Tag Archives: institutions

Your Boycott is a Waste of Time

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I’m sure by now many of you have heard about the boycott of Target for those who are against their change in bathroom policies. If not, basically the American Family Association (AFA) started a campaign that already has over 500,000 signatures of folks who plan to stop shopping at Target because of their gender-matching bathroom policy. This potty policy allows transgendered employees and customers to use the restroom they feel that matches their gender identity. AFA members and supporters are furious because they believe this policy will endanger children to exposure to pedophiles. In response to their anger, they created this campaign that has been AFA’s most popular thus far that boycotts Target for everyone who signs the petition. Yet, do they really think Target is the only store/business that is going to accept this policy?

The Daily Beast wrote an article called “All the Things You Can No Longer Buy if You’re Really Boycotting Trans-Friendly Businesses” that details a list of businesses/stores/restaurants that support transgender rights. According to the article, if Target boycotters were truly against businesses that support transgender rights, then they “can’t buy an iPhone, eat an Egg McMuffin, drink a Sprite, stock up Budweiser, or fill your prescriptions at either of the nation’s two largest pharmacy chains (Walgreens and CVS)” (Allen, 2016). That is because Apple, McDonald’s, Sprite, Budweiser, Walgreens, and CVS are among a large list of popular and large companies that support transgender rights, which includes gender-identity bathrooms.

Perhaps AFA members, supporters, and all Target boycotters should have done a little more research before creating and signing that petition. Then maybe they would realize that the world in transforming into a transgender friendly place and they are simply falling behind. If the boycotters really wanted to impress me, then perhaps they should plan to boycott all places that support transgender rights. What do you think?

Check out “All the Things You Can No Longer Buy if You’re Really Boycotting Trans-Friendly Businesses” by The Daily Beast here:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/26/all-the-things-you-can-no-longer-buy-if-you-re-really-boycotting-trans-friendly-businesses.html

NC and Mississippi Laws

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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?!

New Law for North Carolina

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Recently North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed a new state law that won’t allow local government measures to protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. According to USA Today, the law halts cities and counties from putting their own anti-discrimination policies in place, as it sets a standard for the entire state that leaves out gender identity and sexual orientation.

One criticism warns that the state risks losing money for education due to Title IX Anti-Discrimination regulations. Those who oppose this law also believe that it is a huge step backwards for human rights. Supporters of the law state that it “protects all people from having to share bathrooms with people who make them feel unsafe” as it requires all people to use bathrooms that match what biological sex is on their birth certificate.

Based on what we learned in Chapter 1 of Julia T. Wood’s book, Gendered Lives, biological sex and gender are separate. So is it fair that this law requires people who might identify as a gender that is different from their biological sex to use a certain bathroom? Additionally, what about all people having the right to be protected from discrimination?

So what do you think? Based on what we have learned in class, is this law unfair?

Women’s Products or Sexist Pricing

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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.

Longwood’s Steps to Acceptance

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Last night I was scrolling through Facebook, as one does on a Wednesday night when all their homework is done and they’re trying to go to bed early for once in their life, and I saw that a few of my friends had shared a link to a Rotunda article, and the title was what caught my attention: “Bigender Student Receives Bid into Fraternity.” The article talks about Beasa Dukes, a student who identifies as bigender, or not solely male or female, who received a bid from Phi Mu Delta, a fraternity here at Longwood University. Reading this article made me think about Dr. Jes Simmons’ talk with us in class about how open-minded Longwood is in regards to the LGBT+ community, and the progress that the University is making in regards to accepting people of all genders and sexual orientations into University organizations.

Pacquiao in Hot Water Over LGBT Views

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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?

Sorority Recruitment & Transgendered Students

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Within the last few months, both Brown University and Missouri State have changed their Recruitment requirements to include transgendered students. At Brown University, all three sororities on campus, Kappa Delta, Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta had to vote to change the rules. Those going through the process are not required to put their sex, only their birth name and the name in which they prefer to be called.

*Insert Feminist Rant Here*

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Just wanted to make sure that everyone was up to date with their sexist-occupations list, since 2013. A few big ones were caught encouraging the “men>women” lie around the world, recently.

(Very recently.) Yesterday, the Women’s Media Center released a report that stomped on my Mass Media Communication Studies Degree.

“Sixty-five percent of U.S. political stories published during a three-month span in 2014 were written by men,” wrote a man for Poynter Institute.

“The report, which examined about 27,000 pieces of content produced at major news organizations during three months in 2014, shows that men produced the majority of coverage in nearly all cases. Three organizations — “PBS Newshour,” the Chicago Sun-Times and The Huffington Post — reached or surpassed gender parity.”

 

  • The New York Times: 32 percent female, 68 percent male
  • The Denver Post: 32 percent female, 68 percent male
  • USA Today: 33 percent female, 67 percent male
  • New York Post: 36 percent female, 64 percent male
  • The Washington Post: 39 percent female, 61 percent male
  • The Los Angeles Times: 40 percent female, 60 percent male
  • The Wall Street Journal: 40 percent female, 59 percent male
  • The San Jose Mercury News: 41 percent female, 59 percent male
  • The Chicago Sun-Times: 55 percent female, 45 percent male

Aside from my journalism passion being crushed, my soccer one also took a hard hit. Adding injury to insult, this Saturday marks the first match of the 2015 Women’s World Cup, and FIFA’s sexist decision to hold the entire tournament on artificial turf.

When Abby Wambach — the 2012 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year — heard of this news, she noted, “The men would strike playing on artificial turf.”

 

Playing on turf is exponentially more dangerous than playing on real grass. And exponentially more expensive to upkeep. The Men’s 2014 World Cup got a $550Million Stadium built in a developing country (that ended up becoming a bus parking lot after the tournament ended) while women have to settle for turf in Canada.

Many famous female soccer players filed a lawsuit against FIFA, but later dropped the charges. 

The dozens of plaintiffs included U.S. Women’s National Team player Heather O’Reilly, who told NPR that the plan to use fake grass “is a blatant demonstration of FIFA not placing the women side by side with the men. You know, many men’s players refuse to play on artificial turf, actually, and the thought of it being played in the World Cup is almost laughable.”

How is it that oppression against women is still so evident and so prevalent? If professional athletes gave up their attempt to fight discrimination with their high profiles and the resources they have, what does that mean for us everyday women?

Even at church

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Last Sunday I had gone to my church here in Farmville.  As I was sitting there looking around I had noticed the college students in parish, especially one the ones that were around me and I knew personally.  I had noticed that all the Hampden Sydeny guys sat together in the same row and the the Longwood girls sat in a different row but together too.  I thought it was weird how even though we knew each other like we are all brothers and sisters we all separated ourselves by sex.  As the mass continued my priest went ahead and preached about the Gospel.  When we was preaching about it he had talked about how he grew up and the ways that his mother bought up him and his siblings.  He told all us that his mother taught the boys how to cook and sew while the girls learned how to mow the lawn.

Toys are Media Too

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From the excerpt ‘Redefining Girly’: Reconstructing the gender norms of society on the Today Books Website by Melissa Atkins Wardy, it discusses a portion of her book, Redefining Girly, that focuses on how the media influences our societal opinions on gender.

Quoting Wardy, “Media greatly influences children, taking a role in shaping their perceptions and behaviors, and toys are a form of media. Just like the healthy foods we feed our children, toys, too, should be “nutrient rich,” allowing free play, creativity, and exploration in order to boost brain development and self-esteem through play. There should be no room in the toy box for gender stereotypes and sexualization.”

She continues to talk about how it has influenced her own family’s life such as her daughter and son. She says, “Toys are not meant to teach children about gender. They are meant to teach children about life.”

I decided to post about this because it reminded me a lot about our trip to Walmart and how the toys in the aisles have a sense of definition of gender for children today.