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
Monday, December 4, 2017
Saturday, December 2, 2017
"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:
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.The comments section is equally interesting. I'm curious if others have thoughts on the topic!
Of, ultimately, their virginity.
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?
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?
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Children's Books and Women in Politics
Over Thanksgiving break, I got to see my two female cousins who happen to be twins and are just starting to read. Their birthdays are a couple days from Thanksgiving, so we always celebrate their birthday on Thanksgiving with the family altogether.
This year, instead of giving them more clothes or princess dresses (which my mom gave them last year), I asked my mom if we could get them books that showcase stories about successful women.
Having them read about ambitious, driven women who succeed in all different fields is so important to start when they are young. Because they are both interested in science and love to play sports, we ended up getting them books called "Women in Sports," and "Women in Science," which include one page bedtime stories that cover all different successful women in those fields.
After findings these books, I then researched if there was a "Women in Politics," children's book. And unfortunately, there wasn't one (at least by the same author, Rachel Ignotofsky). While there are some children's books that cover women's activism in politics, when I researched the topic, it was clear that there wasn't an equal emphasis on the importance of this issue.
While it's important to showcase to young women that there have been successful women in all fields, it's interesting to me that when it comes to politics, there's a much weaker urgency to get those messages out there. The reason for this reality beats me, but it was something that really struck me. I think it's time for a "Women in Politics," children's book. Maybe I'll write to Rachel Ignotofsky and ask why books on women in sports and science came first.
This year, instead of giving them more clothes or princess dresses (which my mom gave them last year), I asked my mom if we could get them books that showcase stories about successful women.
Having them read about ambitious, driven women who succeed in all different fields is so important to start when they are young. Because they are both interested in science and love to play sports, we ended up getting them books called "Women in Sports," and "Women in Science," which include one page bedtime stories that cover all different successful women in those fields.
After findings these books, I then researched if there was a "Women in Politics," children's book. And unfortunately, there wasn't one (at least by the same author, Rachel Ignotofsky). While there are some children's books that cover women's activism in politics, when I researched the topic, it was clear that there wasn't an equal emphasis on the importance of this issue.
While it's important to showcase to young women that there have been successful women in all fields, it's interesting to me that when it comes to politics, there's a much weaker urgency to get those messages out there. The reason for this reality beats me, but it was something that really struck me. I think it's time for a "Women in Politics," children's book. Maybe I'll write to Rachel Ignotofsky and ask why books on women in sports and science came first.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Why everyone's talking about 'Lady Bird,' and why you should be too [Chicago Tribune]
On Monday, I shared with everyone that my first reaction to Miss Representation was thinking that many of my male friends wouldn't want to see a film about the struggles that girls and women face. That afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised when one of my best guy friends asked if I wanted to see 'Lady Bird' with him and my other guy friend, who had already seen it once and wanted to see it again. Since they are people who normally rave about Star Wars and Marvel films, this was definitely unexpected coming from them.
I chose this article to share because I think Schmich does a good job of pointing out what's different about this movie and other movies that have been labeled as "feminist," such as 'Wonder Woman.' In particular, I thought this quote was especially important:
After watching the film with them today (and crying together), I just wanted to share the movie and my experience because 1) Lady Bird is a new favorite of mine, and 2) I learned that perhaps more now than in the past, men are willing to listen to and care about women's stories. It's such a powerful story focused on a young girl and her mother, and I can see why it's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I chose this article to share because I think Schmich does a good job of pointing out what's different about this movie and other movies that have been labeled as "feminist," such as 'Wonder Woman.' In particular, I thought this quote was especially important:
“Lady Bird” helps to widen the lens. It’s exactly the right movie for this fraught moment, in which many people are opening their eyes to the truth of sexual harassment and how it can harm women’s opportunities and view of themselves.
I'm curious to know if anyone else has seen this film, and if they have thoughts on the article!
Monday, November 27, 2017
Miss Representation and Reece Witherspoon's Work in Film Production
The movie "Miss Representation" discussed the need for more women to not only have the starring roles in movies (and hold them independently of men), but also produce and direct more movies. While we still have a lot of progress to make, here is a video that showcases some of Reece Witherspoon's advancement on this issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKKRBnpDpBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKKRBnpDpBY
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Understanding Miss Representation through Rose McGowan
Directly after finishing Miss Representation, I popped onto Facebook and this little clip came up. The eerie similarity between the issues she brings up and those elaborated on in Miss Representation made me feel like she was an important figure into evaluating Hollywood right now and the effects of discrimination in Hollywood on a single human. I especially liked her quote the discrimination is a result of "Institutionalized stupidity"
https://www.facebook.com/StrongOpinionsLooselyHeld/videos/775618815953466/?hc_ref=ARR68HF8dxxg0haWUxJSZT5M17SnVk4Wst2ctuyouCAWTMmpkPKylJyozmsb8l-WsxE
Mcgowan is one of the women that first came out with their accusations of Harvey Weinstein, triggering an increase in stories against Hollywood big names. In the following article, the controversy between Alec Baldwin highlights how blatant the boy's club is and complicit men are in the abuse. To summarize, Baldwin admits that one of the biggest rumors in Hollywood is Weinstein’s rape of Mcgowan and that everybody knew. Mcgowan responded by saying, "Told you everyone knew. No one cared. Men ran the show. Women toed the line. No more." Though this side of the story was also discouraging since one of the biggest news articles surrounding the controversy centered around Baldwin, I think it highlights an important underworking of Hollywood that these assaults and cases of harassment are not completely secret but rather a complex web of complacency and the heads of the industry actively diminishing women's stories. http://ew.com/movies/2017/11/04/alec-baldwin-twitter-leave/
To build off of this point, I was shocked when I googled to find out more about Rose Mcgowan just from the short clip I had discovered, that the first page of news articles featured headlines such as the following:
Rose McGowan Arrested For Felony Possession Of Drugs
Evidence for the media bias described in Miss Representation in every way. Mcgowan was accused of cocaine possession while, ironically, en route to the Women's March in Washington. Mcgowan strongly denies the allegation saying it was a “load of horseshit.” and"Are they trying to silence me?" https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/rose-mcgowan-speaks-out-about-her-arrest-on-drug-charges This article goes into how Weinstein hired private investigators into the felony charges and wanted to leak them to the press. The hearing won't begin until January 23rd but I think the case has the potential to be a clear indication of the media industry attempting to take down the image of a woman who poses as a threat to the abusive patriarchy of Hollywood. The language of the headlines place the blame into Mcgowan's hands and occupy the space once taken up by the case of rape. This could be an attempt to deface and delegitimize her in the eyes of the public, and even if it proves to be a true incident, it's current success of overshadowing the work Mcgowan has done demonstrates how the media operates without the fact to back it up and the bias it takes.
(http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/entertainment/rose-mcgowan-arrest/index.html)
Throughout this brief research, I've overall been disappointed by the disjunct information on her I've been able to parse. Perhaps the reason we don't see the accurate or clear reporting on this figure is that the news stories I've gotten my information from are all under the same hoods as the large corporations that, as Mcgowan points out, are attempting to protect themselves in the matter.
McGowan has a new, said to be revealing, book "Brave" set release for January 30th.
A preliminary hearing in the case is set for January 23.
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