Men On Mondays: objectifying men as penguins

So all I know is that Oscar is the trash can from the Sesame Street, until last night, that is. When I guess an award show goes on and they give the stars a trophy for 'doing a good job'.

I obviously don't watch them.

This morning as I was working out, I turned the channel to the Today Show. I enjoy fashion (I think dresses are pretty). And the Today show was evaluating the fashion at the Oscars.

So I sped up on the dreadmill and started running.

Usually I would comment on how pretty the dresses were. But today all I saw was the women's sleek and slender body. No curves, no boobs, just flat. And the dresses were tightly against the body.

Now some people tell me that I am wrong when I say men aren't as objectified as women in our culture. I'm gonna show you, how I feel that men are not objectified as much as women to any extent, in every form of media.

Feminist stay-at-home-mom?

Well, this goes with a back story. When I tell people I am majoring in women's studies, there are two reactions:

1. They make a joke about it. (Usually sexist)

2. they act like it's a 'normal' major...which it is.

Now I'm fine with people that ask questions about my major of choice, (What do you study, what classes do you have to take, what are you going to do with that degree and so on) but when people make sexist jokes about my major I get a little peeved. Of course, I point out that sexist jokes are part of the reason why we still need women's studies as a department/major/class in colleges.

A feminist marriage?

My friend and coworker is a videographer and has his own business, Memories in Motion. So pretty much he makes a "music video" of couple's weddings. He is amazingly good and you can't believe he hasn't gotten some sort of professional training.

But this is not about a promotion of his business(check it out if you wish). His new wedding video got me thinking about my dream wedding. And ugh, I am so indecisive about it all.

When I was 14, I decided that I was 'never' going to get married. Yep, never. I didn't see the point, I could still have kids and not be married, I could still have a job and not be married, I could still live with a male and not be married.

Community

This is a picture I put up on Facebook to show I support Planned Parenthood.


It was a sign that read "I survived because of Planned Parenthood."


Within the first two hours, there was someone that wrote "what about the babies that didn't survive?"

Feminist to be!

this is a very cute video about a 5 year old not wanting to get married before she has a job!

And just when I wanted to not male-bash...

This is ridiculous, this girl is having relationship troubles and he brings up the fact that boys are smarter than girls because they won more awards. SO NOT cool. I waited five minutes to cool down before pointing out his sexist remark.

Yes, guys have won more awards, some guys have won all of the awards, but that does not mean that "boys are not dumb". She was obviously talking about her boyfriend, not classwork, science, nor awards.

Obviously the science industry is male dominated so this is going to be more male winners. OHMGEEE. DUH!

And on the funny note, I really had to tone down my reaction to this. But seriously, I never thought I would get so mad at someone that I don't know on facebook. I was shaking with Anger. He is calling woman stupid because of an award!?!?!?!?!?! That doesn't mean anything.

Okay, it's out now. But I have so many names I just want to call him....

Update on 2/23: The guy who commented the sexist remark about physics deleted his comment. So the next time you come across a sexist remark, it wouldn't hurt to say something about it!

Men On Mondays

I've been seeing this trend about Male-bashing on Mondays on feminist sites. Analyzing or debating people's viewpoints is one thing, but attacking a person for the belief they hold is unacceptable in my view.

I want to spin Male-bashing around, instead of male-bashing, we should be male-rewarding. I think it is a better system and hopefully it gives some real role models for men! As well as support the males that do help women succeed!

So here is the beginning to my Men on Mondays series on this blog!

Digital Divide && Connection to Gender Roles

This is part 2 for my 2/23 assignment. I found that Angie's assignment summary was about what women do online compared to what men do online.

She listed 2 facts that caught my eye at first. They were all related. And that is why I was so interested in them:

1. More men use the Internet to pursue hobbies; more women use the Internet to communicate with family and friends.

2. There are a greater number of women than men on social networking sites.

Digital Divide && Common Source

I found that this site was listed on many fellow classmates assignments. So I decided to start analyzing from this point of view.

This study was analyzing if gender was a role in influencing the internet. Women are found to be more 'online' so to speak than men. Does that make them influence the internet more? Although the articles says it does, I care to disagree.

The author defines influence

as the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command.

If women are more likely to be involved in the social network, what effect is that producing? What is it changing? And if the previous study we read is correct, and that men are sharing more political views over Facebook, they may be more influential than woman even on Twitter.

Overall, it doesn't matter which gender is on twitter or Facebook or the internet more. It matters what they do on it that cause influence. And if men are not on Facebook/twitter/internet as much as women, but when they are: they choose to make political statements, share current news articles and run more websites. Then they still have all of the influence.

[Picture source]

A Male Privilege List

http://amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/

I want to make this as a business card and give it to people who say 'feminism needs to stay in the 1950s and that women are equal.'

Description: This is a website that has listed the many privileges of being male. Copying the idea of Patty McIntosh's article about 'Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" about white privilege. A must read for Women's Studies majors.

Interesting Article

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110209/NEWS/102090348/TV-ad-sparks-death-threats-Dubuque-man

Found the outcry of this commercial kind of interesting. Our society does have a rape culture and infants are not born to kill. Sorry people.

Description: An article about the a preventative violence commercial. It raised much controversy because it depicts a baby as a future rapist.

Newborn baby clings to life...

I'm watching Nancy Grace, they are covering a story about a baby being born in a bathroom.

I feel for the mother. It must be terrifying to deliver in a public bathroom, maybe she didn't even know she was pregnant.

I'm not saying she did the right thing,(she absolutely did not) I'm just saying we should not judge her until we know all the details.

There are three women judging this poor women, saying that she was horrible to do this and that it is outrageous that this could happen.

Have these women ever given birth in a public bathroom? Have these women been in this particular woman's situation? I highly doubt it.

I'm gonna turn this political right now: THIS IS WHY WE NEED MORE STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDING FOR REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE. We need to educate these women and the men, but we also need to make those options accessible and affordable for all. This woman is obviously not educated on what her choices are and was, if she did, she may have had avoided this dreadful situation. If she had access to the choices, she may have gotten medical help at the first sign of pregnancy. If she could afford it, she would make the right decision for all of us. I am NOT promoting abortion here, I AM promoting EDUCATION, ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY IN REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE!

Thoughts on Interview with Nadine Moawad

For class, I had to watch the video with Nadine Moawad. Watch it yourself: http://vimeo.com/9950475.

Nadine introduced the problem of the internet in Lebanon very well. She stated that most of the information on the internet was from fundamentalists. This obviously creates a bias of gender issues.

Youth Internet Use

I read the article "Class and gender impact youth internet use" which was a small analysis of a annual study that was done in Sweden.

To me, it was a very interesting study because it proved that girls use the internet more than their male counterparts, and according to the study they have "conquered" the world wide web. Little of those girls stated that they considering themselves tech-savvy and most of them listed that technology interests them little. However, their male counterparts seem to believe that they are tech-savvy though girls are more likely to use the internet more.

The study did not differ from the Facebook study before and gender roles are prevelant in the youth use of the internet, but in different ways. Girls are more likely to use the internet to chat and make personal information but boys are more likely to use the internet for gaming.

In this study, girls are more likely to explore the internet at a younger age and also read or write in blogs. Not surprising since women are stereotypically trained to talk more with each other but also not ask questions.

To learn more about the article: http://www.thelocal.se/26750/20100520/

Gender and Facebook Reading

For class, we had to read "Got Facebook? Investigating What's Social About Social Media" which is a study by S. Craig Watkins and H. Erin Lee at the College of Communication (University of Texas-Austin).

Overall, the study was predictable as a regular Facebook user. The majority of people that use Facebook is college age adults (18 to 25) and the percentage users go down as the age goes up. Also, the majority of the study was done with Caucasians, which may bias the sample. The study also seemed to use college-educated people, this means the sample was most likely privileged, at least in class.

I was surprised at the average age of beginning Facebook, which was 22.69. Most of the people I knew started using Facebook during high school. So I thought it would be around 18. This was explained afterwards, saying that half of the people in the sample were introduced to Facebook at around high school age, but the other half were older. Another reasoning of this high age was the 'new' history of the website.