TresSugar

Flashback! A Phone For Creepy People

TresSugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:30:28 -0800

For $69 those looking to spice up their phone calls could have owned this "conversation piece" belonging to the same genre as that leg lamp in A Christmas Story.

The ad reminds us that the phone was sculptured by a European artist, which makes it totally classy and not at all tacky. However judging by the photo, it's not so easy to talk on a naked-lady phone. Oh well.

Source

Reebok Promises to Make Your Boobs Jealous of Your Butt - Hilarious or Horrifying?

TresSugar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:24 -0800

On its website, Reebok claims that its new line of EasyTone shoes, which are displayed against the backdrop of a naked woman, will help you make 88 percent of men speechless and 76 percent of women jealous. Hoping to drum up some hype for these kicks, Reebok has also unveiled a whole slew of commercials touting the shoes' butt-toning abilities. In this commercial, Reebok pitches the shoes by reducing a faceless woman to two talking breasts. You see, the breasts are jealous of the woman's butt, which is now getting all the attention thanks to the shoes. Do you find this ad effective or offensive?

Can Women Have It All?

TresSugar — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:30:17 -0800

A successful career. A loving marriage. Well-loved and well-behaved children. The promise of women's liberation holds that women can have all of this if that's what they want. But one teacher wrote in the Daily Mail yesterday that telling a young girl that she can reach the top of the career ladder and raise a family is passing on nothing more than a fairy tale. This not-so-modern woman thinks:

"The young women we are sending out into the world believe they can have it all - and, if they don't, they will have failed. And what a tragedy that is, because the truth is that modern women can't have it all. They may succeed in their careers and they may succeed as mothers, but to do both at the same time? No, that is not possible without making huge sacrifices which many will find simply too much."

Obviously life is full of compromises and trade-offs, but I don't think that means women have to choose between success outside the home and success inside the home. With a little balance, I think women, just like men, can manage both. What do you think?
Photos courtesy of AMC

Bill Clinton Has Problematic Views on Mad Men

TresSugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:02:00 -0800

It appears Bill Clinton has come out of retirement to put his foot in his mouth. When discussing his appreciation for Mad Men, Clinton attempted to present a balanced view about how the show depicts women. Unfortunately, it came out sounding quite embarrassing considering his reputation for putting the moves on his staff, something we see a lot on the show. Clinton said:

"The way women were treated is appalling, and only occasionally funny to me."

I think someone should tell Mr. Clinton that the "appalling" treatment of women is not supposed to be funny . . . ever. Let's just hope this was an unfortunate choice of words.

Berlusconi Insults Women Again - And They're Fighting Back

TresSugar — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0700

Feminism is back in vogue in Italy. Some say it lay dormant in spite of a vibrant '70s feminist movement, but thanks to raging misogynist Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, largely silent Italian women have had enough and are speaking up.

"[T]he scandals surrounding the prime minister have been like a violent slap in the face for millions of women who are just now waking up from a state of passivity," said political scientist Francesca Izzo.

A favorite tactic of the 73-year-old Berlusconi is to disparage the looks of his female political opponents. In a heated debate with 58-year-old opposition party member Rosy Bindi, he said, "You're more beautiful than you are intelligent," to which the annoyed politician shot back, "I am not a woman at your disposal." (Perhaps she was referring to his multiple girlfriends, which finally led his wife to file for a divorce.)

Many American women claim they aren't feminists, but I wonder if they'd change their tune if the president were speaking this way every day! To find out how Italian women are fighting back and to see a clip of a documentary about how women are represented on Italian television, read more

After Berlusconi's nasty comment to Rosy Bindi, pissed off women drafted a petition saying that his sexism was an insult both to women and to democracy. 11 days later, more than 100,000 women had signed it, claiming that Berlusconi participated in the "cretinization of women."

It took long enough for more women to speak up, but it's great they finally did it. Alas, Italian feminists have more than Berlusconi and his rhetoric to fight. In the following clip from filmmaker Lorella Zanardo's documentary Women's Bodies, you'll see that almost all the representations of women on Italian television depict them as sex objects.

UK Report Calls Date-Rape Drug a Myth

TresSugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0700

Well this is depressing. A UK Daily Mail article titled Date-Rape Drug? No Dear, You Just Had Too Much to Drink claims that date-rape drugs are mostly an urban myth. The paper quotes academic research, recently published in the British Journal of Criminology, to argue that women are "willing to 'hide behind' the idea that a stranger poured poison in their drink - rather than face up to the fact that they had simply been binge drinking."

The original report claims that women often confuse binge-drinking induced blackouts and dizziness with drink-spiking, and researchers worry that this could cause women to be less careful about more common factors that put them at risk for rape - like heavy drinking. Unfortunately, this attitude suggests that because women are responsible for their binge drinking, they're also responsible for any assault they might endure. (What about the rapist?)

In addition, the authors say that "despite popular beliefs, police have found no evidence rape victims are commonly drugged with substances such as rohypnol." It seems like quite a leap to say that women getting drugged and then raped is an urban myth just because it might not be as common as a drunk woman getting raped.

It's troubling that some experts and the media cannot find a way to remind people about the dangers associated with binge drinking without discrediting women who have been victims of sexual abuse.

Muscle Milk, the Drink Douchebags Reach For First!

TresSugar — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0700

I didn't know people really still said "getting tail" as a term for bagging chicks. (OK, I guess there's really no way of saying that without sounding like a Neanderthal.)

Speaking of Neanderthals, the irony is not lost on me that the tagline for this Muscle Milk ad is "Drink. Evolve."

Source

Say What? Nancy Pelosi Knows Her Place

TresSugar — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0700

"They really don't understand how inappropriate that is. I'm in my place. I'm the Speaker of the House, the first woman Speaker of the House. And I'm in my place because the House of Representatives voted me there. But that language is something I haven't even heard in decades."

- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stood up for herself yesterday, after the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said General Stanley McChrystal should "put her in her place" for her views about the war in Afghanistan.

The NRCC subsequently responded to Pelosi's dismissal of its loaded language saying: "She's playing out of her league and she knows it." (Um, wow.) Hopefully the NRCC can go back to disagreeing with the substance of Nancy Pelosi's opinions, instead of criticizing her for having them in the first place.

Say What? Writer on Actresses Past Their "Expiration Date"

TresSugar — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0700

Okay, let’s be honest: Drew Barrymore was never really all that hot. In fact, hot was never the appropriate adjective for her. She was cute as a little kid in E.T. and sometimes adorable in her twenties, and now…well, now she’s just another talking chubby face attached to a chubby body that should know better than to be projected on a giant movie screen.

- Blogger Nathan Bloch from Spike.com in a post entitled The Top 10 Actresses Past Their Expiration Date. Bloch is not all sexism and nastiness, though - he will grant that once upon a time, 20 years ago, Sarah Jessica Parker was "halfway decent."

Tweet Nothings! Men Have a Problem With Meghan McCain

TresSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:00:35 -0700

Despite being close to one GOP man in particular (her father!), John McCain's daughter Meghan thinks that some men in her party need to readjust their attitudes toward modern women. Do you agree?