August 7, 2008 @ 4:04 pm | Category: media, politics, global issues
Why the world has chosen to reward China with the international attention of the Olympics is one of the outrages of the year. This is the first time an authoritarian government has hosted the games. While the Chinese government is guilty of systematic human rights violations including religious oppression, mandatory abortions, economic rape of its most vulnerable citizen in the countryside, and gross disregard for the environment the international media is lavishing upbeat attention. Transnational corporations are seeing the Olympics as another opportunity to sell their products via glitzy ads while ignoring mass silencing of free speech. As this NPR report indicates global companies like Nike and Coca-Cola see human rights as the problem of governments not marketers. Even NBC News is seeing its journalism compromised by a too close relationship with the Olympic committee. Hear this report from NPR. With a heavy investment in the games, NBC is apparently reluctant to embarrass the Chinese. If those who have freedom of speech sell it for profit, who will be left to speak out? I think I will leave the television off.
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March 30, 2008 @ 9:37 pm | Category: gender/feminism, media
I have what I call the gender test for news. Whenever I hear news that spotlights a girl or woman I ask, would this story be the same or even exist if the person in the spotlight was male? This week my local newspaper ran a story about a run away 12 year old girl who danced nude at a “gentleman’s club.” The story is bad enough, but the newspaper has the audacity to grace the girl with the title of “stripper.” If this doesn’t demonstrate the hostile environment that girls and women live under, I don’t know what does. Tragically, this is no big deal to many and mild in the face of the exploitation of girls and women that plagues the world. P.S. The gentlemen got to keep their license and club remains open for business.
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December 29, 2007 @ 8:15 pm | Category: media, social justice, Pop Culture
I don’t keep up with movies as they are released. I haven’t seen the inside of a theater in many months so I’m relegated to waiting for the DVD. Here are two recent movies that I think are worth seeing.
The Devil Came on Horseback, a documentary about the Darfur genocide. This was very good in helping me understand the politics of a problem that sadly seems to have played it self out only in the media.
The Nannie Diaries, I admit this is not great cinema, but it remains social commentary nevertheless. Light, but touching, entertainment that questions the social climbing values that Americans hold. Plenty of gender and class issues to feed a conversation.
Once, Excellent little sleeper film where contemporary people actually behave honorably. Good music too!
Happy New Year! More to come in 2008.
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October 7, 2007 @ 5:16 pm | Category: media, global issues, food
Remember the Coke commercial twenty years ago with the song ” I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing?” Well, I just saw it recently and what seemed like a wonderful idea now appears dreadful. The commercial was prophetic. The whole world is drinking Coke, eating McDonald’s and KFC. That means that they are losing their own cultural foodways and getting fat just like us. As an immigrant, I understand the deep connection between food and cultural identity. Diversity and globalization are code words for the homogenization of all cultures into one that is distinctively American. We wonder why some people are resisting this in the most violent way possible. Something to think about.
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September 4, 2007 @ 9:34 am | Category: media, family/relationships
Talk radio has been buzzing with discussions on the Michael Vick animal cruelty case. Many listeners are bemoaning the punishment of Vick as excessive. One was outraged that Vick had abused dogs, and it would be more understandable if he had slapped his wife. Really! Finally, somebody is saying what I have been thinking. An essay at women’s e-news points out that many professional athletes are notorious for beating up their wives, (remember O.J.) but we aren’t running them out of sport for that. I guess in the minds of most people a dog is innocent while a woman probably did something to deserve it.
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August 14, 2007 @ 8:43 am | Category: media, family/relationships
This article in this week’s Time magazine suggest that maybe speed-dating, on-line personals, and hook-ups are killing romance. Quick access kills interest. Hollywood is finding itself uninspired by the current mating scene and we are too jaded to believe in romance anymore. Timeless stories of love sound quaint and naive. The thrill may be gone because romance depends on mystery, intrigue and the expectation of a surprise. It’s hard for these to thrive in a full-disclosure, I-am-for-sale world.
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May 3, 2007 @ 9:50 pm | Category: media, Pop Culture
Here is a story about filmmaker Byron Hurt’s documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. In this film Hurt explores the depiction of masculinity in hip-hop and is speaking out against the rampant negative images of women that plague the genre. Taking his film on tour to college campuses, he hopes to encourage the discussion among young black men about violence against women. He stresses the need for broader definition of what it means to be a black man. One that is free from sexism and hyper-aggression.
In light of the Don Imus fiasco, there is a pressing need for open discussion both within, and outside the black community regarding how black women are viewed and treated. The specific history of black women in this country is a cruel mix of racism and sexism. Pop culture continues the degrading depiction of black women as over-sexed animal like creatures. We need more men to take up this cause because it’s a double win situation. Both black women and men will better off for it.
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April 25, 2007 @ 7:52 pm | Category: media
Here is a critic of the current state of women on television from womensenews.org. Does anybody watch this stuff?
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April 10, 2007 @ 8:28 am | Category: body, media, Pop Culture
Working hard to look like your favorite star? Here’s a few lines from Kate Bechkinsale’s interview in Glamour magazine.
“What’s considered ideal in Hollywood is completely different than anywhere else in the world. I don’t think you can aspire to it, nor can I. Everybody is retouched, stretched, lengthened, slimmed and trimmed. I could look at a picture of myself from the past and think, why don’t I look like that now? It’s because I never have!”
Aren’t you relieved?
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April 2, 2007 @ 9:26 am | Category: gender/feminism, media
Here is a story from the Salon blog broadstreet. Seems like Jane Austen was rather plain and the publisher of her biography feels compelled to dress her up a bit through the magic of photo touch up . Another story in the New York Times about high achieving high school girls notes that brain power is not enough. You have to be hot too! The beauty myth is the number one tool to keep women busy and exhausted beating themselves up. Think of all the wasted energy!
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