Angry Green Girl sexualizes women for a good cause

via Sociological Images

You may already know that I have some serious issues with the way that PETA uses women’s bodies to promote vegetarianism (along with PETA’s other offenses which we have blogged about here and here and here and here and here).  Well, here’s another example of a similar situation.

Angry Green Girl, according to her website is “shamelessly exploiting everything I got to save our world!”

The site has some mildly educational videos about environmental issues, all using scantily clad attractive women to attract heterosexual men to environmental causes.  Some of the videos include a fully clad man called “Can’t Get Laid Guy,” to whom the “hot” women are downright mean. By conforming to stereotypes of the shallow, ditzy, self-centered, and rude but attractive female, the site seems to attempt mainly to attract “geeky” heterosexual men.  With statements such as “As for you, think about turning off the lights before you leave your apartment and maybe some day a sober girl will give you her real phone number,” the site attempts to attract these men with the vague hope of one day being able to gain sexual access to beautiful women (as long as they go green).  The site also reinforces the stereotype of the smart but nerdy male who has absolutely no social life and no chance with the beautiful but cruel and shallow female.

Will watching attractive women parade around in bikinis really convince heterosexual men to care about environmental issues and change their lifestyles accordingly?  I highly doubt it.  In the videos, the environment seems less of a focus than heterosexual male access to beautiful female bodies.  Personality is treated as an unimportant factor on the site (the girls are downright mean and extremely shallow, but are still presented as the height of sexual desirability.)  So what is Angry Green Girl really selling?  Sex.  And it may be sad but true that “sex sells,” but sex sells Calvin Klein underwear and string bikinis, not causes like environmental activism.

But don’t take it from me.  Watch some of the videos from the site and decide for yourselves.

And here’s a video from an Angry Green Girl hybrid-only waterless bikini car wash.

Good cause?  Yes.  Good tactic?  In my opinion, not so much.  What do you think?

Wednesday Blogaround

Happy Wednesday!  Here’s what we’ve been reading:

Jimmy Carter protests religion’s treatment of women – Thank you Jimmy Carter!  Last week he issued a position paper opening with “Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.”  It’s awesome to see such a prominent man of faith take a stance and speak out on sexism in organized religion.

Lessons for Feminists from Sarah Palin – what the feminist community can learn from Sarah Palin: from the beginning when she first entered the political limelight to her recent resignation speech.

Kansas Attorney Sued After Showing Pictures of Alleged Rape After Refusing to Prosecute – Okay, this is fucked up.  A county attorney in Kansas chose not to prosecute a rape that occurred at a party in 2007, but chose to show pictures of the assault to parents of other people who attended that party to prove that there was underage drinking.

Why the planet needs more non-breeders – a post from fbomb, an awesome new young feminist blog, on Cameron Diaz’s decision to not have kids (for the environment) and how women are caught in a double bind where they are judged for both wanting/having kids and not wanting/not having kids.

Racism in Cambridge: Harvard Professor Gates Arrested (Updated) – RacismReview’s take on Professor Gates’ recent arrest.

Cop Sues Burbank Police Department for Discrimination – Last week, Asian American police detective Christopher Lee Dunn filed a lawsuit against the Burbank Police Department alleging that he was the victim of discrimination and retaliation prior to being unjustly fired.  This is the sixth time that the Burbank Police Department has been sued for discrimination since May.

If You’re Disabled You Cannot be a Customer – People who are differently abled are often treated as second class citizens and “treated like an inconvenience and rushed out of sight”.

On Chris Brown’s Public “Apology” – Or rather, Chris Brown’s non-apology.  “The message [from his "apology"] is clear: beat, bite, punch and strangle your girlfriend, and as long as you apologize, you are a-OK.”

Monday Catch Up

Hope everyone had a good Independence Day weekend.  Here are some things we missed:

Four Freedom Movements You Should Know About This Independence Day.

Renee’s take on Sarah Palin‘s public declaration of her intention to resign.  More thoughts on that here, here, here and here.

Racism takes a toll on the health of African Americans living in a predominantly white society.

How Racism Works – people mistakenly de-contextualize racism and perceive it as something that functions in individuals rather than seeing the big picture of how racism is institutionalized and structured in our daily lives in society at large.

A good 101 post on Three Dumb Things About “Reverse Discrimination”.

Thoughts on disability and respectful language.

Arab TV Soaps Reinforce Gender Bias and normalize violence against women.

This is old news, but good news nonetheless – last week, an Indian court decriminalized homosexuality.

There is no such thing as trans privilege.  For necessary 101, here is a great and important post on vocabulary when it comes to gender and cis.

Stop bullying transgender children.

Trigger warning – Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Oklahoma.

Carnival Against Sexual Violence has worthy reads you should check out.

Gift giving by stereotypes – an interesting look at the intersection of stereotypes we have about age, class and gender.

Sunscreen’s shady business – a look at the $1 billion a year sunscreen market.

It’s easy to watch a documentary (like Food, Inc.) and be inspired to take action, but often times we may get back into our daily routines and be stunted from any activism or we may simply just not know what to do or how we can help.  So to counter that here’s I Saw Food, Inc.  Now What?

All right, happy reading everybody!

Food production, “Food miles” and greenhouse gas emissions

Via Sociological Images:

Christopher L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews authored a report Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States.  It appeared in Environmental Science and Technology in April 2008.  It “compares greenhouse gas emissions associated with food production against long-distribution food distribution, aka ‘food miles’”.  The following chart shows the greenhouse gas emissions associated with household food consumption, like red meat, oils/sweets/condiments, fruits/vegetables, dairy products, chicken/fish/eggs, cereals/carbs, beverages, and miscellaneous products:

This chart illustrates that food production accounts for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions.  The report encourages us to be mindful about our food consumption choices.

FYI, your “organic milk” isn’t actually organic

My parents have always been skeptical of the whole organic foodstuff, jaded that everything is just an evil industry out to exploit you for money, and therefore food companies mislabel their products so organic food isn’t actually organic, but bearing a sticker or a label claiming to be organic makes people feel better and believe that it’s really organic.

I just read Twisty’s post at I Blame the Patriarchy about how Horizon Organic and its sister company Aurora Organic, both owned by Dean Foods, aren’t really organic.  Gee, it seems that my parents are actually right about something for once!

You see, Horizon Organic produces milk under factory-farm conditions which goes completely against organic regulations.  Not only that but, instead of purchasing organically raised calves, they purchase calves that were born and raised on conventional farms.  Again, this goes against organic regulations.  What’s more, these so-called organic cows are confined and fed a shitty diet of genetically modified grains, slaughterhouse crap consisting of ground up pigs, chickens, dogs and cats, and chicken shit.  Oh, and the calves are weaned on the blood of other animals instead of milk.  Vomit, Vomit and VOMIT!

Dean Foods has been pushing to lower standards for organic food so that they can get away with their industrial, slaughterhouse, un-environmentally friendly bullshit and have it pass as organic.  Which it is clearly not.

Dean Foods also owns Silk organic soymilk.  But since organic doesn’t mean what we think it means, who knows how organic Silk soymilk really is.  (Judging by Dean Foods’ track record, probably not very organic at all.)

Isn’t it great to know that we are, again and again, being lied to?

You need to know the Story of Stuff – It matters!

After September 11th, then President Bush told us all to go shopping.  Because America is a nation of consumers, and consumerism is the prime constituent or definition of our identities.  But it’s no secret that consumerism is evil (and that it’s not the best way to deal with a traumatic terrorist attack).  Everyone should watch The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.  It is a short and excellent video that breaks down American consumerism and sums up why “stuff” and buying stuff is such a major problem in this country.

Leonard starts with extraction – using the planet’s resources for all of our needs and wants.  What’s the problem here?  Well, we are using too much stuff, especially more stuff than we need, and this creates inequities in the world where people are deprived of basic necessities while we are basking in luxuries of stuff we don’t actually need.  Not only are we using a ton of stuff that we don’t need, but we are also selfishly hogging up that stuff and not sharing with other people or countries that need them.  The way we get all the stuff that we don’t need is harmful to the planet, and we’re extracting stuff at a faster rate than the stuff can replenish itself.  This is not sustainable.

The second part of The Story of Stuff is about production.  So many problems here.  Most production occurs in factories with toxic chemicals and severely underpaid and mistreated workers.  First of all, toxic chemicals = toxic toys for children, toxic food for everyone, health problems for workers, environmental problems, etc.  Secondly, since the US realizes that toxic chemicals and poor working conditions create serious health, environmental and ethical issues, we outsource this to other countries.  Aren’t we brilliant?!  We bring our toxic chemicals and wastes over to other countries where we can exploit people and their resources.

Next is distribution – this is about actually getting our stuff.  The point of this is to transport and to sell stuff as quickly and cheaply as possible.  The price tags on the stuff we buy do not accurately represent the cost and human effort that went into making them (this is called externalizing the costs).  So while prices may seem dirt cheap (like a $4.99 radio that she mentions in the video) and like great bargains, they actually are not.  The expenses (our environment, our children, ourselves) of having such cheap prices (Walmart) are high.

Just another reason that Sarah Palin is NOT a feminist

Let’s hark back to the lovely Sunday Stupidity post this week and the ridiculous idea that some people have about Sarah Palin being a feminist.  Now, It’s cool for feminists to have differing opinions (differing opinions can make feminist debates interesting), but Palin is most certainly not simply a feminist with a different opinion.  And here’s another reason why she is definitely NOT a feminist.  We can add this to the list right next to charging rape victims for evidence collection kits, censoring her family members, her anti-choice political stance (even in cases of rape and incest), the abstinence-only sex education bullshit, and so much more.

Food IS a feminist issue

It is no secret that Americans eat way too much mass-produced, processed and unhealthy foods. The New York Times reports:

…the truth is that most Americans eat so badly — we get 7 percent of our calories from soft drinks, more than we do from vegetables; the top food group by caloric intake is “sweets”; and one-third of nation’s adults are now obese…

Instead of getting our nutrition from “real” foods with real, natural ingredients most Americans tend to eat processed food that is more calorie-dense, less nutritious, and not so great for the environment. We eat stuff that is junk, for our bodies and for the environment. Due to the highly commercial and industrial nature of (mass produced) food in this country, proponents of more sustainable food (food that is locally grown, ecologically conscious and friendly, organic, etc.) have been met with a lot of resistance by the government and the food business.

However the new administration has been more receptive of and responsive to advocates of locally grown and organic food. With the Obamas’ new White House vegetable garden and strong emphasis on the need for sustainable (for people and for the environment) and healthier food, we may be living in a food revolution.

Michael Pollan, contributor to the New York Times magazine, and author of several books (including The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food), “has called on President Obama to pursue a ‘reform of the entire food system’ by focusing on a Pollan priority: diversified, regional food networks.” However, despite the encouragement and support that sustainable food activists have received from the Obama Administration, Pollan still worries that “’The movement is not ready for prime time. It’s not like we have an infrastructure with legislation ready to go.’”

Regardless, many food-sustainability and food-safety advocates and activists are still eager and excited about their progress and the potential future of the food revolution:

“We are so used to being outside the door,” says Walter Robb, co-president and chief operating officer of Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain that played a crucial role in making organic and natural food more mainstream. “We are in the door now.”

It is great that we finally have people in power who care about issues around food justice, people’s health, nutrition and the environment. But some may ask why is this something that appears on a feminist blog? How is food a feminist issue?

Food IS a feminist issue: the politics of food, access to food, production of food, purchasing of food, preparation of food, and consumption of food. Food has also been a very feminized issue. If you go into a grocery store or a farmer’s market, look around and see who does most of the food shopping. Women. Even in modern society, the kitchen continues to be seen as very much a female domain. Most women are the ones who cook at home for their families.

Furthermore, it is about distribution, access and affordability and the inequity of distribution, access and affordability. Eating healthy foods that are good for you and good for the environment should be something that everyone is entitled to. However, not everyone can afford to buy organic food, or locally grown food, aka better food that does your body and the earth well. Instead of being accessible and affordable to all, eating healthy has become a bourgeoisie activity.

Compare the price of a hamburger at McDonald’s (or better, anything on the Dollar Menu) to the price of a tossed salad anywhere. Obviously the gross, fried, mass-produced, junk food is cheaper. For the single inner-city mom who has three kids to raise on her own, buying food that she can afford is more of a priority than buying food that she and her kids should be eating but can’t afford.

Famine and malnutrition among impoverished (or lower class) populations are about failures of entitlement to (healthy) food, not about a lack of food or inadequate food production. There is enough food for everyone, so everyone should be able to eat. However, poverty, racism, classism, etc. are barriers to accessing food. Across the globe, women and dependent children who are living in poverty cannot afford to eat because of rising food prices and the transformation of food from a basic human need and right into a bourgeoisie liberty.

Even if we look within this country, schools do not spend a great deal of money or research into providing students with healthy meals. Tons of government funding goes to abstinence-only sex-education in public schools (which uses scare tactics, (hetero)sexist gender stereotypes, and false information) while a substantially lesser amount goes to fund healthier school lunches. Children who fail to eat nutritious and balanced meals while they are growing may continue these unhealthy eating habits into their adulthood. This ultimately affects their health and can create health complications/problems later on in life.

Which brings us back again to the importance of food sustainability, especially in relation to health care. Eating sustainable, locally-grown or organic foods is a preventative measure for obesity and related diseases, and is a valuable tool in improving health/health care. Overall, having a healthier population increases the productivity of the nation. In order to sustain ourselves, we must sustain our environment.