This video addresses the extremely controversial practice of female genital mutilation. In this video, two Kenyan girls are featured who are resisting this practice. It shows their parents' reactions to their resistance and how embedded FGM is in their culture. The parents worry that if their daughters aren't cut, then they will not be able to marry and thus, the parents will not receive a dowry for marrying their daughters off. The daughters argue that they do not want to be cut and that they want to be able to go off and pursue an education.

A growing resistance to FGM is now present in Kenya, primarily led by a self-help group known as Abandon the Knife. This group is trying to talk with men and women about FGM and the negative effects associated with it. They meet with the parents of these two Kenyan girls in an attempt to persuade their parents that allowing their daughters to pursue an education will result in far greater benefits than receiving a dowry. They have also began a new rite of passage ceremony for girls who are resisting FGM in which they provide education to these young girls about FGM and what all it entails and then they have a ceremony that marks these girls passage into womanhood, but without having to undergo the cutting.

I found this to be a very interesting video on FGM and would recommend it to anyone interested in this issue. From my Western mindset, I have always viewed this practice with a lot of disgust. However, I have also tried to understand it in its cultural-specific context and realize that it is such an ingrained cultural practice signifying a woman's readiness to get married. It's a very difficult issue for me to not bring in my Western bias that this practice is fundamentally wrong. I know that for many women it is part of their culture and they want to have it done because it prepares them for marriage, but it is difficult for me to accept this and to not bring in my own cultural values and belief in basic human rights, which I believe this practice violates. Thus, the fact that the younger generation is beginning to resist this practice and gain support for this resistance is a step in the right direction. I think this video does a really good job of showing the growing resistance, particularly among teenage girls, against FGM and the ways in which long held cultural beliefs are starting to be changed.

Anthony Robles

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2011-03-21-anthony-robles-retires_N.htm

This particular piece of journalism is important because only once does the author actually mention the fact that Anthony Robles is a wrestler who has one leg. If you were to read the entire article minus that sentence, you would have almost no idea that there was anything unique about Anthony at all. As we learned in our recent class session focusing on "disabilities", often any type of journalism focusing on people with some type of mental or physical disability either seeks to call to attention how miraculous it is that someone with a disability could have had such an accomplishment or it seeks to glorify the disability as the reason why this person has succeeded.

The author of this article remarks only a few times about anything physical at all when mentioning Robles, and aims to focus more on the tangible accomplishments this young man has achieved rather than note that the reason why these achievements are noteworthy are because he deviates from the "norm". Robles' story is uplifting, inspirational and motivational to people of all walks of life and is made to appear no more or less significant because Robles lacks one of his legs. If this article had chosen to focus on how Robles' achievements were more significant because he has only one leg, projected Robles as a wounded warrior and spoke more on the potential struggles Robles faced growing up with his disability, reading the article would elicit an entirely different reaction. If journalists chose to approach all matters of gender, race, culture, etc., with this type of neutrality, I believe that the media would be a much less opinionated and biased part of culture.

"When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?"

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html#

Somewhat in relation to the J Crew ad that is sparking controversy, this article addresses the social roots of what created the "regulation" that boys and girls need to adhere to certain societal standards such as wearing blue and pink, respectively. It is interesting how the article starts by saying that couples "have" to know the sex of their baby at first glance because is is very true that our society must know the sex of a baby before they know how to treat and talk to it. For example, when people see a boy baby for the first time, they usually use words like "handsome," "strong," "curious," and "prince," while girl babies are called "angelic," "sweet," "cuddly," "cute." Studies have also demonstrated that boy babies are treated a lot differently than girl babies in the ways in which they are held, talked to, etc. If people do not know the sex of a baby they don't really know what to do or how to treat it. Our gender roles for even babies is so structured that many people can only react based on the societal notions of what each gender is supposed to be.

The article states that separate gendered colors did not come about until just before World War 2 "and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out" pointing out what we know all too well, that pop culture is a huge determinant in deciding how girls and boys are supposed to act and dress. With mass communications what they are today, pop culture is spread around the world in a matter of seconds.

The article attributes prenatal testing to the rapid change in keeping boys and girls clothes separate. As soon as parents could learn the sex of the child they could go shopping for merchandise that was perfectly suited to their boy or girl. Of course merchandise companies are providing these necessities and encouraging the behavior with commercials and marketing geared directly at such parents and eventually for children as they become impressionable and easily marketed to with television commercials and children's show characters.

Crossing Arizona - Watch this film!

Movie Review: Crossing Arizona

Crossing Arizona is a political documentary that demonstrates how the current immigration laws in America affect people on both sides of the border and it presents opinions from all sides of the issue. The film explains how the changed border strategy has sealed off border cities, and allowed for funneling though the unforgiving terrain of the Arizona desert. The laws and regulations have pushed immigrants further and further into the desert to cross the border and many people die each year in an attempt to cross through the isolated desert. Many people living on the border feel that no one deserves to die in the desert and they have worked tirelessly to supply water and humanitarian aid to those trying to cross. Throughout the film you will see perspectives from everyone affected by the border laws including, border patrol, immigrants on both sides of the border, humanitarian aid workers, guides, vigilante groups, farmers and ranchers. The film makers did an excellent job presenting all perspectives involved.

Some of the more memorable and upsetting moments in the film was the footage anti-immigration rallies in Arizona. A man in Tombstone started the “ Minuteman project – Veterans for a secure border” in which American citizens gathered from around the country to “protect” the border saying it is their duty and every American should be out there helping the government to do their job. This rally seemed to stir hatred and anger more than protect anything. Their goal was to create a deterrence for the immigrants trying to cross, but if I were someone attempting to cross the border and I had paid my life savings to make it into another country I probably wouldn’t allow a knitting grandmother from California in a camping chair be much of a deterrence. It was easy to see how the Minuteman project could escalate into a recruitment fair for white supremacy groups.
Water is one of the biggest problems for the people crossing the desert and it is not possible for someone to carry all the water necessary for the journey. In an attempt to stop the deaths in the desert, many people and organizations have provided water stations and started search and rescue groups to help. One man maintains a cache of water jugs he refills daily to help those in need. In one scene he returns to his jugs and sees them strewn about and many of them are slashed or have been intentionally burst. He says to deny someone water is “a crime against humanity.”

If you are interested in an in depth follow-up to Jennifer Piper’s lecture this is the film for you!

Sweatshops and Women

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn8LnEkKfIU&feature=related

A terrible result of economic globalization is sweatshops. Multinational corporations have been moving production facilities to developing countries in order to take advantage of cheap labor. As you can see in the video, most sweatshop workers are women. Most of the women are young and uneducated and consequently lack the knowledge and resources to stand up for themselves. Workers wages range from 5 to 20 cents per hour. They are often forced to work over time and not allowed bathroom breaks. The living conditions for sweatshop workers are crowded and dirty, and worst of all, women are often sexually harassed. Employers are known to falsely promise women better jobs in return for sexual favors. In a sweatshop in Saipan, pregnant women were forced to have abortions in order to keep their jobs. The treatment of women in sweatshops in truly horrific and I urge you all to be cognizant of where you shop.

This video is very powerful, as are the comments listed below the video. Clearly the video is made by college students, which is great and shows activism. However, others cannot handle the activism and are extremely ignorant with their comments. One comment says “yay sweatshops!!” and another says “I love retarded liberal college students pretending like they know everything when they know nothing... lets just shut down all the sweatshops don’t worry the children/mothers wont turn to worse things like prostitution.” It is shocking that people can actually be so ignorant. People need to become educated and aware of sweatshop conditions before change can actually occur.

Pink Toenails and Masculinity

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-talk-pink-toenails-0414-20110413,0,4817384.story

If you google J. Crew and Pink toenail polish, you will find multiple media channels - big news stations, blogs, comment boards... - all commenting on the fact that a woman representing J. Crew and modeling new clothes was pictured with her young son who had his toenails painted pink. This caused a massive uproar all over television and the web.

Tonight, Jon Stewart put together a piece on all the rants, which I can't find yet, but am sure by tomorrow will be on YouTube. One of the men he found, a supposed specialist, stated that such an action goes against masculinity, not verbatim, but that is what he meant. Society is so set in the established gender roles, and when a young boy gets his toenails painted by his mother, instead of it being a bonding moment, a sweet gesture by his mom to show affection, it is taken as an assault on what it means to be a man. Someone said she should be saving funds for later when he needs psychotherapy. Really? This goes back to what exactly it means to be a 'man.' Clearly in the western world, wearing pink nail polish signifies homosexuality, and being feminine, because pink is a 'girl' color. First of all, there are plenty of 'manly,' straight, men who wear the color pink, and secondly, why do so many people care? Why is the media all over this topic?

I find so many things wrong with this whole thing and I was instantly angered. The attention paid to this action is ridiculous when you look at the state of the world, but it speaks volumes to what people care about, and are thinking about. We are all so interconnected with one another that such an instance makes national media - it is sickening to me. Just wanted to share and rant a little.

Sterilization in the Czech Republic

Government Admits Forced Sterilization

After talking about sterilization in class today, it made me think of several conversations that I had with Roma women in the Czech Republic. The Roma population, also known as gypsies (which is a derogatory term), is the minority population in the Czech Republic and throughout Central and Eastern Europe. I checked out Wikipedia's definition of Roma and it referenced a 2003 article in The Guardian about Roma in the Czech Republic. 75% of Roma children are educated at schools for children with special needs and learning disabilities and the majority of Roma adults are unemployed. In 2003 the percentage was 70%, compared to the national average of 6%.

Another difficulty that Roma women faced and may still be facing today is sterilization without consent. In 2009 the government finally admitted and apologized for sterilizing Roma women. Czech doctors were sterilizing women when they were giving birth. The women would be given the consent forms right before they gave birth and were pressured to sign papers that they did not understand. Many were threatened that if they weren't sterilized they would lose their children. Doctors were sterilizing the women to curb the traditionally high fertility rate of Roma women. The practice started during Communism to prevent "undesirables" from reproducing and supposedly ended in 1989, but the last recorded case was in 2003 and many activists still believe that this is occurring. Another article in Womensenews.org, Sterilized Roma Say They Did Not Consent, discusses the widespread discrimination that Roma women face in general and reiterates women getting sterilized without knowing what was happening.

The Roma, like people with disabilities, are pressured to be sterilized without fully understanding the process or what they are consenting to. Perpetuating the idea of undesirables and the image of a perfect, ideal body will not create a more understanding and accepting society, but potentially continue or increase sterilizations and abortions. It will continue to hinder the progress that many minority groups have made. By sterilizing the women, the Czech government and state-run hospitals re-enforced the idea that they were not as good as other women and they did not deserve to have more children.