Ms. Blogger
Carmen Siering
Carmen Siering, Ph.D., a visiting professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Indiana University, is a researcher and writer interested in the ways pop culture influences our understanding of gender, race, age, place, and class.
Carmen Siering's Posts
If You’re a Woman, Success Is a Syndrome
April 13, 2011 by Carmen Siering · 4 Comments
If you happened to be watching the Today Show earlier this week, you might have caught a segment on how women bosses are more likely to promote men, and how this relates to “Queen Bee Syndrome.” According to the story, a Queen Bee is a woman in a supervisory position within a company and “once she [...]
Filed under TV · Tagged with David Maume, Feminism, Marie Alvaher, Media, Media Sexism, Meredith Vieira, Robi Ludwig, Sexism, Today Show, Work, Workplace Discrimination
Boardwalk Empire: Women Have the Vote, Now What?
December 3, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 1 Comment
Over the past decade it has become increasingly clear that the best new series on television are to be found outside the Big Three commercial networks, and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire is another example of this modern truism. Season One, which wraps up December 5, has taken viewers from the eve of Prohibition through the passage of [...]
Filed under Media, TV · Tagged with 19th Amendment, Boardwalk Empire, Contraception, Domestic Violence, Kelly Macdonald, League of Women Voters, Margaret Sanger, Prohibition, Reproductive Rights, Steve Buscemi, Suffrage, temperance movement, Volstead Act, Women's History
Today’s the Day to Love Your Body
October 20, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 4 Comments
There are things we say to ourselves that we would never say to the people we love. Can you imagine telling your best friend her butt is too big or her breasts are too small? Or telling your daughter she’d have more friends if she just lost a few pounds? How about letting grandmother in on how much more beautiful [...]
Filed under Body Image, Health · Tagged with Beauty Culture, Beauty Norms, Body Image, Eating Disorders, Media Representations, National Eating Disorders Association, National Love Your Body Day, NOW, Operation Beautiful, Women's Health
We ALL Need to Come Out for Equality
October 11, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 3 Comments
To say it has been a difficult autumn for the LGBT community is not nearly strong enough. News accounts of young people committing suicide after being bullied and harassed because they are LGBT, or perceived to be so, seemed to be a daily occurence in September. Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old freshman at Greensburg High School in Indiana, [...]
Filed under Identities, Life · Tagged with Activism, Andrew Shirvell, Dan Savage, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Equality, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homosexuality, It Gets Better, LGBTQ, National Coming Out Day, suicide, The Human Rights Campaign, Tyler Clementi
Sexualizing Young Girls Is Nothing to Cheer About
September 20, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 16 Comments
Last week’s MSNBC news story about the Michigan six-year-old booted off the cheerleading squad after her mom objected to a risque routine got me thinking. This has been a strange season for news stories concerning the sexualization of young girls. Back in April, the UK’s Primark department store was taken to task for selling padded [...]
Filed under Girls + Teens, Life · Tagged with cheerleading, Girls, Lolita, M. Gigi Durham, Media, MSNBC, Salon, Sexuality, The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It, The Wall Street Journal, Toy pole-dancing kit
Sex Week Arouses Conservative Ire
September 3, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 9 Comments
President Obama’s first budget proposal in 2009 redirected millions of dollars of federal funds from abstinence-only sex education programs to comprehensive sex ed. Unfortunately, many students are still graduating high school without hearing much beyond Joe Friday “just the facts, ma’am” presentations on how to–or more likely how not to–”do it.” Into this educational breach [...]
Filed under Education, National · Tagged with BDSM, Brown, Education (U.S.), Kinsey Institute, Northwestern, Planned Parenthood, Pornography, Sex Education, Sex Week, Sexuality, The Chronicle of Higher Education, University of Kentucky, University of Wisconsin Madison, Yale
Bella’s Eclipsed Role in Twilight Lacks Fangs
July 1, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 13 Comments
As The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hit theaters this week, fans and critics alike anticipated a film packed with both more action and more romance, and they weren’t disappointed. But feminist critics ought to be, as Bella (Kristen Stewart) continues to be less a person than a puppet, a character who is pulled from scene to [...]
June is a High-Flying Month for Women
June 14, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 4 Comments
Although June is often associated with weddings, it would be better known as the month of women’s firsts in flight. Women achieved a remarkable number of aviation records in June, beginning on June 4, 1784, when Madame Elisabeth Thible of Lyons, France, became the first woman to take to the air (in a balloon piloted by one [...]
Filed under Milestones, Ms.cellany · Tagged with Amelia Earhart, Women's History
Can Genetically Modified Foods Modify Your Fertility?
June 4, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 2 Comments
Genetically modified (GM) foods are increasingly found on supermarket shelves, but most consumers seem unaware of their potential impact on sexual health. Maybe a recently released report showing that hamsters are rendered sterile after just three generations of eating a diet of GM foods will change that apathy into concern. In joint research by Russia’s [...]
Filed under Health · Tagged with Activism, Environment, Reproductive Health, Women's Health
Sarah Palin is Not a Feminist
June 1, 2010 by Carmen Siering · 41 Comments
Not to dismiss Shakespeare, but in some cases what’s in a name really does matter. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is pushing the boundaries of what it can possibly mean to be a feminist by boldly dropping the f-bomb in a speech to the Susan B. Anthony List, a PAC that supports anti-choice congressional candidates. [...]
Filed under National, Politics · Tagged with Abortion Rights, Feminism, Politics (U.S.), Reproductive Rights, Sarah Palin




