Our class hasn’t really discussed in depth the issues and the struggles that gay, lesbian, transsexuals, and many others have to go through.  Those who find themselves in these groups are often marginalized because like racial groups, they are also minorities.  Many live in fear because there are others who feel that these people are not normal and don’t belong in our society.  However, they are just like everyone else; they are humans, people seeking a chance to live a normal life in the lifestyle of their choosing.  However, because they are seen as an “other” they are also deprived of many benefits and rights that “normal” people would get.

In recent news, a young transsexual woman was disqualified from the Miss Universe competition because she was not born a female.  Now, the rule imposed by the members who run the competition specifically state that the women competing must be born a female.  However, this young girl named, Jenna Talackova, argued that she is a woman and could prove it.  Apparently, Talackova had a gender re-assignment surgery when she was only 19 years of age.  After so, she got her birth certificate, passport, and license changed in order to emphasize the fact that she indeed was legally and officially a woman now.  However, when the members of the Miss Universe competition found out that she was not born a natural woman, they told her she was no longer allowed to compete.  Talackova believed that she was treated unfairly and with the help of attorney, Gloria Allred, told Donald Trump, who runs the competition, that he was out of line and that she was indeed a woman.  After the story blew up and made headlines, Donald Trump agreed to allow Talackova to re-enter and compete as a woman.

Talackova fought individually for her rights as a transsexual, but for Talackova, it was not enough.  She felt that Donald Trump owed her an apology for disqualifying her in the first place and treating her as though she had committed a crime.  Donald Trump, on the other hand, has made clear that he will not apologize and that he has given her what she asked for.  He gave her the chance to compete again and if she chooses to do so or not do so, he could care less.  He was just following the rules set for the competition.  Talackova is also asking that Trump eliminate the discriminating rule so that future contestants who are also transsexual be able to compete without having to prove their gender or feel uncomfortable with who they really are.  Trump has not really said anything on whether he will eliminate the rule, but his attitude had made clear that he doesn’t care.

Talackova worked to gain individual rights for herself in order to compete in the Miss Universe pageant, however, she is now working to collectively attain right for future contestants. 

I thought that this was indeed a very important issue to discuss.  Talackova isn’t giving up her fight to have the rule eliminated and will work with her lawyers to prove that the rule is also discriminating.  However, I think that Donald Trump won’t budge and could really care less.  According to him, the issues that Talackova has brought up have just brought in more revenue from him.  Donald Trump is just playing the role of the man in power, the man who doesn’t care and will not care for the rights of people who are being marginalized and discriminated against.  They are a minority just like every other group who does not hold power.          

On another note, I think it is very important to realize what others are saying.  In one article I found, there was a pole where the question asked if Jenna Talackova should be allowed to compete.  About 53% said no she should not and about 48% said yes she should.   

President Obama has received a great deal of criticism from every corner.  The claim he hasn’t uplifted this country from the recession and is doing nothing on immigration.  However, he isn’t being confronted with only political problems.  It seems that more and more political leaders, local officers, and some citizens are convincing themselves that President Obama is not a U.S. citizen.  The truth here is that, in my opinion, many just feel threatened by President Obama.  So what do they do?  They attack him—about his race.  In recent news, there was national attention upon Arizona as Sheriff Joe Arpaio concluded his investigation in stating that he could not confirm if Obama lied about his origin of birth and whether the president presented fraudulent documents.  His reasons are that there are a lot of missing documents.  Yet, if Obama had lighter skin that corresponded with his white side, then what case would Joe Arpaio have? 

The reality is that many believe that Obama is a full African American, but many forget that he is in fact half black, half white.  Yet, as a racist country (majority really) Obama is only black and will only always be black.  With elections right around the corner, it is only obvious that President Obama would be in the spotlight.  Now, with elections comes a great deal of advertising, or better put, propaganda.  They range from buttons, to shirts, to bumper stickers.  In recent headlines on the Yahoo site, the new stickers speaking out against President Obama and his campaign are causing quite a stir.  If one analyzes the image, it is plainly clear that whoever created or altered this piece of propaganda did so with malice in mind.  I will not go into much detail about it plainly because the image speaks for itself, yet, I don’t think I have ever been so mad.  The article (there is a link below) explains how many are stating that the image was altered and nobody would be so dumb and ridiculous as to go and place such an offense sticker on their car. 

 However, the sticker is plainly authentic as the article states.  How?  Well the evidence came from the fact that these stickers could be bought on other websites such as “Stumpy’s Stickers.”  The idea that people are claiming that this image isn’t is racist in any way, is just the result of how blind people have become about race as well as how much in denial circulates racism existing.  We, as a great society (some ways more than others) and as a nation envied by others, have no moral ground to stand upon and beat our chests as a superpower.  We go an interfere in other countries were villages are being slaughtered in regards to race, we argue that peace is right around the corner in third world countries, and we take credit for the development o f some nations.  However, the United States has a lot to learn.  We shouldn’t preach ideas that we ourselves do not follow.  Our country is full of racism and it continues to grow, as the image above shows.         

  In all honesty, I am surprised that it has taken this nation so long to elect a half WHITE and half BLACK man to become our president.  It has been almost 150 years since slavery ended (Civil War) and yet, we cannot move beyond racism.  Simply speaking, I was deeply offended myself for such a sticker and it only helped lose my faith in my own country in terms of race. 

On another smaller note, I have never seen an election such as this one.  It seems that the election as centered on race and gender.  The man should be challenged based on his actions as the president, but not by his race.

I provided a link to the article as well, some of the comments are interesting to read as well.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/racist-don-t-nig-anti-obama-bumper-sticker-162917634.html

A couple of weeks ago, our class discussed the issue of race and hierarchy in Walt Disney movies. However, I think it is important to understand that it is not just in movies, but cartoons as well. Children from possibly ages 2-9 watch cartoons non-stop on Nickelodeon, Disney, CartoonNetwork, and so on. However, no one has really taken the time to sit down and analyze the detail, the issues, the type of comedy, and the development of characters that children are watching. Parents, especially, should sit there and realize what sort of message is being passed to their children. If children are learning at an early stage of their development that it is ok to think of someone because they cartoons they watch say so, then it becomes their dominant ideology once they are older. The idea stays rooted in their minds, creating stereotypes and prejudices against a certain person or group due to the ideas they grew up. All of this plays very well in the idea of how things such as race, gender, and hierarchy are all social constructions, which we do not challenge because they have become our beliefs, our ideologies. What I never realized, however, was that I too watched stereotypical cartoons. As a child, I loved watching Bugs Bunny and his friends, or the Anamaniacs, or all the other cartoons they use to give back then. However, I used to also watch the most infamous little mouse, Speedy Gonzalez, from the cartoon of the same name. I thought maybe here is someone I could relate to since he was a Mexican and fast mouse. Yet, doing a little bit of research, I found that this character was presented as a stereotypical Mexican. He crossed borders, well for him the boarder was the path to cheese and escaping Sylvester the cat. However, he spoke in broken English and with a heavy accent. His attire consistent of a big yellow over exaggerated sombrero, white shirts and pants, and a red scarf around his neck, which for those who have not been to Mexico, is the clothes that indigenous groups wear as customary clothing. Also, it is the attire that many in early Mexico wore because the country was too poor to afford anything better like the United States. From the clip presented, as an audience, we laugh and say that Speedy Gonzalez is just a clever Mexican mouse. However, as I watched, I couldn’t help but notice how Speedy spoke, how he dressed, how he spoke about the “gringo pussygato” who is Sylvester the cat. As the episode progresses, I became aware of the manner in which they presented Speedy’s cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez. He walks in singing the well known Mexican nursery rhyme of “La Cucaracha.” Also, he states over and over again how he is “hongry” instead of “hungry.” When he misunderstands Speedy about dessert consisting of beans, his eyes open wide with excitement and claims he wants some. What does this tell you? I mean obviously the writers of the show are playing on the survival food of Mexicans in Mexico, especially in small towns. It is because of shows like this, that Mexican Americans are labeled and “beaners” to express our love with beans. Besides, not all Mexicans love beans, I mean just look at my dad, a man born and raised in deep Mexico on a small ranch, where beans were the only means to survive! Of course, the cartoon, Speedy Gonzalez, was very popular in its time. However, when fans tried to get re-runs, the studio Warner Bros as well as the network known as Cartoon Network, banned it from every playing again. Why? Because they finally realized that Speedy Gonzalez was a stereotypical character, which was sending the wrong message to the children. However, it doesn’t just stop there. Think about the cartoons that are still playing from a different era. The cartoon of Tom and Jerry opened in 1960s, a time when African Americans were still being treated horribly and if you notice in some of the episodes, the maid is African American. Of course, in the early episodes only her legs are shown, but she speaks with a very uneducated Southern accent. The point is, as parents and a broad audience, we must realize what our children are learning from cartoons, movies, and even the news and we ourselves must also learn to interpret what we see. Simply Speaking, as long as we do not stand up and challenge what media expresses to an audience, the minds of future generations will not make the assertionas necessary to make a change in our society.

Television ads, magazine ads, and even political ads all serve a purpose. However, sometimes those ads are taken more serious especially when they take on a racial perspective, a sexist perspective, anti-gay perspective, or even one on animal owner’s perspective. On the contrary, many like to believe that some members of the audience overreact to a commercial. But, if we do not think clearly and contemplate a commercial how will we ever see the deeper message and challenge it? It is for that reason that the audience is thought to overreact, thought to overly think, or why we as people with brains (well most of us) do not say, “This is outrageous!”

Just recently, Super Bowl XLVI (46) took place in Indianapolis. While many are crazy fanatics of the sport and others just like the excuse for a party, majority tune in just to see the commercial ads that run during the game. In the particular ad shown above, the sandman delivers dreams to a couple. The wife, dreams of riding on the back of a horse with a clearly very attractive gorgeous man with his shirt opened sexually into the fields. However, the sandman trips over the husbands slippers, spilling all his dust upon him. In result, the husband has a fiercer dream that includes, the new 2012 Kia Optima, a very sexualized woman wearing a cut out bathing suit waving a flag, a heavy metal rock band, a super huge sub sandwich, and for an audience, a stadium full of bikini wearing women. Many will say, “so what, it isn’t a big deal.” However, it is because ads like this, give off the wrong impression about all women. You see them in skimpy bathing suits that allow the audience or just the men in particular to think that women in general should always look that way. Yet, those who make the ads do not realize the real message an ad like that is imprinting on the minds of the women and young girls everywhere. The reality is that young girls are especially vulnerable to these images. Their minds are more easily influenced by vulgar ads that sexualize women and make them submissive.

All women come in many shapes and sizes and all are beautiful. However, many cannot accept the way they look because of the women in ads such as the one above or especially the models in the Victoria Secret ads. These ads only make them even more insecure than they already are which sometimes leads to deadly consequences. Now in the minds of young girls, there are new ideas being formed. For instance, the way they have to look just to get a little attention from a man. Also, I believe it is very important to notice that all these women are going crazy over an ordinary guy because he has a BEAUTIFUL AND EXPENSIVE CAR! What does something like this say to young teenage girls? It tells them to date guys with nice cars or in other words, to be materialistic about life.

How do we stop this? Well, sad part is that we just really cannot. I mean it is up to women and parents to teach themselves and daughters that they should be happy with themselves and not always worried about looks because there are more important things. Also, advertising teams and executives should really think about what they put out there before doing so. However, I highly doubt that will happen? Why, you may ask? Well, simply speaking, money is all too powerful whether we think so or not and sex, unfortunately, sells.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOmqv6V44Sk

Many like to claim that we live in a society where we (humans) have moved beyond race and now live in an equal for all world.  However, reality is that we live in a society where people would rather take the blind eye initiative in terms of race, therefore, making race seem invisible.  In this case, cases of racism become invisible too.  I mean we see it, yet it takes a longer time to realize and say, “Wow, this is really racist.”  The truth is, racism is everywhere-the news, the internet, pictures, ads, movies, television shows, and even in your own backyard.  However, for the purpose of this post, I find that racism lies very well in modern television.  In the clip, we see a small scene from the popular television show, Everybody Hates Chris, a narrative about the life of comedian Chris Rock as he grew up in New York.  In this particular clip, we see him ask an Asian classmate for help.  However, the classmate responds that he has his own problems at the moment because he is failing math.  Chris answers in a surprised tone to hear that an Asian young man is not good at math.  As the clip progresses, they begin to state different racial stereotypes about one another’s race and how they do not fit the type.  While yes, I did find it funny, once contemplated and really taken into context, it is very obvious that the show played on the stereotypes because at the end of the clip, the narrator clearly states, “I bet you like rice,” implying that because he is Asian, he must like it.  I think it is important to note that the narrator says the line and not the character Chris out loud to the Asian classmate.  Also, the audience really gets a taste of the model minority myth, where it is assumed that Asians are much better test takers, smarter in every subject, and that it comes naturally.  However, in this case, the Asian boy did not fit into that myth, which surprised the main character Chris.  Many will say not to take it so badly; after all, it is only a television show.  Yet, because we take something like this lightly, we do not see how racism is still alive.  All the stereotypes are taken into every show and whether you choose to see it is up to you, as the audience.  It is important to see how it is played because television can take over our minds; so therefore, we believe that all Asians have to be smart and better than everyone else because we see it on television.  Sometimes, we must think for ourselves and really contemplate what the television is broadcasting.  Simply speaking, all the racism, stereotypes, and myths we hear and see about Asians on the news, television, ads, and many other forms of media become true or a dominant theory because we make them so, by believing everything we see and not contemplating what is really being shown.