The author, a male senior at the school, claims he checked out the application, which places women into 24 set "types" and gives men tips and tricks on how to approach said women (and later post news of any conquests on Twitter-classy!) and after careful consideration, he doesn't believe it's sexist. Here's his argument:

After I looked through the application for a while longer, I had seen enough to conclude it is not sexist. Yes, OK, it does stereotype women into potentially offensive classifications. I'll give it that. But even though no one will ever admit it in mixed company, almost every guy talks like that regularly when in the presence of other men.

Or so I hear.

The truth is, while women are talking about relationships or their feelings or whatever women talk about amongst themselves, men are making crude and potentially offensive jokes like the ones on display in the Pepsi app. There's virtually no guy out there who genuinely believes women are objects - the average guy's sense of humor just stopped developing after he hit puberty, and that kind of thing is still funny to him.

So please, ladies, give the application a break. It's just trying to relate to guys on their level, childish and immature as that may be. The people at PepsiCo aren't trying to push a male chauvinist agenda on anyone; they're trying to sell drinks. Your time is much better spent protesting real issues, like sexual assault or the unrealistically high beauty standards for women in media … or that other feminist issue that I read about on the Pepsi app. It was something about employment discrimination, I think.

Ah, yes. The ol' "you ladies are just overreacting. Men talk like this all the time! What's the big deal?!" What's the big deal, eh? Like to hear it, here it go:

1. "Your time is better spent protesting real issues."

Guess what? Rape culture is a real issue. You argue that women should focus on sexual assault, but are seemingly unaware that products and images that present women as objects to be "won" ultimately contribute to a culture where it's deemed okay to actually treat women as objects. To brush such things off as an attempt "to sell drinks," shows a fairly limited understanding of the "real issues" you think the ladies out there need to get to.

2. The truth is, while women are talking about relationships or their feelings or whatever women talk about amongst themselves, men are making crude and potentially offensive jokes like the ones on display in the Pepsi app.

Sorry, dude. This may be the norm with your crew, but the entire world isn't an episode of Family Guy. Relying on sexist stereotypes to proclaim something isn't sexist undermines your argument a bit. Also? You might want to consider getting some new friends, or, you know, actually talking to a woman once in a while.

3. There's virtually no guy out there who genuinely believes women are objects - the average guy's sense of humor just stopped developing after he hit puberty, and that kind of thing is still funny to him.

This is like a bad 80s "Men are like this, women are like this" joke that was told at the Chuckles Club by a comedian with a mullet and a purple blazer merged with some Dr.Phil type fake psychosocial explanation for why men are the way they are. It is also ridiculous, unless some miracle just occurred and no man, anywhere on earth, believes women are objects. After reading this piece, and the weak defense the author gives, I think it's safe to say that miracle hasn't yet occurred.

New iPhone App Not Really Sexist [Reflector]
Earlier: Pepsi Releases iPhone App To Help Men Score With Women And Brag About It On Twitter

What with the economy in the tank and all, and Mad Men a cultural phenom, "Advertising" (which as we know is a big amorphous entity, kind of like "Media") is turning to nostalgia. Says a guy at Pepsi, which is unveiling some retro packaging: ""It's about yearning for the past, a simpler time, even though the '60s and '70s were not simple...They just seem simple, looking back."

Like Pepsi, the usual Capitalist suspects - think Mickey D's, Coke and General Mills - are resorting to vintage jingles and old timey logos to foster a sense of security and, presumably, both retro-low pricing and antique quality. Even in cases like Target, which didn't actually exist in the eras it's seeking to evoke. The results, however subconsciously comforting, are consciously mixed: for every "Fabric of Our Lives" return (Zooey Deschanel's apparently covering it, no less) there's an annoying "Meet the Buttertons," with all the subtlety of a Sam Mendes take on suburban malaise. And the "How Many Licks" Tootsie Pop campaign has yet to make its appearance - possibly due to unfortunate Urban Outfitters Ironic Shirt associations.

While the trends are obviously demo-driven, it's still peculiar to think that we're harking back not merely to times of tremendous civil and cultural unrest, but also economic instability. Are we supposed to take a "this too shall pass" attitude, or merely remember a time when we were too young to care? Alternatively, is the message more profound? Here, says PepsiCo, was Joy. In the midst of life we are in death. Live each day to the fullest because youth is not eternal. Or - horrifyingly - is this movement a cultural Dorian Gray of sorts? Are we just plastering over our problems with vintage packaging and familiar pabulum? I guess the answer will be in the numbers. (Which, ideally, will be brought to us via Mathnet.)

Warm And Fuzzy Makes A Comeback [NY Times]
The Touch, The Feel Of Nostalgia [AdAge]

The House yesterday voted on Obama's stimulus package — you know, the one he so badly wanted to have bipartisan support for that he stripped contraception funding from it? Well, despite pissing off everyone from Planned Parenthood to NOW to NARAL (on a day when the latter is laying people off), not a single Republican voted for the thing. White House aides like spokesman Robert Gibbs are trying to spin this as anything but a repudiation of Obama, his charm offensive, his policies or his plans for a post-partisan Washington and are claiming that it's the vote on the inevitable conference report — since the Senate bill is already different and about to get different-er with the addition of government-guaranteed mortgages to it in the Senate — but it's all kind of bullshit because they even lost 11 Democratic votes yesterday. And when you lose so bad that Republican Congressman Eric Cantor can say shit like "Keynesian economics doesn't hold a candle to the entrepreneurship that made this economy so prosperous up until the last six months" — even though he knows and I know his econ guys know that the government says the recession started in December 2007 — and no one calls him on it or thinks that's a completely false statement, you're losing ground fast. But, hey, the Senate will pass SCHIP fucking finally today and Obama will get his Ledbetter photo op and more people will say, "It's only been a week! Give him time!" in the face of criticism while the Republican National Committee holes up and tries to figure out a strategy to use all this and more to win back seats in the House and Senate in 2010, so everything will be ok. We can just rely on them continuing to campaign with their heads up their asses in order to keep Democratic majorities. That's a great strategy.

It's sort of almost as good as current Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's strategy to appear on every talk show known to man on Monday to claim his impeachment trial is a way to raise taxes on ordinary people in Illinois and then turn around and demand to give a closing statement and the impeachment trial that he's been skipping in order to disprove his obvious guilt to some perhaps gullible jurors. Or as good as Pepsi accusing the Obama camp of appropriating their imagery rather than the other way around. Or as good a strategy as being former McCain blogger Michael Goldfarb, who's gone back to "journalism" and is telling everyone that you'd have had to have been "a lunatic" to think McCain would win and that he was hired to do no less than attack his own supposed profession. Or, um, sending Obama to Canada on February 19th when everyone knows it will be fucking cold, but, hey, he's not a wimp like us D.C. folk when it comes to winter weather so it will be fine/appropriate karmic retribution. It's a day of great strategery all around, the likes of which we haven't seen for more than a week since GWB didn't let the door hit him on the ass on the way out.

• Very-pregnant Jennifer Garner and hubby Ben Affleck have been "spotted" entering Cedars-Sinai hospital: please let them dress the baby in a little top hat and "2009" banner! [TMZ]

• Turks and Caicos police have dropped all charges against both Hairspray kinda-star Nikki Blonsky and would-be Top Model Bianca Golden following July's rather unbecoming family rumble. Blonsky's father Carl still faces assault charges. [E]
• People magazine is denying that it has bought the rights to photographs of Bristol Palin and her newborn son, Tripp. Says the magazine's editor, ""Would we pay for a picture of her and her kid? I don't know. It's something I would consider. It's not something I would rule out of hand." Translation: he's still negotiating. [Anchorage Daily News]
• Somebody really ought to tell Paul Reiser he's dead, because Wikipedia Never Lies! According to the professional nebbish's bio, "On December 27th, 2008 Reiser was discovered dead in the Squallahassee River where he reportedly enjoyed fly fishing. No foul play was suspected." These exaggerated reports have since been removed. [E]
• Neither we nor Benji Madden had heard he was dating Britney Spears. Unlike us, he presumably would care. "That one was news to me. My friend called me and asked if I was dating Britney because he read it somewhere and I was like, what?" [People]
• Speaking of Britney! Her brother Bryan is getting married tonight, to Jamie-Lynn's manager Graciella Sanchez, a woman with an unnaturally high tolerance for this family. [Perez Hilton]
• Amy Winehouse and Blake Incarcerated have a Norwegian court date set for January 12th, following last year's drugs-possession arrest. [Yahoo]
• David Beckham and his temp team, AC Milan, have been forced by "the ruler of Dubai" to cancel their New Year's Eve partying out of solidarity with the Palestinians. We're sure that went over well with a group of Italian athletes. [Mirror]
• And Becks won't even have any free Pepsi to drink! He and the soft drink have split, to everyone's satisfaction. [Reuters]
• Oddly enough, Cloris Leachman will be the grand marshal of this year's Rose Bowl Parade. She says she will not dance in the streets, will do the coin toss before the game with Penn State. [AP]
• Kevin Costner's county music career makes us sad and uncomfortable. And he clearly has no relationship with Bodyguard costar Whitney Houston. [Extra]
• Marisa Tomei's unwillingness to say Mickey Rourke was difficult to work with makes it seem like Mickey Rourke was really difficult to work with. "There were no shenanigans on the set. That's all I'll say." [Parade]
• Queen Latifah has been robbed of $10,000 worth of jewels while vacationing in Black Rock Tobago, news which Perez Hilton still manages to try to use to out her. [Perez Hilton]
• Professional charmer Simon Baker has caught Election Fever! Quoth the Antipodean smoothie, "The morning after your election in November, I said to my wife Rebecca, ‘You know, I'm thinking about becoming an American,' and then she said that she felt the same way." Yeah, when you do, say hi to all those people who "moved to Canada" after the last election. [People]
• 30 Rock sneak peeks: need we say more? Okay, then, Tracy wears a shirt made out of money. [E]
• DJ AM sets the record straight, sort of. "I want to take a second to address the hurtful posts and clear up any misunderstandings any of you may have about my law suit. I would NEVER sue the deceased pilots' estates or personal holdings. I am more than grateful that I survived this horrible accident and I'd never try to take anything from those that didn't. Despite the misinterpretations of the lawsuit, this suit is against the insurance companies that insured the pilots. I'm not after Sarah's or James' personal estates nor their property. Everyone involved in this suit has suffered a great deal, and I would not do anything to make matters worse for the deceased family and friends." It still doesn't really explain why you're suing but...carry on! [Perez Hilton]

• The number of HIV infections in gay and bisexual men in China jumped from 0.4% in 2005 to 3.3% in 2007 and women with HIV in Yunnan increased by 27.9%. • A British nurse at a nursing conference has revealed that she gave a disabled teen boy an artificial vagina to ease his sexual frustration. • Indra Nooyi, the chairman and CEO of Pepsi Co. was ranked the most powerful woman of 2008 by Fortune. • A recent Australian study suggests that women who smoke have a greater chance of developing major depressive disorder over non-smoking women. • A Portuguese woman was arrested in England while still in her wedding dress after police spotted her with a man who wasn't her new husband immediately after the ceremony. • A Happiness Index study suggests that Australian men are the happiest while having sex or using the internet while Australian women enjoy eating a meal with family and playing with pets or children. • The London Zoo will seek $10 million to create a new big cat enclosure after it found that a male and female tiger were fighting rather than mating. • A German choir makes a splash at the Cologne Philharmonie with songs made up of grumblings and moans about everyday things. • A 27-year-old Florida woman punched a 17-year-old boy and threatened him with a baseball bat after he refused to hand over the TV remote. • A Washington state man was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison for forcing or manipulating young women into becoming prostitutes—charges that he denies. • A Michigan woman picked her 92-year-old grandma to be her matron of honor at her wedding because she is her "best friend." • Bankruptcy among senior citizens has increased due to the increased presence of debt, rising prices for ordinary consumer products and a lack of a safety net for fixed-income seniors when a medical emergency hits. • British women spend nearly $53 million a year on corrective surgery as a result of wearing high heels for too long and too often. • A 70-year-old woman from Kentucky who took up fencing less than 20 years ago is preparing to compete at the World Cup in Paris for the senior fencing champion title. •