Pillow Talk

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definitions and ideas

Pink is a pale red color, which takes its name from the flower of the same name. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is positively associated with love, beauty, charm, politeness, sensitivity, tenderness, sweetness, childhood, femininity, and the romantic (“Pink”).

[Marilyn] Monroe conforms to, and is part of the construction of, what constitutes desirability in women […] for the most desirable woman is a white woman. The typical playmate is white, and most often blonde […] to be ideal Monroe had to be white, and not only white but blonde, the most unambiguously white you can get (Dyer, “Heavenly” 42-3).

…white is associated with triumph, light, innocence […] purity, […] chastity, […] modesty, femininity, and delicacy (Dyer, “White” 73).

Blondness is identified with ‘heavenly effulgence…It appears to reflect solar radiance, the totality of the spectrum, the flooding wholeness of light which Dante finds grows more and more dazzling as he rises in Paradise’ (Dyer, “White” 124)

14% – number of women who have been called a sexually explicit name or had a sexually explicit comment said to or about them. (Kearl 16)
47% – number of women who said they began assessing their surroundings after experiencing street harassment. (Kearl 20)
80% – number of harassed women who experienced street harassment between the ages of 13 and 25 (Kearl 18)

“First, our culture repeatedly tells boys and men that one way to prove their masculinity is by putting someone else down. This is a form of hypermasculinity that relies on exerting power over people who are perceived as less valuable. Harassment is a way to make that happen. Second, so many of our pop culture images things we see and hear in music, TV, videos, movies tell men and boys they have permission to think about women as sexually available. Mainstream pop culture use tropes and old stereotypes about beauty and gender that [teach] us to judge women on the basis of how sexy we think they are. Our culture sends chronic messages to boys and men that they are entitled to access other people’s bodies, invade personal space, and even to violate our most intimate realms with impunity or lack of awareness if that other person is perceived to be less powerful.” (Shira Tarrant qtd. in Kearl 22)

Definition of Autoethnography
A form of self-reflection and writing that explores the researcher’s personal experiences and connects this autobiographical story to a wider cultural-political-and social meanings and understandings (“Autoethnography”).

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Sources:
“Autoethnography.” Definition of autoethnography. Collins, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
Dyer, Richard. Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society. New York: St. Martin’s, 1986. Print.
Dyer, Richard. White. London: Routledge, 1997. Print.
Kearl, Holly. “National Street Harassment Report – Stop Street Harassment.” Stop Street Harassment. Stop Street Harassment, 3 June 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
“Pink.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.