feministe Archives • FAUX REAL THO

Does Baby Einstein Help or Harm Children?

Last time [writing at Feministe in 2007–ed] I wrote a long entry on some of the spurious advertising techniques made to push products on children under the age of five. Since then, a major study was released suggesting that many of the educational videos aimed at very young children not only have limited to no educational…

On Birth and “The Fog”

Mad Men fans have been chattering about Betty’s “dream sequences” in the latest episode, “The Fog,” and at the risk of sounding pedantic I am compelled to clarify at least one thing about Betty’s dreams: They really aren’t dream sequences. Not literally, like Tony Soprano’s, anyway. Let’s do some Childbirth 101: As Betty is depicted, fifty years ago…

Marketing Elmo’s World

As companies further develop methods to perfect brand identification and market to target demographics, some controversy has been stirred in recent years over marketing aimed at children — if one should do it, what age groups can one ethically target, and how. Children don’t usually balance the checkbook, we know, so what can companies do to inspire…

Review: Dirty Driving

HBO usually has a variety of great documentaries every month, and this month the one that caught my eye just happened to take place in Anderson, Indiana, a very blue collar area within an hour of my home. Anderson, like many manufacturing towns in the Midwest, is steadily heading towards the likes of Flint, Michigan:…

Banners, Logos, and Mastheads

In earlier versions of this site and during my time at Feministe, I did a lot of redesigns. This was my playground to learn the art of good design and how to use color and fonts to convey a mood for the site’s content. Many of the blog’s early designs were vintage-themed and included cheeky…

Feministe

Feministe is my oldest existing contribution to the internet. I began the site in late 2000 way back when nobody knew what the word “BLOG” meant, even me. This site was both personal and an extension of my college studies, where I explored feminist practice and theory from the comfort of my own bedroom. Here…