Sexual Assault/Rape

This is a very touchy subject for everyone. People don't realize that this unfortunately happens more often than we think and to people that we know and are friends with. I have a couple of friends that have been a victim of this and I have been a victim as well. It is very damaging to someone not only physically but mentally and emotionally. If you have a scar somewhere on your body look at it...Just like a scar on your body this is a scar that victims have. In our slides it says that 75% of rapes are committed by people that they know. How scary is that!? Rape should not ever be something that is common in the United States but it is and we need to do something about it. Unfortunately some victims do not report it and if they do they are told that the process will be grueling and they will make you out to be the bad person. How screwed up is that in this world! That infuriates me! I know the people I know who have suffered from this have had relationship problems and depression problems. Hopefully someday this won't be a common thing we have to deal with. For those of you that this happened to a family member or friend, just love them, support them and encourage them.

Rehab

Okay so this year there have been a few celebrities that have gone to rehab for drugs, alcohol, and whatever else reason there is. But I noticed that the ones that publicized and given alot of newstime are women. Look at Eva Mendes, Britney Spears, Tara Reid, Lindsay Lohan, Kirsten Dunst just to name a few. They are all women. You rarely hear about men going to rehab, why is it that? Why is it when women act out of their norm and not like the perfect lady it gets so much newstime...? It gets the front page of magazines or posted all over gossip sites and even television. I remember watching CNN one day and then all of sudden breaking news--Britney Spears Checks Into Rehab. It's ridiculous and unnecessary.

Gender bias on television shows

So for my project, i decided to take a closer look at the gender stereotypes that are portrayed on television. After i had done this, now all of the shows that i'm watching have gender sterotypes almost in every episode! My favorite one, which is very old school, but "I love Lucy". This is so stereotyped that the women stay and home and clean, cook, take care of the kids. Then for the men they are looked at as the breadwinners and rarely do naything around the house such as cooking or cleaning. I just found it so amazing that this show made gender stereotypes stand out so much.

In some of the shows today, more roles are being switched where men are doing the stay at home gig and women are out working. But it's still not really seen as muuch, and if it is.. it's just looked at as kind of weird!

=)

Too Skinny

The media is everywhere we look. I just can't get over how it portrays men and women. Everytime I look in a magazine I see it all the time. The men in the advertisements have the cutest body and they are perfect from head to toe. The women are the same they can practically fit into childrens clothes they are so skinny and their hair, makeup, clothes everything is perfect. They are also half naked. I understand sex sells but does it have to be at this level. It affects the audience in different ways. Yes it could make you buy the product they are endorsing but it also has negative affects on people. At times after I see ad after ad after ad with these perfect bodies internally I think oh well if only I had abs like her or perfect hair like her it would make me happier. It gets people down. For me it gets me when summer rolls around I have put up pictures of celebs I like on my fridge or mirror and I make that my goal to get skinny like them. Then I realize what Im doing and hit myself in the head because who wants to live like that, wanting the perfect body. That doesn't bring you happiness. Being happy with yourself makes you a happy person. I wish society and the media would change this but realistically its never going away.

Rescue

After seeing and hearing most of our projects last week I couldn't help but think that we are never going to escape it. Going back to children books where the female is always looking and needing to be rescued by the male. I was thinking of all the childrens movies that I used to watch like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, the Little Mermaid they all have the male rescuing the female. What does that teach us? That women can't save themselves, that we need a male to come rescue us...In the past I have thought about this and my friends and I refer to it at times saying "All I need or want is prince charming to come sweep me off on his white horse and rescue me." That doesn't do any good. Why do have that mentality? It stems back to these movies and books and being told that when we were little. It's a nice thought but women don't always need a man to rescue them, we need to rescue eachother.

Gender bias on the internet

So earlier today, i was playing on the internet and came across one of those annoying adds. It was asking what type of job you want and right next to it had these little icons of characters playing those job roles. I realized that next the male dominated icons, was obviously a little male character. Like attourney, doctor, engineer, and cop. And next to the female gendered characters the jobs were nurse, assistant, and teacher. I just found it kind of funny that even on these little icons for jobs, it was being gender bias!

challenging gender role and categories

waht do you think about it?

The Ugly Truth

So, I found this movie trailer coming up in April, calls "The Ugly Truth." It seems like there is tons of women and men's gender differences.  The first thing got my attention was that the woman and man icon things.  Woman figure has the heart on the head but man figure has on the penis.  I thought it's very stereotypical.  And in the trailer, she was excited about the man she met who is a surgeon.  This is also showing that women supposed to get married with high salary or high status guys.  I am not trying to blame this movie or anything like that, I actually like this like of movie, yes.  I just thought it is interesting.  

Movies

I was forced to watch the new Angelina Jolie movie "wanted" last night and it made me realize that if a women is the leading action person in the movie that they are always beautiful and sexy. I started to think about it and realized that there isn't a single movie that if the lead action hero is women and she isn't viewed as a sex symbol. I also realized the same for men. Most of the time if the lead action hero is a man then he is also viewed as a sex symbol. The question I present to the blog is can an action hero be an effective action hero without being sexy?

Gender Based Insurance rates

I linked an article on the title "Gender Based Insurance rates." This is the news article obviously about Insurance rates based on gender.  Women pay more than men.  I still do not understand why women need to pay more than men.  If I go with traditional view of men and women, men are the one who work outside and higher risk of danger and women take care themselves better than men.  Even if I don't think traditionally, science proves that men have higher risk of getting heart attack than women do.  I do not know that how they calculate, but I believe it there should not be some difference BASED ON gender.

American society does focus a great deal on the perfect body, but think about the face as well. I mean there's so much airbrushing done on these celebrities and models. They also use tons of make-up, even on men. Perfect skin and hair also plays a huge role on how Americans define beauty. Also think about how much money these products cost. It is such an effective advertising strategy. Wear this 20 dollar bottle foundation and you'll look like this movie star.
I think at least some of them are starting to make progress but this perception has been going on for decades so changing it will probably take twice as long

So I was just thinking how interesting it was today in class that majority of people when presenting looked at the way that women are portrayed in the media and how overwhelming it has become that women are to be only sex objects that can not think on their own or hold any short of responsible job. With that said looking at all the magazine ad, tv shows, and music videos I know that I still watch them and wonder if society is so concerned with creating a certain image that we must conform to what do you think would happen if all of the different media outlets were taken away? Would our society still so harshly judge physical beauty and why is it in the U.S. dominatly we focus so much on the body and nothing else?

Curious..

So I was talking to one of my guy friends the other night at the bar. We were talking about girls who dress up or don't for classes. He said, "You know what guys think of girls who dont dress up right? That they are taken."
I find it really hard to believe that people even notice or think about that while going to class.
I wonder if that's true. I don't see the point honestly because I'm not really thinking about picking up a date while I'm having a hard enough time satying awake to pay attention to the information.
'

McDonalds Commerical( Stereotypes)

stereotypes at its best, yet not offensive

Topless photo of 14-year-old Grand Blanc girl sparks sexual discrimination debate

GRAND BLANC, Michigan -- That topless photo of a Grand Blanc teen sure did stir up a heck of a lot of debate.

On whether girls have the same right as guys to go topless.

If cellphones should be allowed in school.

And why people are so darn interested in this story.

A 14-year-old girl took a topless photo of herself on her cellphone. The picture spread around Grand Blanc High School, and seven students were suspended -- including the girl -- for having the photo on their phones at school.

An attorney for the parents argued in part that the discipline amounted to sex discrimination because photos of bare-chested males are fine, photos of bare-chested females should also be fine.

A firestorm ensued. More than 100 people posted comments on the Journal's Web site, mlive.com. Most think the parents don't have a case against the school.

Male prisoners gain right to cosmetics

The Federal Constitutional Court said the plaintiff was right in challenging a prison policy which allowed only female inmates to spend 25 euros (£21) of their own money on cosmetic and skin care products each month.

"Although the interest in cosmetics may be more widespread or frequently stronger among women than among men, it is not a biologically determined interest among women," the court ruled.

"Members of one sex cannot be denied their wellness choices simply because they are more typically found among the opposite sex."

It said the current practice of only allowing women to purchase beauty products amounted to a violation of the protection against sex discrimination under Germany's Basic Law.

New VIC laws allow gays to 'commission' surrogate children

Gay men will be able to commission a baby via a surrogate mother under new Victorian laws that have angered the Christian lobby.

The landmark laws, passed in State Parliament late on Thursday, legalise surrogacy and give lesbians and single women access to fertility treatment, including IVF.

The Australian Christian Lobby has denounced the legislation as “social engineering” and says it will enable gay men to “order” a surrogate baby on demand.

“It steps outside the natural family, two men can’t (physically) have a baby,” lobby spokesman Rob Ward said.

“The wishes of homosexuals to have children should not be placed above the inalienable rights of children to start out in life with a mother and a father.”

The new laws eradicate the need for surrogate couples to travel interstate for IVF.

Previously, women had to be infertile to qualify for fertility treatment, ruling out surrogate mothers and most single and lesbian women.

The legislation also gives gay partners and parents of surrogate children legal parenting rights and allows women to conceive using the sperm of their dead partners.

Paper Bag Princess Book

I know this is kind of late but...

I think that the Paper Bag Princess is a great book for all children to have. I wish that they had a book like that when I was growing up. It would have been nice to see the flip side of all the fairy tales we read.

When I become a parent one day I plan on purchasing this book for my children. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Men Working

So I don't know if anyone ever drives down comanche street in front of the alkek parking garage but for the past few weeks there have been people outside working on the garage. Everyone morning I drive by the garage to go to the LBJ parking garage and I notice a sign that says "men working". I found this to be crazy considering the society that we live in. This sign makes the inference that there are only men working on the parking garage and, of course, I found this extremely concerning to our society. Just wondering if anyone had noticed.