Miley Cirus and teen hypersexualization

When I first saw the photo of Miley Cirus (age 15) in a silk sheet circulating around the Internet, I wasn't sure what to think. As it turns out, millions of teenage girls in the country must have been just as puzzled as I was. While we hear messages from politicians telling us that being sexual is 'bad' and that abstinence is the only way to go, the media's capitalizing on bare skin and shock value is sending our young culture some very mixed signals.

Jessica from Feministing.com comments on what she calls the Stockholm Syndrome in Media. The media's portrayal of young women as sexual objects, Jessica believes, acts like a subtle version of verbal and physical harassment and is always present in the background. Subconsciously, girls absorb these messages and try to weigh them against the voices that are telling them (in their schools) that acting/dressing sexy and being interested in sex before marriage is bad. 

The real message, according to Jessica: girls shouldn't want to be powerful. The result: serious barriers between us and full equality.

Pay Equity

Senate democrats tried to overturn the recent supreme court ruling regarding pay equity. A woman working for goodyear found out she was making at least $6,000 less than the lowest paid male doing work equal to her. She sewed the company and won, but lost the appeal at the supreme court because she did not take action within six months of hte discrimination. But, she never knew it was going on, so how could she take action? Goodyear managers were forbidden from discussing pay.

Senate democrats' bill would give the employee 6 months after each paycheck to take action, instead of 6 months from the time of discrimination. Ted Kennedy gave a great speech about the measure, shaming the supreme court for ignoring civil rights and siding with discrimination. Republicans are against it because they think it would encourage law suits. I think they're against it because they don't support pay equity.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89886016

FLDSA mothers and children separated in Texas

The Times posted an article from the AP about the latest update on the FLDSA compound in Texas. Texas officials raided the Yearning for Zion compound in Eldorado on April 3rd. The compound is owned by an unrecognized faction of the Mormon Church, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The raid came after officials received an anonymous call from a woman claiming to be a 16 year old girl from the compound who was being physically and seuxally abused by her husband. While authorities have still not identified the caller they did remove all the children from the compound and place them in temporary facilities. The sate separated mothers from their children last week except in the cases of children 5 or under. Today, however, the mothers were told that any child over 1 years old would be removed to Child Protective Custody and placed in the foster care system until individual custody cases could be heard. The women had also been removed from the ranch and were given a choice to go back or go to a "safe" location. More than 400 children in total had been removed from the compound.

The Times article followed the analysis of many other media sources I have heard covering the raid on this compound. Instead of offering a full analysis of the situation, the author conflated women and children to the same status and removed much of the women's agency. The article did not report the number of women or children speaking in favor of the compound or possible scenarios besides the claims of abuse and brain washing. While the women and children appear to have lived in a limited sphere of agency, this article and others like it, only serves to victimize them further and not allow them to assess their own choices and situation. The raid also did not lead to men leaving the compound to stay with their children, but focused only on women and children. This ignores the possibility that any of the adults could have been involved in the abuse and assumes the guilt of the men alone. While the situation seems very tragic, I wish the Times had offered more comprehensive analysis and multiple understandings of the scenario.

Republicans Block Vote on Fair Pay

Both the New York Times and the Feminist Daily News posted stories on Senate Republicans' filibuster of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. With a vote of 56-42, the Senate did not reach the 60 votes needed to override the filibuste. The legislation would overturn last summer's Supreme Court ruling in Lebdbetter v. Goodyear Tire Company which made it harder for women workers to sue for wage discrimination. Shortly before retiring after working at Goodyear for more than 20 years, Ledbetter found out that she had persistently been paid less than her male coworkers throughout her career; at some points she made 40% less than an equivalent male employee. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that Ledbetter could not sue for discrimination because she had not filed her claim within 180 days of the discriminatory act.

The Times spoke about the political aspects of today's vote, noting that the Democrats waited until the last moment in order to try and gain more Republican votes. Both articles also wrote about the return of the two democratic presidential nominees to vote in favor of the bill and Senator McCain's absence from the vote, but his statement against the act. The Feminist Daily News highlighted Ledbetter's presence in the Senate chamber, as well as the lobbying of a numerous women's groups. The Times also wrote about Ledbetter including a quote from her and noting that the wage discrimination did not end when she retired as her pay rate affects her pension and social security.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/washington/24cong.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=10960

Women Superdelegates

The AP published an article by Laurie Kellman last Friday about female super-delegates' struggle in endorsing Barack Obama without having their "sisterhood" questioned, quite the same way that black Democrats have received criticism for endorsing Hillary Clinton. Many women believe that if Clinton doesn't win the White House this year, no woman will reach this goal in their lifetime (although it seems that this belief faces a bit of a generational divide, with younger female voters more eagerly and less guiltily voicing their support for the youthful Senator Obama). Some super-delegates fear the possibility of losing their seats over these endorsements. As Ellen R. Malcolm, founder of EMILY's list, states, "They feel that they elected the women and have gone to bat for them, so they want every single woman [super-delegate] to vote for the woman candidate." In the midst of such strong sentiments, some female delegates have decided to remain neutral until a clear winner emerges; Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick of Michigan, who is black and a woman, is one such delegate. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California is another.

In the absence of major differences between the two Democratic contestants, race and gender loyalty can become pivotal factors. Former lawmaker Pat Schroeder points to the media's portrayal of Hillary Clinton as a sort of "female legend." "There's a feeling, you know, of sisterhood," she explains. "There's really a general consensus that Clinton's gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to the media, and you have women knowing all along that women have had a tough go in politics." 

Defining "women's issues"

Women's eNews published an article last Friday compiling a list of issues that women have been paying particular attention to this election. The list was based on reader correspondence, and helps to outline some of the main issues women are interested in hearing more about (Keep in mind that 60% of voters in the 2004 election were women!):

1. Reproductive rights

• Federal insurance for birth control

• Comprehensive sexual education/condoms available at public school infirmaries

• Funds for abstinence-free education

• Federal law guaranteeing a woman's right to choose

2. Cervical cancer prevention

• Federal law requiring the immunization of girls with HPV vaccine

• Funding for HPV vaccine

3. Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

• Finally get bill ratified?

• Madison stratey (3 more states) or Maloney (would begin process all over again)

4. CEDAW treaty

• Would eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. Ratified by 180 countries except for the U.S. 

5. Social Security

• Women more dependent on social security because live longer than men

• Prevent privatization of Social Security Trust Fund

• Increase tax cap above $97,500

6. Taxes

• Second-earner bias in tax code injected in 1948 discourages women from employment

7. Welfare Assistance

• Opposition to continuing Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, because of 40-hour work requirement component. A disaster for poor women

• Increase income assistance for women and their dependents

• Increase funding for food stamp program

8. Violence Against Women Act

• Funding cuts proposed by President Bush, by roughly 1/3 in 2009

• Victim assistance grants reduced by 40% since 2006

9. Breast Cancer

• 40,000 women die of breast cancer annually

• Research funds $700 million each year; must be increased

10. Rape

• Every 2 minutes, a sexual assault takes place in America. 1/6 women will be assaulted in her lifetime

• Only 6% of rapists get jail sentence. Need better victims' rights, unbiased police work, consistent prosecution, higher conviction rates, help for survivors

11. Immigration and deportation

• Last year, over 870,000 undocumented immigrants, many of who had children living in the U.S., were deported. Support for immigrant law reforms to stop breaking apart families

• Department of Homeland Security must issue visas to immigrant women who were battered and abused by their spouses

12. Equal pay

• Women earn 77 cents to each man's dollar for equal work

• Support Paycheck Fairness Act, stepping up federal enforcement of equal-pay mandates

Early First Ladies

Cokie Roberts wrote a book about the early first ladies and their enormous impact on American political history. She jokes about how they all would have done a better job as president than their husbands did. Her favorite is Dolly Madison. Candidates running against James Madison claimed that they would have been able to beat him had he not been married to Dolly. During the fire while she was first lady, she saved the portrait of George Washington.

Jon Stewart tried to bring up the issue of how far a first lady's power can go. Even today, there are certain things first ladies can do and certain things that our looked at. He used Hillary Clinton as an example of people thinking she was too active. Roberts responded that she didn't think it was true and the reason she wrote the book was to show the power and contributions of first ladies.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=165753&title=cokie-roberts