A glass ceiling

When discussing this term in class it is seen as the invisible barrier that limits women's advancement in the workplace. I have a friend that works at a restaurant here in Lincoln, when she inquired about advancements in managerial positions she received an interesting reaction. The language that was used when addressing this type of position was "he" will have these qualities and "he" will have this experience. She asked the manager why they kept saying "he". She informed her manager about her possible aspirations of obtaining a higher position within the restaurant. The manager asked her if she planed on having a family and children some day, she replied yes. Then the manager laughed and told her that at this restaurant women never make it to higher management if they have a family.

I found this conversation interesting because she is the type of worker that wouldn't let family get in the way of career success. It is interesting how language can shape your perspective of a topic. All to often I have found myself using gendered terms regarding certain careers.

Gossip Girl Controversy

The CW show Gossip Girl has caused some concern for parents. Gossip Girl is considered the teenage version of Sex in the City. The show has a target audience of teenagers ages 12 to 17. Although the ratings are high and most are aware of the racy show, many people feel the new ad campaign for the show has gone too far. The Parents Television Council is outraged with the new risky ad campaign. The new campaign is centered on using sex to sell the tv program. It involves two people who appear to be having sex with the words OMFG posted across the picture. When the head campaign manager of the show was asked about the letters OMFG and what it stood for, he claims it is up for interpretation. OMG is commonly used for the statement “Oh My God,” so you can only imagine what the letters OMFG really mean. The Parents Television Council is pressuring advertisers to drop the ad campaign and make more parents aware of the content of the show. I think the worst part of the show is that it targets teenagers but yet the show is all about high school students who engage in sex, drinking underage, and drugs.

What are your thoughts on this show? Do you think that the target audience of this show is too young? What do you think about this new ad campaign and the use of the letters OMFG?

Here is the link to view the CNN coverage about this issue: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2008/04/28/anderson.showbiz.monday.cnn?iref=videosearch

Danica Patrick

As you may know or not know, last week Danica Patrick won an Indy 500 series car race. It was the Japan 300, making her the first woman to win a major car race. Two years ago she won the pole at the Indy 500 and finished fourth, both firsts for women. After the race she became very emotional, understanably so, I think. In post race comments she apologizes for her emotions and said she got "a little girly". What bothers me is not her crying and becoming emotional, but the fact that she has to characterize her actions and put a label on them. Now I like Danica Ptrick and think she is a terrific driver, but why do women in male dominated sports feel a need to explain things like their emotions. We have seen Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan both cry when winning championships, both after the recent deaths of their fathers. I don't think they needed to apologized for their reactions. The recent winner of the Masters golf tournament, Trevor Immelamn of South Africa, also was emotional after winning this major golf tournament. NO aplogies by calling themselves "girly".
My question is do we still have to characterize emotions by women in situations such as this and put a gender beside their behavior. Could she have just said "I got emotional" or "my emotions got the best of me" and left it at that. How many of us look down on her, or any other person who has accomplished something like this and become emotional???

Mother's Day

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1219&u_sid=10322828

I was reading the newspaper online and came accross this article about Mother's Day. It kind of made me laugh because who is to say that my mom would want doughnuts for a gift. It made me realize how horrible the gendered stereotypes are that go along with Mother's Day and Father's Day and their traditions. Why is it that mom's receive flowers and dad's receive golf clubs? Why is it that on Mother's day is one of the busiest restaurant days of the year. In order to prevent mothers from cooking, as they normally do, the families take moms out to brunch or dinner. All of these ideas are flowing through my mind and I am wondering why in 2008 the mother is still the chef in the house. Why do men get to go on fishing trips and go golfing on Father's Day while mom's just get doughnuts and flowers. I think the stereotypes are endless when it comes to this subject. I think Mother's day and Fathers' Day should be a day where we appreciate our parents, in equal ways. Perhaps instead of just buying our mom flowers we should take her on a weekend trip, or perhaps our father would like homemade doughnuts too! I think our world has a lot of improvement to do. In the mean time I think I will try even harder this year to do something special for my mom that doesn't just look pretty and feminine or taste sweet (because of course that is all women want is sugar and flowers).

Austrain Daughter Imprisoned in Basement for 24 Years

I am going to say upfront that this story is not for the faint of heart. It is extremely horrific story of sexual abuse. It is in the Lincoln Journal Star page 3A at the bottom under the headline "How is it possible no one knew?"

In Amstetten, Austria, a retired electirican has confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven children with her in a windowless cell sealed by an electronic keyless-entry system. The story continues… The suspect owned the gray stone apartment building, lived there with his family, and rented the other unites to relatives. His daughter was 18 when he imprisoned her and she is now 42. Police said one of the children died in infancy and was tossed into the furnace. The surviving children are three boys and three girls, the youngest is 5. The oldest is 19. Josef Fritzl age 73, managed to deceive everyone including his wife who was unaware of the existence of the children in the cellar. Officials said three of the secret children 19, 18, and 5 had never seen sunlight until they were freed a few days ago.

I also just found the link to the story on yahoo! news. If you would like, take a look. It is really awful.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_re_eu/austria_captive_daughter;_ylt=Aiqf2627r4Vrn37HpUia9zJvaA8F

Sexual Abuse

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/29/polygamist.retreat.ap/index.html

Here is more information about the polygamists in Texas. I have been keeping up with the information mostly because I am shocked and intrigued by their lifestyle. Originally the women denied that sexual abuse took place at their ranch and that all married women were older than 18. Apparently a young woman who is younger than 18 gave birth today. This girl along with others that had children claimed they were adults and with further investigation the authorties discovered that 31 were in fact still minors. CNN said that generally, anyone who is under 18 can not legally consent to sexual activity. So here we are stuck in a bind. This group of people truly believes in certain gender roles. They believe that the man is the head of the household and they depend on him for everything. The women take care of the children and the home. The women in this society do not think there is anything wrong with their polygamous relationships or the fact that these girls are being forced to marry at such a young age. I think this is gender violence. I only wonder if these girls are being forced to have sex so young because of the mens' own sick pleasures or because they feel they need to start families this young. This is also sexual abuse in my mind. What do you guys think? Is it appropriate for these young women to be giving birth to the children of men that are clearly twice their age?

youtube divorce rant has experts talking

This article from the today show web site talks about the new trend for people to communicate via web casts, specifically by making a video of a complaint (most common), or even asking someone to marry you, and then posting it to the Internet. It reminded me of the woman who called her husband out for cheating on her; she did it on a billboard in the downtown area of a large city. The article talks about how this is becoming a popular thing to do, they say that it disconnects people from the very nature that is human communication.
What do you think? Is this perfectly normal, because of the direction our society is going, specifically in the technology department? Or is it bad, and truly making us loose our connection with people.

A Diet Pill with Some Nasty Punishments!

Alli is the first over-the-counter weight loss drug to get an approval from the Food and Drug Administration, but it can cause some ghastly side effects if users cheat on their diets. This diet pill was approved by the FDA in 2007 despite the scary side effect: if you stray too far from your diet, you just might poop your pants! "The drug’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, has been up front about the pill’s side effects, suggesting that first timers wear dark pants or bring a change of clothes to work until they get used to the diet pill’s potentially yucky consequences." Sounds crazy huh? Well this is actually a real side effect for going on this diet plan.

• "The diet pill works by blocking 25 percent of fat from being digested. Alli users take one pill with every meal, and to avoid an “Alli oops,” they should eat less than 42 grams of fat a day, or about 15 grams per meal. But those fat grams can be sneaky. One grande Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino contains 15 grams of fat, and if an Alli user adds even a low-fat muffin to that meal, it could get icky."

I think this is crazy how far some people will go to lose weight. I feel like if you want to lose weight that bad then you should be able to stick to a diet plan without taking a diet pill that punishes you in such a fowl manner. As one user gives details of their experience on the diet pill, "I’ve pooped my pants 3 times today, and sorry to get descriptive but it even leaked onto the couch at one point!" Other users even talk about wearing diapers to try to prevent leakage onto their clothing!!

1. What are your thoughts on this first ever FDA approved diet pill?
   
2. Do you think it is worth the embarrassing side effects?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19587389/

Gender and Postpartum Depression

In one of my other classes we are giving group presentations, and one of the groups had mentioned that the gender of your baby may be an indicator of the severity of a woman's postpartum depression. One of the studies (linked) was done in China. My point of view is that the study showed that society's view of a gender can have an affect on an individuals health.

Men and Woman of the Supreme Court

I was reading a follow up opinion column in today's Lincoln Journal Star by Clarence Page, about the wage discrimination law that was not passed by the Senate. Page mentioned someone and something that I had not thought of before , but I believe relates to this class. He discusses Ruth Bader Ginsburg 's dissenting opinion to the original decision to set the time clock at 18 months. She wanted Congress to go back and revisit the original civil rights act and it's intent, actually I think, who it is intended to help, in this case the employee, not the employer.
But what struck me, as I have read before, now that Sandra Day O'Connor is gone from the court, is that Ginsburg is an island by herself many times. As the only woman on the court do you see her as a token. She gets to speak her mind, but with the shift from left to right recently, is that all she is able to do. Is her opinion among the men's opinion enough to open any eyes to the plight and standing of women in today's world when it comes to legal decision that can affect a whole nation.
It takes so long for a case to reach the supreme court and then for them to decide to hear it, how does having only one woman on the court change from when there were two, or does it?? It just struck me that she asks Congress to address this issue, and her plea falls on deaf ears in our Senate.

Miley Cyrus Controversy

So as I'm sure all of you have already seen, Miley Cyrus was all over today's headlines due to her bare back picture in the current Vanity Fair magazine.  I'm anxious to hear everyone's opinion over the issue.  As we've learned in the past week, women portrayed in the media have become even more sexual for younger audience based magazines.  While Miley is 15 years old, posing with nothing more than a sheet covering her body, what does this send to 15 year old females who idolize Miley?  

Even though Miley is now apologizing for her actions, how seriously do we as an audience take this apology?  Does anyone think her fans will change their minds on looking upon her as an idol?  

I also found it interesting that both of her parents were with her during the photo shoot.  Her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, is even seen in a photo along with her.  I want to ask where their heads were during the decision to pose the way that she did.  I personally think it's terrible to see such a young, talented performer begin an image that is so sexual.  Why does it appear that young females in Hollywood feel the need to grow up too fast?  

Came across a random article...

So I was hanging out over at a friend's house last night, and while I was using his bathroom I went through his reading material (probably one of my favorite things to do when I use a guy's bathroom) when I was reading Paste magazie and came across this article entitled, "The Production Widow's Lament". In this article it's basically a run down of the day to day life of a woman married to someone in production. Here's an excerpt:

Monday: Halfway through a frozen pizza and a long overdue Netflix date, your husband's cell rings. The faint murmur in the earpiece bears good news: a film shoot. You rejoice, toasting Coke cans. After a year of spending your weekends helping him make call sheets, trimming pages, and highlighting scene late into the night for the zero-budget indies he's been assistant directing, you're always delighted when a paying job on a real studio production comes along. Go to sleep smiling.
Tuesday: Begin familiar Production Widow triage-cancel all tickets between now at wrap, rearrange dinner parties, take over paying the bills.
Wednesday: For a month, you'll see him occasionally, and when you're lucky he'll have weekends off, but usually he's crawling into bed at some indeterminate hour and whispering drowsily that he nearly mistook George Clooney for a Teamster at the studio.
Thursday: Go upstate for your Grandparents 50th anniversary celebration. "Where's your husband?" they ask. "Working," you say. "This late?"
Saturday: Weekend shoot. Spend the day on the couch watching six episodes of Six Feet Under, then four of Arrested Development to take the edge off.
Monday: Go for a run before breakfast and pass your husband on the street. He's just arriving home from a night shoo. Smile and give him a kiss. Three weeks to go.

Normally this kind of stuff doesn't really bother me, but for some reason after I read the article I came out and started going off on this rant to everyone about the incredible gender bias of this article (I got a very strange look when I asked if I could rip it out to share with my class). But seriously, all this article does is show how men are the breadwinners and that in order to be good wives women must sacrifice themselves in order to be able to properly care for their husbands.

What do you guys think? I am going too far here?

The Boys of Polygamy

While most of the attention on the recent raid of the sect in Texas of the polygamous compound has been on the children and the young girls who are pregnant, little has been said of the teenage boys. The above link takes you to a story that explains what happens to the boys that are born in the familes within many of the sects of the Mormon Church that practice polygamy. Often they are shunned by the larger group and put out of the sect. They are left on the streets of Salt Lake City and sometimes Las Vegas to fend for themselves. The reasoning for this is that the older men who have multiple wives don't want the competition from these boys as they grow older, so they are just removed.
In a world where having sons is at a premiun in many cultures I found this twist very odd, but given their thinking I understood what they are trying to do, but certainly not approving of it. Had anyone else thought about the lack of young men in the stories about this sect or in any other Mormon sects. What does society do with these young boys (often called "Lost Boys") who have no idea how the real world works and how to cope. Do you think that they are just as much victims as the many girls that are forced to marry the older men within the sect and have their children. How does a mother who proclaims to love and care for her children allow either of these things to happen??? Do you think that they view the removing of the boys differently because we look at men and women differently, in our society and also their little group of our society???

Bicycles

At risk of this sounding like a toilet post, why are guys and gals bikes made differently? What social construction caused this? Clearly it has to be social as if were a biological reason, then the styles should be reversed in my opinion. I tried to find some history on this topic, but have had no luck in finding any reason for guy bikes to have a higher bar. Not to mention is there structural reason for this - I mean is one style more safer? If so, shouldn't all bikes be made similarly?

Equal Pay Day

Equal Pay Day was last Tuesday. April is the month that women finally catch up to men's pay from 2007. In other words a woman in general has to work all of 2007 and then through the month of April for their wages to equal what a man made in 2007. It is held on a Tuesday because this is the day of the week that women work plus the week before to equal what men made the week before by itself.
Equal Pay Day was started in 1996 to make people aware of the disparity in pay between genders. The gap is even wider for women of color.
So when Senators Clinton and Obama said that it was about gender(Clinton) and about race(Obama) in their speeches this week about the wage discrimination resolution that failed, they were both right.
I find it interesting that this day was observed the same week that the Senate voted down changing the law and length of time that a woman has to file a suit for wage discrimination, ironic and sad that they both happened the same week.
Why has this trend continued even after it has been brought to people's attention, why do so many think that women are not worthy of the same pay as a man?
What about our leaders do they not think it's important to protect women in the work force??

The link above will connect you to the pay-equity.org sight to show what they have done to draw attention to this issue in the past.

You Are What You Mother Eats

A new study was found that there may be a link between the diet of a pregnant female and the gender of her fetus.

This information was very interesting to me. To me it refutes basic biology in that sex is determined by either an x or a y chromosome from the sperm.

Take a look and leave comments if you would like! Thanks!!

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/newsmothersdiet.shtml?icid=L142-4843960-065D

Senate Republicans block unequal pay bill

Senate Republicans blocked a bill Wednesday that would make it easier for people to sue over pay discrimination, an effort to roll back a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that limited such cases. The bill would have reset the clock with every paycheck, with supporters arguing that each paycheck was a discriminatory act. The bill, dubbed the Fair Pay Restoration Act, is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that ruled a person who claims pay discrimination must file a complaint within 180 days of that discrimination taking place. The case was brought by an Alabama woman, Lilly Ledbetter, who claimed that her employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., paid men doing similar work 15 to 40 percent more. Ledbetter said she discovered the discrepancy late in her career -- too late, the court ruled, to go to court. Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican, said the bill would allow retirees drawing pensions to sue their old companies over allegations of discrimination that happened decades ago. I can see where suing to just get more money out of an old employer can become an issue, however; you still have to have very good claims and documentation to back up your case. I think this would have been a good bill and it would have protected the many people like Lilly who were unaware of the discrimination until it is too late. I think that if someone is being discriminated against by there company and they can prove it, time shouldn't be a factor. Unfortunately the bill was only 4 votes short, in order to pass the bill it needed 60 votes and it only had 56 votes.

"I'm hoping this chamber will stand up for fundamental fairness for women in the workplace," said Clinton, of New York. "I'm hoping you will stand up and vote to make it clear that women who get up every single day and go to work deserve to be paid equally to their male counterparts." And Obama, of Illinois, added, "If you work hard and do a good job, you should be rewarded no matter what you look like, where you come from or what gender you are." I thought it was kind of ironic that Clinton referred to this case as a womens issue and Obama brought up that it was a minority issue. I think this shows that everyone has different perspectives and sometimes they are biased to their specific race or gender. I think it is like that because it is easier to see and relate to your own gender or race.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/23/senate.discrimination/index.html

Easy Curves

In class on Tuesday Dr. Lucas mentioned this infomercial on the "breast enhancer" called easy curves. I thought I would post it because I think it is interesting how they try and pass this as a quality product. I mean they do a good job of getting women who have an already big bust size and they have them test the product. We are suppose to believe that because they used easy curves they got bigger breasts. It just goes to show you that some people will do anything or buy anything to try and fit the mold of our society. You can't tell me that someone who has a small chest can change everything by using easy curves. It is commercials like these that try and make you feel bad about your body so you buy their product. At least they aren't trying to sell drugs to enhance your breasts, I'll give them that.

What are your thoughts on this product?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8ur9piNe4fs&feature=related

Let's Shatter Gender Roles of Parents

In today's Daily Nebraskan there is an article titled, "Let's Shatter Gender Roles of Parents."  In the article it mentions how every family has someone labeled the breadwinner, and the stay-at-home parent.  The article talks about how it's becoming" more common to see the woman in the family labeled as the breadwinner and the man as the stay-at-home parent.  In fact, as it says in the article, "in the last year 159,000 men in the U.S. are considered to be full-time care-givers to children (compared with 5.6 million women who stayed at home to raise their children in 2005).  Nonetheless, with concerns that men are less nurturing, individuals raise their concerns over the issue.  It shows a lack of masculinity some argue to see men want to stay at home and have a "nurturing side."  So what do you all think?  What do you see as advantages and disadvantages over the issue?  I personally think it's great to see these gender roles switched, but I'd like to see what others believe.

Gender vs. business growth

The cover story in Wednesday's USAToday(April 23) discusses women as business founders. The article discusses how many women are founders of businesses, yet when it comes to becoming a really big company they are at a distinct disadvantage numbers wise. The article states that in the last 35 years only 43 women have become CEO's of Fortune 1000 companies, and in that same time only three companies were founded by women and then grew into Fortune 1000 companies, they also happened to be co-founded by men. Why? Why so few??
The basic reasoning in the article, and this is from women involved in businesses, is the same reason that we see for women not getting promoted in other companies, motherhood.
While we like to think that this is a reason that men give for not promoting women, here is a reason that the women themselves give for not staying in the leadership role of a company that they started, in a sense their baby also.
How does this trend affect women as a whole entering the workforce today? Do you see this as a plausable excuse or reason for the lack of women at the head of their own companies once they have reached the pinnacle of financial success. Do you think that maybe they are intimidated once their company becomes ultra-successful? What kinds of strategies, if any, are there for having more women stay with their companies when they are successful and large, could they cultivate another female for their role when they feel a need to step down?
I thought this article was very interesting as most of us are about to enter the workforce, it is another view into the atmosphere in which we will be imersed.


You can read the article by clicking the link above, or the papaer is also available in the racks on campus.