Teach at Claremont Splash!

Hey everyone!

I promised to post the link to sign up to teach for Claremont Splash, so here it is: https://claremont.learningu.org/

I hope you guys sign up! Just a reminder that if you sign up before winter break, you get entered into a raffle to win gift cards!

Thanks!

Why I'm done trying to be "Man Enough" Ted Talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/justin_baldoni_why_i_m_done_trying_to_be_man_enough?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=talk&utm_term=global-social%20issues

Hi all!

I recently stumbled upon this Ted Talk about the definition of masculinity and pressures it puts on males. I found the talk to be highly relevant to our discussion of Miss Representation, and continued themes of sexual assault in the press.
There is so much discussion of female gender roles and the way girls are raised in some ways to feel inferior than men-examples include those discussed in class like often raising hands less, allowing males to take leadership roles, etc. It's interesting to look at the reverse and see how much progress there is to be made in terms of male gender pressures and identities, as well. I love the question this speaker uses, "Are you strong enough to be sensitive?" It makes me think of male leaders and my everyday friends who have such a single-minded definition of strength.

I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on male gender stereotypes/pressure, this Ted Talk, or these topics in conversation with the sexual assault cases recently exposed.

Best,
Caroline

The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment 2017

I have to share Sarah Silverman's recent speech because she touches on so many issues that we've discussed in class recently - women "having it all," "working dad," women raising each other up, and inclusive feminism. She takes a very humorous approach (not surprising given she's a stand-up comedian), but I think there's a lot of weight in what she's saying.

Help with Finals Procrastination

Hi everyone,

I found this Ted talk about gender roles incredibly riveting. It also touches on the recent "me too" campaign/movement against sexual harassment.

A great way to procrastinate for finals!

Here's the link:

https://www.ted.com/talks/justin_baldoni_why_i_m_done_trying_to_be_man_enough

Reeve

Another Woman Comes Out With Allegations Against Franken

Yet another woman came out with sexual misconduct allegations against Al Franken. More than half of the Senate Democrats are now asking Franken to resign. It seems to me that that politicians in general faced with sexual misconduct issues are not resigning their positions when faced with sexual misconduct allegations. There has been a far stronger backlash against celebrities and media executives who have faced sexual misconduct charges.

Below is the link to the article:


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/us/politics/franken-harrassment-resign.html

Working Women in Japan

I just read this interesting article on The Economist on working women in Japan.  In general, Japanese woman want to work. However, forces such as workplace harassment, lack of nurseries, caring for the elderly, not enough help from husbands in house work, and ostracization for taking paternity leave, cause women pursue part-time work and casual work. Women, therefore, have worse job prospects and worse pay. Women in Japan earn earn 74 cents on the dollar to the man (in the US women earn 81 cents on the dollar to the male). Women, as a result, rarely reach senior positions in the workforce. 

In summary, the problem is that Japanese women are entering the labor force, but are not progressing through organizational ranks. Such a phenomenon is similar in America. How do we rectify this problem?

Below is the link to the article, if you are interested:

https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21731423-higher-proportion-are-employed-america-japanese-women-are-working-more-few-are 

‘Where My Activists At?’ Inside the First Teen Vogue Summit

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/style/teen-vogue-summit-hillary-clinton.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront

This past weekend, over 500 people attended Teen Vogue's first summit in Los Angeles, CA.
Teen Vogue, which is best known as a fashion and beauty magazine, was able to add politics into the mix at the event. Hillary Clinton, who was brought in as a keynote speaker, advised attendees to fight against "mansplaining" and to adjust their political expectations. I think bringing Hillary to the summit was a great move by Teen Vogue because it helps remove the barrier between politics and femininity. Recently, "Teen Vogue added the political issues of today to coverage of party frocks and makeup tips, and became a glossy guidebook for readers disenfranchised by the current presidential administration." Teen Vogue's magazine and summit seem to do a good job of making politics seem less intimidating to girls. In my opinion, we need a lot more works and events like this, where girls are able to connect with prominent female politicians and leaders. The fact that attendees of the summit got to meet a number of female executives from well-known companies such as Netflix and Youtube is amazing. I personally would have loved to have attended this event. I am impressed that Teen Vogue was able to create an environment for safe discussion and mentorship for women from all over the U.S. I wonder if we would be able to bring an event like this to CMC, or at least have a group of CMC students attend this type of event next semester. 

Why Millennial Men Want Old-School Marriages

This is a really interesting article about millennial men and their conceptions of marriage. Apparently, millennial men are increasingly seeking stay-at-home wives. It explains this by contextualizing some of the recent themes we've talked about in class, such as the increasing success of women in the workforce. Another explanation is "pragmatic" issues, such as the lack of family leaves. (Of course, even if this is true, why can't men be stay-at-home dads while their wives work?)

I also wonder what this says about common liberal understandings of progress?

https://www.vogue.com/article/millennial-men-seek-stay-at-home-wives

"As the father of daughters..."

I came across this Washington Post piece titled "Paul Ryan and Harvey Weinstein are both ‘fathers of daughters,’" and it immediately stood out to me because we touched on this subject briefly in our last discussion:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/12/01/paul-ryan-and-harvey-weinstein-are-both-fathers-of-daughters/

I was actually listening to NPR when they were interviewing Paul Ryan on the issue of sexual harassment, and I distinctly remember him saying the part mentioned in the article, "I want my daughter to grow up in a country — she’s 15 years old — where she is empowered and respected." This was the entirety of his argument against sexual misconduct. I also remember that while Ryan did go on to explicitly criticize Roy Moore, he then dodged questions about whether President Trump should be held to the same standards as members of Congress.

While there is nothing wrong with citing concerns for one's daughters in the context of sexual harassment, I think Danya Ruttenberg does a good job of highlighting the potential pitfalls of using this as a central argument. Specifically, she states:

There’s a widespread cultural trope underlying the language of “as the father of daughters,” and the reason the phrase is so easy to reach for as a metaphor also gives away the problems with it. It’s the dad coming to meet his daughter’s date with a shotgun. [...] Fathers, here, are protectors. Of their daughters. Of their honor.
Of, ultimately, their virginity.

The comments section is equally interesting. I'm curious if others have thoughts on the topic!

More on Nov 7 Elections from Jennifer Lawless

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/11/09/in-tuesdays-elections-women-won-big-here-are-three-things-we-learned-about-women-and-politics/?utm_term=.9b138e11f410

Jennifer Lawless, who cowrote the book with Richard Fox from which we read excerpts a couple of classes ago, wrote a response to the Nov 7 elections for the Washington Post that had a bit more of an uplifting tone than we got from her in the reading. To recall what we read, the core statements that could be drawn from Chapters 2 and 6 were that (1) it's more likely that US will fall behind other countries in the gender gap than improve its relative progress on the global spectrum (last page in Ch. 2 but page numbers were cut off), and (2) female politicians tend to be members of the Democratic party.

In this article, Lawless again points out fact that when the Republican Party is in power, women tend to see far fewer gains in elections, as well as the fact that many women who ran did so because of Trump's election. Yet as we saw in her article, the distribution of female party affiliation in the U.S. does not nearly match up. Is it really the case that the GOP still possesses residual sexist conservatism to such a degree that its women feel that much less inclined to run? It's easy to accept that as true when we focus on the social values and issues that are typically associated with the Republican Party, like abortion, birth control, or affirmative action; yet seeing the distribution of American women's party alignment indicates that the same effect we've read about from the '60s where women weren't even aware of their inequality or at least comfortable acknowledging it. There still exists a sizable minority (33% as of 2016 according to Forbes) of women who insist that the U.S. has no gender inequality, but even if we assume that this percentage is made up of all Republican women, what's holding them back from running? If women are really equal to men in America, then why wouldn't women want to go into politics?