Gender, Culture, and Conflict Class Blog: January 2013

Friday, January 11, 2013

Blues Clues (interesting thought)

So i couldn't find an article about this but i had an interesting thought about Blue's Clues. Has anyone ever questioned whether Blue was a girl or a boy? I have and was pumped to find out she is a girl. But you really cant tell by watching the show meaning Blues clues is kinda gender neutral which i find really cool.
http://www.nickjr.com/blues-clues/about-blues-clues/blues-clues-characters.html

Saudi king grants woman seats on advisory council for the 1st time

Saudia Arabia is taking a step to women's rights by allowing women in their advisory council. By allowing women to take this powerful position will hopefully allow women to be looked at in more dominate light.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/11/saudi-king-grants-women-seats-on-advisory-council-for-1st-time/?test=latestnews

Full gender equality still an issue for the military

It feels like it's been a while since we talked about the military (probably because that debate we had was a bit scarring...) so this article pretty much sums up our debate. It has both sides of the argument which is nice. The interesting thing is that the female voice in the article actully accepts the way things currently are while the male voice want more female equality.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/full-gender-equality-still-an-issue-for-the-military-414646/

Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker wrote in college he ‘hated gays’ before transformation

Mayor of Newark who once while at Stanford University wrote about hating gays, had his eyes opened by a Gay counselor who changed bookers mind on the gay community. Booker is now a huge advocate on the gay civil rights front.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/newark-nj-mayor-cory-booker-wrote-in-college-he-hated-gays-before-transformation/2013/01/10/bd56de46-5b6e-11e2-b8b2-0d18a64c8dfa_story.html

Swedish Toys"R"Us Christmas Catalog Challenges Gender Stereotypes

This is SICK. So this Swedish Toys R Us decided to reverse all its gender roles (or at least make them neutral) in its advertising this christmas to show that their products are marketable to all children. This approach was widely appreciated by Swedish consumers beacuse it reflected Sweden's current views on gender roles and such. There's pictures and stuff, it's pretty cool.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/swedish-toys-r-us-catalog-gender-stereotypes_n_2198045.html

Religulous Ex-Gay Pastor Interview

Video from Bill Maher's Religulous movie. Really freaking funny!!! He is interviewing a Ex-Gay pastor who happens to be married to a Ex-lesbian hahaha

Men's Role in Breaking Gender Stereotypes in the Workplace

This is a pretty cool article. It actually acknowledges the fact that there aren't many women in high positions and says that because of that, it's up to the men to open their minds and let gender equality happen.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/06/12/men-role-in-breaking-gender-stereotypes-in-workplace/

Gender pay gap is smallest on record

So the good news is the pay gap is decreasing, but it's pretty much because of the recession. It's said that the reason the pay gap is decreasing is because men have been hit harder by the recession, so it's unclear if the current pay gap will hold (or continue to decrease) after all the effects of the recession are gone.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2010-09-13-wage-gaps_N.htm

Arielle and Shawnee McPhail, Lesbian Couple, Handed Anti-Gay Letter From Restaurant Owner

Found this on the huffington post "gay voice". the restaurant is in North Carolina, the shop owner handed the couple a anti- gay note once they left the restaurant, asking them to save themselves through god.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/arielle-and-shawnee-mcphail-lesbian-couple-anti-gay-letter-restaurant-owner_n_2456093.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices

National Cathedral to perform same-sex weddings

The Washington National Cathedral is now going to perform same-sex marriages. The Cathedral is well know as a central gathering place to celebrate and mourn in the US.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/09/national-cathedral-same-sex-weddings/1819555/

Equality in the Military

In 2010, congress repealed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for the military, allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. This was also a big step in discouraging discrimination in politics because according to Obama, the repeal took away Republicans' excuse for discriminating against gays and lesbians.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/opinion/03wed1.html

Big drop in those who say being gay's a sin

Good news there might be hope for southern america on the gay front still. In a recent poll in Nashville Tennessee people who thing being gay is a sin are now in the minority.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/01/10/poll-minority-says-being-gays-a-sin/1825461/

Throwing Stones at Glass Ceilings

This is pretty cool, it has a story about these women who filed a lawsuit against inequality in the workplace back in the 1970s. Apparently the whole lawsuit was buried and it wasnt made public until around 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/fashion/women-still-fighting-for-workplace-equality-books-of-style.html

Couples must adjust when wife is the breadwinner

Women stepping up in the house hold and how families have to adjust. I personally think this is becoming normal in a solid percent of relationships in the US.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/01/11/couples-adjust-women-breadwinner/1566254/

Gay ‘Conversion Therapy’ Faces Test in Courts

I think we've posted a few articles like this before, but I think the concept is absolutely ridiculous and just had to post it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/us/gay-conversion-therapy-faces-tests-in-courts.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/fashion/generation-lgbtqia.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Here's the newspaper article that Farmer brought to class today :)

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Women and men are now even in the jobs recovery

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/10/women-and-men-are-now-even-in-the-jobs-recovery/?iref=allsearch

Cameroon court acquits 2 men imprisoned for 'looking gay'

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/09/world/africa/cameroon-gay-men-freed/index.html?iref=storysearch

Although this article is old I still find it very messed up. It talks about how two men were arrested and sentenced to prison because they were wearing women's clothes and ordered a feminine drink at a bar. And the judge that sentenced them put them in the category of being gay because of they way they talk, dressed, and what they ordered to drink.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Transgender Soccer Player

Click here to see the article.

Jonny Saelua plays for the Samoan national soccer team, and identifies himself as a fa'afafine - a third sex in Polynesian culture. "To be fa’afafine you have to be Samoan, born a man, feel you are a woman, be sexually attracted to males and, importantly, proud to be called and labeled fa’afafine.” The article discusses how soccer is highly targeted by racism and sexism. However, Saelua was widely accepted by his teammates. One of his teammates even said that he is like a brother and sister to the team. It's great to see that other genders are being accepted all over the world, not just in Western culture.

Touching Story

Click here to see the article.

The above article is a post by a transgender woman who posted her story on on xoJane.com, a blog where one can anonymously post anything without being judged. Her story is about meeting a guy, getting to know him, and sharing with him that she was born a boy, but had a sex change. Surprisingly to her, he fully accepted her for who she is, and they are currently living happily. I think that the above website is a great outlet for speaking your mind. Getting something off your shoulders, even to strangers, can be very relieving.

Room For Everyone

Click here to see the article.

This article from USA Today focusses primarily on Grinnell College in Iowa, and its decisions to create gender-neutral locker rooms for everyone, including males, females, straights, gays, lesbians, and transgenders. This movement, which is becoming popular among many liberal arts schools, goes along with the “You Can Play” message. If everyone is entitled to play a sport of their choice, they should have equal means to get dressed, shower, etc. The article explains that this movement is a result of the new generation – something we have discussed a lot in class.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

If You Can Play

Sorry for blowing up the blog. I was done but this is just to cool not to post. The GForce sports team is a hockey team made of all gay players. Their If You Can Play video has a cool twist in that is is aimed at straight athletes.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/torii-hunter-having-openly-gay-teammate-difficult-uncomfortable-003930197--mlb.html

For all the progress professional sports have had in endorsing gay athletes their are still some that are still against it. Torii Hunter is a well respected baseball player and stated that having a gay teammate would make him uncomfortable. Does he have any ground to say this? Hunter is obviously not a supporter of the If You Can Play Project.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/07/cameroon-court-reverses-conviction-2-men-found-to-be-gay-for-drinking-bailey/

This just blew my mind. I still don't understand how someone could be arrested and have to spend over a year in jail for looking gay. That is crazy and completely wrong.

http://m.essence.com/2013/01/04/meet-woman-behind-all-my-babies’-mamas-boycott
First off this show is a complete stereotype and should not air on TV. Second if it does air what does it teach kids that watch the show? If they have kids with a lot of women maybe then they will be on TV and become famous. The woman in this article started a boycott of the show and explains her reason for the dislike of the show.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/sport/football/football-liverpool-suso-gay/index.html?iref=allsearch

Thought this article was pretty cool goes well with the class as most of us are athletes.

A Liverpool football player was fined £10,000 (16,055 US dollars) by the FA for calling a teammate of his gay on twitter. The FA takes this money and donates it back to organizations trying to fight against homophobia.

Women in video games

As we talked about in class the women portrayed in video games are unrealistic and highly disproportional. This article focusses on the clothing side of these disproportional women. 47% of the virtual females studied covered between 25-49% of their skin compared to 71% of males.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/pageant-moms-dads-coach-daughters-junior-beauty-pageants/story?id=11940907#.UOy7CUIk_ww

Pageant dads are the next big thing.As more and more dads are showing up at their daughters shows to coach and support them it s becoming a normal occurrence to see them. Why it weird in the first place. The man interviewed in the article talks about being picked on by his friends, for going to the pageants. Why is it wrong for a father to spend time with his daughter in whatever way makes her happy?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/08/us/fort-bragg-same-sex-spouse/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

A military spouse in Fort Brag North Carolina was just trying to meet other military wives like herself. In response to her request to join the club she received news of a rule change requiring a Military Id ( not given to those in same sex marriages) Coincidence? probably not

Big Changes happening in Australia!!
Not only are woman allowed to serve on the front lines but new Australian passports now look a little different than before.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/15/australian-passports-now-offer-gender-option-x-for-intersex-people/?iref=allsearch

Australian passports now offer a third option when selecting a sex. Those who do not identify as a male or female can now select the X box and not have to classify themselves as either sex.

On the same note as the submarine story I came across this
Australian woman serve on the front lines.

Just like the title states woman in AUstralia are now eligible to serve on the front lines along with the men. Australia joins the list of Canada, Germany, South Korea, France, Spain, New Zealand, Denmark and Israel in allowing woman to serve on the front lines.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/22/navy-recognizes-first-woman-officer-to-serve-on-su/

naval supply officer Britta Christstianson from Wisconsin has become the first woman to serve on a Naval Submarine. Britta and 24 other woman were selected to take part in submarine officer training and she is the first one to compete it. Pretty cool stuff in other articles she talks about living on the ship they had a "code knock" for changing and going to the bathroom.

Toe nails cause a stir

A recent J. Crew Ad featured an 8 year old boy with his toes painted hot pink. As soon as the ad appeared so did hate mail and articles discussing how the boy was being pushed into becoming a transgender and how awful his mother J. Crew's president and creative director Jenna Lyons is as a person.

http://news.yahoo.com/california-boy-scout-group-challenges-ban-gays-143654303.html

An 18 year old boy in California was denied receiving the honor of becoming a top ranked Eagle Scout because of his sexual orientation. His scoutmaster dismissed his application simply on the fact that he was gay.