Holiday Shopping

In the Sunday Sun news paper last week, I came across the Toys R US big book. This is Toys R Us’s holiday buying guide. The toys marketed to girls were Barbie, Baby Dolls, kitchen sets, ironing boards, and a pink ride on power wheels motorcycle this motor cycle had a side car on the motorcycle for the girl’s dolls.  What was odd was all the Lego’s and build blocks and problem solving toys were geared towards the boys. The boy’s motorcycle was black with no side car for his action figures, (the boy dolls).

The I know there will never be a perfect society with everything being equal, but it would be really nice if the toys marketed to girls had more problem solving ideas. In general, toys are marketed in a way that is gender based.  It can be said that the influences that account for the lack of women going into the fields of science, begins at a young age—the time of boys playing with blocks and building things and girls playing with Barbie and baby dolls.  I think it’s great to have role models for girls in school, but I think the role models should start at a young age with education for the parents, especially those of girls, regarding toys to help children become better problem solvers. 

The Hierarchy of Language

I came am across an interesting article and YouTube video on American Sign Language (ASL). Melissa J. Regas, is a deaf artist. She lives between two different cultures-- the deaf culture and the hearing culture. Melissa explains how ASL has not progressed in the same way society has been progressing in regards to the inequities of class, race and gender. Sign Language dates back to 1620.

Melissa Regas decided to develop a new model of sign language called the : Peoples’ Sign Language (PSL),in which she takes unbiased approach to signs.  Her goal is give 21 st century perspective on the way certain words are signed.

In traditional ASL many of the men signs are on the upper part of the face while the women signs are on the lower part of the face that signifies the power of the man, as well as the dominance of the man.

In ASL, continent, countries and culture signs are based upon physical stereotypes . This signs are  not geographical in  location. For an Example the ASL the  sign for China symbolize a military uniform and the physical "oval eye shape" . In the  PSL,Melissa wants to  diminish stereotypes so the sign would be represented as a map painted upon the body, which signifies their geographical placement. PSL country signs are formulated by finger spelling the first letter or abbreviation of the countries’ name around their geographical location.

 “ In PSL, the face is split in half vertically not horizontally. The right side of the face is female signs while the left half is male signs. I made this choice because when the words "female" and "woman" are read across the face, the male/man portion of those words are on the left side of the face. The PSL placements of male and female signs are based upon visual fingerspelling, not social status.”

I can honestly say this is a very  unique idea and I have never  really thought about how ASL still has stereotypes in the language.

The Myth that Only White Kids go Missing

I thought about doing the blog on the missing girls in Florida. I was talking to a friend on Thursday and mentioned to her that these girls in Florida are white. They are getting a lot of media attention. I know kids go missing all the time, so why are white kids the only ones getting media attention? Then i saw this

Picture. 
All children deserve the same equal treatment. All children are innocent the race of the child shouldn't matter. One child hurt is one too many. One child missing is one too many.

The bias in the media is not just about young white girls. Think about Annie Le, a 24-year-old Yale pharmacology graduate student, went missing on Sept. 8, it only took three days for the university to offer a $20,000 reward.

Ten women have been found slain or have been declared missing in Rocky Mount, N.C. in recent years. But the rest of the country hasn't heard. There may be a possible serial killer stalking this young women African American Women, however there has not been any media attention. The latest victim, Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, was identified on Oct. 12. Why have the Rocky Mount murders been largely ignored? In the case of the Rocky Mount women, it took more than six years to raise that same amount of money for 10 women. These women are just as important. Why aren't we teaching our kids and society none of these action are okay? We fight for equal rights.  That means equal right for all women--not just white women. Race should never play a role.


Black and Missing


Missing Kids

Child Connection

Why Can't Girls Play Sports ?

While watching television I happen to see a new Fisher Price toy being advertised. This new toy is called Smart Fit Park. What really bothers me about this ad is that the girl is playing in the park either jumping rope, playing hop scotch or running around with the characters. Then in the second part of the ad the boy gets a turn. Now when the boy has a turn the activities change. The major issue to me is that the sports are not advertised with a girl ? Why can't the boy play with the jump rope or hop scotch and the girl play with the bat and tennis racket ?

The socialization of boys and girls is very different. When girls are brought home from the hospital many parents refer to them as a precious princesses. They treat their daughter as delicate and fragile. On the other hand, when a boy is brought home, it doesn’t take long before the parents, and especially the father, are showing people how strong their boy is. Often before the baby can hold up his head, he is identified as the future quarterback while the little girl is sporting an infant cheerleader outfit. It is also common for rough housing to start with young boys, while girls are not encouraged in the same ways to be physical. It comes as no surprise that the gender expectations put on a child affect other arenas in their life, such as school. The input and influence from the media and society, but most importantly from the parents can begin this divide even before the child says his or her first words.  The impact can be profound.

Can girls grow up strong ?

While on the web I came across an ad by General Mills. This ad is geared towards children. The target audience is evident. The cartoon characters appeal to children. The ad is selling sugared cereal. It is not the product I am having the problem with. I have a problem with the marketing angle. The commercial ad consists of two children, both are boys. The idea behind the ad is growing up strong, one boy measure another boy. The issue that is most bothersome is why is there is not a girl in this ad, why can 't the girls grow up to be strong? Is the word strong only associated with boys? Is it to masculine of a term for girls?

Let me show the cereals that are on the store shelves : All of these cereals are geared toward boys.

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Girls Singled Out !

I recently received a link from my sister, she thought it may interest me because of the classes I am taking. This article discusses a recent “ABC News Special" on teenage sexuality called "Is Oral Sex the New Goodnight Kiss"

Monica Grajales a sex educator, talks about how our young girls think about sex.

She points out one way in which this video reinforces a male dominated society. “It states that 54 % of girls between 15 and 19 have had oral sex". It is clear that this percentage is supposed to incite panic or at least horror for the viewer. However, it begs the question, with whom are the 54 % of the girls having sex? That part is not mentioned in the video, though presumably it is usually with males roughly their age. Is a male teen’s sexual behavior more of a social norm? If so, why is our society saying it is okay for the male teens to have sex but not the girls? Why the double standard? Why are the girls singled out? This seems as archaic to me as it does to the author of this article.

Another point the video made worth mentioning: “Girls most at-risk are the prettiest ones from the most successful families. We’re not talking about marginalized girls.” So that means that if you are not wealthy and fit into society's ideal of Barbie, that it is okay to have people exploit your body. In other words, we never see the African American girls making the news, just rich white girls. What about all the girls sold into  prostitution? - rings? Is it okay as long as they do not come from rich families? This is the stupidest comment I have every heard. I would like to know who the judge of a pretty girl is. Is it society? Is it other girls? Is it all about money?

One last thought to add, I do not think most teenage girls think oral sex on a first date is normal, and it is irresponsible to say they do, because a young girl may see this and then think that she has to be that way.

Why do Women have all the Responsibility ?

The new vaccine Garadsil, is being marketed to prevent the spread of human papillomavirus. The makers of the vaccine stress the point that Gardasil protects women against two strains of HPV that cause 70% of cervical cancers. In this light it has only been approved in the states for women 11-26. At first glance this makes sense. Looking further, however, it begs the question; don’t men get and transmit HPV as well? The answer is, yes. The rate of disease infection is not significantly different for men and women. Upwards of 80% of sexually active adults will have an HPV infection at some point in their lives. Why then hasn’t this drug been approved for use in males? It hasn’t been approved because research hasn’t been concluded to prove it would work for men and men don’t typically have major complications from HPV infection. There are two things to consider here. One would think that human physiology doesn’t change that much. Polio vaccines, for example weren’t being tested independently for boys and girls to satisfy a concern that it might not work for one sex. For that matter, many European countries do recommend the vaccine for both sexes, presumably because they didn’t discriminate their pool of research subjects. Secondly, whether men typically have further complications shouldn’t factor into the equation. The bigger issue here is that women wouldn’t be getting HPV at anywhere near the same rate if it were not for the men with whom the heterosexual women are being intimate passing it on to them. The responsibility for the sexual promiscuity is being placed squarely and unfairly into the laps of women. Again, this only reaffirms our culture’s premise that a man is allowed to—if not expected to—exert his masculinity through his sexuality at whatever cost.