Recently in Gender Category

About-face.org is a website dedicated to exposing media messages that are detrimental for the body image of girls and women. Their mission is "to equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect self-esteem and body image."

They focus on analysing visual images that appear on the media, in order to foster a critical mind in the viewers, particularly female viewers who are most affected by images of the "ideal woman" presented in the media, most pervasively in advertisements selling all kinds of products.

An interesting feature of this website is their "Gallery of offenders", in which they present offensive media images, including an analysis of the negative messages that they present. For example, the following image from a magazine ad, which presents a stereotypical image of female passivity, victimization, and objectivization.

The website also includes a "Gallery of winners", in which they present images that send more positive messages. For example, the following magazine ad, which presents a woman in a position of strenght.

It is an excellent resource for teaching women to look more critically at the information they receive from the media. For more information, visit: http://www.about-face.org/ 

The Pulitzer Prize winner To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless classic written by Harper Lee. The story takes place in the small southern town of Maycomb County, Alabama in the midst of The Great Depression. The narrator of this riveting story is a young girl named Jean Louise Finch, or Scout. Scout is not the typical delicate, shy, and ladylike child that society expects her to be. She is an outspoken, rambunctious and free spirited tomboy who wears overalls, plays in the outdoors alongside her older brother Jem, and is far more intelligent than most in her age group. She and her brother Jem are the children of Maycomb County defense lawyer Atticus Finch. Atticus can be considered an untraditional man in several respects. For starters he is a single father raising two children. He also encourages and stresses the importance of an education and egalitarian beliefs to Scout and Jem during a time when it was very unpopular to do so.

Throughout the text, Scout walks us through her childhood adventures in this conservative southern Alabama town alongside Jem and occasionally their best friend Dill. At first life seems simple. But when their father Atticus takes on the case of his life, they all begin to realize the severity of racial turmoil that defined American society during this time period.

  In the story, Atticus takes on the case of a Negro man named Tom Robinson. Tom is a young family man whose only crime is that he is African American. He stands accused of raping the eldest daughter of Mr. Ewells, an impoverished social misfit in Maycomb County. The Ewells are an unpopular family who live on the outskirts of Maycomb in the midst of the town's dump. They are known by everyone in the county for being aggressive, dishonest, uncivilized, unclean, and uneducated. Despite these facts they hold a great advantage over the most civilized and honest African Americans: they are white.

 Scout and Jem encounter dirty stares and insults by many of their fellow townsfolk because their father is defending a Negro. Through example however, Atticus teaches his children that the color of your skin does not define what kind of person you are. Everyone should be treated with kindness and respect. Scout and Jem manage to hold their heads high and support their father's cause. Despite the best efforts of Atticus however, Tom is convicted of raping Mr. Ewells' daughter and is sentenced to death. Scout and Jem learn the grim reality that justice for all does not exist in the ignorant and racist American culture.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful text to read when learning about stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Readers can get examples of all three of these elements throughout the entire story not just in the context of black versus white, but also society versus women, and poor whites versus everyone else. Some of the social psychological underpinnings of this novel deal with constructs such as categorization, Social Identity Theory, depersonalization and dehumanization, out-group homogeneity, social motives such as self-enhancement and control, and the list goes on.

Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful representation of the struggles experienced by generations of minorities as well as females throughout American history. From a social scientific standpoint, the novel gives social psychological novices a well rounded summary of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination along with solutions to such issues.

The New York Times article "Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences" describes the report by the American Association of University Women that addresses the underpresentation of women in scientific fields such as math and technology.

The report talks about the factors that may influence this underpresentation, including the controversial issue of innate differences. When discussing the differences in male and female brains, the leading author of the report, Catherine Hill, said: "None of the research convincingly links those differences to specific skills, so we don't know what they mean in terms of mathematical abilities."

Thus, the report also focused on the cultural factors that influence this phenomenon, with findings such as this: "One study of postdoctoral applicants, for example, found that women had to publish 3 more papers in prestigious journals, or 20 more in less-known publications, to be judged as productive as male applicants."

Cultural stereotypes affect the performance of women, as the findings in stereotype threat research suggest, and therefore, prevention of that effect becomes important. The authors of the report searched for ways in which women can be encouraged to enter scientific fields, finding things such as teaching girls that math is not a static ability, teaching special courses for women entering the fields, and teaching girls about stereotype threat and its effect on performance.

Although the report indicates that the number of women in scientific fields is growing, equality has not been achieved: "But even as women earn a growing share of the doctorates in the STEM fields, the university women's report found, they do not show up, a decade later, in a proportionate number of tenured faculty positions."

For the New York Times Article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/science/22women.html

For the full report (Why so Few?) click here: http://www.aauw.org/research/whysofew.cfm

 http://www.northern-iowan.org/ku-klux-klan-1.2188683
The Northern Iowan put this Article on the front page; the Thursday before spring break.  If there is truly an idea or an image that UNI is trying to preserve in saying Diversity Matters or UNI.  It starts with us as students speaking out against bigotry, racist ideology, discrimination, or being stereotyped.   I truly understand the 1st Amendment Right of "Freedom of Press/ Speech", but at what cost is that freedom really freedom. If it shows a bias towards homosexual or minorities, is it not an infringement on the rights of a people. We may not be seen what the administration is doing but the fact that they are standing and saying that these actions will not tolerated here on campus is a start, but this massage needs to be sent to all department heads, and down the line but mostly in the news paper where they feel that it is necessary to put this out to the public.

Now that it was put out on the front page, shows that there is an active KKK organization here in Cedar Falls/Waterloo but across the state of Iowa in ten different cities.  Now the subject and idea is actually out their instead of trying to deny it as they did in the past, it is up to the people to see where they want to go from here.  Here on campus for the first time in history a verity of different organizations our coming together never to fight and stand for a just cause.  We our tired of being underrepresented or feel that at times administration, is more worried about the mighty dollar rather than its students; and now we all have a voice as student who our standing against oppression.     

It seems that music videos have always presented sexual images. For example, it is difficult to forget the semi-naked women who accompanied 1980s rock bands in their videos that were shown all over the world. But lately it seems that sexual images are used by both men and women: female singers are increasingly presenting themselves with less clothing and sexier dance moves.

In her article "How pop became porn", Liz Jones talks about pop star Shakira's latest video for her song "She Wolf", in which the singer appears in her most sexually explicit video so far, almost naked and dancing very provocatively inside a cage. She writes with concern: "The images can be seen in the video for her single, She Wolf, which will be watched obsessively, again and again, by thousands of young men and women, many of whom will form the opinion that writhing in a cage is precisely the way 'sexy' women should behave."

Shakira is a very interesting case. She started her career in her native Colombia, writing songs written by herself and playing the guitar. Over the years, as she has become better known internationally, she has undergone a transformation, changing her appearance and her musical style, and making sexier videos. Jones writes: "When I asked Shakira, the Latin American superstar, how she can square being sexy, wearing skimpy clothes, with her charitable work championing children in the developing world, she replied indignantly: 'Of course I can square it! I think my image is one of being powerful, in control.'"

Shakira is not the only female pop star doing this kind of videos, and this raises some questions: Are over-sexualized images of female singers really empowering women? Or are the images of semi-naked women in cages or crawling on the floor perpetuating old stereotypes of women as submissive sexual objects? Considering how often these type of videos are seen by people of all ages in many countries, the answers to these questions are extremely relevant.

To read the full article, including information about the initiative in the U.K. to ban sexually explicit videos before 9 p.m., click here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1254145/LIZ-JONES-How-pop-porn.html

Just a little plug for an event and an organization that I think you all should know about if you do not already. V-Day is an international organization with the mission of ending all violence toward women and girls. Below I have left a link for the V-Day website and the link to V-Men a series of essays from men about their journeys to their contributions toward ending violence against women and girls. Guys especially might want to check that out.

I feel the whole movement works to change people's sometimes misinformed views about violence against women. It also helps give women a voice all around the world and helps create awareness for the way woman are treated in various parts of the world.

The Vagina Monologues is a wonderful show that everyone should see at least once because of its ability to stretch one's horizons. Especially if one considers themselves  "Midwestern" and/or "of a traditional upbringing" this show might make you uncomfortable (but that's because of the mental scaffolding its breaking). It certainly has a lot of talking points. UNI is having a show this weekend, if you cannot go you could go to Wartburg's Monologues March 6th at 8pm! If that's not available you can pull up some of the scenes from it on youtube. I feel it's more insightful as a whole show in context though.

If anyone has done anything or seen anything from any of these sources, I would love to hear how they impacted you.

Vagina Monologues

http://www.vday.org/home

http://www.vday.org/meet-vday/v-men

"While Las Vegas will take bets on almost any game men suit up for, only at NCAA tournament time can you bet the women's game. Then, ironically, almost no women bet -- just hard-core male gamblers."

A discussion about Title IX, a nearly forty year old law that opened the door for women in high school and college sports. We speak with Donna Lopiano, the former C.E.O. of the Women's Sports Foundation and a pioneer and champion of Title IX. Then, a conversation with Calli Sanders, Senior Associate Athletics Director at Iowa State University, and Craig Ihnen, Associate Director of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union about the status of Title IX in Iowa.

I came across this article from yahoo:  http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/vanity-fairs-quot-new-hollywood-quot-issue-completely-lacks-diversity-578862/

To give a quick overview, the writer of this article criticized the editors at Vanity Fair magazine for their most recent "Young Hollywood" issue. The cover shows several young, up-and-coming actresses who have recently found great success in their careers in the entertainment industry. However all of them are white and skinny. By now, most people are aware of how the media's portrayal of "beauty", i.e. being a size 2, is detrimental to millions of women around the world. But what about the lack of diversity being added to that issue? What message does that send to minority women in this country? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRuNcGDPzA8&feature=related

This scene from the Great Debaters is very powerful as it talks about education and how some minorities feel in the past, and in now present day.

Most Hispanic/ Latino families are a tight net family, not wanting their child to leave home. I can recall when I was leaving San Antonio to come to UNI, I distinctly  remember my fathers words, just before I got into the U-haul truck to drive away.   "Your making a mistake, your going to a white state that doesn't care about you because the color of your skin." My response was "If I don't try, or if I don't take this opportunity how will I ever know, that I can accomplish a goal in obtaining an education, unlike yourself!" 

For most of you who do read you my be thinking what and asshole, how can he  talk to his father like that. I believe that we should honor our mother and fathers as it say's in the 10 commandments, but you have to look at the big picture. Most parent are supportive of there children, giving them encouragement, and praise and the blessing to do what they feel is right, but I come from a family that really never showed that. I can say in a way that I had to raise myself; from the age of 14, I started working to help in supporting the family (two siblings, and my single father.)  Both of my parents did not have the education in which they should have had (mom dropping out in the 8th grade, and my dad in the 4th grade.) There belief is that a man should work to support a family. The reality of it a parent should be the parent and learn responsibility, and a child needs to be a child to learn and develop.  

Find out how sexist you are by taking this short quiz.

http://www.understandingprejudice.org/asi/

An ambivalence, or doubled-edged way of thinking, in which women are sometimes treated with contempt and sometimes adored.

http://www.pay-equity.org/index.html

The National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE), founded in 1979, is a coalition of women's and civil rights organizations; labor unions; religious, professional, legal, and educational associations, commissions on women, state and local pay equity coalitions and individuals working to eliminate sex- and race-based wage discrimination and to achieve pay equity.