Discussion Points: Media Images, Feminist Issues

Bottom Line:

            Throughout the 20^th Century, women found it difficult to voice their opinions in many media outlets such as political campaigns, television, and feminist movements. Although media coverage has been shaped in a way that portrays the male perception of women issues, feminist views are oppressed by gender bias, which make it harder for women to fully voice their opinions. 

Question:

Do shows such as Oprah and The View have certain restrictions as to what issues on women they can address on television being that their main target audience is women?

Media Moments:"Hunger Games" Cast Subjected to Racist Attacks In Shocking Tweets!

As students of a Women and the Media course, one can only feel happy to see that African American women and men are being given, not "black roles" but an "equal role" in current films like "Hunger Games," knowing that they have been underepresented in the media, and have not been given many major roles, let alone two. However, the so-called fan's of "Hunger Games" tweets beg to differ: Hunger Games Cast Subjected to Racist Attacks In Shocking Tweets Biggoted fans objected to the characters;Stenberg and Okeniyi being "darker" than what the book portrayed them to be. One of the most outrageous tweets was;"Why did the producer make all the good characters black?" I wonder if the dissaproval of these actors will affect their future appearances in the sequel or other major films, but hopefully it will be outweighed by supporting audiences.

Media Moment: Employer requests for Facebook passwords

Holy mackerel! Could you imagine getting ready for a job interview, you’ve waited what seems a lifetime for -- or any job interview for that matter, and the next thing you know, your prospective employer is inquiring about your Facebook password to review your social media credentials?! Uh, pretty bogus right?! It Kind of makes you second guess that image you were about to post or that status update you were about to tell your friends. The absurd thing is, certain employers are actually asking job seekers for such thing! In any case that a company didn’t hire a prospective employer, because of their Facebook inquiries regarding race, gender, religion, and age, job agencies could fall liable for claims of discrimination upon these findings of personal information.

Do you think supervisors should have the ability to ask prospective employers to provide their social media credentials or do you think it is violating federal law?

Read article here

Media Moments - Roseanne Barr runs for President

Prior to our future discussion in class on Roseanne Barr, I came across an interesting article related to her. In a time of political unrest, everyone is beginning to believe that they too can do a better job as President. Roseanne being the outspoken entertainer that she is, decided that she is going to run for the presidency.
It is not uncommon for an actor to become President. There was Ronald Reagan who was an actor before being a politician.

Being that Roseanne is stubborn, hard headed, and comedic do you believe that she can run the country?
Or do you think that she is not serious and this is a publicity stunt?

Discussion Points-"And I Know"

What is the bottom line? What is the point the author is trying to make in this
reading? What is their thesis/ their argument?

Roseanne Barr discusses her difficulty in keeping her perspective, and feministic 
views while in Hollywood.

This article displayed the pressures of remaining true to your self identity  in Hollywood. In an atmosphere where many in Hollywood change who they are to become popular Roseanne, showed how she rose above it and stayed true to herself. 

What I liked about this article is it showed Roseanne's strength not only a 
person but as a female as well. 

In the article Roseanne mentions an argument she had with Matt over a line change. Matt wanted Roseanne's character to say something along the lines of“You’re my equal in bed, but that’s it.” Instead of conforming to the boss, she argued for hours because she believed her character would not say that. In the end she won against Matt. This argument was empowering because she did not and refused to back down. 

It was a great feeling that she never settled while filming the show. It 
makes me wonder what the show would have been, if she would be like 
Margaret Cho and change to please. Would the show be the same success? Also 
Roseanne claims that her show, is the last feminist and working-class-family 
sitcom. However, I beg to differ. I believe that the ABC television program THE 
MIDDLE displays the same, modern, and feministic approach Roseanne had. Can
anyone else think of a program similar to Roseanne? Or is her show the only
feminist and working-class-family sitcom?

Discussion Points for Roseanne: unruly woman as domestic goddess

Bottom line: Roseanne’s overall character threatens the dominant ideology of femininity all together. Deemed as grotesque, slouchy, excess, loose and fat, Rosanne’s critics attempted to contain her unruliness that challenged traditional values. Though subject to ridicule, Roseanne was able to embody the unruly domestic goddess and portray it as a positive image.

Questions:

 1.Why is it that Roseanne was portrayed so negatively in the media but was so well received by audiences? Is she seen as a threat to them? (The media)

2.  How does her character threaten the dominant ideologies in place?

 3. Are there any other actresses or characters that can be categorized as the Unruly domestic goddess?

4.Does Margret Cho have similar attributes to Roseanne’s character? Can she be considered unruly as well?

Afghanistan women set themselves on fire!

The readings we had were about Muslim and Arab women not being opressed and how compared to American culture treatment of women is pretty much the same we just dress different and observe different ways of expressing our selves. I remembered the issue of women in the middle east setting themselves on fire so thier husbands wouldn't want them anymore and divorce them but the the outcomes were usually fatal. Domestic violence in America is a very prevalent issue, but battered women here have not come up with solutions as creative/symbolic as setting themselves on fire. Not to say that this is not an interesting read but one point made in the readings was that the media would rather us focus on the negative things that happen in other countries to build and reienforce the image that America is good and everywhere else is bad, when in fact American Media tends to neglect our own issues by not giving them the much needed attention they deserve.

Question:
What are issues you wish the media would focus on, on our own shores. http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/12/when-women-set-themselves-on-fire/