Blog post for the week of September 30, 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/25/stephanie-smith-300-sandwiches-engagement-ring_n_3990325.html

Everything about this article makes me frustrated. This is why those jokes “get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich woman” are an issue. Women really believe that’s the heterosexual relationships are suppose to work. At one point the author of this blog says, “maybe I needed to show him I could cook to prove that I am wife material.” What. I. What?  Why? A part of me is frustrated and the other part of me feels sorry for her.  She is going into a relationship were the expectations are already set: she cooks and does whatever “wifey” things she needs to do and he gets to do whatever he wants to do. Why limit yourself like that?  Does anyone else have any thought on the article?

Post 5: Capt Janeway

Since we've recently begun to talk about female characters on television, I figured this would be the correct time to blog about something I love dearly: Star Trek! I found an article that focused exclusively on Captain Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek:Voyager), the first female captain to have a show focused on her ship, examained through a feminist lens.

The central focus of the article is why Star Trek fandom should better appreciate Janeway's uniqueness. The author begins by addressing the unfair (as perceived by the author)  criticism of Janeway, and why she should be hailed as a feminist role model. The author states that Janeway, though in touch with her femininity, was particularly gutsy and assumed the role of captain well. The author also makes a point to point out the character was particularly unique because her ability was never questioned on the basis of her gender (at least, not by her crew), a fact that is rare in the realm of television.

On a personal note, I have to say that this article made me consider my own feelings about the character more than even discussions with my parents (both avid Star Trek fans) has. I'd invite everyone to read it!

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/08/janeway-doesnt-deserve-this-shit

'Masters of Sex'

In the vein of feminist things on television, a new series 'Masters of Sex' premieres on Showtime tonight. The show is about Dr. William Masters and his partner (both professionally and romantically) Virginia Johnson. Master and Johnson's research of human sexuality in the 50s was groundbreaking and helped fuel the women's movement and sexual revolution. I found an article detailing some of the feminist aspects of the show. About the main characters, one of the producers said, "They were trying to take something that's so fundamental to the human experience and bring it into the light and out of the shadows. And the weirdness surrounding some of our discussions on the show just shows you that, here we are 50 years later, and we're not that different than we were," Timberman said. "In many ways we've advanced, but in many ways we're still the same fumbling, confused people we were when Masters and Johnson were doing their work." The show seems like it is going to push the envelope a bit; I think it has the potential to be consciousness raising in a very feminist way for the overall audience... It premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on Showtime!


http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/life/ap/tv/masters-of-sex-serves-beguiling-side-of-feminism/article_ea6999b7-16b4-52e5-8888-154bfac2de05.html

3 Things Feminists Get Wrong About Feminism

3 Things Feminists Get Wrong About Feminism Article

     I really like this article. Marissa's article about the stay at home mom relates to this article in that the overarching theme is that there is no "one or right" feminism. I think I liked reading this article because it tells me that even though I might not have the same opinions as everyone in this class or in the larger feminist community, I can still believe in women's equality and wanting that to come into full effect someday.

     The author outlined three points that feminists get wrong. They include: 

1. The whole righteous anger thing 
Trying to get people to listen to you will never happen if you are screaming your opinions or pushing them onto someone else. Understanding of experiences is usually how people connect with an idea or movement.

2. No one is "setting feminism back 50 years"
Feminism is a strong movement and no one person will badly affect it that much. Focusing on things that one person does doesn't really help.

3. With feminism, there is no "you're doing it wrong"
This is my favorite of the three. It seems like common sense but with such a large and ongoing movement as feminism, it makes sense that people would want to make it more streamlined in some way.

Overall, definitely my favorite read on Thought Catalog so far.

Blog Post #5

Stay At Home Mom Article

I found this article on... surprise Thought Catalog! It was written by a stay-at-home mom who makes the argument that the people who judge her decision to leave her career and become a homemaker the most are those who label themselves as feminists. This reminded me of the discussions we've had about what it means to be a feminist. Even in some of our class discussions, the disregard for those who are housewives comes across. When we were discussing romance novels, it seemed as if these housewives hadn't made the decision or choice to become housewives and there seemed to be a general dislike of their lifestyle (perfectly acceptable however to each their own). I think often the idea that a woman can make the choice to lead whatever life she chooses whether that be being a wife and homemaker, a career minded woman, or any mix of the two lives is often viewed as an either or dichotomy. You can either be a career woman or a homemaker, not both. I am torn on my views and this article gave me pause to reconsider my own beliefs. I do agree with the a lot of the comments that this by labeling a whole group of people, such as feminists, as bad is the exact same thing this article is speaking out against.

Feminist Romance Novel??

On Tuesday I presented the handout on romantic novels and coincidentally I ran across this on instagram a few days later.  Could this be the beginning of a feminist romantic novel?

I tracked down the comic and found that the artist is a male. His work can be found HERE. I think this comic strip is funny but when I found out the artist is a male I wondered if maybe he was making fun of feminism and romance. Who knows.

Blog Post #5 : First Gay Character on Buffy

Since today's topic was largely focused on television characters that are a significant part of the LGBT community, I thought I would share my insight on the character from my all time favorite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that started it all; Willow Rosenberg. Although there had been other gay characters in movies and soap operas, Willow was the first gay character on a mainstream television show. This show already had a very strong LGBT following, as there were many parallels between coming out as gay and the character of Buffy 'coming out' as being a slayer to her friends and her mother. In the series' fourth season, Willow meets and falls in love with the character of Tara Maclay. Due to a very strict network, the 2 characters were not even allowed to share an onscreen kiss until a season and a half into their relationship. This is a pretty good example of how times have changed on prime time television.

What I absolutely love about the character of Willow coming out as gay is that it was not done for shock value and it was not made a big deal on the show. The best way to normalize something is to treat is to not treat it as though it is unusual or shocking. The writers managed to do this in a way that made it a complete natural part of the character's life and I found that to be incredible. Also, the character of Willow is a fan favorite on the show, being the one that most of the fan base could relate to as appose to Buffy. She was never disliked or treated differently after her character came out. Her character was already strong, funny, intelligent, and caring and a really impressive female character on a show already full of strong female characters. I think Willow really revolutionized this concept that somebody should love who they love, and be who they are.

Here's a link to an article that explains this a bit more
http://sosogay.co.uk/2013/love-and-marriage-in-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-willow-and-tara/

Being privileged is not a choice so stop hating me for it

Your Privilege isn't the problem, You are the problem link

The first link goes to a recent article on Thought Catalog written by a woman bemoaning the fact that she didn't choose to be rich so people need to stop judging her for being rich. I am annoyed at the way she suggests that being rich is really a burden, but only other rich people understand. The second link is to a response article that was also published on Thought Catalog the next day. The author of the second link highlights some excellent points about privilege that reminded me of the ideas of privilege and oppression that we discussed in class. I really enjoyed reading the response article because I feel the experience of not recognizing your privilege until you see another's restriction is one that most can relate to in different ways.

Sorority Racism

We Need to End the Legacy of Sorority Racism Link

NY Daily News Article

I have a few friends who go to college in the south and they have been circulating different articles about the University of Alabama's recent thrust into the national spotlight because of racism in sorority allegations made by the University's own newspaper, The Crimson White (an ironic name if you ask me). While I wish I could say that I find this surprising, I can't. It reminds me of the earlier post about pageants. These older mom-type alumni try to control and promote what they think the great institution that is their sorority stands for and control who these younger women in charge of the chapters (who wanted to extend bids to these girls) invite to join the organization. I have heard multiple comments around SLU during rush time from those who are in sororities that they don't think that prospective pledge "fits" with their sorority. The next comment that usually follows is that they don't think that prospect even looks like a so and so girl. I think the university took a step in the right direction but my concern is that these girls that were accepted are only being used as token girls to appease the national eye. The national organizations need to step up and change their policies to support the advancement of all minority women in their organizations.

Blog for the week of September 23, 2013

Last night, I spent some time watching Beyonce documentary, Life is but a Dream.  A couple classes ago we spent some time talking about Beyonce and this idea that she is a “modern feminist.”  I felt that the documentary actually contained a couple of feminist ideals that I would like to share with you:

1.     She talked about the importance of her relationships with other women.  Having a community of other women is very feminist.  So often when women become famous, rich, and/or powerful it becomes easy to dismiss other women’s experience or the importance of being connected to other women because she made it through and that woman can’t understand why everyone else can succeed.  Beyonce didn’t come off like that at all. 

2.     She understood that it was so much more difficult for a woman to make it in this world. She commented on how much harder she had to work to get where she is then a lot of the men that are in the same business because most people did not believe she could do since she is a woman.

3.     She understood and commented on the fact that women don’t make as much money as men (which is surprising considering how much money you can imagine that she makes).

4.     She talked about how centered her music was around empowering women in the way that she knew how.

5.     The documentary didn’t focus on her relationship with Jay-Z.  I thought that it would considering he is a powerful force in the music industry but surprisingly it didn’t.

Free Pizza for a Boob Flash!

A week or two ago, this article was going around about an Illinois pizza place offering Free Pizza if you Show Your Boobs. It came right after we were watching Dreamworlds in class and examining the male gaze. If this isn't a real-life example of the implications (and perpetuation) of those issues, I don't know what is. This was such a blatant example of the objectification of women in everyday life. Female college students are literally brought down to the value of their chest for the pleasure of some misogynistic men, guised under "free pizza."

But wait, there's more! This pizza place is on (or right near) the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, just a couple hours from St. Louis. One of my friends and fellow feminists was so outraged at this that she decided to plan a protest of the pizza place, Drew's Pizzeria. Her and whoever else she is recruiting are going up to Urbana-Champaign this weekend, I believe, to protest. I'm not sure exactly what they have in mind - posters, chanting, or something else? - but if any one of you is angered by this and is interested in participating, just let me know and I can get you in touch with her!

Post 4: Gender Gap in Classical music

Ever since our discussions about music (specifically Rap, Hip Hop and Rock), I've been curious as to how my own preferred genre of music (Classical) would fare when examined through the lens of gender. Fortunately, I was able to find an article pertaining to this topic!

The article, titled "The Gender Gap" addresses the lack of women in the composing field. While women are very prominent in other areas related to classical music (performance, management and publishing), statistics indicate that "14 per cent of the Performing Right Society’s (PRS) registered composers are women (in 2010)." Several female composers, including Janis Susskind (publishing director at Boosey & Hawkes), predict that due to specific efforts to encourage women become composers, this number will increase with time. However, one of the most interesting points raised in the article was the idea that many women who would otherwise become composers often feel as though it is difficult to see value in the work, especially when facing other burdens. Mira Calix (and electronic composer) sites Clara Shuman as an example: 

"‘You’re not saving lives, you’re not making the poor rich. You do ask yourself, what am I doing, does it have any value?’ I thought back to Clara Schumann: there’s a mentally unstable husband and six children to support, and she was the bread-winner; Schumann himself was ‘disturbed’ that her talent lay wasted, but had no doubt her priorities lay elsewhere."

I found this article to be very interesting and I would encourage anyone who is curious to read it. The link is: http://www.classical-music.com/blog/gender-gap 

 

Being A Bridesmaid Is Why I Need Feminism

I need to thank whoever first posted about the Thought Catalog! I just might be obsessed with this site now! I came across this article about being a bridesmaid. At first I didn't know how relevant it was to our discussion about pop culture, but it does seem to be a big theme in films and t.v. shows so I decided it was worth the post. 

The short article:
Being A Bridesmaid Is Why I Need Feminism Link

Overarching theme: It is expected that girls care about these kinds of trivial bridal things just because of their gender. 

Girls are better equipped to do trivial things for a wedding day. Things such as buying socks for the 

groomsmen and picking out just the right shade of purple is what is interesting to us. And why is it interesting to us? Because we're women, of course. Men should not have to worry about such trivial things because their focus is on much more important and bigger things to handle. 

My favorite part was when she compared being a bridesmaid to "being made to sit at the metaphorical kid's table of life." The comparison might be extreme but it was interesting to read an opinion about a role women take on so willingly and then participate in those trivial things without a second thought. 

Not too serious of an article, but it is something to perhaps think a bit about.  

Female Rappers

In class with talk a little about hip hop. One rapper we talked about was Nicki Minaji and she is very popular female rapper, especially since she is able to make both hip-hop and pop songs which give her more "cross over" appeal but she is DEFINETlY not the only female rapper.

There is always a lot of criticism towards hip hop for being misogynist but there are a lot of female rappers (especially when hip-hop first became popular) that have prevalent feminist themes in their raps.

Here are some of them.

Salt-N-Pepa - Ain't Nuthin' But A She Thing

Queen Latifah - U.N.I.T.Y.

Monie Love - Monie In Middle

MC Lyte - Paper Thin

Lauryn Hill - Doo-Wop (That Thing)

Blog Post #4 Mini-Miss Pageants Banned?

http://news.yahoo.com/french-senate-votes-ban-child-beauty-pageants-090057171.html

I saw this article yesterday and it kind of shocked me, but then again, I was all for it. The French Senate has deemed mini-Miss pageants so harmful to young girls that they are making them illegal. Anyone who puts a girl younger than 16 years old into a beauty pageant will be put in prison. This might be a little bit extreme but it certainly says something about how harmful these pageants are. At such a young age, as young as 6, these girls are already being sexualized and are put in the mindset that beauty is only skin deep. In order to gain attention, be appreciated, or be considered important, you must have the right look, including make-up, high heels, and revealing clothing. It sends the wrong message and really affects these girls later in life. Though I have only seen clips of the show Toddlers and Tiaras, I can tell that these girls exposed to this ideal of beauty will grow up thinking that in order to be special, they most be portrayed in a sexual way. Some of these mini-Miss competitions have toned it down a bit by excluding make-up, heels, and swimsuits, so that's a step in the right direction. This amendment being passed in France states that it is "aimed at protecting children from danger and being prematurely forced into roles of seduction that harm their development." If this is not a wake-up call to these pageant moms, then I don't know what is.

Recently, a friend of mine (who has since graduated) posted an article called Why Body Acceptance Isn’t for Everyone.  In the article she talks about how the two polarizing thoughts on body image that are perpetrated: 1. Lose weight! Get skinny! and 2. Love your body and your curves!  These two ideas are always coming up in pop culture (in commercials, in pretty much every ad on the internet, etc).  I loved this article because it points out that both of the ideas out there on body image are not a conversation about body image.  Instead, as the author points out, “more importantly, the polarity is patronizing and divisive” it's more about telling you what makes people money.  I think it’s important that body acceptance becomes more of a conversation.  One of the quotes that I loved was, “body image is personal and complicated and everyone should be allowed to feel love or hate or indifferent about their bodies without pressure to conform to the latest cultural shift”  This article is a great read and I encourage everyone to read it!

http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/09/body-acceptance-isnt-for-everyone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EverydayFeminism+%28Everyday+Feminism%29

Blog #3: Miss America

I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I watched the Miss America pageant on ABC tonight. I’d usually avoid it but I was forced to actually watch it this year in its entirety because a childhood friend was in the running. Besides for the everything just SO obviously wrong with basically everything about it I felt especially shocked actually seeing it this year. How sad to think about little girls sitting at home idolizing basically identical tan, blonde, skinny girls walking around in high heels and bikinis. I can’t think of a worse thing for any child to see: a beauty competition that masks itself as a service and education organization. One of the contestants said that she chose her dress because it reminded her of her favorite childhood movie: Beauty and the Beast. *eye roll* Miss America’s website says “Developed by the Miss America Organization, the Miss America program exists to provide personal and professional opportunities for young women to promote their voices in culture, politics and the community. It provides a forum for today's young women to express their viewpoints, talents and accomplishments to audiences during the telecast and to the public-at-large during the ensuing year.” Whoever wrote this is so out of touch with reality. I could seriously go on for hours about why the idea of “Miss America” makes me so sad and angry and exhausted but seriously what is wrong with our society that anyone thinks it is o.k. to send a message that only these so-called "opportunities" and "rights" and "voices" are granted to women who fulfill a very specific ideal of beauty? How this even still gets broadcast in this day and age is completely beyond me. The New York Times posted an article a few days ago about the subject: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/09/12/is-the-miss-america-pageant-bad-for-women/the-miss-america-pageant-stills-sends-the-wrong-message

Post 3: Conference on Gender Equality in Video Games

While browsing the internet, I happened upon an interesting article related to gender roles as presented in video games. As some may know, the video game industry, much like the music/movie industry, is often cited as failing to portrait women characters in a positive light. Instead of being strong and independent people, women are often presented as sex objects that often fail to advance the plot in a meaningful way. Though there are certainly a decent number of exceptions (especially in the past 2 years), the overwhelming belief held by creators of video games is that a game with a strong female lead wouldn’t be able to return a profit, despite the fact that statistically, women make up approximately 45% of the video game market (link to statistics provided below).

As a direct result of this lack of representation in video games, a group of developers collectively called “I am a gamer”, decided to host a 48 hour conference with the goal creating a video game with a “strong female protagonist.” The group organizer, Kimberly Voll, is a professor of software engineering and game design by trade, and provides a short interview describing why she thinks that games developers often avoid strong female characters.  Personally, I feel that the event is wonderful step towards equal representation in video games, and I thought that it was very cool that a group of game designers would set aside time specifically to address such an important issue. Albeit, this conference is unlikely to have major impact immediately, it is still a great step forward!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-video-game-jam-breaks-gender-stereotypes-1.1364491  (link to Voll interview)

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp  (link to stats)

Disney Princesses Look Dapper in their Princes' Clothes

Article Link

This is a super short article but I was super excited when I came across it! Seeing the Disney princess dressed in their princes' clothes made them look so much cooler! Before this class, I really never gave much thought to how the clothes the princess wore affected the kids that were watching them and then perhaps emulating them later on. I’ve never really been exposed to opinions of feminists and how they viewed the culture that we live in. When I thought more about the pictures though, I realized it was kind of silly to get excited about the princess changing their clothes. In the end if we put these princesses’ in these awesome clothes but still have them in these terrible roles, it doesn’t do anything for us. If things like this get producers to change roles of girl characters though, then that definitely would be something..

I still think they look so much cooler in these clothes!

Blog #3 Miss Representation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gkIiV6konY

This is a trailer for a 2011 documentary on how the portrayal of women in the media effect how women of power are viewed. I have not seen this film yet but I believe just the trailer alone gives great insight on how the media treats women in power as a joke, and how instead of taking them seriously as individuals ready to make a difference, they choose instead to focus on things such as their looks. The film depicts how heavily the media can influence the population to not take women in power seriously. This can directly effect the mind set of young girls. Sexual, beautiful women with barely any clothes on get praised and adored while women political figures get ridiculed. Young girls will see this in the media and this is highly influential as to who they want to become. Personally, one of my favorite things in film is to see the director portray a powerful, independent, successful woman and it is honestly so rare to see this. And if they are in any way powerful, the director is usually going to give them some type of sex appeal just to attract male viewers to a movie. I do not think this is intentionally a way to belittle powerful woman, but it is just something that most audiences want to see.

I just wanted to share this and see if anyone has thoughts as to some of the shocking statistics and points presented in this trailer. 

"The Long List of Sucessful Action Movies Starring Women."

We have talked about the male gaze of women in film and today I came across this article.

The Long List of Successful Action Movies Starring Women

The movies listed in this article were:

• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
• The Resident Evil Movies
• The Underworld Movies
• Salt
• The Hunger Games
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Kill Bill, Parts 1 & 2
• G.I Jane
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Aliens
• The Cynthia Rothrock opus
• Prometheus
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Miss Congeniality
• Charlie's Angels
• The Pam Grier Movies
• Point of No Return
• The Heat
• Hanna
• Catwoman

I had a few issues with this article. First, often in these movies women were sexualized in problematic ways. Second, with the exception of Pam Grier's movies (which her movies could also be seen as problematic on their own) and Catwoman all of the leads were white women. And third, the article is titled "The Long List..." but compared to the amount of movies released per year this list really isn't very long.

FEMEN Ran By A Man?

In class we have talked briefly about Femen and the documentary that was made about the group. Ukraine Is Not A Brothel is a documentary made by a 28 year old australian filmmaker Kitty Green which "outs" Victor Svyatski as the mastermind behind the group Femen.

Here are some quotes about the man behind Femen from an article about the documentary.

"It’s his movement and he hand-picked the girls. He hand-picked the prettiest girls because the prettiest girls sell more papers. The prettiest girls get on the front page... that became their image, that became the way they sold the brand.” - Kitty Green

"He can be really horrible but he is fiercely intelligent." - Kitty Green

“It was a big moral thing for me because I realized how this organization was run. He was quite horrible with the girls. He would scream at them and call them bitches.” - Kitty Green

"These girls are weak....They don’t have the strength of character. They don’t even have the desire to be strong. Instead, they show submissiveness, spinelessness, lack of punctuality, and many other factors which prevent them from becoming political activists. These are qualities which it was essential to teach them.” - Victor Svyatski

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-man-who-made-femen-new-film-outs-victor-svyatski-as-the-mastermind-behind-the-protest-group-and-its-breastbaring-stunts-8797042.html

This is shocking that a feminist activist group is ran by a sexist man and I definitely want to see this documentary.

Here is the trailer.

Blog Post for the week of September 9, 2013

Recently my facebook feed blew up with this blog post called FYI (if you’re a teenage girl).  The author, a mother of two teenage boys, starts out by saying that if you are friends with one of her sons then you are friends with the entire family (on social media).  She points out that every time she see’s a sexual pose done by a teenage girl she has to have the girl (or girls) blocked, and she says “because, the reason these sometimes awkward family conversation around the table is that we about our sons, just as we know your parents care about you.”  The entire article is about how girls need to learn to NOT look so “sexual” because boys can’t help but not control themselves, “Did you know that once a male sees you in a state of undress, he can’t quickly un-see it?  You don’t want our boys to only think of you in this sexual way, do you?”  She associates women of character (her words) with women who don’t act sexual for the world to see.  She also associates women who are loved with women who are not sexual.

            To me, this is the beginning of slut shaming.  This is how women get blamed for rape and this concept contributes to rape culture.  She didn’t write an article about teaching her boys to treat women with respect and act like they are human, no matter how they dress or act.  Instead she decides to tell girls that they can’t dress or think in that way because she doesn’t believe that her own sons can control themselves.

Ugh. This article makes me cringe.

http://givenbreath.com/2013/09/03/fyi-if-youre-a-teenage-girl/ 

Comic Books and Sexism

So, I've had comic books on the brain recently, partially due to the short discussion in class about Wonder Woman, as well as the longer discussion about This brought me to an article published not too long ago in "The Week" about misogyny in the comic book industry (the link is provided below).

Basically, the article revolves around people's (particularly feminist) reactions to various interviews of prominent members of the comic book industry, many of these interviews failing to address questions about the lack of diversity in comics. I found it particularly distasteful that in such an imaginative medium as comics, writing is constrained by comic creators (predominately men) who would wonder "if comic books aren't "the right platform" for female-centric stories as they're a "high testosterone sort of storytelling.""  (quotes from Ted McFarlane, creator of Spawn). This story shines light on the power that just a few people get to enjoy over entire generations of media consumers. If none of these people think that it's worth it to make their work more inclusive, then it simply doesn't happen... a sad reality in the world of mass media.

http://theweek.com/article/index/248288/girls-on-film-how-sexism-is-destroying-the-comic-book-industry

Blog #2: First Female Lego Scientist

http://lego.gizmodo.com/meet-the-first-female-lego-minifig-scientist-1244704180

To add a (very) tiny bright spot to last weeks discussion of toys, Lego released the first mini figurine of a female scientist. According to this article most all of the Lego figurines in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are (unsurprisingly) male (there's a link in the article that deals with the gender gap in Lego figurines). Although Lego figurines relating to space were released in the 70s, the first female astronaut figurine wasn't produced until the 90s. I was feeling pretty darn happy about the new female scientist Lego until I looked at the other new Legos released. They included an island warrior, a mountain climber, a barbarian, an evil "mech", and a constable, all of which were male and carrying some sort of weapon. The female characters released alone with the female scientist were a grandma with a basket and a cat, a diner waitress carrying ice cream, a pink cheery looking lady robot, and a "pretzel girl" carrying, you guessed it, a pretzel. Sigh. Baby steps.

What The World Teaches Women

I stumbled upon this article and thought it was a nice read. 

What the World Teaches Women Link

I relate to all of the examples given in this article and it scares me how true it all is. How many times have I held back from saying something because I didn't want to seem aggressive or whatever other thing you must shy away from being as a women? How many women associate how they look to how great of a person they are? If I look the part, then I can play the part. Our body image holds us down in so many aspects of our lives. My friends and I have had plenty of girls nights. We want to go out and have fun. We might wear cute outfits, make our hair look nice, and compliment each other on it but why, while we're out, when we get a guy's attention it makes us feel so much better about ourselves? It seems as the opinion of another woman is not as highly regarded as that of a man, even in our minds. Quite sad stuff we conform to. 

Like I said, I can relate to and go on and on about every example provided. The article is a nice concise read that makes you think twice about women and the universal lessons we are taught. 

Enjoy!

Miley Cyrus Twerk Song

An audio of a new song called "Twerk" featuring rapper Lil Twist, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber was leaked a few days ago. Listening to the song reminded me of Emma's post "Solidarity is for Miley Cyrus" so I decided to share.

Twerk" Song Clip

I don't know if you guys have heard this song but I find it ridiculous that she would make a song called Twerk after all that has happened. Supposedly they started making the song before the VMA's happened but if I was her, I would have put a stop to the making of the song. I don't know if she realizes the terrible image she is creating for herself with the completely racist nature during her performance and now, this song.

I still disagree with the fact that people are judging her so much because of her sexuality. This short clip- YouTube Hollywood Life Clip sums up what most people are judging her for.  One of the women mentions that "(Miley Cyrus') overall sexuality right now is just really over the top." Most of the people are either focusing on judging her for her sexuality or defending her sexuality and not talking about the primary problem with her VMA performance and now this song. It's such a shame. The sad part of it though is that there seems to be no way to change where the conversation is heading. How do we change the path to something more important and constructive for us to talk about?

Blog Post #2: When I was a "Slut"

I may have a slight addiction to Thought Catalog and I came across two articles that pair well together. The first is not really much of an article at all but a collection of what different women were doing when someone decided to let them know they were being a slut (http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/10-women-on-what-i-was-doing-when-i-was-called-a-slut/). One was merging in traffic, another just walking down the street, others being judged for their "supposed" sexuality, some calling themselves a slut. It struck a nerve with me. How often do I label other women and myself as a slut, a whore, or other trashy derogatory names for what I think I know about their sex life? How often do I use these names without even regards to sexuality? That woman cut me off; she must be a stupid whore who can't drive. I know nothing about her. I'm embarrassed to actually exam this behavior because I know that I'm just as guilty of it. It's a behavior I'm working on in myself.

The second article speaks about sexual harassment/assault and the silence and shame society shows towards it (http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/silence-shame-and-sexual-harassment/). Just a warning that the language in the piece is a little graphic, but if it weren't I don't think it would accurately depict this woman's experience. The author covers so many facets of the normalization of sexual assault and harassment effectively using her own experiences and that of other women. She speaks of parents offering their daughters tips on how not to have these experiences but never mentioning to their sons how not to commit these offenses. She speaks of the silence that often occurs by witnesses to the crime as they try to pretend not to notice the degradation of another person.

Blog Post #2 Joss Whedon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaczoJMRhs
Joss Whedon is probably one of my favorite writers/directors in television and film. His shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly have created some of the strongest female characters in television. As a writer, he is constantly asked by interviewers, "Why do you create such strong female characters?"  Whedon was so sick of constantly answering this question that he decided to address the issue through this speech entitled 'Equality Now.' The speech starts at around 3.40 and he begins by saying that he was influenced to be a feminist by his mother, who was a strong women. He then proceeds to acknowledge his stance on equality, and why this question should not even be relevant to his work. He believes that real question is, "Why are you not asking 100 other guys why they DON'T write strong women characters?" To Whedon, he is not doing anything out of the ordinary when he is creating these characters. To him, the concept of strong female characters should not be questioned but should just be accepted by their characteristics and not their gender. "Equality is not a concept, it is a necessity." Equality is already with us, but if everybody keeps focusing on the different aspects that separate us as people, we can never understand what is means to truly be equal. Whedon ends his speech by answering the question in the simplest and most sincere way possible by saying, "Because you are still asking me that question."

Hold on - this exists?

I'm not sure if you all are familiar with Buzzfeed - if not, it's a (pretty liberal) website that posts a variety of things, from politics to gender to lists of throwback '90s toys. It's a pretty major part of my life when it comes to my time spent on the internet, and I will likely share multiple articles of theirs as they're relevant. Needless to say, I was browsing Buzzfeed and was reading this article about things found "only in America". The list itself is nothing special, but this was one of the items on the list:

I can't tell in the picture what size this shirt is, but it definitely looks like it's made for a child, judging by the form of the shirt. I was absolutely appalled by this. Not only are girls taught at a young age (through toys, disney, etc.) that they have to look and act a certain way, but girls are sexualized to the extent that a young girl can own a shirt telling the rest of the world that she will grow up to be valued only for her large breasts and tiny waist. I don't even really have the words to describe my anger at this. The other part of it is that I find it extremely creepy and pedophiliac to sexualize a young girl in this way, maybe even more so than I'm enraged by the constant sexualization of grown women.

Thoughts? Reactions?

Late blog - Week of 9/1/13

After speaking about Blurred Lines in class, I was on Twitter and a friend had retweeted about this article. It covers Miley and Robin's performance both in terms of gender and race. I thought it was interesting to see the two combined and thought out in the manner that the author of the article does. The comments section of this article gives a lot of thought-provoking spin-off links to other commentaries on gender, race and class in the media and specifically music. 

I then started to look at more of Thicke's music videos for songs on his recently released album. Sadly, the other videos are no better. The video for "Give it 2 U" shows multiple women dancing and is a least "kind enough" to give them names such as Ass Float Dancers or Luxury girls. 

http://hiphopandpolitics.com/2013/08/30/from-miley-to-macklemore-the-privilege-spectrum/?fb_source=pubv1 

Blog for the Week of September 2, 2013

http://jezebel.com/blurred-lines-gender-swapped-parody-briefly-removed-b-1239286796

I came across this little gem today (while I was suppose to be doing homework) and thought I would share it with you.   Last week our introduction to the class was one of the music videos to Robin Thicke’s song Blurred Lines.   I found this one to be kind of funny because it was taken down for being sexually inappropriate.  There was such a back lash that the video was returned after a couple of hours. 

            I have mixed feelings about it.  I think the video is interesting in that it switches the roles but it does the same thing to men as it did to women.  When I think of equality I believe it for everyone.  I don’t think men should be put down in order to raise women up.  At the same time it’s frustrating that it was flagged as inappropriate and taken down while Robin Thicke’s video does the same thing and is still available to users.  Thoughts?

1st blog!!!

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/3-things-feminists-get-wrong-about-feminism/

I read this post a few days ago and some of the ideas the author brought up stuck with me and I came back to re-read it so I thought I would share why. The title at first turned me off but then I realized maybe the author wasn't really criticizing but rather reminding us to shy away from the negative and embrace the positive. After seeing people online debating and arguing about Miley Cyrus’s VMA performance and “slut-shaming” her I really felt so sad about our society as a whole. A guy I knew in high-school tweeted, “This is what the gate to Hell looks like... @MileyCyrus.” and tagged a picture of Miley’s butt mid-"twerk". Why do we find so much enjoyment in being so critical, judgmental, and even hateful? Why do we as humans bask in putting each other down? It brought me back to what feminism really means to me at its core and why I fell in love with it to begin with... I was so attracted to the idea of empowering people instead of constantly putting them down, of people being truly and deeply free and and equal and having real choice in their lives, of people being able to choose how they wanted to act and who they wanted to be without feeling like there are forces in their way or like they wouldn’t be accepted. I wish we had a society where people felt capable and like they can do anything and be anyone instead of one where our dreams, beliefs, and thoughts get dashed and we all resort to tearing each other down and trying to dominate over each other. The same sentiments are sort-of embodied in this article: it paints feminism as a tool for empowerment not a movement that just criticizes (although the title may seem ironic...). The first point the author makes is that feminism is often associated with anger and that it shouldn’t be a movement full of angry people but one full of people trying to make positive change (although I do think that you should also have the freedom to express yourself however you so please and if that's anger then more power to you). The second point is not to focus on anyone setting feminism back because that getting anyone anywhere. The third suggestion is that feminism is for everyone of all political and religious beliefs and that we should try to be as inclusive as possible. Basically, to sum that all up: Let’s stop putting people down. Period. Even within feminism! Although some of the things the author wrote could be debated, I think that that singular point in itself is a simple, yet very powerful, basic, universal, and positive idea to think on in the context of how the media portrays just about everyone, feminism, and even our everyday lives.

"Solidarity is for Miley Cyrus"

As promised, here is the article that I mentioned in class about the racism found in Miley's VMA performance. (Fittingly, this song came on the radio earlier today and has been stuck in my head ever since. Yay!)

"Solidarity is for Miley Cyrus: The Racial Implications of her VMA Performance" was written by a black woman who contests the performance. She explicitly mentions that it is okay that white feminists (or mainstream feminists, at least) originally defended Miley against slut-shaming. However, she also explains that in expressing her desire to have a sexuality in the way that she did, Miley was implying that sexuality and black women go hand in hand, and one cannot exist without the other. She also discusses not only the appropriation of black culture that has occurred, but also the assumption that this representation of "ratchet" culture is the only type of black culture that exists in our country today. The article itself explains things in much more detail. It gets a little lengthy, but is really intriguing and important to read, I think.

Another reason I encourage you all to read the article and not just listen to (or read) my summary is because I can only say so much on the topic, as a white woman myself. I think that one of the most important aspects of intersectional feminism is that in which people in a position of privilege (sorry, those were some key words that I know we didn't cover on the vocab list yet) take a step back and recognize their privilege - and in doing so, recognize that they don't have the knowledge of certain experiences. So, in this case, I have no idea what it is like to be a black woman in America. I'm white. So I'm advocating that you all take a read from someone who has personal experience with the issue.

here's a link to the URL if the link didn't work: http://battymamzelle.blogspot.com/2013/08/Solidarity-Is-For-Miley-Cyrus.html#.Uh7LgT5oRe_  At the beginning of the article, she also links to the #solidarityisforwhitewomen hashtag and an article explaining that if anyone's interested! (you all should be!)

Sept 1st Post 1: Sexism Among the Stars

Background: I've been a huge fan of the show Star Trek since I was 3 years old, and have generally felt that most of the episodes have presented an uplifting view of the future, a future in which economic inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other types of discrimination had been completely eradicated.  Humanity now spent it's time exploring the stars in large space ships, seeking out new life forms and interesting stellar phenomena. One of my favorite series (Star Trek: The Next Generation) premiered in the late 80's, and following the tradition of the original series, contained a command crew composed of many different types of people. These people included people of color, women, and even non-human characters all in positions of power and authority. To this day, the TNG cast is the only Star Trek cast that has remained close friends. As such, they often appear for interviews together.

Topic: This brings me to a video I recently watched on Youtube, in which two of the most popular women from TNG (Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden) discuss their experiences both on the show, and throughout their careers in general. Given that both women are outspoken feminists, many of the questions directed at them were about feminism. One section that struck me was at the 27 minute mark, where a woman asked how both Gates and Marina were able to bring feminism into their portrayal of their respective characters. Just to summerize, Marina begins the answer section by discussing how her appearance was often more subject to critique than her acting due to her gender. Gates, then discusses how she was temporarily fired because she confronted the producers on their failure to allow her character to attain her full potential, again related to the gender of the actress.   

 Reflection: I was already somewhat aware that there had been some tension between the producers and some of the actresses regarding allegations of sexism, however, as a fan of Star Trek, I was horrified to hear the details. You would think that a show promoting equality among humans would endeavor to maintain that vision on the set. Still, I think that the both women's experiences on set are a great example of why examining pop culture through the lens of feminism is so important. The link to the interview is provided below (skip to 27:00-32:00 to hear the section I'm bringing up).

-Isaac Joy


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdbtjRbaAI0