Snapshot: Dying for a Diamond

(originally posted 04/09 at wordpress)


by mae stephenson



This is sort of cheating. I actually snapped this picture (but still with my cell phone!) months ago because I just couldn't believe the sexism before my eyes and wanted to show it to everyone I knew. You could call it my original Snapshot. Nonetheless, this was snapped downtown, near PSU, on 4th Ave. It's an ad that actually extends into the window of a Trimet bus-- something I'd never seen before-- depicting a woman desperately reaching for a giant diamond ring; it almost appears as though the woman is reaching from a seat inside of the bus.

The first university I ever went to was a private Christian school in Seattle, where a common phrase to hear around the dorm, in which everyone under 21 was mandated to live, was "Ring by Spring!" This was what I remembered when I saw this ad.

This ad not only perpetuates negative stereotypes about women desiring eternal attachment to men and a materialistic obsession with a diamond ring, but in turn, perpetuates the stereotype that men have no interest in commitment and that it's a woman's job to tame them into civilized, religiously sanctioned marriages. These things are not only sexist, but grossly heterocentric.

Snapshot: 4GrrlzEyezOnlies (Or, Wow- That's Really Sexist Branding on that Candy Bar!)

(originally posted 03/09 at wordpress)


by mae stephenson

Excuse the sarcastic title this week, folks; the item in this week's image deserves a title no more mature than the item itself.



I saw this for the first time in my life last weekend. It's a UK-based chocolate bar from our pals at Nestle (just google 'Nestle Boycott' for more reasons women shouldn't adore them). Yes, that is an extra-feminine woman symbol with the circle-slash "no" in place of an 'O' and reads "it's not for girls!" on the side. And yes, it's really just chocolate (I checked the ingredients just in case it was one of those specially formulated vitamin bars posing as candy). This bar can be found at your local SE 33rd and Belmont Zupan's where I snapped this picture. Not with the girly chocolate at the front of the store; in a more discrete location-- across from the baking supplies.

*New Column* Snapshot: The Elephant in the Bathroom

(originally posted 02/09 at wordpress)

This is a new column from the editor of the SheSheet, mae stephenson. Snapshot addresses the here-and-now of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in Portland, OR where the author lives, walks, and braves public transportation. She'll share her on-the-go experiences and observations via low quality cellphone snapshots and short synopsis. Yeah, she realizes there's nothing new about critiquing advertisements and culture from a feminist perspective, but aims to remind you that the work is certainly not finished-- No, not even in Portland, Oregon.


by mae stephenson

Why did this baby-changing table have anthropomorphically gendered hetero elephant parents? Because only hetero parents in sets of two have babies, of course!

A couple days ago I found this gem attached to a baby-changing table in a single-stall bathroom at a bakery/cafe in NW Portland. It's part of the brand sticker-- the item's logo. It's been there a while: I could tell by how the sticker was shredded and picked-at to the point where I could tell the brand name was to the left of the image, but I couldn't actually read it. What I could read, however, were those elephants' genders.