Sexist Media

Once again the media has proven that they are sexist. The latest victim is once again Sarah Palin. Since the day Sarah Palin stepped onto the national stage by running for the Vice President, the attacks began. Constant remarks about her beauty were spoken. What did that have to do with the office she was running for? Did they remark how handsome (or not) Joe Biden was. Of course not, he's a man. He doesn't get looked at as a sex object. To remark that someone is attractive is one thing, but to constantly remark about their appearance to the point that they are looked at as bimbo's not to be taken seriously is another thing.
The latest attack came in the form of an article and picture on the front of the Newsweek magazine. The cover shows Palin dressed in shorts standing next to an American flag. The photo was taken from a magazine titled Runners World Magazine. Next to the picture was the title "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah Palin". I guess their way of dismissing her, and therefore solve the problem, is to degrade her as a mere sex object. If that wasn't bad enough, the article states, "Obama knows the long odds against a right-wing populist winning the presidency, no matter how good she looks in a skirt (or running clothes), branishing a gun." Could they be anymore sexist? Obviously Barbara Walters thought there was something questionable about it, since she questioned her on the picture in an interview.
Whether you agree with her views or not, she shouldn't be degraded like that!
The media has been very critical and sexist toward Hillary Clinton also. They constantly make fun of her pantsuits, and seem always to question what President Clinton thinks of her policies. How often did they ask President Clinton what Hillary thought of his policies? How degrading for her. When she was questioned about what he thought about her stand on issues she reacted in frustration. Good for her. She and her husband should be respected, but at present time SHE is the Secretary of State not him.
The media better wake up - women are coming alive in the 21st Century, and we've got something to say that needs to be heard!

Sex Trafficking

A beautiful little 5 year old girl named Shaniya was found dead in North Carolina. Her mother has been charged with human trafficking and felony child abuse. She reportedly offered her daughter for prostitution. Isn't this heartbreaking? What kind of a mother could do this horendous act?
I found a website with a video that exposes who the men are that buy the children and women sold in the sex trade industry. The site is http://www.sharedhope.org. I also found a You Tube video that tells how we can stop this cruel, sick crime.

We need to keep our eyes open. It's happening in OUR communities.

Government Funded Abortions

I watched with much interest the vote in the House concerning the Government Health Care Bill. I was very pleased that government funded abortions were voted out of the bill. I know many will not agree, but I am pro life and I am against abortions. This bill was not to outlaw abortions it was just to stop tax payers from paying for them. This is not a health issue, except in extreme cases. It should not be paid for by the government. If we are going to pay for abortions, we should pay for breast implants and elective plastic surgery. Having an abortion, having breast implants, having elective plastic surgerty, etc. is not done to heal a health issue. It is a choice a person makes.
Pro lifers are seen in the media to be haters who want to limit women's rights. Not all of us are crazy people who want to kill the abortion doctors. We just feel very strongly about a moral issue. Why didn't the media show the tens of thousands of people who protested peacefully in DC before this vote? They want to sway the publics oppinion so that they will not consider what we stand for.

What Does It Take to Be a Good Man?

The media says “real men” are violent. “Real men” don’t express their emotions verbally, they express their emotions physically.
Well, a new project called “the Good Men Project” shows otherwise. This is a discussion by 31 men about being a good son, father, husband and worker. This project is inspiring men to talk about their feelings.
Women have a developed social vocabulary. We talk to each other. Men don’t feel comfortable talking. Men can and do react to honesty. They will listen and change.
Finally, men are becoming “real men” and expressing their emotions by record numbers. They are attending seminars to help them communicate. They are going online at www.thegoodmenproject.org to read about other men and are responding with approval.

Violence In Children’s TV Programming
After reading the article in Gender, Race, and Class in Media titled “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” by Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, I was deeply concerned about the TV and movies our young children are seeing.
The article noted that teachers reported seeing an increase in violence after watching The Power Rangers, as children imitated what they had seen on the screen. The Power Rangers is a cartoon about five teenagers who change into super heroes to save the world. They use extreme violence in their attacks, which our young children are mimicking.

“Crime rates are increasing most rapidly among youth who were in their formative early years when children’s TV was deregulated and violent programs and toys successfully deluged childhood culture (“The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”, pg 360). People in the TV, movie, and video games continue to argue that violence in entertainhment does not affect our children. How can they say that?
We’re living in an age where we are criticized if we spank our children when they misbehave. It is said they will grow up with violent tendencies. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical? What about the violence they are permitted to see each day? Levin and Carlsson-Paige said that children ages 2 to 5 watch an average of four hours of TV each day, and that equals seven years of TV by high school graduation. They also stated that by the time children complete elementary school they will have seen 8,000 killings and more than 100,000 other acts of violence. How can that much violence not influence our children. It desensitizes their young minds. They become so accustomed to seeing violence that when they actually witness it in person they can just walk by without stopping to help or even stand and by and watch, as was the case of a 15 year old girl in Richmond, CA who was ganged raped by at least 4 males. At least 15 people, all males, watched for over 2 hours. As news swept through the Homecoming Dance, others came out to join the audience, and some actually participated in the violence against this young girl.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the deregulation of children’s broadcasting. Certainly, parents need to watch carefully what they permit their children to view.

'Gwen'

Each American Girl Doll comes with a book about the particular doll. Recently a new doll named "Gwen" has caused contriversay. Gwen is homeless. Some feel the new theme doll is a good idea which helps educate girls about the reality of homelessness.
One of the reasons people are concerned is that the doll sells for $95, which would make it doubtful a homeless child could affort to purchase one. Also, no percentage of the profits go to the aid of the homeless, although American Girls has donated $500,000 since 2006 to Home Aid, which helps the homeless find housing (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/26/earlyshow/saturday/main5343132.shtml).
I believe children need to be aware of the hardships some of their friends and classmates deal with, although, I certainly don't believe the children should be pointed out. Reality is, homelessness is a serious matter facing many families in this day.
I applaud American Girl for taking the risk of contriversary to bring an ignored situation to the forefront.

Thank You Dove

What an amazing message. Dove is doing a great service to the women of America. We need to be proud of who we are, not what we look like. Beautiful girls are feeling self conscious about their bodies like never before. Even litle girls are anorexic. Marilyn Monroe would be considered fat by todays standards.

What is the Media Telling Young Girls?

After watching a Dr. Phil show about teen girls having oral sex in school I was interested to find why there are no inhibitions about being sexually active.
According to the USA Today, "Kids who said they watched more sex-oriented programs at the beginning of the year were more likely than others their age to become sexually active during the next year." Rebecca Collins of RAND Corp , in a report on Pediatrics online journal, says the more sexually oriented scenes they saw, the more likely they were to become sexually active.
Why are TV programs starring teens, and about teens, so sexually charged? There are several TV shows that involve sexually active teens, here are a few: The Secret Life of the American Teenager, One Tree Hill, Degrasssi: The Next Generation, The O.C., and Gossip Girls. Very seldom does the media show the consequences of sexual activity like pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the vagina, the anal area, and the mouth.
Sharlene Azam has written a book and a documentary film titled Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss. She appeared in an interview on Good Morning America in June 2009 and said the youngest girl she interviewed was 11! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj8p94a81ZE

The NFL Will Support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

All Nationhal Football League teams will support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink coins will be used for the toss, the goal posts will be wrapped in pink padding, and coaches will wear pink caps and pink ribbon pins. Tanya Snyder, the wife of the owner of the Washington Redskins, will be the face of Breast Cancer Awareness Month for the NFL. Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals will be assisting her. Fitzgerald's mother died of breast cancer. Mrs. Snyder is presently battling breast cancer.

Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans will be wearing pink shoes and pink gloves. He is looking for a pink mouth gaurd to finish off his look. Johnson said, "Pink isn't the color most people think of in connection with football or the NFL." Johnson doesn't have a personal connection to the disease. He said it doesn't matter if pink isn't a "manly" football color. To him it's all about breast cancer. He wants to support the women going through the illness and remind all women ages 40 and up to have their mamograms. (http://www.heraldtribune,com/article/20091001/APS/910011918)

Mrs. Snyder said one of the players actually came up with the idea about wearing pink. She did not release the name of the player.

I am impressed that the NFL would show that "real men" can wear pink! It's refreshing to see that women are sometimes taken seriously.

Mom's Killing Their Babies

According to the American Anthropological Association more than 200 women kill their children in the US each year. Three to five children a day are killed by their parents. Homicide is one of the leading causes of death of children under the age of four. Charles Montaldo -http://crime.about.com/od/female_offender_offenders/a/mother.
Women in jail report that no one believes them when they say they wanted to kill their children. Of the 49 women on death row, 11 killed children. Prior to the homicide, people notice that the mother is having problems parenting. .
Nancy-Scheper-Hughes, a medical anthropologist, cited that women sometimes kill their sickly or weak children in situations of extreme poverty. These women do this in response to impossibly difficult situations. Children are sometimes seriously neglected, “sacrificed”, so that older children can live . Why Mothers Kill Their Children. 25 Mar 2002. http://www.aaanet.org/pres/motherskillingchildren.htm.
Women also tend to kill unwanted children. Gender-selection is practiced through the world.
Susan Smith murdered her 2 sons, aged 3 and 14 months, on October 25, 1994 by drowning them. She will be up for parole on November 4, 2024 after serving a minimum sentence of 30 years.
She reported to police that she had been carjacked by a black man who drove away with her sons in the car. Susan gave tearful interviews on TV. Nine days later she confessed to letting her car roll into a lake drowning the children inside.
The motive for the murders were that she wanted to get rid of her children so that she could have a relationship with a wealthy local man who didn’t want children.
While she has been in prison, 2 guards have been punished for having sex with her. It is thought that she may have Borderline Personality Disorder (Susan Smith).
It is sad to think that women are crying out for help, but no one believes them when they say they are struggling. Instead of glamorizing the murders, we should be promoting where women can go to find help.

Sexual Harassment in the Military

According to women veterans survey by the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center and University of Iowa, fifty percent of women at the Air Force, Army, and Naval Academies report being sexually harassed and “hostile attitudes and inappropriate actions toward women” continues “to hinder the establishment of a safe and professional environment”. Seventy-nine percent of women veterans surveyed reported experiences of sexual harassment during their military service; thirty percent of the women reported an attempted or completed rape (http://www.medianmouse.org/recruiting/facts.php).
Of the cases that were fully investigated in 2005, nearly 1,400, or sixty-eight percent, were completed by the end of the year. No action was taken against more than 800 alleged offenders because the incident was unfounded. Among the remaining, 79 people received court martial, 91 were given no judicial punishments, and 104 were discharged or otherwise reprimanded (http://www.famedetroit.org/sexassaultreport.htm).
What does this say about the treatment of women? Results of surveys concluded that women where sexual harassment is permitted are four times more likely to be raped. We need to stop turning a deaf ear to women being verbally abused. It is not acceptable to harass women. It is most typical with lower ranked women, which is an example of men abusing their position and power over women. Men, no matter what their position, need to be held accountable for their actions, and leaders need to be better trained in understanding sexual discrimination and how to handle it!

September 11

Let us never forget those that lost their lives on this tragic day 8 years ago. Also, let us not forget the men and women who have fought and who are fighting at present for the safety of America.
God bless America!

South African Runner Casater Semenya May Lose Medal

Caster Semenya, a South African runner, won the 800-meter race at the World Championships, but a controversy has arisen that may result in her giving back her medal.
“She was not accused of trying to cheat, but of perhaps unknowingly having a medical condition that blurs her gender and gives her an unfair advantage” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090825/ap_on_sp_ot/af_south_africa_semenya_s_return). Questions arose about her muscular build and deep voice.
Tests were done which showed she has male and female sexual organs. She has no ovaries and has internal male testes, which produce large amounts of testosterone. She underwent blood and chromosome tests as well as a gynecological examination.
The IAAF said she probably would not lose her medal because it was not related to doping (http://www.comcast.net/articles/sports-general/20090911/Semenya-Gender.Test).
Semenya’s supporters say the allegations against her are motivated by jealousy and show racial discrimination against Africans (http://news.yahoo.com).
I believe it is disgraceful the way this young woman has been publicly humiliated. Sensitive matters like this should be handled delicately and privately. If her medal is not taken back, it wouldn’t have been necessary to publish these results.
Would an American or a man be treated this way? I think not.

Tatoo Barbie Causes Controversery

The new "Totally Stylin Tattoos Barbie", released in March 2009, comes with body art stickers (tattoos) and a set of tattoos for children.

Jenn Alcayago says, "It's attracting kids too young to want to expose parts of their body to show off tattoos" http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Tatoo-Barbie-Parents-In-US-Voice-Concern-Over-Message-of-Doll-Featuring-Body-Art/Article/20090311523033 Sales of Tattoo Barbie are greater than they expected and Mattel says it has no plans to discontinue the doll.

Barbie has had several controversial themes in the past. Slumber Party Barbie comes with a book titled How to Lose Weight, which advised "Don't Eat". It also comes with a bathroom scale reading 110 pounds, which would be 35 pounds underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall.

Has Mattel gone too far? Have we taken away the innocence of childhood? Why can't little girls just be little girls? Why rush them to be teenagers?

September is Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month

"Gynecologic cancer is the growth and spread of cancer cells in the cervix, ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes, vagina and vulva. According to the American Cancer Society, 80,600 new cases of gynecologic cancer will be diagnosed nationwide this year with 27,400 deaths" (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/).
How many of these deaths could be prevented if women would go for their yearly pap smear and exam? Don't get caught without your yearly appointment. No one enjoys the procedure, but it is life saving.