Madison Avenue is so clever these days that most commercials are, to some extent, fun to watch. Adbusters.org is working hard to top Madison Avenue, though, with its own spoof commercials. Some of these are quite well done. You'll find more of Adbuster's spoof ads here. Here's what Adbusters…
One year ago, I made my first tentative post to this blog. It was really a test more than a post, as were the handful of posts for the next two weeks. We really didn’t get running until mid-March, 2006.
In that month of March 2006, “Grumpypilgrim” and I were happy to see that, on average, 29 people visited this site every day. Probably 20 of these daily visits were me. This month (February, 2007), there have been almost 2,000 visits to this site every day. I guarantee that most of them are not me. Over the life of this blog, we’ve now published 830 posts and we’ve received more than 3,000 comments.
I am honored that so many people would take the time to visit this site and to actually stay for awhile. The average visitor reads three pages, the most commonly read page being the home page, which consists of the ten most recent posts.
I am truly fortunate to be sharing this space with my co-authors. Some of them, such as Jason, have been my friends for a long time. Others are people I’ve met (in person or electronically) more recently. I carefully read everything each of them posts to this site.
Many people ask whether I can tell who is visiting the blog. The answer is no. My traffic software does not provide me with any meaningful identifying information. It does show me, though, that most visitors are from the U.S. Next in line are “unknown,” …
According to a recent report by the American Psychological Association,
Inescapable media images of sexed-up girls and women posing as adolescents can cause psychological and even physical harm to adolescents and young women.According to this APA report, the pressure of this "sexualization" can lead to depression, eating disorders, and poor academic performance. See, also, Yahoo's article on this report. What are the sources of these images? The report points to these examples:
Advertisements (e.g., the Skechers “naughty and nice” ad that featured Christina Aguilera dressed as a schoolgirl in pigtails, with her shirt unbuttoned, licking a lollipop), dolls (e.g., Bratz dolls dressed in sexualized clothing such as miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas), clothing (thongs sized for 7– to 10-year-olds, some printed with slogans such as “wink wink”), and television programs (e.g., a televised fashion show in which adult models in lingerie were presented as young girls).It is difficult to not notice this modern smearing of the boundaries between female childhood and adulthood. Our media is obsessed with presenting images of women acting like little girls and little girls forced to act "sexualized." What's the difference between "sexualization" and healthy sexuality? According to the APA report, "sexualization" occurs when
a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;
If you'd like to view some compelling photography, take a look at the prize winners of World Press Photo's annual contest. The purpose of the contest is to offer "an overview of how press photographers tackle their work worldwide and how the press gives us the news, bringing together pictures…
No further comment necessary, right? Except that I'm publishing the above image with the express permission of Pixwit.com. Oh, and one other thing. Don't overlook your chance to earn $1,000,000 by participating in Pixwit's "Miracle Challenge." If you win, just send me my 10% finders' fee. Oh, and there's that…