All blog posts written by Michelle - Shameless Magazine - your daily dose of fresh feminism for girls and trans youth

All posts written by Michelle Schwartz

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- Media Savvy
- Playlist
Newsflash: Music rendered worthless by feminine belly!

December 1, 2008 • Michelle Schwartz

The f-word recently featured a post on the battle between musician Amanda Palmer and her record label over the commercial viability of her new single, ‘Leeds United.’

The fight between stodgy music execs and artistic vision is not a new one. However, the subject of this particular disagreement is not just the same old story. Apparently, Amanda Palmer’s new single is not commercial because of her “fat belly,” shots of which the record label wanted removed from the video, for fear it would… I don’t know. Digust people? Terrify them? Scare them away with its horrible belliful nature?

Mind you, this is coming from the label that represents musicians that are definitely not the pinnacle of male beauty. Y’know, guys like Megadeth and Slipknot and latter day Sammy Hagar. Last I heard, no one was harassing Dave Mustaine about the commercial viability of his Farrah Fawcett hair. So I guess what we can learn from this is that what matters most in life is the music that men make and the perceived belly flab of female musicians.

The video at the center of the controversy:

Amanda discussed her feelings on the matter on her blog, and her fans responded by starting a photo gallery of bellies rebelling against the idea that there is such a thing as an ideal female belly and that only male record executives know what it is. Join the rebellyon! Or just buy Amanda Palmer’s music and prove them wrong.

UPDATE: Amanda writes about what really went down with Roadrunner Records on her blog.

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- Media Savvy
- Queeriosities
Bones tackles bisexuality

November 19, 2008 • Michelle Schwartz

I have been a fan of Fox’s Bones for a few seasons now. What started out as a rather forced procedural has settled into a fun combination of science mystery and screwball comedy, with an awesome cast full of powerful women. Plus, David Boreanaz is just so dreamy… Ahem. Moving on.

Angela and her new girlfriend on Fox's “Bones” (Fox TV)

The show has recently introduced a new romance for resident artist and flower child, Angela Montenegro. The object of her affection? A mysterious woman from her past. While the show seems to have blundered into this storyline in a rather unplanned manner, Angela has long been depicted as an openly sexual character. She flirts with whomever is nearby, male or female, loves having sex, and lives life to the fullest, even managing to forget at one point that she was married, having gotten hitched while, if I recall correctly, drunkenly swimming nude in the moonlit Caribbean sea. With so many TV shows depicting women as either henpecking harpies, constantly trying to “trick” men into marriage, or frigid, career obsessed bitches who hate sex, free-loving Angela has been a much needed breath of fresh air.

I just hope ABC takes a few lessons from Fox. While Angela happily moons over her new girlfriend on Fox, ABC has managed to split up the one lesbian relationship left on TV in favor of a love triangle with a ghost, kick off the only remaining major lesbian character on TV, and dump their star transgendered character, Ugly Betty’s Alexis Meade. Shame on ABC! And lets just hope Fox doesn’t manage to screw things up too badly.
- Media Savvy
Canadian Club: Back at it again

November 13, 2008 • Michelle Schwartz

So I thought (and hoped and prayed) that Canadian Club’s incredibly obnoxious (and homophobic, and racist, and sexist) “Damn Right Your Dad Drank It” ad campaign was dead and gone.

The campaign, which had been my sole topic of conversation for what seemed like ages, had vanished from the hoardings, bus stops, and telephone booths all around Toronto, so I foolishly figured it had come to a close, like all ad campaigns do eventually.

On odd occasions, I even allowed myself to entertain the fleeting thought that it was my ceaseless nattering at Beam Global that had actually ended the campaign. Like the efforts I made had come to something, enough people had voiced their displeasure, and between Shameless and Time Out, Canadian Club had felt they had gotten enough bad press and alienated enough people to make bringing the campaign to a close their only reasonable option.

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- Media Savvy
- Queeriosities
Knock it off, Kanye

November 5, 2008 • Michelle Schwartz

Just a few months ago I was feeling really positive about the advances made by queers in North America. Lindsay Lohan was dating a woman, and rather than being made into a to-do of Ellen proportions, the relationship was treated to the same amount of gossipy speculation and paparazzi photos as any other boring Hollywood pairing. Gray’s Anatomy had ended its season with a climactic kiss between two women, and all of lesbian fandom was a-buzz with the burgeoning love affair between Pepa and Silvia on the Spanish soap opera, Los Hombres de Paco.

Cyndi Lauper guest starred on a very special Gay Pride episode of As the World Turns, serenading the show’s adorable gay couple, Luke and Noah with “True Colors.”

I started seeing “Vote No on Prop 8” amended to the signatures of emails I received from many of my friends and coworkers, most of whom are straight. Gay people on traditional soap operas? A strong and united front against a ban on gay marriage? I felt a sea change coming.

And then…Lindsay Lohan admitted Ronson was her girlfriend and then felt the need to have her publicist deny they had ever been a couple five seconds later, Brooke Smith got kicked off Gray’s Anatomy for no apparent reason aside from homophobia, Prop 8 passed in California, and Kanye West has a new, offensive video that is playing every five minutes on Much Music and MTV.

Kanye West's vision of lesbianism

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- Media Savvy
Fairies and princesses and pixies, oh my!

November 2, 2008 • Michelle Schwartz

When I was a little kid, I hated the color pink and all associated toys with a passion. It wasn’t that I had such a problem with the aesthetics, so much as I hated what that color stood for. The pink toys, the Barbies and the princesses and the baby dolls just didn’t speak to me. I didn’t want my toy to sit around waiting for Prince Charming. I wanted my toys to explore space or faraway lands, fighting evil villains and having glorious and heroic adventures.

Wedding Barbie just wasn’t up to the task, which led to many arguments with my grandma as to why she should buy me “boy toys” for my birthday. Since I was a kid, it has seemed to me that the toys marketed to girls have gotten even more insipid and PINK PINK PINK. The Disney Princess cult and its many imitators have always been the bane of my existence. The idea of a toy that does nothing but wear a sparkly tiara and wait for a man to rescue her didn’t sound fun to me at all. Is this what we want our young girls to aspire to?

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- Arts
- DIY
Before there were blogs

October 20, 2008 • Michelle Schwartz

Way back in the day, before the internet came to dominate my life, I was into zines. Even now, after years of blogging, I still miss the time when a page layout was completed using scissors and a glue stick, and when the chick who could beg, borrow or steal the most alone time with a photocopy machine was the most popular girl in the room. I was excited to learn that Barnard University in New York City has been collecting zines and has been organizing them into a unique circulating collection.

The shelves of the Barnard Zine Collection (Barnard Library)

According to their website:

Barnard’s zines are primarily in the area of women’s studies, featuring personal and political publications on activism, anarchism, body image, feminism, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, and other topics. They are created by women of color from NYC and other urban areas. The term “woman” applies to anyone who self-identifies as such

For those of us not in New York, the Barnard zine librarian has been kind enough to provide links to all sorts of cool stuff, including artists’ websites, web comics, and downloadable pdfs of old issues. Already I’ve spent an afternoon reading Dropping Out, DIY guides to everything from squatting to silk screening, and I Like Girls, a funny and sweet web comic about a young queer girl coming out.

Did you spend considerable amounts of time composing fangirl love notes to your favorite riot grrrls using a busted typewriter with no Q key? The library is accepting donations. Who knows? Maybe one day your zine will be featured in a book or exhibit, or sitting on the shelves of a library for future scholars to peruse.

Also, if you’re a student working on a degree in library science, the collection is also looking for an intern to help with the collection. If you live outside New York, but have a passion for zines and feminism, contact the collection librarian about a possible one to two week full-time internship.

The folks behind The Book of Zines have published a handy directory of other zine libraries around North America. Canadian collections include the Toronto Zine Library and the Edmonton Small Press Association. And this coming week, Toronto will be hosting Canzine 2008, Canada’s Largest Zine Fair and Festival of Alternative Culture.
- Media Savvy
The Case of the Amazing Invisible Homosexual

October 14, 2008 • Michelle Schwartz

I have recently been sucked into the vortex that is the So You Think You Can Dance franchise. The newest installment, So You Think You Can Dance Canada premiered a few weeks ago, and it’s mostly been a fun time, although I have the same issues with it that I have had with the American version.

Among them, there is the mystery I like to call “The Case of the Amazing Invisible Homosexual.” In SYTYCD, this mystery reveals itself in two ways. First of all, despite the number of gay male dancers that have appeared on the show, none of them are ever referred to explicitly as such. Not that I’m asking for it to be made into a big deal that there are gay men in the arts, but it would be nice if, instead of cutting to their moms in the audience, just once the cameras could show their happy boyfriends celebrating.

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