Hello again!
I have a new update for you! For once, this was a pretty slow week.
Post-accident, I basically took the weekend off; I slept for about 13 hours each day, watched some old cartoons, ate a bunch of comfort food, and whined to my dad and friends (hey, whining is proportional to more food. Don't judge me.). However, I wasn't about to leave my feminism at work. As I watched my cartoons on Saturday, I realized how my childhood viewings shaped the perspective that I have today. It may seem rather superficial, but the fact that I had strong female characters to look up to as a kid made me much more approachable to the idea of intersectional feminism. Shows like The Proud Family, The Teen Titans, and Kim Possible, all of which featured female leads of varying personality (and some of varying color and race!) fought against the reality of my very white, very suburban neighborhood.
I discussed this with one of my family friends the next day when she invited my dad and I over for a (pity) dinner. She noted the dwindling number of female leads in the media as a person got older- although adolescent and even teen entertainment has several female leads, the variety of women in entertainment drastically decreases as the roles' ages increase. It reminded me of a documentary that I had seen last year in Feminist Club called Miss Representation. The film revealed several unnerving facts- women above the age of 40 make up only about 21.4% of characters in the mainstream film industry, only approximately 19% of the board of executives in the industry, and just 3.4% of mainstream movie directors- which forced me to realize that the battle is on all fronts of the media. What I find particularly cruel is the power represented by several childhood icons- Penny Proud, Kim Possible, Starfire, The Powerpuff Girls- is snatched as soon as the girl watching becomes (1) less "beautiful," or (2) older. Such helplessness with age is akin to the case of Benjamin Button. While men continue to grow and flourish with age, as literally with stretching skin and droopy eyes, women are forced to shrink themselves into younger and younger versions of themselves if they want to stay a part of the industry. Yet, there is no Oscar for "Best Deception for Age."
I'm sorry if all of this sounds very depressing, but it doesn't really get better from here.
In the past few days, I've been focusing on media psychology and researching how intersectionality originally gained steam. Because of that, I've been watching several videos from Kimberle Crenshaw. You might remember her from my initial discussion of intersectionality. I'll link her TED Talk below (as well as any articles I can find on the disparity among men and women in the media); her TED talk discussed the systemic invisibility of violence upon black women. As someone who has read her first academic paper upon the matter, it upset me very much that the situation has not improved since the late 1980s. For those still unaware, Crenshaw argues that in our current view upon social injustice, we tend to use a "trickle down" approach; in other words, we assume that racism is an umbrella term for covers everyone in a particular oppressed group, and sexism covers all women. Yet, we do not often acknowledge the intersection of the two, as well as other social injustices such as classism, ableism, and homophobia. So, in justice for the many fallen black women, Crenshaw had someone sing "Say Her Name." Say Her Name is a short song based upon a hashtag that was intended to bring awareness to violence upon black women.
I will admit I teared up a bit. It was incredibly tragic.
But you can't confront a problem if you don't know about it. Which brings me to my next news: for my internship this week, most of my time has gone to preparing for either the board meeting that Kathryn has on Sunday, or the AZ NOW State Conference in May. If you guys want to learn about feminism, feel free to join! It'll be on May 13, and students will get a discount!
I'll post a flyer up once everything's been finalized!
See you next time!
Also, here are the promised links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/older-women-hollywood_us_56cb4312e4b041136f17a2ce
https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality
I have a new update for you! For once, this was a pretty slow week.
Post-accident, I basically took the weekend off; I slept for about 13 hours each day, watched some old cartoons, ate a bunch of comfort food, and whined to my dad and friends (hey, whining is proportional to more food. Don't judge me.). However, I wasn't about to leave my feminism at work. As I watched my cartoons on Saturday, I realized how my childhood viewings shaped the perspective that I have today. It may seem rather superficial, but the fact that I had strong female characters to look up to as a kid made me much more approachable to the idea of intersectional feminism. Shows like The Proud Family, The Teen Titans, and Kim Possible, all of which featured female leads of varying personality (and some of varying color and race!) fought against the reality of my very white, very suburban neighborhood.
I discussed this with one of my family friends the next day when she invited my dad and I over for a (pity) dinner. She noted the dwindling number of female leads in the media as a person got older- although adolescent and even teen entertainment has several female leads, the variety of women in entertainment drastically decreases as the roles' ages increase. It reminded me of a documentary that I had seen last year in Feminist Club called Miss Representation. The film revealed several unnerving facts- women above the age of 40 make up only about 21.4% of characters in the mainstream film industry, only approximately 19% of the board of executives in the industry, and just 3.4% of mainstream movie directors- which forced me to realize that the battle is on all fronts of the media. What I find particularly cruel is the power represented by several childhood icons- Penny Proud, Kim Possible, Starfire, The Powerpuff Girls- is snatched as soon as the girl watching becomes (1) less "beautiful," or (2) older. Such helplessness with age is akin to the case of Benjamin Button. While men continue to grow and flourish with age, as literally with stretching skin and droopy eyes, women are forced to shrink themselves into younger and younger versions of themselves if they want to stay a part of the industry. Yet, there is no Oscar for "Best Deception for Age."
I'm sorry if all of this sounds very depressing, but it doesn't really get better from here.
In the past few days, I've been focusing on media psychology and researching how intersectionality originally gained steam. Because of that, I've been watching several videos from Kimberle Crenshaw. You might remember her from my initial discussion of intersectionality. I'll link her TED Talk below (as well as any articles I can find on the disparity among men and women in the media); her TED talk discussed the systemic invisibility of violence upon black women. As someone who has read her first academic paper upon the matter, it upset me very much that the situation has not improved since the late 1980s. For those still unaware, Crenshaw argues that in our current view upon social injustice, we tend to use a "trickle down" approach; in other words, we assume that racism is an umbrella term for covers everyone in a particular oppressed group, and sexism covers all women. Yet, we do not often acknowledge the intersection of the two, as well as other social injustices such as classism, ableism, and homophobia. So, in justice for the many fallen black women, Crenshaw had someone sing "Say Her Name." Say Her Name is a short song based upon a hashtag that was intended to bring awareness to violence upon black women.
I will admit I teared up a bit. It was incredibly tragic.
But you can't confront a problem if you don't know about it. Which brings me to my next news: for my internship this week, most of my time has gone to preparing for either the board meeting that Kathryn has on Sunday, or the AZ NOW State Conference in May. If you guys want to learn about feminism, feel free to join! It'll be on May 13, and students will get a discount!
I'll post a flyer up once everything's been finalized!
See you next time!
Also, here are the promised links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/older-women-hollywood_us_56cb4312e4b041136f17a2ce
https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality
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