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When I went to college it was for an education, to learn something, to grow as a person, as a human being. Sadly, these days, it seems college is more frat party then education, more rape culture than growing as person.
Case in point: an off-campus house full of male college students at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia has come under fire, and the men — for lack of a better term, because these aren’t men, but stunted adolescents masquerading as men — are facing disciplinary action for signs displayed
These signs, hung in plain view, across the street from ODU, were welcoming incoming freshmen girls to the university, and telling them straight and up front that they are in attendance solely for being objectified, sexually harassed, and perhaps raped, by the “men” at this school.
Luckily, though, for the women at ODU, university President John Broderick wrote a letter to the college denouncing the signs:
“I am outraged about the offensive message directed toward women that was visible for a time on 43rd Street. I said at my State of the University address that there is zero tolerance on this campus for sexual assault and sexual harassment. This incident will be reviewed immediately by those on campus empowered to do so. Any student found to have violated the code of conduct will be subject to disciplinary action.”
Broderick’s response is to be applauded, as is ODU’s zero tolerance policy, but the fact remains that there is still that element on college campuses that it isn’t a place of higher learning, it’s a place to go to party, to act the fool, and to, perhaps, commit sexual assault.
And that’s the problem that needs to be addressed ... after the children who posted those signs are drummed out of school.
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Monday, August 31, 2015
Hey Girls! Welcome To ODU ... And The Culture of Rape
Honor Greg Louganis On A Wheaties Box ... It's Long Overdue
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Earlier this month HBO aired Will Sweeney’s documentary, Greg Louganis: Back on Board and one viewer was struck by something she saw in the film, or rather, something she didn’t see.
Julie Sondgerath watched a piece in the film where Greg Louganis is looking at a display of Wheaties boxes featuring Olympic athletes like Amy Van Dyken, Laura Wilkinson and Brooke Bennett, and she realized that Louganis, one of the greatest divers ever, had never been on the cover of a Wheaties cereal box as so many other American Olympians had before, and after, him.
And in terms of what Wheaties looked for in their cover athletes — being great champions — Greg Louganis certainly deserves the recognition. He won 13 world championships, a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics, 2 gold medals at the 1984 games, and 2 more gold at the 1988 Olympics; he is also made history at the 1982 World Championships the first diver ever awarded a perfect score. And yet he is one of the few star athletes, and Olympic multi-medalists never given the Wheaties box.
The question is why? And the answer might be homophobia. Even Louganis says so in the documentary, though there was not one person from General Mills in agreement; a spokesman for the cereal-maker said no one from that period was left to discuss the decision-making.
But there were rumors, both in 84 and 88, that Greg Louganis was gay; he was out, to be sure, but only to friends and family, and did not publicly come out as gay until the Gay Games in 1994, In 1995, in his autobiography Louganis revealed that he had tested positive for HIV before the 1988 Olympics, and, out of fear, he did not inform the doctor of his condition when he treated the bloody wound caused when Louganis hit his head on the springboard during a preliminary dive.
Greg Louganis seems almost fine with the omission from Wheaties, seeming to suggest that his being ignored by the cereal giant be placed in the context of the 1980s, a different time in America for gay people, and those with HIV.
“It was such a different time. There was a mentality of fear.” — Greg Louganis
But Will Sweeney, the producer of Back on Board, isn’t quite so understanding:
“Here was a guy who by any metric or evaluation was the dominant figure in his sport. And here he was standing against a wall of Wheaties boxes of people who people don’t know. How was it possible he never had a Wheaties box?”
Perhaps that can change now, almost thirty years after Greg Louganis’ last gold medal dive. I mean, General Mills recently honored the late Jim Thorpe with a Wheaties box, and has also honored many athletes after their retirement. Now, to be fair, Thorpe’s achievements occurred decades before Wheaties featured athletes, and he died in 1953, long before the medals that were revoked for his being a professional were reinstated in 1983, but in 2001 he was finally honored with a Wheaties box of his own.
Julie Sondgerath was so moved by the documentary, by Louganis’ talent, and by the desire to see him honored, that she created a petition on Change.org [HERE] asking that General Mills correct the error.
For his part, Greg Louganis is not campaigning for a box cover, but he is pleased by the sudden attention and the drive to make this change:
“I know that it’s done out of love and compassion. It comes from such a loving place that I’m just grateful to have that kind of support.”
Wheaties is well aware of the petition and released this statement:
“Greg Louganis was certainly a world-class diver and truly embodied the championship mentality of a Wheaties athlete. While we do not discuss future marketing decisions, we will look into how we celebrate his accomplishments.”
How you celebrate them is the same way you celebrated Mary Lou Retton and Carl Lewis and Michael Phelps, among others.
Put Greg Louganis on a Wheaties box. It’s that simple, and it’s well past time.
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Greg Louganis photo
Change.org Petition
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Saturday, August 29, 2015
It's Snarkurday!
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Jennifer Garner is getting the Poor Jen read after her marriage to Ben Affleck crumbled under the weight of NannyGate, but is she really all that innocent?
Garner was once married to Scott Foley when she was ALLEGED to have done the nasty with her Alias co-star, Michael Vartan; Foley says the breakup was due to the pressures of stardom, but were they really "stars"? I think not. And then there’s the tale that Garner dumped Vartan the minute she hooked up with Affleck, and there may have been some overlap in bang time there. In fact, during a 2013 interview, when Jen was with Michael and Ben was with JLo, the duo was very openly flirtatious, so maybe ….
But now it appears that Garner has taken a step back, er, backwards, and has reconnected with Vartan and is “secretly hooking up” with him as he also deals with a broken marriage of his own
Well, I say, good for her, because at least Vartan isn’t the Garner-Affleck pool boy because schtupping the help is Ben’s area of expertise.
Okay … ALLEGEDLY.
Rumor has it that Susan Sarandon, who recently broke up with her table-tennis boy-toy, has set her sights on Jake Gyllenhaal.
B*tch! Jake is 32 years younger than Susan, who met him and smiled at him, and even kinda cuddled him, at the Southpaw premiere, which is what started all the rumors.
A source — and it could be Dina Lohan speaking to us from the bottom of a box of Chardonnay — says:
“The rumor is they’ve been hooking up on the down-low.”
Can’t we just say that Jake is on the down low? Can’t I just have that much?
There are always so many Kylie Jenner stories these days since she finally became of legal age … like the one that says Kylie is two months pregnant with Tyga’s baby, but they waited until she was 18 before telling anyone because, well, statutory rape.
But that’s apparently not a true tall tale, though what might be true is that now that Kylie is no longer jail bait, Tyga can actually appear on Keeping Up With The Kardastrophes and is set to make some $500,000 a year on the show.
It’s his romance with Kylie that has spurred the talk to get him on the show, and has spurred That Woman … That Mother … to invite him on their Bora Bora vacation.
It looks like Kylie is the one getting pimped out now that Kim is married for longer than a minute, and Khloe is busy with her lip injections and Kourtney is not yet divorced and Kendall doesn’t want to be a Kardastrophe.
Who else can That Woman pimp out?
Whatever happened to Mel Gibson? I mean, he was a huge movie star and everybody loved him until he got busted for a DUI and gave that epic anti-Semitic rant.
Then the confirmed Catholic divorced his wife to hook-up with his Baby Mama and that didn’t last. And so he made a couple of movies that went nowhere, and so, since his career has never been the same, what is Mel to do?
Mel, who is fifty-nine, is Australia right now with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Rosalind Ross, on a “working” vacation, though they mostly seemed to be out and about posing for the paparazzi. And that’s where Mel got ugly … again.
Mel and Rosalind were getting snapped by photographer Krista Miller when he went ape-shit, er, Mel-shit, and now Krista is telling the tale.
She took a picture of the couple on the street when Mel claimed she invaded his space and went off:
“I took a photo of Mel and his girlfriend and when I turned around he shoved my back really hard. It shocked me because I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t know if it was his hands or elbow. I thought he was going to punch me in the face. He was spitting in my face as he was yelling at me, calling me a dog, saying I’m not even a human being and I will go to hell. He swore and called me a c**t. It was non-stop, he didn’t even breathe.”
Finally he stopped after his 35-years-younger girlfriend told him to snap out of it.
Yeah, it takes a twenty-something to keep a nearly sixty-something Mel Gibson in line. I wonder if she’s more nanny than girlfriend?
Miller reported the incident to the police, who are investigating and hoping to find some camera footage of the incident. Meanwhile, Mel’s’ ‘people,’ and that may be just a bartender at his local pub, is saying that nothing happened; nothing at all.
Like his career?
Justin Bieber has a new song coming out and his representatives aren’t taking any chances that he’ll do something stupid and ruin the money train they’re all riding so they have scheduled no live interviews with the little brat.
Too bad they can’t so the same thing for his, um, singing?
Well, it looks like Terrence Howard’s ongoing personal drama — he is in the midst of divorcing his third wife, while still fighting the divorce settlement with Wife #2 — is affecting his role on FOX’s Empire.
Apparently Howard’s role on the show will be “scaled back” this season because of his ongoing courtroom battles and the resurfacing of domestic violence allegations.
At the end of last season, Howard’s character Lucious Lyon was arrested for murder, so maybe it’ll be easy to film without Howard.
A source — and it may be Cookie or it may be Boo Boo Kitty — says:
“What they are doing is two-fold. They have him locked up so you won’t be seeing him in as many scenes. But they are bringing in so many, and I mean so many, guest stars and cameos that the average viewer won’t realize it because there is so much going on.”
Guest stars like Mimi and Pitbull, Chris Rock, Ludacris, Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz and Marisa Tomei.
But that doesn’t matter to me because the best part of this — besides less Howard, an actor I find sleazy even when he’s not playing sleazy — is that Taraji P. Henson’s role as Cookie Lyon will be beefed up.
More Cookie is always good.
Well well well … look who’s back: Lindsay Lohan.
So, we know that Lindsay is now the European Unions’ problem, no? And we’re fine with that, yes?
She considers London to be her home, but has spent the summer partying on the continent, and recently attended a wedding in Florence where, as in typical I wanna be the star fashion, Lohan showed up in a long white gown with a tiara in her head.
Uh huh.
And while at the wedding Lohan also acted the fool, and since the rumors of her bad behavior broke, she is now claiming that “someone” drugged her at the wedding.
Sidenote: does anyone know it Cosby was in attendance?
Anyway, after being drugged [?] at the wedding, Lohan apparently went back to her villa at El Motel Sesso, and was running around naked saying she was drugged.
But that wasn’t all … during the actual ceremony Lohan ALLEGEDLY passed the time painting her nails. And then, at the reception, she fumed because someone took her picture, and began shrieking, in a British accent — wait, so she’s Madonna, now? — “Who took my photo?” and then commandeered the DJ booth so she could play Brandy’s ‘The Boy Is Mine’ over and over again.
Oh, and then she claimed that someone stole her jewelry while she partied, which is odd because usually it’s Lohan who cops the gems.
So, does anyone really believe that anyone other than Lohan drugged Lohan? Does anyone else wonder why you’d play ‘This Boy Is Mine’ at a wedding unless you were trying to send the bride a message … especially when you showed up wearing white?
God, how I have missed my Lohan!
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Friday, August 28, 2015
PR 14 Ep 4: The One That almost Made Me Give Up On The PR FOREVER-VER-VER-ER-ER-R-R
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Heidi greets the designtestants on the runway and says something about a ‘view’ and I begin wondering if they’re going to design some new schemata for Whoopi Goldberg on ‘The View.’
Luckily, I was way off. The designtestants meet Tim Gunn and Mary Kay Global Makeup Artist Luis Casco, on a pier in Long Island City, Queens and I hope they’re all coming together to throw Blake off the dock.
Again … way off. The challenge, as Tim explains it, is that, inspired by New York City and the Mary Kay Modern City Collection — cue product tie-in —t he designers must create a modern spin on an iconic design of their choice. Seems pretty easy, no? Like they can do basically whatever they want and their design will appear in a Mary Kay ad in Marie Claire and they will win $5,000 from Mary Kay.
Well, that’s incentive … let’s rip ….
THE SAFES — clockwise
ASHLEY — it’s pretty … safe. It’s ho-hum and cute but it’s not new, nor does it seem New York; it seems more Connecticut.
EDMOND — he was going to do a jumpsuit, and Tim thought that best, but switched it up for a statement jacket and skirt. It’s nice, well-made and all Edmond, but I can’t help but think a jumpsuit might have landed him Top Three.
JAKE — WTF is this besides something that should have gone in the bottom. It’s a tank dress in sequins with a number made out of construction paper glued on the front and back. Seriously? This is design? Lindsey’s right about Jake, he has no talent.
JOSEPH — and speaking of no talent … a peplum dress? Oh, but it’s crafted from scuba material, just in case Grandma is a diver?
KELLY — she’s a basic White T girl, but in see-through fabrics and leather. It was simple, but cool and totally Kelly.
LAURIE — she said this girl would wear that to work. Really. A lace, see-through skirt slit up to there? At the office? With a frou-frou, throw-all-the-material-you-can-at-it jacket? No. No.
MERLINE — I liked the structure of the coat, but it seemed too hard and too casual for the silky shimmery skirt and top … with the puckering seams.
THE TOPS
SWAPNIL
I’m liking him. I liked his Breakfast at Tiffany’s line: it took place in New York? Or Paris. No. New York. No. Paris.
He likes to Wow, but he also likes some gaudy — as in the shiny silver faux leather he bought and wanted to use as straps on his Breakfast at Tiffany’s inspired Little Black Dress. Luckily, Tim came by and smacked that idea right out of his head, saying it would take the dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Breakfast in Las Vegas.
WHAT HE SAID
My favorite part is the element of surprise!
WHAT I SAID
It seems a little too short, but I love the flirty front and the 'Oh no, she bettah don’t' back.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Heidi thought there was a perfect balance between sexy and classy; she loved the styling and called it a showstopper piece. Guest judge, Mad Men actress Kiernan Shipka, thought it was youthful and playful, simple yet interesting. The Adorable Zac Posen™ called it a party girl dress — tough and sexy — and loved the movement of the ruffles; he called it hot and original. Nina Garcia loved all the volume in the front and the spare, bare back; she loved the femininity and drama of it and said that totally captured New York City.
WHAT HAPPENED
While I thought he had a winner, Swapnil is safe.
CANDICE
She’s got a POV and more than her share of confidence, and I like that. She’s on her game and has no problems telling Tim how much she loves her dress and that, even with immunity, she wants a win this week. That doesn’t sit well with Amanda, who says, under her breath with a side-eye, “Candice’s strategy is too always seem polished and put together and perfect, like she knows everything … when she’s really mediocre.”
Huh. This from a two-time Bottom Feeder to a One-Time Winner? Oh Amanda.
Anyway, Candice wants to pay with something called ‘Princess Seams’ which accentuate a woman’s curves, and she wants to do it out of leather, so it’s like Princess Dominatrix, and then tops it off with a white jacket with black piping.
WHAT SHE SAID
I definitely think that I’m going to win.
WHAT I SAID
I like the coat, though the fabric seems sheet-like and cheap over the leather dress, which is amazing.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
The Adorable Zac Posen™ called it a great signature look, and totally a Candice dress; adding that she nailed it, he also said it was edgy and sexy, with flattering lines. Heidi loved it all, from the jacket, and the way the black piping fed into the seams of the dress, to the leather dress itself; she also loving the styling. Nina loved the sculptural quality of the piece and said it was very New York City; she also loved how the seaming added curves to the model’s body. Kiernan called it fierce and classic and loved the bi-level hemline of the jacket.
WHAT HAPPENED
Candice should also have won, but came up Safe.
BLAKE
I don’t care for him. The voice, the mannerisms, the Aw shucks I’m so cute and so talented attitude. I don’t like him. And I don’t like that he acted like he couldn’t tell time because if he can’t, dumb isn't cute, and if he can, then acting dumb is just plain dumb.
Tim is worried about his look — a pencil skirt with a wide skirt effect, or something — and wonders how Blake will attach the two completely different fabrics — one had stretch, one doesn’t — to create the look. Blake murmurs something about … always asked that … know what I’m doing … I’m dumb … or something.
And he cannot finish. He’s sewing at the last minute and then cuts his fingers and bleeds on the dress; solution? Grab some scissors and cutout the bloodstain and then cover it up with a necklace. Good thing he wasn’t in the Mob because he’d have gone to prison after his first hit if that’s how he hides bloodstains.
WHAT HE SAID
I feel like my design definitely stands out.
WHAT I SAID
I can hear Michael Kors shrieking, “She looks like she’s pooping fabric.” And even I can see how the awful construction.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Heidi again asked him if he was a High Score or a Low Score; when he said Low, she said, Nope, high. Carlos had to restrain me from kicking out the TV. Seriously. He tackled me and put me in a straitjacket — don’t ask where we got it or what we use it for — for the remainder of Blake’s critique. Heidi said she loved the new shape and silhouette; she told the designers they want ‘new.’ But she did say it looked like the girl was trapped in a parachute — though I guess that makes you a High Score? Kiernan really loved it, and its fun take on a 50s wide skirt, while Nina loved the drama, and the old meets new. She did say, however, that it looked like the back of the dress was being held up by the model’s braid, and I was surprised that it wasn’t. The Adorable Zac Posen™ called it excellent work — and that makes me question keeping his trademark on the blog — and said it had a perfect runway effect. Then he called out the haphazardly cut neckline, free from blood, and actually praised it. He did, though, during the Close-Up inspection, point out how badly made the dress was, but that matters not in Alterna-Runway where badly made gets praised.
WHAT HAPPENED
Blake.Wins. And it was at this point I broke free from my constraints and ran at the TV again. Damn that Carlos for being so quick. Blake won the 5K and will have this look featured in a Mary Kay ad in Marie Claire, presumably after he fixes every single fricking puckered seam and badly sewn detail of this ridiculousness.
THE BOTTOMS
LINDSEY
Okay, she wants to do a take on a pencil skirt, and a shift dress and a full-length blazer. Does that seem to anyone else like a completely insane and impossible idea?
And it must have been because I didn’t see shift dress and I didn’t see full-length blazer. I saw a long pencil skirt crafted from the fabrics of a couch on the Tara set from Gone With The Wind, and a crop top, and the kind of smock an artist might have worn in a movie from the 50s.
It was all WTF all the time.
WHAT SHE SAID
I really like my looks. She looks pretty and comfortable.
WHAT I SAID
Funny. When we bought a new couch last year I said it was pretty and comfortable, too. Just sayin’.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Heidi liked that it was a lot of pieces, but didn’t like any one of them. The coat swallowed the model, the fabrics were too thick, it was all chopped up and the styling was bad. Zac — , no more “adorable” — said it was not fresh, but more like so four years ago. Nina was more blunt — Goddess love Nina — in saying that she could not understand who this girl was who would wear this mess. The proportions and styling are bad, and sad; she finished with a “Lose the jacket and show us whatever this two-piece thing is.” Kiernan just said it was too heavy.
WHAT HAPPENED
She had no direction except straight to Safe.
AMANDA
The moment she gets back from Mood she decides she hates all her fabrics. Not good. Then she cries. Not good. Then she dishes on everyone else’s work saying hers is much better. Not good. She’s not sure of her design. Not good. She rants about what the judges want of her. Not good. She calls the other designers horrible. Not good. And she cries. Not good. This might be the end of the runway for Amanda.
Especially when she decides to make a wrap dress, but when wavers and waffles and whines to Tim, who tells her to simply stop thinking about the last challenge and focus on this one, and re-imagine a wrap dress.
She even got a Gunn Hug. Not good.
WHAT SHE SAID
I’m feeling pretty good. It looks like something a girl living in New York City would actually wear.
WHAT I SAID
Lopsided boobs. And the model looks huge. Not good.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
Zac said it wasn’t her finest moment, and called it an unbalanced wrap-dress-slash-toga. It was unoriginal and kind of “Miss Muffet Meh.” Heidi ran with that and called it Mall Maternity and said it looked great … from the neck up. Kiernan thought it might be improved with a lower waistline. Really? Nina said it wasn’t New York, that the styling was awful, and likened it to a Statue of Liberty toga. Um, Miss Liberty is kinda New York, Nina, so she should have gotten points for that? Nina?
WHAT HAPPENED
Believe it or not it wasn’t the worst thing on the runway, so Amanda, a Bottom Feeder three times now, will live to die another day.
GABRIELLE
She begins the episode by declaring that she will not be in the Bottom Three … careful, girl. And then she tells us how anal she is, and how she manages every single second of her life so that she’s always moving … and then sits, doing nothing, until she talks to Tim.
Tick tock, Gabrielle, even Blake knows you’re wasting time.
And when Tim does come by, he tells her to focus on the coat — though he said he was intrigued by the open sleeve which seems just weird to me — and so he left Gabrielle saying she was feeling better and inspired.
But unable to use the serger — she doesn't know how to thread it — and no one else seems to know either; or, do they? So, she does not finish the simple white nothing dress underneath the basic black coat with the ruffled sleeves.
WHAT SHE SAID
I do feel like this garment represents me.
WHAT I SAID
The open sleeves look like they’re coming off; the dress is a mess. And this represents her? Oh my.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
When she told the judges she added a pop of pink to the dress as an homage to Mary Kay, they asked to see it. Big mistake, because she had to take off the coat to see it—a piece of shredded pink fabric at the sleeve — and Zac instantly called it less than a pop of color and more of a smidgen; not good. He called out the awful hem — Gabby blamed her scissors, while I blamed the Tea Pot and the Candlesticks — and called it chewed up. Heidi said it was sad and old-fashioned, and hated … hated … the dress. Nina said forget about the bad construction what about the bad proportions of a too-short coat and a too-long dress? She called it awkward and mumsy and said it had no shape. Kiernan said the jacket was fun, and during the Close-Up, when she tried it on, it fit her nicely, had good proportions, so, yeah, there’s that, I guess. It ended with Zac during the Close-Up calling the dress one of the worst made pieces he’s ever seen on the PR … since Blake’s parachute dress. I thought?
WHAT HAPPENED
Even though her look was as badly constructed as Blake’s, it was old and mumsy and Gabrielle was Auf’d.
Kiernan Shipka is fifteen??? What the heck? Why not troll a grade school looking for judges, Heidi? I mean, she was cute and nice, but her word of choice was ‘fun.’
Edmond. Gosh, Still adorable … wait … The Adorable Edmond™? That could work.
And what was with Gabrielle's make-up and hair on the runway? She looked pasty and sweaty and pale, so maybe it's best she was sent home before she got really sick?
Now, Blake winning. I know the judges say this isn’t a sewing contest but a design competition, but when you smack Gabrielle hard for a bad dress, but then reward Blake for one—even if his was a better design — it just seems odd. His dress was wonky and badly made and, well, let’s let Joseph bring it home:
“Blake’s dress is just held together with chewing gum and spit.”
And hope, I guess.
LINE OF THE NIGHT:
Swapnil, fitting his low-back dress on the model: “This is not your crack … right here?”
So, who’s at The Tents? Edmond, in my dreams and in reality. Maybe Ashley, though she’s falling. Swapnil. Candice. Kelly. Laurie?
Jake is awful; Joseph is mumsy. Lindsey is dull. Amanda will probably go next week. Blake is just there to annoy every single person on the planet within the sound of his obnoxious voice …. I’ll stop before Carlos comes at me with the straitjacket again.
What did YOU think?
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