tv

I became a big fan of the Midwest Teen Sex show after a link to their website was posted on Feministing. Personally I find them witty and fun to watch, a far cry from the scare tactic sex ed videos used in my sex education class. I guess not everyone likes their humor however.

Today on the Morning Show with Mike and Juliet (a day time talk show I was only watching because it was on our TV after the Today show) they had the creator and stars of the show, a sex expert and a psychologist to debate about the web casts. I was pleased that in general the show was positive about the show and about teens learning about sex. Their sex expert even talked about how parents should start talking to their kids about sex as early as possible. Awesome info. The only negitive comments seemed to be from a parent of adults who was worried about younger teens watching the episodes and the phycologist who worried about "isolated" teens who would get the wrong message from the show and take it literally. I'm not sure what she meant by that, because it's not like they are encouraging kids to have sex, just safe sex for the right reasons, if they choose to. I also like how the Midwest Teen gets that their audience is mainly either adults or teens thinking about having sex or are having sex. I know it's a pretty big assumption that most teens will want to have sex, but how else would they find an online sex education show online if they weren't looking to have sex?

Ugh. I'm tired of Dr.Phil as it is. His show has turned from being about helping people, to having guest argue on the show about their pointless, often petty disputes. However, I got my period today (after months of not having it because I was breastfeeding my daughter 24-7, I guess taking a break away from her a few nights ago made it come back) so I am tired and don't feel like doing more then watching TV. So I was watching Dr.Phil...

Yesterday and today a show has been on about a man who "slept" with the nanny. The premise of the show is that a firefighter husband cheated on his wife who had a three month old daughter with a nanny they hired. Well on yesterday's show it came to light that the nanny in question said his guy gave her painkillers and then forced himself on her in a bedroom. The wife even watched him place painkillers in the girl's mouth. She was only 18. Then on today's show Dr. Phil says three other nannies complained about being sexually harrassed (although it's never phrased that way), once according to Dr.Phil and this nanny, he corned a woman in a pantry and told her if she wanted her paycheck she had to give him a oral sex and that he wanted to perform oral sex on her as well.

Does Tivo count as live blogging?

Good Morning America sent Diane Sawyer to sit down with the 16 women of the U.S. Senate. Maria Cantwell (Washington) is an early standout, very diplomatic, very articulate, and frankly I think she's a little more intriguing than Hillary.

I didn't know much about Claire McCaskill (Missouri) before the midterms, but she's familiar with seeing both sides of an issue. When Sawyer threw out the classic "there'd be less wars if there were more female leaders", along with Barbara Collins (Maine) ("I don't want to leave the impression that a woman presiden't wouldn't do what was necessary to defend this country"), she was the one who stepped out of the happy "collaboration and cooperation" box that her colleagues had set up and was quick to point out that any of the women in the room would act decisively in the even of an attack on America (ha, well, except for the journalist...). I'm glad to see some balance that the media wouldn't let us see: Claire McCaskill isn't just a baby killer, she's pro-America too! The radical right would have you think she walks around frozen embryos with a magnifying glass on sunny days. However, I was wanting her to say "this is a tough group of people" when she kept mentioning a "tough group of women".

Just ripping a cd of mashups that a friend from the club made me this week- crazy stuff- "Pray for Pop" is a mashup of Duran Duran, Prince, Madonna, and MC Hammer!

Got me thinking. We are all literally immersed in pop culture. As feminists, how do you handle it?

For example, there's a lot of music out there that I love, and a lot that I hate; some of it's even offensive to me. Yet, I admit, sometimes I love to dance to a song when I know I probably wouldn't like the group if I ever met them.

What goes for music goes for tv shows, movies, and books, too.

I find it interesting that I've never been very excited by "feminist" media: Mists of Avalon does little for me, Ani & her ilk can be incredible singers, but I don't own the cds and haven't seen a show since 97, etc.