#jf573

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Women in Media

I love movies, video games, books, and tv shows. I love how stories are told and the power they have to move people. Unfortunately, finding realistic portrayals of women is surprisingly difficult. A lot of people point to various examples of Strong Female Characters as a counterargument, and are confused why there is a problem when these characters exist. The problem is not that strong female characters don’t exist, but that they are the only female characters that exist. For example, a common trope is that an average person gets swept up in an adventure and finds that they are actually heroic in their averageness, while an attractive, capable person falls in love with them along the way. This trope is seen in movies such as The Lego Movie. While I found it an enjoyable movie, taken in context with the rest of Hollywood movies, it sadly continues the trend of having a token extremely capable, attractive woman who falls in love with the average main character despite his averageness. Which is all good and fine, but where is the opposite? How many movies are there in which a female lead that is not conventionally attractive (perhaps overweight, a person of color, etc) who is pretty average still wins the day and has an attractive person fall in love with her?

The problem is that there are simply not enough women portrayed in media. The few women who are left are stuck representing all women, which is simply impossible. One of the reasons why Mad Max: Fury Road was so amazing, (and why some people disliked it) was that there were so many female characters. There were old women, young women, pregnant women, and the female lead was “disabled” in that she was missing a hand if I remember correctly. The female and male lead did not have a romance. The women in the movie played a much stronger role than the men. 

In video games, I have a pet peeve when gender is irrelevant to the story and I still am only allowed to play as a male character. Were the developers simply too lazy to model a female character? Unless the story is for a specific character who is gendered, I appreciate games where I am offered a choice for male or female, because when I am not, it feels as if I am invisible, that people like me are irrelevant. 

The solution to this problem is simply to have more women portrayed in media. Women make up about 50% of the population; it makes no sense that most stories focus on men’s experiences. I can think of many examples where almost the entire cast were men where the film was critically acclaimed. In comparison, it’s difficult to find the same for women. Numbers are certainly not enough, but evening out the representation of men and women in media would definitely be a good start. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Plenary 3

I was lucky to get the chance to meet Pam Fessler during the luncheon the day before the plenary. I found her to be really interesting because she has had such cool experiences as a journalist. The media is a really important force in defining society and culture, for better or worse, and it is good to meet someone in the industry who is thoughtful about the subjects she writes about. The news industry ranges from pretentious to outrageous to sensationalist. It is difficult for them to find a good compromise with being appealing to the general reader and still have good, unbiased, important news. I liked hearing her thoughts of the news industry.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

The issue of work life balance is a question often directed at women, though recently I have started noticing this question also being asked to men or men including the topic in their talks. Traditionally women were the ones taking care of the children and staying at home to cook and clean. This idea of women being the homemaker unfortunately carried over to women in the business world. Though men and women should share equal responsibility in taking care of their home and children, these tasks are often seen as women’s work. This is damaging to both men and women, as some men may wish to take care of his children at home and some women may want to continue to work full time after giving birth. There is currently a stigma against both of these groups of people. 

For women, it is often difficult and stressful to be the only woman in the meeting room, or the only woman on the team. In my first internship, I was the only woman on the team. In fact, I was the first woman to ever work on that team. In my second internship, there were two other women on my team, around 10 men. I really appreciated having those two women on the team as my mentors because they have a perspective that men do not have. In general men who are dominant, aggressive, and blunt are respected as being ambitious and leaders, while women who are the same are seen as bitches. I recently saw an article rewriting some famous quotes if they had been said by women in a meeting. Although of course not all women state their opinions apologetically, it is far more common for a woman to than a man. This is not because women are inherently more demure than men, but because societal pressures change them to be this way to be more acceptable. I am very impressed that Wendy Cai-Lee is so successful in different ways. Still, as some people in class who had lunch with her said, she had to be careful when spending time with her male coworkers. When they went out to drink, she would not, because it is fine for men to make a mistake in that setting, but if women do, it would ruin her reputation forever. I am disappointed that even today when so many people believe the feminist movement is unnecessary, that men and women are held to different standards.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Abortion

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/magazine/the-dawn-of-the-post-clinic-abortion.html

I felt this article expanded my ideas on abortion a lot. There was a lot of information on abortion rights efforts overseas and how it compares to the movement in America. Rebecca Gomperts is the woman the article focuses on. She’s been helping women all over the world with safe abortions for years. I thought she had an interesting approach. Her first attempt was the result of legal loopholes that would allow her to sail a Dutch ship with an abortion clinic aboard to a country that did not allow abortions, take women on board the ship into international waters and perform the procedure there. Upon her arrival in Portugal, the ministry of defense sent 2 warships to stop the ship. However, she did not let that stop her, as she appeared on a talk show to educate women. From this, she realized the power of media and technology to give knowledge to people. Now she partners with an Indian drug exporter to ship mifepristone and misoprostol to women who have no other access to abortion. They have sent pills to Costa Rica, New Zealand, Chile, India, Poland, Pakistan, South Korea, and many more. 

One thing of note was that they do not send help to the United States, though women there can still access the information that is available on their website. The reason for this is that in the United States, women technically have access to safe and legal abortion. Though the United States as a whole is more progressive than many countries on that front, individual states have a lot of power over the choices and lives of women. Why should this be the case? From Miss Representation, I learned that only about 15% of politicians are women. How can we allow men, who have never and will never have to go through the agonizing decision of whether to abort, make decisions for women? When women are forced to carry through a pregnancy, this will affect their lives and the lives of their families. They may not be able to afford food or rent. The women may not be able to continue her studies. She may die from an illegal, misinformed abortion, or from childbirth. When men say that women must continue a pregnancy no matter the circumstance, they are saying that women’s choices do not matter, that women’s value lies in bearing children. As one woman wrote to Rebecca Gomberts said, “It’s magnificent what you’re doing, to help women realize their dreams for themselves.”