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I had always considered blogging something that either self important or boring people did, but since this is for a class, I'll give it a shot. I am suppose to post things here that pertain to my Women's Studies class, and today my addiction to tabloids is what is weighing on my mind. I am a supposedly intelligent woman, I do have a 3.6 GPA, I'm in an academic honors society, I'm even considering grad school. I also consider myself a feminist. So, why is it that I spend like $15 a week on Star, The National Enquirer, and Globe ? Should I be ashamed of the sense of schadenfreude I get when I read about Lindsay's latest arrest or Britney shaving her head? Shouldn't I be brushing up on my Tolstoy or something instead of rotting my brain with this trifle? Maybe I can argue for an academic reason I read them. After all, tabloids are sort of an anthropological study of the behavior of a subset of human society, right?

Having said that, I still think that reading them should still go against my feminist leanings. I should not be rejoicing in the down fall of fellow women, down falls that may well be caused by their prior objectification by a patriarchal society. Most of these young women who are the constant target of tabloids began careers when they were too young to make their own decisions about their public image and how they were marketed to the masses. So, consequentially they were seen as teen sex goddesses, and I'm not sure that they know how to separate themselves from these images now that they can make their own decisions. So, they marry inappropriate people, flash body parts that only their gyno should see, and generally have nervous breakdowns right before our eyes. And because they are surrounded by "yes" people who are only interested in what they can get, no one stops them until it is too late.

So, I am back to my original problem. Why do I but tabloids? As you noticed, I have plenty of opinions about why other people behave the way they do, but no real insight into my own behavior. I can see that the content of tabloids is inherently sexist, yet I can't stop myself. Maybe someone else who shares my addiction can offer some insight? While I wait I'm gonna surf on over to tmz.com and read about Owen Wilson's suicide attempt....................