ColumnWho knows if Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus’ VMA confrontation was staged or not. It doesn’t really matter. But what does matter is that the stars’ heated brush up clearly brought to light the problem that is white feminism.

Let’s recap the whole Cyrus/Minaj scuff up first. It all started when Minaj got in a Twitter feud with Taylor Swift. Swift felt hurt when Minaj called out the VMA nominators for omitting her incredibly popular videos (“Anaconda” and “Feeling Myself”) from the award show’s nominees.

Minaj took to Twitter  in July to vent about how race plays a big role everywhere, stating: “If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.” And she has a point. Slim, white bodies are “the norm” when it comes to projecting beauty in Hollywood and its periphery. This tweet made Swift think that Minaj was attacking her, and she responded with the following tweet: “I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.”

Since then, Swift has apologized and Minaj accepted the pop star’s response. All was settled. And then came Miley…

Before Miley took the stage to host the VMAs, Cyrus did an interview the New York Times to promote the event. When the Times inevitably asked the controversial pop star about Minaj’s tweets, Cyrus responded in a pretty boneheaded way. Here’s the basic synopsis of her silly words via Teen Vogue:

“‘I saw that. I didn’t really get into it. I know there was some beef.’ Later on in the interview, she takes Nicki to task for not speaking to Taylor ‘with openness and love’ because ‘there’s a way to speak to people.’ Instead, she continues (now speaking to Nicki), ‘You made it about you. Not to sound like a bitch, but that’s like, ‘Eh, I didn’t get my VMA.’’ She finally finished with: ‘What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite.’”

Cyrus’ remarks are problematic for multiple reasons:

1. Teen Vogue aptly points out that Miley really screwed up when she policed Minaj’s “tweeting” tone. “White women chastising women of color (namely, black women) and policing their tone instead of listening or acknowledging their feelings is the epitome of White Feminism (that is, feminism that focuses on women as a whole without considering the differing experiences of LGBT women or women of color),” Teen Vogue reports.

2. The Vogue article also points out that Miley expects to be treated equally and freely no matter her sexual preference, but she did an absolutely marvelous job policing Minaj’s behavior.

3. In Miley’s NYT comments, she also asks Minaj to focus on bigger issues. I don’t know, but last time I checked it was pretty problematic when a black woman feels she’s being discriminated against because she’s not tall, white, and thin. I want to hear what Minaj has to say because I think the issues she’s trying to bring to light are incredibly important.

Now, we know that the issues surrounding white feminism are deeper than a conflict between two pop icons. But it’s these pop versions of conflict that bring the concept of white feminism into the public’s eye. I, for one, had no idea white feminism existed a mere few years ago. But I realized that I, too, have been a white feminist at times. But knowing my own ignorance opened my eyes to the reality that women of color make less money than white women, and have to clear many more obstacles than white women to achieve the same things.

Inclusive feminism should be the only feminism that people strive to follow. Because while all women are created equal, they sure as hell aren’t treated equal. And every white woman needs to wake-up and realize that.

Related on EcoSalon

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5 Powerful TED Talks By Women About Women Breaking Barriers

Image via Tumblr

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ColumnRecent Twittersphere flare-ups featuring Rashida Jones and Sinéad O’Conner “slut-shaming” pop-culture irritant Miley Cyrus and others for their fleshy outbursts drew swift backlash from some members of the feminist community and bitter online battles among women. What’s a man to make of all this?

Growing up in a liberal family in the ‘70s got me thinking. I cheered as Billie Jean King thrashed Bobby Riggs on the tennis court, watched in awe as millions jammed Washington to protest anti-women legislation and celebrated the Roe v. Wade triumph. I loved my mother that much more for proudly wearing her ERA bracelet (serendipitous though it was, as those also happened to be her initials) and followed her example when it came to developing my worldview regarding women and politics. All told, my support for feminism was indelibly engrained as far back as I can remember.

As an undergraduate, I read Andrea Dworkin and Betty Friedan, marched in “take back the night” campaigns and volunteered as a campus escort. It wasn’t front and center in my life, but I did my best to keep my testosterone in check in my relationships and outlook, and play by the rules as I saw them regarding the movement and its tenets, and their implications for my thinking and lifestyle.

To be clear, while I called myself a feminist (and still do), I look back with no illusions that my insensitivities didn’t lead to plenty of bad behaviors. I was guilty of my share of objectification (still am), and my ignorance and lack of empathy reared their heads on too many occasions. Yet, by and large, I embraced (accepted, I should say) the vilification of such shortcomings. I even tried to understand how someone could see my penis as a weapon.

Of course, it wasn’t always easy staying oriented in this sociopolitical context. One example of weird crossfire was in my studies. I was a lit guy, more or less, and clearly remember the icy stare of the prof who refused to read my thesis on Kerouac because the writer was a “pig.” Another one threw (as in slammed) a copy of Homer’s Odyssey to the floor during class, saying the work was “full of male crap” and that the canon was “rigged.” As the editor of a campus literary magazine, I witnessed and was dragged into numerous battles between the sexes—and I didn’t dare publish any of my own erotica as I was sure my take was poisoned by my pen (or sword, as it were).

Most of this kind of thing was anecdotal to my experience, not pervasive, and all told I manned up and surfed the Second Wave as best I could, learning life lessons along the way. But as the end of the century drew nearer, things began to change. The Feminist Sex Wars heated up, Madonna showed up as the anti-virgin and Chrissie Hynde began shooting her mouth off. The feminist tent grew bigger and the women I knew were no longer playing by the hard and fast rules I grew up with, as liberation took on a new, more inclusive and individualized sensibility. Relations between the sexes were suddenly less clear and, just as my fathers before me must have struggled to keep pace with change, I found myself tripping and bumbling and trying to understand, rethink and act accordingly.

The questions came fast: What, exactly, did all these changes mean and what, exactly, was becoming “okay” in this shifting paradigm? Could I flip on the porn? Did I dare admit that I secretly thought objectification was at times underrated? And why is that chick hitting on me? Does her T-shirt really say that? Did she just say that?! Part of me, of course, was delighted by this turn of events. Another part, seasoned in old-school sexual politics, had no idea what to do. Understandable, I guess, when seeing the world through the eyes of what is or isn’t politically correct.

To the “it’s a not about you” voices out there, fair enough, but I should say that it’s not just the fact that I’m a guy that made me attempt to see this evolution through my own lens. It’s human nature to ask what does this mean to me, particularly when it’s not about you and in many ways empathy cannot be part of the equation. Besides, I had women friends and lovers, and processing how those relationships were affected by such changes was at the very least polite, and at best simply the right thing to do.

This is now…

Today, Third-Wave Feminism has come of age (with a fourth purportedly taking shape), and it’s largely credited with invigorating and in many ways saving the movement. In terms of sexual expression, the footprint is everywhere—from the Suicide Girls to Yes Means Yes, there are countless articulations of the sex-positive moment. Just the other week, in fact, a woman friend and I were discussing how the word cunt is being happily retrieved for delightful usage by many of its owners. On the (more) popular front, we have Miley Cyrus merrily swinging along on her wrecking ball (spoiler: bad art alert), and Rihanna crooning, “come here rude boy/boy can you get it up?”

Not everyone is of the same mind though, as evidenced by recent online flames when Rashida Jones and Sinéad O’Conner weighed in negatively on Miley et al. Watching the slut-shaming and “what is feminism?” debate erupt, I thought about how much the world has changed since I was young—and about all those old struggles on the okay vs. not okay front. To her credit, Jones, addressing the issue in a Glamour article, asked men to weigh in: “Men: WHERE ARE YOU??? Please talk to us about how all this makes you feel. You are 49 percent of the population; don’t sit around and let women beat one another up while you intermittently and guiltily enjoy the show. Speak up! We care what you think!”

So okay, Rashida, here it goes:

Looking back, many of the questions I used to ask myself about how to react to women (and female expression) were off the mark. The fact of the matter is that too often we see the world and our fellow inhabitants through a social or political lens, leaving out one critical fact—people are people first, and men, women and the trans community are each a subset of that. Forget the relationship with the movement—we’re at our best when we treat humans with humanity, not when we try to define, limit and sometimes even understand others.

What does this mean? Well, call it trial and error, but I’ve come to realize that my most successful relationships—and best behaviors—happen when I drop the perceived definitions and flailing, biased judgments. Not to diminish my own, personal politics (to which I remain deeply committed), but what was most important about how I was raised was not how to be a feminist, but rather why to be feminist. Compassion and respect come first, said and modeled my mother. It’s not about gender—and being politically correct isn’t the core issue. The real question we must ask ourselves is, are we humane? To my boys (now interesting and respectable men), my mantra was always “be nice to everyone you meet and watch out for cars.” Be kind and be safe. That’s really all you need to know—at least that’s where it’s best to begin.

So, Rashida, what do I think? Well, my penchant for naked aside, I think Miley pretty much sucks. (Let’s just say her work is not to my taste.) Rihanna’s talent is, in a word, overwhelming (and Chris Brown is a criminal), and you, Rashida, are a brilliant actress. Sinead? Two things: that voice changed me back in the day and, sorry, but she turned me on something fierce. As for how each of you influence our culture—and younger women in particular—I’ll just say keep doing what you think is best. Your audiences (and perhaps their parents) can take it from there.

In the end it’s on us men to check ourselves, not on women to censor how they express themselves. I recently saw a powerful photograph of an attractive topless woman at a protest event with this scrawled across her naked breasts: “It’s still not okay to rape me.” I admit that I lingered over the image for a few extra seconds for prurient reasons, but what truly resonated for me is the truth of those words. And how, person-to-person feminism aside, and no matter what we believe about anything else in this world, she’s right. And that’s all we really need to know—or at least that’s where it’s best to begin.

Scott Adelson is EcoSalon’s Senior Editor of HyperKulture, a monthly column that explores opening cultural doors to initiate personal change. He is also the author of InPRINT, which reviews and discusses books, new and old. You can reach him at scott at adelson dot org and follow him @scottadelson on Twitter.

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HyperKulture: In Swoon’s Way – Time traveling and Staring Down Florence Syndrome

InPrint: On the Road, Again – Revisiting Jack Kerouac

Images: PNG etc (top) and PeterTea

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When it comes to how we talk about young women and sexuality, Miley’s twerk is the least of our problems.

Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance took over the news cycle this week. There was outrage about slut-shaming—why was everyone disgusted by her but not by Robin Thicke? There was a gut feeling among many that Miley Cyrus’ performance was racist, but no one summed up why better than blogger Cate with her post, “Solidarity Is For Miley Cyrus: The Racial Implications of Her VMA Performance.” If you read one more post about the twerk heard around the world, make it Cate’s.

There was reaction [yawn] from the Thicke and Cyrus families and endless cable news coverage of the VMAs mocked aptly by The Onion. So, yeah, everyone (myself included) is spending the week obsessing over a young 20-year-old white woman appropriating black culture, abusing her tongue muscles and rubbing her junk all over a guy old enough (36) to be her creepy uncle.

But something else happened this week that, by comparison, barely made headlines. A teacher who raped his 14-year-old student was sentenced to 30 whole days in jail. In 2008, the girl was raped by her 49-year-old teacher, Stacey Dean Rambold. The victim-blaming in this case started at the top, with this statement from Judge G. Todd Baugh: “It’s not probably the kind of rape most people think about. It was not a violent, forcible, beat-the-victim rape, like you see in the movies. But it was nonetheless a rape. It was a troubled young girl, and he was a teacher. And this should not have occurred.” He has since apologized, but the sentiment is clear.

Maybe if the rape had been more like a movie rape, the victim would still be alive. But just a few weeks before her 17th birthday, she took her own life. After confessing, the rapist was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He confessed to raping a child and got 30 days. One month. Because, you know, like a girl who died at 16, his life is sorta ruined, too.

After the sentencing, the victim’s mother shouted at the court, “You people suck.” She went on to point out in a statement, “Judge Baugh, who never met our daughter, justified the paltry sentence saying she was older than her chronological age. I guess somehow it makes a rape more acceptable if you blame the victim, even if she was only 14.”

Older than her age. Does that mean she wore lipstick? Low-cut shirts? Flirted with her teacher? Sought attention? Asked for it? Or, does it somehow connect to the idea that we’re so accustomed to seeing young women on display that kids are fair game for sexual predators?

I am not implying that Miley Cyrus was coerced into her performance, or that Thicke is a rapist—and I’m definitely not saying that the staged performance we saw on the VMAs is akin to what happened to this teenager in Montana. Cyrus is an adult woman who makes a living performing—but it’s hard to forget that only a few years ago, she was simply child star, Hannah Montana.

As a culture, we sexualize young women—just look back a few years to the countdown to Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s 18th birthday. I am pretty sure no one was waiting to see who they would vote for. We make it unsafe for girls to experiment with their sexuality and figure out who they want to be as women. We tell them that sexy is cool and being provocative will make people like them. Then, when older men (or women) take advantage of them, we slut-shame them and blame them for being victims of crimes.

Not for nothing, PornHub released a study of keyword searches by state this week. “Teen” was the top search in seven states.

Image: PVBroadz

Related on EcoSalon:

Slut-Shaming: That Happened

10 Ways the World Still Tries to Rule Women’s Bodies

Really, Sexy Baby Voice? + Bustle Debuts: That Happened

The post Miley’s Twerk: That Happened appeared first on EcoSalon.

For female performers, over-sexualized, bawdy acts are held up to an extreme double standard. So when is a raunchy girl compelling and when is she horrible? Here’s how Comedy Central star Amy Schumer makes it work.

How do you solve a problem like Miley? Cyrus, that is, of twerking, tongue-thrusting fame. The Disney Princess recently caused the Internet to collapse into itself with her questionable performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards. Only now the screams of slut-shaming, culture misappropriation, and unfortunate foam finger abuse are starting to ever-so-slightly fade.

But while some seem to take issue with Mizz-Cyrus-if-you’re-nasty’s hyper-sexualized performance, an equal majority just question her execution. Gawker sums it up, writing “Cyrus’ performance was a pop rendering of clanking teeth, an elbow to the face, bodies that never quite find the right rhythm.”

Even bête noire feminist Camille Paglia emerged to cluck at Cyrus, calling her “clumsy, flat-footed and cringingly unsexy, an effect heightened by her manic grin.”

Oh right, there’s a man in this scandal, too.

Sure, Cyrus’ performance was judged through the lens of society’s expectations of feminine sexuality. Clearly, there’s a harsh double standard at play when co-performer’s Robin Thicke’s own mother said she can’t “unsee” the 20-year-old putting her butt so closely to her married, 36-year-old son.

But it’s also unquestionable that Cyrus’ spastic thrusting, twerking, and tonguing on stage was just weird, unpolished, and off-putting.

For many of us, it’s not that Cyrus did anything so shocking, it’s that she did something so shocking so badly. Own your sexuality, girl, but don’t make us think of thrusting lizard tongues and childish dancing bears while doing it. (And in case you’re just emerging from a week-long coma and missed her performance, you’re welcome.)

But had Miley come out on stage and flawlessly executed her emergence into féminité, she might have had more support from the feminist Olds like me. Trust me, there’s an instinct to support her, uh, flowering into sensuality. But truth be told, I was way too distracting desperately Googling if a tongue can really be that long and fleshy. In the end, blame the tongue. Cyrus used it to try to make a statement, but ended up tripping all over it.

So when does a female performer cross the line and get it right?

Meet Amy Schumer. Writer, star, and executive producer of “Inside Amy Schumer,” the comedienne just helmed her first season on Comedy Central. Schumer’s premiere scored the highest ratings for the network so far this year and was recently renewed for a second season.

To which we say—Brava! Critics and audiences agree, Schumer is f—ing hilarious. (Blank spelling courtesy of me not being Amy Schumer.) It’s not just Comedy Central who thinks so. Universal Pictures just optioned her script with Judd Apatow set to produce.

As Deadline Hollywood writes, “Always on the lookout for actresses with breakout potential for R-rated comedies, Judd Apatow [producer of Bridesmaids and HBO’s Girls] thinks he has found a winner in Amy Schumer.”

“Inside Amy Schumer” is a mix of sketches, stand-up and interviews which showcase topics like dieting, threesomes, sexting, racism, and cancer. Sex is a frequent subject for Schumer, whose 2012 special for Comedy Central was entitled “Mostly Sex Stuff.” She often delves into so many verboten topics that she could cause the spontaneous combustion of a thousand parental advisory boards.

But here’s the deal with Schumer—when she’s crossing lines, she’s taking you with her. As EW succinctly points out, “Lately, too many of the talented funnywomen [Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler, et all] who’ve earned their own shows are trying a little too hard to appeal to men, always professing their love of rape jokes and threesomes and Philly cheesesteaks and openmouthed burping.”  Which is funny to….openmouthed burping men. Small lap dogs. That baby trapped in a Pack-and-Play?

As Schumer recently told Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, she’s always been a sexual girl, and sex is something she talked about with her friends. “I didn’t grow up hearing any women really delving into that side of themselves,” Schumer shares, “So I thought, ‘OK, maybe I can be this person for women and for men just to hear the women’s perspective in a less apologetic, honest way.’”

Judge for yourself. Here’s Schumer doing stand-up. (Warning: This is NSFW.)




And here’s a clip from “Inside Amy Schumer.” (Which you can watch with your trapped baby.)




Even the show’s title, “Inside Amy Schumer” immediately lends itself to a blue connotation, insinuating that the comic isn’t afraid to tread on territory traditionally held by men. But sex in comedy is almost male by default—you’d be hard-pressed to find a comedian who doesn’t address sex in some capacity. In fact, it’s even considered noteworthy when comics operate outside raunchy, as evidenced by successful comedian Jim Gaffigan’s reputation as “clean.”

So for a female performer entering traditionally male ground, she’s facing the age-old issues typical to women in all male-dominated fields. She has to be better than good—she has to be hilarious yet relatable, unapproachable yet attainable. She has to be an Amy Schumer. If she’s going to be sexual, she damn well better entertain.

And if she doesn’t? She’s tasteless, boring, or worst of all, raunchy. Then she’s just Miley Cyrus, whose tongue has to be longer than the average four inches. It has to be.

Photos courtesy of MTV and Comedy Central.

For further reading:
Tina Fey Makes the Screams Go Away

Can a New Outlook on Sex Save the World?

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This week on Green TV – a not so sustainable chef disappoints foodies and the Disney kids band together to make Friends for Change.

Rick Moonen Not So Sustainable Chef on the “Top Chef Masters” Finale

Rick Moonen shocked both the foodie and green worlds last week with his final presentation in the “Top Chef Master’s” competition. The chef, who judge Jay Rayner referred to as “the sustainability guy,” is known for his environmentally conscientious seafood cooking.

In the season finale, the last three competitors were asked to prepare a dish that best represented who they were as a chef. Moonen’s seemed like an obvious choice to anyone who knew his work. He made some eco-friendly fish dish, right? Wrong.

Rick ended up preparing venison with matsutake mushrooms, pear butter, and stuffed cipollini onions. Wa-hat?

Adding insult to injury, as far as many of his devotees were concerned, the meat was flown in from New Zealand. That’s the way to expand your global footprint in one small meal.

When confronted by the judges, who loved the food but seemed baffled that Moonen would stray so far from his roots (and principals), the finalist gave a really straightforward answer, “I’m not a treehugger. I am a chef. I’m in a cooking competition. I need to be a chef and that’s why I decided to go that way.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Sustainability, he probably should have stuck with some nice local seafood. When all was said and done, he came in second to Marcus Samuelsson.

The Disney Kids Promote Change

For those of us who think the kids who work for the Disney Channel (like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Demi Lovato) are just a conflicted mess of stripper poles and promise rings, good news comes from the ‘tween-centric network.

Disney’s Friends for Change campaign just celebrated its one-year anniversary by revamping their program and releasing a slew of new PSAs. Close to 40 kids who star on Disney shows – including the above mentioned as well as Selena Gomez, Brandon Mychal Smith, and Mitchel Musso – have come together to help promote kid friendly ways to save the planet.

The on-air messages, now showing on Disney Channel, feature the Mouse House stars passing on environmental tips to kids and encouraging them to go to disney.com/friendsforchange to “reg and pledge.” By joining the campaign, kids vow to take small eco-friendly steps and also get to vote on which green projects Disney will support with $1 million in donations. Plus, really motivated kids can apply for grants to fund environmental efforts in their communities.

In a Disney press release, senior VP of Corporate Responsibility Jennifer Anopolsky said, “Kids are discovering that helping the planet is easy and fun when they work together and have the right tools.”

From simple tasks like taking shorter showers to bigger ideas like organizing beach clean-ups, the Disney kids are going green. Finally a message for ‘tweens that we can get behind.

Tune in next time to see what’s cropping up on green TV.

Image: Isabella Vosmikova/Bravo

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Last week the Gap, in collaboration with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, launched their newest collections at their Fifth Avenue concept store.

The collection features sustainable jewelry designs from Monique Péan, menswear from Patrik Ervell and luxe women’s wear by designer Sophie Théallet. The trio was titled by the CFDA in 2009 as “The most celebrated in the industry.”

We celebrate Monique for making the grade as a sustainable designer with this pack!

While some of Péan’s organic materials sound a little exotic (water snake skin beads and naturally shed buffalo horns), there’s still something to be said of a designer working with a big box store who supports eco-friendly designs.

This is nothing new. We’ve seen collaborations with Payless, H&M, Target and Kohl’s and we all praise the initiative these companies have taken to make sustainable strides (some more than others). But why does it always come back to one particular big box store screwing it all up?

Case in point? Wal-Mart, a company that tries to convince us that they’re doing so much for us and the environment.

But according to a recent ecouterre post regarding lead tainted accessories from a popular Wal-Mart collaboration with Miley Cyrus, price tags shouldn’t be our worst fear when it comes to shopping.

Editor Jasmin Malik Chua writes: “Just last month, the big-box retailer yanked an entire line of Miley Cyrus-brand necklaces and bracelets from its shelves after tests performed for the Associated Press found they contained high levels of the toxic metal cadmium.”

Though marketed for adults (because so many adults wear Miley Cyrus jewelry), safety issues regarding the jewelry going in one’s mouth was cause for alarm.

CBS news reports, “the items are not known to be dangerous if they are simply worn but concerns come when youngsters bite or suck on the jewelry, as many children are apt to do.”

CBS concludes that “Federal regulators’ own research says that kids start becoming interested in making their own jewelry around age six or eight. As for products featuring Miley Cyrus, she is 17 and her appeal reaches down to kindergartners. ”

Maybe instead of tutoring musicians older than her on American Idol, child star Cyrus should learn how to create and collaborate sustainable with an adult like Monique Péan. After all, Cyrus is just a child. Better yet, Wal-Mart could spend some time carefully investigating their collaborations so they can stop looking like, well, schmucks?

The post Buffalo Horns, Snake Skin and Cadmium? appeared first on EcoSalon.

We wish more of you in the spotlight would bask in the green light, including Olympic poster boys, platinum-capped rappers and Hollywood idols who consume our fascination. What they own, where they live, what they drive, what they wear, what they eat: It drives our popular culture.

Imagine the potential impact of the young and wasteful who make the choice to get on board the eco movement beyond peddling torn tights and alternative energy fluids like Red Bull.

True, not every ingenue puts herself on the line, like Hayden Panettiere, who traveled to the Japanese village of Taiji to protest the dolphin slaughter. And not every handsome screen idol can fill Leo’s shoes, lending his support to countless causes, like the upcoming Christie’s International Green Auction to raise mega bucks for four non-profit environmental organizations.

We don’t judge the slackers harshly because, well, the dangling adverts and chauffeured SUVs are hard to pass up. But we urge the following stars to try out for a more worthwhile role, that of sustainable spokesperson for a hurting planet.

Shaun White Red Bull and Target Line: Adverts Not Medal-Worthy

The world’s best uber-snowboarder and top money maker can make a huge dent by being more selective about endorsements, promoting healthy, sustainable products. But Shaun White has aligned himself as an extreme Red Bull energy drinker (should we drink it to board like him?) and a line of boy’s wear at Target to name a few. Some of the garments are cotton (and not organic) but the sweats contain a lot of plastic polyester. This would have been a great chance to score a green eco line, a hot move for sure. After all, his Target advert made the screen at Times Square. That’s power!

Sean Kingston: My Super 18 Reflective of Phat-Pack Lavish Cribs and Bling

The five pound gold watch says it’s time for Sean to green his act. Perhaps a casualty of MTV Cribs and other entertainment flaunting the lavish lives of the rich and blung, the rapper’s idea of  a birthday is staging a Super 18 bash at Jungle Beach in Jamaica with his entourage, iced in $100,000 of new jewelry and adding a new car to his fleet. The native of Kingston could do so much more to send the right message. Conspicuous consumption? Zzz.

Lindsay Lohan Has Holes in Her Eco Story

Perpetually in trouble (last stint was falling into a patch of succulents), Lohan is adding hand bags to her questionable 6126 fashion line, which also includes green leggings. She needs to go the way of Project Runway’s Leeann Marshall and others who are investing in green that is more sustainable than trashy. In this case, Mama may actually know best because Dina Lohan launched an eco-friendly toothbrush that might get more support that the 6126 hose. Lohan should really get on board the green bus with true commitment, forgoing the junk food and drugs and getting healthy to set an example for her fans.

Miley Cyrus Needs to Deliver that Eco Line without Inconsistencies

“I’m a vegetarian but I hate vegetables and eat pasta everyday,” she was quoted saying, as thousands of young fans listed with baited breath. Great. One day she is reaching out to recruit green teens. The next she is swapping out her Toyotoa Prius for a Mercedes SUV. Ecorazzi says Miley blames the recall but the truth is her dog outgrew the hybrid. This is a mega rich, red hot star who has cashed in on her Hanah Montana products – most of them cheesy polyester girl’s wear sold at Sears, Walmart, Macy’s and other big box stores. Even her Target bedding (what kids breathe in nightly), is filled with toxic textiles. Why not use the good stuff, Miley? You would be even richer when it comes to promoting healthy living.

Team Beckham: Gas-Guzzling Cars, Real Estate, Mega Miles, Sugar Adverts, $1.5 million Shopping Sprees

One critic of the soccer star went so far as to accuse him of “causing global warming.” That’s because the family man (Victoria and three little forwards), reportedly among other accusations, owns a fleet of 15 cars (including an Escalade) and racked up more than 250,000 frequent flier miles last year. And he can spend the money he earns to bend. According to MSN, he spent a cool three grand to fly his pampered bulldog pup in luxury from England to Beverly Hills through a VIP service that included special care. He also has endorsed high sugar products, a no-no for athletes and greenies alike. Then again, wife Victoria is said to own $2 million in Hermes Birkin bags, and reportedly dropped $1.5 million shopping for a single season in Milan, claiming “shopping is like a drug.” Yep, that’s why most of us stay away from Via Montenapoleone when in Milan.

Images: alacoolb, Style News, Ecorazzi, Infobarrtell, Addict, Hauteliving

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