“If you Google me, you’ll find plenty of “dumb blonde” references – even though I graduated with honors from Stanford and studied at Oxford University. I don’t let it bother me.” – Gretchen Carlson

Females in the entertainment industry for years have struggled with having to play the ever-too common archetype of the dumb blonde.

Paris Hilton, the iconic heiress who can be described as bubbly, blonde, airhead Barbie, has constantly found her self to be portrayed in the media as the poster child for dumb blondes.

The media often labels Hilton as the “original rich girl” and the “ultimate icon of American excess,” none of which highlights her business or political pursuits.

Just recently, Paris called upon Congress to protect children and teens from living in “reform” facilities. However, the top headlines regarding the heiress are not about her as a passionate advocate in government, but rather what she wore to a Gala and whether or not Kim Kardashian is attending her wedding.

Furthermore, this phenomenon is not exclusive to how celebrities are viewed, but also what roles are available to them in the entertainment industry.  For example, let’s take a look at the movie, Mean Girls.

Two of the main characters in the movie, Regina George and Karen Smith, are blonde. Consequently, how do we expect these characters to act?

Well, Regina George is the “Queen Bee” and leader of the popular, female friend group, The Plastics (the name in itself drawing attention to the teens’ bodies and need to look perfect). As a result, Regina is over obsessed with her appearance and social status rather than her grades. And Karen Smith is described as a dim-witted, easy-going, and flirty teen who believes she can predict the weather with her breasts. Yeah.

Especially in light of the fact these women are playing high schoolers, the movie sexualizes the female, blonde characters to an extent surpassing that of the non-blonde characters.

As viewers, we purvey the responsibility to take a step back and realize the implications this has for young girls and even young teens.

Imagine every role model in the entertainment industry that looks like you, that represents you, is not intelligent and needs to use her looks for attention, especially that of a man.

It can be damaging. We are telling blonde girls that there is only one life path for them to fulfill.

Stop restricting our teens to outdated stereotypes.

Empower them to be an Elle Woods, not a Karen Smith.

Young girls are always in search of positive role models when it comes to the entertainment industry.

And prior to recent years, superheroes have been catered to peak the male interest: Strong. Manly. Courageous. Powerful. Superior.

Additionally, if you were to ask someone to name a superhero off the top of their head, you’d probably get answers like Batman, Superman, Ironman, or even Spiderman.

Then came along Wonder Woman. While she was not the 1st female superhero, she has been the most popular. Aside from Superman and Batman, no other comic-book character has lasted as long.

Furthermore, in her adventures, she has embodied the perfect, multi-layer, feministic role, portraying a suffragist, a sex symbol, a soldier—and even President of the United States.

But, despite the comic coming out in 1941, a Wonder Woman movie took 76 years to reach the big screen. However, it was well worth the wait because following its release, the United Nations named Wonder Woman as an honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls.

Yet, with every great achievement, there are critics who are prepared to fight it. Petitions were signed by UN staffers in outrage to “a large-breasted white woman of impossible proportions” and “the epitome of a ‘pinup’ girl” being a role model for girls.

Consequently, the United Nations withdrew the honor and Gal Gadot, the actress who played Wonder Woman, responded with the following:

“They say, ‘If she’s smart and strong, she can’t also be sexy.’ That’s not fair. Why can’t she be all of the above?”

No matter how hard the entertainment industry tries to be more inclusive to women and to portray them in a non-sexual light, it is never enough. What should be a great stride in female empowerment is now a conversation about the bust size of a actress.

We fail to focus on the aspects that matter, like the significant duality of a successful and sexy woman or the implications a strong, female superhero can have on young girls.  Instead, we choose to start a conversation about hemlines.

Girls need a role model that can show them that they don’t always have to be the Bond girl archetype, existing for the attention of men.

Girls need to know that they too can be superheroes.

Strong. Womanly. Courageous. Powerful. Superior.

What if the tabloids announced your pregnancy to the entirety of the world, breaking the news to everyone, including yourself?

Gossip pages and tabloids are constantly searching for headlines and tend to hover around the ones that comment on women’s bodies and physical appearances. Every other day a new celebrity is presumed to be pregnant just because she wore a baggy shirt or was photographed at certain angle.

An example can be found in the photograph above when Kendall Jenner posted a mirror selfie in a polka dotted dress. To the average follower, it’s nothing more than a model showing off her perfected physique, one that has acquired her fame and prosperity.  Why not show it off?

However, tabloids find the slightest shading on the dress of where her hips meet her legs and spin it into their next headline: “Fans Now Reckon Kendall Jenner Is Preggers Thanks To This Instagram Pic.”

Eventually, Jenner responded to the accusation with a light-hearted tweet stating “I just like bagels ok!!!”

Even so, despite Kendall’s ability to laugh off the assumption, the way in which the media feels the need to comment on the bodies of women or the changes in their bodies is not ok. Such practices can enhance the already prevalent eating disorders and body dysmorphia diagnosis’ existing in the modeling industry.

And Jenner’s story is not the first, nor the last, occurrence of this happening.

Just 4 weeks ago, a picture of Justin Bieber holding his wife, Hailey, at the MET gala stirred the media into a frenzy to guess the Biebers’ due date.

Such headlines took the couples embrace of each other’s hands and created narratives about how Justin’s gesture is not him wanting to be closer to his adoring wife, but in actuality is him hinting to the media that they are expecting.

And I mean, obviously TMZ or DailyMail is much more qualified to comment on Hailey’s reproductive state than Hailey, herself. It’s not like she has a right to announce such life changing events on her own time, right?

Reporters police patrol women’s bodies, searching relentlessly for the smallest difference to fixate upon and publicize to the world. As if females don’t already have a never ending list of reasons to be insecure of their appearance, eating a bagel for breakfast shouldn’t be one of them.

Pregnancy surveillance isn’t entertainment nor journalism.

Women’s Bodies Are Not A Headline.

“Growing up listening to these men and how powerful and confident they seemed, I just thought oh my God. This would sound really good if a girl was saying all this.” — Megan Thee Stallion

Megan Thee Stallion.

A black female who grew up predominantly in Houston, Megan is a rapper who rose to fame with her hit “Big Ole Freak” and the latter, more famous hit “Cash Shit” featuring DaBaby. She also coined the term “Hot Girl Summer” with her song  and consequently, started a social era about “women and men just been unapologetically them.”

It is no secret that the rap game has been in desperate need of positive female roles who promote body positivity like the Stallion. Prior to the recent rise of women like Cardi B and Megan, females in rap were viewed as objects for men to conquer or drama to avoid.

The three time Grammy winner piggybacks off this misogyny of men and focuses her lyrics on self-sexualization to empower females to embrace their sexuality and become comfortable in their own skin. She takes men turning women into sex symbols into her own hands, giving it a positive spin, linking sexualization to confidence.

Furthermore, Megan has been a feminist advocate for sexism in rap music, exposing critics for having different standards for males and females. In a Marie Claire interview, she says…

“A man can talk about how he’s about to do all of these drugs and then come and shoot your house up. But as soon as I say something about my vagina, it’s the end of the world?”

However, despite the rise of women like Megan Thee Stallion, the playing field is still not level to that of male rappers. Women in the music industry, particularly rap, are forced to hyper sexualize themselves to gain media attention. And while this sexualization is surely a positive form of encouraging other women, it should not be a requirement to success.

In addition to the gender inequality embedded in modern-day music, the women who follow the “rules” of the industry and become sexually marketable are then told that they are only popular musicians because of their bodies and receive endless criticism undermining their talent.

Powerful females like Megan will continue to make men uncomfortable until they realize…

Women Can Be Sexy and Successful.

“But mommy, what if I don’t want to be white, blonde, and skinny?”

When we think of the major Mattel bombshell that is the Barbie Doll, most of us picture the skinny, blue-eyed doll with blonde hair and Malibu golden tanned skin. However, over the years, Barbie’s headquarters have recently been shifting their image of the doll to be more representative of the everyday woman.

Despite what the media and magazines would like you to think, women don’t just wake up with a fresh spray tan, a new dye job, and a full face of makeup. Yet, when Barbie first appeared on the market in 1959, that is exactly the image she portrayed.

Small waist, long legs, bright red lipstick, thick eyeliner, and the world’s smallest feet. For the first twenty years of her life, this traditional doll  wasn’t exactly the feminist, body positive toy we see in advertising campaigns today. In fact, the brand started their journey telling young girls that this was the ideal embodiment of beauty. If girls wanted to be beautiful, they had to look like Barbie.

The toy’s demographic is young girls aged 3 to 12 years old (most of which haven’t even heard of puberty yet, let alone gone through it). But somehow these girls were suppose to get a snatched waste, big boobs, and wear pounds of makeup if they wanted to be deemed pretty?

Fast forward to the 21st century and Barbie has truly reinvent herself to be more representative of a wider range of age groups, races, heights, body types, career paths, so much more. The character herself has dispersed into many different personas ranging from ballerina to entrepreneur to presidential candidate to even website coder.

While Mattel did start out on the wrong foot creating a replica of what woman “ought to be”, they have certainly redeemed themselves and have became a role model for other toy companies to give little girls dolls they can look up to.

Children are easily impressionable and the phrase “if you can see it, you can be it” has never rang more true to anyone than a child with a dream. It is our responsibility to call out toy companies and the media companies who teach children that they have to look a certain way to get places in life.

By seeing positive female role models in their own playhouses, children can learn from women like Barbie that they don’t have to look like Malibu Barbie to be pretty or to be successful.

In the words of Barbie herself, “You Can Be Anything.“

Age is just a number…right?

Well, in the modeling world, it is. Male head of agencies are responsible for scouring cities far and wide to adore young pre-teens, such as the one pictured above, in their “prime.”

The image above is from a 2017 Calvin Klein ad. And while the ad was eventually pulled for being  “inappropriate”and “suggestive,” it embodies the modeling industries ignorance of campaigns that can target young audiences and sexualize young girls.

Further, these agencies are rating underage girls on their ability to purvey sex appeal and grab the attention of men. Supermodel, Emily Ratajkowski, touched on this injustices young models face in her new book, “My Body”. In her experience, she found that men had begun to look at her in an infatuated way since she was just 12 years old.

“I was a child, but somehow already an expert in detecting male desire”

Pictured on the left is Emily at the age of 14. She used to be told that the photo was a great asset of hers to prove to other that her body was “real,” but with age, has come to regret that the industry ever allowed such photos to be taken. In her instance, the industry degraded her preteen self to her body, which leads to a slippery slope of self-esteem and mental health issues.

And as a consequence of these young models being thrown into an adult industry, children are exposed to the prevalent drug abuse, severe eating disorders, and the unwanted sexual advances that “come with the job,” leading to addiction and other struggles later in their life.

In society, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, is this ok? Is it ok to use underage models to promote adult content? Is it ok for middle-schoolers to be placed into bikinis and photographed in suggestive poses?  Is it ok for modeling agents to comment on teenager’s sex appeal?

I mean sure sex sells, but does pedophilia?

Daniel Craig, the most recent “James Bond,” is hanging up his handgun and retiring after the October 8th release of the film “No Time to Die.” However, Mr. Bond is not going quiet.

Speaking with Radio Times, Craig, when asked whether the new James Bond should be a woman, strongly opposed the idea stating “there should simply be better parts for women and actors of color.”

Accordingly, Pierce Morgan, English journalist and tv personality, has also expressed displeasure with the woke casting, writing “most (real) men have yearned to be like Bond, and most (real) women have yearned to bed him.” Morgan went on to tear into the movie makers’ decision, ultimately telling women to “create your own bloody spies, ladies.”

Despite the former James Bond’s comment and Pierce’s article, the franchise already announced that agent Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch, will be taking over in the next films as 007, starting with “No Time to Die.” And since her casting, Lashana has reported unprecedented amounts of racial abuse on top of misogynistic qualms.

In addition, within the past 2 weeks, the new movie’s director has labeled previous James Bonds, especially Sean Connery’s portrayal, as a “rapist.” This version often was misogynistic and egotistical, going as far as to force sex upon a woman who repeatedly told him “no, no, no.”

Like the character himself, it appears that the white men who grew up with 007 have also adopted this misogynistic trait. For years, James Bond has been played by a white man, one of which is prosperous and has groups of women to take advantage of at his disposal. While this is Morgan’s role model, this kind of man doesn’t fly in the 21st century. We arguably need a modernized change of pace and a new version of James Bond for men, like Pierce, to idolize. Even so, while men have had this “badass” role model to look up to, no writer has taken the courtesy to embody a similar female character.

Thus, instead of mourning the outdated idealization of what “real men” yearn to be, empathize with those little girls whose only possible role model in the movies was a pretty woman in a short dress being raped.

Models, Actresses, Female Artists, and many more are sexualized daily in the media, often leading to “uninteresting” headlines. The news focuses on the appearances of women, with most articles just pertaining to their physical description and nothing more.

On September 20^th, DailyMail released an article regarding model, Emily Ratajkowski taking her baby for a walk. The headline read:

“Emily Ratajkowski flashes her bra and toned tummy in sheer zebra print crop top while taking baby Sylvester for a stroll around town”

From the headline alone, reporters grab the reader’s attention by mentioning Emily’s undergarments and physique before they mention why she is in the news. Furthermore, there is a focus on what Emily was wearing, including the fact that it is a see-through top, even though the information is irrelevant to the story. Thus, making this article a prime example of how writers sexualize successful women.

The article goes on to highlight her style statements, “bold” mismatched patterns, black bra, and long brunette locks. When, throughout the piece, 2 lines actually talk about her son, Sylvester. After these two lines, the writer moves on, away from Ratajkowski’s son, simply disregarding the opportunity to dote on Emily’s motherly duties, parenting style, or even the newborn himself.

Arguably, a mother taking her child for a walk certainly isn’t ground-breaking news, but even so, if you are going to portray it as such, why is the article mostly about what “EmRata” was wearing? Why did it fail to report about the event at hand(walking one’s child)? Why did the media choose, instead, to focus on sheer tops and bras?And  Why are we, as a society, commenting on what women can wear to take their child on a stroll?

We can direct all these questions back to the consumers, with this piece as evidence, asking why we sexualize women? Newspapers and magazines depend upon audiences to be intrigued by headlines and engage with their articles. So why are we engaging with these headlines?

Ask yourself, what can you do to stop the emergence of articles that hyper focus on women’s physique? What do you care about more: Bras or Babies?

The 2021 Met Gala was this past Monday and the fashion critics already have devised their iconic worst and best dressed lists. However, as the charity event is an opportunity to make a statement aligned to the gala’s ever-changing theme (this year’s being “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”), a variety of celebrities decided to take the root of activist fashion.

An article from the Atlantic, titled “The Man Loves the Extra Publicity,” further analyzes these political arguments by looking at the shocking messages stars made on the red carpet yet, the article only discusses the statements made by female celebrities and portrays them in a negative light.

For example, the author focuses on a tweet about the appearances of Cara Delevingne, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Megan Rapinoe, and Carolyn Maloney’s that says, “think we can all agree that activism is kind of over and generally embarrassing tbh.”

The embodiment of the argument’s weakness is in utilizing this tweet, and other opinions from non-experts, as solidatary evidence. In short, it lacks credibility. The words of “@Thomasfreeboy” do not add a sense of sophistication or expertise to the argument.

Furthermore, the tweet referenced further exemplifies the sexism of the article’s main argument as it focuses on the ensembles of women, not including the controversial looks of men, such as Dan Levy, who received positive feedback of his outfit showing two men kissing, alluding to the LGBTQ+ community. This once again makes the article’s argument  ineffective due to bias evidence and its choice to hate on the political statements of women and not men.

As a result, men are being credited with starting political conversations as AOC and Megan Rapinoe are receiving enormous amounts of criticism for their “lack of action,” calling their fashion choice performative activism. And the issue goes deeper as women at the Met have higher standards than men to be placed on a “best dressed” list, with male celebrities able to make the cut in a simple, black tuxedo.

Above all, a simple news article can require us to think about the differing standards in women’s vs. men’s fashion and how this disparity is inevitably causing the negative portrayals of women in the media.