Cover Girls

Streets, Sex Work, and Safety

2009-10-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

The Young Women's Empowerment Project out in Chicago has recently published the results of a youth-led study on harm reduction and recovery strategies in the sex trade. Check out their website or go directly to the pdf file of the research. Chicago Public Radio also covered the release of this study: audio podcast here.

This research is for US. It’s for YOU and for all girls, including transgender girls, and young women, including trans women involved in the sex trade and street economy.
This research study was created by girls, collected by girls, and analyzed by girls. We did this because this is OUR LIVES. Who knows us better than us?

We did this to prove that we care--that we are capable of resisting violence in a multitude of ways.

We take care of ourselves and heal in whatever way feels best for us—whether society approves of it or not.

This research study honors all of the ways we fight back (resistance) and our healing (resilience) methods.

We proved that we do face violence but we are not purely victims. We are survivors. We can take care of ourselves and we know what we need.

This research is a response to all of those researchers, doctors, government officials, social workers, therapists, journalists, foster care workers and every other adult who said we were too messed up or that we needed to be saved from ourselves.

Abuse Between the Young and Famous

2009-03-24T23:18:00.000-07:00

The presence of celebrity culture is certainly overwhelming as this entry relies mainly on headlines I have come across at news stands and talk from coworkers and friends. I haven't actually read or watched a whole lot on hip-hop and R&B singer Rihanna's alleged ordeal of battery from boyfriend and fellow singer Chris Brown. So my perspective could be misinformed. But if it isn't, then what is proven is that modern society has few, if any, individuals who are capable of remaining ignorant of entertainment news (as I certainly have tried my best at that). And while such mass media is so powerful and far-reaching, its lack of contribution to the quality of life of both its story subjects and consumers mostly goes unquestioned.

Rihanna allegedly sustained beatings from Brown while the couple sat in a parked car less than a day before the 2009 Grammy Awards. As a result, they both cancelled their scheduled performances at the event.

Let's begin by exploring three classic characteristics of partnership dysfunction that have been identified or alleged in Rihanna and Chris Brown's case:

Blaming the Victim

A few days after the Grammy Awards, a friend told me that Brown had initiated rumors on the internet that he contracted an STD from Rihanna. In addition, the question of infidelity on her part circulated across magazine articles. If these accusations did indeed originate from Brown's efforts, then he has been playing a game of manipulation that partners employ to minimize responsibility and guilt for the abuse they know they're going to inflict in the near future. The misuse of police and court mandates is one such tactic in which the perpetrator attempts in advance to obtain a restraining order on the victim so that their roles eventually appear to be reversed in the eyes of authorities, neighbors, and others. And in the proportionately small percentage of female-on-male violence, a typical outcome is that in the process of defending himself, the man leaves the woman with scratches and bruises which the woman uses as evidence that he was the one committing the assault.

Jekyl and Hyde

If protecting oneself before carrying out an act of abuse isn't enough, then the process must continue afterward as well. Brown's post-assault strategy at gathering pity towards himself might have been his statements relating his own violent tendencies to what he repeatedly witnessed as a boy: the battery of his mother by a man whom he identified as not being his biological father. In order for such a claim to be worthy of any respect and compassion, it must be followed by a commitment to resolve the trauma towards the goal of preventing more violent tendencies in the future.

In addition to being charged on two felony counts, Chris Brown received physical threats from fellow celebrities who were more than eager to seek vengeance for Rihanna.

The unfortunate reality is that in a setting of exposed guilt and indictment, most abusers will exhibit and verbalize whatever qualities of innocence and sympathy they can to escape responsibility for their actions, which would be fine if these qualities - no matter how false - also functioned as a stepping stone towards genuinely trying to reduce their own anger and mistreatment of others. The latter, however, often fizzles away once the smoke has cleared and the pressure has eased off and they have an opportunity to return to their harmful patterns without punitive consequences.

Defending Your Abuser

The lack of consequences is rooted in what appears to be the most illogical form of dysfunction, mostly because it relies on a choice made by the victim of the violence. It is a horrifyingly tragic and separate matter to be trapped in a relationship and home in which your partner has threatened to wage greater pain on you and your children upon any attempts on your part to break up. Rihanna, so far as anyone knows, is not confined under such fears. She seems to have every opportunity to safely leave Chris Brown, so is she insane to not do so?

If insanity sounds a bit harsh, then let's raise a comparison to substance addiction, as severe co-dependency is more or less a form of addiction to another human being. And to quote a phrase from the drug recovery community, insanity is "repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." I am not suggesting, however, that Rihanna necessarily possesses naive hopes that Brown has been or will be reformed so easily. It is just as likely that she actually has no hopes of him changing, and has fully accepted an abusive future with him, in which case she shares the pessimism of men and women around the world who dismiss violence as a normal trait of intimacy and family dynamics.

Furthermore, acceptance of abuse doesn't merely exist at the individual level. This belief system is sometimes adopted and practiced by entire communities attempting to preserve cultural standards as well as its own positive image. As I've learned from experience, Chinese families have a strong tradition of saving face by any means necessary and thus are not immune to this destructive self-defense mechanism. However, this pattern is also strong among African-Americans as black men already suffer the stereotype of being criminally violent, and the tragic outcome is that the community's efforts to prevent the spread of this stereotype includes rationalization and justification by battered women remaining silent and tolerant even in the face of assault by their male counterparts.

With respect to Rihanna and Chris Brown, age is an even more crucial characteristic of theirs to address than race. In fact, Brown is barely a legal adult. Their relative youth strikes me not because I find it hard to believe that young couples would be engaged in co-dependency and violence, but rather because the individuals I am accustomed to seeing opening up and responding to their traumatic relationship experiences are much older. So sadly, what this means - at least from my perspective - is that perpetrators and victims of domestic abuse rarely seek help until years (sometimes decades) into their adult lives.

Whether Rihanna and Brown are pursuing any sort of counseling or treatment - individually or together - is beyond me. Regardless, key factors of success and stardom only complicate whatever decisions they attempt to make. Here are two such factors that come to my mind:

Lack of Privacy

Needless to say, someone who recently experienced an act of physical abuse with a partner is not likely to be excited about having the unfortunate incident announced to the whole world. By nature of being famous, however, our R&B couple didn't have a choice in this matter. One can reasonably argue that the spotlight provides a source of discipline to the individual who could otherwise act immorally and harmfully without having to answer to anyone for his or her own actions. In other words, when A-list artists screw up, they might face criticism not only from friends and family but also from the media and millions of fans. Such consequences could be effective in setting oneself straight.

On the other hand, the value of confidentiality cannot be dismissed in the field of violence prevention and crisis intervention. Issues such as relationship abuse and substance addiction are supposed to be personal matters handled at a personal level between the parties involved. So when these matters are exposed in the tabloids, their subjects (particularly the ones who have been famous since youth) won't know or have access to the privacy often required for a safe outreach and treatment process.

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

Domestic violence and child abuse are attributed by some social scholars to standards of culture and class. I won't argue with this observation. As a Chinese immigrant, I witnessed firsthand such a relationship both in my immediate family and the larger village community I was born in. Beyond my childhood though, I learned that these issues were neither unique to my family nor low-income households in general, and that money appears to play a very interesting role in the contribution of problems such as child neglect and substance abuse in many upper middle-class families. Perhaps the emphasis on poverty prevention as a means of enabling competent parenting has been misinterpreted by some high-income mothers and fathers who think quality can be measured primarily by quantity (quantity in monetary terms, that is).

And if Rihanna and Brown lived through any poverty in the past, they certainly aren't doing so now, nor have they for at least the past few years. Their present life should be perfect if we use celebrity news as a criteria. After all, the sentiment is that money equals happiness, and if happiness is synonymous with confidence and fearlessness, then what headlines and magazine covers fail to ask is: can one be too confident and fearless to the point of self-destruction? The rock superstars and high-profile comedians who suffered fatal heroin and cocaine overdoses can certainly be a testament to this point. Theoretically, someone with unlimited funds and resources should have the means to maintain a healthy and safe lifestyle. Realistically, a scenario so rich might also produce a belief of personal invincibility and the inclination to absolve oneself of any control.

For many decades, the American public has been sold on this idea of boundless highs and lows as an attractive lifestyle, and the salesman has been a Hollywood which exaggerates both the positive and negative characteristics of its members. Wealth and beauty are presented with a sense of romance and magic. Success seems to come instantly, and lasts forever. On the other hand, flaws - ranging from trouble with the police to sporting tacky attire on the red carpet - are also deeply publicized, and whether the publicity acts as scrutiny or promotion is debatable. Either way, the role of stardom is forced outside of human terms. Thus, celebrities only exist as superhuman or subhuman, and everything in between is disregarded.

After all, if most of what has been reported on Rihanna's conflict with Brown has been true, then their relationship - for better or for worse - is hardly any different than the majority of abusive relationships in the general population. Young battered women could be served well with stories connecting them to Rihanna's experience. Instead, this experience has been largely reduced to soap opera gossip, leaving nothing of value to the thousands of victims who have suffered a similar trauma.

With all of this said thus far, my observations on this couple could be outrageously inaccurate since my sources include nothing more than magazine covers, one or two online articles, and peer gossip. But if that turns out to be true, then ironically, my assertion not to trust our all-powerful media for reliable information will merely be strengthened. To the credit of the celebrity news business, it is indeed just a business that exists for no other reason than the fact that an audience continues to pay for its products, so the responsibility ultimately falls back on us - the population of private citizens, what we choose to consume, and how we allow our consumption to influence the way we think and live.

If Police Won't Enforce a Restraining Order...

2008-10-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This is a time when thousands of victims and survivors of this devastating social problem can be granted the recognition and support they would not normally receive from the news. If mainstream headlines continue to favor stories of women in danger based on the subjects' attractiveness and social status, then the strength of Jessica Lenahan (formerly Gonzalez) and the international legal ramifications of her case are sure to be ignored. But where commercial journalism fails, the need for publicity can be met by activists, bloggers, and groups such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

This week, Lenahan will testify before the continental commission in a case which she has been battling the U.S. criminal justice system on for nearly a decade, and with no success. It all started when Colorado local police refused to enforce a restraining order against her husband, who had kidnapped her three daughters. Any faith in the authorities of America protecting her and her family dwindled even further when the Supreme Court held that the state of Colorado was not responsible for responding to Lenahan's calls for help, even though her husband ended up murdering the three girls. If an individual is enough of a threat that he has been legally issued to stay away from his wife and children, then wouldn't common sense (along with morality and safety) establish that this same legal system be obligated to see the entire process through when additional prevention and protection become necessary?

This is one of the many questions Lenahan is trying to have answered. Here is her story in her own words.

My name is Jessica Lenahan and I am a survivor of domestic violence. On Wednesday I will make my second appearance before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, DC. The IACHR is responsible for promoting and protecting human rights throughout the Americas. I turned to the IACHR three years ago because the justice system in the United States abandoned me.

In June 1999, my estranged husband, Simon Gonzales, abducted my three young daughters in violation of a domestic violence restraining order I had obtained against him three weeks before. I repeatedly contacted and pleaded with the Castle Rock Police for assistance, but they refused to act. Late that night, Simon arrived at the police station and opened fire. He was killed and the bodies of my three girls were found murdered in the cab of his truck.

I sued the town of Castle Rock, Colorado for failing to enforce the restraining order I had against my husband at the time. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, but they ruled that the enforcement of a restraining order wasn't mandatory under Colorado law. I felt utterly abandoned: the police had failed in their duty to protect me and my girls, and the government told me there was nothing wrong with that. I was sure that I would never have my day in court or a proper investigation of what happened. I nearly gave up at that point - I had gone all the way to the Supreme Court, and I thought that was the end of the line.

But in December 2005, with the help of the ACLU and the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, I filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In March 2007, I testified before the IACHR - the first time I was allowed to tell my story in a legal forum.

Before this case, I never knew this regional system existed and never thought of my private issues as human rights violations. I am the first survivor of domestic violence to bring an individual complaint against the United States for international human rights violations. I want other people like me out there to know that this system exists to protect all of us, and that our government cannot just turn its back on us and get away with it. Although the U.S. is always pointing its finger at other countries for their human rights violations, there are plenty of violations occurring right here at home. International human rights bodies like the IACHR give U.S. citizens the opportunity to have a voice, particularly those who have lost everything.

It is fitting that my hearing is being held in October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, an important marker of what continues to be one of the most dangerous issues facing women today.

Thanks to the writers and readers of Feministing for letting me know about this unbelievable case. Here is an article from Chicago on the unfortunate statistics regarding battered women seeking justice in the U.S. legal system. And to the media's credit, here is a video on Lenahan's case which includes some coverage by 60 Minutes.

A Martyr in Russia

2008-08-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

In many ways, any exploration into feminist empowerment and news media reform could only take place in a democratic society such as the United States where we practice free press and free speech. However, could this kind of story also be produced in a land with a recent history of Communism and heavy social repression, such as my native country of China or any of its surrounding neighbors?

Well, to honor the uniquely tragic and inspiring true-life tale of Russian journalist and author Anna Politkovskaya, my answer would be yes. Politkovskaya grew up in Moscow and obtained her journalism degree from Moscow State University in 1980. Her career grew into - simultaneously - an indictment of Russia's military and authorities and a defense of poor citizens and civilian victims of government conflicts.

Among her outspoken criticism of post-Soviet Union policies was her opposition to the war in Chechnya. Wikipedia (as of August 30, 2008) describes:

Politkovskaya was widely acclaimed for her reporting from Chechnya and won a number of prestigious awards for her work. She frequently visited hospitals and refugee camps in Chechnya to interview the victims. She said about herself that she was not an investigating magistrate but somebody who describes the life of the citizens for those who cannot see it for themselves, because what is shown on television and written about in the overwhelming majority of newspapers is emasculated and doused with ideology.

Her numerous articles critical of the war in Chechnya described abuses committed by Russian military forces, Chechen rebels, and the Russian-backed Chechen administration led by Akhmad Kadyrov and his son Ramzan Kadyrov. Politkovskaya chronicled human rights abuses and policy failures in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia's North Caucasus in several books on the subject, including A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya and A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, which painted a picture of brutal war in which thousands of innocent citizens have been tortured, abducted or killed at the hands of Chechen or federal authorities. One of her last investigations was the alleged mass poisoning of hundreds of Chechen school children by an unknown chemical substance of strong and prolonged action, by which they were incapacitated for many months.

As much of an idol and protector as Politkovskaya was to poor people in Russia, she was naturally an inconvenience and enemy to the Russian military and government regime. The growing danger of her fame and notoriety was repeatedly raised in the form of death threats issued to her. These threats were typically produced by the very individuals whose crimes and human rights violations she exposed in her work. On numerous occasions, attempts to carry out the threats were made, and in October of 2006, one such attempt was pulled off successfully by an assassin who fired three bullets into Politkovskaya inside her apartment building elevator. This murder didn't come as a surprise to very many people, not even to close members of her family. Indeed, she already narrowly escaped more than one attempt to take her life in the recent past, establishing both in verbal interviews and in her own actions that any fight to stop or silence her would not be an easy one.

And perhaps, what is as equally fascinating as how her career ended is how her career began. For more than twenty years, she was married to Aleksandr Politkovsky, a famous television host and reporter whose shows for Russian audiences didn't exactly fit her mission of revealing serious, critical pieces on government atrocities and violent oppression. According to the late activist, his work was preventing her from doing her work. Furthermore, she held the responsibility of taking care of their two children, and it would not be until the kids were reaching adulthood that she had the freedom to actively fight for truth, democracy, and peace. After divorcing her husband in 2000, she became the author of several books and a recipient of numerous international awards in humanitarian journalism.

I discovered Politkovsky's incredible story a week ago during the screening and Q&A session of Three Songs About Motherland, a new film directed by Marina Goldovskaya, author of Woman with a Movie Camera and one of Russia's most well-known documentary filmmakers. Goldovskaya was one of the first women in the world to apply the well-rounded level of creative and technical skills that she did to filmmaking. Currently the head of UCLA's documentary program, she also taught at Moscow State University where her students included both Anna and Aleksandr Politkovsky.

Death of a Woman Activist and the New York Times

2008-08-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) passed away unexpectedly from cerebral aneurysm, leaving behind a tremendous record of activism work for minority populations. Among many other achievements, she served in Congress as the first black woman from Ohio.

Her untimely death received scant coverage in the New York Times, as guest blogger Kristen Harbeson at Women in Media & News charges:

Here is what the New York Times wants me to know about what is going on in my country on August 21, 2008:
Millionaires in Los Angeles are giving up mansions to live in condos. This story is accompanied by a picture of Candy Spelling, the smiling widow of Aaron Spelling and mother of actress Tori.

The scientists involved with pinning the anthrax investigation on Bruce Ivans three weeks ago continue to congratulate themselves on their sharp investigative skills.

Vermont wants to capitalize on their groundwater, and some people are worried about whether they will be able to flush their toilets.

An elephant in Dallas isn’t going to go anywhere.

If I didn’t know better, I would think it was a slow news day.

Fifteen stories below the “Distraught Elephant to Remain in Dallas” story, in the second to last article of the National News headlines, I could almost miss the fact that Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a fifth-term elected member of the United States House of Representatives, has died.

Tubbs Jones, a distinguished Congresswoman, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, the first African-American woman to sit on the extremely powerful House Ways and Means Committee, a champion for the urban poor, for women’s rights and for social justice, a woman of grace, dignity, intelligence and power, died unexpectedly at the age of 58. This article about the death of a path-breaking elected official sits fifteen stories below “news” of an elephant whose situation will remain exactly the same.

Read more here.

Black and Missing but not Forgotten

2008-08-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

When the media is unreliable at publicizing cases of individuals representing your ethnic population who have disappeared, what do you do? For some, the appropriate course of action might be to create the publicity yourself, which is exactly what a fellow BlogSpot author at Black and Missing but not Forgotten has been doing for a little over a year. Please check it out to get the latest news on African-Americans who are missing from their communities and from news headlines. This blurb from the blog describes the unfortunate reality which necessitates investigation and reporting by private citizens of color.

Black and Missing but not Forgotten was found[ed] in July 2007 in [an] effort to raise more awareness to missing black women, children and men. It originally started because of missing woman, Stepha Henry. Stepha Henry went missing May of last year and by the time I heard of her, it had already been a month since her disappearance. So I went off to do a little research about her. I was surprised to only find a couple of articles on her and an outdated America’s Most Wanted profile. But what really set me off was this quote from Miami Herald’s Crime Scene blog:

"I’m livid. I agreed to conduct a last-minute interview with MSNBC about the case of missing Stepha Henry, the 22-year-old college grad who went missing May 29 from Miami-Dade. I rushed to MSNBC’s studio but a few minutes before the interview, I was told that it was off—Paris Hilton coverage was more important."

I could not believe that Stepha’s story was being pushed to the side to cover an heiress’s trip to jail. I was furious but instead of complaining about it, I decided to take action and create my own media...

Blonde, Blue-Eyed Representation in the Olympics

2008-08-10T20:02:00.001-07:00

Jane Skinner, Fox News anchor

Jennifer Fincher, representative of U.S. softball team at 2008 Olympics

Last month, the Huffington Post reported:

Monday morning on Fox News' "Happening Now," after US Olympic softball team star Jennie Finch made an appearance to discuss the upcoming Olympic Games, co-anchor Jane Skinner made a remark you could only expect on Fox News:

"How cute is she?," Skinner asked, to which her co-host Jon Scott responded, "Very." Skinner then continued, "A great representative: blond, blue-eyed, and extremely talented."

Watch:

Articles on Missing White Woman Syndrome

2008-08-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

From the Wikipedia entry (as of August 10, 2008): Missing White Woman Syndrome (MWWS) is the descriptive term for the disproportionately great degree of coverage in television, radio, and print news reporting of a missing person case involving a White woman, compared to the disproportionately slight news reporting of missing person cases involving women of color, like-wise with men.

The essential elements of the Missing White Woman Syndrome are her sex, her race, (relative) prettiness, and age, the "damsel in distress" stereotype. Thus, the MWWS provokes positive discrimination in the reporting a white woman's disappearance as news, and so increase public interest in her disappearance. Moreover, the MWWS is a measure of U.S. society's racism — the public's general attitudes towards the health, the welfare, and the physical safety of its minority citizens.

'What Color is That Baby?'

Spotlight skips cases of missing minorities

(White) Women We Love

Damsels in distress

Why do we care about Natalee, Laci, Jennifer?

Diagnosing 'Missing White Woman Syndrome'

Race Bias in Media Coverage of Missing Women?

Met chief accuses media of racism

Press should not feel too smug after Blair's blunder

"Two Young Women Missing, Two Different Levels In Media Coverage"

Related entries from this blog:
Update on Elizabeth Smart
The Onion Cites Prejudice

LaVena Johnson: Case Closed?

2008-08-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

She was found dead in Iraq just a little over three years ago. From the very beginning, combat was ruled out as a cause of fatality, which has left two possibilities - murder or suicide - in the circle of discussion on how her untimely death took place. The U.S. military has officially settled on the latter, refusing to speak to reporters or her family on this matter. But physical, circumstantial, and even financial evidence indicates that others were directly and intentionally involved in ending her life. So her parents - with help from supporters all over the internet - have launched their own search for a truth that will not be easy to confront, and yet needs to be confronted for that very reason.

ColorofChange.org is spreading a petition to urge Congress to help reopen the investigation.

LaVena Johnson was a 19 year old private in the Army, serving in Iraq, when she was raped, murdered, and her body was burned--by someone from her own military base. Despite overwhelming physical evidence, the Army called her death a suicide and has closed the case.

For three years, LaVena's parents have been fighting for answers. At almost every turn, they've been met with closed doors or lies. They've appealed to Congress, the one body that can hold the military accountable. But, as in other cases where female soldiers have been raped and murdered and the Army has called it suicide, Congress has failed to act.

Will you join Mr. and Mrs. Johnson in calling on Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, to mount a real investigation into LaVena Johnson's death and the Army's cover-up? Will you ask your friends and family to do the same?

From the beginning, LaVena's death made no sense as a suicide. She was happy and had been talking with friends and family regularly--nothing indicated she could be suicidal. And when the Johnsons received her body, they noticed signs that she had been beaten. That was when they started asking questions.

After two years of being denied answers and hearing explanations that made no sense, the Johnsons received a CD-ROM from someone on the inside. It contained pictures of the crime scene where LaVena died and an autopsy showing that she had suffered bruises, abrasions, a dislocated shoulder, broken teeth, and some type of sexual assault. Her body was partially burned; she had been doused in a flammable liquid, and someone had set her body on fire. A corrosive chemical had been poured in her genital area, perhaps to cover up evidence of rape.

Still the Army sticks by their story. They refuse to explain the overwhelming physical evidence that LaVena was raped and murdered and continue to claim that she killed herself.

For many Black youth, and working class young people of every race, the military is seen as an option for securing a better future. LaVena came from a deeply supportive family, and while the military wasn't her only option, she was attracted by its promise to help her pay for a college education and the opportunity to travel around the world. She also thought that by joining she could continue her lifelong commitment to serving other people in need. She made a decision to serve in the military, with all its risks, and expected respect and dignity in return.

LaVena's death is part of a disturbing pattern of cases where female soldiers have been raped and killed, and where the military has hidden the truth and labeled the deaths suicides. In virtually all cases, Congress has been slow to investigate or hold the military accountable in any way. Unfortunately, most families simply don't have the resources, time, and psychological strength to push back.

We can help the Johnsons, and other families, by holding Congress accountable in the LaVena Johnson case and by demanding it investigate the pattern of cover-ups by the military.

Please take a moment to join those calling on Congressman Waxman to investigate the cover-up of LaVena Johnson's death:

http://www.colorofchange.org/lavena/

Thanks and Peace,

-- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, Andre, Kai, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
July 28th, 2008

Here is a news clip on the parents' efforts to bring the U.S. military to justice.

If Mr. and Mrs. Johnson's suspicions are true, then their daughter was one of many women who died at the hands of rapists while serving in the American armed forces only to have officials dismiss or cover up the horrendous crime. Ann Wright is one of the most well-known activists bringing light to the unsettling rate of sexual assaults against female soldiers. She served in the army for nearly thirty years, moving on to represent the U.S. State Department. In March of 2003, her career ended when she resigned as an act of protest against the same war that Johnson went on to serve and die in.

Here is an article by Wright on what is going on in Congress in relation to investigations of deaths such as Johnson's.

Feminism and Trucking

2008-07-27T22:38:00.001-07:00

The feature documentary Big Rig highlights the stories of professional truck drivers who transport everything from groceries to hospital equipment across America's highways and, in the process, support the livelihood that the rest of us maintain. Director Doug Pray pulls off an outstanding job of portraying his subjects as respectable, hard-working, and passionate individuals who are dedicated to their service and career.

Below are blurbs from two women featured in the film. Loretta and her husband explain the prejudice against females in this industry, and Doris reveals her history with violent partners before finding escape and reconciliation in the profession of truck driving.

LORETTA:
Ya know I’ve been amazed at these things ever since I was a little girl. I can remember riding down the road on vacation and laying up at the back window of my mom and dad’s car, going like this [gestures pulling of horn] at the truck drivers and waving at ‘em and just being so happy, ya know out there, ya know. That would be the perfect thing for me because it’s my world... I did not have a good childhood. No I didn’t. I had to get away from home, and not from my dad. It was from my mother. She wanted me to be that frilly, little girl and I was a tomboy. I couldn’t stand all the frilly, prissy stuff. Ya know, I played football with the guys, tackle football. It was more fun to do that and help my dad work on the car. My mom didn’t like it any.

TIM (Loretta’s husband and former trainer):
She is a very good driver and she takes a lot of criticism, ya know, that is not deserved because she is a female driver out here and she puts up with these male drivers. And it’s to the point where she’s ready to choke ‘em.

LORETTA:
You wanna go to 19 [radio channel between truckers] and hear these dirtbags, we can. That’s how I feel about ‘em.

TIM (on issue of assaults against truckers):
West Memphis, it is really bad. I have heard about so many drivers getting killed there just from walking from their truck to the truck stop. So many people hide, between trucks and stuff, situations that someone like her doesn’t need to be in by herself, and she has been lucky so far that something bad, really bad, has not happened to her.

LORETTA:
I do have a couple of things that I keep with me in the truck. And uh one of ‘em is a taser gun which we are allowed to have… I get out of the truck and they see a woman by herself and automatically everybody’s like, they surround you and they’re wanting something, ya know.

DORIS:

36 years old, I’ve got a husband, three kids. He’s really a wonderful, wonderful husband. He supports me no matter what I wanna do...

My first husband was abusive. He tried to kill me. My son’s father was abusive. He was very, very abusive. He was the one who kept me under his thumb all the time. He would get drunk and come home and beat me up. And I put myself in that position and abusing me was one thing. That was my stupidity, my choice. But after I had my son and he um jerked my son up at one point cuz he was crying in the middle of the night and he didn’t change him, ya know, (he was only like two months old) and started shaking him to get him to be quiet. And it was at that point that I knew it was time to get outta there...

Love’ll make you do some stupid things sometimes and I surely did love him. It, that, and I was scared of him too. Ya know, women who get into abusive situations like that and their friends or relatives say, "Why don’t you just leave? Just leave." Because that man has threatened them into the, to the end, to the end of their lives: "If you ever leave me, I’m gonna hunt you down and kill you."

That was the worst I’d ever felt in my life and when I got out of that situation, I swore I would never let myself get into that, ever again, that I was gonna be able to make my own way, make my own money, and take care of myself and my child. The fact that I had been kept under a man’s thumb for so long, I wanted to be in their face, and being a truck driver gave me the independence to be able to know that I will never do that again.

I don’t think they’re hard to drive at all. A lot of other women say, "Oh I could never get up and drive that big ol’ thing." But yeah you could.

This is the film trailer.

And here are some words from two female representatives of Bella’s Gentleman’s Club in Las Vegas. They offer viewpoints on the personal lives and needs of sex workers and truck drivers which counter conventional beliefs about both groups. Their names and titles were not identified in the film.

WOMAN # 1:
Ninety percent of our business is with truck drivers, so if you wanna know about truck drivers, this is where you come. Truck drivers basically have the same needs as we all do. And unfortunately, being out on the road all the time, those needs aren’t met. So this is where our house comes in... Hookers and truck drivers get along really well because of the stigma of both industries. You will find a lot of times truckers are stereotyped as coffee-drinking drug addicts. This is not true, and not all truck drivers cheat. Not all hookers give free sex on their days off, ha ha, because once you sell it, trust me, you sure in the hell won’t wanna give it away.

WOMAN # 2:
Well a lot of times, by talking with them, they give us things to think about too, just like we can give them things to think about. They might help us out once in a while, ya know. For us, it’s not always about the sex, ya know. We have a life too. It’s like, this is our truck, ya know. This is the truck that we’re stuck in for three weeks.

Controversy Over Caucasian Student Club

2008-07-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

By the time I graduated from high school in 1998, I could have used my ten fingers to count all the white schoolmates I recalled having during my twelve years in the Oakland, California public school system. My campuses were occupied, overwhelmingly, by Asians, blacks, and Latinos, and the thought never crossed my mind of how the rare number of white kids felt in such an environment and if they desired any social circle and resources to explore their own heritage and culture.

Five years later and about forty miles east of Oakland, this thought did cross the mind of 15-year-old Lisa McClelland, which prompted her to found a Caucasian student club on her campus. Her actions did not come without opposition, and the controversy was so strong that it attracted the attention of nationwide media networks and eventually drove her to leave campus permanently. The irony that the name of the school was Freedom High cannot go unnoticed.

CAUCASIAN CLUB FOUNDER DECIDES TO LEAVE SCHOOL

To McClelland, who is of Scottish, German, American Indian, Latino and Irish descent, the racial tensions of the past, she has said, "belong in the past."

Her vision of the club, however, was not shared by all. The East County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said it vehemently opposed the name of the club, calling it culturally insensitive. Fox News Channel, CNN and BBC followed up with coverage.

Her proposed Caucasian Club was -- and still is -- the talk of the town in quiet Oakley, on the edge of Contra Costa County, 55 miles east of San Francisco.

"I advised her to stick it out," said Candise Kremin, whose son, Clint, the president of Freedom High's Gay Straight Alliance, is a close friend of Lisa's. The alliance was the only club she joined.

"Most people around here don't have a problem with a Caucasian Club - it's about time, right? -- though maybe some of them won't publicly admit it, " said Kremin, 40, who said she is Italian, German, Native American and Irish, and has lived in Oakley since 1989. "We live in a politically correct world. We're stuck, stuck in the racial world of the 1960s and 70s. What Lisa is trying to do is get past that."

Fifteen-year-old Michelle Wong agrees.

"How are we ever going to get beyond racism if we don't allow everyone to have their say?" asked Wong, a junior at Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco, who is familiar with McClelland's story.

Raoul Wallenberg, Wong said, is "over 50 percent Asian," with clubs for Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans and Asian Americans.'' There is racial tension even among the Asian students, Wong said.

More articles....
CAUCASIAN CLUB CREATES IMBROGLIO
ROW OVER STUDENT'S CAUCASIAN CLUB

This story is a few years old, but its importance grows as the colors of the American population are constantly shifting. In terms of numbers, whites will not be holding majority status in this country in the upcoming generations. Will this advance racial equality in business, education, media, and politics? Let's hope so.

For excellent literature on how viewpoints centralized around American pride (in terms of achievements by whites) have dominated public high school curriculum, please read one of my favorite books: Lies My Teacher Told Me. The writing style and level of scholarship by author James Loewen are astounding.

Reality in Television?

2008-07-13T00:27:00.000-07:00

Here are links and videos featuring discussions of the relationship between the reality television craze dominating the U.S. entertainment industry and feminist representation and cultural psyche in America. Jennifer Pozner of Women in Media & News cites the misogynistic qualities of reality shows in this clip.

The feature documentary American Cannibal explores the influence and power of reality television on American culture and the entertainment market, centered around the plot of two writers who reluctantly resort to developing a reality pilot as a means to establish their skills and opportunities in the television business. Here is the trailer.

Some of the most insightful comments in American Cannibal came from Lizz Winstead, co-creator of The Daily Show. In this scene, she explains the misguided impact of reality shows on how audience members view and treat their peers.

Quite possibly, one causal contribution to this television trend - nonfiction programming being produced at an incredible rate for commercial entertainment purposes - could be the consolidation of media and communication corporations and networks over the past half-century. The diversity of ideology in mainstream news, entertainment, broadcasting, and inter-communication has narrowed itself to the interests of about five major companies. Read my other entry for more details.

NY Broadens Domestic Violence Law

2008-07-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

My fellow Blogspot writer at Model Minority sent me another news link this week. Apparently, New York State is renewing its policy against domestic violence to include couples and families who have been denied legal and judicial services by the state's narrow and exclusive definition of a legitimate relationship. Danny Hakim wrote for The New York Times, "Gov. David A. Paterson said on Wednesday that he would sign a major expansion of New York State’s domestic violence law to allow family court judges to issue civil protection orders against a far broader swath of alleged abusers... The new law would make it possible for people in dating relationships, heterosexual or gay, to seek protection from abusers in family court." Full article here.

And while we're on this topic, let me dig up a second article (and a much older one at that) from the archives of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

In 1999, Jennifer Pozner, the founder of Women in Media & News, wrote a reaction to attitudes and implications in news coverage of federal research on domestic violence. Some of the studies in the public eye had produced results indicating that the rate of abuse committed by women is actually higher than that by men. Apparently, according to Pozner, Not All Domestic Violence Studies Are Created Equal: Researchers are "advocates" or "pioneers"--depending on what they find. Full article here. For Women In Media & News's more current work on media coverage of violence, see WIMN's Voices blog category on violence."

Segregated Cemeteries in Texas

2008-07-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

Fellow Blogspot author M. Dot over at Model Minority referred me to an article on the racial ramifications stemming from the murder of a white woman in Texas. The issues leading to those ramifications, however, are of a new variety in my experience. The conflict in question isn't how her death was covered in the news, but rather where her unidentified body would be buried. Apparently, racial segregation in Waller County can be largely seen in the division of black and white cemeteries, and the differences in how each is taken care of by the county.

The corpse of a white woman whose 2007 killing barely made headlines is now at the center of a peculiar racial conflict over the desegregation of the cemeteries in a rural Texas county.

Black leaders in Waller County, northwest of Houston, say white county authorities deliberately sabotaged their efforts to have the woman’s unidentified body buried in one of two public black cemeteries. Judge Owen Ralston, the county’s top elected official and the man who decided where the woman would be interred, denies the accusation, insisting that cost — not race — led to her burial on Monday in a white cemetery. Full article here.

Woman Cuts Out and Steals Unborn Baby

2008-07-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, a murder took place that emphasizes the extent one woman is willing to reach to obtain a newborn baby, although her crime was not the first of its kind. Below are news blurbs on this story. Older cases of a similar nature (generously provided by an author at AssociatedContent.com) are also highlighted. My commentary is at the bottom of this entry.

Araceli Camacho Gomez Found Dead, Baby Cut From Womb

Police say a pregnant woman was killed after being stabbed multiple times and her baby cut from her womb. Araceli Camacho Gomez, 27, was found dead late Friday night in Kennewick’s Columbia Park. Her hands and feet were bound and court documents show she suffered “massive trauma to her stomach area.”

Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong, 23, was arrested after she attempted to pass the nearly full term baby boy as her own. She called emergency dispatchers Friday night about the infant, who was in critical condition. The baby was hospitalized at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane.

Synhavong was arrested on investigation of first degree murder. She is being held without bail. Blood soaked gloves, bloody paper towels, yarn, a boxcutter, a baby bottle and baby socks were found in Synhavong’s purse.

STLToday: Tiffany Hall pleads guilty in string of killings

In 2006, prosecutors charge, Hall beat the pregnant Jimella Tunstall over the head and used scissors to cut her fetus from her womb. She then left the mother of three to bleed to death in a bathtub, wrapped her in a shower curtain and dropped her in a weeded lot in East St. Louis, authorities allege.

WTAE TV: Police: Woman Tried To Cut Baby Out Of Mother

Doctors performed an emergency delivery after a woman allegedly tried to take an expecting mother's baby by cutting her stomach open, state police in Armstrong County said.

The suspect, Peggy Jo Conner, 38, of Ford City, is charged with attempted homicide and aggravated assault, police said.

District Attorney Scott Andreassi said the baby appears to be healthy, but the condition of the mother, Valerie Lynn Oskin, is unknown.

CNN.com: Baby found alive; woman arrested

Lisa Montgomery [left], 36, of Melvern, Kansas, was arrested and charged in the kidnapping of the child "resulting in the death of the infant's mother" Bobbie Jo Stinnett [right], 23, according to an FBI affidavit filed late Friday.

Surely, the overwhelming majority of pregnant women who fall victim to violence and homicide do so at the hands of men. Yet, killers such as Phiengchai Synhavong, Tiffany Hall, Peggy Conner, and Lisa Montgomery fascinate us more, or at least the media presumes so.

In a world where the assumption of females to be gentle, non-aggressive people is largely tied with social expectations of women to be mothers, gory crimes like these - whether as brutal acts in and of themselves or as covered cases reaching wide audiences - lead to a complicated web of ramifications. Does the publicity of such tragic events raise theories on the relationship between motherhood and mental health and violent tendencies? And if so, was that the intended effect on the part of news production decision-makers?

"Hey where are the white women at?"

2008-07-01T00:39:00.000-07:00

My fellow bloggers over at Sociological Images recently posted a clip from the 1974 motion picture Blazing Saddles. Directed by Mel Brooks, this western comedy was nominated for numerous awards, including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Madeline Kahn.

In the short video, Brooks presents a silly, light-hearted scenario on race relations during a heavily prejudiced era in American history.

How to Justify Rape

2008-06-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

The list of random items I've discovered on the internet includes this image from Photobucket.com. Please read each box carefully, as all of them present rationalizations that have been thrown around and implemented into practice by most individuals playing a role in this issue.

Two examples of young women who refused to dismiss the act of rape are Tawana Brawley (noted in one of the boxes above) and Cheryl Araujo.

In 1987, Brawley attracted national media attention by reporting that she had been raped by six white men, including a few police officers. The following year, a grand jury concluded that her claims were entirely fabricated, strengthening an already-heated conflict between blacks, whites, and the press. But what has been most unfortunate is that whether Brawley lied or not, the legal outcome of her case set an unfavorable precedent for all victims of sexual assault to follow her.

Anyone attempting to cite what I call The Girl Who Cried Rape Syndrome would undoubtedly have been influenced by Brawley's controversy. Now, as unjust as false accusations (and the subsequent harm to an innocent man's reputation and freedom) are, what is often overlooked is the fact that the rate of women lying while reporting rape is absolutely minuscule compared to how many actual incidents of sexual assault go undocumented.

Exploring why any woman who suffered such a painful experience would not seek justice takes me to my next example: Cheryl Araujo. At the end of her trial, she did win a guilty verdict against the men who raped her (in plain view of others at the bar where the assault took place). However, this was not an open-and-shut case as one would have imagined. The heavy scrutiny that Araujo underwent during her testimony - when defense attorneys challenged her claims of having been violated by questioning her lifestyle and moral character - contributes to the fears and anxiety that young women have of dealing with a legal system that might attribute the cause of rape to the alleged victim instead of to the perpetrator.

Jodi Foster won her first Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the 1988 film The Accused in which she plays a character based on Araujo.

A Murdered Prostitute in Ontario

2008-06-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

Although my concentration is indeed on American culture, I must write on this case in Canada which has taken a controversial turn and outlines international parallels in how sex workers are viewed and treated. Last month, Wayne Ryczak of St. Catharines, Ontario was set free on probation the day after he had testified in court to murdering a prostitute named Stephine Beck and disposing of her corpse on the side of the road. He had been incarcerated since being arrested for the crime more than a year ago.

Here is an excerpt from Canoe CNews on how Beck was killed, according to Ryczak's claims.

Judge Stephen Glithero sentenced the 55-year-old St. Catharines construction worker to one day in jail Thursday for the death of 29-year-old Stephine Beck.

The one-day sentence is in addition to time Ryczak already served in jail since his March 5, 2007 arrest - time the judge said was equivalent to 30 months...

Beck's partially naked body was found on the side of Seventh Avenue in Vineland around 6:30 a.m. on March 4, 2007. The cause of death was strangulation.

Ryczak was arrested the next day, after his neighbour told police she saw him struggling to stuff a woman's body into his hatchback.

He pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, but guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday in Superior Court in St. Catharines.

In a rare move, Ryczak took the stand after his plea and claimed he acted in self-defence when he grabbed Beck by the throat.

Ryczak testified Beck attacked him with a brass lamp around 3:30 a.m. when he entered his trailer at 241 St. Paul St. West. He said he didn't know who she was, although she may have looked familiar.

It was during the struggle that Ryczak said he pushed Beck back and she collapsed on the couch, court heard. When he checked her nose, she wasn't breathing.

He panicked and loaded her into his vehicle.

Court heard Ryczak was known to use the services of prostitutes, but there was no evidence he engaged Beck, a sex-trade worker, in that capacity. He also used drugs, sometimes for days or weeks, but there was no evidence he took drugs that day.

The information above leaves me with many questions. If the cause of death was strangulation, thus affirming that Beck's last breath (and last possible attempt to move) occurred while Ryczak had his hands around her neck, then the encounter could not have ended the way he explained it. What need would there have been to push her back? How could a struggle have been occurring if she was already dead (or at the very least unconscious)?

These questions might have been neglected due to the fact that Beck had high doses of cocaine in her system at the time of death. This factor effectively raises complexity and convenience in, respectively, determining her cause of fatality and minimizing Ryczak's guilt.

What also lacked clarity was the judge's sentencing decision. Ryczak's time spent in jail during the trial was credited towards the time he would need to serve for being found guilty of the murder. However, even with that, the numbers I've come across are illogical. For example, if Judge Litertho called for a 30-month sentence, Ryczak is supposed to remain imprisoned for about another year. He spent one additional day after the trial.

More discussion and information on this unfortunate matter is available at the following blogs and articles.

Confess to Killing a Sex Worker Today, Go Free Tomorrow

Man Kills Prostitute, Gets Less Than 2 Years. What the FUCK?

NDP demands appeal of one-day sentence

One Day (Plus Time Served) for Murder

Ryczak a 'caring' son, mother tells court

Coming Up as a Female HBO Executive

2008-06-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

At the Los Angeles Film Festival this week, featured speaker Sheila Nevins discussed her decades-long experience in the documentary and television business. In the event blurb, festival promoters celebrated her as a top authority in her field. "Sheila Nevins, President of HBO Documentary Films, is widely regarded as one of the most powerful executives in television. Her vision and taste dictate the documentaries HBO produces and acquires."

Adam Hyman, director of the Los Angeles Filmforum, attended the engagement and provided the following notes on Nevins' insight. Thank you, Adam!

Being a woman an issue growing up & getting into this business?
Growing up, gender was more important than she thought. She was attractive; people would ask her out. She was in [documentaries] & news. Guys would cop feels. She thought you were supposed to let it happen to get the job. She would be willing to go to an opera with a bald guy, and she hates opera. It was a guys club at HBO when she started, and in TV, and still is pretty much. Her view is Knock 'em over, use [them], or fool them into thinking you care...

The discussion of this point actually went on quite a bit longer. It had gasps & laughs of amazement [from] the audience. The woman next to me had her hand over her mouth, her mouth agape in amazement, for a couple of minutes. Basically Sheila's blithe & humorous descriptions of what is now obvious sexual harassment that she just put up with [to] get ahead 25 or 30 years ago. Her sense of humor over it, and lack of anger, was a strong part of it. I think some in the audience were amazed that she wasn't outraged.

AND HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE ON WOMEN'S E-NEWS

Nevins has amassed 39 primetime and 42 news and documentary Emmy Awards and 25 Peabody Awards. She has been the executive producer of 15 Academy Award-winning documentary features and shorts. It is no surprise, then, that she was recognized for her lifetime of achievement at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards last year, the first time the National Television Academy has given that honor to a documentary filmmaker...

Among her many credits as executive producer have been groundbreaking works about women. In 2002, "A Rape in a Small Town: The Florence Holway Story" profiled a courageous, 76-year-old rape survivor who worked to reform New Hampshire's sexual assault laws. Nevins produced Spike Lee's 1997 documentary, "4 Little Girls," which focused on the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala.

Police Bust Asian Prostitution Business

2008-06-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

In an undercover investigation, authorities conducted a raid and search on an apartment in Austin that was suspected (along with other apartments in the city) to have been used for sex services during the last year. Carl Benton Clark and his wife Yuzhi Jia were both arrested and charged with a 3rd degree felony for their alleged operation.

This excerpt is from a local story by KEYETV.com.

The women used in the alleged sex business came primarily from California and New York and were of Asian origin...

In the arrest affidavit, officers say last week an undercover officer called the number advertised in the Austin Chronicle newspaper. At the apartment, which had two massage tables set up, the undercover officer says he was offered sex in exchange for money. After police raided the residence on a search warrant, they found, among other things, a fake soft drink can with condoms inside and a fake shaving cream can with $2,733 inside.

Records showed Clark was the signer of the rental documents for the apartment. Police say during questioning by detectives, Clark admitted to picking up the suspected call girls used in the business at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The women, believed to be from China, were responding to ads placed in Chinese-language newspapers for masseuses.

Here are two other Austin sites with reports on this incident.

KXAN.com

Austin American-Statesman

The publicity of such a case featuring ethnic women is a challenge to judge. Inadequate coverage would probably imply neglect and lack of sympathy, either as the qualities that determine decisions in newsrooms or as the consequential impact on viewers and readers. However, excessive exposure of these issues pose the risk of strengthening negative stereotypes and images of populations of color. Certainly, the rate of Asian women in America - especially poor, non-English-speaking immigrants - resorting to prostitution for income is not a picture that Asian-Americans display proudly. But allowing news corporations to ignore the problem completely would also be a form of irresponsibility and cultural self-denial.

White Models in Asia

2008-06-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

Perhaps our news industry's insistence on portraying pretty, Caucasian girls as victims of crime and violence stems from similar practices carried out by its partners in the field of media. Whether on magazine covers, television commercials, or massive, public billboards, young, white models dominate the landscape of advertising. The scope of white as the standard of beauty is so strong that models with European or Anglo-American features pose as the central attraction even in Asian countries.

In the fall of 2007, blog writers at Happy Nappy Head and Racialicious pointed out the injustice of such advertising practices. Below, for example, in each of the inaugural issues of Vogue India and Vogue China, a Caucasian woman was placed in between the native models.

More online perspectives on the disproportionate presence of white faces on Indian ads are available in a Washington Post article titled In India's Huge Marketplace, Advertisers Find Fair Skin Sells and a Sajaforum.org blog post titled ADVERTISING: In India, white models on the ascent.

And for anyone subscribed to Questia.com, I would highly encourage you to read the article Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women's Magazine Advertisements. Here is the opening excerpt.

An extensive literature has evolved over the past 30 years that describes how gender portrayals in advertisements mirror gender roles in society. Researchers in communication, marketing, psychology, and gender studies have addressed this topic and produced a body of work in this area. Nonetheless, much of this research has been conducted in the United States and Europe and thus may not fully describe the way in which female models are used in advertisements across cultures.

The majority of research in the area of gender portrayals in international advertising builds on the three theoretical frameworks: feminist theory, globalization theory, and marketing theory. Feminist scholarship has been at the forefront of studying how women are portrayed in advertising in the US, yet there has been very little research on how Western women are portrayed in advertising in other cultures. In addition, the assumptions that have guided Western feminist scholarship are based on Western liberalism and Western concepts of human rights. For example, in Western cultures women have acquired certain rights in relation to their bodies. Among these are the right to display their bodies in public without fear of retribution or punishment and the right to take pleasure in their bodies. These are not universal rights for women in all countries: how women can display themselves differs from culture to culture. In the Middle East and in many parts of Asia women traditionally have been expected to dress modestly and demurely (Cheng, 1997). Thus, one of the aims of this research is to examine how Western women are displayed in Asian advertising...

The above excerpt was co-authored by Katherine Toland Frith, whose nonfiction writing credits also include these titles...

Media Conglomeration of America

2008-06-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Twenty-five years ago, the majority of the U.S. news industry was represented by a variety of about fifty corporations. Today, that number has dropped to about five. Author Ben Bagdikian has followed this trend through a series of books called The Media Monopoly. The latest edition was published in 2004.

This chart was provided by the Media Reform Information Center.

And if there has been any question as to why the depiction of women in both news and entertainment conform to the same predictable standard, then perhaps one of the answers lies in the fact that all the major film studios in Hollywood are merged with respective news and television corporations. It's like one big happy family. Here are the key members.

Time Warner, which includes Warner Brothers
Studios and the internet company AOL.

Disney is the distributor of
ABC television programs as well
as major motion pictures from studios
including Touchstone and Miramax.

The news corporation owned by Rupert Murdoch
also owns the film studio 20th Century Fox.

Viacom (formerly CBS) owns Paramount Pictures.

Yes, NBC and Universal Studios are happily married.

Bertelsmann is a German corporation. Although I do not
know if it is affiliated with any major Hollywood studio,
it is one of the top five companies controlling U.S. media.

Anti-Abortionism in South Dakota

2008-06-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

Does the media's fascination with lovable, well-behaved girls as victims of crime have any parallels with reproductive health policies circulating through Congress? For anyone pursuing an affirmation to this claim, please look no further than the video below on a piece of legislation - proposed in South Dakota in the spring of 2006 - to limit the state's abortion services to women whose pregnancies resulted from very specific, unfortunate events.

Senator Bill Napoli drew up a firestorm of controversy after describing his idea of a scenario that would - under the particular law he was trying to pass - justify abortion for a pregnant woman. "A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married." Indeed, the practice of exclusive sympathy for the traditional, innocent, and Christian girl is adopted by some lawmakers as much as by our mainstream news media. The segment in which Napoli offers his example to the interviewer begins at 3:21 in the clip.

Then-Representative Elaine Roberts (D-SD)

It is also certainly no surprise that during this controversy, one of the few pro-choice legislators who held a seat in South Dakota was a Congresswoman. Following Napoli's infamous quote, Representative Elaine Roberts shares her fears of such a bill - which works to lessen reproductive health options for a woman - spreading its impact to policy-making on related issues. Needless to say, her concerns were well-founded as such an impact would have, and in some ways already had, directly affected her.

In honor of the late comedian George Carlin, who passed away yesterday due to heart failure, here is a clip from one of his stand-up performances in which he calls pro-lifers out on being "anti-woman."

Jessica Lynch Sets the Record Straight

2008-06-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

The war in Iraq hasn't stopped, and neither has mass news coverage on lovable, white girls in trouble. Now why would these two items appear on the same agenda? Well the case of army veteran Jessica Lynch makes one reason. On March 23, 2003, just a few days after President Bush officially declared war against Iraq, Lynch and her unit came under the ambush of enemy troops near the town of Nasiriyah. She suffered serious injuries and spent a week in a nearby hospital before U.S. personnel arrived and picked her up.

As a result of the violent encounter, her best friend and fellow soldier Lori Piestewa was killed. In fact, a total of eleven members of Lynch's company lost their lives. So why are Americans familiar with her name and face but not any of the U.S. troops who were with her during the attack? Well race and social status are possible factors. Piestewa, for example, was a single mother from the Hopi Indian tribe. Shoshana Johnson, another prisoner of war and survivor of the ambush, is black and also a single mother.

Lori Piestewa. Her heroism and sacrifice was honored in this piece by Rolling Stone.

Shoshana Johnson. The question of racial bias against her was raised by this article in The Seattle Times.

By her own account, Lynch couldn't fire a single shot and did not fight back on March 23. She has not publicly cited race or other social characteristics as factors of favorable discrimination towards her. However, she has plainly accused the U.S. media and the Pentagon of designing and disseminating lies and exaggerations about her role in the event in the service of military propaganda and idealistic heroism for the public.

Here is her testimony from April 24, 2007, presented to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. During the last third of the speech, beginning at 5:23 in the video, she describes the recognition that the American media owes to heroes such as her best friend. Full PDF transcript here.

The Onion Cites Prejudice

2008-06-18T23:56:00.001-07:00

The American media trend of disproportionately covering cases of attractive, white, female victims has been officially acknowledged by newspaper parody The Onion in the following articles.

UGLY GIRL KILLED: NATION NOT SO SHAKEN...

JANUARY 29, 1997 - Edith, a homely six-year-old with thick glasses and a decidedly non-winning smile, was laid to rest largely as she had lived—unnoticed by the general population. Discovered strangled with a length of nylon cord on Jan. 4, reported to the police Jan. 15, and finally investigated two days ago, the story of unattractive little Edith and her savage killing has failed to tug at America's heartstrings.

MISSING WHITE GIRL DRIVES MISSING BLACK GIRL FROM HEADLINES

JULY 17, 2002 - Becky Van Gelder, an 11-year-old white girl from Corvallis, was abducted from her home Monday, bumping 10-year-old Chicago black girl Tyesha Washington from the nation's newspaper headlines.

Fear and Racism

2008-06-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

In the Oscar-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine, director Michael Moore discusses "white America's fear of the black man" with University of Southern California professor Barry Glassner. Much of their discussion was based on research from Glassner's book The Culture of Fear.

From 0:50 to 1:38 of this clip from Bowling for Columbine, Moore and Glassner cite the crimes of Susan Smith (who drowned her two children) and Charles Stuart (who killed his pregnant wife). In each case, the guilty family member attempted to frame a black man for the murder. The fact that each attempt was nearly successful speaks to the role of racism in American crime reporting and investigation.

Bowling for Columbine was also featured in this entry on women and guns.

2Pac Says, "Keep Ya Head Up"

2008-06-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

The birthday of late rapper, actor, and activist Tupac Shakur just passed. Through the first half of the 1990s, the controversial hip-hop artist encountered protest from critics who believed that his songs promoted and caused violence. Among his opponents were women's rights advocates accusing his music of contributing to the degradation of females. In 1994, his public turmoil with such groups received climatic exposure as he stood trial for charges of sexually assaulting a young woman in a hotel room. Although Shakur maintained his innocence and no physical evidence was produced by the prosecution, he was found guilty and sentenced to four and a half years in prison. He ended up serving eight months.

C. Delores Tucker was, perhaps, one of 2Pac's biggest enemies outside of the hip-hop industry. A veteran of the Civil Rights Movement and Chair of the National Political Congress of Black Women, Tucker's activism also included an outspoken campaign against gangsta rap music. She passed away in 2005.

Ironically, supporters of Shakur likely turned to his songs to combat the argument that he was a misogynist. The following makes up some of his most passionate lyrics reaching out to women.

BRENDA'S GOT A BABY
I hear Brenda's got a baby,
But Brenda's barely got a brain,
A damn shame, The girl can hardly spell her name,
(That's not our problem, that's up ta Brenda's family),
Well let me show ya how it affects the whole community,
Now Brenda never really knew her moms and her dad was a junkie,
Went in debt to his arms, it's sad,
Cause I bet Brenda doesn't even know,
Just cause you're in the ghetto doesn't mean ya can't grow...

KEEP YA HEAD UP
I give a holler to my sisters on welfare,
Tupac cares, if don't nobody else care,
And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot,
When you come around the block brothas clown a lot,
But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up,
Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up,
And when he tells you you ain't nuttin' don't believe him,
And if he can't learn to love you you should leave him,
Cause sista you don't need him,
And I ain't tryin to gas ya up, I just call em how I see em,
You know it makes me unhappy (what's that),
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy,
And since we all came from a woman,
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman,
I wonder why we take from our women,
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women,
Time to heal our women, be real to our women,
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies,
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies,
And since a man can't make one,
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one,
So will the real men get up,
I know you fed up ladies, but keep ya head up...

Afeni Shakur was a Black Panther Party member at the time she gave birth to 2Pac, who wrote and recorded his hit single Dear Mama in her honor. After her son's murder in 1996, Afeni founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation for the Arts to provide support to youths with similar creative aspirations.

DEAR MAMA
When I was younger and my mama had beef,
Seventeen years old kicked out on the streets,
Though back at the time, I never thought I'd see her face,
Ain't a woman alive that could take my mama's place,
Suspended from school; and scared to go home, I was a fool,
with the big boys, breakin all the rules,
I shed tears with my baby sister,
Over the years we was poorer than the other little kids,
And even though we had different daddy's, the same drama,
When things went wrong we'd blame mama,
I reminice on the stress I caused, it was hell,
Huggin on my mama from a jail cell,
And who'd think in elementary,
Heeey I see the penitentiary, one day,
And runnin from the police, that's right,
Mama catch me, put a whoopin' to my backside,
And even as a crack fiend, mama,
You always was a black queen, mama,
I finally understand,
For a woman it ain't easy tryin to raise a man...

Director Laura Lazin and producer Karolyn Ali shared an Oscar nomination in 2005 for Tupac Resurrection, a feature documentary covering the late rapper's life and activism and told almost entirely through archival audio and video material of the man himself. His mother also served as a producer on the film.

Dave Chappelle on Elizabeth Smart

2008-06-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

During this performance in San Francisco a few years ago, actor and stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle pointed out the racial disparity in American news reporting of child kidnappings, using a contemporary example of a 7-year-old African-American girl in Philadelphia whose story would have been, theoretically, more impressive and yet received little to no coverage compared to the widely popular case of Elizabeth Smart.

And Smart has revisited her experience as a cover story for this week's issue of People magazine, hoping that her efforts will aid former victims of child abduction in their post-traumatic healing process. In 2002, she was found and returned safely to her family after having been held captive for several months. Her alleged captor was also apprehended. Full update here.

Whatever public good that comes out of such an update, the media's role in protecting our children weighs heavily on reproducing dramatic tales of the same recognizable format rather than publicizing incidents in an even and inclusive manner correlating with what is truly taking place across the general population. The severity of disproportionate coverage in U.S. crime reporting is made clear when a follow-up piece on a six-year-old case which has, in most crucial respects, already been solved makes the front page over scores of stories that could be told on currently missing victims who would be better served by nationwide headlines calling for help. Unfortunately, the majority of our nation's kidnap victims do not fit the standard criteria of the all-American poster child required to sell a story.

Perhaps, it is no accident that People also selected Smart for its list of 50 Most Beautiful People of 2005, which is normally filled with A-list Hollywood stars. If this trend progresses, the line between subjects of entertainment and subjects of news in this country will become blurred beyond recognition.

Does Porn Contribute to Rape in the Military?

2008-05-09T18:10:00.001-07:00

According to this article by Military.com, U.S. Representative Paul Broun (R-Georgia) is trying to do away with adult magazines catering to American soldiers, asserting that exposure to such material is leading our men in service to committing higher rates of sexual assault. The law he has recently proposed would broaden the definition of "sexually explicit" content to be banned from sale on military bases.

Our boys in uniform are not happy about this one.

And neither is my friend Teri from Kansas City. She is a singer, songwriter, and married mother of a one-year-old boy. During an online conversation with me, Teri reacted to this piece of news with the following comments.

[20:53] Teri: Getting rid of porn on military bases because it causes rape? that's silly.
[20:53] Teri: I would think men would be more inclined to rape women if they DIDN'T have porn
[20:53] Teri: at least this gives them an outlet

Bearing Children in Post-Communist China

2008-05-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day is just around the corner. While this is probably just another holiday invented by American corporations in the pursuit of capitalism and consumerism, I would like to acknowledge one of the many women in my life who would be highly unlikely to receive concern and support from American news producers in the event that she is kidnapped, raped, or harmed in any other way. This woman is my mother Jian Ling Liu, who grew up in Southeast China during the final years of Communist leader Mao Zedong's torturous and ruthless reign.

In 1979, my mother gave birth to me after three failed attempts at having a boy. Like nearly all Chinese parents of their era, she and my father possessed an attitude of family which was favorable to males.

At the time of my birth, China's anti-overpopulation policy prohibited couples from bearing more than three children. I recall my mother telling me that I was nearly aborted, if not for the nurses at delivery who permitted my birth due to realizing that I was a boy entering a family with three daughters and no sons.

In 1984, when I was nearing my fifth birthday, my family and I immigrated to the United States and settled in Oakland, CA.

Girls' Activism in Chicago

2008-05-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

The Women & Girls Collective Action Network, based out of Chicago, recently released a meticulous presentation - available on PDF format here - outlining key strategies in stopping violence against women, with a strong emphasis on supporting the following communities:

- Young girls
- Girls of color
- Gays and transgenders
- Girls in the sex industry

The sections on popular education (pages 31 to 32) and harm reduction (pages 33 to 34) encourage principles and philosophies of health and social justice based on peer outreach and direct community involvement. Shira Hassan of the Young Women's Empowerment Project provides a quote on harm reduction in the report. Her professional associations include the Young Women's Health Conference in San Francisco. Several years ago, I provided a booth and workshop at the conference as a volunteer representative of the harm reduction drug education organization DanceSafe.

Pages 34 to 35 of the report also offer solid points on how to successfully partner with men in this cause.

America is 31st in World Gender Equality Report

2008-05-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

The World Economic Forum, based in Switzerland, has released its annual study on the rate of gender equality in 128 countries, and the United States ranked 31st. China came in at 73rd. Amongst the roster of nations that were rated higher than the United States were the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Colombia, and Croatia. Kazakhstan came in right after America at 32nd.

Here is a link to a 173-page PDF file of the full report. I have not investigated the procedures that were carried out in the course of this study or the researchers' criteria and definition of gender equality, so please read the material and draw your own conclusions.

Armed Women of America

2008-05-05T12:09:00.001-07:00

Here are a few links and references to discussions on the apparently increasing rate of American women owning and using firearms.

This article reported on the trend two years ago. "The gun industry is catering to women with everything from more girly guns and apparel to all-female hunting trips and free ladies nights at the range. It's clear the feminine touch is adding up to big business... Five years ago, the National Rifle Association offered just 13 firearms training classes for women. Today, there are more than 200 nationwide."

Samhita, a blogger from Feministing.com, offered the following reaction to the article. "Just what we need, more white people with guns. According to the beloved NRA (barf) the use of firearms by women has gone up significantly... Yes ladies, why deal with your feelings... when you can shoot shit?"

Fellow BlogSpot author Janine Peterson Wonnacott provided her perspective on the relationship between girls and guns through a book review of Laura Browder's Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America.

And in his Oscar-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine, director Michael Moore interviews members of the Michigan Militia. In the first minute of this clip from the film, the group presents their 2002 calendar fundraiser featuring photos of armed, half-naked chicks. A female member of the Militia also speaks on her objectives as a mother and wife who chooses to practice gun ownership.

Bowling for Columbine was also featured in this entry on fear and racism.

Body Image Issues in the Doctor's Office

2008-05-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

According to researchers featured in this online article from The New York Times, many women consciously avoid medical appointments out of fear of having to step on a weight scale.

"University of Pennsylvania researchers say they believe some women may be avoiding the doctor just to avoid being weighed in front of other people... The study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the medical journal Appetite, showed that women experienced high degrees of discomfort at the prospect of being weighed in the presence of others."

How much influence does the popular media's standard of female beauty have on body image and decisions women make regarding their own physical health? Well, if the research in this article is even mildly accurate, the influence is greater than we all might want to admit.

Victim Identifies Rapists on MySpace.com

2008-05-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, in praising allies in the efforts to protect children and teenagers from abduction and sexual molestation and assault, authorities and the news media have not included the internet, and specifically, not youth-oriented online communities such as MySpace.com.

However, with this Seattle-area case from earlier this year, such attitudes might be reformed.

Four teens have been charged with rape in the alleged assault of a 16-year-old Bellevue girl last November... According to Bellevue police, the attack was described in messages on the Internet... The youths were all 17 when the alleged assault was reported. Hearings are scheduled next month to determine if they should be tried as adults. One defendant has turned 18 since the alleged attack...

The girl later told police she remembered going to a Redmond grocery, buying alcohol, and being in the back seat of a car, where she was repeatedly raped... The girl went to MySpace.com, found profiles for two of the teens and identified them as two of her assailants, according to a police affidavit... Police got a search warrant for MySpace.com records and found descriptions of the attack. Full article here.

Dixie Chicks Speak Out

2008-05-01T09:37:00.001-07:00

At a 2003 show in London, Natalie Maines expressed her shame of George W. Bush being a fellow native Texan, inadvertently sparking an uproar of hostile opposition from conservatives in the United States. The lead singer was representing her Grammy award-winning trio Dixie Chicks, and as a result of her single and brief statement against the U.S. President, country stations across America refused to play their songs, former fans protested outside their concerts, and a few death threats were even issued.

All of this make up the subject of the feature documentary Shut Up and Sing. As the film portrays, the three women balance the overwhelming challenges of being industry musicians, wives, mothers, and, above all, Americans. My central concern is whether the controversy would have been as strong had they not been female members of the country music scene. Then, would pro-Bush Americans have a different image of what the Dixie Chicks should be representing? Perhaps the old-fashioned belief that pretty, young girls from the South should not practice defiance and should only speak up when permitted to is fresh and alive in a large portion of the United States population. Here is a clip from the film.

Shut Up and Sing was shot by the following filmmakers.

Barbara Kopple, co-director, 1976 winner of Best Feature Documentary Oscar for Harlan County, U.S.A.

Cecilia Peck, co-director, daughter of late actor Gregory Peck.

Joan Churchill, director of photography. Other credits include director for Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer.

Men Promote Equality by Wearing Heels

2008-04-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, I participated in an event called Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. The objective of the annual demonstration is to encourage males of all ages to join the struggle for women's rights and safety, with the option of marching the one mile in heels to metaphorically show additional support and understanding of the fight against rape and violence.

The march takes place each year in cities across America. Here is a promo video by the Milwaukee community.

The march I attended in Sherman Oaks, CA was largely comprised of teen volunteers and supporters and was sponsored by the Valley Trauma Center, which is the only facility in my region of Southern California serving victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Among their various services is a 24-hour crisis hot line.

San Fernando Valley
(818) 886-0453

Santa Clarita Valley
(661) 253-0258