Rationale

Rationale for Blog

I am happy to say I’ve been thankful that one of the tasks for ENGL 373 has been to create a blog, something I had never done before. I like that I can put my thoughts and ideas about topics, such as women in society, out in the world for the public to view on the internet. I’ve also been able to learn more through researching the topics I discuss in my blog, such as facts and statistics. They have a way of making information a lot more real (and less people can deny the information as well). Throughout my blog, I’ve tried to stick with a theme of how women are viewed in books (including children’s literature), advertisements, and even movies, in a sometimes-negative way. To enhance my ideas, I tried to keep my blog visually stimulating, with links, pictures, and videos.

The first blog I posted, “Mean Girls. Let’s Talk About it”, was a blog post about typical movies teens and young girls can get their hands on that have bad messages in them. In class, we had been talking about how women are seen in a way that’s called “girly” that holds a negative connotation sometimes (like in the video about running like a girl, or talking like a girl). In the movie “Mean Girls”, the main characters all wear pink and are really skinny, they’re boy crazy, and at one point even it’s even shown that they’re really bad at sports. I added information about women in STEM careers and also focused on bullying, a theme in the movie.

The next two blogs I wrote, I continued with women in the media and film. My blog “The Insanity of Beauty Standards” shows in what ways women are shown in advertisements and magazines. They’re depicted in an unrealistic fashion. And even though it’s unrealistic, women and young girls most importantly, see these images of a perfect women and want to be they. They wonder why they aren’t like that, and it can cause destructive behaviors and a bad self-image. I’m one to vouch for that, so I made sure to add my own experiences with this topic. Self-image came up in a couple of the books we read, and the one we were reading in class at the time was ‘Americanah’ where the main character ends up having issues with her body when she’s in America for a while. The idea of a perfect women is not a real, reachable idea. It should not be made a goal, and for some girls, it is.

The third blog focused on film, and that women don’t receive enough attention in movies (I touched on unequal pay as well). For class, we watched read an article on the “Ghostbuster’s” trailer receiving a lot of negative attention. I wondered why that was, because it seemed to be because the main cast was female. Upon further investigation, it seemed like this movie was a flop in general, but I wanted to learn more about women in film. In Hollywood, women don’t receive a lot of protagonist roles. They are also underpaid, even when casting in parts that are parallel with their male-counterparts. This is a theme of how women don’t fit into society, and aren’t as good as men at certain jobs (even something like acting) when this is untrue.

The last two blogs I created were about children’s literature and then on books and movies you can show and read to them. This also has a theme of women fitting into society. There was a lot of research that showed the lack of gender diversity in children’s literature, and the results were shocking. It makes girls feel like they don’t have as much importance as boys do. I went on to bring up information about the STEM field again, which lacks women, even though girls show an interest in these areas in elementary school. I showed a video as well with a mom and daughter taking books off a shelf that showed the gender imbalance in the books kids are reading. The next blog was a list I compiled on books and movies that are empowering for females, linking articles, videos, and stating facts along the way.  

I’m happy with my blog, and it’s helped me strengthen my value and I learned statistics I was unaware of beforehand. Overall, my blog has a consistent theme of how women are functioning in society, through ads, movies, and books. I’m considering continuing to blog because I feel strongly that women are as good as men, and that that’s a message we need to continue to spread.

Movies to Show Your Child, and Books to Read Them

Throughout my blog, I've had a typical theme of how women are negatively portrayed in the media (including film and books) mainly in America. The way we can change this is by re-enforcing to young children that girls are simply humans, and humans that are no different from the opposite gender. This also applies to women and self-image, another idea that needs re-enforcement: that we are all individually beautiful. Growing up, I wish that I had read more books with stronger female leads, that I was told women in magazines are photo-shopped, and that I was told I can do anything a man can do. I was raised by a whole family of females, until my younger brother came along in 2001 (we're five years apart).

My brother and I, circa 2001-02

You would think growing up being raised by my grandmothers (and spending lots of time with my aunt and girl cousins) that they would have instilled stronger female/feministic values in me...but they didn't, and I've had to figure it out on my own. I'm thankful to have grown up with a strong and open mind, and that I've been able to find my values as a women in this world. I'm not a woman who wants children (I'm about 90% sure), but if I had kids, no matter female or male, I would want them to know they're as good as anyone else is. It's harder to figure that out as an adult. I'm compiling a list here of movies and books your little girl should see and read. They include empowerment of females, independence of females (no damsel in distress needing saving from a prince here, guys!), and the message that there's a place for women in society. Enjoy!

1. I mentioned in a past blog that the STEM field needs more women. Workers make up almost half (48%) of the workforce in the U.S. but of that only 24% work in a STEM career. Gender representation in STEM is represented as males almost all of the time. This book, 'Rosie Revere, Engineer' by Andrea Beaty shows little girls that they can be an engineer! This is a rare find in children's literature.

The story of a girl who dreams of building a flying machine.

2. A book that changes the damsel in distress theme most fairy tales have is 'The Paper Bag Princess' by Robert Munsch (also the author of the popular 'Love You Forever' book). It reverses the princess/dragon stereotype. Because of it's feminist qualities, the NOW (National Organization for Women) even sells the book on their website. 

A story of a little girl who knows her worth. 

3. To add a movie in here, Mulan is a must-see for girls. Girl power is written all over this Disney film, and I love it! Mulan dresses up as a man and goes to war in place of her father, totally showing the men who does it best. This is an example of a women doing a "man's" job (in the era this movie is represented in, it's unacceptable for women to go to war) and doing it beyond well. Jobs/war does not discriminate against gender. Here's a good video analyzing Mulan, especially gender roles.

A woman fighting hard in a man's world. 

4. I'm going to end here with a very popular book AND movie series, 'The Hunger Games.' Katniss Everdeen is a teenager chosen to fight to the death in an arena with other teens. Katniss comes through as independent and loyal to her friends. She has a big heart, and she has ot face many tough decisions, staying strong along the way. Katniss shoots a bow and arrow, guns, and she fights physically and mentally against people throughout the whole series. A definitely read and watch for anyone, especially girls. Of course they need to be a little older to read the books, but you can show them the movies whenever. 

A teenage girl fights for survival (in more ways than one).

Gender Imbalance in Children's Literature

I loved it when my Mom or Nana read to me as a young girl. My mom claims that she even read to me when I was still in her womb. Til this day, I love to read and I owe it to them showing me the importance as well as the magic of books. Books can be powerful tools, but what about when they send the wrong messages? Particularly to little girls? There have been studies done within the last decade that has shown an imbalance between the amount of male characters in children's books compared to female characters. Also, it has to do with the way the female characters are represented.

If you remember your favorite books as a child, what were they? A few of mine were:

• The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
• Tales like The 3 Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
• Dr. Suess books like Cat in The Hat

Of the books I listed above, the only book with a female protagonist in it is Little Red Riding Hood (who I must add is led astray by a male wolf character and is not really the best model for young girls). I can't think of many other books I was read as a child that had any strong females in them, but I also don't know if that bothered me or not then. I do know that as an adult in college, I have struggled with career goals and school in general. Always good at reading and English, arts and humanities courses, but not at science or math. I never thought I could be good at those, and if I wanted to be, I would have to work extra hard beyond the boys. I dreamed of being a Marine Biologist when I was 8+ for example, and when I started taking Biology courses in college, I didn't think I could do it. I also had a hard time staying in sports like soccer, and instead do jazz and hip hop dancing. As you can see, the things I am "better" at or opted to do instead of the more "masculine" things ended up putting me a typical female mold.

So does the gender imbalance in children literature really make a difference? According to new research, it sends children a message that "women and girls occupy a less important role in society than men or boys." Between a whole century of childrens books being published, there were about 6,000 (1900-2000). What was found by Janice McCabe, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, is that "males are central characters in 57% of children's books published each year,  with just 31% having female central characters. Male animals are central characters in 23% of books per year, while female animals star in only 7.5%." Another fun fact is that in the books in which a character was not assigned a gender, the parents are automatically filling it in with being male. This includes books with skyscraper characters, or snowplows characters, the non-human ones. We should want to show little girls that girls can be anything, and anything can be a girl.

In the video below posted by Rebel Girls, a mother and a daughter are examining a bookshelf full of children's books. They remove books with zero male characters in them, only pulling a shocking THREE books. Then they do the opposite, and pull SEVENTY-THREE books that had zero females in them. They go on to pull ones with females, but that don't have speaking roles, etc. It's a really interesting video and helps put more in to perspective the fight for women to fit in as a normal human being, who is simply a human!...and a human that fits a role in society just as a male does.

Women in TV & Film

A recent article I had to read for my English class is making me more curious about the roles of women in the TV and Film industry. The article was about the recent "Ghostbusters" trailer having "623,740 down votes, as opposed to 216,907 votes in the affirmative" on YouTube. In case you were unaware, the original "Ghostbusters" made in 1984 had an all-male leading crew, and the remake of it features an all-female crew. Some people claim the reason the movie was so horrible was because of the girls, and others beg to differ (IMDb reviews). Apparently this movie was a big flop (scoring a 5.4/10 while the original was a 7.8), and I haven't seen it personally due to all of the negative attention it received, but it made me wonder about the stats on women's roles in movies vs. men's. 


The first research I conducted led me to a website called "Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film"  that had a report from 2016 of female-roles in the top 100 movies released that year. The report showed that 29% of women were in a leading role (the protagonist in the movie), which was 7 percentage points more than 2015, as well as a historical high. C'mon, 29% isn't a whole lot, and even though it was an increase, this is my whole point. It's still a low percentage, even though it seems like it's getting better. On TV, 41% of women were protagonists (very close to half!), but the kicker here is that 71% were Caucasian, only 17% were black, and it just gets worse from there (women in television). That's another issue though that I hope to cover in the future.

To make matters worse, the roles that these females are playing in films seem to be imitating reality, and unfortunately so. A study done about movies from 2010-May of 2013 showed females held 13.9% of senior executive positions (the highest level of management of a company or organization). Women were instead over represented in jobs such as being a teacher or waitressing, and very underrepresented in roles such as doctors, lawyers, and engineers. In real life, 24% of senior business roles are held by women globally (forbes.com). Barely a fourth., but double what the movies show. This tells little girls that women aren't "supposed" to be in these roles, or that they aren't competent enough and instead should have more "feminine" jobs (which in return have less pay).

Speaking of pay, that's another issue I want to speak on. Women in America (who aren't actors) are only paid 80 cents for every dollar that's paid to men (even in the same working positions). There are Equal Pay Laws, but they haven't been touched since they were created a little over 50 years ago. The wage gap between men and women can mean a $10,000 loss in earning per year for women (nwlc.org). In Hollywood and in the film industry, the pay gap is even larger. Last year, Jennifer Lawrence spoke out about this when she asked why her male counterparts were paid more than her and Amy Adams in American Hustle. Jennifer Lawrence is a popular celebrity, up among the highest of them, so why isn't she getting paid the same as her male co-stars? What does that say about how this culture values women's work? Here's a quote from time.com that puts it more into perspective:

"[Robert] Downey [Jr.] was reportedly paid $40 million for the latest installment of The Avengers, while Lawrence brought home $15 million total for the third and fourth installments of The Hunger Games, or about $7.5 million a pop. So far both franchises have earned more than $2.9 billion worldwide. And Lawrence is the undisputed star of her films, whereas Downey shares the screen with five other leads."

So when will this unequal pay and unequal viewing of men being better than women in general end? it's driving me insane! I just want to feel like I'm as good as the man standing next to me when we're doing the same job and outputting the same amount of energy and time. I feel like I will have to fight as a women in the workplace if I'm not a teacher or a waitress, or work in an office. The laws for equal pay need to be reviewed and strengthened, and laws in the workplace regarding talking about pay also need to change. We are slowly but surely getting there, and we can't stop fighting to be seen in the same eyes as men are. We're just as good, and deserve recognition for our hard work too. 

***PS: The movie "Flashdance" (1983) features a strong female lead that is a welder by day and an exotic dancer by night, trying to make her way into a ballet school. She is perceived as an independent, strong woman. 

Jennifer Beals starring in "Flashdance"

The Insanity of Beauty Standards

A lot of the time I find myself struggling with self-confidence and negative body image. I know I'm not the only one, and being a woman, my feelings about myself seem to be more amplified than a mans would be. I constantly see women in magazines that are so thin, flawlessly so, and I fight with myself on why I am not like them. Yet, most are photo-shopped...and I know that. But why do we have to make fake standards? If a model is already wearing a 00 in clothes, why does the media make them even smaller, prettier, bigger breasted? As if that size 00 woman isn't small enough? I will say that some companies are fighting to change this, like aerie's real campaign. They started featuring women who are like you and I, who are real and untouched. Since then, I shop there vs. Victoria's Secret and look for brands who make you feel better about yourself. Here's a picture of an aerie "model" (put in quotes because they look for women who aren't technically supermodels) compared to a VS model:

This is only one example, but if you google VS models then google Aerie models, you can see for yourself the major difference in the diversity of models in terms of size. I look a lot more like the woman on the left than the one on the right, and the one on the right makes me feel like shit about myself if we're being honest here. The one on the left makes me want to embrace the skin I'm in and be proud of how I look. I also don't feel fat when I look at her, because she looks like me. I feel the opposite with the VS model.

This notion of body image follows women not only in magazines and fashion ads, but in movies and even literature. Even everyday experiences in general can make you feel this way since it's ingrained in our heads that we have to be and look better than we already are (even though we probably look amazing to people around us) due to the messages we are receiving and it's everywhere. It's like how we are isn't good enough, so we're expected to have a gym membership and wear make-up everyday, and not go for seconds, and eat salads and food-prep for the week. Here is a small article on how the media pressures women to be thin that talks about trends in diet pills among young women and also how this pressure increases the chance of eating disorders.

Like I mentioned above, literature even speaks on body image and the issues surrounding it. I've been reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Americanah for my English course, and it's brought to light that American culture focuses on thinness and beauty standards more than other cultures. The beginning of the book, the main character Ifemelu realizes that she's fat. Being in America has made her realize she's fat, when before this, she didn't think about it. Her home country is Nigeria. On page 6 (the "Random House" edition of this book), Ifemelu is on the transit to Penn Station when she makes the observation that "slim white people" are getting off the bus and compared them to the black people (and herself) who seemed to be larger. She goes on to say that her friend Ginika once told her "'fat' in America was a bad word." She also tells us the story of going to the grocery store where a man pretty much decides she can't eat tostitos because she's "fat." I don't understand why it was any of his business for one, and for two, how can you literally have the balls to even say that to someone? If you aren't a 00-4 you must be fat and can't eat your favorite snacks, right? Was she even really fat though?

By the way, a size four in American clothing is a small size, and some companies argue models above this size have to model for plus-size companies.

American model Autumn Holley, who is 5'10 and a size 4 (US).

What can we do about this? As a woman, I feel like it's my job to ignore nasty and demeaning messages and to teach the younger females around me that it's important to love yourself. It's hard when images and ideas of being "skinny" (jeez, what does that mean anyway) are everywhere we turn. We must fight this, sponsor companies who fight this, and treat ourselves kindly. YOU ARE PERFECT. You don't need to be a size 00 to love yourself, or to get others to love you. We must spread encouragement, love, and compliments to everyone and not snicker or make rude comments when someone looks different than you do. Isn't that the point? Being different? Embrace it! I'm vouching to work on my self-love and body image this year, without searching for diet pills, and without feeling bad for buying a bag of tostitos at Kroger. I will smile and give you the middle finger if you feel like you are oh, so obligated to speak on what I eat and let me know I'm too fat for you. I don't know you, but I know myself. And I know I am beautiful. That's what matters. 

Image Sources (in order):

Aerie Model

VS Model

Perfect

Autumn Holley