October 2010
2 tags
2 tags
Anonymous asked: Hi Lena! I've been following you for quite a while and I think I am developing a womancrush on you :) I like how you think and write, and I am curious about your stance on something I have to deal with daily in my relationship. My boyfriend has a lot A LOT of female friends. I do not believe in purely platonic relationships between men and women - I think that if you manage to develop a...
2 tags
3 tags
Patrick is not "The One"
Just to make it clear that my little rant yesterday applies as much to those who are coupled-up as it does to singletons.
It’s easy to forget in an era of bridal magazines and wedding planners and rom coms that the idea of “the One” is an entirely modern notion. For most of Western history, marriage was a purely economic arrangement, arranged by family patriarchs and devoid of...
2 tags
Feminists Can Wear Spanx Too and Other Lessons... →
Tracy Clark-Flory, a senior writer at Salon, wrote of anxieties running high as subjects squeezed into uncomfortable shoes and deceptive shapewear at a photo shoot for More magazine’s November 2010 feature on young feminism, which both Clark-Flory and I participated in. Her conclusion? “There isn’t much that’s feminist about a feminist photo shoot.”
I largely agree with Tracy’s...
2 tags
Do All Of Us Need "The One"?
Excerpted from a comment that I left in last weekend’s discussion on Jezebel about Fucking While Feminist:
The whole “they complete me” idea we have of relationships totally disregards the fact that for some people, long-term monogamous partnerships are just not fulfilling. Some people don’t need romantic love in their life whereas others might want more than one...
2 tags
In case you were wondering ...
There are definitely days when I wake up with zero direction and no sense of what I’m doing or why I’m doing it and totally panic at the prospect of making a career out of a mishmash of short-term contracts. And then I read old comments and emails from readers and I feel a lot better about my life.
Thanks, guys.
"Potion For Aggressive Banging!"
Um, no thanks, spammer?
1 tag
2 tags
Head of the Charles Weekend
And Patrick is rowing! Hamlet and I are taking off to cheer him on at 1:14pm, when he rows the Club Eights in a Yale alum boat.
I’ve never actually seen Patrick row, because we only started dating when he was already in graduate school (and he rowed lightweight/heavyweight mostly in college). So this is pretty exciting, even though he’s promised me that it is not at all exciting to...
1 tag
O2 MAX Fitness | Fat Free Talk with Lena Chen →
O2 MAX Fitness, youth fitness & media company, interviewed me as part of their series celebrating Fat Free Talk Week. Some of the tips I mentioned in my chat:
Use fitness rather than “skinniness” as a measure of health
Avoid blacklists and unreasonable restrictions (Atkins dieters, I’m talking to you)
Listen to doctors, not magazines or fad diets
Don’t feel guilty...
2 tags
Missing Button Tip!
I lose stuff ALL the time, so even when I catch a button before it falls off, I rarely put in a place where I can locate it again. (I know, I should work on this, shouldn’t I?) Here’s a little tip for all you scatter-brained fashionistas: Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goodies, also carries tons of crafting supplies, including BUTTONS!
And they come in all kinds...
“Emma Bovary exists somewhere between the drug addict and the writer.”
– Frances Stark, whose exhibition, This could become a gimick [sic] or an honest articulation of the workings of the mind, just opened today at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center. It’s the first ever US museum survey of her work.
2 tags
Aren't Men Objectified Too?
jesuismilena writes in response to my last post:
Don’t we also see a lot of shoots where the guy is shirtless, dripping in sweat, basically an image of post-coital awesomeness? Where is the critique on that? I get that naughty schoolgirl is a tired cliché, but we seem to get up in arms only when something affects women. So far, I haven’t seen one single lady complain about shirtless...
1 tag
lena chen responds to gq's glee photo shoot with... →
When I first laid eyes on the controversial Glee photo shoot in GQ, my immediate thought was, “This again?” The “schoolgirls gone wild” trope is an incredibly limiting way of looking at women’s sexuality, and yet, it remains oh-so-popular! So here we have yet another spread sexualizing youth, boobs, and underwear. What else is new?
Being sexual isn’t always objectifying — not if you’re in...
2 tags
Happy Fat Free Talk Week →
Tri Delta is leading a week-long celebration of positive body image with Fat Free Talk Week. This is part of the sorority’s Reflections Body Image Program, which “uses scientifically supported evidence … to help participants resist the ultrathin, unrealistic ideal standard of female beauty prevalent in today’s society.”
What’s Fat Talk and why is it harmful? Tri...
Fun Fact
One of the top search queries that lead readers to gURL.com? “Dry humping”. No joke.
Consider this a reason to start checking out the Health, Sex, & Relationships blog, which I’m in charge of ;)
2 tags
Does Wearing Purple Make A Difference?
So, Spirit Day. I’ll be honest: originally, I was thinking, “Are you serious? People are wearing purple color-fy their avatars and this is somehow going to stop gay teens from killing themselves?”
Because wearing pink definitely has no causal relationship to curing cancer.
But I have to admit that there’s something inspiring about tracking the Twitter hashtag (#spiritday)...
2 tags
1 tag
Red-Eye Flights Don't Work
No, not even if you have three seats to yourself and can lay down flat like I did last night. But maybe this is because there’s a four-hour window, during which you can actually sleep, and I used up an hour of this finishing Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room.
(I walked into my house at 6am, greeted the dog, hopped back into bed, and literally JUST woke up. Ugh.)
Free $20 Credit At Rue La La →
Join designer sample site Rue La La before October 25th with the above referral link for a $20 credit :)
1 tag
2 tags
Filed Under: Awesome Feminist Things I'm Missing →
I’m NOT pleased about the massive number of events I’ve missed over the past week while I’ve been in Los Angeles. Boston has a lot of unpleasant attributes: unrelenting winters, an excessive number of tourists, the list goes on. BUT it’s also a total hotbed for radical thought and I love that there’s always a lecture or panel or screening to attend. My inbox overflows...
Sunday Morning Equations
Two martinis + hookah + the smell of dim sum the morning after = pukage
Second time this week! At least I was hungover today and not just migrainey.
3 tags
WatchLatest vid for gURL.com: How do you get a guy to ask you to Homecoming?
No, I do not actually own any of the things I’m wearing in this video. Yes, I do quite enjoy giving feministy love/sex advice to 14-year-old girls.
1 tag
3 tags
1 tag
Soho Hearts Jewelry Sale on Swirl (Plus $20 Off... →
I’m kind of freaking out over the Soho Hearts sale going on at Swirl right now. I’ve been sorely lacking in the jewelry department ever since I lost all my gems in Currier storage. (Um, that’s what happens when you take a year off from college, move off campus, and don’t bother to retrieve your shit until you’re 22 and not technically a student anymore.) So, as a...
Ugh. Migraines.
I desperately need to figure out a solution to my awful migraines, which don’t occur all that often but are pretty day/life-ruining when they do happen. When in Boston, I usually cancel all appointments, head to bed in a dark, dark room, and pray for a better tomorrow. But here in LA, especially when I’m on the way to some place, I’m stuck with no respite for my nausea or light...
1 tag
Memoir Armoire | Memoirist of the Future: Lena... →
How cool! Diane Shipley featured me on Memoir Armoire, her book review blog, the other day. It’s always so flattering when I find out that someone I’ve read has read me too. This is the perfect example of one of those instances.
A couple years ago, I read a piece Diane wrote for The Guardian. She lamented the chick-lit style covers that publishers slapped on to all women’s...
If you go to the gas station on Olympic and Vermont in Koreatown right now, you’ll be able find a puddle of my fresh puke. Don’t ask.
1 tag
What happens when a blogger has no Internet?
She goes fuckin’ nuts, that’s what.
I’ve been in LA since Friday to visit my family. No dog, no dude, and surprise, no Internet! I realized shortly after being left alone in my house that my iPhone doesn’t get 3G at my house. Or EDGE. Or, well, any reception. In fact, on Saturday, my phone wasn’t able to make or receive calls, send or receive text messages, or...
3 tags
Anonymous asked: You're a big supporter of the LGBT Rights Movement and so am I. I was wondering how you feel about being friends with people who are anti-gay? I recently found out that a person whom I considered to be a very good friend is very, very anti-gay. He would never go around bullying or physically hurting anyone because they're gay, but he is definitely a detriment to the movement, cannot be...
1 tag
Freelance Friday: Women's Lifestyle Editor Diana...
Diana Vilibert has been writing professionally since she was an undergrad. After graduating from New York University in 2008 with a double-major in journalism and psychology, she took a job at Marie Claire, where she eventually worked her way up to web editor, a position she left in April in order to freelance full-time. Today, the Brooklyn Heights resident covers women’s lifestyle (sex,...
1 tag
Are Feminist Litmus Tests Inherently Classist?
A reader pointed out that my Girls Gone Wild example in my preceding post (about being a “Bad Feminist”) could be construed as classist since I’m obviously speaking from the perspective of someone who’s had the privilege of reading feminist texts and doing some self-reflection on the topic. Not all women are in the same position, so who am I to judge their choices,...
3 tags
Anonymous asked: A friend of mine told me that he found it "intriguing" that I love to knit & cook & wear full-circle skirts circa 1950 but also call myself a feminist. I am a hardcore DIY-er & crafts-person, and I consider myself pretty (retro)fashion forward...does that make me a Bad Feminist (sometimes)?
1 tag
“People like you and me- young Americans- are largely disgusted by gay bashing...”
– Kennedy (God, I love my bestie)
2 tags
Is The "Bullying Epidemic" A Media Myth? →
Without minimizing the tragic circumstances of the recent spate of suicides among gay youth, Newsweek’s Jessica Bennett reminds us in the above article that bullying and harassment have always been problems in the queer community. It’s just that until now, the consequences (i.e. depression, substance abuse, suicide, etc.) haven’t been covered by news outlets or the kids who were...
Naomi Wolf Talks with Feminism's New Young Leaders →
This is happening and unbelievable and huge (that is, for me personally) and if you’re in NYC, please come say hi so that this will also be huge literally. All in all, I’m honored and slightly intimidated to be speaking among this group of women, but I’ll try to do y’all proud ;) Here’s the blurb:
Voices from the left and right: Lena Chen, Allison Kasic, Shelby Knox...
6 tags
“I don’t expect gay people to prove to me, a straight person, that there’s...”
– I like this quote, but I’m a little irritated to see it going around Tumblr without correct attribution. The link from “word” above does not link to the source of this quote. In fact, this is part of a piece by Lena Chen called “The Patriarchy Wants A Lesson On Privilege 101”, found here at her blog...
1 tag
1 tag
Freelance Friday: Britt Julious On Life As A Young...
Britt Julious has been been writing professionally since her junior year of college, when she penned a feature on artist Quisqueya Henriquez for Venus Zine as an editorial intern. Since then, she has published visual and performing art criticism, music criticism, cultural reporting, and essays in The Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, ALARM magazine, Death and Taxes magazine, Beyond Race...