[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like prepubescent fashion!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

From basically the time I was in kindergarten, I was ingrained with the understanding that this is how the system works: you go to school, you get good grades, you go to college, you get good grades, and then one day you get a job… so your kids can do it all over again. Aside from the incredible level of depressing involved in that, it was always my inherent understanding that this was the way things would work. Then I got into college and realized that job part wasn’t exactly a guarantee with a degree. Even more disconcertingly, it turns out that sometimes, for some lucky people, it works the other way around – getting offered a job before they’ve even finished college. The question is, is it a good idea to skip ahead a step.

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[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like ratings sites!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Ah fashion, you cruel, sadistic mistress. Unrealistic body image has always been part of the package, considering that most major designers only have a vague concept of what human anatomy even looks like, but historically they have at least pretended that their designs are created for full-grown women. Well, recently, Elle Fanning has become a fashion world darling, praised for her “ballet-dancer frame perfect for Rodarte and Valentino“… did I mention she’s 12? Yeah, she’s 12.

Now, I’m not trying to get down on Elle – she’s a very pretty young girl with a healthy build for her age. There’s nothing wrong with the way she looks (and I’m seething with envy that she’s already 5-foot-6); what’s wrong to me is that her lovely figure is being held up as a pinnacle for women’s fashion when she’s not, in fact, a woman yet. That “ballet-dancer frame”? That’s also known as ‘not-having-hit-puberty-yet’. We’re talking about fetishizing a child here! And in a world where we’re supposedly embracing different body-types and where curves are supposed to be making a come back. In this world, we’re really going to discuss a little girl’s body as something that major designers think that we should strive toward? How sick is that?

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[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like whether the first date is dead!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

There has been a lot of controversy lately over sites like RateBU, where pictures of girls are posted online and people vote on whether or not they’re hot. Yeah, I only wish I’d made that up. Regardless of whether you think this kind of thing is just fine or is a pathetic excuse for shallow douchbaggery, the question that a lot of schools are facing is – should this be allowed to happen? The question’s on the table ladies, let’s get to it!

Side A – We’re not talking about consensual sites here, where people post pics of themselves for others to judge. What we’re talking about is random people finding photos of others and posting them for the world to rate. Is it just me, or hasn’t cyber-bullying been one of the big hot button issues of the last few years… and isn’t this pretty much exactly the same thing? Whether the girls get rated well or not, it’s still submitting them for judgment and potential ridicule without their knowledge or acceptance. And particularly when these websites are affiliated or related to colleges, shouldn’t they be required to shut down this kind of content and punish the offenders the same way they would if someone, say, put up derogatory posters about someone else all over campus?

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[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like cyber spying!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

This week, in keeping with my usual studious habits, I was surfing around the internet watching cute cat videos when I came across this article which posed the question; is the first date dead? My instinctual reaction was that this is just another one of those things where people freak out because technology changes things, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if they don’t have a point.

Looking at it one way, OK, so maybe guys aren’t asking us down to the malt shop to share a giant milkshake with two straws, but so what? There was a time in history before the whole dating idea was around, isn’t it inevitable that at some point we would move beyond it?

Is it so bad that our society might lose something that most people dread and find painfully awkward? Is it such a bad thing if we ‘hang out’ with guys instead of being stuck sitting through dinner and a movie with a dude who won’t shut up about dressing his cats up as the Justice League for Halloween? Yeah, I’d really hate to miss out on that. Should we really be mourning the fact that now our first bits of information on a guy (besides, ‘holy crap, he’s hot’) come from his Facebook page instead of rumors our friends have heard and inane conversation over cheap food, because that sounds like a step forward to me.

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[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like transgender basketball players!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Who among us has never Facebook stalked? Anyone? Seriously, anyone? It’s easy and mostly harmless, so we all do it a little bit sometimes to see how much less awesome your ex’s new girlfriend is than you, or to find out if that cutie in you American Lit class is single (and into women). It’s not a big deal, right? But when does it cross the line? According to research, one third of women check their significant other’s web browser history to see what their partners been surfing and 1 in 10 has actually hacked into their SO’s email and personal accounts to keep an eye on them. Is this just a natural extension of our tech savvy, in-everybody’s-personal-business lives, or has technology turned us into creepy Fatal Attraction candidates?

On one side, I totally get it. You’re using your guy’s laptop and the history is right there, so easy to check; it’s the exact same allure that draws guys to want to know what we carry in our purses. It’s probably not that most of these women are checking to see if their guy is frequenting online dating sites or creepy fetish porn; more than likely it’s nothing more than simple curiosity, the same way you check out what’s on someone’s bookshelf to see what they like to read. The email thing, I have a little harder time with, but still, if there’s an insecurity there and a quick peek will make a girl feel better, then as long as the guy doesn’t have anything to hide, what’s the big deal?

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[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. And threats. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like the NCAA's first transgender player!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Next Friday marks the start of the holiday shopping season with the single most anticipated shopping day of the year here in the good ol’ USA – Black Friday. A day when stores mark down items to ludicrous sale prices and people all over the nation line up in the early dawn hours to snag those bargains (and occasionally trample their fellow human beings). My guy refers to Black Friday as his favorite holiday – I don’t get it. So I think it’s time we talked this one out, ladies.

Is Black Friday a do or a don’t?

As I said, my man is an avid Black Friday-er, so just this once, I’m going to let him chime in. In his own words, “Black Friday is Christmas for every college student, unemployed citizen, and starving artist, If you’re living paycheck to paycheck or in debt, this is the day when you don’t have to feel like the child left behind. It’s a celebration of capitalistic consumerism, when everything is supposed to be affordable for everyone. You have the chance to redeem your self-enforced diet of Ramen noodles and buy an Xbox360. You have the opportunity to erase some of the classist line that has you treading in the waters of lower middle-class. If you’ve got the guts to go for the glory, you can achieve your heart’s desire (commercially speaking) on this day.” Yep, that’s what I live with. Love you, baby! Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like is photoshopping wrong!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Recently Kye Allums became the first publicly transgendered student-athlete in NCAA history to play as a male identifying player on the George Washington University women’s basketball team. It’s a big step for transgendered athletes everywhere and first off I have to say kudos to him. Still, with any kind of groundbreaking change like this, some questions arise, and it’s time to weigh in.

The big, obvious question, of course, is where does Allums belong in the sexually segregated world of college basketball? Though he hasn’t yet undergone gender reassignment, Allums does plan to have the surgery over the summer before returning for his senior season. He has no plans to take testosterone, and therefore won’t have any hormonal advantage over the other players on the women’s team, so it seems as though it shouldn’t be an issue. But on a very base level one has to wonder how things are going to be affected. Obviously it would be unfair to expect Allums to play on the men’s team, because of the physiological differences including the lower testosterone levels, but at the same time, he is essentially a man playing on the women’s team.

What do we do with that? Where does that leave the lines that have been set up by the sport’s governing body? Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like sexy halloween costumes!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Photoshop has given the world some wonderful gifts – the ability to get rid of those red demon eyes you’re rocking  in pictures or erase that tequila bottle that mysteriously appeared in your hand (seriously, there must have been something on the lens, mom) before the pics hit Facebook, the power to waste incredible amounts of time laughing at crappy airbrushing, and, of course, the chance to discover what your holiday cards will look like once Jensen Ackles leaves his wife to be with you (no? Just me?). Photoshop has also committed some unspeakable horrors in the name of beauty and advertising, because we needed even more unrealistic expectations of attractiveness, right?

Recently, Rachael Leigh Cook (remember her?!) spoke out against the practice of airbrushing, going so far as to say that since false advertising is a crime and photo-correcting is essentially false advertising, then photoshopping in the media should be a crime. That’s quite a statement there, Rach – let’s go to the polls!

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[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like gay affirmative action!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

In the words of the immortal Mean Girls, “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” It’s a time honored Halloween tradition for girls to put on their best ‘sexy’ costume and go party, right? And costume companies have certainly raised the bar on options (Sexy Elmo and Sexy Hello Kitty, really?)  but is this really a good idea or are we just promoting a sexist stereotype?

Put on your debate club costumes ladies, time to get down to business.

On one side, why shouldn’t we be hot for Halloween? It’s college after all – the time when we’re at both our physical peak and the height of our sexual freedom, so sexed-up costumes seem like the perfect idea. It really is the one night you have absolute carte blanche to wear anything you want without worrying about getting the dreaded ‘skank stare of doom’ because every other girl in the place is going to be just as scantily clad. We’re adults now, and if anything, then at the very least we should be able to wear whatever we want with impunity – without having to deal with feminist implications and what people will think. It’s supposed to be a party, right? So why shouldn’t we get our sexy on? Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like whether we date men like our dads!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

It’s no secret that getting admission to a college (especially big names like the Ivy League) is kind of a crap shoot. Sure, you need the grades, the activities, the involvement; but we all also know that sometimes you can give your application a little nudge that has nothing to do with academics. Your parents worked two jobs each to help take care of you and your three siblings and it taught you the value of responsibility and family — admissions gold. Or you spent half of your childhood in another country and had to learn the wonder and struggles of adapting your proud cultural heritage to life in the Midwest — brilliant. These kinds of things have been a leg-up in the admissions process for years and now, it turns out, there’s a brand new one that schools are actively seeking out — LGBT.

That’s right, when just a couple of decades ago many people couldn’t RISK coming out in college, now schools are trying to recruit applicants from the LGBT community and while I have no qualms about that, I gotta wonder if it’s fair.

I have a long-standing record on this column of being pro gay rights, and that’s not a streak I plan on breaking, but this is one area where I have some serious mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s great that schools are being active with the gay community and embracing their students’ sexualities as a part of who they are. It’s wonderful that they’re going to an effort to show students that they can be open, active and comfortable in their school and embracing that the challenges faced by many LGBT students are character shaping  and meaningful. Good job, colleges! It’s also not really affirmative action, so it’s not as though schools are trying to fill a certain quota; it’s just that if a good applicant comes along with the added twist of being LGBT, then it might give him or her a little boost.

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