It’s Ladies’ Night on Project Runway

Kelsey Wallace — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:57:25 -0400

Get your DVRs ready, feminists, because the finale of this season’s Project Runway airs tonight, and for the first time in the show’s history all three contestants are female. (For those not familiar with the show, Project Runway brings budding fashion designers together to compete for a $100,000 prize and a runway show at New York Fashion Week in Bryant Park.) In the past, the three finalists have been both male and female (although the designs presented are always women’s wear—what’s up with that?), with only one female contestant ever taking home the grand prize.

The fashion industry has a long history of promoting male designers of women’s clothing, from Oscar de la Renta (who showed a collection at the very first NY Fashion Week in 1943) to current Runway judge Michael Kors; women have always come in, well, second. But tonight, the ladies are coming in first, second, and third. So whether the show’s winner is architecturally inspired Leanne, vintage-loving Kenley, or free-flowing Korto (and we’ve all got our favorites), tonight’s finale promises to be a stride forward for female fashion designers and the feminists who love them.

True Confessions: The Millionaire Matchmaker - WTF Am I Watching This?

Anna Breshears — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:48:00 -0500

On this Bravo reality show, Patti Stanger, the President and CEO of "The Millionaire's Club" finds and matches stereotypically attractive women to rich dudes who can't seem to find a "decent" woman to have a relationship with. Basically, she's a pimp. She has rules about the couple not having sex until they are "committed", a sort of bizarrely puritanical twist that doesn't make it any less creepy. And yet, watching Patti rather savagely describe what's wrong with these guys and why they have trouble getting/keeping themselves in a real relationships is strangely invigorating. She ruthlessly points out their faults, sets them up with therapists and designers and practically yells at them when she thinks they're acting like idiots (which they almost always are). She's an odd, fiesty and compelling character...and yet she's picking girls like apples from a tree to offer up to sleazy guys. The focus of the show isn't the motivations of the women who allow themselves to be peddled (not yet, anyway), it's the "millionaires", and they consistently come off as cocky, adolescent fools, whether they are trying to find a woman too young for them, or insisting that a stripper pole in the middle of their living room is in no way offensive. And in 75% of the dates I witnessed, the women rejected the men, despite their money. Can I continue to watch this show and write for Bitch in good conscience?

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It’s Ladies’ Night on Project Runway

True Confessions: The Millionaire Matchmaker - WTF Am I Watching This?