Diets and dolls oh my!

Has anyone in the US seen the new Jenny Craig commercial with Kirstie Alley? Well not only do I hate Jenny Craig (and all diet companies, although I did watch my mother go on and off of the Jenny Craig diets in a constant attempt to battle with the fact that her body wasn't made to be the same stick figure she had at 16 before she had a couple of kids. Plus their food looked terrible.) If you haven't seen it I'll set it up for you.

Kirstie is walking down a deserted (except for her and a couple of guys) city street at night when some guy whistles and then calls out "Whooo momma, you're looking good." She of course stops, faces the camera and says "Was he talking to me?" Then proceeds to rip off her overcoat and a plethora of men run into the street to dance with her. (alternatively you can watch it here (just click on the Dance! video.)

I don't know about you, but when a guy calls out to me in the middle of the night on a semi-deserted street the last thing I do is rip my clothes off to dance with them. I usually try one of three approaches, the first one being my newest and most effective tactic against street harrassment:
1) Talk in the "I'm gonna pinch your cheeks/baby talk" voice and say "Ohhhh...does somebody feel like a big man now. DO you need to put down women to affirm your manliness. Oh that's so sad."
2) Scream at them to fuck of (or whatever...you get the gist)
3) Ignore them (I don't do this so much, but sometimes I do. Thanks to my music I do it a whole lot more because I can't even hear the morons.)
and whichever one I end up doing I always end up tightening my grip on my keys and putting myself on alert. Far cry from the light hearted crazyness of the Kirstie Alley commercial.

Of course this commercial also trivializes the danger that women are in every god damn night they go out of the house alone. And teaches men that it's fucking complimentary to harass us on the gorram street. Yeah, women love street harassment, just look at commercials like this. Women we should be lucky that men choose to shout things at us on the street because they're really compliments!!! They just want to show us that they still value us as pieces of meat! Hooray! I should be happy because men's catcalls/ogling/yelling comments is such a compliment!

I must have missed the memo.

Veiled doll hits Egyptian toy stores.

"She's honest, loving and caring, and she respects her father and mother." But don't worry Fulla is a career woman: "Fulla is still single and there are no plans for an Islamic equivalent to Ken, Barbie's former boyfriend. However, a Doctor Fulla and Fulla as a teacher are planned - both respected careers for women." She also comes with, get this "gorgeous pink high heeled boots." Mmmm complete covering clothes with high heeled boots! Yes, perfect. Also, so that no one will be left out of the horrendous stereotypes of beauty that have been pushed onto the western world the Fulla doll has the same measurements as a Barbie Doll, that is if you ever deem to take off her abaya and head scarf. But she does come with indoor fashions as well that represent more what the young women in countries like Egypt wear underneath their oppressive outer clothing. She also wears less makeup then Barbie.

Yay!! Now little girls can play with dolls that are more respectable because they never show an arm or a leg. Oh and how could I forget the pretty pink prayer mat. Awwww....pink.