Women in Film

This past weekend I had the honor and privilege of attending the National Film Festival for Talented Youth in Seattle where one of my films was screening. It was an excellent experience and my best friend who co wrote and co directed the film with me was able to fly out from Florida and experience the festival with me and since she isn't as film major that was a new treat for her. While there I still couldn't help noticing that the demographic majority of filmmakers there was white men...although I was very proud of all the girls including the international ones I saw and got to hang out with. Most notably was one girl a freshman in college just like myself who is from Afghanistan studying in Pennsylvania. She made a poignant documentary about her process to get her drivers license when it is still very rare and socially unacceptable according to some people that women drive. She was able to share her story with the help of her sister who filmed parts of the film when she was actually behind the wheel. It was just very exciting and inspiring to see her pushing to reform social Norms with media because that's what I hope to do too,

The Avengers

I was on a website for memes when I saw the following picture: 

The image had the caption "if male superheroes were actually female," and then the poses of the male heroes were changed to more suggestive ones. In the actual poster for the movie "The Avengers," Scarlet Johansson is the only only hero who shows off her rear, while the five male heroes are not objectified in such a way. I laughed at the juxtaposition of the actual poster and the satirical one, because I had been thinking about how there is only one female hero in the movie and how she will be depicted in the movie. If this poster is any indication, it will not be a feminist one. Johansson's character seems to be the perfect woman, hourglass-shaped and amazing at hand-to-hand combat, but the male characters are also objectified in a way. First, all five male heroes are just as attractive as Johansson, and they are also similarly idealized and muscular. However, the movie centers on more male heroes, so the chances of objectification are higher.

However, I wondered what would be so wrong if there were more female heroes. Of course, the characters are SUPERHEROES, so they are also expected to be superhuman, but that does not stop the majority of the population from judging themselves in comparison to the depictions on screen.

Princess Prep Class

This week I found a interesting article that I found. This is the link:

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-15/world/princess.prep.classes_1_princess-diana-kate-middleton-etiquette?_s=PM:WORLD

This article was written last year. The article was written similarly at the time when Kate Middleton became engaged to Prince William. This article mainly talks about “Princess Prep” classes in London. Many girls are inspired by Kate Middleton’s fairytale and are yearning to become the next Cinderella. Shockingly, girls of eight years old want to enroll in such classes. In these classes, girls are taught how to walk like a princess, drink tea, ride horses, etc. The article mainly focuses on Jerramy Fine who is  a young girl that has enrolled in the class.

When I read this article, I was very shocked and amused by the fact that actual classes took place for girls to become the next Cinderella. Although I knew that there were a lot of girls wanting the life of Kate Middleton, I did not realize that girls wanted it this much. This incident just demonstrates the increasing number of girls wanting to achieve the life of a princess and wait for their princes. It shows that girls are becoming less independent and do not expect to succeed with their own knowledge and actions. This article just shows how society is turning girls to yearn for the fairytales instead of helping them realize that the lives of princesses are not the reality. Hence, it just demonstrates how young girls are becoming in some way weaker and weaker in society. 

Let them be who they want to be- Cinderella Ate My Daughter

         In Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Orenstein discusses the influences and impacts of princess culture on girls.  She says that girls’ brains are at their “most malleable and open to long term influence on roles that go with their sex” when they first fall for princesses. As a result, she worries that girls will be discouraged from being competent, strong, creative or smart but to simply wait for the prince. Indeed, Orenstein makes some valid and compelling points. However, I believe that girls are fully capable of rejecting the cultural and media impositions if they deemed them to be harmful. If they were to realize how pinks and princess toys could “poison” their minds, they would react sensibly and make wise decisions accordingly. After all, girls are “not” passive beings who mindlessly absorb the influences and stereotypes that could potentially harm them. Saying so would be underestimating women.

         Though the influences of pink toys and princess dresses on girls are detrimental, isolating them from a child or raising a child gender- neutral may not be the most desirable pursuit.  In the book, Orenstein shares the story of her daughter and how she tried to raise her unbiased and free from gender codes. Despite the effort, however, her daughter chooses Disney Princesses over Thomas the Tank Engine.  I think “training” young girls to turn away from princess toys and pink dresses could end up being oppressive regarding how ubiquitous Disney princess toys, stories, and pink are, not to mention the “National Princess Week”. Perhaps letting them be who they want to be while teaching them that gender can be a limiting factor and believing that they are fully capable of rejecting the stereotypes may better help them find their “true happily ever after”  or the ending Orenstein so eagerly desires.

Transformations in Girl Culture

       In Cinderella Ate my Daughter, Peggy Orenstein expressed her clear disappointment in how girl culture has taken a wrong turn from the time when she was a young girl to today. When I asked my mom- who has never taken a course on gender studies before- about what she was like when she was a child, she told me that she was never one of those kids who liked to play sports with the boys, and therefore, considered herself a "girly girl." But her definition of "girly girl," in relation to her childhood, is completely different from what it means to be a "girly girl" today.

       She use to play with paper dolls, but she also loved riding her bike, and watching scary movies, as well as enjoyed playing boardgames (i.e. Chinese checkers, Operation, Hi-Ho! Cherry-O, etc.), and climbing trees with her friends. But today, that's not what it means to be a "girly girl." It now involves playing dress up and house, watching Disney movies with fairy tell endings, and loving anything and everything pink. The marketing industry greatly contributes to the more polarized gender roles today. Marketers do this by stereotyping gender roles to make clear distinctions between girl and boy products, all in hopes of gaining revenue. With time, the distinctions between boy and girl products has become more and more clear. Girl culture is now girly girl culture. But with these transformations, what lies in the future for girls and the way girls view themselves?  Along with the growth of this new girl culture, the pressure for girls to look and behave certain ways has also had negative impacts on girls. Because more people are aware of the negative impacts girly girl culture has had on the development of young girls, does that mean that an end to girly girl culture is near? But because girly girl culture is a successful marketing tactic, will it continue to grow and prosper?

A young boy named Michael

Why are Gay's Bullied?? And what can be done to end their stop the Gay Bashing Epidemic

A journal article entitled, Preventing Bullying and Harassment of Sexual Minority Students in Schools, written by Holly N. Bishop and Heather Casida, states how 98% of kids have reported hearing degrading words such as faggot, gay, dyke, homo, and queer in a derogatory instance in their schools (Bishop and Casida, 2011). The simple fact that these words are being used by children in schools is simply appalling; however it also exhibits the lack of respect towards homosexuality. These words are automatically seen and used in a bad context thus making homosexual teens more afraid to come out and be associated with a minority social group. Being seen as a minority is specifically frightening to kids in school due to the fact that when a child is different in school they become vulnerable to torment and bullying from other kids. The degrading words also make kids who are not homosexual more afraid than ever to be associated with homosexuality. Thus kids are less likely to stand up for a homosexual classmate since they themselves may be seen as gay if they do. Some kids may even take part in the bullying to reaffirm their heterosexuality and not be associated with the homosexual minority. This is supported by a journal article entitled, Perceived Social Support among Bullies, Victims, and Bully-Victim, written by Melissa K. Holt and Dorothy L. Espelage, which exhibits a study in which fifth through twelfth graders reported less teacher and peer support when they were being bullied (Holt and Espelage, 2007). This simply exhibits how kids want to fit in and not be seen as a social minority in any way. The negativity that is associated with homosexuality coupled with the lack of support in schools cause many gay or lesbian kids to question themselves and feel depressed and alone. This in turn causes them to seek other avenues of quelling the emotional stress and pain they feel. The article written by Bishop and Casida has proven that homosexual teens are at a greater risk for psychosocial problems such as drug and alcohol abuse (Bishop and Casida, 2011). This makes sense because if homosexual teens are bullied due to their sexual orientation they would feel alone and seek to forget or mask their pain through self-destructive activities such as substance abuse.

I believe that education is an extremely powerful tool that should be greatly utilized when addressing the issue of gay bashing in schools. Schools should educate their staff and their students on both the myths and realities that are associated with ones sexual orientation. The journal article written by Bishop and Casida even suggests that school districts should approve a zero tolerance policy against harassment of sexual minority students (Bishop and Casida, 2011). This would act as an expectation of how kids should behave, which would in turn lead to an improvement in the school environment. This would also reduce the homophobic teasing that leads to bullying and bashing, thus creating a tolerant learning atmosphere. Schools may also provide a safe environment for homosexual teens by educating the faculty and staff about the challenges sexual minority students' face thus allowing teachers to empathize with them. Even though the Trevor Project already has tools to educate parents and teachers about helping homosexual children cope with being bullied, its brochures and pamphlets are not in every school. The Trevor Project also requires the teacher or parent to physically go online and get it themselves. When the school district itself enforces more tolerant policies towards sexual minority students it exhibits that they are taking notice and that they care about all their students. I believe another way to increase tolerance and reduce gay bashing is through the creation of clubs such as Gay-Straight Alliance which will allow students from different sexualities to listen to each other's hardships and work together to defeat intolerant ideas or attitudes.

           

History repeats itself?

Like many others before me, the more I learn about history, the more it seems history repeats itself. In my American studies class we are talking about the era of the 1950s, characterized by the culture of suburbia: the TV dinners, TV sets, the housewife, multiple cars, cookie cutter houses, etc. Underneath this facade, however, brews a counter-culture against the sameness that encapsulated the culture, which eventually turns into the hippie phase of the 60s. The 50s, surprisingly, revealed surprising data about sexual habits by the Kinsey reports, such as: 90% of all white middle class individuals interviewed (of 180000) had been sexually active before marriage. It is this that helped bring about the "pill" in the 60s. The counter-culture in the 50s had an apocalyptic feel. Many felt that this conformity brought about by technological advances such as the TV was a huge crisis in America. It spoke of the overworked and bored housewife. The hippie-dom of the 60s then, should have come as no surprise. As I listened in class, I realized that a lot the same "apocalyptic, crisis-in-America, technology-is-taking-over, gender-norms-are-suffocating" conversations are happening now, as a counter-culture to the new middle class family: the soccer mom, family dinners, white picket fence, etc. Just as the 50s and 60s was a struggle for the civil rights of not only minority populations such as African Americans, but also the rights of women, now we have a struggle for civil rights for the LGBT community. It seems to me that the pendulum is again swinging the other way in an attempt to celebrate the expression of individuality with the "hipster" movement, and bringing down the confines of social norms about family, sexuality, and gender, just as it did in the 50s and 60s.

Racial Profiling

http://news.yahoo.com/md-neighborhood-watch-trial-set-against-fla-fury-140920015.html

A growing trend of racist attacks in the United States just comes to show that the U.S. is in desperate need of social change. Just recently two, white, Jewish brothers were seen attacking a young black teenager without merit, similar to the Trayvon Martin case. The two brothers claimed the attack as self-defense because the young, 15-year-old boy held a wooden stick, but clearly this is another racial profiling case.  The brothers surrounded the teenager, pinned him to the ground, repeatedly beat him with a hand-held radio, and yelled racist remarks, leaving the boy with a broken wrist and a cut at the back of the head. Although racism is not as severe as it once was fifty years ago, racism is clearly still relevant today. Perhaps spurred by the Trayvon Martin case, or perhaps a completely separate incident, but regardless, this is yet another unjust, racist action. We know today, more than ever before, that racism is unjust and unfair and unjust, yet deliberately continue to allow it to occur today. Hundreds of years of racism cannot be reversed overnight nor within years, but it must be reversed eventually.

Victoria's Secret: Pink and Sexy

During our discussion about “Cinderella Ate My Daughter”, our class mentioned the sustained association of pink with not only femininity but also innocence, princesses, and childhood. Even as we grow into adulthood the link between pink and purity remains, as evident in our class discussion. As I left our class, I saw a girl walk by while carrying a Victoria’s Secret shopping bag. Victoria’s Secret is the biggest lingerie store in the US and has come to represent flirty sexuality. This is a bag that I automatically associate with panties, bras, and all types of glittery and frilly undergarments. Yet, what color is the bag? Not one but two shades of pink!

If you’ve ever set foot into a Victoria’s Secret store, you can testify to Victoria’s Secret’s love affair with pink. From their logo to the price tags, everything is pink. It’s a store filled with frills, sensuality, and promises of looking sexy (so much so that “Very Sexy” is actually a line of bras and panties). Yet, from wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-ceiling Victoria’s Secret has been highlighted with a pink marker.

And, of course, the most notable pinkness of Victoria’s Secret is their PINK brand. Designed for a younger more playful audience, PINK embraces the girly girl color. From panties and bras to t-shirts and sweatpants, everything is labeled PINK. I just found it fascinating that pale pink is often associated with innocence and sweetness and Victoria’s Secret embraces that through their sexualized “younger” line of merchandise.

If we can agree that pink and princess play can be a form of sexualization in childhood, I think it’s fairly obvious to see how this trend continues into adulthood as women associate the pink bags to “Sexy Little Things” (another line of intimates). I am in no way saying that Victoria’s Secret is some horrible business and that they are explicitly attempting to link pink and sex, but it is an interesting thing to look at.

Princess Crown and Towel Cape

Today I'm writing my entry from inside the festival of books children's tent on a beanbag chair wearing a paper princess crown surrounded by the sheer energy and infinity within children, seeing them all playing and moving and reading and learning together with no hesitation makes me think, within the context of gender studies, how much we can relearn from children. Yes, this concept in an of itself is far from original, but I think retaining and reusing some aspects of childhood interaction would eliminate all kinds of issues. Kids don't see race or ethnicity or religion or gender they see peers friends collaborators playmates. We need to see beneath the constructs of society we use to mask and obscure the undeniable string of humanity tying us all together.
I suppose it's a tone poem to tolerance and caring and connection that I am going for right now because I think we can do better as a culture, as a society and as a global species and we will learn how by being kids again.

As women grow older.. move aside husband because daughter becomes the favorite

Amina Khan, writer of the LA Times reports on a study that found that as women age, their focus shifts from their husband to their adult daughter. The Journal of Scientific Reports looked at "nearly 2 billion
cellphone calls and almost half a billion text messages." It was a difficult issue to research because most parents would not answer if their son or their daughter was their favorite. Although females invest a lot earlier on in opposite sex relationships, by about age 40 their focus is on an adult female, presumably their adult daughter. Different theories came about from an evolutionary standpoint. One theory was that this shift in interest was due to a woman's interest in ensuring the surivival of her genes ( her daughter's children).

I think that this study presents really interesting information about female-female homosocial bonding. There is always focus on the dynamics between males and females, but this study goes to show you that women find each other of importance as well. Although, one point in the article I have an issue with. Researcher Mace talks about how usually the man is out of the picture when raising children, so naturally he is out of the picture when raising grandchildren. I think a father's involvement can only be described case by case. I know that in my childhood, my father and mother played equally important roles in my life, and continue to do so. Some things my mom was better at so she was more present in those situations, while in others, my dad helped out.

***This is a second post for this week because I didn't post last week.

Target's National Princess Week

Today I went to go hear Julie Andrews speak about her newly released book at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. I found out that today is the start of Target's National Princess Week. I could not help but think about Peggy Orenstein's book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter. The MC asked the crowd of little girls sitting in front of the stage "How many of you guys are princesses?" Attendants were busy passing around paper crowns to the crowd. Wanting to be a pretty PINK princess was not only expected of the young girls, but highly encouraged. Even women of all ages were wanting crowns of their own!

Now I first want to say, I am by no means hating on Julie Andrews. I think she is a wonderful lady. However, I do have some issues about what the book represents and encourages. I first noticed that, like many young princess books, the "pretty princess" was white. What about girls of color? Why are there not more princess of color? In addition, the premise of the book, and the focus of being a princess/fairy/etc... what does that really mean? If the definition of princess means what my generation has grown up with, then we as a society are enforcing antiquated messages. The symbol of a pretty pink princess emphasizes that young girls must be focused on their physical appearances, and wait upon their Prince Charming who will ride up on his white horse. And, she will get her happily ever after. There needs to be more young adventure stories, with regular average young girls.

Hillary Clinton

A few weeks ago a tumblr was created with the title "Texts from Hillary." Its main focus is a picture of Clinton looking very suave and professional. She's sitting in an enormous plane, wearing sunglasses, and checking her phone. The picture quickly turned into a popular meme and even got the attention of the secretary herself. She met with the founders of the site and thanked them for giving her some good P.R. If we all remember 2008, we remember that Clinton was portrayed as shrill and unamusing. However, this site shows that she is simply very business-ortiented and focused, which got me thinking about how women in politics are depicted.

I read a report months ago about how people are less likely to refer to a woman by her last name than her first. I immediately remembered watching coverage of the 2008 Democratic primaries, and it was always a battle between Obama and Hillary. However, I believe Palin was referred to by her surname, because, unlike Hillary, Sarah could not be confused with Todd, whereas "Clinton" can certainly mean either Bill or Hillary. But I think it's important to make any future match up Clinton vs. Whomever as a means to treat both genders equally.

Sexism...There's an App for That

One of the newest, most popular iPhone games to hit the market is Race Penguin. The game consists of you controlling a penguin to try and outrun a polar bear, and it is extremely addicting! I have to admit I downloaded the game two weeks ago and play at least once a day. As you move further along in the game, you are able to unlock special penguin characters with superpowers. First there is Super Penguin who can go higher, go faster, and have more control. Next is Magical Penguin who can teleport uphill and get a boost for every perfect slide. What is alarming is these characters are depicted as male penguins, and then finally there is a female penguin with blond, luscious hair and a red bow to unlock. Her superpower? Nothing. Instead of being super fast or have special powers, her description simply says, "Unlock a cute penguin girl." Oh, and her name is Penguinette.

What stuck me about this is just how invisible sexism can be. I have been playing this game for two weeks and never even noticed this until yesterday. I was excited to unlock the girl penguin to see what she could do, but once I unlocked her nothing changed except now my penguin was blond. Little kids who play this game will thus have an impression that for some reason the girl penguins are not as good as the boys. While this seems trivial, it still shows just how sexist our society is. Even in a stupid game women are thought of as subordinate to men. Despite children not fully understanding that this is blatant sexism, the impression it gives will make an impact on them whether we realize it or not.

Products are gendered

When rating the many media assignments I noticed one particular video that exhibited how products were excessively gendered. This is particularly seen in children products such as toothbrushes and toothpaste. Many kids don't care about the flavor of the toothpaste they just want to see what is on the packaging. If it is pink and has a princess on it girls will choose it and if it is blue with buzz light year on it boys will choose it. It actually even goes as far as diapers and cold medicine. Going beyond kids food products are also gendered. A recent product is Dr. Pepper 10, in their commercial it specifically says that this is NOT FOR WOMEN.

This amazes me since if women and men are now considered equal why should products specifically market to each sex differently? I believe it is all based on consumerism since if a family has a boy and a girl they cannot just buy one hat. They have to buy a pink and a blue one. Thus the company makes double the money. I also believe the media, more specifically advertisements and television, has lead to the creation of gender and race stereotypes that has lead to gender specific marketing. I believe this must change since young girls are taught to just be princesses and that's it while young boys are told to go out and explore the world. This sexist ideal needs to change for the better of society.

Orenstein's Cinderella Ate My Daugther and Raising a Child Gender- Neutral

       Peggy Orenstein’s “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” discusses how the ubiquity of pink and princesses influences girls.  Orenstein believes that playing with princess toys is not the issue at stake. Rather, she says it is of more grave concern how the princess- themed merchandises and fairy tales shape girls’ identity, individuality and self- perception. The consequences of girl- driven marketing is a formation of culture in which girls are groomed since birth. Hence Orenstein reminds us that “Cinderella” is an indictment of consumerism that drives marketers to relentlessly reach into our pockets by all means necessary. Ironically, however, Orenstein acknowledges that she is not a perfect parent herself. She, like many other parents, struggles with raising an “empowered” daughter who is immune to cultural obsession with pink and princesses. 

      Nevertheless, Orenstein expresses her hopes of giving her daughter the freedom to shape and color her own identity, whether it is pink, blue or purple. However I questioned the practicality of her endeavor. It reminded me of Storm, a child who was raised gender neutral. Idealistic and compelling the idea of raising a child genderless may seem, however, I though it was a risky experiment. Regardless of the child’s internal gender identity or “toy preferences”, he or she will eventually go out in the world where people who do not have clear gender identities become targets of stigmatization.  Though mournful, it is undeniable that expecting young girls to “see themselves from the inside out rather than outside in” is beyond the bounds of practicality, at least for now. Nevertheless, I agree with Orenstein that addressing the issue is the first step to making progress and helping the young girls “find their true happily- ever- after”.

Barbie Dolls

Barbie dolls are everywhere these days. They are in department stores, small shops, etc and there are even collections of barbie dolls that are priced expensively. Barbie dolls these days have evolved so much that they represent the 'ideal' woman figure in society. They have perfect, slim body waists with considerably big breasts, blonde and shiny hair, and long arms and legs. So how could any child resist a barbie doll? Although barbie dolls are mostly targeted for children, I find myself wanting for a barbie dolls (sometimes), even though I have past that phase. This demonstrates that barbie dolls are now not only targeting young girls but also females that have past adolescence. I think that barbie dolls are becoming a dominant part of our lives as they have become the representative symbolic figure that represents the females. To me personally, this is kind of scary because the image of the dolls are too strong in our lives and they define the way we think. Hence, when we look at barbie dolls, we automatically think that the dolls are always the ideal way to look at females and males.

Male Dominated Fields

This week, I was feeling anxious regarding my future career. I had always thought Finance was what I would be doing for several years before transitioning to the entrepreneurial world. However, as the summer draws closer, I feel more and more unsure of whether Finance is truly my passion. On the verge of a panic attack, I decided to call my cousin in India, who is currently pursuing her MBA in Marketing.

After a robust conversation about my experience in a business school, we finally transitioned to her life and how she chose to tred on the marketing path. She discussed the creative and analytical aspect of her career, as well as the various hours, the incredible people, and the potential growth in the field. Finally, we moved on to discussing Operations Management, a career she looked into, and one that interests me as well. She told me that Operations is a male-dominated field in India, thus she decided not to consider it as her profession. Hearing that, I was stumped. I could not make the connection between being in a male-dominated field and her career. Though the world is changing, I believe people should pursue careers they are passionate about, and not disreagard them due to the percentage of men or women in the field.

I see this instability in the US as well. Men who choose to go into Nursing, or women who choose to go into neurosurgey are bombareded with questions related to femininity and masculinity, respectively. I believe this goes back to the environment we were brought up in. Contrary to my gender, I never played with Barbies, dolls, or dresses. In fact, when I did have a Barbie, I used to pull her head off and smush it under my brother's remote control cars. Though my parents tried to conform us to the societal norms, perhaps I chose not to accept them. Today, my parents do not deter me from honing various opportunities due to the gender reconstruction in our society.

A lot of public attention is given to the gender relations between men and women in normal daily interactions, in the corporate world, and in gender inequalities. However, sometimes we forget about the darker side to gender relations, such as the sex trafficking that occurs right under our noses. From time to time we hear of stories of child abductions turned sex trafficking on shows like 20/20, Lifetime movies, and through movies like Taken, but even these seem far removed from our daily lives. In this NY Times Op-ed (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/opinion/kristof-not-quite-a-teen-yet-sold-for-sex.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=global-home&adxnnlx=1334895006-/rBrZT7lrIjbw7bxGTes1Q), I learned that one of the US's biggest sex trafficking websites is owned by a media company backed by Goldman Sachs, among a few other financial groups. Not that I ever thought Goldman Sachs was the pinnacle of all things moral, but this surprised me.

On a personal level, on a recent trip to Las Vegas my boyfriend and I witnessed what he thought was an exchange between a pimp, a prostitute, and a "taker," for lack of better vocabulary on the matter. The girl was crying and looked heartbroken and pained. I thought I was just witnessing a boyfriend-girlfriend fight. However, in a place like Las Vegas, one can never be too sure of these things and no matter what the actual situation was, it definitely made me uncomfortable to believe that such a disturbing thing was happening right before my eyes. Without insight and knowledge of sex trafficking, we can never be sure of what we're looking at, even in our daily lives. Surprisingly, we may be closer than we think to the darker side of gender studies.

Disney

As someone who grew up around Disney movies, I can say that it definitely changes one's view of gender relations. Even without text, all the Disney princess characters have a distinct look: huge doe-eyes, long eyelashes, small colored lips, perfect skin, and a body that would make even Playboy bunnies jealous. I agree with everyone in discussion who noted that the Disney stories all have the same hook: princess waiting for prince to save her from some horrible outcome. In hindsight, these movies showed us from an early age how to act as girls and boys, and we sold ourselves to it because they were glamorous and the story always ended with a happy ending. Who doesn't want that?

Although I don't contest that Disney made a lot of movies that portrayed women in a certain way that deepened gender stereotypes, I argue that perhaps this is said in hindsight. Hindsight is 20/20 and we are obviously a lot more along in our understanding of gender relations than we were 10-20 years ago. I don't know to what extent people understood gender stereotypes at the time these movies came out 15 years ago, but I think it's important to entertain the possibility that Disney was a part of a progression, a moment in time, during the transformation of gender roles. The reason why so many of us looked to these Disney princesses as role models were because some of them were spunky, some of them did break the rules, and many were not conventional in the way that society wanted them to be. Yes, they may have perpetuated some gender stereotypes, but they also broke some. Perhaps they weren't the most avante garde and modern portrayal of gender and certainly they may not be the best thing to show to kids now, but it spoke to girls at the time because to some extent, it made it okay to go against the grain of society.

Maids across the US

My family has lived in a few cities in the midwest. The population and mindset across the United States are completely different, which leads to different race relations. In the midwest, getting a maid is a high-cost expenditure. In order to get a maid, one must go through a professional hiring service, who will hire maids out by the hour. In my limited experience maids are not usually ethnic; they're usually white. The standardization and professionalization of maid service in the midwest may be a cause and a result of the high percentage of Caucasians that reside in the midwest as opposed to low-income immigrants. In my experience it is also much more looked down upon to pay much lower than standard wages to immigrant workers. (Yet, in many ways the midwest is much more racialized in that there are much more subtle expressions of racism from even the educated.)

On the west coast, especially in Los Angeles and San Diego, it is much more acceptable to hire maids that are from low-income immigrant populations that may or may not be illegal. This can be explained through an economic standpoint where both parties benefit--the homeowners are able to save money by paying minimally, and the illegal immigrants are able to find jobs that pay higher than they would in their home-country. However, this dynamic perpetuates ideas about race, even in the most subtle ways. I believe race relations are so entrenched that it may be even less important whether an immigrant is actually an illegal or not than their actual race or immigrant status. Like our political representatives though, I do not claim to know the solution, for I'm not sure that making all the illegal immigrants legal citizens would assuage racism. I think it has the potential to increase the tensions even more.

Maids in Brazil

This week in discussion we discussed about maids and nannies in different countries and how that affected our lives (or the lives of people who had nannies and maids). My family has had a maid since I was five. In Brazil, having a maid is natural and very necessary because the houses are very big and the gap between the rich and the poor are very big (and the poor need jobs). Although I did not have a nanny as I grew up, our maid was like family to me since she worked for our house since I was a young child. She taught me how to speak the Brazilian language and helped me through some of my Portuguese homework. However, I noticed that not all maids had a special relationship with the families they worked for. My friend's family, who had recently moved to Brazil, hired a maid in order to facilitate their daily chores. As I observed, my friend did not have any contact at all with her maid and rather ignored her in the house. In addition, her mother did not seem comfortable around the maid because she did not speak any Portuguese and they could not communicate. As I watched this, I thought that the most important requirement for maids and their employers to have a good relationship is to communicate well. Communication will not only bring them closer but will also help each other understand and be more accepting towards one another.

Stay at Homes Mothers

Last week, Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist for the Obama campaign was talking about Ann Romney and said that she, "has never worked a day in her life." Ann Romney chose to be a stay at home mother, and Rosen's comments completely degraded all mothers who chose a similar life path. Mrs. Romney earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University Extension School, but had to resort to night classes in order to raise her children and finish her degree. This is hardly a woman who never had to work a day in her life. Although the Romney’s are financially very, very stable, Ann has had one of the toughest jobs of all: raising children, and five boys at that.

Rosen’s comments just showed complete ignorance to the thousands of American women who sacrificed their careers like Ann Romney so that they could be present in their children’s lives and properly raise them. She didn’t want her children growing up knowing only a nanny as a caregiver, and countless mothers do the same today. My own mom did not work when I was growing up, and honestly I feel like she worked just as hard if not harder than my dad. Her job hours are 24/7, 365 days a year and she doesn’t get paid. For Rosen to say this is just plain offensive and also hindering towards women as it perpetuates the idea that stay at home moms are useless. It’s also said that this comment came straight from a woman’s mouth.

Maids in China

As I shared briefly in class on last Tuesday, most of the urban Chinese family own housemaids or nannies. Some of my friends even had three maids and drivers who divided work evenly (kitchen, different floors, gardening, etc.) My own family also had two maids. Both of them were very young; one was 24 years old, and the other one was 26 years old. My mom preferred to hire younger maids based on her past experience with Chinese maids .. they worked more diligently, and they had less family duties, so they did not really have to go back to their home town over Chinese national holidays. My mom usually changes maids once a year because she feels like they become loose as they get used to my family or become close to us. It, hence, was kind of difficult to build close relationship with them, honestly, and my mom did not want any of us to do anything friendly to them. This was because we heard a lot of stories about how Chinese maids stole money and ran away after how Korean family was so friendly to them.. since in the beginning, Koreans have difficulty with speaking Chinese, and the maids usually help the family out especially with financial problems.

Most of the maids who worked in my house had similar reasons why they came to Shanghai to work as maids. We first hired maids who were Chao Xian Zu which is Chinese minority group who are actually Korean descendants. They speak both Korean and Chinese, so many Koreans hire them when they first come to China. Chao Xian Zu, especially females, have difficulty with employment in China, so most of them do end up working as maids. After we could communicate in Chinese, my mom hired Chinese maids because they are cheaper to hire. Most of them are migrant workers from very local Chinese villages who are mostly illiterate, and this is the only way they can make living. They leave children behind and migrate to big cities like Shanghai and Beijing only with their husbands and send money back to their family in hometown.

Norm Reform

http://www.tedxteen.com/talks/tedxteen-2012/112-tavi-gevinson-still-figuring-it-out

I wanted to respond to this link from the recent TEDxTeen Event that took place in New York on March 31st. The girl speaking is a fashion blogging prodigy who is now the chief editor of an online internet magazine and she is just a sophomore in high school, but I think she is fabulous and had some interesting points about female representation in media as well as living up to the paradoxical demands and confinements society seems to demand we fit into. She mentions that while she is still figuring it all out she had to overcome people saying she couldn't be a feminist and interested in fashion, and the list goes on and on. She paralleled this one demenionality with female representations in the media and how so much of the time women have only one aspect (ususally thier sexuality) played up when women are obviously more complex, and as she and Lena Dunham noted, full of contradictions.

So her message in this talk and in her publication is that its completely okay for young girls to not have all the answers, not fit into one preconceived cultural box, that its okay to have contradictory feelings and not apologize for it - just like Stevie Nicks - who she says we should all be.

Furthermore my gorup - Mike Roma, Zach Siegel, Rachel Scott and I turned in our two videos for the Media Project, which we are very proud of and hope everyone enjoys of course!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQfbFA6jGRU&context=C4385b2fADvjVQa1PpcFOy20lIrhxQTbW9UEeNER3LokMafuVdblg=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH_p1XBwzRM&feature=context&context=C4385b2fADvjVQa1PpcFOy20lIrhxQTbW9UEeNER3LokMafuVdblg=

But also they have inspired us to start a new Youtube channel called Norm Reform

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxPjrUVVSuCUUjossKQZ8bQ

and we were inspired by this assignment to continue making media that asks those proverbial WHYs and examines the assumptions and norms of society in gender and sexuality but in all aspects of life too so people can see just how many of those norms are unfounded and arbitrary and shouldn't be followed!

If anyone is interested check out our channel and subscribe so you can see what we come up with next!

No Nannies

I'm from Massachusetts so whenever Mitt Romney's name pops up in the news (which has been quite often lately) I take interest in it. I stumbled upon this article in relation to Romney and the idea of hiring a nanny.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/04/other-war-moms-no-nanny-no-maid-romney-home/51142/

It is no secret that Romney is quite wealthy, so I was very surprised to find out that his wife raised their children without any assistance. My family is not extremely well off, but when I was growing up I was put into day-care with kids from my block. The Romney children were not even put in day care, which I find quite strange. Even if you want to raise your children on your own, which is fine, I think that there is a great advantage in daycare because your children get to socialize with other kids their age. Mitt and his filmy seem very opposed to the idea of anyone else raising their children, and I wonder if there is any particular reason for it.

Personally, I don't think that whether or not you employ a nanny should matter at all in politics, but, like many other things today, the home life of politicians play a big role in their careers. It might be a topic that has more influence than I'm aware of, I just thought it was interesting that an entire article would be devoted to the Romney's making a point that they do not have a nanny for their children.

Elle Callahan

Samantha Brick: "Why Women Hate Me for Being Beautiful"

A couple weeks ago, a writer for the UK tabloid website The Daily Mail ignited quite a bit of controversy and an outpouring of angry responses. Samantha Brick wrote an article entitled “There are downsides to looking this pretty: Why women hate me for being beautiful”. In this article she detailed instances of attention from men and hatred from women. She described her countless failed friendships with women as being the result of overwhelming jealousy. She provided an example of her boss telling her to not wear dresses as they elicit so much attention from men that they were unable to pay attention to their jobs. She listed several more similar examples. As the article’s title indicates, her main point was that women were jealous and intimidated because she was so gorgeous and perfect.

Samantha received an influx of comments and responses ranging from outrage: “OMG is this woman for real? Who does she think she is. Her ego is huge. Get over yourself love. You are not going to win Miss World anytime soon!” to support: “EVERYTHING you say—I can relate to. I am so please you’ve produced this article….I appreciate my looks. I am beautiful.” A large proportion of the responses were along the lines of “Is this an April’s Fools joke?!” “This has to be fake!”

Samantha wrote a subsequent article declaring that the negative reactions were proof that women really do hate beautiful women. She failed, however, to recognize that many of the responses were written by men.

I have to assume that many of the responses had absolutely nothing to do with her “beauty” and everything to do with her attitude. People are bothered by pompous catty attitudes no matter who they come from. They’re very off putting and elicit feelings of aversion. If she’s anything like this in real life, I would argue that it is her attitude, not her looks, that cause her to have no friends. I am not trying to claim that people’s reactions were acceptable, appropriate, or justified; however, I do understand them to a certain degree.

While her article and overwhelming arrogance was unmerited, embedded in that self-serving mess was a somewhat valid point: women do have the tendency to be competitive. Some women need to feel better than others. It’s sad, but in some cases, it’s very true. I know a girl who is extremely competitive with other women. She plays the “if you win, I lose. If I win, you lose” game. There’s no middle ground, no friendship, and no understanding. For her, it’s about taking other people down to lift up her exceptionally poor self-esteem. I see in her the same thing I see in Samantha Brick: insecure people who attempt to project their feelings of intimidation and competition onto other people in order to feel better about themselves. It’s sad. Women need to not degrade other women. Competition is useless.  

Samantha Brick:

Original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124246/Samantha-Brick-downsides-looking-pretty-Why-women-hate-beautiful.html

Follow up article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124782/Samantha-Brick-says-backlash-bile-yesterdays-Daily-Mail-proves-shes-right.html

Mad Men

I recently began to watch the TV show Mad Men, because so many people have told me how amazing it is. It has been on my instant queue for months, and I finally watched several episodes this week. I must say it is so interesting how the writers of the show do not shy away from the stereotypes of the era. Many times women are sexually harassed at the workplace, although it wouldn't be called such today, and very few times are there consequences. Rather than firmly taking a stance against a topic, the makers simply create a world that existed and let the viewers decide if it is better or worse than today.

In the second half of season one, secretary Peggy Olsen is given opportunities to write ads for products marketed toward women. For her first assignment, she hits it out of the park but is not given a promotion or raise. When she proves herself once again and demands a raise, Don Draper says she's "acting like a man" and gives her $5 extra a week. Apparently, to act like a man is to stand up for yourself and be assertive. However, in the 1950's when the ideas of masculinity and femininity are extremely polarized, Draper's statement is an accurate one. I am interested to see how Olsen continues her upward climb in a world where women have never been more than secretaries.

Media Assignment

Media assignment allowed us to creatively present and express our opinions on our chosen topics. Our group decided to focus on Guyland, the land that guys enter from around age of sixteen to around twenty-six, because Guyland was the most fun read we had in this gender issues class in my personal opinion. We tried to incorporate all the necessary information on the topic, but do not get too deep in it to keep the audience's attention throughout. We used Pixel; we began with a quotation by Kimmel and answered 5W's in the easiest way possible (to understand). We also incorporated lots of attention-grabbing pictures for the good of all. Most of them are white and are middle class (if they were not middle class, they probably would have had easier time than if they were middle class, continuing on with their lives in the society, instead of sticking around in Guyland, because the plans may have already been set up by their parents)
We also made a short video. The video was mainly about guys who live their lives aimlessly without specific goals. After having graduated, instead of getting on with their lives and joining the society, they waste too much time, often doing nothing or partying. However, they soon get tired of their aimless lives, so they begin to work, and achieve to get out of, or graduate from Guyland. Getting a job, getting married, raising children, and finishing education are some of many indicators of having gotten out of the land. We tried to make the video as personal as possible, so that people can relate to it better and understand the material easier. All in all, the media assignment was really enjoyable for me, and I got to learn a lot as well, going back and reading the stuff we read few weeks ago, or perhaps a month, before spring break.

Sotelo's Dometica & Domestic Workers in Thailand

       In this week’s reading, Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence, Sotelo discusses the ethics and moral ambiguity of hiring immigrant workers to do housework. She believes that the employers of domestics tend not to recognize their home as a workplace and the domestic workers as formal employees. As a result, the workers are often treated without dignity and respect. Also, Sotelo notes that the laws pertaining to domestic work are weak and the domestic workers' community remains to be one of the most disenfranchised group in the American society.

      The observations made by Sotelo were hardly a surprise for me. I lived in Thailand for 3 years where hiring full time maids are customary. The majority of maids in Thailand are from Myanmar and nearby developing countries. Thus, despite mistreatments, they are bound to the jobs because their wages are the only support available for the family back home. Though many employers do not have careers or any difficulties with doing housework, they hire maids to do the everyday chores and babysit. And because such has become so customary in Thailand, the moral ambivalence or questions of having hired help in homes is rarely discussed. Hence it appears that the cultural values dictate our perception of "domestic work" as well.

Love Cosmetics

The other day I was searching for an advertisement that had similar themes to Manet's Olympia, as I had to compare and contrast the two for a paper. I eventually came across a print ad from the 70's for Love Cosmetics' "Baby Soft" line. The image itself is of a little girl holding a white teddy bear. However, the little girl is in a seductive position and wears bright lipstick. The ad reads "because innocence is sexier than you think." This ad emphasizes the concept that women are supposed to have a dual nature: a innocent and promiscuous one. However, this dual nature is impossible to attain as both traits are polar opposites.

This ad, besides being entirely inappropriate, sheds light on the fact that women are held to impossible standards. Women are supposed to be extremely thin, but are supposed to be naturally so. Many men state that they don't want a girlfriend who only eats salad, but also want them to be skinny. There are numerous paradoxes in what men want in women (and what women think men want in women). However, women are so influenced by the media that they think men want things even if they do not, which is another reason why this advertisement by Love Cosmetics is so serious.

KICK OUT ALL ILLEGALS.....unless they are maids?????

I was extremely surprised to discover an article that stated how a Texas Republican desired to fine or even jail any citizen that hired an illegal immigrant, unless the illegal immigrant worked in a yard or house as a maid or gardener. The Republican, Debbie Riddle claimed that her idea was simply a "clumsy way to keep from stifling the economic engine." However, I view this as an incredibly disgusting double standard and a nod at the wealthy Republican Americans.

I believe that this bill exhibits how right wing legislators finally recognize the importance of illegal or undocumented workers are to our nations economy. This also exhibits another form of marginalization of the illegal immigrant who comes to America in search of better opportunities for his/her family. Instead of allowing them equal opportunities they are subjected to working in the home as maids or working on lawns as gardeners. I truly believe that this proposed law is another form of slavery and it absolutely sickens me that this sort of thinking is still present in our society. I believe that we must allow anyone with innocent morals and values to be able to have the exact same opportunities as me, event though they may have to cross a border just to enter this so called LAND OF OPPORTUNITY.

http://theweek.com/article/index/212785/texas-proposal-to-kick-out-all-illegal-immigrants-except-the-maids

Sweden: Aiming for Gender-Neutral Society

http://shine.yahoo.com/team-mom/kids-raised-gender-neutral-society-sweden-thinks-033400030.html

While essentially every country on this planet separates gender to two main groups, male and female, Sweden currently is in the transition of developing a more gender-equal society. I believe this decision can eventually lead down the path to a completely gender-neutral society. Attempts to raise gender-neutral children have arise in the recent past, such as the case of Sasha Laxton in the United Kingdom. However, the one fault of their plan was that they live in a country where the ideologies on gender roles are ingrained so deep within their society, and therefore, making it essentially impossible to raise a gender-neutral child without him/her being influenced by his/her environment (i.e. interaction with other children). But by eliminated gender stereotypes, the hopes of one day having a gender-neutral society grows substantially. Sweden has already worked on the development of their gender-equal society by attacking the issue before it even arises and focusing on changing the way they raise children. Teachers are required to address their students as "buddies" instead of "boys and girls." The gender-neutral pronoun "hen" has also been added to the country's National Encyclopedia. But with this transition arises the question, do gender stereotypes have some biological truth behind it? The writer of this article, Charlene Birkeland, believes so. She argues that within certain sports, anatomical differences between girls and boys for "the power and strength of the male anatomy would create problems in a gender neutral environment." However progressive creating a gender-equal society seems from the surface, I'm not too sure how this will play out in the long-run because I do believe males and females are anatomically built in specific ways, even in a society where males aren't told to be tough and mighty and females aren't told to be so skinny.