Branded: ESPN Documentary

There is a new ESPN documentary for it's Nine for IX series called "Branded." It illustrates the inequalities between women and men sports-focusing on how men can make a living based solely on talent whereas women athletes need to make most of their income from endorsements. Those endorsements feature women in two sectors: innocent naive good-girl or sexy vixen.

Here is a link for a synopsis: http://espn.go.com/espnw/w-in-action/nine-for-ix/article/8948901/nine-ix-film-summary-director-branded

Men can experience labor pains now too

I saw this video circulating around social media today and so I would like to share this here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWZkkX8msoA

The video is pretty funny, enjoy!

Reader's Opinion on the New York Times

Dear All,

I know I am not taking part of this class anymore, but I found this on the paper yesterday and I thought it was important to share it. Check it out:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/i-was-groped-on-the-subway/

Also, there is this campaign that it is very relevant to this course. It reflects the representation of women in advertising:
http://www.good.is/posts/intermission-what-if-gender-roles-in-advertising-were-reversed

These are important pieces for current students to reflect. Piece out!

The Double Standards of Body Image for Asian American Women

http://www.xojane.com/issues/fat-for-an-asian-the-pressure-to-be-naturally-perfect?utm_medium=facebook

I stumbled upon this article that someone posted on Facebook and probably the best article I have read in awhile that really spoke to me and I hope to you too.

In our class, we learned that stereotypes are not created equal. One of the stereotypes is that Asian American women are all naturally very petite or skinny. It seems like a good stereotype but what about the other Asian American women who don't fit into this margin?

In this article, Noel Duan writes about her struggle with her body image and to be 'naturally' perfect. She writes about the double standard body image as an Asian American woman and the cultural difference about weight issues. By American standards, she is considered naturally petite with her 5"1, 100 pound body frame but by her Asian standards, she is considered fat. In American culture, it is rude and unfathomable to bluntly call a family member or relative fat but in Asian culture, it happens and they say it not to be rude but because they believe they mean well and if they care about you, they will let you know if you put on some weight, or a lot of weight.

In my own personal experience as an Asian American woman, I definitely notice the double standards of body image. I fit into the stereotype of being naturally thin and stuffing my face all day with food. In both American and Asian standards, I am thin but the the reaction isn't the same. In Asian standards, I don't need to gain or lose a pound of weight and praised for my thin body frame. In American standards, I'm told I could use a burger and put on some weight. Growing up, I have struggled with being bullied for being skinny and constantly called anorexic and other things which was very hurtful and never true. Even fitting into the stereotype of being 'naturally thin' was never easy and have myself struggled with body image issues.

Why Do Women Attack Other Women On Their Weight?

This is Kelsey Williams, a Oklahoma City Thunder cheerleader.

She made headlines about two weeks ago, and it was not because of her dance moves.

A CBS Houston sports blogger, Claire Crawford wrote a piece on the website with the headlines, "“Is this chick ‘too chunky’ to be a cheerleader?” Crawford wrote, “The Rockets looked terrible in Game 1, but some say they weren’t the only bad-looking people on the court."

Crawford made more comments about Kelsey's body image in comparison to other cheerleaders on the team and defended her actions saying,"We’re not trying to be ugly. We are just discussing what men like in women, specifically NBA cheerleaders."

Kelsey Williams responded to the wide media attention she was given on her weight on her twitter account by staying classy and thanking everyone for their support and kind words to her. 

 

Crawford's piece received a lot of backlash from people and the article was picked up by multiple other news outlets and other blogs in response to her article. I don't understand, why a sports blogger would think it is appropriate to attack Kelsey Williams on her weight. Did she really think that people would react and respond kindly to her article and there would be no backlash? How could CBS Houston allow this article to even get posted on its website in the first place in the sports section? But mainly, what is the purpose of even writing this in the first place? 

The article have since then been taken down on the CBS Houston website but you can most likely find a copy posted on other websites and blogs. I thought Crawford's piece was so unnecessary and inappropriate that any well-respected journalist in the business would never write such a piece. But she did. Was she trying to get attention on herself? Did she or the CBS Houston chose this topic to bring in ratings?

I think some people would argue that it is a win/win situation because Crawford successfully gained attention and ratings on the site and Kelsey got tremendous amount of support as well as landing television interviews and "fame" so no one got hurt.

This topic made me think about our class discussion of women in the newsroom and the video we saw in class about the Fox News commentator who dumb herself down on air. I find what Crawford wrote to be disturbing and damaging to many young girls out there who are fighting body image issues. Crawford is a sports blogger and when she only write about sports and she probably doesn't get any recognition for what she does or attention on her writing. There aren't many female sports bloggers in the business and I'm sure they don't get the respect that they should get all the time.  Is there a difference in if Crawford wrote this piece or if a man wrote this?

Reflection number 2

In this week's reading, I learned a lot about the transgender community which I did not know before. As we have learned in many of the other readings, I realized that there is diversity in all classifications of women including transgender women (and men for that example).

I had never really thought about the uneven distribution of exposure for FTM men, but after reading the articles, I was surprised to realize I don't know of a single one in the media. Whereas with MTF, I could think of restaurants dedicated to MTF women or cross-dressing men, TV shows and celebrities.

 In San Francisco, there is a restaurant called AsiaSF, where you order a prefix meal, and MTF transvestites/transgender individuals basically perform a drag show. All of the performers are Asian as well. It is really common for bachelor/bachelorette parties to attend, oftentimes not letting someone in on the fact that these are all men. Anyways, there is nothing comparable that I am aware of for the opposite.

During the readings I was somewhat overwhelmed by the terminology, and I realized that the way which someone would want to be referred to is a very personal decision. I think that asking someone shouldn't be offensive. I hope that by trying to maintain the terminology and asking them what they would prefer would come off as the most respectful. Similar to the way we lump far too many ethnicities, countries, languages and individuals under the umbrella term "Asian," we also do the same for gender, lumping too many people under the two binary categories of "male" and "female." While I may not be able to remember all of the terms, I will be more careful when using the terms, and will try to get consent from individuals as to what they would like to be called instead of making jump decisions for them.