Post 15, Question O: What Can I do

Taking this class has taught me a lot about the issues that others face (women, people of color, etc) but has also caused me to think about some of the issues that I have faced, being both the source and target of oppression.

I think the fact that I am more aware of the issues is one step in the right direction. I think in my personal life I will try to be more aware of the issues that others face.

I am not going to say I am about to go out and join various organization that are dedicated to ending oppression, I would be lying if I said that. Doing this requires a lot of work and dedication, and I think I do better by working on "small things".

One place I can start is within my social circle, I have some friends who hold beliefs about the issues we discussed in this class (racism, sexism, etc) but are well educated in the topics themselves. I will challenge them to think about it in different terms, the way I had to when I took this class.

Another thing I will start doing is having preconvied notions about people, without first getting to know them. For example I used to think it was odd whenever I saw a girl in a CS class. My friends and I (both male and female) would discuss this issue sometimes and come up with reasons why this might be the case. I see now that a lot of what we were saying was simply reaffirming others beliefs, not challeging them and trying to be more open to the idea of women being computer science majors. I think the attitude that "There are no girl CS majors" is the reason so many of them drop out after freshman year (in my experience we usually get 4 or 5 girls who start out in the program, but all but 1 or 2 drop it after a while).

Post 14, Question N: Activist

One the obvious qualities of a good activist is being committed to a cause, and being prepare to work towards achieving it. Someone who simply believes in something is only a believer, those who act are activist.

Take for example homelessness, most of use believe homelessness is a bad thing and should be eliminated, however only a small minority of us dedicate their time, money, and effort to working with or for homeless people, whether that be working in shelters, or petitioning the government or other organizations to help eliminate it.

I think activist should be willing to work within and without "systems" to accomplish there goal. Obviously trying to reform current systems to further their goals, then if they find that can't be done willing to work to do "revoultionary work" (replaceing current systems with new ones). For example I once talked to someone who was convince that the current structure of government in the United States needed to be done away with, When I asked what his specific concerns where, he stated very boilerplate issues (universal healthcare, marijuana legalization, etc) that in comparison seemed small. I explained that it would be much more productive to work though with the government though regular means (petitioning member of congress, etc) to further his goals then replacing the government all together (something that would lead to years of economic and legal instability).

Finally I think activism should be something people do not just for themselves, but for other people in their situation. It is very easy is to fight for something like healthcare reform when you don't have healthcare, but say you get a good job with health insurance, will you still be willing to fight for it?

Movie Project Process piece

For my video project I decied to do a video that shows the different ways a man and woman are treated on the first day of a new job. This video is based on actual experience, although has been greatly summarized in some areas and exaggerated in others to incorporate other sexism the female might face later down the road.

Here are links to the movies


First Day of Work, A Woman's Perspective:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8284516

First Day of Work, A Man's Perspective:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8284520

As someone who is a employee in a industry that is male dominated I have noticed that sometimes when a female employee tend to stick out, and you notice when theirs a new girl in the office. Unfortunately because many of the guys who work in this office are not very social-able, they sometimes turn the only opportunity then have to interact with girls on a daily basis (work) into a dating game.

At first I was only going to do one video about a female entering the workforce, but then I decided that it would be better to do a comparison.

I also didn't the other person in the video to be a manager, just someone who had some experience at the organization. Managers can face accusations of favoritism by dating there employees, while employees with out managerial duties have a more freedom. I also wanted to show how women may come into conflict with others besides their superiors.

I tried to make the two new employees have essentially equal qualifications (just out of college, had a industry-related internship-like job in college, computer science degrees). Notice how the female employee gets assigned the job of doing the "pretty graphics", instead of the more challenging job that the male gets.

Post 13, Question M Ageism

I believe the root cause of ageism is similar to the cause of ableism, peoples unwillingness to tolerate that there are people in society who are not young, healthy, and "fast".

I think the reason it is so seldom talked about is because it only recently became a major issue, due to the recent medical breakthroughs that have caused people to live longer. Now with the baby boomer generation reaching retirement age, we are starting to see more and more of the effects of ageism in our society.

I enjoyed watching the video "To Old to Work" (even though it was short), while I though "Living Old" which just talked about old people as sort of a "burden". In "To Old to Work" we can see the the intersection of the issues of ageism and current economic issues and it also shows that older people are valuable members of society. This is another issue why ageism is such a seldom talked about issue, many people will assume that "old people" are anyone over 70 who need to be care for in a nursing home. In this video we are shown how ageism effects those much younger. Many of the people in this movie faced the day to day issue older people face, especially having to deal with hiring discrimination.

Post 12, Question L: Ableism

When I was first watching the short clip Gimp I was confused on what it had to do with disability it that closely. All I saw were a bunch of interpretive dancers doing a performance. It wasn't til the very end that I did a double take and realized that a few of the dancer had missing limbs, which made me watch it over again.

I think this performance helps to show how disabled people are capable of extraordinary things. It should be used as a platform for educating people about disability. After all able-ism it self is another form these "socially constructed" forms of oppression. By not wanting to recognize that people who may have physical or mental disabilities may need assistance (small or large) we treat disabled people as second class citizens and relegate them to a life of poverty and continued dependence.

Post 11, Question K: cisexualism

While the "Tran-sexual Manifesto" talks about many of the problems transsexuals face, and is a call to action to do away with this discrimination, I believe the two movies "Beautiful Daughters" and "Southern Comfort" do a wonderful job of showing just how normal transsexuals are.

We often think of transsexuals as drag wearing, sexual performers who are only doing what they are doing because of some bizarre sexual fetish. While hearing the stories of the women from "Beautiful Daughters" I was amazed to find that most of them led normal lives, some as real estate developers other as computer and electrical engineers. On their road to transition they faced a number of roadblocks, from employment discrimination to drug addition. Why would these women go through all this trouble if they didn't have a deep belief in what they were fighting for?

I think that the first thing cisgender people can do is to help is (obviously) treat transexuals as they want to be treated. I think one thing we can do is to stop think of biological men being masculing and biological women as being feminine, and realize that these character traits can belong to either biological sex in varying degrees. This would not only do wonders for the transsexual community, but other non-heterosexual people. Even heterosexuals them selves would be freed from the ridged exceptions we now put on them.

Finally, I would like to reflect on one last thing. I was disappointed in the number of doctors who refused Robert Eads the medical care he needed, simply because they were afraid of the effect it would have on their reputations. I believe these doctors where ignoring their Hypocratic Oath, and due to their in action were the primary cause of Roberts death.

Post 10, Question J: The effects of Hetero-sexism

I believe LGBT youth the documentary film "Queer Streets" respresent the damage of the current methods of dealing with LGBT issues in general. Because these youths made the decision make their sexual identity public, they where cast off society and forced to leave their homes and flock to New York City seeking a better life. However, what they got was a life of homelessness, drugs, and sexual slavery.

When I first saw this film I was of the opinion that most of the youths problems where of their own creation, after all it was their misguided choice to come to New York in the first place, and it was their choice to pursue drugs and prostitution. I summed it up as the typical problems of misguided teens who want to rebel against society.



However, after thinking about it for a while I realized that while there was a tad of "adolescent angst" to their problems, I saw that most of the problems they were facing were in reaction to societies oppression, things non-LGBT youth do not have the additional burden of facing.

Whenever I was in crisis or times of need I knew I could always depend on my family as a last resort to help me out of whatever hole I had dug myself into. These youths were cast away from their familes (or had none in the first place) their was no one to relay on. They face all of the difficult task of cleaning themselves up, with little or no support. Their social circles were lacking too, as they were constantly surrounded by others with similar problems, who often encouraged their behavior. They had no role models, no one to look up to.

At the root of most of the problems was societies hetro-sexism. Most of these kids were cast from their homes or circles for being different. They were then denined employment simply because their legal gender did not match their social one. Finally, they where required to fulfill the stereotypical expectations of being "evil homosexuals" by doing drugs and working in the sex trade. This is very similar to a topic I talked about before where oppression and disenfranchisement are systematic and long lasting, due to the fact that those who are believed to be "evil", lack the social support to be anything but "evil".

Post 9, Question I: Tough Guise are Killing us Softly

The two videos Kilbourne "Killing Us Softly 3" and Katz's "Tough Guise" each deal with how the media portays each sex, and the damage it does to both.

In "Killing Us Softly", Kilbourne talks about the contining degradation in women in media, especially in advertisement. While we see that advitisors are as overt with assigning gender roles as they once were, there is still an issue with how women are portrayed in the media. One of the primary oppressors is the cosmetic and plastic surgery industry, as well as the various magazines that cater to women. These ads portray supposed "perfect" images of women, which many women strive to achieve. Unfortunately, as she points out, this look only belongs to a small minority of women.

In "Tough Guise" Katz discusses how society portrayl as the "strong, silent type" as he calls the "Tough Guise". He argues the contiuall presure for boys and young men to be strong, physical, and tough may be the cause of a majority of the cases of violence against women, and a number of the school shooting that happened in the late 90's.

Katz says that the images of boys are present across all socio-economic backgrounds and transcend race. In fact, he points out they are even more of a problem for people of color as there are less portrayals of them in general.

I myself often wonder why advertisers use these portrayals that are based on generalization. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that there are only a limited amount of channels in traditional media to sell products and advertisers instead of advertisers catering to a large diverse audience, they make their job easier by generalizing and catering to everyone.

I see web advertising as being a promising platform for advertiser to be able to cater their messages to more diverse groups, and allow them to stop generalizing. Since web ads (and the product they sell) can now be easily tweaked and distributed to a more diverse audience, advertiser have the opportunity to better sell their products and identify with their audiences. This should also allow them to avoid using generalizations to get their point across, which is a win for both sides.

Post 8, Question H: Religon and Oppresion

I found the film “Divided we Fall” to be an interesting look at the problems in religious oppression in the wake of 9/11.

In the documentary Valarie Kaur a college age girl of Sikh descent travels the US shortly after 9/11 to interview those whose lives have been effected by the recent surge in Anti-Muslim (and anyone who looked Muslim) due to peoples frustration with the attackers of 9/11.

One of the themes of the film is that much of the hate is misdirected at Sikhs, due to the fact that there cultural dress is similar to that of the (often times stereotypical) Muslims. While Valarie made some very good points in the film, I was frustrated at her lack of attention to hate crimes targeted at real Muslim people. While she did mention some in passing, I noticed that much of her effort was focused on separating Sikhs and Muslim, asserting that Sikhs do not deserve the oppression that they were receiving, and they were being mistaken as Muslim. I think she could of made the point that NO ONE deserves to be mislabeled as a terrorist and mistreated, whether they be Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, or any other ethnic group.

Valaires work shows us that while many Americans will assert that religious freedom Is one of the things that make this nation great, what is practiced and what is preached are two different things. A couple of brothers (who claimed to be Christan) in the film were show as being ignorant of the Sikhs religion, and trying to instigate Valarie and her cousin into a discussion. I myself have meet many people like these brothers, and am sadden that continuing ignorance of the Muslim faith has caused people to believe what ever the mass media tells them. I am willing to bet most people are not aware the “God” in the Muslim faith is actually the same “God” (with Muhammad as his prophet) as in the Christian and Muslim faiths (these three are commonly refer to as the “Abrahamic religions”) Muslims scriptures even mentions Jesus as one of the important prophets. I think these faiths should releize that they have more in common, then in difference.

Although I myself am not religious (I reject religious faith on scientific grounds, but believe it plays an important part in moral and social well being) I believe everyone has a right to follow their own belief system. I do think one of the things we can do to foster understanding is to teach children more about the religions of others. At the same time I would also hope that we can show children that it is OK not to believe in these faiths, and encourage them to think for them selves.

Post 7, Question G: Classism in America

Growing up I have always had a interesting relationship with the issues of classism in America. As a child I lived in a middle class neighborhood, however my family never had a lot of money. I always remember being the “poor kid” whose parents couldn’t afford the coolest cloths, toys, etc. I remember when I was a kid I often got excited when we were able to get or do “rich people” things. What were “rich people” things? Come to find out what I thought “rich people” things where not really that “rich”. Rich people things Name brand food and cloths (Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes instead of Market Basket Brand and Adidas), going to restaurants (like Burger King), and buying any appliance or piece of electronics brand new (we usually got hand me downs and fixed them up, that is how I got into computers).

This (among other things) led me to face social ostracizationthough most of my childhood. Some years were better then others, and I think I was able to get though it (though I would wish it on no one). I think the biggest thing that I gained from it was a distancing of myself and the “consumer culture” they talk about in some of the films. When I go to the store I have a hard time choosing what to buy, because I actually think about what I am buying and don’t just look at the brand, I don’t wear fancy cloths, and I don’t buy expensive things.

The question I know face is how I see my self now. After watching “People like Us” I can safely say I am not like most of the rich in that film. Although I can also safetly say I am not like most of the poor people portrayed in the other films. I often get frustrated at others around me in college who live off there parents while I have to work a full time job to make ends meet. What ends do I have to make meet? How do I do it? I am a educated college student, with a $13/hour desk job (in my field of study, great on resumes). I have a car payment and I pay all of my college/room/ and board that isn’t covered by financial aid. I am (usually) very frugal when it comes to buying things. I am not out skiing (I never learned, never had a reason to), or visiting some part of the world were it is warmer. I am stuck in Durham, NH during winter break working.

Will it get better? Yes. Assuming I graduate (I am a 5^th year senior studying computer science) I can look at getting a job paying $60,000-$70,000 starting pay (take that liberal arts majors ;) ). Will this make me middle class? Will this make me upper class? We will see.

Post 6, Question F: Jane Elliott

I was very surprised by the level of awareness these children had of racism, even before the experiment. This might have been because they had talked about it before in school, or because they lived in a time of racial conflicts. One example was when the teacher asked about bad things that people do to blacks and he response was “Calling them {the N word}”. These are third graders, not high scholars.

I am a strong supporter of the mantra of teach by example, and this is the best example of the harms racism has on oppressive groups. Jane Elliot was able to teach these kids about racism first hand. I do however wonder if this would be as effective today as it was 40 years ago. Obviously she would receive more flack from parents and school officials (both in town and nationwide), also while I think that here motives fit the issues of the time I believe the issues we face today are different from those 40 years ago (though still and issues). I do think her curriculum could be modified to talk about some of the more discreet forms of oppression that we have talked about in this class.

One final thing I found was fascinating was the fact that Elliott (who was blue eyed) herself was not discriminated against during “brown eyes are superior day”. This could have been because she said (off-camera) “this is true except for me because I am the teacher”. She was forced to explain herself while working with Correction employees (her explanation was that she married a brown eyes person, had brown eyed person, and learned to live like a brown eyed person). I believe this shows that authority figures have a tremendous influence on peoples ideas on race and oppression, to the point of them being able to have people ignore the traits they them self’s are professing as evil.

Post 5, Question E: Ignoring oppression

In Chapter 8 of “Privilege, Power, and Differences” Johnson explains some of the strategies that dominate groups to avoid having to deal with and solve the problem of oppression. Some of his examples involve members of the dominant group blaming the victims of oppression for that they are under. Here are some examples and my reflections on them:

Some whites might say “{insert minority group here} can raise their status in society if they simply work hard, get educated and stop committing crimes”. The issue with this approach is two fold. One, it assumes that members of a minority group are all lazy, uneducated, criminals. Second, it assumes such opportunities to do so are as easily accessible to the minorities as they are to the oppressive group. Finally, it ignores the fact that even those that are hard working, educated, law-abiding citizens still face racism in day-to-day life.

An even worse example of not acknowledging the problem is the “Its better this way”. This approach can involves members of the dominate group claiming that separation of races is good, since most people would prefer to live among there own kind. Those that claim this may avoid the negative label of “racist” by asserting that segregation can be done so everything is “separate, but equal”. As segregation in the US in the wake of Plessy v. Ferguson showed us, being separate means being unequal.

Even if a person acknowledges racism is still a problem, they may remove them selves from responsibility by claiming that they are not racist, sexist, or any of the bad “ist”. However, most of these people do little else to stop those who are oppressive and there for still contribute to the cycle of oppression.

I think the biggest thing we can do is to observe that racism exist, that it is still a problem, and research how we as individuals play a part in oppression.

Racism and Oppression

Although I had heard about the Stanford prison experiment before, I never considered thinking about it in racial terms. After watching this video and the other videos concerning race and racial profiling we can draw some analogies. Obviously in racial terms the guards represent the majority (white, usually male) and the prisoners represent the minorities.

It is interesting to note that in the experiment both the guards AND the prisoners where young college white males who were attending what some can consider to be an elite college. However the guards and the prisoners where told to think of each other in terms of either being a prisonier or a guard and nothing else. This is essentially stereotyping guards as the powerful ruling class, and prisoners as the oppresed, obediant class. How was each person assigned their role initially? Random chance, since it was an experiment the prisoneers performed no crimes and the guards did nothing to deserve their status, they were just given it. Overtime the guards became more and more powerful and the prisoners became weaker and weaker.

Compare this to racism were people are givin their race at birth as a social "tag". To is no "formula" used to decide if a person is born black,white or otherwise, it happens by random chance. This isn't very different from how prisoners or guards were chosen, what basis do people have to create divisions based on random chance.

One solution that some pose to racism is to put the responsibility on the minority to elevate their status and improve their image. Such a solution is futile at best since as long as divsions exist, people will still find ways to segregate and oppress others. Even the best behaving prisoner in a prison is a prisoner and subject to beatings, confident, or embarisment if they step even the smallest amount out of line. Additionally even the worse behaving guard is still a guard and entitled to punish any prisoner if they (or the guard thinks they) step out of line.

Finally I would like to point out that I have always thought of racism as the cause of people fulfilling stereotypical roles. If black males are stereotyped into being criminals, doesn't that show that society has little faith in them, which will lead them into a life of crime? If whites are stereotyped to be hardworking successful people, doesn't that mean that society is more supportive of them which will allow them to be successful? I believe the more we do away with racism the safer this world will be.

Finally an objective opinion

The title of this entry was taken from the talk given by Kimmel, and it what I was thinking when I saw the video still of a man standing at the podium. What I got however was a little different then expected. I have to say that I think I was able to relate to this video more then the other two previous ones. I don’t know if it was because a man gave the talk or because he brought up some very good points.

Over the years I have struggled to solidify my beliefs on the whole “who should work and who should stay home”. Part of my confusions stem from issues I saw between my own two parents (a lot of factors are at play their, to many to state now). So for now I do not wish to state my opinion on this.

In terms of divisions of housework between fathers, mothers and older children I will say that men should be more willing to help their wives accomplish chores, but I would like to point out something that I think Kimmel missed. In most households men do housework, albeit of a different kind.

Although it might sound a little sexist I always thought that their was “guy” housework and “girl” housework Growing up I don’t think I ever remember sitting around with my dad in the living room, while my mom was in the kitchen (I always felt awkward when I went to other people houses were this happened).

As a kid I remember mowing the lawn, painting the house, refinishing the basement, and helping my dad fix various things around the house. These things are all housework and are just as essential as cooking and cleaning. I would be more then willing to cook, clean, do the laundry and dishes if my wife wanted to mow the law, paint the house, and drywall the basement.

I do think Kimmel brought up a good point related to father-son relationships. He said that being a good father is more then having “quality time” with your kids on Fridays after work. I do think men need to take a very active role in their children’s development, as it is important for kids to have both mother figures and father figures in their lives. I also agreed with his closing remark about how “"Feminism will make it possible, for the first time, for Men to be free"

Question B

As this film explains there are many stereotypes of feminist as man hating, bra burning lesbians. I too have from time to time believe that some of these stereotypes, for example I used to ask my self “You always hear about man hating lesbians, where are all the women hating gay guys”

My definition of feminism is simply to call it a movement. Like any movement it started with a certain set of core beliefs that where promoted by its followers. From time to time (like any movement) there are schism and splits, hardliners and revisionists. However I believe the reason feminism gain the negative stereotypes it did was because there were a few “bad apples” in the movement. These “bad apples” where probably influenced more by their personal struggles with men (be they justified or unjustified) then their desire to advance freedom and justice for women. These bad apples are also the ones whose are portrayed by the media, since they show feminism in a negative light, and showing things in a negative light is big bucks) despite the fact that they represent a small minority of feminist.

I don't think feminism is in a decline per-say, I do think it is not as popular as it once was, but that is more the fault of the media portrayal of it.

It is hard to decide whether I am a feminist or not, I do not have many female friends (or at least ones I would feel comfortable talking to them about such issues) so its hard to talk to someone about this issue to learn more about it. I do think women should be given all the equal legal rights and responsibilities of men and vice a versa. I have to learn more about it and not really on a hour long movie (which was poorly narrated and had some minor factual inaccuracies), so I hope to learn more through this class.

Question A

I was interested in critic bell hooks gave to examples as what she termed “white-supremacist, capitalist patriarchy”. Because this talk is quite dated and I haven’t seen the films she discuss it was hard to related to some of the movies she used. It would have been interesting to hear her thoughts on modern mass media (ie the Web) and whether or not it propagates the same messages in the same media as traditional media does.

While I do agree with her that mass media propagates and reinforces racism and sexism I believe the role it plays is that of a feedback loop. Whereas a certain class consumers of media dictate what they want (or think they want), media companies produce content to meet those needs, that content is then view by those and others and is propagated as the social norm. So the issue of oppressive media is the fault of both the consumers and the producers of content. If we as a society agree that we no longer want such ideas to be present in our society, then I believe the media will respond as such.

One personal example of how I feel into this media trap is from my childhood. As a child I always had trouble making friends, and spent a lot of my time alone at my house watching TV. At the time (and still today) the media portrayed being “dumb” as cool and being smart as “uncool”. I tried to play by model to make friends, and as a result did not do very well in school until I rejected it in the 4^th grade. I wasn’t very successful in making friends either, because as it turned out I realized the most popular and cool kids in my class were also the “smart” ones.

One great thing that about the Internet (that I also fear that it is losing due to its increasing use as a gateway for “mass media”) is that it allows a lot broader spectrum of media to propagate, media that isn’t dominated by big players, but by smaller (mostly) independent content providers and individuals who can express their creativity to an audience.