Every time this comes up, I'm forced to unearth the link that shows that Swift was actually mis-attributing this quote to Couric, when it was actually said by Madeleine Albright.

My belief that they are "hacks" stems from my own career choices. The belief that media has no role comes from a refutation of the "media effects" model in communication theory. Though there are several different models that try to refute media effects, for the most part, the reasoning stems from the belief that…

Because when everyone's mother, sister, and friend is suffering from insecurity and making other people feel bad about their body, it becomes a societal problem, and not an individual one.

But...where did your sister get them from? See, we can make this about personal responsibility, or we can make it about a more systemic, social critique without placing the blame on every one of our mothers and sisters, individually.

Let's remember our mothers didn't develop this body obsession out of nowhere or entirely on their own. They lived in a culture that taught them this was the way to behave. Let's stop criticizing our mothers and start looking to where the blame actually lies.

Why do we think it sounds more progressive to blame our mothers than a systemic, societal problem that probably had an impact on our mothers as well? That isn't more feminist. It's just placing the blame squarely on women, once again.

Yeah - that's all true.

Naw it really isn't a waste of time. Limiting the amount of photoshop used, and creating regulations stipulating that girls under 16 (or 18) can't be used can really only be good things for everyone involved. Sure "health at any size" exists, but there is a widespread acknowledgement of eating disorders in the fashion…

It's pretty strong fuel for the fire. I too suffered from an ED for about fourteen years and they were pretty integral in fueling my disordered eating. I'm sure it was already there, but I actively compared myself against models in fashion magazines (hell, I still do, albeit unconsciously). They serve as a goal, and…

I love this, especially the juxtaposition of the fashion magazine in the therapist's office. Every hack researcher and scientist that claims that fashion magazines and photoshop don't influence eating disorders has obviously never bothered to just ask a young girl that has one.

This was a pretty okay year for pop music actually.

You should finish Freedom! Totally Franzen's best work, IMHO.

Yup - some children are indeed abused, and a lot of them will seek out other ways to gain attention whether positively or negatively. All the more reason why we shouldn't be relying on parents to be preventing this sort of thing. We can't build policies by expecting that every parent will be a good one. This is why we…

I just want to point out the irony of the advertisement sitting next to this piece.

I'm surprised by how many people are responding to this, pretending to be ashamed with how shitty they are as roommates (while then bragging about it). Listen up: If you know you have shitty characteristics, try to change them! Treating people poorly is nothing to be proud of.

Ugh, I hate her character on New Girl. She spends all of her time putting Schmidt down, and trying to get him to be who he used to be. She's not a good girlfriend.

I really hate these types of videos and how intentional all of the movements are. For some reason, watching someone open up packaging really slowly, and then preciously turn over plastic molds and stir things, is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

Meh - it might be anecdotal, but my partner and I have been using it for five or so years and have never even had a scare.

Was this video filmed with a potato?

Ah, the old "nothing to hide" argument.