So. It's come to this, Mississipi.
You would rather cancel a high school prom than let a lesbian member of the graduating class bring her girlfriend as her date? You think that it's more important to prevent 18 year old Constance McMillen from wearing a tuxedo than it is to allow the coming-of-age ritual that is prom in North America?
This is so ridiculous on so many levels that I can barely muster an articulate and incisive commentary.
What's really the final straw for me is the douchehat fellow graduate who told Constance: "Thanks for ruining my senior year."
OMFG. GET OVER YOURSELF. Would you like to live with systematic discrimination for your entire lifetime, you uber-douche? No. So stop with your little self-pity parade about your prom being ruined. Ergh.
-Steph
Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Friday, March 12, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Women and Health
Hey Athenites,
While I don't have much in the way of Feel Good Fridays, I do have a really interesting article for you about women's health from Anna over at Jezebel.
Although Anna is writing from the perspective of a U.S. citizen experiencing the U.S. healthcare system (or lack thereof), something which may not be familiar to all of us, the issues that she explores in her analysis: lack of trust of women, doctor/patient relationships, etc. are definitely applicable to us all.
Take a look at the article, entitled: "Tales of My Vagina, or Why Women's Health is Totally F*cking Unfair."
Peace, and have an awesome weekend!
Steph
While I don't have much in the way of Feel Good Fridays, I do have a really interesting article for you about women's health from Anna over at Jezebel.
Although Anna is writing from the perspective of a U.S. citizen experiencing the U.S. healthcare system (or lack thereof), something which may not be familiar to all of us, the issues that she explores in her analysis: lack of trust of women, doctor/patient relationships, etc. are definitely applicable to us all.
Take a look at the article, entitled: "Tales of My Vagina, or Why Women's Health is Totally F*cking Unfair."
Peace, and have an awesome weekend!
Steph
Friday, October 30, 2009
WTF Fridays!?
I know that Fridays are supposed to be a cheerful day of positive news, but I don't think I can write one of those this week.
I was taking a few minutes out of my busy schedule (*cough*procrastinating*cough*) last night to watch America's Next Top Model. Although I know that the fashion industry is sizist, racist, sexist, classist and generally oblivious to all the social evils that it promotes, I always let myself have this one guilty pleasure because I indulge with a critical mind. As I watch, even though I am enjoying the ridiculous "pose-off" challenges or the girls' excitement about their new lavishly decorated house, I know WHY these things are bad. I deconstruct and criticize as I watch.
And DEAR GOD, was there ever a lot to be critical of on this Wednesday's ANTM.
The girls (Laura, Nicole, Erin, Brittany, Sundai and Jen) get shipped off to Hawaii (Maui, more specifically) to have fun in the sun and engage in more bizarre modelling challenges, such as getting fashion photos taken of them while surfing. Sure. Why not? It's silly, but that's fine.
And then they get loaded into a car, driven off to a sugar cane factory, and told to pose as biracial women hangin' out at the sugar cane factory. *headdesk*
There are so many problems with this that it's hard to know where to begin. I will number all of these points just so I don't lose track of all these problems in my rage.
1) the majority of these girls are white, with only Jen (who is Asian) and Sundai (who is African-American) giving the merest hint of the diversity that exists in the real world.
2) Tyra's little "history lesson" to give context to this photo shoot is sadly lacking. She talks about how people from all over the world came to Hawaii to work on sugar cane planations and that is why Hawaii is very ethnically diverse. Unfortunately, she forgot to mention that sugar cane harvesting is one of the most gruelling agricultural pursuits ever, that those who worked on these sugar cane plantations faced high rates of abuse, were pitted together based on ethnicity in order to prevent them from forming unions, and were generally subjected to racism, prejudice and abuse.
3) Tyra gets (minor, very minor) brownie points for letting everyone know that biracial people are not just white and Asian, white and African, white and ____, but that people of colour + people of colour also =biracial children. This sounds super obvious, but that is not usually the depiction of biracial people that you hear in the media. Some people seem to think that when, for example, an Ethiopian man and a Barbadian woman have a child together, this baby is not biracial (and they usually seem to think this because they have lumped people of colour together in one big box as the "Other").
4) HOWEVER, this totally does not excuse Tyra's totally infuriating essentialization of people of colour. Tyra (and creative director Mr. Jay) urges the girls to express emotions in their photo shoots by "imagining the suffering of the Egyptian people," getting in tune with the "Tibetan spirituality" and trying to feel the music because "music is everywhere in Botswana." EEEEERRRRRGH. And when at judging, one of the girls confesses to not knowing how to express this "Tibetan spirituality" because she doesn't know anything about Tibet, Tyra admonishes her, saying that she should have asked questions.
Tyra: "I could have told you about Tibet, told you about the spirituality and told you about the Dalai Lama, and...mumble mumble. But you should have asked me, I could have told you about the Dalai Lama."
Wow, Tyra, nuanced understanding of Tibetan culture.
5) Tyra refers constantly to these depictions of biracial people as being "exotic," and beautiful, and on and on and on. Racialicious has an excellent article about stereotypes of biracial people as being somehow more beautiful, exotic, "futuristic" and special. Even positive stereotypes (i.e. biracial people are exceptionally beautiful, Asians are good at math) are harmful because it restricts the definition of beauty, essentializes the people in question, and marginalizes you if you happen to be an Asian who hates math or a biracial person who is not considered attractive by the dominant culture.
6) We CANNOT, simply CANNOT, ignore the history of minstrel shows and blackface, and how this photoshoot echoes that.
7) Although I am speaking from a place of white privilege and therefore do not have an understanding of what it is like to live life as a person of colour, I know that this experience is different from mine and that people of colour face a multitude of forms of oppression every day. The mere implication that these (mostly white) wannabe-models can put on a different colour skin for a day, dress up in "Native American headresses," (yes, this happened) say "oh, this is nice, I look exotic," and then strip off the skin colour is profoundly insulting. It mocks the very real racism experienced by people of colour and women of colour everyday.
8) Tyra has done this shit before. In cycle 4 of America's Next Top Model, she dressed the girls up, colouring their skin, as ethnic or biracial women and urged them to "take on the persona of each race."
Check out this link to see the photoshoot itself. And good luck not staring at the computer screen with your mouth open, gaping at the offensiveness.
Any thoughts? Given the history of fashion of doing blackface photo shoots--when black models are often systematically discriminated against--is this not infuriating?
-Steph
I was taking a few minutes out of my busy schedule (*cough*procrastinating*cough*) last night to watch America's Next Top Model. Although I know that the fashion industry is sizist, racist, sexist, classist and generally oblivious to all the social evils that it promotes, I always let myself have this one guilty pleasure because I indulge with a critical mind. As I watch, even though I am enjoying the ridiculous "pose-off" challenges or the girls' excitement about their new lavishly decorated house, I know WHY these things are bad. I deconstruct and criticize as I watch.
And DEAR GOD, was there ever a lot to be critical of on this Wednesday's ANTM.
The girls (Laura, Nicole, Erin, Brittany, Sundai and Jen) get shipped off to Hawaii (Maui, more specifically) to have fun in the sun and engage in more bizarre modelling challenges, such as getting fashion photos taken of them while surfing. Sure. Why not? It's silly, but that's fine.
And then they get loaded into a car, driven off to a sugar cane factory, and told to pose as biracial women hangin' out at the sugar cane factory. *headdesk*
There are so many problems with this that it's hard to know where to begin. I will number all of these points just so I don't lose track of all these problems in my rage.
1) the majority of these girls are white, with only Jen (who is Asian) and Sundai (who is African-American) giving the merest hint of the diversity that exists in the real world.
2) Tyra's little "history lesson" to give context to this photo shoot is sadly lacking. She talks about how people from all over the world came to Hawaii to work on sugar cane planations and that is why Hawaii is very ethnically diverse. Unfortunately, she forgot to mention that sugar cane harvesting is one of the most gruelling agricultural pursuits ever, that those who worked on these sugar cane plantations faced high rates of abuse, were pitted together based on ethnicity in order to prevent them from forming unions, and were generally subjected to racism, prejudice and abuse.
3) Tyra gets (minor, very minor) brownie points for letting everyone know that biracial people are not just white and Asian, white and African, white and ____, but that people of colour + people of colour also =biracial children. This sounds super obvious, but that is not usually the depiction of biracial people that you hear in the media. Some people seem to think that when, for example, an Ethiopian man and a Barbadian woman have a child together, this baby is not biracial (and they usually seem to think this because they have lumped people of colour together in one big box as the "Other").
4) HOWEVER, this totally does not excuse Tyra's totally infuriating essentialization of people of colour. Tyra (and creative director Mr. Jay) urges the girls to express emotions in their photo shoots by "imagining the suffering of the Egyptian people," getting in tune with the "Tibetan spirituality" and trying to feel the music because "music is everywhere in Botswana." EEEEERRRRRGH. And when at judging, one of the girls confesses to not knowing how to express this "Tibetan spirituality" because she doesn't know anything about Tibet, Tyra admonishes her, saying that she should have asked questions.
Tyra: "I could have told you about Tibet, told you about the spirituality and told you about the Dalai Lama, and...mumble mumble. But you should have asked me, I could have told you about the Dalai Lama."
Wow, Tyra, nuanced understanding of Tibetan culture.
5) Tyra refers constantly to these depictions of biracial people as being "exotic," and beautiful, and on and on and on. Racialicious has an excellent article about stereotypes of biracial people as being somehow more beautiful, exotic, "futuristic" and special. Even positive stereotypes (i.e. biracial people are exceptionally beautiful, Asians are good at math) are harmful because it restricts the definition of beauty, essentializes the people in question, and marginalizes you if you happen to be an Asian who hates math or a biracial person who is not considered attractive by the dominant culture.
6) We CANNOT, simply CANNOT, ignore the history of minstrel shows and blackface, and how this photoshoot echoes that.
7) Although I am speaking from a place of white privilege and therefore do not have an understanding of what it is like to live life as a person of colour, I know that this experience is different from mine and that people of colour face a multitude of forms of oppression every day. The mere implication that these (mostly white) wannabe-models can put on a different colour skin for a day, dress up in "Native American headresses," (yes, this happened) say "oh, this is nice, I look exotic," and then strip off the skin colour is profoundly insulting. It mocks the very real racism experienced by people of colour and women of colour everyday.
8) Tyra has done this shit before. In cycle 4 of America's Next Top Model, she dressed the girls up, colouring their skin, as ethnic or biracial women and urged them to "take on the persona of each race."
Check out this link to see the photoshoot itself. And good luck not staring at the computer screen with your mouth open, gaping at the offensiveness.
Any thoughts? Given the history of fashion of doing blackface photo shoots--when black models are often systematically discriminated against--is this not infuriating?
-Steph
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