Blog Posts by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

Technology has advanced since the Disney era of "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid," but female characters haven't. A new study of 122 top-grossing domestic family films found that female characters much more likely to be sexualized and used as eye-candy than male characters.

"Zero progress has been made in what is specifically aimed at kids," says Geena Davis. Yup, that Geena Davis. Her organization, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media Research, funded the study by USC. "What children see affects their attitudes toward male and female roles in society. And, as they watch the same shows and movies repeatedly, negative stereotypes are imprinted over and over again."

And what's being imprinted are a lot of breasts and not a whole lot more. The study examined G, PG and PG-13 rated family films released between 2006-2009 and found that 24% of the female characters are dressed in "sexy, tight or alluring" attire. Compare that to the 4% of men dressed equally minimally.

Even if

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Know what else is a dish best served cold? Jello. This Thanksgiving the old-school desert is getting a new school makeover, courtesy of the internet.Some of the best and brightest food bloggers have put their creative impulses to the test and concocted 21st century molds out of 20th century gelatin.

(ThinkStock Photos)Real talk: Giving isn't always better than receiving. That's especially true when you spend more than you expected. Despite the rash of holiday discounts, hidden fees and fine print policies can end up adding to your expenses without you even knowing it. But in the frenzy of gift-gathering, who wants to harp on the details? That's what Consumer Reports is for. This week, the retail watchdog released its list of companies that are "naughty or nice" when it comes to holiday shopping. Their round-up offers insight into some of the secret costs of being Santa-like. Hint: they're not exactly nice.

1. Restocking fees. Several electronic stores try to offset or reduce the cost of exchanges by adding hidden deductions on returns. Consumer Reports singles out CompUSA for charging up to 25 percent of the purchasing price on any products "the retailer decides doesn't meet its criteria." What that means is if you purchase a laptop for $700, the store may deduct $175 if your recipient tries to

Read More »from 5 hidden costs of holiday shopping

It's hard to remember a time when Banana Republic didn't look like the fashionable heir to the Apple Store. The sleek, white trademark design is accented only by muted silk blouses, silver jewelry, and black and white photography featuring models in urban office settings. But back in the '80s, the store was the color of sawdust. And you had to walk around the hull of a Jeep to get to the safari jacket you've been coveting ever since you fell in love with Paul Hogan.

As holiday shopping season goes into full-swing, let's harken back to a purer time of retail, when our favorite chain stores were still off-line and their signature looks were still being folded to perfection by the stars of "Reality Bites."

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The royal couple and the ring that rocked the world. (AFP/Getty)

Ever since Prince William announced his engagement to Kate Middleton last week, the 18-carat oval sapphire on the finger of the world's most famous bride-to-be became instantly coveted by women all over the world. The $60,000 gem, adorned with 14 smaller white diamonds, once belonged to Lady Di. But-thanks to a flurry of recent replicas-affordable versions are now available to non-royals.

"Everyone wants to feel like a princess," says Evan Guttman of The Natural Sapphire Company. Guttman's New York jewelry shop was the first to announce a recreation of the royal engagement piece, after William gave word of his proposal to the press. The company's version is now out-selling everything on their site.

[Photo: 'Twilight' inspires knock-off engagement ring]

"We've been getting requests from Russia to Japan," says Guttman, whose website crashed last Tuesday, the day of the Wills and Kate engagement news, due to an overwhelming amount of searches. "We did a lot of research

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(photo via propgoluxury.com)
It's never a good sign when your husband buys a two-bedroom apartment in another country. Eva Longoria may have picked up on that when she filed for divorce on Wednesday from NBA star Tony Parker. More than a month ago, Parker posed for photos in front of his new $8 million bachelor pad in Lake Geneva.

So when Parker revealed today how NOT shocked he was about his divorce proceedings, we believed him.

If you're in the business of high-end real estate, you may have gotten a press release in October touting the NBA player as its newest resident. He even did a solo photo shoot for the complex. Strangely, there's not a mention of his famous wife.

"NBA San Antonio Spurs basketball star Tony Parker has bought an apartment in the luxury "Du Parc Kempinski Private Residences" above Lake Geneva, Switzerland, which looks out onto stunning views of the Alps. [The] former Grand Hotel that was built in 1906, in the architectural mould of the Grand Hotels of the beginning of the century and willRead More »from Welcome to Tony Parker's $8 million bachelor pad

It's the Kama Sutra celebrity style. Face to face, side by side or from behind, stars have taught us everything we need to know about selling sex.

This week, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway offered three more positions in the name of promoting their new movie "Love & Other Drugs."

They're on three different covers of Entertainment Weekly in various nudist romantic embraces. The response from critics and bloggers has ranged from overly-excited to crying "awkward." But no one is looking away.

And that's a good thing for a flailing magazine industry, according to Christopher John Farley in a recent post on WSJ.com. "The magazine industry has been in trouble for a number of years now, which may be one reason why we're seeing a rash of disrobed stars on the front covers of various periodicals."

It's one thing to disrobe for a cover, it's another to engage in the hug. To put it lightly, the hug is like calling in the big guns.

Back in 1976, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson

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As the abortion debate continues to take new forms on the internet, the most pervasive may be through merchandise. We came across several online stores selling clothing emblazoned with graphic images in support of either side of the issue. In the heated debate concerning a woman's body, should fashion play a role in protest?

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