Author Archives: Sarah Toler

NC and Mississippi Laws

Image

5

Whether it be through Facebook shares, news channels, Twitter, or whatever; many of us have heard about the LGBT laws recently put into play in North Carolina and Mississippi. In a nutshell, The New York Times reports: in North Carolina, a bill was put into place to override their nondiscrimination laws that were previously in place. It also bans transgender people from specific public restrooms. In Mississippi, a new law has been enacted that allows anyone with religious objections to deny services to gay couples.

Huge objections are being made by large corporations. BuzzFeed posted an ongoing list of the stars and businesses who are refusing to work in these states due to their laws:

  • Pearl Jam
  • Cirque du Soleil
  • Ringo Starr
  • PayPal
  • Bruce Springsteen
  • Etsy
  • Patagonia
  • And a ton more

Big corporations dropping out of whole states completely could potentially be hard on North Carolina and Mississippi’s economies, as well as consumers missing out on companies they enjoy… No PayPal?! Now what?!

Women’s Products or Sexist Pricing

Image

16

If you scroll through Target’s webpage, you’ll notice men’s body wash is in the four to seven dollar range. Women’s on the other hand, is the five to ten dollar range. Weird, right?

Boots is a UK originated retailer, similar to Target or Wal-Mart. Recently; the store has tried to resolve the issue of sexist pricing. It was brought to their attention by a petition that was written titled, Boots – Review the Sexist Pricing of Everyday Products. The description is very opinionated.

“An investigation by The Times found that women are being charged 36% more on average for products marketed as ‘women’s products’. The Fawcett Society describe this as a sexist surcharge for women – and I think that’s exactly what this is.”

While you may be thinking it only applies to women because feminine products are more expensive – think again. What about the men who purchase these items for their wife, mother, daughter, or sister? Or, to shake up your brain, what about the men who use these products? This applies to us all.

Pacquiao in Hot Water Over LGBT Views

Quote

Posted on by
4

Boxing legend, Manny Pacquiao is in hot water from the LGBT community, as well as Nike, for his recent comments on his beliefs of same-sex marriage. WVUE of New Orleans recently published an article about Nike cutting ties with Pacquiao over his opposing views.

Pacquiao said, “Have you seen any animal having male-to-male or female-to-female relations?… If you have male-to-male or female-to-female (relationships), then people are worse than animals.” He went on to say, “I’m not condemning the LGBT, What I am condemning is the act.” Pacquiao states his views come from his Christian faith.

Nike said it opposes any sort of discrimination, and that is the reason they will no longer sponsor or support Pacquiao.

What do you think?

A Woman in the Race…

Posted on by
7

While scrolling through Yahoo’s coverage of last nights debate, I came across an interesting tweet. Now, I don’t personally use Twitter or have an account, but I had to click on this particular tweet from @DCHomos (what a name).

Obviously, having the first woman president would be groundbreaking, but I think focusing on sex of the candidates in the way that this twitter account, as well as many other people are, is changing the race.

To bring this back to our course, I will use the cultural theory of anthropology. Anthropology says gender isn’t absolute, nor is it a universal concept. So, what is considered masculine or feminine in our culture, may be dramatically different or even opposite of another culture. Traditionally, our culture views the job of President of the United States of America as a masculine position. So how would our ideas change if Hillary Clinton were to win the race? Would that make Hillary masculine, or would that make the job more feminine?

Something to think about…