The advertising geniuses over at Stayfree, a Johnson & Johnson Company, have come up with the “unique” idea of hawking maxi pads via soft core porn. Okay, so I am exaggerating—a little. It’s not really porn; it’s more along the lines of the really terrible romance novels that can be found in someone’s grandma’s guest bedroom. Think thumping bare chests and terrible pick-up lines. Oh, and swooning. Lots of swooning.
They fine folks over at Stayfree have launched their new ad campaign online. The ads, featuring three hard bodied men, are called “A Date With Stayfree.” In each of the three videos, the men Brad, Ryan, and Trevor, find a reason to remove their shirts and do a highly creepy absorbency test on three different …
I’m not ashamed to admit that I enjoy the hell out of Glee. Yes, it’s cheesy and corny and silly and sappy, but it’s not pretending to be anything other than an hour of campy musical television.
Which is why when I heard that Glee’s resident choir-director-cum-rapping-whiteboy, Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison), was going to wear a gold lamé speedo for an upcoming episode (almost certainly for the Rocky Horror Picture Show tribute), I thought, “That sounds hilariously cheese-tastic” rather than “That sounds hot.” I assume …
Three Canadian Royal Canadian Mounted Police (yes, those same Mounties as the brave Dudley Do Right) and three civilian prison employees have been suspended after watching two recently arrested drunk women engage in lesbian sex in a Kamloops, British Columbia jail. A fourth Mountie present is still being investigated and remains on the job. Beyond the aspect of creepy voyeurism, the reasons for the suspension are that at least one of the women was too intoxicated to provide consent, thus this could be construed as instance of statutory rape that was not prevented. This lack of prisoner protection could be potentially very embarrassing and damaging to the RCMP’s public image, as the Kamloops division just last year won several international awards for its crime prevention strategies. While this is certainly one side of the story, the voyeurism is perhaps that which deserves a closer look.
The NYT Picker, a blog devoted to goings-on in and about the New York Times, published an interesting piece this week regarding obituaries in the NYT. The NYT Picker reports that, in the month of August 2010, the NYT published 78 obituaries – and only six of them were for women. For the year to date, 698 obituaries had been published in the NYT thus far– 606 of them for men, 92 for women.
This is a totally bizarre statistic, considering that there are more women than men in the US population, and that population numbers of women and men are pretty much equal worldwide. But this extraordinary disparity between genders in newspaper obituary coverage has gone on for years – which is also bizarre, considering that the US granted full equality to women decades ago, and has seen women take more prominent roles in society ever since.
Obituaries go first and foremost to the famous – that’s a given. But the fact that the life stories of more famous men are being published in the NYT makes it clear that Western society is still dominated by a power structure that is, predominantly, male. This is also a bit of a given really– but women have been making valuable …
Anthony Lozano of Hanford California, not to be confused with the other Anthony Lozano, the super-awesome Honduran football player, has reportedly been arrested for kidnapping, bounding, and torturing his girlfriend over a Facebook post. That’s right — a Facebook post!
Apparently Lozano became so enraged over messages his girlfriend sent and received from another man via the social media site, that he imprisoned her for four days. It’s being reported that the abuse took place in front of the couple’s three-year-old child and another older child belonging to the victim.
Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent, among other things, wrote an article that ran in the Huffington Post describing her vehement opposition to her daughter’s tattoo. She describes the tattoo her daughter has:
My daughter has the Hebrew letters Chet, Zayin, Kuf on her right shoulder blade. This spells chazak, which means “strength.” She says, “I like this because it’s a word used when you finish reading one book of Torah and go to the next. It reminds me that we go from one thing to the next in strength.” She’s been planning this tattoo for nine years, since she was enrolled in a semester-long high school program. “Israel was a time of transition for me, and I feel like it reinforces that message of strength that is inside me forever and ever. “It’s more than just a tattoo,” she explains. “It’s a sense of pride, a display of who I am that you might not be able to tell by just looking at me.”
Well that sounds kind of cool to me, honestly. It’s something that clearly has meant a lot to her, and defines her core values in relation to her religion. What’s not to approve of, mom? Well, plenty:
Tattoos are a 21st-century industry, a fashion statement, and a fad. When I see women in their 50s and 60s with big ink on their shoulders or chests or ankles, I look away, embarrassed. It’s like they’re wearing tube tops — always a bad idea — only this is a mistake that stays with you to the grave. But tats on pretty young flesh make me wince, too. What will they look like in 50 years’ time …
In this day and age of limited consequences and wishy-washy at best enforcement of rules (and unfortunately parents who actually don’t enjoy spending time with their children), a lot of kids have the run of their family. When his …
When you hear the word circumcision, you probably think of a male infant having the foreskin of the penis surgically removed by medical professionals at birth or soon after. It’s become such a norm in the United States that many parents don’t think twice about the procedure; there are still debates about it, but it’s [...]
On Monday August 30th, California’s state assembly passed Chelsea’s Law unanimously, 72-0. Chelsea’s Law calls for mandatory life sentences for violent sex crimes committed against children in California. The bill will now be sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has already agreed to sign it.
The law received its name from slain San Diego teen, Chelsea King, [...]
If I read one more “study” telling me something that is essentially common knowledge … well … I guess that cliff is still there?
A new study, aptly entitled Friends Don’t Let Jane Hook Up Drunk: A Qualitative Analysis of Participation in a Simulation of College Drinking-Related Decisions, has come to the utterly shocking conclusion that [...]
You can breathe easy, America, because thanks to credible journalist Glenn Beck and credible politician Sarah Palin, honor has been restored to your purple mountains majesty, your spacious skies and, of course, your ever-delicious amber waves of grain. I have to tell you that up here in the Great Communist North, where my gentle American [...]
13
