The female gaze

Plasma for baby

Well, maybe not a plasma but a new study out today says that 20 percent of kids under age 3 have TVs in their room. Umm, okay. I mean who are these people that they sample?

I am feeling secure in my parenting knowing we only have one TV set in our house. And it's in the family room. (Extra points). Surely 4 laptops and 2 PCs all DVD ready in a 1400 square foot home with two adults and 2 kids under 10 can't count .. .... .

From the Chicago Tribune story:

The number of shows aimed at babies has exploded in the last decade, with video titles such as "Brainy Baby" and "Baby Einstein" joined last year by BabyFirstTV, billed as the first satellite channel catering to infants. Makers of the shows often bill them as educational aids, though researchers say there is no solid evidence to back such claims.

Nothing like a good guilt study to come out on a Monday.

This just in: Women being sexually harrassed online

Tommorrow's WP article headlined, "Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers" says women bloggers, more than men, are targets of sexual harrassment online:

A female freelance writer who blogged about the pornography industry was threatened with rape. A single mother who blogged about "the daily ins and outs of being a mom" was threatened by a cyber-stalker who claimed that she beat her son and that he had her under surveillance. Kathy Sierra, who won a large following by blogging about designing software that makes people happy, became a target of anonymous online attacks that included photos of her with a noose around her neck and a muzzle over her mouth.

Umm, is this any different than in the real world?

Outsourcing breast milk

"Outsourcing breast milk" from Time online is something I had to click on to read more. While I have been informed of the trend to order breast milk online, I wasn't remotely aware that a milk-share (really breast-share) with neighbors or the outsourcing of wet nurses was a thing.

Impressive and interesting.

Latest on 'Amazing'

Washington Post's On Balance columnist responds to NY Times recent story on "Amazing Girls." Totally digging what she has to say about these "Alpha Girls" as she calls them: 

I'm not accusing the Times of getting this story wrong, or mocking these golden girls for their perfectionism. (Although I would like to see an article about high achievement among boys -- a seriously neglected media topic with long-term ramifications.) I believe the Times' portrait of these girls is accurate; in some ways, I was one of these girls myself 25 years ago, and I've seen today's version among the Washington, D.C. babysitter pool. I can predict their futures: They will all go to well-known colleges, excel there, head off to top business, law and medical schools, maybe a few to the Peace Corps or divinity school or Teach for America.

What I fear is the fate of these alpha girls once they have children. Years of hard work, prizes and promotions can't prepare them for the only true enemy to female ambition in America today: love for their children. For those who think the solution lies in not having children, another kind of torture awaits them.

Torture. I am actually glad she used that word.

Kids . ..check, career. ..check, friends . ..

Jill Hudson Neal from the Washington Post really puts the making-mommy-friends thing in perspective:

Let's be honest, networking is really another word for interviewing. Moms are interviewing each other to see which ones fit best with their family's lifestyle. The best you can hope for is that everyone gets along -- the kids like each other and the moms enjoy each other's company. Worst case scenario, the interview ends with a "Don't call us. We'll call you," and you're back to pounding the schoolyard pavement.

Why does it have to be so hard to make parent-friends? Why is it a contest? Why do I care if I continually get snubbed by the Mommy Mafia? (Why can't I grow up?) I suppose it's the same reason it has been hard to make girlfriends my WHOLE LIFE. They are my BFF or they hate me.

Like TV is really old

Cute article from Wired which reads like the TV soundtrack of my childhood and mixes with my adult obession on all things media studies. Did I write this?

Related, kinda: I sat through a painful informational interview the other day (some cuteish internish trying to work my boss for a J-O-B) where this 19-year-old almost college grad from Amercian U. tells me, "A television set is the most obsolete technology out there. You can't do a thing with it. It's a one-way communication device." Of course this is true but cutie pie had already hit a nerve with me what with being all, err, cute and smart and ambitous AND transparently faking her interest in everything my editor said. So in her attempt to ursurp my smarty-pants-media-savvy girl role I told her that while On Demand was surely where it was at that there would always be the lowest common demoninator who needed someone to program their world and deliver. She took out her notebook to jot that down. Had our time not almost been up I would have really started making stuff up.

 

'Amazing' AND 'articulate'

            If you are free to be everything, you are also expected to be everything.

This quote from the number-one read New York Times article, "For Girls, It's Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too.," hit home. Now we girls can do everything that boys can do. While that's great, it's not easy. In fact, it's hard as hell.

Fat lips and detention slips

While I was recently vacationing there was a bomb threat at my daughter's school. Apparently the frat boys down the block were tired of being woken by an electric guitar with some variation on "Go Johnny Go" from the morning assembly. It took about 2 hours out of class time all told. Kids were fine and the music rocked on the next day.

Amateurs. Had they really wanted to stop the music they would have used some form of lip gloss.

Blitch

Why am I reading dlisted.com when should be studying up on Seattle and my new adventure in online journalism? Because apparently there are lessons to be learned from celebrity gossip about my trade! (yay)

Vogue's H.B.I.C, Anna Wintour, apparently hates the word "blog" and is forcing staffers to come up with a better word. Vogue is expanding their website and want to include a "blog" but Anna wants nothing to do with the word.

An inside source said, "She refuses to call anything on her site a blog and has charged her staff with coming up with a new word that isn't as garish-sounding. She wants it ASAP - in time for launch."

Full story here

Day nine: Pretty hedges

Today we strolled through the Giardino Di Boboli (Boboli Gardens) in the Oltrarno area of Florence. I had four cappuccinos, two pieces of pizza and purchased two pair of shoes. Tonight is our last evening here so we will dine on bowls of pasta and much vino.