Walking for something beyond myself

So when I read this assignment I was a bit put off. I'm not going to go into great detail why but I will give you some examples. You see I have chosen people that surround me that have a "fuck you" kind of humor so they tried to get me to walk for a number of things (they weren't short of ideas) like walking in protest for the color orange... you might, like I, ask why? "because of Thursday." Or how about "walking for bachelors to help keep them from the trap of marriage." That one has meaning because a friend of mine just got married... needless to say we had some laughs but I couldn't use any of it. My girlfriend didn't really have much to say about it until she remembered me saying that I considered myself a feminist a few days ago... she challenged me to walk for feminism and to really consider what feminism is and how it is seen. Where else would I go to do this but the Tucson Mall (its close, A/Ced, I work there and its 90% womens stores). Like my other walks I was nervous to take pictures so I'll just summarize because this was feminism overload...

Working in the Mall I see where people shop because I see their bags and probably the most popular stores for women are Forever 21 and Victoria's Secret. So what is it about those stores that makes them so popular?

Lets start with Forever 21 and its name... what does the name imply? That women peak at 21? or that women want to be 21 and sexy forever? Okay, who wouldn't? I've always wondered what the name Forever 21 meant. To me the title is pretty offensive because I think it does imply that women peak at 21 and thats not just wrong but offensive in so many ways. Also I have quite a few friends that say they can't shop there because it's way to small... they aren't big girls. If anyone knows what the stores intended meaning is please tell me.

Victoria's Secret isn't bad at all I don't think and I'll tell you why. First of all yes the models in the window, catalog and pinned up all over the store do show a distorted view of what women "should" look like. Advertising as we all know is full of that kind of thing for women and men (and yes more so for women). Unfortunately these kinds of techniques work and personally I wouldn't want to see my hairy scary ass in advertising so THAT kind of thing doesn't bother me. Even with that kind of add campaign they still cater to a, no pun intended, larger variety of females. I personally don't see anything wrong with wanting to be/feel pretty and thats what this store facilitates to most women.

I'm not going to go into terrible detail about the rest of my walk because there is one store that offends me in sooooo many ways that it dominated the rest of my thoughts for the entire walk and I couldn't focus on anything else. The store that I find to be probably the worst in the mall is Club Libby Lu. This store is racist and counter feminist in almost every way possible. My mind was racing with too many thoughts to write down so once I calmed down a bit I began just writing this entry. Your probably wondering why I say racist? There are two wigs you can buy there and both are blond. So I thought that whole Barbie thing was over... nope! I shouldn't have to go into why and whats wrong with that in this day and age to an educated audience so I wont. So the point of the store is to get young girls, age I'm guessing 6-9ish, to come in and get their hair done, makeup done and to look like a pop singer. Okay, when you say it like that it may not sound too bad but when you see "the finished product" its FUCKING CREEPY! Girls that age shouldn't be sexualized at that age nor should they feel pressure to be a blond skinny and all that other crap. Whatever people had wrong with Barbie and her play set this store goes far beyond that. There is no excuse for this store and what it represents and if I had children there is NO way they would ever enter this store.

I'm done now... I'm going to go relax for a while...