warren buffet

i recently was watching the news and there was some interesting stuff about warren buffet and his outlook on taxes. warren buffet is the 2nd richest man in the united states, behind bill gates. he is worth more than 47 billion.

Buffet recently was one of the first wealthy Americans to release his gross income and taxable income to the public. it revealed that he was paying a little over 17% in taxes while most middle class americans are paying around 20%. This is indicating that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Buffet is one of the first to argue that the wealthy should be taxed at a higher rate.

there has been an increasing gap between the middle class and the rich for several decades. We were shown some of these charts in class. However this argument from buffet seems to be trying to pull them closer together again. i thought this was interesting to hear a rich person say this and have it be so true. for someone as rich as warren buffet to say this, it goes against expectations of his class.

class

Class to me seems something we are born into. Even in our readings it states how rare it is for someone to break away from their class or even succeed beyond their parents. Everyone has a different foundation early on in life, and this is something I never really used to think about... but came to the realization that trying your hardest isn't always going to give you the same advantage as someone else from lets say a different class. For example, people considered to be lower class or below poverty level attend schools that don't have equal opportunities and funding compared to schools of children of higher class. This situation puts children of a lower class at a disadvantage early on in life. Based on the opportunities presented to you plays a big role on where you go in life which ultimately influences your class, and to break away from this is becomes not only becomes difficult to achieve, but rare as well.

Rich Children

I must admit, I was pretty ignorant to the facts that we learned about America's distribution of wealth. But, when I actually think about it I can definitely see it. There is a very unequal distribution of wealth. It really has nothing to do with how hard you work, or if you go to college anymore. It seems that most of America's money is just going to the wrong places.
I constantly see articles popping up online about child celebrities and the amount of money they make. I decided to look into this, and I am in shock over how much some of these kids make. For example:

-Miranda Cosgrove from the Nickelodeon show, iCarly makes $180,000 per episode.
-The kid from Two and a Half Men, Angus Jones makes $250,000 per episode.
-Selena Gomez from the Disney show, Wizards of Waverly Place makes $25,000 per episode (it almost seems small compared to the above two, but don't worry-she is worth $5.5 million).
-Justin Bieber has earned 53 million dollars
-Miley Cyrus has earned 48 million dollars.

Do these kids really deserve that much? Is what Miranda Cosgrove doing worth $180,000? How can so many families in the U.S. be living near the poverty line while teenagers are making so much? It would take a normal family years to accumulate (if they ever do accumulate) the amount of money some of these children make in one episode.
No wonder America's wealth distribution is so unequal.

Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. However, after going out this weekend it is apparent that many females really aren't concerned with changing peoples attitudes about sexism. There wasn't one costume I saw on a female that wasn't extremely revealing, and not that I have a problem with this but it shows the mentality of women in our culture. One girl was an army women with a camouflage hat, but had on short shorts and a tank top. I asked her why she didn't wear camo pants and a camo jacket, she said "that wouldn't be slutty enough". While this is only one person, its obvious that girls are trying to show as much skin as possible, and it is for a special occasion so you have to take it with a grain of salt. I guess my point is that women in our culture are wearing less and less clothes at a younger and younger age, so in a couple years, what will the outfits for Halloween look like?

Capitalism

Is Capitalism Bad? We have been going over in class how our capitalist structure has made the poor (in most cases) stuck in a pit by birthright while the rich continues to inherit and gain more wealth in a year then most people gain in a lifetime.  Does this not convert the land of opportunity for all into the land of opportunity for those that do not need it.

Minimum wage in the real world.

Thursday’s discussion on minimum wage was nothing new to me. I’ve worked part time in restaurants since I was sixteen and it’s always the same scenario. Employees of a restaurant can be divided cleanly into two groups, kids and very young adults who are just earning some spending money with no serious financial responsibilities yet, and adults who are actually trying to pay rent and live off eight or nine dollars and hour. I’ve always had a lot of sympathy for these people as they truly do struggle to pay for the basic necessities. And no one should ever feel immune to this struggle as most of these adults have college degrees of some kind and are simply unable to find a decent paying job. What makes it even harder for some is trying to pay student loans, which they incurred getting a worthless degree (Real encouraging for those still in school right?) It also makes me incredibly mad when someone implies that these people are lazy and unmotivated, most of the people I’ve met in this field, work far more hours in a week than any white collar employee the only difference is in the pay. Over the years I have become good friends with many waitresses and cooks and have found them to be decent, honest and caring people like everyone else. Why society chooses to treat the working poor as if they are the lowest of the low yet praise celebrities who have done nothing of note as idols is beyond me. So next time you’re out to eat please remember the struggle that so many people in the service industry are going through, and that your tips can sometimes mean the difference between making rent for the month or not.

poverty in buffalo

I saw an article in the buffalo news about suburban poverty. The article talked about how the face of poverty has changed, it mentioned how people going into food pantries had masters degrees and lived in Orchard Park. 52% of people living in poverty in Erie and Niagara county live in suburbs, people living in wealthy towns are going to the east side churches for help. Most of this is because people are losing their jobs and having difficulty finding new ones. I posted the article so everyone can read it, and the comments. I feel like a huge problem with poverty is that NO ONE cares unless it is happening to them, the way poverty is now it can happen to anyone. I hope the people that wrote the comments that it isn't their fault people are poor remember that when they get laid off of work and have to go to a food pantry. I personally know a lot of people that thought they were living comfortably who now can't believe they are struggling with money. People with money act like the only poor people are teenage mothers living on the east side who didn't go to school and that it is their fault they are poor. Oh and don't forget these people are living off all the rich people because they use food stamps and welfare. There was one comment that mentioned that Buffalo doesn't need to be a poor city. It looks like everyone that commented on the article is one of those rich people that has stereotypes of who poor people are. Hi, the economy sucks. Everywhere. Poverty can happen to anyone now, so don't talk like an asshole because for all you know next week you could lose your job and be one of those lazy poor people.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article612880.ece

Class

The class system in America has gotten to be too separated and unequal in the past 30 years. The poor and the middle class have stayed the same, while the rich has seen their wealth increase many times over. This is an unfair, unjust way for normal Americans to live. People are working longer hours than ever before. The economy continues to increase, and profits for big business are at their best ever. But what does the working man get? Nothing. The middle class hasn’t seen a real increase in salary since the early 80s. The people who are allowing these companies to have
record profits are not seeing any reward for their hard work. The top 1% in this country controls more wealth than the bottom 50%. This is a ridiculous way for America, the richest country in the history of the world, to behave. People are occupying Wall Street and many other cities in this country to protest against the destruction of the working class in this country. The classes are becoming too distant from each other. The middle class doesn’t realize the struggles of the poor, and the rich don’t see the struggles of the middle class. If we want to continue this country moving progressively into the future, and not turn into a third world country with major economic inequalities, something has to change.

After our discussion in class today, I got to thinking about how a person's "class" will always effect them. I found this website:

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/school_zone/2011/06/whats-your-schools-graduation-rate.html

Where you can look up school graduation rates for New York State. For example, a "nice" neighborhood with a good school district, Amherst, has a graduation rate of 90% with 56% of students graduating with an advanced regents diploma. While Buffalo school P82 has a graduation rate of only 14% with none of the students getting an advanced regents, or plain regents diploma. Obviously one of these schools is in the city, and one in the suburbs. But it shows perfectly how drastically class can, and will, effect you.

class inequality in the US

I found this website to take a look at and i found some interesting statistics that I thought I would share.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/20-facts-about-us-inequality-everyone-should-know

1.) CEO pay

- in 2009 the average CEO made 185 times more then the average production worker: I did not realize the pay gap was this serious between CEOs, maybe I just didnt realize that CEOs honestly make that much. You would think if a company CEO was making that much money that the company would be able to afford to pay the workers more.

2.) homelessness

- there are 750,000 homeless people on any give night: this is a CRAZY number its so high

3.) Racial discrimination

- an experiment showed that employers are more likely to call someone back with a "white sounding name" then they would with someone with a "black sounding name": this experiment made me think of white people that could have names that make them sound black. Or foreign names that people cant pronounce right. You should not be judged just by the sound of your name

4.) child poverty

- In the US 21.9% of children are in poverty :(

5.) health insurance

- in 2007 8.1 million children under 18 years old were uninsured: this poses a problem that many people could die from sickness just because they cant afford a doctor, also many people could go into debt just from being treated.

These 5 facts were the ones that stood out to me but the other statistics were interesting and you should take a look at them. I would just like to add that I truly think your up bringing (wich is something you can not control) is a main part of your wealth, having health insurance, and where you end up in life. It all about the opportunities you are offered growing up and if your family can afford it.

Political Cartoon on Black/White Relations

I found a political cartoon that ties in with the theme of my section of the zine for this post.  As the name of the cartoon implies in a mere six frames it sums up the black-white dynamic throughout America's history.  To explain it in a less satirical manner, it shows how whites forced blacks into slavery and how even though slavery has ended a severe inequality remains.  It also implies that one major reason whites prospered so much in America was the use and abuse of blacks, which is an extremely valid point, without a cheap labor source in a forming agricultural society America might not have become the world power it is today.  The final point the cartoon makes is that despite recognizing that slavery was wrong and that equality should be a given, now that whites are on top they've lost sight of their beginnings and keep blacks in a subordinate position.

Masculinity in america

Talking about this topic in class was concerning because we see advertisements and behavior on television everyday that tell young boys to act "manly". Often times, this behavior is aggressive and violent. My main concern in regards to this portrayal of how boys should act is that they think that normal healthy emotions aren't regular for a man to experience, and they should toughen up.

Violent behavior is seen everywhere in today's movies, video games, and television and young boys are likely to imitate it. Movies that are generally geared toward young boys such as any of the marvel comic book movies have obvious displays of violence. Most films and television programs display the main character as a man, and in addition, he must be completely in charge, containing his emotions,and willing to fight other men when necessary.

When looking at advertisements, most men are depicted as being strong and powerful. In some circumstances, we see ads selling a product such as a drug that can assist you in becoming more built. In order to stop making young boys think that they must act macho to succeed in this world, we need to eliminate ads that show men being abused or laughed at for acting with some emotion. The milwuakees best light advertisement we watched in class is a perfect example, where the giant beer can fell out of the sky on the men who act semi emotional.

Same old..

After going on a trip to Canada over the weekend with a couple of my guy friends who I haven't seen in a while, I really got a new perspective of how sexist they really were. I couldn't help but notice the comments that they said were so sexist against women, any little thing that was "not manly" was considered to be a vagina or whatnot. I guess I never really noticed how bad it was until all of these gender roles were mentioned in class and I was able to apply it to real life. I think that more than anything, it made me lose hope for the future because if this is how they act now, maybe they will be this way for the rest of their lives, and in doing so, maybe teaching their children the same horrible habits. I guess the only thing that we can do for the time being to to try and educate people on the reality of the situation, because speaking for myself I have learned a lot about gender roles, the impact that they have on society, and the impact that they have on individuals.

gender roles

I've been thinking a lot about how society defines gender and sexual orientation. These things, like race, are really ingrained in our culture. From a very young age, we can label genders and know what attributes are supposed to go along with gender. As we grow up, we also attribute these things to sexual orientation. It's sad that things need to be so rigidly defined in a society that is supposed to be "open" and "free." Being gay doesn't mean that a man has feminine qualities, yet we constantly attribute "gay" to feminine and flamboyant. It seems almost second nature to do things like this.

Here's a clip that shows how young we begin to classify things like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWc1e3Nbc2g

Gender roles

There is no doubt that gender roles are influenced by society, however I believe there is a biological aspect behind them as well. As I was reading my biopsych book the other day, I couldn't help but related what I was learning to out topic in AMS about gender roles. One interesting example I came across in favor of a biological explanation for gender roles involved playing behavior in primates. When given monkeys the choice to play with toys such as dolls or trucks, it was shown that female monkeys chose to play with toys such as dolls, where as the males chose to play with more active toys such as trucks. This shows gender roles to have some type of biological influence, because monkeys do not have the same socially constructed gender roles as we do. There was also another study done with male and female infants which concluded that female infants look at faces longer, such as showing a preference to look at their mother's face, where as male infants looked at mobiles longer, preferring to look at something more active. I do believe there are biological differences between males and females, and there are most definitely differences in hormones in male and female brains, as well as sexually dimorphic characteristics of the brain. But this leads me to kind of wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg. Did these biological differences in males and females cause our society to cater to differences that already existed, or did the gender roles come first which we then identified with due to our biological differences of preference?

playing the race card

I was thinking about what we said in class the other day about michael vick. I think it is ridiculous that anyone would say if he was white no one would care that he was involved in dog fighting. The truth is that it doesn't matter what color you are or how much money you have, fighting dogs is horrible. I don't know why you would put dogs through the pain and torture of fighting each other when you're in the nfl. And of course because he is a football player he got away with it, because they always do. Obviously the people defending michael vick only have the race card to play, instead of being really sorry about what he did he says, "its because im black". Yes he served minor jail time but I don't think he ever should have been allowed back in the nfl, i think people have to not only be a good player but a good person. I mean kids are looking up to these guys and now little boys are going to think its okay to abuse animals. I have never been much of an eagles fan and really don't think he is that good of a player, maybe I'm wrong. But whether he is black or white, I hope a dog mauls him someday, just saying.

Sexual Orientation

In class we talked about how the ideas of gay and straight have been set in stone for over 100 years. Previous to this, I'm sure there was people who showed both gay and straight characteristics and were not looked at any differently. I would what it would be like to live in a world like this, and I bet there would be a totally different view on sex. You could probably have sex at any age with anyone and not be told it is bad. That is something that would never happen today, they always teach you abstinence and things like that, but life was probably a lot more carefree back then.

Bringing anti-bullying movement to schools

I was so happy to read on the Buffalo News website a couple days ago, an article by Christina Hoag titled "more schools take action to stem anti-gay bullying." The article acknowledged all the suicides and other killings that have happened in the past couple years and what the U.S. has been doing about it. Obviously, gay rights and being gay is becoming more accepted in a way - legalized gay marriage, able to serve in the military. But, for individuals in middle school through - college, there are still troubles to endure. Though we think, oh, gays are becoming more and more accepted due to these societal laws and changes, so it must be okay/easier to come out of the closet. Not really. "Schools became aware last year about how unsafe it can be." I'm hoping to see positive results come from school staff being trained to deal with bullying situations in schools. The article states something such as, how it is ineffective for teachers to just "break it up" or say, "that's hurtful so don't say it" It is about making the bullies recall a time where they felt that way and teaching kids from a young age to be more accepting and not act on their thoughts. I'm loving the part of the article that mentioned, schools are eventually going to have to teach gay-rights history. The article is here, I'd give a quick read over.

Racist Media During Katrina Aftermath

Getting ideas together for the project on Thursday reminded me of some blatant racism on behalf of the media that stemmed from Hurricane Katrina.  Numerous images of hardship and people surviving came out during the ensuing aftermath.  Of those images there was a disproportionate amount of black people "looting" necessities such as bread and clean water, you know those two things we need to survive.  However, pictures of white people doing the very same thing produced captions that replaced the word "looting" with "finding".  Also, as the Article I referenced points out, the "heartbreak" stories meant to spur sympathy among American citizens were by and large about white families who lost everything as a result of the hurricane despite a 2.5:1 black to white ratio.  It just shows that in times like these, when the masses are distracted with tragedy, that old racist ideals can sneak in under the radar strong as ever until someone with a far-reaching voice calls them out on it.

Straight, Gay or....What?

so after Tuesdays class this whole different groups of sexual preferences really baffled me. outside of straight, gay, bi-sexual, and bi-curious i don't really know anything more about the topic. while at a doctors appointment the news was on and Chaz was on TV. Chaz is Cher's daughter, who went through with a life changing transformation from woman to man. i dont know the in's and out's about Chaz but it goes hand in hand with our class discussion from Tuesday. regardless of what a person may be, or may become, everyone is entitled to live a happy life including Chaz.

Lesbian.."Les-be-honest"

Our society is so gender specific that anything feminine that a man does makes him susceptible to being called gay. But when a woman does masculine things that are dominated by men such as lift weights, play football or race cars she is often not accused of being a lesbian. Why is it that its socially acceptable for a woman to kiss another woman without consequences?  A lot of the times in shows like Jersey Shore, Bad Girls Club or Real World girls kiss each other all the time and their sexually is never threatened. Girls kiss their girl-friends and it is not in a sexual context so no one pays it any attention, its just girls being girls. Actually a lot of men enjoy when women kiss each other, do women enjoy when men kiss men? I don't think so. It is not socially acceptable for men to kiss each other because it is viewed as un-masculine and gay. In my opinion lesbians are more "accepted" than gay men because more people have a harder time accepting why a masculine strong man would want to be with another man.

Jamey Rodemeyer

Since we have done a lot of talking in class about homosexual people I thought it would be good to talk about Jamey Rodemeyer. Jamey was a freshman in high school and he was bullied mercilessly in high school, but mostly in middle school. He could not take it anymore that he had to kill himself. He went to Williamsville North which is 3 minutes from my house. A lot of my friends knew him or a member in his family. This was a wake up call for many people. All of those bullies should feel terrible. They are saying now that bullying is wrong but they thought it was fine before they made a kid commit suicide. Hmmm sounds a little guilty to me. Bullying should never happen because something horrible like this can happen and no one wants a repeat of this tragedy.

Stereotypes

While we were talking in class the other day about the stereotypes of being 'straight' vs being 'gay,' I started thinking about stereotypes in general. I think one of the main problems is that from time to time, we all play to the stereotypes, which probably is what's keeping them alive. Even if we're joking and making fun of stereotypes, we are still acting like them, which is what people who indulge in them will remember about you. So I think the first step to getting rid of these stereotypes is to stop acting them out, even if you're joking. For example, Halloween is coming up and one way to not act out a stereotype would be to not dress up as an Indian Maiden, a school girl, or a genie.

Gender Stereotype counterparts

Male- Female
Tough-Vulnerable
Strong-Weak
Calm-Hysteric
Aggressive-Passive
Logical-Emotional
Slovenly-Fastidious
Promiscuous-either Prudish or Promiscuous
Ignorant-Cultured

Same Sex Marriage

I thought this map proved a good point and went along with what we talked about in class today. In America, it is legal in more states for you to marry your first cousin than it is your love of the same sex that you want to spend the rest of your life with. This is very disturbing to me. America says it is more okay to marry a first cousin which could possibly lead to incest. New York can now be added to the list allowing gay marriage but still the ratio is unbelievable and disturbin to me.

Being a "Real Gay Guy"

After class today I signed on to Facebook to see that one of my Facebook friends posted a link that oddly went along with what we spoke about in class today.
Here is the link:
http://thewhygenerationusa.blogspot.com/2011/10/signs-you-are-not-real-gay-guy.html

It's a blog written by a former Canisius student named Jeffrey Hartinger. In this blo, his goal is to open the minds of the people in our generation about issues we do nothing about, and he does so in kind of a humorous manner. It's actually a quite interesting blog.

I must admit, when I first saw the name of the article, Signs You Are Not A Real Gay Guy, I was a bit worried about what the article would say, but it was actually really great. Hartinger basically tears apart the basic stereotypes that go along with being homosexual, such as, knowing how to dress, and listening to Lady Gaga. It also seems to mock the whole "you are not a real man" issue too. Where as "real men" get ridiculed for showing a feminine quality, this blog post makes it seem as if gay men get ridiculed for being to masculine.

Just as we discussed in class, our society puts certain qualities with your sexual orientation. You are looked at as weird if you do not follow these certain "norms". Really though, this thinking process makes no sense. Being heterosexual and being homosexual should not automatically have a whole list of qualities that go along with it. It's just an orientation. It affects who you want to sleep with and who you fall in love with. That's it.

F-R-I-E-N-D-S!

I don't know how many of you have watched the television show FRIENDS..but its my all time favorite show and today in class i kept thinking about a ton of different scenes from this show that i could post on the blog. One scene stuck out in my head the most but i couldn't find it online to post so I'm going to tell you about it. Ross Geller wears a "salmon" colored shirt and all of his friends call it is pink shirt and he always gets so defensive about it because he doesn't want to classify it as pink or he'll be considered less of a man.

Here's a link that i found of another scene that i was also thinking about...please watch it! It's funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6pXFk8dpMc&feature=related

So, in this scene, Ross is trying to get fashion help. what you don't see in this clip, is the shirts get messed up and he ends up wearing the wrong one on his date. his shirt is pink and very feminine like. he wears it to the coffee shop and joey tells him that he should not be wearing that shirt but Ross believes all the girls are turning the head towards him cause he look s"hot" and "fashionable." he claims that joey is jealous of his new style. Joey is really telling him to take the shirt off because he looks gay. Which is the real reason why women were turning their heads towards him, because he looked funny, not because he was handsome.

Pink shirts on men have grown to be acceptable. However, super feminine shirts, like the one Ross is wearing, are still extremely questionable on men and i believe they always will be. what do you guys think? Now that pink on men is more acceptable, what else do you think in upcoming years will become more acceptable for men to do or wear that, today, would be considered "gay."

6 stereotypes about women that are proved right by science!

#1 - women are light weights: most people think this is because women are smaller then men but in reality it is because women and men have a different water to fat ratio. Also a womens liver is proven to not work as fast as mens.

#2 - women see mauve, men see purple

#3 - women love to talk: the area in the brain responsible for language is 17% larger in women

#4 - women are wimps: women have more pain receptors, so they feel more pain then men do.

#5 - women cant drive or park: in young children girls see in two dimension while boys had the gift of seeing 3 dimension so they could see more depth

For most of these stereotypes I always thought they were just made up. I didnt realize that some of the gender stereotypes we see have been proven by science. It makes me wonder what stereotypes are true about men? are they actually incapable of feeling the same way women do?

http://www.cracked.com/article_18529_6-absurd-gender-stereotypes-that-science-says-are-true.html

Williamsville gay teen suicide

Apparently this didn't post before class but anyway here's my post for the week.

I'm sure many of you have heard of the recent suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, a Williamsville North freshman who was pushed to suicide due to the relentless bullying his sexuality brought on.  This goes to show how the standing social norms can cause a young teen to be ostracized by their peers.  On a side note it's very interesting seeing a Williamsville school condemning gayness when it was one of their schools that came under fire for their hazing of new baseball players via sodomizing them with a broom handle.  Back to the point though, Jamey faced the standard slew of harassment; being called gay, a girl, death wishes, and being told he would surely go to hell are some of the many abuses he faced.  I personally can't imagine what it must feel like to be in the minority as far as sexuality is concerned in a society where adhering to the norms and assimilating with the majority is practically the only means through which success is obtained.  Jamey's suicide puts these norms under scrutiny, though.  Why subject a person to torment for a preference they have no control over as far as science can tell?  One last thing I'd like to add is what happened to Jamey's sister after his death.  At the annual homecoming dance one of the girls who was a main bully of Jamey approached his sister and informed her that she was happy her brother killed himself and that he would surely go to hell for being gay and killing himself, two big no-no's in Christian lore (This is one of many things that outrages me when various religions make comments on touchy subjects).  This seems to me like beating a dead horse, excuse the bad pun for want of a better analogy, but what purpose does it serve to approach a grieving family member and belittle their loved one's death?  Just because Jamey was gay makes his life less valuable?  Objectively, Jamey had nothing less to offer than any of his peers and yet because of one preference his life has come to an abrupt halt.

Here's the article

Gender

I think it's crazy how the social construct of gender affects us so early in life, even as babies. From the time we are born, being wrapped in a bink or blue blanket, to pink or blue rooms and items, to commericials and toys being geared towards a certain gender and how that gender is "supposed to" act, behave, what they like, etc. For example, the ad for a rattle for a "beautiful baby girl" which was a ring rattle, and a tool rattle for a boy which state "for a busy baby boy". This sends the message that male and female roles in society differ greatly, and these are the roles we are supposed to take on. Are there gender neutral ads? Or gender neutral products? And how has it come to be that women must take on the roles of being submissive, sexy, useless for anything but being there as an attractive object for men to look at, and men being portrayed as powerful, strong, dominating, smart, intuitive, etc. How did these roles develop for certain sexes, and not the other way around?

gender

I've just been thinking about how sad it is that little girls are basically groomed to strive for lesser things in life. Basically every girl's toy has something to do with marriage, cooking, dressing up, or housework. In today's modern world, how can we allow this to happen? Why should girls be taught that they are inevitably dependent? The video was right, even the most independent of Disney princesses needed a man in the end. This has to have a large impact on a girl; in childhood these princesses hold the standard for perfection. If the standard for perfection relies on a man, what hope is there for little girls? This mixed with things like toy kitchens, toy makeup, and infant rattles shaped like diamond rings is just a recipe for gender stereotype's continuation. It's really disappointing.

Well...that's fair..right?

As I was working today, I was listening to a talk show on the radio and the topic of discussion fell upon a story that happened to a couple of school girls. These girls, who were in middle school and went to a Catholic school, and who had to wear uniforms everyday, were on the subway to school one day. They were all wearing their uniforms which were comprised of skirts. It so happened that there was a man on the subway that day that enjoyed the view from his side of the subway while he looked up a couple of the girls' skirts. So when those girls got to school that day and told their teachers, they called the police. Of course, there was no way to actually track down the man on the subway, but the police officers did have some "useful" advice for the girls. "Don't wear your skirts on the subway." I feel that this is a completely sexist resolution. How is it that the end result gets the blame placed on the girls? They are required to wear uniforms to school and a man that looks up their skirts and enjoys it, gets away no questions asked. The girls probably feel degraded and violated, but it was their fault for wearing the skirts in the first place. That's kind of messed up if you ask me.

Interesting Stats: Males opinions Vs. Females

I read an article in the New York Times the other day about males Vs. females views on development in the community. It said during hard economic times, men favor more than women the construction of new projects in the hopes that it will help the economy flourish in some way. It stated that apartments and condos were the only development favored by women. I feel as if men favor this happening in the community more because more men work as construction workers and so on. Gas drilling, power plant work, etc. are seen as lines of work for more commonly men. It says something along the lines of women care more about the well being of the community and taking care of things the way they currently are. Women dislike the building of new developments closer to their homes than men do. I feel as if these trends are linked to gender roles. I think women feel as if they need to be more concerned about their homes and the safety of the children. Men are more focused on say their work and making money. I did think the article’s statistics were quite interesting. Check it out here.

Women and Advertising

Women have come a long way in the past half century towards gaining equality with men, but it seems they still have quite a ways to go. After looking at the ads in class last Thursday, the obvious theme was women using their body and looks to sell products. I think that a lot of men (not all) see these images and conclude that women are just objects for us to look at. On the other hand, women look at these ads and feel pressured to look like the perfect models they see. In the past decade, I personally have not seen much change in this practice of objectifying women in ads. If anything, it seems more prevalent today. This must change in order for women to get the respect they deserve.

"Better With the Lights Off"

I thought I would post the lyrics to the chorus of the song Kelsey mentioned in class on Thursday. The song is called "Better With the Lights Off" and is by New Boyz.

Girl you look better with the lights off,
Better with the lights off ooh
Girl, you look better with the lights off,
Better with the lights off ooh
Better with the lights off

All the chorus does is repeat that same line over and over. This song is very popular on the radio right now and no matter so many girls have self confidence issues. Girls are hearing this on the radio of all ages. I change the station every time I hear this song and am in shock that its aloud to be on the radio. It is sending a horrible message.

At least it's not Married With Children

When thinking about gender displays in our culture and media, at least we aren't in the age of shows like Married With Children anymore..

I was watching it this weekend (was up at 5am, long night) and me and my girlfriend were kind of in shock at just how ridiculous it was. Firstly I'd like to say that I understand that the show is supposed to be kind of ridiculous, but the sexist scenes in the show were astounding.

The main character's daughter won a vacation to some beach and her trip with her friends was simply a display in ridiculous sexism. She talks like the prototypical "dumb blonde", her and her friends were literally, and I mean this, one-hundred percent focused on impressing guys and showing off their bodies.

This got me to thinking that while we are far from being free from sexism in our society, we have come a long way in that shows like Married With Children aren't #1 on TV anymore... and we are better for it.

Media and Sex

For the past two weeks we have discussed, examined, and seen examples of, sex in the media. This presents itself in the forms of movies, advertisements, and even products themselves. We have all heard the phrase "sex sells" and some of these ads definitely prove that these companies truly believe that. What we have also seen is the type of sex they are selling. It is two completely different things for men and women. Women is anything clothing, accessories, or anything that appears to help keep or make you incredibly thin. With men, ads gear anything that is masculine, strong, or even forceful. Either way what they are selling is, to them what should be, the 'ideal' body for both sexes. I think they need to rethink their approach and figure how to actually sell a good product and not focus on the bodies that are selling those products.

Images in the media

Every day in the media we see images of men and women in stereotypical roles and its just suprising to see how these commercials and billboards have actually had an impact on how people think. People see a beer commercial that has a woman giving a beer to a man after he went through a long days work while she stayed at home and took care of the kids. When people see commercials like these it makes it seem like its an okay thing to do and thats how they end up living their lives.

Women as Objects

While looking at some of the ads from thursday, i was thinking, a lot of companys make refferences to women being objects. Things that u can buy like food or jewelry or cologne are all used like this. You see a picture of a good looking girl and its a perfume add, but there's no way to tell what their selling. So you buy the product just thinking about that girl. Its like the media is trying to brain wash us into thinking this is a perfect world, and we can have everything we want, women and commodities. They don't care if your credit cards are maxed out, they just want you to see their product and buy it. Its really messed up but you got to deal with it.

Women Sold on Looks

I keep seeing this new musical artist pop up, named Lana Del Ray. As I started to learn more about her, I realized her case reminds me a lot of our class discussions.

Many independent music websites keep saying she is the "new big thing" and showing her videos and premiering her songs and such. The controversy is though, that she once came out in the music world under her real name, Lizzy Grant a few years ago. She sounded pretty much the same, but looked a bit different. She kind of failed as an artist, and appeared back on the music scene again this year with a new look and a new name. There is much talk about how real she is, especially when it comes to her looks. Many are saying that she got a lot of plastic surgery, and her new face is the reason for her new fame.

.

-The picture on the left is her as Lizzy, the one on the right is her as Lana.-

She obviously looks slightly different. Lana Del Ray is kind of the epitome of physical perfection, in my opinion. She is almost abnormally gorgeous. I don't think anybody could disagree that she is rather perfect. The point is that many people are arguing that she is only getting so much hype because she is so physically attractive.

Is this what a woman has to do now ? Get plastic surgery and then people want to hear her music?

Let's just say, however, that maybe her looks are not the reason for the attention. But, even if this is the case, it's very sad that people even attribute a woman's fame to her looks. This basically does what every ad, or commercial does...just makes a woman no more than an object. Ignore the talent (or the lack of talent), and just look at the woman for the only thing she is good at, which is fulfilling a sexual fantasy. You would never really see this kind of issue with a man. Men rarely get sold as sex objects, and you hardly ever see a man's popularity/fame being attributed to his looks, and not his talents.

What a model needs to do to look like Barbie

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/the-plastic-surgery-a-model-needs-to-look-like-barbie-2584798/

This is an article from yahoo news about a model who had her body marked, as if she were going to have surgery to look like Barbie.

Looking at it on an actual person, it's completely ridiculous. And yet, it's what we strive to be. Unfortunately I don't see this changing anytime soon. It is engrained in our minds what we should look like, and what we should think is pretty and the people who have the power to change it are making too much money off of us feeling this way. It's a sad truth. Almost scary. But knowing that it's wrong doesn't just magically make me feel any more comfortable.

thinness, stats, schools

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GECKDGGYv14&feature=fvsr

this is a video i found and i thought it was interesting because it has some really cool facts in there. it starts out with a picture of an EXTREMELY skinny girl. its so scary to see that because there a girls like that everywhere in the world today...some of the statistics that struck me as the most shocking were these:

1. 80 % of women will go on a diet by the time their 10 years old
2. today, the average model weights 23% less than the average woman

this is crazy to me because 10 years old is so young and at that age, diet should be the last thing on someones mind. i feel like since this is such a huge problem in today's society, elementary schools should really start to address this issue because i don't ever remember learning about this and i think this would be good for young girls to become aware of the problems that they want to stay away from.

models weighing 23% less than the average woman these days as opposed to 20 years ago it was 8% less. this proves jean kilboure to be correct when she says matters on this topic are actually getting worse.


were obsessed with this image of perfection that doesn't even exist.

Advertisements

Advertisements are very sexist towards women. In many many ads they are seen as sex objects, but the reason isn't to make them look bad. The real reason is because these companies want people to think if a hot woman was wearing jeans from a certain clothing store then if they buy jeans of the same brand they will meet girls like that. It's all about the companies making money. They know that sex sells and if sex sells why use anything else? These women aren't just making women looking sexy for the hell of it, they just want to make the most profits and sell more jeans than the opposing company.

advertisement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLrUJY4D5Bc

violence against women

I never noticed the violence against women in ads until we talked about it in class. When I searched ads online I couldn't believe how terrible some of them are. There is no surprise that men think it is okay to abuse women and think they are better when they are exposed to this advertising. Because ads tell us what we should be like it's dangerous because it's telling men the way they are is accepted. This is one of the worst ads I found, there would never be an ad with a little boy beat up that says something about him not respecting women. Because men for the most part do not respect women. We live in a world where there is very very little respect for women. I grew up with my mother but that was pretty much the only woman in my life. My father, brothers, cousins, uncles, friends all had a low respect for women and I thought that was okay until I got older. Children are very impressionable and it is really important that they are taught that everyone deserves respect.

killing them softly

The movie we viewed in class "Killing Us Softly 4", brought to light many issues that deal with the way mass media portrays women. One of the biggest issues was the fact that most advertisements we see are digitally enhanced. They would take a body part from multiple women to make one perfect model. This is wrong for young girls who feel like they have to compare themselves with somebody who doesn't even look like that.

This is wrong on multiple levels. For one, the women who they put in these magazines don't even want to be photoshopped. An example was Kate Winslet saying that her thighs were 1/3 the size when she appeared on a magazine cover. Cindy Crawford also said that she wishes she could look like Cindy Crawford.

After viewing this film, I think the worst thing that was talked about was the advertisements that show women in a violent romance situation. I don't know why this is appealing, or why marketers use this technique to sell their product. I think it's vulgar, and almost as bad as the influx of shows like toddler's and tiara's. This whole issue of child beauty pageants is also morally wrong, and we see that it's becoming more and more popular, and these little girls are starting to appear in ads.

Princess Body and Julie's post

First, I suck at computers and for some reason I can't comment on my own posts or other people's post.

Comment on Julie's post:
I agree with this as well. I have never been okay with my body and I don't believe that I ever will. We have all been programed into wanting this perfect body but its so hard to actually achieve it.

I found this video that I really liked..the middle if kind of dumb but the ending realy showed how the mass media can affect little girls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnKT2tVlMto&feature=related

Comment on my princess boy post:
I understand what both of you are saying. It would be hard to raise a child who is different from all other children. I would fear that his pears would bully him. How I see it as, his mother is giving him the right tools now. He is buidling his self-esteem everyday and hoepfully by the time he goes to middle school we will know how to handle bullying situations.
If his mohter would not let him wear the dresses he would probably hate or resent his mother for the rest of his life.

being manly

We talked a little bit about how advertising for men in class and in the video, I think the ads for men are pathetic. The dr pepper 10 is for men who are so insecure about their "manliness" that they need a diet soda they can drink without feeling feminine. My boyfriend drinks diet coke and no one would ever think he isn't manly. Places like LadyJanes for men is stupid too, because you get your hair cut by the same girls that work at super cuts and there are big screen tvs you are more of a man? It all seems so stupid, if you are such a man why do you have to go out of your way to prove it. Spike tv is for men and there is hardly ever an episode without an almost naked girl who is really skinny and has fake boobs, honestly guys who watch spike tv and go to lady janes and drink dr pepper 10 don't impress anyone. It is weird how men try so hard to be men, maybe women in advertisements are always beautiful and we want to use the same shampoo as them but I have never seen a commercial and thought I needed to be like her because she is more feminine than I am. I like sports and beer, i hate romantic comedies and shopping and I get so annoyed when I see a commercial that acts like men are so manly because they like action movies. This old spice commercial is supposed to make you more manly, so guys i guess if you feel like you cant be a man without help from the media you better get this deodorant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aj55sgudlc

Killborn Reaction

I think Killborne, while making some good points, is not entirely correct.  While advertising does bombard of what the ideal female body image, whether a girl accepts that as her own ideal is her own decision.  Since I am a guy, I cannot base this view on first hand experience.  Instead, I base it the girl of similar age that I have had more interaction with than almost anyone in my life, my sister.  While my sister is naturally tall ( I'm 6'1" and she is only slightly shorter), she is of a chubby build. She also far exceeds me in terms of muscle mass (although that is not a high standard).   While she does wear some makeup, it is not much.  As long as I have known (Her entire life and most of mine) she has never had any body image issues.   Despite the media storm of models and celebs, my sister at least appears fully confident of her own body and self.
Notes:

1. I cannot read my sister's mind so any thing in this could be utter nonsense
2. My sister is not a lesbian (as far as I know), so do not assume butch stereotype
3. If  my corpse is found brutally torn apart in the next few days, It means my sister found this post
4. Statement 3 was a joke, put down the machete

The image of women in society

wow after today's class i was left pretty stunned at how targeted and affected women are by advertising. men really don't get as much push and criticism as women do in terms of what they should look like, how they should act and what the should eat. its even scarier to see the ages of some of the girls in the advertising and being affected by this advertising, you know 7, 8 and 9 year old girls are being heavily influenced by these types of messages. i have a 6 year old niece and she is my life and it really sucks to think that, instead of enjoying life and watching cartoons like a 6 year old should, she is possibly thinking of what beautiful is. i went to visit her after i got outta class i took her to grab some ice cream and i told her she was the most beautiful girl in the world. she looked up at me and asked me are you serious? with a little smirk and smile of uncertainty on her face, and i looked back and told yes I'm very serious. to see how happy she was to hear me say that to her felt good but it was also shocking to hear her question me about if she qualified as beautiful. i think its important to start letting children know especially at a young age that they are what beauty is supposed to be!

eating disorders and effects on young girls

While watching the video in class today, the most prominent thought that came to my mind was the high rate of eating disorders among girls. I'm sure a large part of the high rates of eating disorders is due to the media and how females are portrayed. Girl strive to look like ways that are impossible for their body type. Eating disorders have severe health effects that can last for the rest of their life. Also, anorexia is very hard to overcome and often even leads to death. This is a serious matter and shows how many people are uncomfortable with how they look, and will go to drastic measures to achieve what they think is "perfect."

While watching this I also remembered how a few years back while I was babysitting a 4th grader she told me how there was a really fat girl in her class and she always got made fun of. The girl I babysat refused to eat junk food because she didn't want to get fat and get made fun of like the other girl. This trend is starting at such a young age. Fourth graders should not be overly concerned with their weight. If they are concerned with weight and their appearance at such a young age, no wonder by the time they are in middle school and high school so many develop self image issues. And where do you think the fourth graders get these images in their head? Most likely from the media and advertising.

jean kilbourne

i wanted to reflect on todays video "killing us softly." this was my 3rd time seeing this movie and it almost felt even worse this time! After the first time i watched it, i was seeing things in advertising more and more that i would never have stopped to think about before. its crazy how much this stuff does exist and how much we as a society turn our heads to it. i believe advertising is a huge cause to why women feel victimized and have the constant fear of gaining weight. and on the other hand, i do believe that advertising is causing men to feel that they need to be powerful in all situations. i know that whenever i see thin people on the cover of a magazine (which is ALWAYS)i begin to feel kind of sad wishing that i looked like that, however after seeing this movie, it made me realize that there really is no perfect woman out there. but what is perfect? i have sat here for quite some time trying to think about the answer to this question, and i believe my true understanding is that no one truly is perfect. i also thought it was interesting how someone in the movie (i cant remember who exactly) had said "i dont look like that, and i dont want to look like that." i thought that was a really uplifting statement for a girl like me to hear because not ALL woman are looking to be super thin. did you guys have the same thoughts as i did about this movie?

pink and blue project

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/childrens-furnishings-decor/the-pink-blue-project-by-jeongmee-yoon-072471

this is called the "pink and blue project" that i learned about in my sociology of gender course. they are showing different children and their belongings and showing how much pink little girls own in their room and how much blue little boys have in their room.

In the United States, South Korea and many other places, most young girls love pink clothing, accessories and toys. is this because of their parents though? i think it is because how would they learn to love pink as a girl and love blue as a boy. This phenomenon is widespread among children of different ethnic groups no matter what their cultural background may be. maybe it is the influence of pervasive commercial advertisements aimed at little girls. If you look at the universally popular Barbie and Hello Kitty things that have developed into a trend of some sort . Girls train subconsciously and unconsciously to wear the color pink in order to look feminine.

"When a woman's at the wheel..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC5aGCOT6bs

This is an advertisement for Goodyear Polyglass tires. It's message essentially is that women are horrible drivers, so make sure you have good tires ;)

This is an older advertisement so it's pretty obviously sexist but this seems to be before the time when women were overly sexualized, which I think it interesting because if it were an ad for today the woman would have been gorgeous, wearing something extremely revealing, and smiling seductively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZWtN5qJoVY

"Enjoy your nature."

This ad seems to say that being a good looking lesbian is awesome, but being a gay man is not. So we should just go with "nature" and drink whatever beer they're selling because we'll get to see two girls oiling each other down.

It's almost funny (while actually being really sad) how ridiculous advertisements can get. And it's a little upsetting what people will actually take away from them even though we consciously think "Oh, it's just a stupid commercial."

women police officers

Since we started talking about different gender roles between males and females, I have been thinking about comments I have heard from friends and family about certain jobs not being right for women or that they are looked down upon in these jobs. For example, a police officer is normally a man. When ever one of my guy friends gets pulled over by a woman police officer they always make comments like "shes a bitch" or "dike" or she cant do anything to me shes just a girl. I even find myself falling for this stereotype. The first time I got pulled over, it was by a woman police officer and she did not write me a ticket and I remember thinking to myself that I was happy I got a girl because she would be more emotional and more likely to let me go. These thoughts should not happen but I know im not the only one who thinks this. Women police officers are looked down upon all the time and ive heard plenty of men say what would she be able to do if a big man came after her? Whether it is a man or a women they are both trained the same and should be able to complete the same skills.

Gender roles in society

So I’m all for equal pay and equal rights, but the discussion in class the other day about gender roles really made me question is there anything really wrong with the way we divide the work load between genders? To me it makes a lot more sense to have men specialized towards tasks which they are more likely to succeed at and the same for women. Unlike race there are vast differences in the biology of men and women, from hormone levels which regulate temperament and emotions to physical stature and build. Men being physically bigger means they are more apt to succeed at hard labor jobs than women, on the other hand women tend to have more patience and concern for others which makes them more suitable for other careers in which they likely outperform men. Neither side is in any way superior to the other but to deny that each gender possess a different skill set is kind of non-sense. There will of course always be exceptions, but for the majority of society the way we have divided the task seems to work just fine. Yes women in the past have been expected to cook and clean for the family, but no one seems to mention that in most household tasks such as yard work, car repairs, fixing things and anything remotely dangerous is expected to be done by the man of the house. We can either all do a bit of everything to a mediocre level, or we can divide tasks based on the actual skills of each sex.