globe and Mail entitled, "I took my wife's last name." The author goes through his decision to take his wife's name upon marriage and the struggles that he faced, both within himself and from friends and family.

In discussing why he chose to change his name, he says...

I did it because I love Mona - because I wanted her to know that I didn't expect her to become anyone other than herself. It mattered to me that we shared a name, so I reasoned I should be the one to offer mine up.

I think that this reason says a lot about what kind of person this man is and about how much he respects his wife and her values. He starts the article by saying that the decision was completely his, that his wife didn't even ask him to do it.

In today's society, I feel like a woman's decision to keep her name is not as uncommon as it was even when my parents married about 27 years ago. Some people still hold the expectation that the woman will change her name, but it is certainly more socially acceptable to keep your name. But even when it is not uncommon for a woman to keep her name, it is almost completely unheard of for a man to take his wife's name. Why?

I think that some women don't want to change their name because it would show a kind of dependency on a man. So if a man changes his name, is there an assumption that he is dependent on a woman? And why would that be so wrong? In any relationship there is a certain amount of emotional (and other kinds) dependency on the other person. But men would never admit that by taking his wife's name.

Every woman has the right to keep her name and every man has the right to change his name. And just because I have decided to keep my name doesn't mean that a woman who decides to take her husband's name is wrong or anti-feminist.

The Romanticization of Secret Life

Has anyone else seen Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family? I first got hooked on this show last summer while working at a camp. The teenage girls would sit in the lounge and watch this, so I started watching it with them.

In case you are unfamiliar, here is the basic plot. Amy is a 15 year old girl who gets pregnant at band camp (yes, that one time at band camp). She's surprised she's pregnant because she didn't even know she was having sex until after it happened (abstinence-only at work?). She's not interested in dating the father, Ricky, and instead starts dating good guy Ben (who wants to marry her). Ricky is involved (as in they have sex but aren't really in a relationship) with Adrian, who befriends Grace, the resident Christian virgin, who is dating Jack. Grace and Jack get into many disagreements about having sex. Amy's parents are getting divorced. So, that's a very broad overview. There's obviously a lot more that goes on, but I think this overview should help you understand this post and the problems that I have with the show a little better.

This is by no means a good show. I have a problem of getting weirdly addicted to bad television, which is why I watch this show, as bad as it is. And just because I watch it doesn't mean that I don't have problems with it. When I started watching it with those teenage girls at summer camp, I asked them why they liked it so much. Their response: "It's so realistic!" Whoa there!

Now, into the second season of Secret Life, Amy has had the baby (John), her mom is pregnant (and it's unclear if it's her husband's or her boyfriend's), Grace and Jack have had sex, Grace's dad died and she thinks it's because she had sex (don't even get me started on that one!), Ricky is becoming responsible, and Ben is still dying to have sex.

While I think it is great that ABC Family has a show about teen pregnancy, it is not a realistic representation of this situation for a lot of people. In the most recent episode that aired on Monday, July 20, Amy (who has by now had her baby, John) complains to her mom about not being able to go to Italy with her boyfriend, Ben, for the summer. She claims that she is an adult now solely because she has a baby and can make decisions for herself. Mind you, she is still 15 (almost 16), does not have a passport, wants to go without her baby but doesn't have anyone she trusts (she wants her mom to do it) to watch the baby. A. What 15 year olds parents are going to let them go to Italy for the summer with her boyfriend who is going to stay with family and B. I bet a lot of single, teen parents wish their biggest problem was not being able to go to Italy for the summer.

When the teen girls told me they liked the show because it was so realistic, I asked them how many of their friends or people they knew were pregnant and had boyfriends who they were dating for a month who have pledged their love and desperately wanted to marry them (to the point of trying to get fake ids to elope)? Their answer: none. So, how is this realistic? While I'm sure this is the reality for some people out there, I really think that this show is romanticizing teen pregnancy.

When you look at the differences between Secret Life and something like 16 and Pregnant on MTV, you can plainly see the romanticization that happens in Secret Life. In 16 and Pregnant, the struggles of the teens are very clear (even though I wish they would show a little more of after the baby was born, maybe they'll go back to the same teens in a later episode...). Some of them deal with absent fathers, economic struggles, non-supportive or controlling parents, and social ostracism.

While Secret Life does show some struggles that Amy goes through, recently she just seems to be concerned with her social life and John, her baby, falls through the cracks, at least in her mind. Amy is just coming off, at least to me, as whiny and ungrateful. Her parents, especially her mother, are supporting her immensely through this and trying to help her take responsibility, but she won't have any of it. In the first season she was mad because she didn't want to give the baby up for adoption (which is completely reasonable) but was expecting her mother to provide free day care while she went on with life as normal. In the second season, she is heartbroken that she can't go to Grace's dad's funeral because she can't find a babysitting not because she wants to honor and say goodbye to her father, but because everyone else is going to be there. Seriously?

I don't mean to negate any experiences that teen parents might go through, even those similar to what happens on Secret Life. Maybe I have no place saying any of this because I was not a teen parent. But just because I wasn't a teen parent, doesn't mean I can't at least have an opinion about the show. Has anyone else seen this show? What do you think about it?

When It Comes to Having Children

I am 22 years old. I have a long time before I, personally, will ever think realistically about having a baby. And right now, I don't know if I ever really want one. I know that this gives me a certain amount of privilege and bias. And these are my fears and feelings right now, when I am not mentally, emotionally, financially, etc. able to support a pregnancy and child, who knows what they will be when I get to the point in my life when I would consider having a child.

My aversion to bearing children has many roots. There is the fear of pregnancy itself. While I think it is realistic to say that I have had this fear since high school, it became very prominent in college during my anthropology class. In this class, my professor talked a lot about fetuses as parasites, which, while very extreme, really stuck with me. Of course, she had her own opinions about pregnancy, which were obviously very negative, but what she had to say about it really influenced me and spoke to me.

Then comes my fear of bringing another child into this world when a) the world is so messed up, b) there are so many children that already need loving homes, and c) I just don't know if I want to be a mother. Let's start with c. Right now, I don't know if I want to be responsible for another human being. I know that I might change my mind about being a mother as I get older or enter into a serious relationship, but right now, I can't really picture it.

Now, on to a. There are so many things wrong with the world right now, I don't want to be responsible for bringing a child into that. But one thing that I never really thought about, as the F Bomb pointed out, not having children can have benefits for the environment. Cameron Diaz has declared herself a "non-breeder" for the environment. This post points out, "one U.S. person is equal to 20 tons of CO2 per year and 24 acres of productive land." So not having children can really be considered an environmental act. So, just one more reason for me to be a "non-breeder" as well.

And now, finally to b. I think, when it comes time for me to think about children, that I will seriously consider adoption. There are many children in this country and around the world that need loving and supportive homes. This one is fairly simple. Adoption is a great alternative to bearing children.

And that brings us to society's perception of "non-breeder." As the Huffington Posts' article about Cameron Diaz' non-breeder status points out, while there is progress being made, people still think there is something wrong with people who consciously decide to be non-breeders.

While there was plenty of support for non-breeders, there were the inevitable comments like "isn't [it] natural for women to have children?" and "as women we are or should be born with a natural instinct to have children"...
...It's a shame, for both our planet and reluctant potential parents, that too many people still see having children as something we all should do, or should at least want. When UK journalist Polly Vernon wrote an editorial about not wanting kids, she discovered that "voluntary childlessness is an unacceptable crime to cop to" and she was "denounced as bitter, selfish, un-sisterly, unnatural, evil"...
...Recent research shows that a childless status could even hurt the careers of childless women. Lancaster University professor Dr. Caroline Gatrell found that some employers see female staff who don't want children as lacking "essential humanity".

Throughout the article, there are many examples of the prejudice against non-breeders. Because I am only 22, I have not run into this prejudice too much, but I anticipate it. Even without a lot of this prejudice, I still feel like sometimes I am missing the "mom gene." But I guess I'll just have to get used to that.

*Note: In no way am I diminishing that amazing-ness of mothers. I think mothers take a lot of crap from society and from fellow feminists, which is not cool. Everyone has a mother and wouldn't be where they are now without their mother's influence (or lack of influence). Because I do not have children, it is not my place to talk of what mothers go through, because I do not know. This post is simply about my opinions about my body, my life, and my decision to have or not have children. In no way am I saying how other people should or should not feel about their decisions about child bearing.

Harry's All About the Sexual Tension

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out last Wednesday and I have already seen it twice. I really liked the most recent installment. However, I have talked with some people who haven't read the books (gasp!) who didn't really care for it. I think that if you have read the books, you can better understand the pivotal points in relation to the Deathly Hollow (the 7th book and 7th and 8th movies). This movie doesn't do a great job at filling in people that have forgotten what has happened or hasn't read the books or seen the movies.

I thought that the movie was really good and pretty funny, at least more so that the other Harry Potter films. In this installment, the main characters discover the opposite sex. Harry and Ginny Weasley start to develop feelings for each other (which I was a little disappointed that they didn't develop this further as they did in the book), Ron starts dating Lavender Brown (which is where a good amount of the comedic relief comes from, that and the love potion Ron accidentally ingests), and Hermione is all about the teen angst when she sees Ron with Lavender.

But some controversy has come up over the sexualization of the characters. In the movie, the characters are entering their sixth year at Hogwarts, making them 16-years-old. This seems like a perfectly reasonable age to bring romantic relationships into the mix of the Harry Potter movies. But many don't think so...

An article on EW.com attacks the film for being too sexual, saying that's not what J.K. Rowling intended. Maybe the film did develop these relationships further than the book (it has been a while since I've read the book all the way through), but the book definitely had these relationships in them. The author, Jean Bentley, proclaims that, "Despite illusions to the contrary, teenagers don't actually have adult relationships."

What? I'm pretty sure if you talk to 16-year-olds, they are capable of romantic relationships, and even want them (oh no!). But apparently, according to Bentley, teenagers don't have relationships and don't have sex. While there is no sex in the Harry Potter movies (and I don't think there should be because it was technically started as a children's series, even though it's evolved into much more), there is definitely a lot of sexual tension and snogging (I love British lingo).

And what of the lovely actors who play the main characters. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are now between the ages of 19 and 21. Oh no! They've grown up! This seems to be particularly treacherous for Emma Watson, the beloved Hermione Granger. As Salon points out, it is harder for Watson to transition into maturity and change her image from girl to woman than it was for her co-star Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter (or would be for most any male actor).

After discussing Watson's "Interview" cover, Joy Press (author of the Salon article) states...

Is this Hermione's get-out-of-child-stardom card, I wondered? Daniel Radcliffe had already plotted his escape route last year with a quick shortcut to instant adult status: full-frontal nudity. Since it was for a serious role in a serious play (Peter Shaffer's "Equus"), Radcliffe was feted for artistic credibility and bravery (especially after he talked in interviews about the shriveling effects of a live audience on the male member).
But shifting your image into a more mature gear has very different ramifications for a young woman than for a young guy. I doubt many people actually wanted to glimpse Harry Potter's wand, whereas at least one creepy Web site counting down the days till Watson's 18th birthday popped up back in 2004.

Yes, there was some controversy surrounding Radcliffe's appearance in Equus, but, like Press says, that was accepted once it was realized that it was a "serious role." But Watson's entrance into maturity is not as easily accepted because it involves her posing seductively on covers of magazines, not taking serious roles where you have to run around naked on stage. But she's 19. We only care because we still think of her as the 10-year-old from the first Harry Potter movie. And she can hold her own against the press (at least from what I've seen) and even describes herself as "a bit of a feminist."

And speaking of the movies again, can we talk about Watson's character, Hermione? She's amazing. She's smart, sexy, and kicks ass (much like I believe Emma Watson to be). One of my favorite scenes of the series (there are many) is from Prisoner of Azkaban when she punches Malfoy for laughing at the execution of Buckbeak the Hippogriff.

Overall, I really loved the Half-Blood Prince. I appreciated the sexual tension that was there, I thought it lightened the movie and gave some great comedic relief. And really, there wasn't a whole lot of it seeing as how the movie was still PG. But, granted, it would take a lot for me to not love the movie because I am pretty much obsessed with the series. I think people just need to get over the fact that teenagers have romantic relationships. It's really not a big deal.

Further Reading:
Half-Blood Prince Suffers From Lack of Action, Emma Watson's Hotness [Jezebel]
Our Little Wizards Are All Grown Up [RHRealityCheck]
Emma Watson Owes It To Her Public To Get Naked, Says Public [Jezebel]
Just Saw Harry Potter and... [F Bomb]

Some Great Dating Advice

Sarah Haskins has some great dating advice in her new "Target Women" video.



To see more "Target Women" videos, go here.

This Week in Blogs: July 5 - July 11

This week has been kind of crazy for me, which means that time to work on the blog has been given a lower priority to some of the others things that I have to do. But hopefully this will be a relaxing Sunday and I will have some time to work on blog posts.

Here are some blog posts that I found interesting this week:

• Sarah Seltzer at RH Reality Check compares the racism of the burqa ban to the patriarchal standards of beauty in the United States.

• How do you describe you personal and political attitudes towards abortion? Are you pro-choice? pro-life? anti-choice? pro-abortion? RMJ at Deeply Problematic explores her view being pro-abortion.

• Lizz at Choices Campus Blog looks at how jokes about rape add to a culture where rape is not taken seriously.

• Jill at Feministe qualifies what is necessary in a feminist urban policy.

• There has been a lot of news over Palin resigning. Jordan at Equal Writes examines her resignation a little further.

• Jessica at the Frisky asks: could you date a guy who wasn't a feminist?

• Amy at Pregnant Pause looks at two tv shows that represent teen pregnancy: The Secret Life of the American Teenager and 16 and Pregnant.

• Even though this isn't a feminist blog, I thought I would include this one. Entertainment Weekly examines the role women play in gangster movies.

• Dave Zirin for The Nation further explores the sexism present at Wimbledon.

What were some of your favorite blog posts that you wrote or read this week? Leave some recommendations of blogs and blog posts in the comments.