Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Everyone has a Closet--Media Moment #3- Tenzin
I encourage everyone to watch this video. In this Ted talks video, Ash talks about her experiences as a gay woman and the homophobia she's felt. She beautifully relates the closet experience to everyone's difficult experiences. We all have coming out of the closet stories that involves a hard conversation. She explains that being locked in the gay closet was hard but she had felt safer inside her closet. However, keeping the truth about yourself while locked in a closet was similar to holding an active grenade. By taking part in difficult conversations, you are being real with someone. You are being authentic in the your own truth. By having difficult conversations, you are coming out of the closet about who you are. She explains to a small girl who asked if Ash was a boy or a girl, that she was in fact a girl who enjoyed pajamas to pink dresses. That even though she wore boy clothes and had short hair, she was a girl. The girl took it simply and pleasantly at that. Ash recalls the conversation as being the easiest hard conversation she's ever had.
I chose this piece of media because Ash takes the experiences of a gay person and relates it universally. We don't see this often as the mainstream media does the job of separating group experiences into hierarchies of value. If we were to see more examples of Ash's story of universal experiences then perhaps we would have less discrimination and emphasis on differences.
How does the media prevent or make difficult the universal connections across different group identities? What are some of the things that you've noticed?
Tenzin-Reflection #2
I would like to reflect on today's class discussion. Before this, I had little knowledge on the subject of Transgender. From the readings, I realized how much of a social construct sex and gender is in our society. The biological status of sex binds us into a social contract from birth, right from the very beginning. It was a mind opening experience when I began thinking about the arguments of the readings and slowly becoming convinced that being assigned a sex was the thing that was abnormal and more so the gender expectations that exists in society. Individuals should have the right to assign their own sex as they identify. My first experience, that made me reflect on the meaning of gender was with my friend who I went to Elementary school with. This was about 2 summers ago. I hadn't seen her in a few years but she was around for the summer. We got together and I noticed her mustache. I didn't say anything but just thought to myself 'oh hey she has a mustache...that's new'. We went around the city catching up. Her mom called her on her cell phone and wanted to talk to me. Ella reluctantly handed me the phone, embarrassed and giggling. I answered 'hello' and me and her mom exchanged pleasantries. She also begged me to convince Ella to cut the mustache. She was missing the beautiful daughter that was hiding under the mustache. It was an awkward moment because I was involuntarily put in the middle of this back and forth argument. But i felt sympathy for the mother because she was unhappy. Ella explained to me that gender was something she did not believe in. She thought it was just bullshit. What it was was social constraints. She could act and present herself in the way she wanted to more easily if importance wasn't placed in such things.
Porn For Women: A Tasteful Guide To Sexy Time- Post on Refinery29
http://www.refinery29.com/porn?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=post
Just stumbled upon this post...very interesting.
Just stumbled upon this post...very interesting.
Reflection #2
Gender roles have been talked about in this class pretty frequently and it is definitely an important subject to talk about. Just recently i came across a video using the Beastie Boy's song "Girls" in parody form to speak against how all girl's toys are pink and girly. Why are there no variation of girl's toys and products for people that may not fit that mold? Companies are trying to shape the youth around previous norms set into place, but when will the mold be broken? And by who? If people keep buying little pink products like barbies and such why would the companies have to change their product? I think this company's motives are good but the fact that they countersued the Beastie Boy's when they were the ones who used their song without permission is ridiculous to me. Here is the link: http://www.craveonline.com/music/articles/609421-beastie-boys-write-open-letter-to-sue-happy-viral-video-makers-over-copyright-infringement
MEDIA MOMENT #3
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Gay-Server-Tip-Lifestyle-Receipt-Discrepancy-233040811.html
Apparently these customers were accused of eating at a restaurant and not tipping on a dinner. The customers apparently also wrote "I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle" on the receipt. The confusing thing is that the customers insist that they tip and have a copy of receipt and credit card records showing them tipping 18 dollars. The waiter was a young woman who also happens to be lesbian, This story had come out earlier than today, but today the story has been uncovered as being a fraud. Did the waiter dupe the customers for attention? Or did the customer cover up their tracks extremely well. This story is definitely a confusing one. The customers were also accused of calling the waiter "dan" instead of "dana". This seems like a story where the waiter took advantage of her position and was caught, the motives behind it are unclear though.
Apparently these customers were accused of eating at a restaurant and not tipping on a dinner. The customers apparently also wrote "I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle" on the receipt. The confusing thing is that the customers insist that they tip and have a copy of receipt and credit card records showing them tipping 18 dollars. The waiter was a young woman who also happens to be lesbian, This story had come out earlier than today, but today the story has been uncovered as being a fraud. Did the waiter dupe the customers for attention? Or did the customer cover up their tracks extremely well. This story is definitely a confusing one. The customers were also accused of calling the waiter "dan" instead of "dana". This seems like a story where the waiter took advantage of her position and was caught, the motives behind it are unclear though.
Reflection #2
Last week, we had a conversation about women's sexuality that if a women is open about her sexuality she's a whore and if she's more reserved she's a prude. It seems as if you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. The reason I chose to write about this in my reflection was because this past week my young sister, 18 years old, quit her job as a hostess due to a comment her head chef made a work. The two were in an argument when he yelled "Why don't you just go put on some more makeup!" He was implying that she wears too much makeup, as if he was in any position to judge how much makeup is too much and how much isn't enough. I had a similar issue at a previous bartending job but where I was told I don't wear enough make up and that is would be beneficial to all if I put in the "extra effort". This just reminded me of that conversation where I felt many women in the room expressing how they feel like they just can't win. I feel like many women do feel this way, that despite their own instinct or judgement we are constantly facing disapproval or scrutiny for our decisions when it comes to our appearances. Why aren't men pressured the fit our standards in the same fashion?
Media Moment #3
Monday, November 25, 2013
Media Moment: A Cold War Fought by Women
This article A Cold War Fought by Women written by John Tierney tries to give a different point of view of the competitiveness between women. He states that "intrasexual competition" is the most important factor in explaining the physical and sexual standards women feel they need to achieve. He goes on to explain that the suppression of female sexuality comes more from women then men. He also says that media does not create the trends for society, but reflects the trends going on in society. These are just a couple of the points he makes in the article.
How do you feel about a man writing this article?
What do you think about his analysis?
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