"Coca-Cola's "It's Beautiful" ad, that aired during Sunday night's Super Bowl, sought to portray ethnic diversity in the U.S. by featuring "America the Beautiful" sung in several languages. The many different kinds of people in the ad - Hispanics, cowboys, Muslims, Jews and Asians - were all implicitly united by their identity as "American." But not everyone was happy with Coke's celebration of diversity in the country. After the ad was aired, Twitter lit up with commentary  under various hashtags (such as #SpeakAmerican) critical of the company. Some commenters found it disrespectful to sing "America the Beautiful" in any language other than English, while others said immigrants need to learn English to live in the United States."

"Melissa Atkins Wardy calls it her "a-ha" moment. There she was looking for her first sippy cup for her then 6-month-old daughter. Her choices: Mickey Mouse, Diego and "Toy Story" characters for boys, and princesses -- and more princesses -- for girls. Already fired up, she walked through the toy aisles and saw what she describes as a further gender divide. Girls were offered baby dolls, princesses and sexy fashion figures; the boys section had superheroes, building blocks, science kits and dinosaurs. "That was it. There was no middle ground. I didn't see any dolls or cooking sets for boys, nor building blocks or fire trucks for girls," writes Atkins Wardy in her new book "Redefining Girly: How Parents Can Fight the Stereotyping and Sexualizing of Girlhood, from Birth to Tween." After that experience, she said in an interview, "Everything clicked and made sense to me."

"Super Bowl ads in 2014 will have fewer tongue kisses, half-naked women, or Gangnam Style. Instead, look for Super Bowl ads featuring fully-clothed women, well-known celebrities, and actual product information."

"Activists and advocates who have been working for decades to change the attitudes and beliefs that sustain epidemic levels of sexual violence achieved a significant milestone last week. Finally, a president of the United States -- The Most Powerful Man in the World -- used the power of his office to shine a light on the critical role of men in preventing violence against women."

"USA Today has looked for inspiration in the current crop of viral media darlings, BuzzFeed and Upworthy, for a sports section that mixes original and aggregated content with you-gotta-click-to-see-what-happens headlines.  "We looked at non-sports digital media properties that were doing it right - BuzzFeed, for example - and thought, what would the BuzzFeed of sports look like?"

"MORE than a decade into the 21st century, we would like to think that American parents have similar standards and similar dreams for their sons and daughters. But my study of anonymous, aggregate data from Google searches suggests that contemporary American parents are far more likely to want their boys smart and their girls skinny. It's not that parents don't want their daughters to be bright or their sons to be in shape, but they are much more focused on the braininess of their sons and the waistlines of their daughters."

"Digitally altering photographs might be accepted -- expected, really -- when it comes to magazines like Vogue, but it's a big no-no when it comes to news organizations. Yet that's what one Pulitzer-winning AP photographer chose to do to a photo he took in Syria in September."

"The issue of violence on TV has been stirring buzz due in part to the recent release of a study by the Parents Television Council which stated that "some of the most violent TV-14-rated shows on broadcast TV have similar levels and types of violence as TV-MA-rated cable TV shows." Whether such violence is for shock value or just part of good storytelling depends on who you ask."

"PARK CITY, Utah - Dove is debuting at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on Monday a short film that explores how social media is shaping the way the we perceive beauty. The 7-minute short film called Selfie follows a series of teenagers and their mothers who are asked to take self-images that highlight their insecurities about the way they look. In an experiment reminiscent of Dove's viral "beauty sketches" ad, the participants learn some of their disliked attributes are what others consider to be the most beautiful."

"Blanchett's reaction shows yet another subtle moment of sexism that even the most successful women have to deal with. (Blanchett has received three SAG Awards, including the one she won on Friday, three Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs and an Academy Award.) This isn't the first time Blanchett has stood up for women. While promoting Blue Jasmine in London this September, Blanchett identified herself as a feminist. "I'm reading a book by [Australian feminist writer] Anne Summers called The Misogyny Factor, and I feel that all of the steps forward that we've made ... a lot of those have been rescinded," she said. "Conservatism is affecting the way women perceive who they are in the world.""

""Latinos are either cast as either the overly hormonal ("Oh mamacita, I have to have you"), overly hysterical ("Lucy!"), overly hostile ("I'll cut you sucka!"), or overly humble ("We are a poor people")," Morales told CNN in a recent interview. Those, according to Morales, are the "four H's of Hollywood" that make up Hollywood's patronizing formula for Latino actors. And, Morales said, it's the reason why Hispanics rarely play heroes or leaders."

"At this point, we're so used to seeing models who are digitally nipped, tucked, and tanned to poreless perfection that we actually get a little bit alarmed when we see the stretch marks on our own thighs (thanks, unrealistic media portrayals of women!). Au naturel images are so rare, we even do crazy things like offer to pay $10,000 for celeb photos that aren't retouched. Well, no cash reward needed here. In its newest campaign, American Eagle's youth lingerie brand, Aerie, threw down the gauntlet and decided to feature totally unretouched models."

"Ahh, it's good to see The Bechdel Test used where it is most applicable: as a lens through which to expose a misrepresentational trend in modern film overall rather than specifically. Vocativ took nearly fifty of this year's top grossing blockbusters, sorted them by whether they failed or passed the test. Turns out movies that passed were significantly more financially successful than not."

"MORE than a decade into the 21st century, we would like to think that American parents have similar standards and similar dreams for their sons and daughters. But my study of anonymous, aggregate data from Google searches suggests that contemporary American parents are far more likely to want their boys smart and their girls skinny."

"The man who served as executive producer on such blockbusters as "Django Unchained," "Silver Linings Playbook," and "Reservoir Dogs," Weinstein is no stranger to controversy, and often gets behind films with a social conscience. It's with a similar agenda that he tells Piers Morgan of his pledge to stay away from egregious gun violence in future projects, in the process, answering critics who suggest his verbal attacks against the NRA stand in dark contrast to many of the movies he's helped make."

"To the uninitiated, Reddit looks like a mess - text links, comment threads, points, upvotes, downvotes. At best, posts seem contextless - at worst, totally random. But spend some quality time with "The Front Page of the Internet," and you'll find it's an essential resource, a self-correcting marketplace of ideas that's nearly impervious to marketers."

"he British actress Emma Thompson tossed her shoes across the stage and slurped a martini, Dean Martin-style. Jennifer Lawrence wore her hair almost West Point short, while the actor Jared Leto and the composer Alex Ebert put up their flowing locks in loose chignons. Diane Keaton wore a man's tuxedo to accept Woody Allen's lifetime achievement award. Even the annual Miss Golden Globe, Sosie Bacon, the daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, was nudged aside by a new feature, Mr. Golden Globe: Amy Poehler dressed as a sullen teenage boy. It was a gender-bending Golden Globes, or at least, the hosts made an effort to celebrate gender equality."

"The New York Times unveiled a major redesign of its digital offerings Wednesday. But the redesign has also embraced a controversial shift in journalism: Some posts on the site that look like articles are reported and written by people working for the paper's advertisers. The practice is sometimes called "native advertising" or "branded content," with the idea that there is actual content - maybe in the form of an article, perhaps a video - created by or for an advertiser."

"Critics and audiences have also praised its subversive plot, which focuses on the relationship between two sisters and turns Prince Charming into The Villain. But there's another argument to be made against Frozen's villain, and it has to do with the implicit notion that there was something wrong with the Prince Charming fantasy in the first place. The assumption is that it needed correcting because providing girls with idealized images of romance and romantic partners is inherently bad for them."