McKayla Maroney and the Celebrity Photo Leak of (August) 2014

Much like Loren Lynch did in her first post here at Her Blueprint, I feel I ought to tell you a little bit about myself. I have, for most of my adult life, made my income tending bar. One of the great things about this particular line of work is the opportunity to meet an incredible array of people and learn about a diversity of topics including, of course, quite a bit about yourself. Through the almost 6 years I have spent working at a small local pub in Brooklyn, I picked up two valuable pieces of Rebekah-specific information:  I do not particularly care about beer or mainstream sports.

As someone who considers herself something of an academic, I read far too much about the severity of head injuries in football and hockey to be able to see past the brutality inherent in those two sports and through to the games themselves. I find baseball boring and, though I was a big Knicks fan back in the 90's (I had a thing for John Starks), I am not terribly attached to basketball. The one sport that I watch religiously, that I can talk your ear off about (and yes, I know it is not mainstream although this is something I simply do not understand) is elite women's gymnastics.

http://flickr.com/photo/71035721@N00/2972933329

For most people here in the United States, women's gymnastics is a once-every-four-years sport. In an Olympic year, they watch all the team and individual events on NBC and fall in love that particular quad's American it-girl: Mary Lou Retton, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Gabby Douglas. But for us all-the-time fans, there is so much behind those Olympic moments. These young women have, by age 16, already spent the previous 12 years in the gym. What their bodies and minds allow them to do is absolutely breath taking. Forget the athleticism which I could never dream to possess, these girls have more focus at 16 than I have at 31, a fact which is at the same time mind-blowing and enviable. It is interesting because for as much as I would love to see these girls get the attention and appreciation that all their hard work and talent deserves, I think the sport stays more pure, and the athletes more protected from the negative aspects of mainstream fandom, because of the lack of big money and the lack of exposure. Unless, of course, they are one of the lucky five to make it to the biggest stage in women's gymnastics: the Olympic Games. Once that happens all bets are off and no one knows this better than 2012 Olympic team champion and vault silver medalist McKayla Maroney.

Previously known only for her sky high vaulting, Maroney made an error in the Olympic vault finals that resulted in her being awarded the silver medal behind Romania's Sandra Izbasa and spawned the now famous not impressed face. It was that face, and her regular social media updates, that made Maroney something of a celebrity beyond the gymnastics world. Unfortunately, being in the public eye does come with certain drawbacks. This past August, McKayla Maroney found herself embroiled in a massive scandal when nude photos of her and roughly 40 other female celebrities were stolen from compromised Apple iCloud accounts and leaked via the imageboard 4chan and then widely disseminated using social media sites such as Imgur, Reddit and Tumblr. As is often the case, the victims were blamed for their own victimization, with people taking to Twitter and comment boards to tell female celebrities that if they don't want nude photographs of themselves on the internet, they shouldn't take them in the first place. In the case of McKayla Maroney, this issue took on another layer of complexity when it was discovered that the leaked photographs were taken when she was under 18, and therefore considered a minor under United States law. As a result, Reddit removed all of the photographs of her with the explanation that they are "considered CP (Child Pornography), and break reddit's site-wide rules (in addition to international law...)" At the same time, a group of concerned citizens put together a "We the People" petition to get the US Government to charge Maroney with "production and possession of sexual material containing a minor," stating that the government should not let her "get away with a crime that would get a normal teenage girl landed on the sex offenders list."

This petition is, of course, absolutely ridiculous and unlikely to gain any real traction. It is an example of victim-blaming at its finest. The absurdity of it becomes especially poignant when placed alongside the recent scandal involving the Ravens star running back, Ray Rice. When a few weeks ago TMZ released the February video of Rice knocking his then-fiancee unconscious in an Atlantic City elevator, it sparked a national conversation about domestic violence and the role of organizations such as the National Football League in combating it. Even among those who were understandably outraged, there was an undercurrent of victim-blaming as well as a noticeable presence of those who were opposed to Rice's indefinite suspension. Rice acted violently upon another person, Maroney was acted violently upon, and yet we, as a society, still don't seem to be clear on the true definition of "victim," especially where women are concerned. There should be no question as to who was in the wrong in each of these situations, and yet there is.

McKayla Maroney, in spite of it all, is at her Los Angeles gym day after day training for a chance at a second Olympics. The odds are against her, not because of this scandal but because no woman has made two consecutive US Olympic Gymnastics teams since Dominique Dawes and Amy Chow did it in 1996 and 2000. One thing I am certain of, though, is that she will be out there competing on the national and international stage in the years leading up to Rio 2016, if not at the Olympics themselves. She will be out there with the knowledge of all that has happened, and in a skin-tight leotard no less, and I have no doubt that she will show everyone exactly what she is made of. She, along with all the other gymnasts from the US and abroad, are fantastic, hard-working athletes who deserve our respect, just as all women do.

The Great 2014 Celebrity Nude Photos Leak is only the beginning [The Guardian]
Ricky Gervais and Fox News take the lead in victim blaming over celebrity nude photo leak [Salon]
The Leaked Photos of McKayla Maroney Were Taken When She was Underage, and Reddit is Freaking Out [Business Insider]

The Journey of "Miss Representation"

[Editor's Note: This post was written by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, founder and CEO of MissRepresentation.org; writer, director, and producer of Miss Representation; and honorary IMOW board member.]

Carol Jenkins of Women's Media Center (left) and Jennifer Siebel Newsom (Courtesy MissRepresentation)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

As we approach the end of the year, I want to take this time to reflect on just how amazing 2011 has really been.

At this time a year ago we had just found out my film Miss Representation was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, and that I was pregnant with my second child - a son. As you can imagine, we were all filled with much excitement, but also anxiety.

I didn’t really anticipate the kind of reaction the film would receive, or how my life would change within the next few months. But once I saw the lines outside Miss Representation screenings at Sundance, heard the audiences cheer, and Oprah Winfrey approached us to purchase the broadcast rights, I knew we were at the beginning of something bigger than just a documentary.

Fast forward to October and we had assembled a small full-time team, filed for non-profit status as MissRepresentation.org, and were gearing up for our US national broadcast premiere on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. We were also in the midst of igniting an international social action movement online – with our trailers going viral across the world, all the while sparking thousands of small actions through a brand new website.

The Miss Representation team

We watched in amazement as 400,000 people viewed a trailer in the span of a week, with hundreds of thousands more watching trailers on YouTube and Facebook in the days leading up to the TV premiere. Word spread to the major news outlets, and soon we were being mentioned everywhere from Vogue to Entertainment Weekly.

Over 1.3 million people ended up seeing Miss Representation on OWN in October, but countless more have been touched by the movement. And this has been spearheaded by the passion and commitment of our supporters. Individuals like yourself who have been moved by the trailer or the film, and have then taken it into their own hands to do something about it.

So many of you are calling out companies, writing letters or starting petitions against sexism and disrespect towards women in your local communities. Hundreds of independent blogs have been written about Miss Representation. Hundreds of thousands have shared content on Facebook, liked a post or sent a tweet out using #MissRep.

More than the numbers though, it’s the individual stories of action which are especially poignant. From the mother in New York who successfully lobbied Mayor Bloomberg to have a pornographic advertisement removed from her child’s bus stop, to the high school youth who started a ‘MissRep’ club to discuss sexism in the media with her classmates, we have been reminded again and again of the power of one individual having courage and using her or his voice to stand up to injustice.

Because of all your efforts, we are even more inspired to continue the work we started with Miss Representation a year ago.

The coming months promise exciting opportunities for this campaign to expand and continue to shift the cultural mindset around gender. In addition to continuing to partner with leading non-profits like the International Museum of Women, we will be launching new campaigns in 2012 to give women and girls further tools to combat sexism.

We will spread our Miss Representation educational curriculum - which is bringing a much needed gender focus to media literacy classes - to thousands of educational institutions across North America. We will host call-to-action town halls with government, business and community leaders as well as work with industry executives to improve the portrayal of women and girls in the media. We are actively supporting the Girl Scout’s Healthy Media Commission and are working with the private sector to establish best practices. And we will begin development on new films to expand on the message of Miss Representation. We’re not slowing down until sexism is eradicated and all women are allowed to realize their full potential. And we need your help!

Yet before we push ahead, it’s important that we pause to celebrate all that has been accomplished already. Because of this movement, more people are aware of the inequalities present in American media and leadership. More women feel empowered to focus on their careers and more girls feel capable to pursue their biggest dreams. Because of this movement, there are more men and women out there willing to challenge the status quo.

The movement really comes down to you. By taking the pledge at missrepresentation.org, you are exemplifying the very change we wish to see in the world.

From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone who has joined us thus far. In a few weeks, as the New Year approaches, many of us will make resolutions for what we’d like to be or see in 2012. For me, this year’s resolution is easy: I will not stop. I will do everything in my power to continue to make a difference for women and girls.

Will you join me?

Women in America Less Interested in "Women's Interest" Magazines

When reports come out in America that major print magazines are on the decline, it’s no surprise to a country where news and entertainment gatherers increasingly turn to faster, flashier digital options.

Traditionally, "women’s interest magazines" (think fashion, beauty, home and garden, etc.) have held the lion’s share of U.S. print magazine revenues. According to a recent report by the Auditor Bureau of Circulation, mags like Redbook, which has been alive and kicking since 1903, have seen their circulation drop dramatically. Today, with a circulation of a little over 100,000, Redbook has lost 81% of its readers from 2001.

The other top losers in women’s interest mags include Good Housekeeping, which reported a major circulation drop of 67%, and Woman’s Day, with a loss in readership of 77.3%. Top fashion and beauty mags have also seen readers turning a blind eye, with publications like Allure and Glamour both losing roughly half of their audiences.

With women’s print magazines going the way of the dinosaurs for the past decade, it is particularly interesting to see circulation numbers diminishing in the “domestic” category. And when it comes to what publisher’s dub “women’s interest” print mags, it seems that women just aren’t that interested anymore.

Should print advertisers chalk it up to digital media trends, or are women ‘just not into them’ for a larger reason? Is the format of the magazine the driving force for its decline, or is it the content?

As far back as 2000, Salon culture critic Ann Marlowe declared that women’s magazines were dead:

“Today's women's magazines are 19th century in their insistence on the indoors as woman's sphere. The world of the women's magazines is an indoor world, one of trying on clothes, of shopping for makeup and applying it.

…Young readers don't realize that the content is driven not by some definitive vision of what a woman is, but only by outdated visions of what women will buy. The magazines themselves have become institutions, part of our culture's definition of femininity, but we forget that their version of womanhood is but a blip in the great screen of time.”

On the Internet, sites like Jezebel and Feministing seem to generate large readerships, with scores of progenies cropping up every day, suggesting that women haven’t lost interest in content specifically produced to cater to their gender. In fact, the Huffington Post just added a women’s section to its news website. And Jane Pratt, the original publisher of the cult ‘90s teen magazine, Sassy, later to publish the more mainstream, not-so-sassy Jane, has now come out with a web-based magazine , xoJane.

In 2007, AdAge found that women were increasingly turning towards more interactive forms of media; the number of women blogging at least once a week rose to 30% at the time of the study. More likely than not, these women are reading and reposting web-based content, not extracting the latest diet trend from Redbook, or reposting an interior design trend piece from Good Housekeeping.

What do you think? Do you like “women’s interest” magazines? If so, do you prefer online to print?

"Gay Girl in Damascus" Blog: A Work of Great Fiction

A poster that appeared on a "Free Amina" facebook page.

Today, the person behind the popular confessional blog site "Gay Girl in Damascus" revealed their true identity. Blogger Amina Abdallah, known to devout readers from across the globe as a Syrian American lesbian with a talent for capturing everything from the excitement of the Arab Spring to sharing intimate, sensual poetry, was revealed to be...a man. Not only that, "Amina" is in fact a 40 year-old white American man currently studying in the UK by the name of Tom MacMaster.

The contempt felt by those who once followed him, or worse, those who only discovered him today through this new found notoriety (including this blogger, real name Amity Bacon), seems to have reached a fever pitch. And the reasons are fairly plain to see, as any white male blogger can attest.

The idea of a westerner born of white male privilege impersonating a queer Arab woman in order to have his voice heard is surely a painful irony. And I can only imagine that actual, real life members of the LGBT community in Arab nations that have struggled to get their messages out to the international community are more than a bit upset that they haven't been heard over all the media hype MacMaster has been able to drum up through his dalliance in fiction writing.

"Abdallah" wasn't your typical unknown blogging hobbyist. After garnering enough attention in her responses to the uprisings she supposedly witnessed firsthand, she was commissioned to contribute to various news sites. She even had a facebook account, filled with pictures MacMaster had stolen from another facebook user, as well as fan pages on the social networking site (yes, pages plural). And when MacMaster was bored with his little fiction project, he conveniently implied in his posts that Amina Abdallah had gone missing and was abducted by security services, which of course only led to more support, and, one can imagine, more fan pages. The State Department was reportedly opening up an investigation as well.

I understand the anger surrounding this. Especially if you see this video of MacMaster explaining himself and how he was driven by vanity to create this character. At this point he is probably envisioning future book deals, talk show appearances, and a life of glamorous celebrityhood from here on out.

But before we're so quick to dismiss this as a cheap hoax devoid of any lessons to be learned, here's a question to consider: where do you get your news? And what are the sources for that news?

In America, the number of US-based foreign correspondents has only dwindled as our military reach has skyrocketed. Conversely, in countries where first amendment rights are not protected, particularly in the Middle East, informal means of communication such as blogging, twitter, and other social networks have become a major source of information for the global community. In these types of circumstances, is it a complete surprise that myths and lies can be perpetuated like never before?

There are no easy answers to fix this media environment, but if there is a cautionary tale here it's this: however enticing a wide open internet may be, blogs and social media will never replace a functioning media--that is, a media comprised of trained journalists, fact checkers, and editors that are neither beholden to government nor corporate institutions. Is such a thing possible? Probably not, but it is something to strive for.

Miss Representation: Exploring the Media's Portrayal of Women

Anyone who watched the Superbowl would most likely agree, hyper-sexualized commercials featuring women in scantily clad outfits have taken over mass-media marketing. GoDaddy.com have actually begun prompting viewers to access their web site in addition to watching the TV ad, in order to see Danica Patrick, GoDaddy’s spokeswomen, in a more provocative setting (click the link to that ad if you're interested in what that entails, or better yet, don't bother). In doing so, the company avoids compliance with the more stringent FCC regulations regarding offensive content of a sexual nature. Is this simply good marketing? Companies knowing how to accurately target the predominately male audience and lure them to their products? Or, are such campaigns actually harming the way both men and women view women in society?

Jennifer Siebel Newsom explores these issues, and so many more, in her new feature length documentary, Miss Representation. Miss Representation debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January and is on its way to theaters across the country and educational institutions throughout the world. Newsom evaluates the messages sent by today’s media: that a woman’s true value lies in her physical attributes and sexuality, not in her actual abilities. Troubled by both the impact these messages have on young boys -- that women are objects of beauty meant to be enjoyed -- and the way the same messages are internalized by young girls, Newsom gathered a top-notch group of female activists to emphasize that something must be done to change our media.

This documentary comes at a rather fitting time when many argue that women have finally achieved greater parity with men, as exemplified by Hilary Clinton’s strength in the 2008 elections. Yet, Newsom shows how the same election highlighted just how much further there is yet to go. Yes, the United States finally had a woman running for the highest office, but the U.S. still ranks 90th in the world for women in national legislatures. That’s embarrassing. Newsom goes on to show that the issue goes so much deeper than just a lack of government representation. What is really at issue is how women are portrayed.

Society has become so fixated on a woman's appearance that even women have started attacking other women for not conforming to media's fabricated definition of beauty. One glance at the Miss Representation trailer and you’ll see clips from women in the media minimizing the accomplishments of other women because of physical attributes. Sitcoms, commercials, and even news shows continuously over emphasize the importance of a woman's age, beauty, and sexuality.

Despite the failings of today's media in portraying a sense of equality among the sexes, Newsom gives her viewers hope and offers real solutions. You can learn more about the film and what you can do to make a difference by visiting the Miss Representation website.

Check out the screening section to see if the film is playing near you or to find out how you can host a screening.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Miss Representation

Whose Reality?

Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Jennifer Pozner

IMOW just hosted an awesome event with Jennifer Siebel Newsom, first lady of San Francisco and documentarian, and Jennifer Pozner, author and executive director of Women in Media, about the portrayal of women in media, and specifically reality television.

Newsom's film, Miss Representation, and Pozner's book, "Reality Bites Back," really lay bare just how the media distorts women's images, confining them to easily digestible stereotypes in front of the camera, and shutting them out of positions of power behind the camera. In fact, Newsom said something like 80 to 90 percent of positions of power--in politics, media, business, etc.--are held by men.

Both Pozner and Newsom said that one way to hold the media accountable about the way they portray women is to speak up. "Women sometimes discount their own authority," said Pozner. "But you are an authority, and even your own experiences give you authority." Pozner and Newsome encouraged women to write letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines, call in to talk shows, and generally "talk back to the media."

So what do you think about how women are portrayed in the media, and specifically reality television? Any ideas about how we can affect these distorted portrayals? And why don't women speak up more often?