Miss Representation

As a person with a feministic point of view, I tend to easily see the injustice and also the irony in the media portrayal of women.  Women allow themselves to be treated as sex objects because so many of us are brainwashed to believe we are being valued in some way.
The fact that women have autonomy in the area of reproductive rights, also leaves us with the majority of the responsibility, and it seems that is why women are consistently paid less-because they are expected to be less reliable employees due to either the existing responsibilities of motherhood, or the implied ones.  I can understand that there would be a consideration for the possibility that I may need extra available sick time, but it does not mean I do not deserve to be paid the equal wages and afforded equal benefits as my male counterparts.  Equal doesn't mean the same.  For example, it would be completely acceptable for a company to offer a single mother with small children a larger paid time off package in lieu of higher hourly wage, instead of exploiting her financial position and using it to pay her less, offering less benefit coverage knowing she needs her job to support her family, and will stay despite the inequity.

 As a child, I can remember being told and shown through example that there are specifically different expectations of men and women in society.  My chores were dishes, laundry and vacuuming.  My brothers had to mow the lawn, take out the trash and clean the garage.  My work was not less important or easier.  I would receive the same punishment if it wasn't done.  The double standard was very clear in my household.  My immediate and daily role models were TV moms like June Clever, my grandmothers who were polar opposites, and my friends moms as well as my own, who left when I was 6 yrs old.  I was never made to believe one gender was more capable than the other, just different.  I learned to accept and embrace these differences in as much as I have experienced them in the realities of life. 

I remember Amelia Erhardt, Mary Lou Retton, Sally K. Ride...and what made them stick out at the time was not only their accomplishments.  It was the fact that they are women.  There is irony in the fact that it is wonderful and necessary to honor them for their achievements so that young women could have strong female role models in their areas, but it was only news because they were women! So that being said, when you have 150 men and one woman doing a specific job equally well, how many girls really think they can follow in her footsteps? Many of us looked at those specific situations as strange and odd, although it may have been subconscious, it doesn't feel like a real possibility.  

My grandmother used to say that I would be the first woman president.  She didn't day I could be she said I was going to be.  She said that to me and to others in front of me so many times from my infancy into my formative years.  Sounds supportive and feministic, doesn't it?  That was her intention, I realize...Now, I was born in 1974; you have to be 45 years old to run for presidential office.  And if she thought it would be likely and amazing for ME to be the first....what does that say about her expectations of women in general?




you can actually search for Hillary Clinton's hairstyles....i wonder if there are images depicting all the different hairstyles of Ronad Regan...or any other male business owner or politician. 

Land rights

The people of Sapelo have a difficult situation which seems to have grown far past a workable level.  If they are to secure an upper hand in this fight, they may need to enlist some professional help.  I came across a website for a large, organized group called the ALRA.  They claim to have 90% success rate for winning legal arguments for private land owners who are facing just this sort of problem.  I am wondering if maybe the people of Sapelo, since they would like to retain their land rights, have contacted this organization.  Is it just too late to win? I mean I guess it is possible that the residents were so used to being treated with disrespect and they are so uneducated in general that the slow overtaking included a lot of paper signing that they were tricked into and that sort of thing. 

In regard to my own family and ancestral land, yes there is some, it is not in America.  It is in Jamaica,WI and I have no clear details about the legalities of land ownership except to say that it is still owned and operated by my family. I do not expect to ever own this land, but I know I could visit at any time.  My father's uncle owned a very large dairy farm until he died and it continues to be operated by his children and nephews.  Another of my father's uncles owns several vacation resorts. It's my understanding that he has a very lucrative business which is dependent on Jamaica's tourism.  I would be upset to hear that the government was trying to force them to relocate, causing displacement issues and financial stress.     

I hope to own my own home on a small plot of land in the relatively near future, and I would like to make sound decisions when it comes to choosing politicians to elect that will help to enforce laws that protect the rights of property owners with families, while still acknowledging the need to preserve our natural resources.  This may mean that developers need to be kept out of areas like Sapelo in an effort to preserve the delicate ecosystem that we all rely upon to sustain healthy life. 

Sapelo

Reading the article about Sapelo made me kind of sad.  Places like that just don't exist in our main stream society.  I can't help but wonder if it will continue to flourish in its natural form, or will bureaucracy and greed take hold there, as well?  I pray the descendants of the original slave families will prevail in there quest to keep their precious traditions alive. I tried to picture green gold cord grass...


 How beautiful!!