“Feminism is a Crock – and Other True Stories.” That’s the title for a book I’d like to write someday. The reason I say feminism is a crock is because it has morphed from “equal rights for all” to “women are better than men, and if you disagree you’re a sexist pig who should be castrated.” It’s also morphed into a sexual free-for-all: what used to be sauce for the gander (and those ganders were usually considered cads) is now sauce for the goose. This image is being perpetuated by pop culture and entertainment, and women are more and more frequently being portrayed as strong through their sexuality, not through their actual accomplishments. Is this the standard to which we want our daughters to aspire?

Early feminists fought against the centuries-old image of a “woman on a pedestal.” Gloria Steinem (she of the “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” who in later years ended up getting married anyway) once said, “A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.” I suppose a bra is also a small, confined space, which might explain the bra burnings of the 1960s. But the early feminists had a point – to a point. If a woman wants to be put on a pedestal and admired and adored, fine. But if she doesn’t, she should have the right to do with her life as she chooses. She should be free to pursue any vocation for which she is qualified, either as a single or married woman, children or no children.

But one of the problems with the new feminism was the annoying little fact that children could get in the way of this brave new world. Having to either stay at home with the little tykes or find daycare for them – not to mention all of the discomfort and disfiguration that comes with pregnancy itself – sure put a damper on Gloria Steinem’s idea of a “liberated woman” being “one who has sex before marriage and a job after.” Unbridled sex does, after all, have consequences. And so, according to historian Elaine Tyler May, birth control was “an important tool to gain control over their lives.” (more…)

Hollywood leads young women to believe that to be somebody the public needs to know who they are through a media outlet. Unfortunately, for some young women wanting to be in the spotlight, that entails lifting their shirts–or worse, while a pimp named Joe Francis directs them from his central-boob-command in Los Angeles. The man-boy who brought the world Girls Gone Wild late night television spots has teamed up with the man who produced (paid for) the anti-American film Redacted, and who’s made himself the face (and belly) of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban

What a billionaire Internet mogul and an ex-con with a video camera come up with for young women to aspire to is, The Hottest Girl in America. The show on Cuban’s HDNET is a thirty-minute infomercial for Francis’ empire of exploitation where Francis sends his minions out on the road in tour buses like a bunch of Red Bull infused roaming gnomes to egg on young drunk women into an act they may someday regret.

In the episode I watched Francis’ video gnomes found their golden Gomorrah cow when a young woman confessed, she’d just turned 18, therefore gleaning the line of child pornography for Joe and his brood. The sad part of this HDNET show is that young women line up in droves to lift their tops, drop their pants, and make out with one another. (more…)

Part pit bull, part Columbo whacked out on a pot of espresso, they don’t make investigative journalists like Mark Ebner anymore. And that’s good news if you’re a dirt bag, scum bag, douche bag or any sort of Hollywood low-level, window peeping, carpet crawling, masturbation celebrity want-to-be.

Mr. Ebner is one of the few writers left today willing to get down in the gutter with his subjects just to hear their truth. In his new book Six Degrees of Paris Hilton, Mr. Ebner takes you to the places they never show you on “Access Hollywood,” because if the general public could access the side of Hollywood Mr. Ebner uncovers, that tub of popcorn in your lap at the multiplex would serve only one purpose, that of a barf bucket.

I recently had the chance to ask Mr. Ebner about his new book and what his thoughts on the state of Hollywood are today. (more…)