VLOG: Gender Defender

http://www.youtube.com/user/marcaperu?v=sTUi3JTuRys

This short video is amazing. it is the represent of the post life. it explains how life is going to fast, how the technology is so fast. it reminds me, where I was, where I am, and where I will be. This short video tell us how the world is going to be change and how people is getting busy. It says people in the post eating together, talking together, having feeling to each other, but now it is completely change. life is change, population is increasing every day. This all things is belong to culture.

"The Codes of Gender"

On  Friday we watched the film "The Codes of Gender" in class. "The Codes of Gender", written and directed by Executive Director Jhut Jhally,  gives you an interesting and eye-opening look at identity and how culture and media portray males and females. The film dives into what is behind the ad, uncovering how both sexes are viewed and helps piece together an idea of the difference of identity and power relations. At first I was a little skeptical of the film; however after a few minutes into the movie, I found my self more interested and surprised by what Professor Jhally had to say.
     Mr. Jhally went on to talk about how we as culture need to be able to put other people into groups or tiers, either male or female. Without the ability to group another person into one these tiers, it makes it hard for people to identify a persons gender, thus creating confusion and sometimes violence. Media ads to the tiers as well, showing males and females in different poses which signify masculinity or femininity by how the individual is sitting, standing, laying down, etc. Apparently, since we are bombarded with ads portraying males and females in certain roles, norms, and traits as well as family and friends placing an identity with our gender, we have created a culture all its own that places individuals into gender specific roles and helps us perceive what it is to be a man or a woman.
    This film is a good watch and will definitely give you an understanding as to how we perceive other individuals and put those individuals into groups because of gender.

Putting the shoe on the other foot.

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/transsexual-beauty-queen-disqualified-from-miss-universe-canada-competition-2012263

The shoe on the other foot

In a world where being female is not only a distinct advantage, it is the only way to compete, Jenna Talackova, pushes gender boundaries much in the same way that Caster Semenya did in track and field. Aiming to compete in the Miss. Universe Canada crown, Jenna Talackova was disqualified because she is transgender. Since age four, she has always identified as female. She started hormone therapy at the age of 14 and gender reassignment surgery at age 19.Even though she has always identified as female, and had her sex drastically altered to reflect that,  it was not good enough for the organization and she was disqualified from competition.

I find this to be relative and interesting because it shows the inverse of the Caster Semenya. In the case of Caster, she competed where it would be considered a benefit to be a man.  When the possibility of her being a man arose so did the possibility of her being disqualified. In contrast, in beauty pageants, it would be considered to be a distinct disadvantage to be born male, as beauty is not necessarily considered to be a male trait. Despite the fact that her born sex was a disadvantage Jenna was still disqualified. My theory is this: it doesn’t matter if the sex confusion would be advantageous or disadvantageous. What matters is if the individual is different, they are immediately hated and scorned. It’s time for the world to wake up, and get rid of these binary categories.

A Semesterly Vegetarian

Food Inc. has been shown in at least one of my classes every semester of my college career.  As always, the movie follows or precedes a series of stories about the cruel treatment of animals that descend from factory farm to grocery store shelf.  Every semester I leave class feeling disgusting, but incredibly passionate about making a change in not only my own eating habits, but those of my friends and family, as well.  I become incredibly annoying about it, as I share every single story I know about animal treatment as my best friend bites into a hamburger or when my dad grills steak for our family.  

Every semester I become a vegetarian... and every semester I fail.

I try.  I really do.  The problem is, I'm from a small farm-centered town in Ohio that relies heavily on the consumption of meat products- factory and organic, alike.  It's not easy being a vegetarian when you've grown up understanding agriculture to be a livelihood.  So, to all vegetarians, I admire your strength, and one of these days I'll finally gather the strength to stick to the passion that you hold for consuming safe food.  

Until then, I'm nearing the end of week one of my semesterly vegetarianism after watching Food Inc. in class last week.  Maybe I'll do a spin off of "My Twitter Diet" with "My Vegetarianism Blog"?  Oh, the possibilities...

Maybe it's not so Bad

    

Throughout our discussion and readings of different articles concerning the princess culture, I had agreed with the vast majority of the text being presented. I completely agree that the princess culture is affecting all girls, whether they be deemed weird for not embracing it, or whether they are becoming young narcissists because of the obsession. The more I reflect on the articles however, the more I start to think things are being taken too seriously.

            The main issue is not Disney or the princess movies themselves, but instead the parents who do not know how to raise a humble and non-narcissist child. Solely watching princess movies or playing with princess toys will not make a small girl feel like she is an actual princess and needs to be treated as one. When a parent spoils their child, giving them whatever they plead and relinquishing all control to the power, they are creating a small monster. Children with this foundation of an upbringing will undoubtedly feed off of the princess culture easily. The products and story lines will manifest into a spoiled and demanding child. This is not the fault of Disney. If a child simply sees the princess stories, engaging his or her imagination in a “new world,” while also having parents who raise the child to be caring, selfless and humble, the princess culture will not have much of an effect.

            In the article written by Laucius, she discusses the elements that define princess. She states one element as being that the girl believes she is someone special. I really disliked that she saw this in a negative light. As cheesy as it may sound, I really do think everyone is special. Coming from a religious standpoint, I believe everyone was hand-crafted in the image of God, and that is about as special as it gets. I believe children need to be taught that they are special in order to instill confidence at a young age. Being confident, not cocky, is important for a young girl. It can go so far as to prevent an abusive relationship. Or it can simply help a girl withstand a mean bully. Knowing you’re special is a beautiful gift that all girls should be taught. It’s highly different from thinking you’re better than everyone else.

TELEVISION......THEN & NOW!

Ok lecture on Monday was very interesting. Growing up in the late 90’s/early 2000’s we had plenty of shows that I can say exemplified GIRL POWER. For example, That’s So Raven, Sabrina the teenage witch, and lastly Lizzie McGuire. All of these shows have women playing teenage roles as daughters, they were all in school, very social, and played the lead roles in their show. I cannot say that they all rejected boys, but that was not their main focus.  All of these shows proved to us that girls can have lead roles and how young women should value their education. They showed young girls many valuable lessons and how to mostly overcome fears. When I was younger that’s what I took from these shows. Girl Power is all about embracing women and letting them have all control and power. Even though society has changed and we start to see more shows such as BASKETBALL WIVES, REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA, REAL WORLD and many more, the shows today do not show or prove to us any Girl Power. The media shows what the people like and in today’s society people enjoy watching shows that involve sexual intercourse, drinking, and fighting. There is no way we can ever go back to the GIRL POWER movement with things like that entertaining us. It not only affects us, but the upcoming generations. We need to find the link between popular culture today and GIRL POWER back then and tie them together in a way we can represent women in a positive way as well as empowering others.

“This is Not Natural:”

Reading the article “this is not natural Caster Semenya’s gender threats” really raised my eye to a lot of things. This article was very interesting to me; it actually made me really mad. Why do people judge? I just don’t get it. In the article it states that Semenya’s performance in all her races raised suspension about her sex. She’s a top athlete its not like she’s one of these high school athletes trying to make it, to the state finals, she’s arguably the best female runner in the world. What do you expect from arguably the fastest women in sports? I don’t understand why people would make these assumptions just because she’s much better than the competition. Why is she there competing to be the best if she gets ridiculed for doing her best?  In the article it also talks about how Semenya also looks like a male but to me what do looks have anything to do with being a male or female? Yes people in today’s world label each and everyone as male or female by simply the way they look but if you can’t then you have to simply look at the birth certificate or do test.  What I don’t understand is why people in todays world even make these labels about people. The article states that she wears pants and dresses like a man and as a child played with boys. It states she wasn’t into being a girly girl. Everyone is different and just because she doesn’t want to be the normal kind of “women” that society is use to seeing she gets penalized. I don’t believe that you can be in between a male or a female either. If you are born with both parts then you decide at that time to be male or female. She obviously doesn’t have a penis so that would make her a female in my eyes. Gender is an all or nothing thing to me.

A BOLD Perspective on Food

A Bold Perspective on Food

Over the past few decades, our food habits have changed drastically.  Ranging from how we eat to the types of foods, we consume.  Does anyone even pay attention to what is actually going into his or her body?  It was not until recently when movies like: Super-Size Me and Food, Inc. hit the media that people began to pay attention to the “junk” that would fill their system.  Chemically processed foods have become a “brand” to our nation ever since there was solution to the 1970 inflation cost in farming.  Local farmers entered a depression with the spike in food costs.  As the food prices started to decrease, there were more people in the world and more people mean more food.  The farmers had a rough time keeping up with the production of food while keeping the costs low.  So what was the solution?...Factory Farming! 

Factory farming was able to provide mass food production at lower costs.  How could we be so blind to the mass changing in food?  Factory farms took over control of the food industry; this allowed them to mass produce food providing more food at lower cost.  Unfortunately, there is a high price to pay for the low cost.   The FDA has allowed many standards in food production that they label as “natural and unavoidable” (Defect Levels Handbook, 2011).  As a standard the FDA now allows up-to 30 insect fragments and one rat hair per 100 grams of peanut butter (Defect Levels Handbook, 2011).  Tomato sauce averages a mold count of about “6 sub-samples is 34% or more and the counts of all of the sub-samples are more than 30% (Defect Levels Handbook, 2011).”  Most of the food that is now being processed in factories have lower regulations than say an organic farmer!  It is very common to find mold, rat hair/fecal matter, insect fragments, and fly eggs in many of our fruit and vegetable products. 

Food, Inc. also brought into perspective for most people the simple fact that our meat is no better than our fruits and veggies!  Today more than 8 million women are at higher risks with bladder infections that have no cure (Hartman, 2012).  Why?  Because chicken farming also became part of our factory farms, when eating chicken you are consuming high doses of antibiotics.  When you consume large doses of antibiotics your body eventually begins to reject them, therefore, when you seek treatment for an infection you are left lying hopeless!  Hartman (2012) writes, “A growing number of medical researchers say more than 8 million women are at risk of difficult-to-treat bladder infections because super-bugs – resistant to antibiotics and growing in chickens – are being transmitted to humans in the form of E. coli.” 

You may have heard the recent buzz about GMO’s, but what is it?  GMO stands for genetically modified organism! Yes, that’s right ORGANISM! They are foods that are so processed that we cannot even call them “food”.  Almost all of the foods you see on the shelf at your local grocer now contain GMOs.  There have been several bills proposed to congress, in attempts to require companies to place a GMO label on their packaging.  As of today, this is still an ongoing battle!  “The biotechnology industry is exploiting this loophole to push millions of tons of GM crops into the EU food supply, unnoticed by consumers.  This is despite the fact that plentiful supplies of GM-free animal feed are available (Light, 2012).”  

We have an overabundance of corn; corn is easy to grow taking little time.  Corn has been the sole ingredient in many of our foods.  It is now what we feed our cattle, chicken, fish, pigs, and humans.  Many of our products consume “corn material”, even things that you may never have thought about, such as: animal feed, diapers, batteries, juice, soda, gum, soap, paint and cosmetics, just to name a few!  What does this mean for our animals?

Animals especially cows have a highly complex digestive system, one that is made to feed on nature—grass!  Factories looked for ways to speed up the production of these animals and corn was the way to go.  When cows especially, eat corn, they become fatter more quickly—14 months—allowing them to be sent to the slaughterhouse and placed on the shelf in half the time (Pollan, n.d).  Pollan (n.d) states, “The problem with this system, or one of the problems with this system, is that cows are not evolved to digest corn.  It creates all sorts of problems for them. The rumen (cow’s stomach) is designed for grass.  And corn is just too rich, too starchy.  So as soon as you introduce corn, the animal is liable to get sick.”  Since the factory farming process has been on the rise, we have seen higher outbreaks of E.Coli H7:0157 infecting many humans.  Factor standards have changed the way they process meat, in attempts to prevent E.Coli outbreaks.  The meat is now cleansed in high levels of ammonia…how is this any safer to humans?  

I believe that more people need to be aware of safety standards and production standards when it comes to consumption.  We allow this cycle to continue by purchasing the products and not taking account for our own actions.  The more people that enter the world, the larger amounts of food that will be consumed, thus allowing the FDA to continue allowing factories to mass produce foods.  It is our job to stand up for what we wish to consume.  It is our job to make sure that we are well educated in this aspect.  The media will only notify us if there has been an outbreak, and only if the outbreak consumes/harms enough people.  As a favor to yourself and your families….become educated!

Sources

Defect Levels Handbook. (2011, November 09). Retrieved from FDA: http://www.fda.gov/food/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidancedocuments/sanitation/ucm056174.htm

Hartman, B. (2012, July 11). REPORT: Superbug Dangers in Chicken Linked to 8 Million At-Risk Women. Retrieved from ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/07/11/superbug-dangers-in-chicken-linked-to-8-million-at-risk-women/

Light, A. (2012, March 12). Health Studies - The Dangers of Meat Consumption: Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes. Retrieved from Natural Cures: http://humansarehealthy.com/2012/03/health-studies-dangers-meat-consumption.html

Pollan, M. (n.d). Interview Michael Pollan. Retrieved from Frontline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/interviews/pollan.html

DEFENDING HANNAH MONTANA

While many of my fellow classmates believed Hannah Montana to be a bad example of “Girl Power” I firmly believe otherwise. I actually love Hannah Montana and was a frequent viewer of the show, so I know a lot about the ins and outs and messages of the show. It may seem as if by Hannah living a dual life she is promoting the idea of being secretive and hiding things from her friends. People also believe that the main focus of Hannah Montana is to promote glam and beauty instead of exemplifying a female of power. All of these can be arguable statements, but there are many positive messages portrayed in Hannah Montana that people don’t seem to notice. Hannah Montana promotes the idea that there are many pros to not being a celebrity. Most children aspire to be famous or in the spotlight, but in Hannah Montana we get a first-hand look at the life of a star and how she just wants to live a regular life. This can help children learn to appreciate what they have more and realize that while it seems like celebrity’s have it all, us “normal” people have some things they could never have. I also can’t name a single episode that goes by where some type of positive lesson isn’t learned. For example, on one episode Hannah is to be featured on a billboard with a huge zit on her face to promote acne cream. At first she wants to hide it, and goes out of her way to make sure no one sees this ad, but in the end Hannah accepts the ad and makes it known that no one is perfect and it is ok to have flaws! So although Hannah Montana may be more glamorous than Clarissa Explains It All, or even a more recent show like Lizzie McGuire, I don’t feel that it is a bad example of girl power programming. It just displays it in a different way, relative to our ever-changing culture.

Feminism is Genetic

When I read through our first set of gender-related articles, “When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink,” “Is Pink Necessary,” “Can Superheroes Hurt Boys’ Mental Health,” etc., I happened to be trapped in a hospital for nearly eight hours. Having my mother confined to a room with me allowed me to discuss these articles with her and find out more about the culture in which I was raised, as it relates to gender.

Growing up, I always knew my mother was a feminist. Raised in the south, her political opinions evolved to be entirely the opposite of her conservative father, my grandfather. I’ve heard her stories about picketing at political events, campaigning for women’s rights and equality, and she eventually headed to Indiana University to pursue journalism. She kept her maiden name, something that I’ve had to explain probably hundreds of times in my life. When she and my father talked about marriage, she said, “You know I’m going to keep my maiden name, right?” to which he replied, “You know what? I think I will too.” She got married in a suit – a cream-colored pencil skirt and blazer – instead of the traditional white gown.

But I really had no idea how this feminism effected the way my brother and I grew up. When I expressed my desire to raise my children, if I ever have them, in as gender neutral of an environment as possible, she filled me in on some things I hadn’t known about. For example, she didn’t know the gender of either my brother or myself before we were born, and the nurseries had been painted a neutral palate. While she didn’t go as far as to put me in boys’ clothing, she ordered all of my clothes from a Swedish clothing company which had only primary-colored girls clothing, including practical leggings and knit tops. I wasn’t much of a skirt or tu-tu kid. Apparently one year for Christmas my brother received a superhero cape (which gets into a whole other issue), and I decided I wanted to be a superhero too, so my grandmother made me my very own cape.

Now, I’m not denying that, like most girls, I went through those phrases. The Barbie phase, the Bratz Doll phase… My mom even let me try out ballet (I quit), gymnastics (I quit), and cheerleading (I quit), when I asked. But the important thing was that neither of my parents ever made me feel like I had to do those things because I was a girl, or that I was any less of a girl because I would rather play on the soccer team or street hockey in the neighborhood.

My thoughts on how I grew up and how it has had an impact on my gender identity now, as an adult, came full circle when we read the “Girls Rule!” article on Nickelodeon and I was introduced to the concept of “Third Wave Feminism.” I realized that to be a feminist these days, I don’t necessarily have to be on the front lines or completely rebel against femininity. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve picketed in support of Planned Parenthood, and fully plan on keeping my maiden name, if I even get married at all, but I am looking forward to learning more about how I, as a Third Wave Feminist, can utilize my future role in the media to help shape perceived gender roles to positively effect the lives of the next generation, and potentially my own children.

Princess vs Reality

Princess vs. Reality

The Princess Culture, is something that entirely intrigues me, and may or may not be an addiction. Growing up in the 90’s Disney had just finished what they call the Princess Collection. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t religiously watch them all and pick my favorite while playing with my barbies. I remember having princess costumes and dressing up like Jasmine just to go to Wal-Mart. Today I do like to think of myself as a princess but disagree with Laucius’ notion that being a “princess” goes hand in hand with being a “narcissist” there may be connections between the two but, not for most. I feel that young girls that grew up in the 90’s when the movies were most popular received a better message than the young girls today. When I was younger it seemed to me the stories the princesses were associated with gave a positive, clear, life lesson. The princesses displayed a certain confidence, hope, independence, and strength. As a young girl watching these beautiful women as perfect examples makes the inner princess strive to be like those women. Today the message girls are getting from the princesses is about clothing and hair styles, about being “better” than the rest in a competitive way. I would even go so far to say the princesses have become a race issue. Jasmine was my favorite princess and from the movie Aladdin. Recently (since around 2001) jasmine has been essentially eliminated from the “Princess Brand” items can be found, but it is much harder to find Jasmine themed anything. All the others remain the same, yet Jasmine is missing. In 2001 America went to war, Jasmine is Arabian and therefor is our “enemy”, or at least they make it seem that way. Also recently a new princess was added to the collection, the princess and the frog, the princess is African American. I am ALL FOR teaching equality through interracial characters, in fact I believe it is NECESSARY. I disagree with the way the market has hinted at the racial issues facing America today. The story lines could even be analyzed as racist story lines, this is teaching stereotype and inferiority at a dangerously young age.

“Codes” of Gender…Post turned light bulb moment

This is not the first time I’ve watched the film Codes of Gender. Being a Film and TV studies major this movie is in fact what we discuss and analyze a lot of the time! Stereotyping females and males to act, look, and dress a certain way throughout media is one of the biggest problems our society faces today.

            From a female’s standpoint I hate how there is a certain emphasis on the way I’m supposed to look physically, like every time I pose for a picture I feel the need to place my hand whimsically in the air by my face. Why? Because advertisements continuously show us that this is the way pretty women are supposed to look. Like this magazine ad for Covergirl:

I agree with an earlier post from Rob Fucela when he said, “There is nothing natural about gender identity. When I was younger I never thought about why boys wore blue and girls wore pink, it was just normal to me.” Just like I never thought about why girls were always half naked in magazines and why guys always had muscles out the crazy, it’s just what always was. Watching this movie the second time not only reinforced the ideological view we (myself included) have of what male and female should look like, but also made me take a deeper look into the issue. I’m guilty of laughing in class when I saw men positioned in what is stereotypically a female position such as this:

It was funny. It was out of the ordinary.

But then I instantly thought, that’s BRILLIANT!

What better way to break these gender “codes” then to well, break them.

This posts goes out to all of you who, like myself, are sick of succumbing to the gender roles we are being spoon fed through the media. Let’s not watch a movie like Codes of Gender, shrug our shoulders, and leave the classroom saying, “whelp that’s just the way it is” and go about our day. Let’s take what we just learned and change it.

I like to mess around with photography every now and again and for me, I decided that I am going to try my hardest to no longer take pictures of people placed in the “codes” society has set. Up until now when I took senior portraits I did use stereotypical poses for what male and females normally look like, but not anymore!

Codes of Gender had my mind going in 100 different directions of how I could make a difference with this issue or if anything I decided to do would actually change anything.  Maybe it will or maybe it won’t, but this video made me realize that it’s worth a shot to try.

I think it’s fair to say that not everyone had such a big light bulb moment after watching this film like I did, but I hope that all of you realize this is a problem we face and that maybe you’ll take a couple minutes to look into your own life and see what you can do to help change it.  Come on, I dare you!

P!nk and my life (parasocial relationships)

I am going to go back a few class sessions and discuss my one true love-the main focus of my parasocial relationship, Alecia Beth Moore aka P!nk. Although it would be exceedingly easy for me to do the entire blog post about how much I love her, I will focus on how my parasocial relationship affects my every day life. Let me begin by saying that not a day goes by that I don't listen to at least one of her albums. The definition of a parasocial relationship as discussed in class is a one sided relationship with someone of higher social standing (such as a celebrity) where the focus of the relationship has no idea of your existence. The parasocial relationship can also be seen as a type of addiction, and in my case, this is certainly true. I am not ashamed to say that I am addicted to P!nk. I do plan  my life around her public schedule EX: when she does interviews (Especially with Ellen), when she has televised concerts, I buy magazines with her even mentioned on the cover, I recently spent over $100 on tickets to see her in MARCH! I bought her new album the moment it was released on iTunes, and then turned around the same day and bought the CD version. All of these instances may not seem to interrupt my daily life on their own; I do still have class to attend, work, and rugby. Although it would seem like my love for P!nk would get in the way of all of these required activities, I firmly believe that these required activities get in the way of my love for P!nk. I have unashamedly missed class, and skipped practice in order to see her on TV, or listen to her music. Last semester my friend Sarah (who is also in this class) and I were attempting to study for our finals, when we started listening to P!nk, watching her interviews, and looking up her music videos (all of which we have seen multiple times). We stayed up for 48 hours straight doing this. I practically failed my anatomy final that I had to take at the end of the 48 hours. The moral of this story is that we put P!nk before our studies, and I don't regret a single second of it. A major point in the definition of a parasocial relationship is that the person of focus has no idea that you exist, and the love you may feel for that person is unrequited. Although I am aware that this may be true right now, I think she just hasn't met me yet.