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Selling Sex for Visas

We read “Selling Sex for Visas” an article concept that might not be shocking to most people. Until your read the stories about why women do what the do you cannot fully understand. This article talks about the women of Sosua, a small town in the Dominican Republic, a typical tourist location for European sex tourists. As a means of obtaining financial security, women in underdeveloped countries often operate within the sex trade. Women here are usually in poverty with children. Women travel to the town of Sosua with the dream, and misconstrued conception what why will marry a rich European and we taken off the island. This is most women only option. Although the occupational hazards of beatings, rape, and police intervention can be harsh, women take these risk for short-run survival and long-rung stability. In the short run, the sex trade offers enough wealth for more comfortable living standards; albeit much lower than the standards of regular market jobs within developed states but, the sex trade offers a much longer term goal of potentially finding and marrying a man who can help sex worker escape destitution

I think this is extremely unfortunate that women feel like this is the only option they have. Most women don’t end up getting married and if they do it usually end in divorce and a return to the island. I feel like there has to be a better way for these women to live because this is not right.

andrewgrinchishin

The above is a photograph of what can be coined by the term “blood diamonds,” which I first learned about in Spanish class last year. What these workers (above^) are doing is mining for diamonds in gut wrenching, horrifying conditions. Companies abuse workers and force them into such a terrible state, a never ending cycle of work in order to get some food, where they spend their days digging and mining for diamonds that are then sold in the United States for remarkable markup. So think again the next time you get a diamond!

What are blood diamonds to be exact? They are also known as war diamonds or conflict diamonds. Diamonds are mined under deplorable conditions.

The areas where these diamonds are found are generally in high-conflict zones, particularly Africa. Liberia and South Africa, for instance, are full of diamonds. Governments and other various factions and businesses compete very heavily for these areas ignoring the pain that it brings to the people that live there. Crime is encouraged and corruption is rampant in many of these countries. Now is this diamond trade off worth it?

I encourage you all to think the next time you buy a diamond. Although for you students, rather spend that on your books and tuition and stuff of the like.

rachaelherbst

I think that it is wrong to take advantage of people that need the money. It is never right for people to be working to terrible conditions but it happens a lot and this is just one of the examples. There are so many other jobs overseas that have poor working conditions but if we stop buying everything mad in these conditions we couldn't buy anything.

nyheath-blog

Anyone can see the inequality that unearned skin privileges present in society. One of the races most guilty of benefiting from skin privilege in the United States is white people. White people benefit from having their race widely represented in television, government, and the general...

rachaelherbst

I completely agree with this blog. I also this the President Obama was partially elected because he is African American, not saying that he isn't qualified though. I think that privilege should not just be handed out to other races to make things equal. Privilege should be earn whether you are white or black or asian.

savannahearitt

Anti-Obama Signs

You may find it curious that in 2014, many americans still harbor feelings of racism deep down inside them. Regardless of whether they act on those feelings in their daily lives, the feelings regardless are still present. However there are a few who do dare to come out and say what they are feeling. The video details one such man who lives in Georgia and owns a local oyster bar, on one side of the sign is an advertisement for his business but on the other side and also the side that faces the highway, it says “I do not support ni**ers in the white house. The sign is blatantly referring to President Obama and his family. Although many people were quite offended by the sign, the owner refuses to take it down and say stubbornly he doesn’t care how it makes other people feel and doesn’t care if it hurts them. He also says that let someone put a sign of their choosing up and it wouldn’t offend him. This would be quite a shock to me as a person with such strong feelings of hatred and anger would almost definitely have something to say if he saw a sign downgrading his own race. The saddest thing is that no matter how successful an african american can be, in the eyes of this Georgia man no african american in any position will ever be good enough. Which I find quite amusing because the President of the United States is 100x the man this disgrace to society will ever be.

rachaelherbst

This guy is just jealous that his ass isn't in the white house. Its a disgrace that people still have not accepted that everyone is equal. President Obama has work hard to get where he is and so have many other african americans. If i saw that sign in his window i would not eat there. That derogatory word should never be used or publicly displayed.

savannahearitt

From Christine Lagarde to Jill Abramson, some of the world’s most powerful women reveal their most hated female stereotypes.

Powerful Women

What does it mean to be a powerful woman? The CEO of a company, a new anchor on a top rated news channel but most importantly a woman. When one sees a woman in one of these places some common stereotypes begin to form. As mentioned in the article everyone has seen The Devil Wears Prada (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/?ref_=nv_sr_1) and in this movie the magazine editor is a woman, a very powerful woman, and as usual is stereotyped to be mean and cold hearted, all about business and no-nonsense. While that may be beneficial to her advancement in her career field it is a common misconception that women in high places act this way or on the opposite side of the spectrum are weak and incapable of maintaining properly their position in the company. This unfortunate stereotype makes it more difficult for women to act the way they normally would because the don’t want to be seen as weak in an industry almost primarily governed by men. According to the article only 16% of corporate board seats are filled by women, and because of such many of the few women that occupy these seats tend to be looked at also as having gotten the seat simply because of their gender and that being said many are viewed as another stereotype and that is of the “token”, simply there to show the companies diversity. Women have been struggling to overcome these barriers and I still believe it will take a long time until women are viewed as equal to men and these stereotypes may disappear but until then stay strong ladies!

rachaelherbst

It is unfortunate that when women are in a place of power their attitude is based on trying to compete with men. People believe when women are bossy they are a bitch but when a man is he is just being the boss. Women should not be stereotyped because they are in a place of power.

savannahearitt

Harvard Sued Over Discriminatory Practices

Harvard has always been a prestigious university and also an expensive one. Historically Harvard is a college that only the wealthy were able to afford tuition for. With tuition, room and board costing $58,000 dollars for just one year over the course of four years families were looking at a total cost of $230,000 or more simply for undergraduate studies, so one can only imagine the total cost of tuition with a four year graduate school as well, this will easily raise the cost of an eight year education to more than $400,000 dollars and that is more than most families can afford. With Harvard being sued for its discriminatory practices, we can expect to see a raise in the amount of scholarships given to students, as the university will be forced to look into the economic background of the student and provide subsequent aid for students who qualify for aid regardless of economic status. Also the university has been cited for race discrimination as well, the university has been known to limit the amount of Asian American students it accepts and despite the increasing amount of qualified Asian American students there does not seem to be an increase in the amount of Asian American students present in the university population. Another issue is the “legacy student” in which the university chooses student’s whose relatives have attended the university previously over students who would be the first of their families to attend. These current policies are unfair and a university should choose its students based only upon their academic qualifications.

Read the entire article:

http://www.ibtimes.com/harvard-affirmative-action-lawsuit-2014-schools-sued-over-discriminatory-college-1725064

rachaelherbst

I completely agree that these action by the university are wrong. Everyone should get an equal shot at being accepted to college. It should not be based on race or family history with the school.

It would be much easier for me to keep to my dodgy diet of junk food and cigarettes but for my health that would be seriously bad news; and health, people, is what it's all about. I'm not just making a dig at all you that side on the cuddlier; being ...

In her essay, Fat is a Feminist Issue, author Susie Orbach argues that female obesity should not be viewed as a moral failing, but rather as a declaration of independence from the prescriptive cultural requirements imposed on American women. Orbach details the obesity epidemic in American women, the emotional effects of overeating on women, and lists commonly held views about the causes of obesity. She offers a feminist explanation of women’s obesity, alleging that “fat is” an expression of independence. Her parallel structure (“Fat is”) suggests ownership of an otherwise unattractive quality – fat itself. She suggests that women’s obesity is in fact a challenge to gender stereotypes and should be viewed as a societal illness, not a personal failing. She believes it is a feminist’s choice – rather than the availability of unhealthy food, lack of exercise, a lack of willpower, or bad genes. Orbach concludes by stating that, despite the many changes in fashion trends, being thin is consistently viewed as positive, and necessary, for women, and that, as a result, obesity may express rebellion against the strictures of cultural conformity women face. The author maintains that women’s overeating should be viewed as a way to escape the commoditization of women. So what I get from this article as that women are choosing to be fat to protest against the ideal image a women’s bodies. So all fat women are choosing to fat? I think this is completely absurd. If women know that being skinny is what is thought to be attractive why would they make them selves fat? They would make themselves unhealthy just to prove a point? I think women are fat because they choose to be, because they don’t eat healthy, because they don’t exercise, because their genes or maybe a medical issue. I don’t believe women would make the decision to be fat because they want to prove that they don’t need to be skinny to be attractive.

The Move to Facebook

In an article we read in class called “White Flight in Networked Publics?” it talked about MySpace and Facebook became categorized by race. In the article a 14 year old why girl made this statement about MySpace “Its not really racist, but I guess you could say that. I’m not really into racism but I think that MySpace now is more like ghetto or whatever.” This was her answer to why people were moving to Facebook. I disagree and think it’s the opposite. I was in the midst of this transition to Facebook and I remember the only reason I did so was because all my friends did. I think people begin to move to new things when their friends do because the point of social media is connect with your friends didn’t like Facebook at the time because it seemed boring a lot more adults were on there and you couldn’t personalize your page as much but eventually it seemed like the more “grown-up” social media. It started of in colleges so as I grew up I felt like I had to make the transition. You then start to look back at Facebook at you feel like you’re better than it and people who use MySpace aren’t as cool. As a kid it’s hard not to think that. You’re now on a new Webster with the older crowd. Facebook was also a lot less drama. There was no posting your top friends. I think no matter what social media is evolving and it will never stop. Like now Facebook isn’t even the best social media, its twitter.

Meat is feminist?

We read an article called "Having it his way: The Construction of Masculinity in Fast-Food Commercials" in class. The article first explains how meat is related to men. It says since men were the hunters’ meat is correlated to them. So the characteristic still exists to today. So now advertisers use that when making commercials. They use women in meat commercials because men are their target consumer. I don’t believe this means women cant eat meat as well. I also don’t think that this is demeaning to women. Women can still eat meat and commercials are not telling them they cant. In a way I think using hot women in a commercial is sort of demeaning but now a days sex sells. Like in a perfume commercials for Dolce & Gabbana it’s a women and a man swimming in skimpy bathing suit then making out… has nothing to do with cologne but it get people to pay attention. I don’t think meat has anything to do with feminism and I think its crazy that this author thinks meat, a food, is making women feel less then men.

"People are buzzing about Ethan Couch and the "affluenza" defense used by his lawyer and defense-called psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller. Though Couch killed ...

Affluenza is the product of wealthy, privileged parents who let their child do whatever they want. As a result the child thinks they can do what ever they want with no consequences. Ethan Couch killed four people in a DWI car wreck. According to prosecutors, three hours after the crash, tests showed Couch had a blood alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit. Not only was he drunk but he was only 16, not old enough to be driving, and speeding, going 70 in a 45. Earlier that night him and his friends stole beer from a Wal-Mart and then got drunk at a party. He got 10 years of probation and no jail time. “Texas sentencing guidelines for crimes like this call for fines of up to $10,000 and between 2 and 20 years in the state penitentiary (Gray).” Ethan believed he was untouchable and couldn’t get in trouble for his actions. Are justice system allowed him to think he was right with that mind set. Lawyers for Couch, 16, had argued that the teen's parents should share part of the blame for the crash because they never set limits for the boy and gave him everything he wanted. The defence used exampls like the fact that Ethan was allowed to drink a very young age and even allowed to start driving at 13. He was also found in a parker car when he was 15 with a passed out, naked, 14 year old girl and he was not punished, This along with the blog before this about Corasanti shows how money can get you out of anything and now they even have a name for it. Affluenza, basically giving all wealthy children an excuse to do what ever they want with no consequence.

Money Buys Freedom?

Alix Rice’s 18-year-old body flew 167 feet after Dr. James G. Corasanti’s $90,000 BMW collided into her at nearly 40 miles-per-hour as the physician drove home from a golf outing outside of Buffalo last year.

But on Wednesday evening, a jury in Western New York State acquitted Dr. Corasanti of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter and a slew of other related charges, including leaving the scene of an incident without reporting. Dr. Corasanti will be sentenced for the one charge he was convicted of a misdemeanor DWI. The doctor admitted on the stand to ordering several rum and Diet Pepsi cocktails, Benedictine and brandy and a white creme de menthe at a “martini golf” outing at a nearby country club earlier that evening. "I wasn't drunk," Corasanti responded on stand, however. "I did not feel the effects of alcohol." Jurors were asked to excuse the physician’s impressive income which some had suggested could buy his freedom. "What his salary was has nothing to do with this case," his attorney insisted in court.

Although he admitted his role in the crash, he walked out of a Buffalo courtroom with a mere slap on the wrist; for being spared a felony conviction, he can also continues to practice medicine.

“To convict the doctor of vehicular manslaughter, prosecutors had to prove that drunken driving directly caused the death of the victim,” journalists for the Buffalo News filed in a report late Wednesday. “To convict him of second-degree manslaughter, prosecutors had to show criminal recklessness caused her death.”

So the jury believed that his speeding, being drunk and texting was not the reason he hit and killed the girl?

I do not believe he got off because he was not guilty. He was rich and a well-known doctor. He got off because he had money and that is one messed up judicial system.

Poverty and Disability

Poverty and disability are intrinsically linked. Twenty percent of people living in poverty also live with a disability, and eighty percent of people living with a disability live in developing countries.

People living in poverty are at higher risk of having a physical, sensory, mental or intellectual impairment, due to a range of factors such as unsafe living conditions and inadequate access to health services. At the same time, having a disability can exacerbate issues associated with poverty such as reduced access to education, employment and clean water and increased vulnerability to gender discrimination, economic and social exclusion, conflict and emergencies. The majority of people with disabilities find it difficult to participate as equals in their communities and are commonly excluded.

150 million children live with a disability and subsequently face reduced access to schools, health care, recreation and opportunities for work. Women and girls living with disabilities are more likely to face discrimination than men living with disabilities.

Because of poverty, conflict, land mines, lack of occupational health and safety, poor pre-natal care and diseases such as polio, measles and HIV/AIDS, the number of people living with disabilities continues to increase. This can lead to a situation where the people living in poverty are disproportionately disabled and people living with disabilities disproportionately poor.

Although the work place has changed radically in the decades since the passage of the Equal Pay Gap Act women’s pay has not. The wage gap as narrowed but it is still significant. Women earned 59% of the wages men earned in 1963; in 2012 they earned 80.9% of men's wages—an improvement of about half a penny per dollar earned every year.One myth about the gender pa gap is that it is due to women’s choice is occupations. What people don’t realize is women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly all occupations, whether they work in occupations predominantly done by women, occupations predominantly done by men, or occupations with a more even mix of men and women.Male-dominated occupations tend to pay more than female-dominated occupations at similar skill levels, particularly in jobs that require higher educational levels. Tackling occupational segregation is an important part of eliminating the gender wage gap. In 2009, President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which allows victims of pay discrimination to file a complaint with the government against their employer within 180 days of their last paycheck. Previously, victims were only allowed 180 days from the date of the first unfair paycheck. In April 2014, he signed two executive orders to help eliminate wage disparities among federal contract workers. The day after Obama signed the orders, Senate Republicans blocked a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have imposed the measures included in the executive orders on the entire American workforce. The government is not doing a good enough job at ending the discrimination women face in the work place. This is not an issue that should be over looked. Women deserve to be paid just as much as men.

Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?

I read this article as a white American who has no ethnic identity that I practice. I know all the ethnicities I am such as German, Native American, Dutch, etc. but none of them define me. So when I read this article and come to learn that people who chose to exercise their ethnicities don’t like to be questioned about it baffles me. If I chose to exercise one of my ethnicities I would love to teach people about it and express it. I think there is a difference between asking out of general curiosity or interest and discriminating questions. I completely understand why some ethnicities would so quickly assume the question is hurtful so I think that is how society should change. You should be able to talk openly about your background with out the possibility of judgment.

Then there are people who do not choose to show their ethnicity but are forced to base on the color of their skin, so the article says. I think that not only whites have a choice on choosing or showing their ethnicities. When talking about this it come down to the difference between race and ethnicities. I believe race is the color of your skin it is what is shown by looking at you, it is where you come from. Ethnicity is a culture you choose to live your life around.

I think everyone can choose their ethnicity but not there race. If you do choose to practice an ethnicity you should be willing to share and express it.

Michael Moore: Sicko

In class we watched a disturbing movie about health care by Michael Moore. After watching this I was shocked at how the health care system works. Health care is supposed to be there to help but according to he video as soon as you are in need of help the insurance company will drop you. All they care about it making money. Michael Moore uses real people who have had real horror stories with their insurance companies. Using these real life examples I believe the movie really hit home for people. Its easy to avoid the situation when some one is speaking with no personal history but with these people it was real. For example “Doctors believe a man suffering from kidney cancer could be saved with a bone marrow transplant procedure, which is denied by his insurer. His family cannot afford the procedure out-of-pocket, so he forgoes care and dies shortly thereafter, leaving behind his wife and young son.” I believe it is unfair to deny lower-middle class Americans health insurance. People are dying from curable diseases because they don’t have the money to get treated. Insurance companies dig for any information no matter how small to find a reason to deny someone health care. Any pre-existing medical condition will cause a denial of insurance even a simple yeast infection. After this movie I question why health insurance companies even exist if when people get sick they drop them?

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