Posts Tagged ‘race’
Wednesday Link Love!
Posted on: February 17, 2010
Bitch Blogs: Reproductive Writes: The Rebranding of Birth Control
Billboards proclaiming Black Children Are An Endangered Species have appeared across the city of Atlanta in the last couple of weeks. The poster was created by activist groups Georgia Right To Life and the Radiance Foundation. They claim that black women have three times the number of abortions in comparison to white women in the state and that this is indicative of a eugenics-based conspiracy to deplete the African American population. A conspiracy, they argue, that goes right back to the agitator for birth control, Margaret Sanger, who, they say, would have been happy to hear that 40% of African American women’s pregnancies are aborted.
Sociological Images: Guest Post: An Indigenous Olympics?
Some people who encounter this Olympics branding are bound to come away with the impression that natives (that is, individuals with a significant enough amount of native ancestry or culture) are respected, empowered, and well-integrated here in Canada. In other words, some viewers will view this marketing as a sign of harmonious bonds between natives and mainstream Canadian society.
Feministe: Dear USians on the Internet,
The United States is not the world. It’s not even the centre of the universe.
I have to admit that I am guilty of some of the stuff that Chally talks about in this post because the US culture is the culture that I know the best. But I am trying to work on this, and I think that’s all that Chally is asking us to examine in this post, even though she’s getting majorly attacked in the comments.
Salon: Broadsheet: Kevin Smith: The face of flying while fat
Which is why part of me is glad the Kevin Smith debacle happened — though I’m terribly sorry he had to go through it — because it put a recognizable face on the experience of flying while fat. See, those of us who are and/or love people to whom airlines’ “person of size policies” apply don’t automatically envision the discomfort of getting stuck next to a fatty; we envision the physical and emotional pain of being the fatty crammed between two potentially hostile strangers, at the mercy of flight attendants who might decide we’re fine on one flight and a “safety risk” on the next.
Sunday Link Love
Posted on: February 7, 2010
As some of you may have noticed, I had a little problem this weekend. My blog was hacked and I couldn’t even get into my dashboard. But thanks to the amazing meloukhia, my blog is back and almost entirely squared away. I still have to work on the sidebars a little bit and address some minor things here and there. But all in all, I’m back.
And I know I didn’t get to do a Wednesday link love this week as I was busy on Wednesday in addition to not feeling too well. So here’s an extra long link love for the entire week!
Zero at the Bone: The Thirteenth Carnival of Feminists
Equality 101: Thoughts on the “Politics of Correction”
“How can I help kids gain fluency in Standard English – the language of power – without obliterating the home language which is a source of pride and personal voice?” – Linda Christensen
Gender Across Borders: Welcome to the Hip Hop, Resistance, and Feminism Series
This series focuses on hip hop and its interactions with patriarchy, racism, and other forms of oppression — both within and outside the mainstream pop world. From Nicki Minaj and gender-bending to resistance movements in Mali, this series reveals the varying faces and voices of hip hop.
I’ve really enjoyed this series from Gender Across Borders and this “welcome” post has links to all of the posts in the series, so make sure to check them all out!
Girl W/Pen: POP GOES FEMINISM: Deciphering Island Patriarchy: Finding Feminism in Lost
Lost has often presented ‘gender outside the box’ characters, suggesting being human is more important than being a masculine man or a feminine woman. After all, when you are fighting for your life, ‘doing gender right’ is hardly at the top of you priority list.
Small Strokes: On Body Image: Men and Advertising
Men suffer from body image issues just as women do, often as a direct result of the bombardment of images from the media. You’ve got your total binary here: men in commercials, movies, and TV shows are either super awesome ladies’ men with washboard abs and sweet sports cars or doofy husbands incapable of doing much of anything.
Sunday Link Love!
Posted on: January 31, 2010
- In: Link Love
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This was a very big weekend for me. We sold our house and bought a new one. And then I found out that I got into the University of Michigan School of Social Work. So all in all, a good weekend.
I have been noticing in myself that Thursdays are really not a good day for posting for my schedule. So I think I am going to change link love posts to ones on just Sunday and Wednesday.
Equality 101: Gender Equality on College Campuses
Leaders of such institutions, the editorial notes, are responding to students’ interests in having relatively equal numbers of men and women on campus. However, as the dean of admissions at Kenyon College puts so well, “What messages are we sending young women that they must . . . be even more accomplished than men to gain admission to the nation’s top colleges?” Why are good women students being turned away so that more mediocre men students can attend college?
FWD/Forward: The Opposite of “Disabled” is Not “Employable”
According to the United State government, disability is “the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment(s) which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.” Or, in non-regulatory terms, disability is when a physical or mental impairment will last at least a year and will make someone unable to work. The ability to work is right there in the definition. A person who cannot work is disabled. If that person can work, they are not disabled. Disability and employability are mutually exclusive states of being.
Gender Across Borders: Equality in Marriage. Is It Possible?
In college I swore I’d never get married (The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman is to blame/thank). These days I find myself fighting for equal access to the very institution I once denounced.
Bitch Blogs: Race Card: From Adopting Haitian Kids to Giving Them Your Breast Milk
Moreover, in recent days, the adoption community has expressed its concerns about Americans clamoring to adopt Haitian children following the quake. Racialicious.com reports that a group called Adoptees of Colour released a statement asserting that desire by those from privileged nations to adopt Haitian children “contributes to the destruction of existing family and community structures in Haiti.” In addition, group members, many of whom were adopted under questionable circumstances themselves, are alarmed to hear that “Haitian adoptions may be ‘fast-tracked’ due to the massive destruction of buildings in Haiti that hold important records and documents…”
Tuesday Link Love!
Posted on: January 26, 2010
Everyone make sure to check out the new group blog, Equality 101:
Equality 101 is a group blog for teachers. Here, we will post lessons, articles, and thoughts about diversity in K-12 and post-secondary education. Diversity can mean anything from tackling issues like racism, sexism, and classism in the classroom to inspiring diverse learners in any sense of the word.
this ain’t living’: Your Privilege: Check It
There’s an idea which some people have that if they name themselves “good allies” they are allowed to assess their own behaviour, and that they can even do so accurately because, you know, they are good allies. This is a fallacy. It’s a fallacy in part because even the very best allies mess up. Sometimes royally. Allies are like banks, then: You cannot rely upon them to regulate themselves. In part, it’s in their nature, in part, it’s because it’s really hard to self-regulate because you have no distance and perspective.
Bitch Blogs: Race Card: Chris Brown, Charlie Sheen, Race and Domestic Violence
So, is TMZ vilifying Brown in ways that it has failed to vilify Sheen? I’m inclined to agree with commenters who said that TMZ not only hasn’t vilified Sheen but has also tried to garner sympathy for him. After reporting that Sheen’s wife, Brooke Mueller, had accused Sheen of domestic violence on Christmas Day, the Web site first moved to discredit Mueller, reporting that she was legally intoxicated when police showed up to intervene. And the commenters above are correct when they say that there’s been underlying sympathy throughout reports about Sheen needing permission to visit Mueller in the hospital when she developed a high fever related to oral surgery.
Spare Candy: “Living Dolls” could generate big conversation
Author and writer Natasha Walter has a new book coming out (Feb. 4, I believe), called “Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism.” If you pay attention to UK newspapers, you know it’s already generating a number of columns and stories in the press.
Sunday Link Love!
Posted on: January 3, 2010
Happy Sunday!
The Sexist: The Year in Consent
This was the year of the armchair rape analyst (ARA). If you’ve never run into such a person, here’s a job description: While men across the globe generate allegations of rape, ARAs are charged with casually dismissing the problem from the comfort of their living rooms. They sit back, stroke the chin, and plant gray where black and white work just fine.
Feministing: Avatar: Count the “isms”
Cameron’s movie does appear to be a white guilt fantasy, and as self-proclaimed “King of the World,” (referring to Pandora, the Na’vi homeland), he is responsible for at least some of the problematic undertones. And precisely because it was a lifetime dream of his to write and produce Avatar, the superiority of humans to the indigenous characters, exotic indigenous bodies, and “salvation” from disability within the movie are unsurprising given that he first dreamed of Pandora five decades ago.
this ain’t livin’: Whedon’s Brunettes
Can we discuss, for a moment, Joss Whedon’s obsession with disturbed brunettes who wander around barefoot? It really does bear examining, because various permutations of the exact same character show up again and again in his work. And I think that tells us something about Joss, that he can’t seem to produce a creative work without this character. He inserts her again and again, setting up situations in which she can be saved, but in the end, she’s often doomed despite the best efforts of the other (usually male) characters.
Bitch Blogs: The Decade in Feminist Pop Culture
No matter what those time/date sticklers who don’t think it’s over ‘til 2011 believe, according to us, tomorrow marks the end of the ‘00s. And though we’d hate to say “Good riddance” to the decade that brought us a bunch of kickass feminist blogs, a bevy of thought-provoking books, and a multitude of female-focused movies, coming up with a list of positive feminist moments in ’00s pop culture was no easy task. As it turns out, there were a lot more not-so-feminist moments this decade than feminist ones. (Too bad we’d already decided we wanted to keep the list positive – We’re starting our New Year’s resolutions early this year.)
Professor What If?: What if Disney’s princess-of-color weren’t so green? (A review of The Princess and the Frog)
After 96 minutes of enjoyable animation and some good music, I would say I was pleased with parts of the film, dismayed by others. What irked me the most was that Tiana, the first ever Disney WOC protagonist, was a FROG for the majority of the film. Her turn to GREEN was especially disappointing as I was enjoying viewing a smart, sassy, capable black woman helming a Disney script.
Sunday Link Love!
Posted on: November 1, 2009
Happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a good Halloween here in the U.S. and Canada. I enjoyed handing out candy and seeing all of the costumes that people come up with. At work yesterday we were allowed to dress up and little kids could dress up and we would give them a “treat” (i.e. a bookmark). As much as I don’t want kids (right now or possibly ever), I do want to be able to dress one up in a cute little costume for Halloween…but then have no further responsibility for those children. I just want to dress them up. I know, that sounds weird.
The picture on the left came from this week’s Post Secret.
Anyways, here are some of my favorite posts of the past couple days. Don’t forget to leave links that what you have been writing and reading!
Whip It: Ripley’s Pick [Bitch Flicks] – a guest post review of the movie Whip It focusing on the body image message that the movie sends.
Princess and Privilege by Elena Perez [Women & Hollywood] – a guest post about the new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog and the representation of the first black Disney princess.
Another Disappointment from Barbara Ehrenreich: A Review of “Bright-Sided” Part 1 and Part 2 [Clarissa's Blog]
Ableist Word Profile: I Can Feel Your Pain! [FWD/Forward] – I love this series because it is so informative and some of the words they profile (like this phrase) are some that I never even thought of before.
Glee: Throwdown
Posted on: October 15, 2009
Sue is now the co-director of glee club and makes it her mission (as always) to divide and conquer the glee club and force it into submission. She does this by separating the members. Since Sue and Will are each choreographing their own numbers, Sue decides that they should have different people in each of theirs. She takes all the minority members of glee and eventually leaves Will with only three people for his number. The division and fighting eventually get to the members of the glee club and they walk out and Sue resigns. Will gives an “inspiring” speech about how they are all minorities because they are in glee and all is right in the world of the glee club.
In the meantime, Terry blackmails her obstetrician into faking a sonogram so Will can “see his baby.” And news about Quinn’s pregnancy is now all over school thanks to the blogosphere. Quinn’s crushed but sees in the end that she has the glee club to support her.
So it was great to see the minority characters in a main storyline, but this is not the way that I would have wanted it done. By separating out the minority characters, it is showing that they are different…not the same and not as talented as the white members. Of course, I think this is what the storyline was trying to show. I think it was trying to show that when people are grouped, separated, or identified solely based on their race, they are discriminated against. I really liked Mercedes line when the glee members got fed up with Sue and Will fighting and left: “I may be a strong, proud balck woman, but I am more than that.” She showed that she is proud of who she is but there is more to her than just her race. And I think that was supposed to be the moral of that storyline. But, as we see in most of the Glee storylines, what is intended by them and what they actually show are two different things.
I, of course, hated the storyline with Terry. I just cringe everytime she comes on screen because I know it is going to be something about how she is manipulating Will and faking her pregnancy, and generally being crazy. But I was glad that there wasn’t a storyling about the relationship between Will and Emma. Terry’s actions with her pregnancy are basically leading to it being ok for Will to cheat on her with Emma. But it’s still not ok, and I hate seeing all that flirting when I know what it’s leading to.
And I have to say, I liked the storyline with Quinn’s pregnancy this week. It showed what she really has invested in this pregnancy as well as the support network that she actually has (though she doesn’t think she has it or doesn’t realize that she does). And it showed that despite Rachel having feelings for Finn and those being her true motivations behind helping Quinn, that Rachel does actually care about what happens to Quinn because she feels connected to everyone in glee.
I feel like all that I talk about when I do these write-ups about Glee are race and pregnancy. But those are the things that really bother me about the show. And the blatant ableism. But I do have to say, I really do like Jane Lynch’s character Sue. She just says the most ridiculous, racist, ableist, sexist, etc. things. But we are supposed to realize that what she says and what she does are not appropriate and not right. She is the extreme that we are supposed to recognize as inappropriate.
I really liked the musical numbers this week. I keep watching Glee because a) I keep hoping it will get better and b) for the musical numbers. I felt like there were more than usual this week, and I was ok with that. It took away from the actual storyline. And I like how they incorporate the songs that the glee club is performing into the storyline between the characters. For example, Finn and Rachel singing “No Air” mirroring their actual feelings for each other. At the end, they performed “Keep Holding On” and it felt as if they were singing it to Quinn, telling her that they will support her in whatever she needs. I really do like that aspect of the show.
Also make sure to check out meloukhia’s analysis of “Throwdown” up at this ain’t livin’.
Based on the recommendations of others (particularly meloukhia), I have started watching Veronica Mars…and I love it! I am about halfway through the second season right now and I can’t wait to get the next discs from Netflix. There are of course some problematic things with the show (stereotypes, slut-shaming, etc…more later), I think that Veronica Mars is an overall feminist show.
Veronica Mars is a show about (surprise!) a teenager named Veronica Mars, played by Kristen Bell. Her dad is the ex-sheriff, now private detective in a town in Southern Califonia called Neptune. Veronica plays a large role in her dad’s private detective agency and all runs investigations through her school. Her best friend, Wallace, is usually her accomplice and she has a group of people who she turns to for information. She has run-ins with the now sheriff who pretends like he doesn’t want her help, but often takes the leads that she gives him.
The running investigation in the first season is that of the murder of her best friend, Lily, which is solved in the season finale. Lily was the daughter of a wealthy family whose son (and Lily’s brother) is Veronica’s ex-boyfriend (then boyfriend again in the second season). In the second season, the running investigation is that of a bus crash that killed 8 students. There appears to be an explosion in the bus that caused it to drive over a cliff. As I am not done with the second season yet, the investigation of the bus crash is not yet over.
So, why is this a feminist show? Veronica Mars is all about a girl taking her life into her own hands. She investigates everything from blackmail to murder to theft. She doesn’t care what people think about her and she’s not afraid to get in people’s faces.
Other than the fact that Veronica Mars is about a kick-ass woman, it tackles some really great issues. The show actually has a pretty good representation of the diversity of Southern California. Many other shows that take place in Southern California fall into the same old tv show model…an all-white cast. While a large amount of the cast of Veronica Mars is white, there are also a large amount of African American and Latino/a characters that are major players in the show. The show also tackles class issues. The high school that Veronica Mars attends is heavily populated by “09-ers” – the people who live in a certain zip code that are very wealthy. Veronica, on the other hand, is not wealthy and there is a big divide between the “09-ers” and people who don’t live in that zip code. Veronica has the uncanny ability to somewhat navigate between these two worlds. Her best friend Lily and her ex-boyfriend Duncan, as well as her other ex-boyfriend, Logan, are all “09-ers.” She kind of fit in with that world, at least with those people. But once she doesn’t associate with them anymore, she’s cast out of the “09-er” crowd. These situations really highlight class issues that happen in real life, and not just in high school. The show also handles issues of rape, exploring and developing one’s sexuality, and domestic violence.
For such a feminist show, though, there is a large amount of slut-shaming. Women who slept with their boyfriends, slept with people other than their boyfriends, or were even raped were shamed. Most of the shaming was done by high school boys — and even occassinally high school girls — but I didn’t really think that it was necessary. Not only was there slut-shaming for women who freely expressed their sexuality, there was slut-shaming for women who were raped and had not control over what was happening to them. Not cool.
There was some occassional problematic language and events, but the slut-shaming was the only ongoing, overall thing that I saw wrong with the show. What do others think? Is there something I’m missing? Or is Veronica Mars really the awesome, feminist show that I see it as?
I hope everyone has had a good and productive week! If anyone is interested in guest or cross posting, check this out! In lieu of link love on Tuesday, I did a site recommendation. But also check out the link love from Thursday. Here are some of my favorite posts from the week, both new and already highlighted. Don’t forget to leave links to what you have been reading and writing this week!
New link love:
Feminism and Joss Whedon: Death and Character Abuse [this ain't livin'] – Joss Whedon has a tendancy to kill off female characters right when the audience gets emotionally involved and the character is resolving relationship troubles. Why?
How to Be An Ally [Recursive Paradox] – The do’s and don’t's of being an ally for a marginalized group.
Some thoughts on race, ethnicity, and what I am: The Epilogue [Criss Writes] – too often when we talk about “race” or “minoritites,” we really mean “class,” which is why we need class-based affirmative action.
Why Tim Gunn is the Man [The Guy's Guide to Feminism] – should men be following Tim Gunn’s example of masculinity?
The Jill Question: What is the Role of White Women in the Reproductive Justice Movement? [Feministe] – “Confronting privilege, in all forms, is a critical exercise in achieving reproductive justice. How do we support each other through that process, while we also hold each other accountable for the privilege we benefit from?”
Weekly Link Love:
What Would We Do Without White Privilege? [Womanist Musings]
W: Death Does Not Become Her [Glossed Over]
Site recommendation: The Love Letters Project
An Observation
Posted on: September 8, 2009
Chally was kind enough to let me cross-post this amazing post. Chally is a scary feminist. Among other things, she’s a non-white, heterosexual, cis, disabled, middle class woman. She lives in Australia and enjoys knitting, Doctor Who, and cake. You can find her at Zero at the Bone.
To recap: I identify as non-white (the language I use to refer to myself changes though; I’ve yet to find anything I’m really comfortable with). I have blue eyes and pale skin. (I have a bittersweet joke that I’m whiter than most white people.) I often take advantage of this and keep quiet about my ethnicity around people I don’t know. Because it’s just another thing to talk about, another thing through which a dominant group constructs me as less than, because it’s just too much.
This leads to some interesting patterns.
Not knowing my background, white people tend to claim me as one of their own. I have sat through so many racist “jokes” cracked by people who thought I was in on them. I think this is a reflection of what I like to call the default human mentality. If you’re a member of a dominant group, and representations of how normal you are are just everywhere, you’re likely to think that everyone else is of that group unless they’re obviously not. I know that’s something I’ve been struggling with as a heterosexual person.
Not knowing my background, non-white people are far less likely to make assumptions. This can be reassuring and comforting, but it can be disconcerting when I’ve decided I’m going to let people think I’m white in a particular situation, especially when I’m outed among white people.
Being able to pass – or, more, being passed – as white is a privilege, it really is. This is never more apparent then when I start to talk about my ethnicity. I watch the faces of the white people I am in conversation with. All too often, there’s a quick series of emotions that run over their faces.
It goes like this. First, there’s surprise. Then, there’s a sheepish look (did I say anything that could have offended her? I should have realised…). Then a bit of internal searching, going through the back catalogue of experiences with me to see if there were any clues. After that comes indignance: hey, wait a minute, it’s not my fault and how could I have known and anyway race is a sensitive thing so I’d best keep myself out of it. It’s then that most of them realise that I can see what’s going on in their heads. I take a moment to chuckle inside. Finally, it goes one of four ways. They continue to treat me as a person, with little deferences to my particular circumstances where required (which is, you know, very nice and exactly the sort of thing you ought to do, white people). They act exactly as they did before (which is also nice, but kind of missing the point). They totally change the way they interact with me, from the way they angle their bodies to their tone of voice. Or, they shut down. With regard to this last, sometimes I wonder, is it because they feel betrayed? Are they embarrassed? Do they just not like non-white people?
So, I am no longer coded as a white person, or there is no longer any ambiguity. And there are mixed emotions there. On the one hand, it’s another piece of oppression I’ve got to wade my way through with this particular person. On the other, it’s so sweet to be identified as what I really am, to no longer modify my speech and mannerisms and what have you to conform to whiteness.
But how do non-white people react, you ask? Sometimes a ‘really?’ but more often a look of non-surprise or a ‘yeah, I thought so’ and, more often than that, happily, thankfully, we just continue with our business.
Being invisible, playing white, has only the illusion of freedom. I’m still racism’s perpetual puppet, waiting until I don’t have to be scared.
