The Doll test

So I am kind of sad that we can't share our presentations to the class, so i am going to give you a little taste of it. While looking at advertising that gives different false self images, specifically involving the race portrayed and targeted to I came across a video on YouTube that I thought was fairly shocking. The video shows an experiment done on children called the doll test. The test is done by showing children of different backgrounds three barbies ( they are all dressed the same, the only difference is the color of their skin.) and asked which one is the prettiest, which one is the best, and which one is the baddest. The results of the test are shocking, 50% thought that the white barbie was the prettiest and 50% of the children thought that the back barbie was the baddest. Only one of the children thought that the black barbie was the prettiest.
Wow, This is the result of poor media that provides limited variety of positive images for children. Media is full of successful white people, and this test can prove that. I also found it remarkably sad that even the children of a different race or ethnicity choose the white barbie as the prettiest. So not only do children think that they won't be successful because of the color of their skin, they also don;t believe their skin is beautiful. Because these children don't find their skin to be beautiful it leads to the result that the black barbie doll is labeled bad. So how do we change these views and make children have a more positive perspective on themselves and others of their own race. I would like to be able to think that we could achieve things without the media but we all know that in today's world the media is in the middle of how our lives are run. So first we fix media to display more role models and positive goals for children of all backgrounds as well as trying to fix in what ways children interact with each other. With all of this information by the experiments conducted i would like to say that even though we have a lot we can change and improve We have also come a long way from how our grandparents and parents lived and treated each other.


References:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOHbtM9463c

For this blog post I decided to write about Miranda Lambert and her newest hit "Momma's Broken Heart" Miranda Lambert is totally kicking butt about getting good images for women to look up to in media because she is simply her.

Miranda does not excessively work out or diet, she is not a size zero and she is still really popular. She does not just sit around while her husband goes and hunts, she'll go hunting with him and totally go and kick the guys' butts at hunting and she doesn't care.

In "Momma's Broken Heart" she is talking about how she had a break up and her mom was telling her to be more lady like and be a stereotypical girl and get over it. In the song she goes crazy, but not stereotypical crazy woman she is her own kind of crazy.

I love Miranda Lambert and she is one of my favorite idols to look up to in the media. She is a great person to be in the media because she is not fake at all she is just her. We need more women like Miranda in the media to be real and not give an unrealistic view for women to see that influence us.

http://www.cmt.com/videos/miranda-lambert/885131/mamas-broken-heart.jhtml

Shout out to Amy Poehler

So, with all the discussion about the media and how it really promotes all these ideas of basically every women's issue we have studied this term, I wanted to take a minute to bring up some positive media influences. Feminist media is just a drop in the bucket but it is gaining ground.

Amy Poehler is a really inspiring person. She is a popular actress and comedian- best known for her time on (once male dominated) SNL and on the t.v shoe Parks and Rec. She identifies herself as a feminist and is doing some really cool work when it comes to spreading her views and influencing young girls.

Amy Poehler has a great media campaign called "Smart Girls at the Party".
As describes on the website, it "is a rapidly expanding online network that aims to help the process of cultivating the authentic selves of young women and the young at heart." Basically, it is a series of video on youtube with different themes. She interviews girls, has an "Ask Amy" series, advice series, and other. The point of these videos is to inspire confidence in women and makes a point to discuss how multi-faceted women are- we can't be put in a box. The videos cover issues from body image, negativity, community projects, interviews with girls from different cultures and interviews with women in a variety of professions. The campaign also motivates girls to find something that interests them- no matter what it is- life will be more interesting when they are being themselves. 

The campaign is definitely gaining popularity and I can definitely see why. Amy Poehler is a well know actress/comedian and the youtube series has a great mix of humor and heart. Some of the videos have 300,000+ views! This is also the perfect platform to reach her audience.  One of the best things about it is just to see someone taking this much action to do something they are interested in. It is really inspiring. 

I believe she's doing important work. I hope it inspires other. 

http://www.youtube.com/smartgirls

Steubenville

So. The Steubenville case. There has been a lot in the news about what happened, the perpetrators, the verdict, and the recent Facebook and Twitter threats made to the victim after the trial’s conclusion. Honestly, I was not sure which article to write about—the overly sympathetic coverage of the football players by CNN, the threats or perhaps this new article about the blogger who brought light to the criminalizing tweets and Facebook posts made back in August? I also read in another blogger article linked to me by a friend, which one of the takeaway messages put out by the media is “to watch what one posts on social media websites.”

WHAT. THE. HELL. Seriously, what has happened in our society that two boys with reputably “promising futures” have NO IDEA, NO CONCEPT, NO INKLING that what they were doing was wrong? What has happened to our world in which suddenly KIDS, no, not young adults, KIDS are the ones running the show and not the adults? On the CNN coverage, I would like to agree on one concept: that yes, it is an absolute shame that two KIDS are going to pay the rest of their lives for a message that our society and social media puts out every hour on the hour. It is a crying shame that these two kids were not given the right parenting and educational instruction to let them know that this kind of behavior IS NOT OKAY. It is a shame that the adult figures in this so-called community were not mature enough, not intelligent enough, not ADULT ENOUGH to rein in these KIDS and what they were doing. IT IS A SHAME THAT EVERYONE IN THIS WHOLE SITUATION DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH RESPECT FOR HUMAN BEINGS AND LACKED THE ABILITY TO TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG.

Honestly, I think that is what scares me the most about this case. It takes the monsters out from under our beds, out of the dark alleys and from behind the bushes and puts all around us. And then, the knowledge that they have surrounded us for a long time and we never even thought to look away from our brightly lit computer screens giving us repetitive images and messages which tell us that women are not really people and the ones that try to say they are need to be shut up. The most recent article I read about this case has been on the blogger who took screen shots of what the football players posted on social media sites. Instead of receiving honors and respect for catching criminals and helping a survivor of rape; her town has sued her, harassed her and her family, insulted her and turned her into a pariah. Because how DARE she show the dirty secrets behind the Big Red football team. How DARE she challenge the societal structure of Steubenville and do the right thing in the face of a community whose last tooth in the mouth was their precious football team. I cannot help but wonder if some of the members of Steubenville who have verbally abused Alexandria Goddard, the blogger and Jane Doe, have ever complained about corrupt politicians more invested in what is good for Congress as opposed to the country.

This kind of thinking, this message that women are just ‘objects of desire’ and especially the concept that those out there who are trying to break those norms are ‘crazy’ or ‘fanatical’, this needs to stop. Go out there and talk to people about this and start a ripple effect. Change the norm. Change the world.

Because people are individuals and individuals have minds. And if enough individuals decide that they don’t like something, they will use their minds, unite and change things.  

Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/blogger-who-first-exposed-steubenville-rape-tweets-speaks-out-182936719.html

Rape Culture and Recent Media Coverage

If you pay attention to the society we live in survivor blaming would come as no shock. All too often we hear cases of sexual-assault and the survivor of the crime is accused of being one thing or another. Had she just not been wearing that short skirt that man would have been able to keep himself under control. Had she not drank so much she would have known to not get herself in that situation. Frankly I think it’s unacceptable. Blaming the survivor of any crime, especially a sexually related one is absurd. Just because I leave my car unlocked, does that make it any more reasonable for someone to break into it? No, and it sounds ridiculous to even suggest it! This is more than applicable to sexual-assault cases.

But it almost seems inevitable in the world we live in. When men and boys are taught they always need to be in control, that anything less means they’re not a “real” man, we are left with misguided men who think they don’t have to accept responsibility for their actions. Please note that I’m very aware that not all men perform acts of sexual-assault, that not all perpetrators are men, and that females are not the only individuals who are survivors of these crimes. However, in this hyper-masculine society we live in, men are targeted as the ones who need to be in control and have power.

Blaming a survivor is bad enough on its own but this also deters other survivors from reporting their crimes. Incidents are terribly under-reported as it is and this could be considered one of the bigger reasons why. No one likes to be told they’re lying when they know that they are only telling the truth. It’s discouraging, it’s unfair, and it’s infuriating.

Fortunately there has been a survivor that has had the courage to speak out against her perpetrators. Recent national news coverage has been talking about the case of a 16-year-old Ohio girl. She was sexually-assaulted at a party last August and the courts are finally making their verdicts. While I am so glad she has spoken out against this event, I am disgusted by the defense. They have tried to attack her character and reduce her to a substance abusing liar.

To read more about the case you can do a Google search of the town in Ohio, Steubenville, but the article I read can be found here.

The State of Women's Rights in the World

http://rt.com/news/muslim-brotherhood-rejects-women-rights-290/ Women's Rights has been an important issue throughout our class, and the world in general. For a long time people have been fighting for or against women's rights at various levels and we are currently in a place where everyone is trying to negotiate women's rights on different levels. Recently the UN put forth a draft on the Declaration of Women's Rights which would enable women to choose the gender of their partner, gives equal rights to homosexuals, protects sex workers, and supports the use of contraception for teenagers. By my standards and the standards of many, this is a huge improvement and a big step forward, but for some this is stretching it too far. Some countries are fighting against this saying it goes against their values. This shows a very important dynamic in the world today. We are in a place where international legislation about Women's Rights is a viable option and a possibility, but some countries aren't in support of that. They say that it should be the individual nation's decision in regards to things like women's rights because some of the aspects of the proposed Declaration go against the societies beliefs, religions, or institutions. In order to get this issue resolved, we need to figure this issue out globally. I would urge other countries and cultures to reach a compromise, but I fear inequality for women will remain in the state it is now if international laws aren't set forth.

STEM for women through CBS

I’m a big fan of the show The Big Bang Theory. Last week’s episode was about encouraging women and girls to go into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. I think it was great for the CBS to do an episode on STEM education because there are way too few women in these fields. Women have just as much right to be in STEM fields. For some reason, there are people out there who think men are for some reason better than women.

            In the beginning of the episode, one of the main characters, Leonard, is concerned about the lack of female voices in his field. In the episode, Leonard, his colleague and roommate, Sheldon, and their other friend, Howard, go to a middle school and talk to the female students about considering careers in STEM. The girls show no interest in what the scientists have to say. Leonard tries to tell the girls that science is fun and can be an enjoyment for everyone. Sheldon then steps in to help. He goes on to explain that science is basically very hard work and takes patience and time to grow a knack for. Leonard then asks Howard to step forward and help out. Howard just came back from outer space and tries to show the girls that they can also by astronauts if they wanted to be. Leonard finishes off their presentation by saying a science pun, and a student raised her hand to ask a question. Leonard felt so accomplished when this student wanted to know a little more about what the scientists do for a living.

            Honestly, it was a very good episode. Each episode tries to end on a message so that the viewers can take away after watching the episodes. So I hope that female viewers will consider a career in STEM after watching this episode. CBS wasn’t trying to push STEM careers upon females, but to encourage them if they want to go in STEM careers, they can. Basically, CBS wanted to encourage women to follow their dreams. And if that is in STEM, then go for it! There are even websites out there that are encouraging women and girls in STEM education. There is this website called STEM Education Coalition and their mission is to “encourage and inspire more of our best and brightest students, especially those from underrepresented or disadvantaged groups, to study in STEM fields.” For me, I was never a big fan or science or technology, but that shouldn’t stop any other women from pursuing a career in STEM.

 

http://www.stemedcoalition.org/about-us/objectives/

 

http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/video/26FE1DB7-B033-CEEE-3C52-420C16019E35/the-big-bang-theory-the-contractual-obligation-implementation/