The myth of a latin women

After reading and analyzing an article given t o me in class called “The Myth of a

latin woman” by Judice Ortiz Cofer i realized Race and gender is an extremely big deal to

society, and it is not fair in a negative way. People are very quick to be judgmental and

put a label on someone because of their appearance. If you compare the way things used

to be in the past, to the way things are now in the world you will notice a drastic change

about almost everything. However, one thing that seems to be the same is Racism and the

sex of a person.

An example of racism in this article is when the young female Maria was selling her

poetry work in the restaurant. A man with no sense right away thought she was a

waitress and starting singing a disrespectful song in spanish thinking she was a “typical

latina” especially cause of her accent. When reality is that she’s a very successful graduate

with more knowledge than most people. Of course people will always remember the

stereotype given to us Hispanics as whores, criminals and low lives but if you look at the

big picture every race has these type of people and its not fair to judge everyone upon it.

We are all individuals and shouldn’t be categorized and labeled under one stereotype

because we all can make a difference.

Furthermore, another example is when one day at school it was carrier day. The

whole class had to dress up like a professional they were inspired by on television. Except

Maria’s only role model was her mom. At her home when they heard the words “dress

up” it had a totally different understanding. The hispanic culture’s meaning of dress up is

to wear lots of jewelry , heels, make-up and a sexy dress. This applied to almost all ages

as young as about 10 because latin woman are supposed to mature early in life. So, the

next day Maria goes to school like the professional outfit she viewed in her eyes and

everyone humiliated her. When people have no consideration for others it can really put

a person down. Why should the way she dresses because of her culture degrade her as

human in any way?

Not only in the article with Maria, but in life period everything is focused on gender

and race. These two things should be the most irrelevant because it shouldn’t matter if

your black or white, fat or skinny, male or female. When it comes to a job if you have the

personality that fits the task , have a great work ethic and handle your responsibilities i

don’t understand why the prejudice thoughts are even brought up or acknowledged. A

book should never be judged by it’s cover because its whats in the inside that counts.

Coopers Beer Advertisments and Women as sex symbols.

As I read an article and watched the Coopers Beer commercial I felt disrespected as a women. In the commercial there is a heavy set women and the beer logo in the cornesr. The obvious message that is being shown is that when you drink there beer, and get drunk any women looks “sexy”. However I don’t feel like this is right because the world will now view this and have that corrupt state of mind about women in general not only big women. However, it is an extra mean advertisement because now over weight women will have less confidence and maybe even do something harmful to them selves because of the way people look at them. In my opinion women shouldn’t be judged by their looks or weight, personally should be 90% of what the person is made of and judged upon. Beer Companies shouldn’t use women in their advertisements as sex symbols, it should be advertised by examples of fun at parties and gatherings.

Racism Must End

While reading the article on Wendy Carrillo’s blog entitled “A salvi-Chicana Identity”, anger rose within me as I learned that the article was about a female, who was being mistreated due to her race.” Being a strong believer in equality, it was heartbreaking to know that a little girl was ostracized due to her being of different t Latin American decent. Growing up all she wanted was to fit in to avoid the question “where are you from?” but in high school she could not. Wanting to join a club at her school she was denied entry due to her being El Salvadorian. That is just not right. We spend years trying to treat everyone as equal yet society makes it almost impossible by passing judgment on anything different. This girl was human and in want of involvement in her school and nothing more. Since society has such a large impact on the way we think, it end up taking years to try and change the way society has trained us to think. I feel that racism must come to an end and that we should keep trying till it subsides and or is terminated. Stories like this touch me and help me to also realize that other races face troubles. Racism must end.

 

Candies

“Reading an article entitled “Candies tells girls to be “sexy” virgins” written by Danielle Burch influenced me to really appreciate the advertising awareness of teen pregnancy by Candies, which is a production company, who not only advertises awareness, but abstinence advocacy as well. I don’t believe that they should promote the two because neither expresses their consequences. If people really do want o prevent their children from becoming pregnant or contracting an STI, educate them. It is time not only for the parents but also for the media to take action and educate!  Also in this article ,Bristol Palin, teen mother and daughter to the ex-governor of Alaska was used as an example to also express how your rank in class can determine your outcome of unwise decisions. As an upper class female her commercial showed that she would not suffer from her poor decision due to her access to money, but that the women that don’t would be doomed. Is that always the case? I don’t think so. No matter what class you reside in, all consequences of the uneducated young minds should be equal.

 

Media Reaction #2

Eminem and Rihanna- Love the way you lie

This song comes to mind when I think of domestic violence. It’s basically about how a relationship goes from loving to being violent. The song is a little scary if you really listen to the lyrics, especially when he says “if she ever tries to $%^&ing leave again Ima tie to the bed and set this house on fire.”  It’s a perfect example of one reason why women don’t leave abusive relationships and it’s because of fear. The music video made me think about why its ok for a woman to hit a man but if she gets hit back the man is looked at as wrong. It’s all about strength. It goes right back to how a man can’t possibly be hurt if a woman hit him, but since woman are more fragile a man should just take the hits.  It also shows how some couples just beat on eachother and rationalize it as love. That can’t possibly be love… noone should be hitting anyone. In these relationships a woman is always seen as the victim just because the man would prefer that than to look at as weak.

Media Reaction#2

Kye Allums, the NCAA’s first Div. 1 publicly transgender basketball player

Kye Allums is an ordinary college junior who plays for the George Washington Woman’s basketball. He is the first transgender to play for the Division I college basketball. He felt something different about himself since he was young. When he saw himself in a girl’s body,he felt nothing like a girl inside. Allums had a hard time in high school as a teenager because he didn’t feel like he belonged to a certain group. He wasn’t able to get along with the other teenager girls because of different preferences. He preferred to dress in sweats and t-shirts, while the teenager girls enjoyed getting a manicure. In high school, he joined the lesbian club because for once he felt like that’s who he is. In the end the lesbian club wasn’t what he had in mind and realizes that it was his gender identity that bothers him. Every time his friends titled him as she or Kay-Kay, he didn’t feel like that’s who he is. He wanted to be called as Kye and be titled as him instead.

In college freshman year, he found out which social group he belonged to and concluded himself as transgender. He wanted to share this decision with his teammates and his coach, hoping that they will understand. He was afraid of being kick out of the team and losing his sports scholarship for college. When he told his coach, the surprising reaction was that his coach Bozeman supported him because they are a family. The NCAA Convention Gender Equity and Issues Forum agreed with his choice and let him continue to play only if he doesn’t decide on getting hormone changes or surgery for the time being. Allums decides to finish the season of basketball and proceed with the surgery in the year 2012 with the support of his teammates, coach and family.

Allums was so brave to announce to the world that he was a transgender and being honest to everyone including the basketball division. Sometimes transgender are stereotyped as homosexuals and they don’t carry out their sexual scripts. Allums was supposed to carry out the acts and duties of a woman according to society. I was surprised and touched by the article because he was so truthful about his feelings. He wants people to understand and support him.  

http://www.outsports.com/os/index.php/component/content/article/24-people/338-transgender-man-to-play-for-womens-basketball-team

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/sports/ncaabasketball/02gender.html

Media Reaction 2

In the movie “Reviving Ophelia” on lifetime network it was about two sisters who used to be really close. They are both raising teenage daughters as one of them Marie’s daughter Elizabeth who is 17 years old has the perfect life .Elizabeth’s sister Le Ann is raising her 16-year-old Kelli. The two cousins really do not get along they are complete opposites. Elizabeth has good grades, is a good girl, and has a perfect boyfriend. Unlike Kelli who is always getting into trouble and lets boys use her what ever way they want.

As the time goes on things start to change and Kelli sees that things are different with Elizabeth. Her so-called perfect boyfriend is abusing her. He does not let her see any of her friends or let her go out with them. He always wants to be with her and if she is seen talking to a guy he will flip on her. She keep getting abused he would hit her if she did not want to do something with him or sometimes just to hit her. She would be all bruised up and she still wanted to be with him. She thought it was true love and did not want to leave him.

She did not tell anyone what was going on. The person who started to discover what was happening was Kelli. She saw many things like him hitting her or just knew things were strange. She told her mom and aunt what was going on and they thought she was lieing. They realized that Elizabeth really needed help when she ended up in the hospital because of how much her boyfriend hit her. Even though her family knew what happened she keep denying that he ever hit her.The things he would say to her would make her go under pressure. After she lied saying that they broke up but he keeps talking to her and wanting her to sneak out. He says that if you really love me then sneak out. He tries to control everything she does and she goes under pressure.

When she breaks up for real he threatens her by saying he is going to kill himself.He also sends a threatening text to her and how she does not deserve to live. She pressed charges against him and they can not see each other.She goes with Kelli to see a band and her boyfriend comes with a gun and says “I will kill u first then me” and she was really scared. She talked him out of it and made him put the gun down. The police came and he got arrested.

It took a lot of courage for her to do what she did. I liked this movie and how these girls are pressured and get into abusive relationships. This is something that needs to get stopped and help girls get out of. They try to deny it and have an excuse like it’s just love. A guy should never lay a hand on a girl and control everything they do.

Media Reaction 2: Candy Chen

Cassandra Clare latest book, “Clockwork Angel” (The Infernal Devices Series), the protagonist, Tessa Gray questions the role of women and men. Finding out that there is a secret organization that fights demons, vampire, etc., Tessa also finds out that women in this organization fights along the side of men. She thought this was weird because women are suppose to be graceful, polite, and peaceful. Tessa is not the only one who thinks this was improper, Jessica a young girl who is part of the organization doesn’t want to fight any of the monsters, she just wants to get marry so she could be a proper lady. I understand that at their time, women were taught to be gentle, weak, and to have the idea of men should always protect the women in their heads. However this secret organization is a form of catalyst that sparks a new idea to the world that women is  equal with men. This book is written during the modern time and not in the past to encourage change within the women’ ideal way on living, however there were organization, feminist movement to encourage this in the past.

Media Reaction 2

Disney  movies show unrealistic distortions of the female body. With tiny waists, flawless skin,  big breasts, and big hips this is a main factor as to why teenage girls fall into eating disorders and depression.  Growing up with these idealized images of  female bodies it has given girls  a false way of how women should look like. This puts more pressure towards girls because they not only try to look like this false image to society but to attract the opposite sex. Since our entire generation has grown up with Disney movies it has also given boys unrealistic expectations of the human body whether it be male or female. In all the Disney movies the protagonists or hero is a strong man with overly muscular bodies and boyish charm.

 

 

Media Reaction 2–False Advertisements??

Everywhere we look whether its commercials, advertisements on the train or magazines that come in our mailboxes the meaning of advertising has changed.  The advertising techniques that are being used surrounds sex and attracting the opposite gender.

Everyone knows the infamous Axe commercials.  The guy is seen to be more appealing and attractive by women when he wears the AXE body spray/deodorant.  The consumer believes that he will be more attractive when he buys this product and instantly goes and buys it…Like my brothers.  I recently saw an advertisement for the Express perfume for women.  The female is wearing a hot pink dress and is surrounded by male models.  Like the AXE commercial, the Express perfume for women is conveying if women wear this perfume they will be more attractive to males.  These are just a few examples, brands like Dior, Estee Lauder, Guess, Armani Exchange, and Chanel use similar advertising techniques.

Brands need to generate alternative advertising techniques, it may attract consumers buy it is not conveying positive images of males and females.  Male and females products should not be seen as attraction methods.