Posts by Mir Verburg

  • In the Blog

    Plus ca change…

    September 4th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    (Via: feministing) In 1986 writer Jeffrey Zaslow asked a class of 4th grade girls if they were on a diet, most said they were. Recently Zaslow went back to ask the now 32 and 33 year old women whether they feel it is even harder for girls to love their bodies and avoid eating disorders and unhealthy habits today. He received a resounding “Hell yes!” from his interview subjects. How did this happen? I am not surprised … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Never thought I’d say this but…

    August 26th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Props to Glamour magazine for recognizing a smart move, and going with it. This September in an article titled What Everyone But You Sees About Your Body Glamour writer Akiba Solomon discusses what frontline workers in the fashion and beauty industry notice about women harshing on their bodies: “Terms like chunky, huge and gross don’t belong in my store. It’s partly selfish: I don’t want to be influenced by their negativity. Besides, if someone came in and … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Who gets to be the ‘risky’ one and why?

    July 10th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Safe sex messages geared towards young people can be a hard-sell (no pun intended). Maybe it’s because teen sexuality is still incredibly enough a taboo topic, so efforts to create meaningful and effective public health materials reflect a lack of comfort rather than marketing genius? Whatever the case, it seems to me that a successful marketing campaign that deals with HIV and is geared towards young people is a rare occurrence indeed. Take for example the … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    A Room of One’s Own Redux?

    June 25th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Author Virgina Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is an eloquent argument in support of the idea that a woman, should she want to pursue her own dreams and goals, must have a measure of financial and material independence. For Woolf this was because: Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Bacardi shoots itself in the ugly foot

    June 19th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Check out the fantastic summer ad campaign by Barcardi: The Get An Ugly Girlfriend campaign (Link via Jezebel: I don’t wanna send any traffic Bacardi’s way) proposes that ugly girls make better friends, because by hanging around mirror-busters you (the hot but totally shallow one) end up looking better. It’s astounding how low an opinion ad executives have of women. The only time I ever have ever drunk Bacardi was when, as a young woman / lightweight I … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Sense-ory Download: the Sense Project website launch party

    May 27th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    This Friday 29 May 2009, from 7:00pm - 9:00pm at Shaika Cafe, 5526 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, QC “The Sense Project at Head & Hands hosts its annual celebration event to recognize all of the dedication that this community has shown to its goal of breaking the silence surrounding sex, and to celebrate the Sense Project’s 2nd year anniversary of sex education workshops and youth peer-to-peer health support. Sex in the media will be our focus, with the … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    A Meaningless Fling

    May 18th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    You know what I hate? I hate when marketers take things I love with all my being, and make them look ridiculous, vapid, and stereotypical. Take chocolate and sex. There are other sweet treats, but none are such a miraculous mixture of sweet, bitter, sharp and spicy as a decent chocolate bar (especially the chili/peppercorn variety). And as for consensual physical pleasures, I am including all sorts of activities here: massage, sexy dancing, making out in the park, … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Ancient Bootie Discovered in Germany

    May 14th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    The Globe & Mail reports that archeologists have unearthed the oldest depiction of the female form yet discovered. “She doesn’t have a head, and her massive breasts balloon over a giant vulva.” Also, she’s 35,000 years old and carved from a mammoth tusk. The lengths ancient civilizations would go to make sexually explicit material about women. For one thing, they had to kill a mammoth. According to archeologist Paul Mellars, the sensual figurine, “could be seen as bordering … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    1974, a bad year for picnics

    May 12th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Summer is almost here, and summer means entertaining; picnics, barbeques, outdoor brunches, drinking champers before noon, you know the drill. During party season, a person can easily become overwhelmed by demands on their culinary imagination. Luckily, when the invitations rack up and you are sick to death of bringing your “amazing peach cobbler”, Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974 offer a little technicolor ‘inspiration’. Check out this recipe for a Chilled Celery Log Yum! And don’t worry there … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Great Canadian Tune Falls Short of Expectations

    May 8th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    So the Luminato festival and The Heartbroken are trying to break the world record for largest guitar jam. To do this they are running a Top 10 Canadian Tunes contest where visitors can vote for 10 famous Canadian songs on a short list. The tunes will be ranked according to the votes and then played by anyone with a guitar and the ability to learn a song at a massive public jam this summer. Great concept! … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    ‘High Maintenance’ is the New Ambitious?

    May 7th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    I am not usually one to write on politics, but this headline, “Scandal sidelines ‘high-maintenance’ Liberal MP’” isn’t so much about politics either. Ruby Dhalla is the first female Sikh MP in Canada, a high profile member of the Liberal Party, and the critic for youth and multiculturalism. At least the article mentions that. There have been other women and other Sikhs in parliament, just never one who might describe herself in an online personal as “SSF,” … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Apologies for Getting Married

    March 23rd, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    I’m back Shameless! Had to finish some serious schoolwork, but I am now getting slowly back in gear. However, because that was a long semester full of big words, and big deadlines, I’ll probably just post the occasional funny until my grey matter has had time to rest up a bit. Let’s start with this awesome video of Portia De Rossi apologizing for her big gay wedding. That’s right Portia, it’s people like you who force haters … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Cornify!

    February 13th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    I hate Valentine’s Day, but I LOVE unicorns, so any relation between this post and that ridiculous excuse for wearing pink underwear and eating chocolate-fondue from your sweetheart’s hand is entirely accidental. Anyways, in a spirit of cheesy love, totally un-related to V-Day, check out: Cornify: Unicorns & Rainbows On Demand. What does it do? Well my dear readers, take a look at Shameless post-cornification: I know, kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it? The only … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Back in the Day

    February 10th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Check out this illustrated comparison from traditional women’s magazine Woman’s Day charting the increase in women’s incomes over the last 50 years. In the 1950s, the average woman earned 14k a year, had a 983 square foot house and craftsman or labourer spouse. Now, the average is 29k, with a post-high school education and a 2349 square foot house. 15k is not actually a huge improvement. All these numbers are adjusted for inflation, so in 1950 eggs … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Atwood book considered more disturbing than war or Grand Theft Auto

    January 18th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    So, this week has seen a flurry of activity centered on one angry father’s desire to keep The Handmaid’s Tale off his son’s high school reading list. Robert Edwards has a problem with Atwood’s novel because he feels that the book depicts scenarios and uses language that is not appropriate in a high school environment. While trying to get some sense of the novel’s impact on young people, I did a search on YouTube and discovered … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Does it come in hot-pink? No, well I don’t want it.

    January 8th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Korean Photographer JeongMee Yoon has been taking beautifully arranged pictures of girls and their belongings and boys and their belongings as part of the Pink & Blue Project. So many pictures, and wow! So many belongings. Crazy eh? You can barely see the child for their toys. The pink/blue split is also kind of remarkable. I remember lining up all my teddy bears for a group shot when I was about 9 and I don’t think they … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    My kind of gal - Ada Lovelace

    January 7th, 2009     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Attend via FaceBook. As Jayme Poisson tells us in “Mothers of Invention” (Shameless, Fall 2008), Countess Ada (Nee Byron) Lovelace was one of the world’s first computer programmers. In fact, her programs, written for friend Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, pre-date the existence of the machine itself, since Babbage died before it reached completion. Both a bleeding edge technician, and the purveyor of Romantic-Era vaporware, Lovelace was a pioneering expert in the novel field of computation … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Just eat the shortbread, okay.

    December 16th, 2008     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    In ‘Enough, Already’ Globe and Mail columnist Judith Timson discusses the cover of January’s O magazine, where a now “fat” Oprah stands before the freakishly slim Oprah of yester-month(?). I don’t know how quickly Oprah’s diet yo-yo is currently going but seasonal weight changes seem to be the norm for anyone with a media empire. Timson makes the point that if weight obsession makes the cover of O in a month where economic downturns, the first … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Too bad it wasn’t a stiletto

    December 14th, 2008     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    Bush Ducks Shoes Thrown in Iraqi Leader’s Office President George W. Bush ducked two shoes thrown at him by an unidentified man during a press conference in the Iraqi prime minister’s office to mark the signing of a security agreement. Bush wasn’t hit by the shoes, which both sailed over his head after they were thrown one after the other. The president shrugged and said “I’m OK” after the incident in Baghdad today. “All I can … READ MORE

  • In the Blog

    Did people get this worked up about rollerskates?

    November 25th, 2008     by Mir Verburg     Comments

    For those of us involved in youth media or technology, the last few weeks have been all about the results of a 3.3 million dollar research project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation called Kids’ Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Culture. The project was carried out by investigators at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley. The purpose of the research? To discover and learn about … READ MORE

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