This hit a chord with me because it seems as if the kids these days (yeah, I’m going full-on curmudgeon on you today) have ignored all of the strides and the research we’ve done that shows society is damaged when sexist behavior and gender inequality continue. No good comes when people are unequal.

I’m sure you’ve heard that young women such as Katy Perry can’t bear to be called feminists, even though they like women’s rights and all. And the continued debate over whether women should be guaranteed the same wages for the same work points out why it is a problem that feminism is still some scary, radical word. Unless we women are treated as equals in pop culture and society, we will never reach the same level of financial success as our male counterparts.

So, why does this particular video perpetuate sexism and inequality? It’s reliance on the objectification of women and the male gaze.

When men view women as sexual objects, they don’t see them as human beings with thoughts, feelings, and the need to be equal.

When women are objectified, we perform at less than our full potential.

For more examples of female objectification and discussions of the problems behind sexism, check out this site — that Hustler cover is shocking and disturbing.

And, to quote the ever-funny Janeane Garofalo, don’t trip on my soap box on the way out.

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In the rap music I have heard recently, I don’t hear those words, although I continue to hear the same messages that women exist solely to provide sexual gratification for the rappers. (I will admit that the rap music I hear is limited to what is played on the radio, so the deeper tracks might still contain the blatant language.) The remake of You Spin Me Round and Lollipop are two that come to mind.

The attitudes toward women that are portrayed in the songs extend off the lyric sheet to rapper’s off-stage personas, too. And making it rain is the most disgusting display of that.

To be clear, I think just about everything that happens in a strip club is degrading to women. Women are teased with small amounts of money to perform sexual acts with men and with other women, given a dollar bill here and a $20 there. You can call me a prude or not sexually open all you want, but that is how I feel about strip clubs.

Making it rain takes it to whole new low.

This phenomenon involves rappers taking a few stacks of dollar bills — you know, 25, 50, or even 250 thousand — into a club and throwing them up in the air for the dancers to fight over. The most recent was Drake, who got his start on a teen drama show, so probably needs the publicity for such activities to up his street cred.

And the biggest issue for the media is whether that can be written off as a business expense on their taxes.

What do you think? Is making it rain a valid part of the rap lifestyle or just another way that society teaches women that the only way they can make money is by using their sexuality to gratify men?

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I loved Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and the like as much as the next girl, even though the antics the teens engaged in and the lack of parental supervision seemed pulled from teenage fantasy more than anything else. But as a new parent and a former teen, I am so glad to see that some of our shows have realistic teens. Here are a few of my favorite teen characters.

Axl and Sue on The Middle

I have always been happy to be an only child. I learned at a young age that if there is only one of you, you don’t have to share any of the stuff. And I have always liked stuff.

If my parents had made the unfortunate choice to have a second child, I would hope that we had a relationship similar to Axl and Sue. They bicker. They disagree. And they are often embarrassed or shocked by the other. But the actors show that deep down, they do love each other. And they would do anything to protect each other.

Sasha, Ginny, Melanie, and Boo on Bunheads

I was part of a group of four close-knit friends in high school. We told each other everything. We bonded over TV, boys, clothes, schoolwork — all of the important things in a teenage girl’s life. The way the girls interact reminds of the one of the good things about high school, those three girls and the relationship we had.

Tessa on Suburgatory

In a sea of girls dressed like Real Housewives of Chatswin, Tessa is an oasis of sensible outfits and shoes. (BTW, don’t get me started on the fact that none of those women are real or housewives, as far as I undertstand the definition of housewife.) I can’t imagine trying to wear those ridiculous platforms and miniskirts in high school (or now, to tell you the truth). Tessa wears cute dresses with tights, jeans, cardigans, and flats.

Bay and Daphne on Switched at Birth

Both of these girls behave like I did when I was a teenager. Sure, they have more options to misbehave than I did. (I never had an affair with a chef, for one thing.) But their actions are capricious and self-centered, their responses are emotional, and their struggles to individuate before they are completely ready are familiar.

What do you think about the current crop of teens on TV? Any good ones I missed here? I love the crew on The Carrie Diaries so far. I hope they keep their pilot personalities.

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Am I the only one who has noticed that the show has gotten subtly misogynistic with lazy writing, and if not a regression of character growth, at least a complete lack of it? Just this past week’s episode had two such disturbing instances in less than ten minutes. The first was a comment about being surprised that the girls were having an argument about comics (because everyone knows we don’t read them and/or graphic novels), and the second (and in my mind more deeply disturbing one) was a comment from Leonard about how if Penny broke up with him, he’d never find a girlfriend as pretty as she is – AS IF THAT’S THE ONLY VALUE SHE BRINGS TO THE RELATIONSHIP. (I don’t like to shout type, but I feel like this needs it.)

The worst part? The laugh track played right along with these instances, giving them validity and coaching people to laugh along with them, like what was being said is not only okay, but funny. These are not isolated instances.

Believe it or not, I was a fan of BBT until recently. I loved seeing the geek get the girl, and how even people who have difficulties can have successful careers. It was actually the show itself which made me start down this line of thought – the recent episode with Regina King as an HR rep trying to cope with Sheldon and his complete lack of social skills. After being reprimanded for sexually harassing an assistant (although he never does seem to really understand what he did wrong), Sheldon is supposed to take an online class about sensitivity or some such to help him address the situation. Instead, he has the same assistant watch the video for him.

How is this funny? Please explain it to me. If it was a real situation, I don’t think it would be so amusing. It’s like blaming the harassed for the harassment. I realize that Sheldon probably has Asperger’s or falls somewhere on the Autism spectrum. This should not be a get out of jail free card, which is how it was portrayed here, sort of an oh, isn’t he cute, the geeky guy version of the manic pixie dream girl.

I invite you to re-watch episodes from the last season or two with this post in mind and tell me what you see. I hope I’m wrong.

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A Lesson in Customer Service for Our Friends at DirecTV

Aka the post in which I rant about how horribly we were treated by DirecTV when we <gasp> cancelled our service for one that better fits our needs.

Say You Wanna Revolution

Love it or hate it, Revolution is doing well for NBC. Here is the post where Katie introduces it and gives her thoughts on the pilot.

Recommended Summer Books

Guest poster Stacey Kade visited us to share the top books on her list of summer reads. We were thrilled to host Stacey, and we hope we introduced you to her and to some great books.

Arrow Is Pretty on Target

Another from Katie on The CW’s new show Arrow. We both like it. Do you watch Arrow?

7 Awesome Summer Shows You Should Be Watching

Another post in which I wax poetic about my love for Rookie Blue and Amy Sherman-Palladino.

What were your favorites posts last year? And what do you wish we would talk more about this year?

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The CW airs Arrow on Wednesdays.

Without getting too spoilery or going into too much detail about the plot, the writing staff deserves a shout out for doing a pretty decent job servicing an ongoing storyline with case of the week type episodes. In addition to Stephen Amell as Oliver/The Arrow, the cast features Katie Cassidy (Supernatural) and Willa Holland (The OC), two of my favorite actresses from cult t.v. shows, and Susanna Thompson (Kings), fan favorite John Barrowman (Torchwood, Dr. Who), Colin Salmon (all kinds of things British, and my beloved Keen Eddie), Colin Donnell (Pan Am), and David Ramsey (Blue Bloods, Dexter).

In short, if you haven’t been watching, it’s worth a try. The latest five episodes are streaming on Hulu. Be sure to let us know what you think!

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Scandal airs on ABC. A cast photo from season one.

Anyway, during a recent bout of insomnia, Scandal came up on Netflix as one of my top 10 suggestions. There were only seven episodes listed for the first season, but I knew the second season is currently airing on ABC, so it wasn’t like I’d be getting completely involved with a show that would disappear after a handful of episodes. I HATE THAT.

Scandal features Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, political fixer and former mistress to Fitzgerald Grant, the President of the United States (Tony Goldwyn), with whom she is still deeply in love. This is especially awkward since he’s still married. Their chemistry when onscreen together is ridiculous, and I mean that in the best possible way.

One of this show’s strengths is that it portrays a variety of strong women, all of whom are pursuing their own agenda. I love that the women and their agendas are not just filler, but are, in fact, the core of the show. You may not always like or agree with them, but I do enjoy seeing how their machinations play out. There are individual cases some weeks, but they usually somehow tie back into the season(s) long story line.

Another thing I like about Scandal is that it isn’t politically correct and the writers are unafraid to climb up on their soapboxes. There has been debate about gay marriage, healthcare, women’s rights, the national budget/debt, and where to draw the line between personal and private lives, and that’s just scratching the surface.

Scandal is airing its second season on ABC now and the first season is available to stream on Netflix. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

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I’ve been watching Nashville, and I love that show. It reminded me of my younger days and my desire to sing.

It also showed me that I am so lucky I didn’t waste a lot of time pursuing that dream. I would have been a horrible rock star. I can’t imagine the horrible grind of singing the same songs, making the same jokes, and dealing with fans making the same jokes night after night. I have never had more appreciation for how hard musicians work on tour and off.

Instead of going down the path of live performance, I chose a life of writing. I love writing. I love exploring new topics and delving deeper into the ones I have covered before. I love the work I’ve been doing in the Freelance Writers Den and the blogging I do here, at Edcetera, and elsewhere. And I love my business writing work, helping clients connect with their customers. A lot of people, Mr. PCC included, would think that sounds like a nasty hang, but this is what works for me.

I read recently that one of the differences between the wealthy and the non-wealthy is in their attitude toward what they do. Even though it looks to many that the super-wealthy are working all the time, says this article, “Average people earn money doing things they don’t love. Rich people follow their passion.” I am not rich at this point, but I work a lot doing what I love.

I want to hear about your childhood dreams. Which did you pursue? Which do you wish you had? Would you have been any good at your dream job?

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I’m not going to go into exposition about the plot of Looper. I will say that the cast is ridiculously talented: JGL, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels are all at the top of their game, and Bruce Willis does his best Bruce Willis, which is to say that he does a good job at being a man on a mission, and one that makes you care about him even if he isn’t doing likable things. Paul Dano, Garrett Dilahunt and Noah Segan all turn in strong supporting performances.

If you like sci-fi movies with strong performances, heart, and a thought provoking storyline, Looper is a great choice for you. If you want to see an up-and-coming actor completely lose himself in portraying a younger version of a character portrayed by one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Looper is for you. If you need a reminder that movies can be entertaining with out catering to the lowest common denominator, Looper is for you.

Have you seen it? What did you think?

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We signed with DirecTV when they were offering NFL Sunday Ticket at no charge. Right after we signed, the Blazers inked a contract giving exclusive broadcast rights to Comcast SportsNet. A small number of games are broadcast on our local NBC affiliate and on TNT, but the vast majority of Blazers games are unavailable on DirecTV.

Then, the Oregon Sports Network signed an exclusive contract with Comcast SportsNet, limiting our availability to watch the Ducks football and basketball games. For a while, it was possible to find them on some of the other sports channels from around the country, but with the birth of the new Pac-12 conference and their channels, only one of the pre-conference Duck football games has been shown.

So, we bit the bullet and took a higher monthly cable fee to finally get access to our local sports.

According to media reports, DirecTV said they have enough national sports coverage, so they believed their customers would be served without the Pac-12 networks and Comcast Sports Northwest. But if you are a fan of your local teams, you are SOL when you don’t have access to your local sports channels.

Where does the customer service issue come into play?

First, if your fans request that you make a deal and tell you that they will pay a premium fee to get access to a channel, believe them. If DirecTV had made a deal with Pac-12, we would have stayed with them, even if it meant an extra charge every month. Instead, we chose a television provider that offers the channels we want.

Second, when someone cancels your service, don’t call them at a later date and question their ability to make sound judgments. Wednesday, a DirecTV rep called my home and tried to win us back. In the course of that conversation, the rep basically said we were bad people for choosing a different TV service for one channel. And they kept asking how much our new monthly bill would be.

No one at DirecTV or any other television provider has the right to question the decision we made to go with a provider that offers the programming that is important to us.

Yes, we enjoyed DirecTV except for their inability to provide us with local sports programming.

Yes, DirecTV offers a lower monthly rate for the same channel packages.

But our priority is local sports. If you can’t give us that, we can’t continue to pay for your service. That is a choice that is within our rights to make, and even though it means you have lost a long-time customer, we have gained access to the shows we want to watch. You don’t get to insult us for making the decision we believe is right for our family.

We made it clear over the years through conversations that we wanted Comcast SportsNet Northwest and the Pac-12 network. When you refused to offer those channels, we chose a provider that does.

And it is none of your business what we are paying to that new provider.

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