May 15th, 2009
News programs are always on around the clock. It’s always a rat race to get breaking news through the wire. You watch it, but do you watch enough to notice something? Do you ever notice that most female anchors almost look like they were from beauty pageants of the past?? It’s almost like the beauty pageant committee set up secret consolation prizes for the beauty pageant losers as sit-ins for various anchor spots.
Nora found recently the following list below.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/292888/the_hottest_women_anchors_on_nbc10.html?cat=8
Here’s her view on it:
The above article list the “hottest” women in the news. Listing the so called hotties the writer talks of their appeal to viewers and how their looks enhance the viewers news intake and enjoyment. I wasn’t aware the news was an entertainment program but beyond that the fact there is a list of the hottest women implies that women have to already be in a certain beauty bracket. I’ve grown up seeing attractive women news anchors but only recently noticed that the same standard does not appy to male anchors. As a matter of fact male anchors can be over weight and are not only rarely George Clooney types but the older the better (women are usually between 25 and 40 or are enhanced to look as such at least). I stopped watching the newslong ago and this list makes me feel happy about such a decision.
Here’s something Shawn found for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/25/why-women-news-anchors-ne_n_88310.html
by nichellep Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 13th, 2009
It is an unfortunate fact of human nature that when tragedy strikes, we often make harsh judgments which at the time seem justified, but this can have devastating effects. Though as Nancy Jabbra points out in her article, the categorization of Middle Eastern men and women began way before the attacks, but the reactions after the 9/11 only the exacerbated the issue. When this occurred I was in junior high school, and all around me I saw straightforward racism emerging from individuals who I had thought to be educated, non-judgmental and open-minded and this deeply bothered me. It could have so easy to be sucked into this disgusting mindset at my young age, but also surrounding me was evidence that this way of thinking which had sprung to the surface of the American consciousness was disgusting and simply wrong. Besides having Muslim classmates and teachers, I also had family members who were Muslim or had Muslim heritage, such as my older sister whose father is Muslim. But despite people such as myself who didn’t believe this image that the media was selling to us of the Middle East, their religion, and their women, many Americans perpetuated these terrible generalizations about them which Jabbra discusses in her article.
There were several ideas which Jabbra writes about that intrigued me immensely. The first was her separation of the what Americans used to justified the intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. This was an aspect of the intervention I had never thought about until this article. I of course was aware of the want to intervene after 9/11, to look for weapons of mass destruction and free the oppressed but Jabbra breaks down these three “tropes” as she calls them which dissect different American mentalities about the situation, and who Middle Eastern people are and how our media has helped instill these fabrications. She talks about how Americans view themselves and as the innocents being targeted by the evil others for no reason. She writes about the subconscious notions which have driven so much of American foreign policy of the last decade but was rarely explicitly said and I applaud her for it. Also, I appreciate her bringing to light the latent homosexual references about Middle Eastern men, many including Saddam Hussein. I was completely unaware of this stereotype but familiar with some of the references was Jabbra makes and after reading the article, she has a valid point which definitely deserves to be further analyzed. What I respected most about this article was that after her detailed argument of what Americans perceive to be the typical Middle Eastern woman, she didn’t proceed to tell us who Middle Eastern women are. Like she mentioned in the article, Americans like to take away the individuality of the enemy which makes them seem almost savage and for her to describe Middle Eastern women as not oppressed or deprived or to comment on their state at all would to be generalize. They are as diverse, with as many issues and joys and American women and I believe her choice not to describe them was completely intentional.
by marion lopez Posted in assignment-blog discussion2, news media | No Comments »
May 9th, 2009
Even though all females are oppressed….
Women are oppressed in every corner of the world. There has yet to be a single place in the world where both men and women live amongst each other as equals. The reading this week has madee me see that although in America, women are able to display their bodies, it is being done to benefit the man. When a woman is allowed to be dressed in skimpy clothes it is a men who get the last laugh. In Islamic countries, women are also oppressed because they are subject to the man and are unable to walk out of their house with a tank top despite the intense heat. Although they do not have the same freedoms in the Middle East as we do in the United States, we are still not equal to men. On average a man will make 5 million more dollars in one lifetime than a woman would, having the same job. It is extremely hipocritical of the American government to use Muslim women and the rights they are denied to justify the war. When women everywhere are being oppressed.
It has been shocking and a bit depressing for me to discover how hard life is for a woman simply because she is a female, regardless of race, sexual orientation, religion, etc… no matter what, no one seems to get away from the authoritative & dominant white male who runs it all.
by Norma O. Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
May 9th, 2009
posted for Blamo
Nancy Jabbra’s piece summarizing the reasoning for US
invasion of Iraq was so accurate! Jabbra writes, “911
was simply explained through a contrast through
American innocence and Muslim savagery”. Specifically
The Free American woman Vs. The Oppressed Arab Woman.
Directed by George Bush, the US Army were made to
believe it was their duty to liberate Arab women from
what is deemed as “a backward religion” and culture.
As a result, far too many lives- both US & Middle
Eastern have been damaged & destroyed. Arab Women are
far more worse off than originally; “It matters
little to Afghan women made refugees by the bombing
whether the bombs were made in US or Russia, what
matters is that the bombs forced them to flee their
homes”.
Please view an excerpt of the HBO show Brave New
Voices as Aysha EL Shamayleh delivers a powerful poem,
giving a voice to the unheard Arab woman.
by admin Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 9th, 2009
Immediately following 9/11 a strong sense of nationalism came about the American population. Americans made an attempt to unite as one in some attempt to bring the population together to grief the terrible attacks. Although our attempts to unite seemed to be genuine, we were not aware that we were excluding the Muslim Americans and out-casting them.
I remember being in school the days following 9/11 and the Muslim children were all bullied and teased simply because of their religion. The media had led the population to believe that all Muslims were terrorists. It is sad to discover that having been a naïve and ignorant children at the time my classmates and I completely out-casted a Pakistani girl from in our class simply because she was Muslim. Now that I think of it, it shocks me to see how much of an impact the media had on us, despite the fact that we weren’t even teenagers at the time. Being only 12 years old, the media had contoured our minds. Being young and naïve it is sad to say that we did not know better and we felt there was nothing wrong with treating someone in a cruel manner simply because they were trashed in the media.
The reading made me realize that we had subjected those children to the bullying because they were portrayed so negatively in the media. They were made to seem as evil terrorists despite the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslim.
by Norma O. Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
May 8th, 2009
PLANET OF THE ARABS
The link above will take you to a video that triumphantly summarizes the article by Jabbra by visual means. This video should be shown in class as it refers to the article’s point that addresses the distorted images of the Middle Eastern inhabitants within our media. The 10-minute clip incorporates almost all of the movies that Jack Shaheen discusses in his novel “Reel Bad Arabs.”
-Anna Sinyavskaya
by asinyavs Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 8th, 2009
Nancy W. Jabbra, the author of this week’s reading, Women, Words and War makes a great point about how the Bush Administration and the American media “contrasted American women and Muslim/ Middle Eastern women to explain 9/11 and legitimize war in Afghanistan and Iraq.” I thought this clip from Democracy Now was a perfect example of the underhanded workings of the government. Amy Goodman interviews Scott McClellan about his accusations that the Bush Administration purposely manipulated the public to gain war support and how the White House press corps did not do their jobs as journalists.
The clip also illustrates Jabbra’s idea of failing as a feminist supported the government’s agenda. Jabbra wrote, “Rather than joining Middle Eastern women in solidarity and sisterhood, and recognizing their agency and activism, they were viewed as victims of a backward religion and still more backward men, thus implicitly supporting the political agendas of Western governments.” A visual concept that the media sold to the American public was that a Muslim woman wearing a hijab or a chadri must be oppressed. The majority of the public bought this without even thinking to ask the women themselves why they dress in this manner. Who am I to judge these women solely on their clothing without considering the personal reasons behind them?
Tags: Bush, Democracy Now, Jabbra, Muslim
by Alice Posted in assignment-watch-n-post2, news media | 2 Comments »
May 7th, 2009
In Jabbra’s essay on Women and 9/11, she raises important points from Edward’s Said’s book, “Orientalism”. When one thinks of the unknown, it suddenly becomes labeled as “foreign” to them. Certain terms become associated with everything that is foreign in our eyes. Psychologically, it becomes embedded in our minds. As a result, our actions are derived out of the attitude we have towards the unknown. Edward Said thoroughly expresses this in his book, “Orientalism”. He explores the roots of Orientalism and what contribution it has made to the way people view the Middle East. Many views are also tied to the imperialistic British and French powers during the 19th century. Colonists made the peoples of the Orient seem uncivilized and needy to conform to modernist values and way of life.
The Middle East has become a part of the world that is viewed with very negative thoughts, even to such an extreme degree of hatred. Majority of the public consider the Middle East to be the home of all Islamic terrorists. The religion of Islam will forever be associated with the 9/11 attacks.
Examples of how Orientalism is deeply embedded in our society thinking is through the lens of the popular media. American films display the stereotypes spun on by writers who may unintentionally or intentionally support the idea of Orientalism. The media makes these ideas concrete for us on the screen, in the papers and magazines we read. Therefore, it makes it easier for Westerners to construct their own assumptions based on what is being shown to them.
Women in the Middle East are often portrayed as prisoners in their country. Moreover, the veil that they wear is often associated with oppression and lack of freedom. The dominant Western opinion is that these women must be saved by the misogynistic powers that control them. It is an opinion that has saturated the minds of so many. Jabbra demonstrates the impact of this view on the feminists’ side through the writings of Leila Ahmed. “Leila Ahmed extended Said’s argument to North American feminists, who appear not to recognize that the same male scholars and administrators who constructed Orientalism also constructed patriarchy and developed scholarship depicting women as inferior. Rather than joining Middle Eastern women in solidarity and sisterhood, and recognizing their agency and activism, they view them as victims of a backward religion and still more backward men, thus implicitly supporting the political agends of Western governments” (238).
I think she was right on target by explaining to us that by believing that every woman in the Middle East is suffering, we are also then believing in patriarchy because it’s the same idea that was created by the same people–white, ethnocentric males. She concludes her essay flawlessly by bringing in Cynthia Enloe’s point of view on how to improve life for women in the Middle East. “Enloe suggests, rethinking American foreign policy means taking a feminist view: “Which notions of manliness are shaping this policy discussion? Will the gap between women’s and men’s access to economic and political influence be widened or narrowed by this particular policy option? Last North American feminists will need to abandon their sense of superiority, their view that they know more than Middle Eastern women” (252). I feel like if people actually did think like that before making policies that affect everyone, the world would definitely be a more tolerable place to live in.
-Nichelle
by nichellep Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
May 6th, 2009
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa020909a.htm
The above link is an article that deals with women and september 11 a bit differently than our reading does but the two directly connect.
The article we read focuses on the misrepresentation of muslim women in america (and elsewhere) by a constant comparison to american (white) women. It also (and this fascinates me) analyzes the demasculation of Osama Bin Laden in political cartoons by characterizing him as a muslim woman- therefore not insulting him but really insulting muslim women.
I believe the strongest point to the article is the referencing of Said’s Orientalism. It is a western tradition to imagine and judge societies and tradition we do not understand. America is notorious for using the muslim woman’s plight for equality as a reason to intervene in middle eastern goings on. I will not attempt to analyze whether i think that muslim women are equal to their men or treated fairly because i have no idea what it is to be a muslim woman, or man, in America or much less in the middle east. But, like Said says we did to “orientals”, historically, white westerners have defined certain aspects of middle eastern cultures and administered judgments based on these definitions. But how can we judge or define that which we do not live? If we do not live it we cannot possible understand it…
American women are equally (debatable but ill say it anyway) disadvantaged by the coverage of 9/11 and the middle eastern conflict. Why? Our rights are compared to muslim women’s rights, and made to look enormous by contrast. Our biggest right, then, it seems, is the right to show off our bodie- and who does that benefit? Wear bathing suits and flaunt it, but really, what kind of a right is that? What about literacy and voting rights? Working rights? Well, its made to seem like we have it made there too. Frankly we have much more work to go in all of these realms, socially, economically and politically, to say we have equal rights takes away from our struggles as there is much to gain still, though it is made to look like our war is over. Women still get paid less than men with the same credentials for the same job in many circumstances. There are still far less women in politics as there should be and violence, rape, against women is still a huge problem- IN AMERICA- not the middle east.
The above linked article deals with one other component to the representation of women in regards to 9/11. We hear, very often, about the heros of 9/11. The men who risked, their lives, LOST their lives, to save their fellow men. MEN. There were, however, numerous women who lost their lives on that day, and still lose their lives to health problems resulting form the disaster. But women are painted as the damsels in distress (as usual) and as the mothers who lost their husbands and now much raise families alone. They were, but are not credited, as being part of the professionals who were targeted, and killed or as the volunteer rescuers who sacrificed their lives for this country.
The article is a tribute to these women.
These women are the unspoken heros.
Tags: watch n post. women and 9/11. muslim women. middle east. september 11
by sarahauerbach Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
May 6th, 2009
Reading this article, and disecting Brenda Laurel’s thinking on her game design policies leaves me feeling much like I did in Toys R Us. I really don’t understand it….I really, really, don’t. Why do female procreate their subordinated or manipulated status and character? If Laurel was a man, then I could just crack it up to sexism but women procreating the gender roles that have deined us, and continue to confine us, is just sad. But then I realize why….for the love of MONEY!!!
Why do Laurel’s games remind me of Toys R Us and why do I think that they procreate Gender roles?? As the article reads, Laurel’s research shows her that girls and boys play and want to play video games differently. She says that guys play “to win” and the girls play fr the “friendship.” That guys need more action, and girls more story. While I have no problems with this assessment (double standard) as I pride myself on this idea, and this is not the first time I have heard it. Little girls are more inclined to read chapter while boys reach for comic books faster (and I associate chapter books with intelligence and patience and comic books with not so much respect- admittedly, i know i should not do this).
It seems like Laurel has some good intentions. As she says, her motives are to manufacture video games for girls because the market has historically been saturated with material design and marketed toward guys. Power to you, then, Laurel…but do it right.
And right is not giving girls fashion based video games where lip gloss and necklaces and popularity levels because our prizes. I see nothing close to the description of “friendship games” in the description of Laurel’s Purple Moon Games. What i see is the next are of board games made for girls (only this time you play on your tv). It sounds to me like “Girl Talk” gone video game. And don’t get me wrong, I played me some girl talk…but I also played sword fighting with my sister in our yard with big branches, and that was fun.
With the amount of time kids spend entertaining themselves its about time we taught out kids something useful with their toys. Sadly, I think most people think they are teaching girls the proper things when the teach the “etiquette” and “femininity.”
Especially when women teach girls these lessons. How can we change they way men treat us without changing the way we look at ourselves?
Tags: blog post, girl games, Laurel, lip gloss, Purple MOon
by sarahauerbach Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »