Is Hilary Clinton too old?

Fox News always likes to take a conservative spin on their articles and news reports. Even the first sentence has one of those benevolent sexism comments that we talked about earlier.
"Hilary Clinton has been on the national stage a long, sincere her husband once touted their two-for-one candidacy and she declared she was not a stay-home-and-bake-cookies kind of wife." In this article  they are focusing specifically on age, but knowing Fox News and their current opinion of Hilary Clinton, this just may be an excuse to get at her being a woman running for president. In their minds they may be thinking, "what other excuses do we have other than the fact that she is a woman for her not be fit as a presidential candidate?" 

Age could be a problem because after her first term she will be 73 and if she serves a second she will  be 77. Ronald Reagan was able to do this in 1984, but again he was a man and probably not asked the same questions that Hilary is going to be asked when running for the presidency. 

Health is also being considered and issue brut even a columnist, From a Harrop, took issue with this. "Both men and women face age discrimination, but it's no secret that for women, ageism mixes easily with sexism. And obsessing over a woman's year of birth is often a slightly more respectable substitute for the latter." 

The article even explains how women are taught to be more focused on their looks and Hilary's looks especially when she was running. If we remember when Sarah Palin, people were trying to find drama and over analyzed her every move from outfits, the way she spoke, to her family. Maybe once people put away the age and female cards to play against Hilary, she will have a better chance at winning candidacy and even presidency.

Is Hilary Too Old To Run article

Women May Join the Front Lines After all

Women Combat Article

In this article is talks about women gaining more equality in the army. Generally women are deemed not fit enough to be at the front lines or in any combat roles. Most women are nervous or do not feel cofmrtoable to be in combat roles. So in Fort Stewart, GA they have begun a program that trains women to be in combat and test to see if they would survive/ be a contributing team member. Some people are arguing that they need some kind of unisex option to judge whether they are fit enough to fight wars. So instead of the typical pushups, sit-ups and 2 mile runs they are shifting gears toward battlefield tasks, e.g. dragging a wounded comrade to safety, installing and removing the barrel of a 25 mm gun on Bradley vehicles.


David Brinkley, the deputy chief of staff for operations at the Army's Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Eustis in Virginia said that some of the people think that these are unrealistic requirements that these women and other people have to fulfill, while others think that they are simply lowering their standards so women can fight on the front lines. Intiailly it was awkward for me and women to work together, but they compared it to a middle school dance because after some time the awkwardness went away and they formed a cohesive team.

They are also saying that these women have the mental and technical abilities necessary to perform on the front lines, but the only thing that might be a problem is their physical duty. So again this is going back to the argument that men are stronger than women and in most cases they are because that is how our bodies are created. Men are able to build more body mass and strength than women.

This is extremely positive because ever since the Pentagon order that women have the same opporutnies that opened thousands of positions slated to both genders. The gender barrier between men and women is slowly being broken and will continue to do so over time. The army is just the beginning and this is a powerful example that could affect many other national organizations.

Seventeen Magazine Beauty Tips

Seventeen Magazine is geared toward young women in high school and college. In the magazine are tips on beauty, dating, and occasionally sex, but most of the sex tips are left for Cosmopolitan. So in this month's particular issue there was a section on beauty tips as always, but there was another section for beauty tips for Latinas. I found the link on the website and it will be posted below. 

So by Seventeen setting these girls apart it is making them feel special or it is making them feel different/set apart from the rest of the population. Due to the increased number of Spanish-speaking people in the United States it is logical that a Latina section may be included to include the those people. They even brought in celebrities like Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato to show pictures of their hair and how they have styled it. 

By saying that there are different beauty tips for Latinas than for white or black girls, it is setting them apart. It may make them feel special, but at the same time they should still be able to use the  same beauty tips that white and black girls use. Some black girls tend to have a different type of hair that is coarser than that of a Latina or a white girl,  so they might need different tips on how to style it. For the most part, Latina's have a similar hair texture and color to that of white girls. I am not saying that their culture is not unique and interesting, but I am saying that if Seventeen Magazine posted race neutral beauty it would not add to the separation.

This is not an article that portrays Latina's in a role that is demeaning, but it is setting them apart and for people who are not proud of their heritage, it may be insulting. On the positive side, this article may make them feel special and excited that someone has geared an article toward them specifically so they have more ideas for the Quinceanera or going to school, like most girls do. 

Seventeen Magazine

I thought racism had ended too

"In the news media and in popular culture, the notion persists that millennials — born after the overt racial debates and divisions that shaped their parents’ lives — are growing up in a colorblind society in which interracial friendships and marriages are commonplace and racism is largely a relic. But interviews with dozens of students, professors and administrators at the University of Michigan and elsewhere indicate that the reality is far more complicated, and that racial tensions are playing out in new ways among young adults."

                                                                                Colorblind Notion Article
College has the potential to be a very scary place. It is the first time that we start on our own and the first time that we learn how to deal with things first-hand. At University of Michigan the Black Student Union organized a protest on MLK day in response to racist events and black students feeling isolated. 

Race will always separate society because race is something that we created. We are all humans, but humans need structure and hierarchy so we chose to label the different races out of a need for superiority.

This article mentions a party that a University of Michigan fraternity hosted calling all "“rappers, twerkers, gangsters” to come “back to da hood again”. According to the article, most of the fraternity brothers were white or Asian. This is not appropriate because they are identifying black people as those three things. In college it is widely known thought most black people can dance better than white people and that most black people do not come from middle-upper class suburban homes. So this derogatory language made the black population upset.

Instead of identifying a race or gender by what people think, it would be much healthier to identify a race by their personality and actions, not by their stereotypes. Everything is becoming so politically correct these days that race is even more sensitive than it once was. 

As we discussed in class, each race has a stereotype and I think the stereotype we do not always recognize is that white people are always painted with a negative persona. For example one student at UM said, "for example, if a white student did not hold a door open for a black student who was about to walk through it. Maybe the student was just in a rush, Ms. Smith, 19, said. But 'in my mind, I could be thinking, ‘Oh, it’s because I’m black.’ '" If all people really think this way, racial tension and misrepresentation is going to be difficult, if not impossible to control in mass media or in small chain emails to fraternity brothers. 

TSA is getting a little bit crazy with Debra Wilson!

Mind you, Debra Wilson is a comedian and actress. She is hilarious, which makes this commercial a little bit funnier than expected. However, I needed to stop for a second and realize what I was laughing at. My initial reaction was that she got a little too close for my comfort and that worried me because it is still just a commercial. Now they could have chosen a white person without a comedic background for the TSA officer's role, but they chose Debra Wilson.

Hershman also says that lighter skin usually means higher social status. So in this particular commercial, the TSA officer, Debra Wilson, has the darker skin and she is not the one with enough money to buy a plane ticket to travel. The woman wearing the Old Navy jeans has enough money to travel and also has light skin. This may have been unintentional on the advertisement agency's part, but it is evident that this is implied.

When discussing race, Bauman established meaning with each one. Essentially it means that the darker the skin the more boisterous and scandalous. The lighter the skin color, the more tame and pure. The woman wearing the jeans has lighter skin but is wearing very tight jeans, which is in my mind, a juxtaposition to Bauman's theory. Clearly she is trying to gain some attention and if you can tell by the freeze-frame at the start of the video, her body is also being itemized by focusing only on her butt and upper thighs.

Debra Wilson also has "poetic license" here because she is a comedian and can get away with more things than an average person. She can make beeping noises that make this woman look more like a mannequin than a person, because it is funny! She can make those faces like she's interested because she is a comedian and this will help sell the jeans.

These jeans also fit this woman very well, which will help sell the jeans because every woman wants to look that good in a pair of jeans. The strategy in this advertisement is classic in a sense because it shows a woman being used simply as a model and not as a human. They are not selling women, so it is fitting that they focus on the jeans, but couldn't they have done it on an average, everyday woman that women could relate to? Yes, they could have, but beautiful women sell and Old Navy wants these jeans to sell.

#GirlsCan

In the first few weeks of class we talked about the stereotypes that go with each gender. Men usually assume positions of leadership and are placed higher up in companies. Men's salaries are still higher than women's salaries. Women can be in higher positions like men, but they need to work harder or need to prove themselves.

Everything that a woman does is judged differently than if a man did the same. For example, a man takes off his jacket and struts down the street. Our first thought may be that he is confident or depending on how he walks some may think he is gay. If a woman takes her jacket off and struts down the street, people will say that she is just trying to get attention. She is putting herself in a bad situation because she is taking off her clothes in public.

This commercial in particular talks about everything that #GirlsCan do. It is something that is empowering and is breaking the Pink Think and gender boundaries. Each of these women did not have a normal career path and are now A-list celebrities. How did they do it? I think they are able to be so successful due to the fact they did not stay within the stereotypes that society creates. They are implying that everything a man can do or everything that women are told they cannot do, they accomplished.

"Women Are Kind And Men Are Strong"

Benevolent Sexism

What is benevolent sexism? It's a type of sexism that can be seen as a compliment and is not always meant to be sexist. This is a type of sexism that most people do not even consider. Even small comments like “'You have to try John’s pie. It’s so good. And he made it himself! His wife didn’t even help!'” or "'Oh, I’m sure you are so slammed during this time of year. Nurses are saints.' 'Actually, I’m a doctor,' she responded" can be seen as sexist. As we talked about in class, we often assume that women are all nurses and men are doctors simply because that is how it has "always" been, or that men cannot cook because that is the woman's job around the house. 

A lot of people and most importantly, parents, make these comments to their peers and children will hear them. In turn, this will rub off on the children and feed into the gendering of children from a young age. As a child I was taught that women were always the better cooks in the household and was often shocked when a friend would say that their dad is the better cook. When my dad cooked dinner, we always joked when it came out great because we say that mom helped him. Even that small comment insinuated that he was incapable of cooking a good meal just because of his gender. Children in a sense will always identify with their gender at one point or another, but should not feel like they should limit themselves because of it.

On my friends at Gordon College brought a group of students together and talked about why they need feminism. This picture stood out to me most because it says that when she's told that she does not look like a physics major, she should take it as a compliment. This is an example of someone who has noticed that benevolent sexism is a problem and has decided to change it.

One interesting point that was made in the last paragraph of the Forbes article was "So, while we might feel like a hostile sexism is fading as we become a more equal society, the effects of hostile sexism are being carried on by ambivalent sexism." They should not longer be seen as compliments and the article teaches how to combat a sexist comment. This is something that could help change the genderization of specific occupations and skills.

Would you want to be a cover model too?

Before The Makeover

"When you look at yourself and you know you can never attain that ideal."

"I'm never going to be skinny."

"I feel like I have some wrinkles around my eyes."

"It's hard when you see models and celebrities and like you just don't look the same."

After The Makeover

"I feel like it doesn't even look like me."

"Why would you want to make someone look so different?"

"I like my freckles. I feel like they give me character. I don't even know who that is"

"Once someone else has done your makeup, and done your hair, and directed the way your body looks, and taken away your imperfections, there's not much left of who you really are."

"We feel like we have to look to this standard that not attainable for everybody."

Beauty is attainable, but not the kind of beauty the world advertises in magazines or on television.  Buzzfeed is diverse in the types of articles they offer, but this one stood out particularly. It plays on the gendering aspect of every generation. Women are always supposed to be flawless, clean shaven, perfect skin, skinny, physically fit, and well-dressed. These women proceeded to be made into cover girls and their reactions were not what I was expecting. 

At the beginning the women are pointing out their flaws and how they do not even compare to the cover models on magazines. Why were they pointing out their flaws? They were pointing out their flaws because as women, they are taught to fix those flaws. It was most likely unintentional but two of the three women were white. In class we talked about how being as close to the white standard of beauty is ideal, and only one of these women has darker skin. The message might have been stronger if they had more diversity. This also puts down the idea that the ideal version of ourselves is being held up to the standard of cover models. 

These women reacted negatively to their new makeovers and did not like being so unnatural. They lost their identity. This is a positive change in women, because they are not succumbing to societal pressures. When we talked about women's expectations for their bodies and what they want to achieve, we noticed that it is something that is being taught from a young age and will not change overnight. However, these women may be the ones who are helping to spark this change.

Classic Movies

If Classic Movies Were Recast With Black People, Would They Still Be Classic?

This article was mostly photos but it makes people think about certain movies and how well they would or would not have been received had the main roles been cast with black people.

We have been talking a lot about how specific races are portrayed in films and our perceptions of these films would most certainly change if the characters were made black or even Asian.

This is an iconic position because most people can recognize that this a scene from Breakfast At Tiffany's. However, this photo is different because Audrey Hepburn was replaced by this beautiful woman. Her skin is not white, but black. This woman would not have been a maid or a slave. She would have been the beautiful Holly Golightly with glowing dark skin. This would most definitely challenge social norms. In the Bauman article the darker the skin, the more scandalous the character. Whether Holly is white or black, she is still a little cooky, but the audience would judge her as dysfunctional or not having her life together, because she is black.

This scene is from Thelma and Louise. Now I have not seen this film, but I think that the audiences would have made conclusions based on the race of the characters. The lines wouldn't change and the plot would remain the same, but because they shot a rapist, people might have assumed they would have been caught or convicted sooner at the beginning of the film. 

This is from American Beauty. It is about a suburban father in a mid-life crisis who decided to turn his life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend.  If they all had been black, people would think that is typical for that family. They would be black and it would be shocking for the audience to see that they live in a suburban neighborhood. 

I have not seen the other two movies on this website, but the idea is the same. We would jump to conclusions about social status and the morals of the characters if their races changed. 

Michael Dunn Trial

This trial is about a man, Michael Dunn, who pulled up next to a car full of black teenagers. The car with teenagers was playing music loudly and Michael Dunn was upset because it was too loud for his liking. He said he thought he saw one of the teens, Jordan Davis, point a gun at him before he opened fire. Then Dunn pulled a gun on the students and proceeded to fire shots into the car. Jordan Davis, a teenager in the car, was shot and killed at age 17. This trial has been given a lot of media coverage because it is very similar to the George Zimmerman case.

This video shows Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy commenting on the case. A few of his points stood out to me. At one point he says that criminalization of black people in America isn't a white problem, an American problem, a societal problem, NOT a black problem. HLN is usually a reliable network but seemed to be motivated by their ratings and the drama. Even the title of the news report "Thug Music" Trial portrays a message that black people only listen to that type of music. Generally tastes between black and white people are different, but the media should not highlight that.

Yes they are quoting someone, but just because black people listen to music, does not mean that it should be considered "thug music". Williams said it well when he explained that the only reason we are talking about this is because it is a black case. This is very telling because they are using race to make a huge deal about a shooting, when people are shot down every day. The media is using the fact that Dunn is white and Davis was black to promote this case. I am in no way condoning Dunn's actions or toning down the severity of the shooting, but the teenagers in the car were racially profiled and Dunn acted on his perception of those teenagers. 

Jesse Williams asks, "What if [Davis] had been blasting Bon Jovi? Would he still have his life? Would he have been given a thumbs up?". Again this is playing on the stereotype that white people generally listen to more music like Bon Jovi instead of "thug music" that the black people may prefer. The media usually tries to be neutral in terms of race, because everything needs to be politically correct now. Media is playing the race card to receive higher ratings and hop on the racial tension "band wagon".