Jennifer Siebel Newsom coming to campus

Exciting news! Ball State will be showing Miss Representation and hosting a discussion with its director, writer and producer Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The event is not until February 6, but I’m still looking forward to it already! Miss Representation changed my entire outlook on modern-day feminism, and I hope other people will see women and how they are portrayed in a different way as well. I am looking forward to hearing what she has to say. I will definitely watch Miss Representation again too!

Guess Who?

Guess Who?

A six-year-old girl wrote to Hasbro asking why their game Guess Who? has 19 male characters and only five female characters. I remember from playing this game that getting a female character meant an automatic loss. You could tell which cards were female characters because they were all bent from kids getting mad at who they picked (Candy Land was the same way. You could always tell when you were going to get Plumpy or Mr. Mint).

“Is your character a man or a woman?” was always the first question anyone I played with asked. If you had a woman, all 19 men were taken out of the process of elimination, and it was unlikely that you could ever win. Personally, I feel that this little girl has a point.

Unfortunately, Hasbro does not feel the same way. They replied with a statement about how their game is not sexist, saying the purpose is to realize how much we all have in common, rather than our differences. Sure….

Stupid Girls

This song came out right around the time when Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson were really popular (think “is this chicken or fish?” comment). I love how P!nk is advocating not being like all the women who think they need to show skin or not eat in order to be pretty. The ending shows the little girl choosing to play football, which is especially relevant after the Title IX video we watched today.

Muncie Police Department

My friend, who is a woman, told me she recently had some problems trying to talk to officers at the Muncie Police Department. Tuesday there was an armed robbery, so as a member of a student news organization, she called to confirm information. The man told her to hold, but she was on hold for so long, she hung up and called back. The man on the line paused for so long that my friend asked him if he was there. He said yes, but he couldn’t give her any information.

After hanging up, she was incredibly confused. Journalists call the police department all the time to confirm information. Why was this man acting so strange? Another reporter told her that it happens all the time with the Muncie Police Department, and that they needed to have a man call and ask for information Sure enough, a male reporter called to find out information and didn’t have a problem. The officer told him everything he needed to know and more. 

I don’t want to say the police department is sexist because I wasn’t there to witness this exchange, but it does seem like a strange situation. And it seems to have happened multiple times, according to other reporters from other news organizations in Muncie.

Proud to be a woman because behind every great man is an even greater woman

Who am I?

My name is Lisa Ryan and I am a junior studying telecommunications news and political science. I report for WCRD News, the Daily News and Newslink Indiana. I hope to be a political reporter for a major news organization and possibly run for office one day.

Why am I proud to be a woman?

I am proud to be a woman because who runs the world? Girls! Yes, this is a song, but it is true because we can have it all. Women now have power over their own lives and the lives of those they can affect. Whether they have chosen to have a family, be a business leader, political leader or all three, women have control over their world. Even with the majority of our government representatives being men, they are greatly influenced by women, whether those women are his wife, daughter and mother or whether it is a women’s rights lobbyist. That is why behind every great man, there is an even greater woman!

What are my future aspirations?

My future aspirations of being a political reporter and possibly a politician guide me through school. I hope to learn something new every day and continue to be open-minded to new ideas. I refuse to accept ignorance of any issue. If there is something I don’t understand, I hope to read and learn and discover everything about it. I hope to be a role model to young women and myself. If I can be the woman I want to be then I will be happy no matter what I am doing. I hope to be a leader, whether by title or by character. I want to fight the stereotype that women in the news media have to dress sexy or dumb themselves down in order to gain mass appeal. I will always have respect for myself and hopefully by doing so, bring respect to all women.

Who is my favorite female candidate?

My favorite female political candidate is Glenda Ritz running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Her energy and enthusiasm is contagious, and she seems to have a genuine concern for the future of education and the students her policies would affect. It’s great to see a person who has been working in education so long who has not lost hope and who wants to continue to make our state the best it can be. I hope that no matter what I am doing, I can be as excited as Ritz and gain supporters through my passion for beliefs as she does.

What do I hope to change in the world and what have I learned from this class?

I hope to change the idea that women have to work twice as hard as men in order to gain the same respect. I would like to see women earning the same income as men for the same work. Even in 2012, we still have not reached full equality, and I did not realize that before this class. After this class, I hope to continue to be aware of inequality and one day work to change it.

Rep. Linda Lawson gives an emotional appeal

After Rep. Eric Turner said that we should prevent abortions even in cases of rape because women could be lying in order to receive an abortion, Rep. Linda Lawson gave her tearful story on being a sex crimes investigator and seeing women who were hurt have to go through court and face their attacker. She said women who had to go through that ordeal would not be making it up.

Watch the video and see if her tears enhance her story or take away from her point. Personally, I think her tears help us imagine what it was her job was like and help us see how passionate and sincere she she is about this issue.

Why we need to vote for women!

Why we need to vote for women!

This article points out that the Indiana Senate is now less than 20 percent female. Women make up 21 percent of the Indiana House of Representatives. 

I think these numbers are a joke. How can we call ourselves a representative government if the makeup of government does not match the population? And it is not just women. Minorities are not well represented in the Indiana General Assembly either. I really hope this changes after the election.

The only good news this article brings is that the women who are in the legislature like Sen. Karen Tallian do not meet any barriers because they are women. Tallian says she cannot remember being discriminated against “because she’s a chick” in a long time. I’m glad that even though women are a minority in the legislature, they aren’t being treated as such.

Rally for Women 2012

I went to Rally for Women 2012 in order to meet Shelli Yoder, the candidate I chose to follow, and other female candidates and politicians. Yoder is running to represent the 9th Congressional District.

During the event, Judy O’Bannon spoke to the audience, encouraging everyone to vote for Yoder because she is the best candidate. But some of her comments were not about Yoder’s issues and instead about her appearance, which I thought was inappropriate. While O’Bannon was trying to compliment Yoder, I still found it unsettling that superficial features were being discussed at a rally for women’s empowerment. O’Bannon called the candidate a “knockout,” saying it was clear that spending all her time campaigning had not caused Yoder to gain a pound.

Do you think I am wrong to be upset by these comments? Clearly they are meant to be nice, but personally I think it diminishes the candidate and her issues. I don’t think Yoder is running to look pretty, I think she and other female candidates are running because they think they are the best candidates with the best solutions.

Feminist Nazi Memes

I had no idea this meme existed until I read an article about it. The article says:

“(The meme suggests) feminists are all hypocrites that like to “bitch” and complain and do nothing about what they’re complaining about. That’s all of us, and we’ve done nothing good for the world. Take feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem, for example, who right-wing radio personality, Rush Limbaugh, has called a “feminazi” for years. She’s done nothing for the world…except be a leader in the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s and 1970s and fight against violence against women, such as female genital mutilation and sex trafficking.”

Since the word feminist was created, it has carried with it some pretty negative connotations, and apparently the newest is that feminists are hypocritical. The series of memes has sayings like “I’m a strong independent woman until something heavy needs to be lifted.” It is hard to take a cause seriously when it is literally a joke going viral on the internet, but while I want to be outraged about this meme, it has some semblance of truth.

Is allowing chivalry hypocritical? If I expect a man to pay on a first date, is that taking away the balance of equality between men and women? I do not expect men to hold doors open for me, and I will hold a door open for a man if I am the first one to the door. Hopefully men will not take my inability to life heavy objects as a statement on equality, as these memes suggest, and will hopefully just have enough respect to help any person, not just a woman.

Senate candidates asked about 50 Shades during debate

Senate candidates asked about 50 Shades during debate

During a political debate, two female candidates running to represent New York in the U.S. Senate were asked if they had read 50 Shades of Grey. I don’t see how this is relevant in any way to the race. I can’t believe the female moderator even asked the question. Both candidates answered no, but personally I think they should have ignored it. I think they should have pointed out how ridiculous it was and moved on to an actual question. I am disappointed that after how far we have come, when we have two women running for the U.S. Senate, they still can’t be taken seriously.