By Crystal Ogar Do you find yourself looking at magazine ads of women and seeing something that’s a bit off? What about your favorite TV shows? Or films? How about the lack of women representation to the sexualization of young girls? If you love to blog and create activism in your community, SPARK wants you! [...]
by Crystal Ogar Over the past weekend I was lucky enough to be a part of the third Women in the World Summit (Stories + Solutions) held in New York City at Lincoln Center, and co-hosted by Tina Brown (editor-in chief of Newsweek & The Daily Beast), Lauren Bush Lauren, Leymah Gbowee, Nizan Guanaes, Jane Harman, [...]
By Crystal Ogar The sexualization of young girls and women begins at a very early age. But what happens when you get older? There’s a suspicious trend that starts to arise as you go from being a young adult to an older woman — the marketing of beauty and anti-aging products exclusively to women. I’m [...]
By Crystal Ogar Child beauty pageants just may be the most quintessential sexualization of young girls to be found. It has always been hard for me to sit through a full episode of Toddlers & Tiaras, but I decided to finally do it. Beauty pageants have always creeped me out — even after winning a [...]
By Crystal Ogar There’s a great campaign running in Scotland called “Not Ever.” It focuses on the rape culture and victim blaming. They have an amazing commercial on TV that features a woman at a bar with her friends and a man who says, “Check out her skirt, she’s asking for it.” The commercial then [...]
The Race of Hunger Games
By Crystal Ogar There are a number of issues when it comes to the casting of The Hunger Games. When we first meet Katniss, the main character in the books, she is described as having straight black hair, usually in a braid down her back, olive skin, and gray eyes. Funnily enough, Gale (her best [...]