6 hours ago RT @ChelseaJaya: Calling all local high school teen girls interested in practicing yoga while engaging literature & art this summer... http…
Originally posted at Hugo Schwyzer by Hugo Schwyzer. Cross-posted with permission.
I wrote last week about Young Feminists Speak Out, an event I attended in Santa Monica. Though it was an important and interesting discussion, I noted that I was taken aback by what I interpreted as an ageist slight at “older feminists.†I mentioned posing for a Facebook photo with my colleague and friend Shira Tarrant, each of us with our middle fingers raised; the picture was captioned “middle-aged feminists flipping off ageism.†I posted it on Facebook within seconds, while the speakers were still speaking and the event was ongoing. Furthermore, while I tweeted my annoyance, I didn’t bring it up in the Q&A that followed, and I left the event early to have dinner with friends.
I’m fortunate to have thousands of Facebook friends, including a great many people in the feminist community and many, many former students. The photo ended up in everyone’s newsfeed on Facebook, and attracted many comments and much discussion. And the impression it left was that Shira and I, as “professional†feminists and professors in our forties, weren’t spending a lot of effort on connecting with the young people who were speaking. We had constricted around a couple of unfortunate remarks, and my choice to post the photo reinforced the notion that ageism had been the great theme of the event. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Writing at Feminist Fatale today, Miranda Petersen takes issue, rightly so, with how I interpreted the evening. Miranda writes:
The truth is age discrimination goes both ways. It’s funny; we addressed the topic of the “generational divide†to help break down some of those assumptions. Instead, we experienced first hand the lack of respect many young feminists are confronted with: either we are cast as ignorant or naive (e.g., “they’ve got so much to learn…â€), or our integrity and motives are questioned (e.g., our justification for using “young feminists†in the title). There is certainly much learning to do on our part, and the distinction between age vs. ideological divides is worth some serious discussion. But how are we supposed to do better if we aren’t taken seriously to begin with?
Emphasis in the original.
Miranda’s right. I take full responsibility for posting a photo that was inappropriate and got a tremendous amount of attention. For the record, the picture was taken with my camera and was my idea; it was an impulsive and frankly juvenile decision to post it. I chose to do at the workshop what I try never to do with my students, and indeed warn against — taking one inflammatory remark out of context and focusing on it to the exclusion of everything else. For someone who considers himself a role model as well as an advocate for egalitarianism and social justice, for someone who works with these young people day in and day out, that was disappointing and inappropriate and I am genuinely, publicly sorry. I was wrong.
Ageism is a real issue. It does go both ways. And the annoyance at being falsely characterized as technologically incompetent hardly justifies tuning out the excellent points made by the many wonderful young speakers at last Thursday’s event.
I look forward to participating with enthusiasm and sincerity (and my twittering thumbs) at another such event soon. I will be participating with my colleagues and friends, for that they are, regardless of age.
The SMC FMLA gives students at Santa Monica College an opportunity to speak to the 2010 candidates by setting up the “photobooth of change” on campus during Club Row. See what college students had to say weeks before the November 2010 election.
I recently watched afternoon cartoons on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network and I was shocked to find a flood of highly gendered toy commercials. These ads not only market toys to children but it also promotes and encourages gender specific values that are very limiting to boys and girls in different ways. The values and skills promoted in these commercials can play a critical role in the socalization of youth and their development of emotional expression, conflict resolution, the confidence to pursue various careers and the ability to maintain healthy relationships as adults.
Related Links and Articles:
Read Media Literacy, an article by Cynthia Peters discussing and analyzing media literacy programs and how we need to transform them and hold the media accountable.
The Reel Grrls remix was made by Sahar & Diana, check out more remixes made by Reel Grrls participants here.
Reel Grrls is an amazing after school program that teaches girls and young women video making skills in a safe and encouraging environment.
Jonathan McIntosh is pop culture hacker who facilitates workshops that promote and teach critical media literacy through the use of remix video (You might also recognize him from his viral remixes Buffy vs Edward and Right Wing Radio Duck).
Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood is an organization whose mission it is to reclaim childhood from corporate marketers. They are a coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups, parents, and individuals who are working to stop the commercial exploitation of children
To learn more about what “Male Identified†and “Male Dominated†means read Allan G. Johnson’s The Gender Knot and check out articles and videos on his website agjohnson.us
Yesterday I had the pleasure of accompanying three of the eight global girls of Global Girl Media, a program “dedicated to empowering high school age girls from under-served communities through media, leadership and journalistic training to have a voice in the global media universe and their own futures,” to a radio interview at KPFK Radio in Los Angeles.
Their blog accounts of yesterday’s experience on the radio follow below.
Yesterday, June 21, 2010 Brenda, Sussete, and myself took a trip to the KPFK Radio studios in North Hollywood. Professor Melanie Klein, who had kindly agreed to chaperone, and I got there first and we waited in the lobby for the two other girls to arrive. Once they got they got there the room suddenly seemed tiny. I think this is when my nerves started to hit.
Global Girl Media reporters Sussete Nuñez, Brenda Solis and Jessica Cueva at KPFK Radio
In my promise to unearth my old Marc Jacobs ads, I’ve uncovered hundreds of forgotten ads that I collected between 1999-2006. I’ve been meaning to scan and post them for over a year and this is the perfect opportunity.
I’ll start with these Botox ads from circa 2004. Botox as empowerment? Bridal Botox. Afterall, can YOU think of a better reason. Take a gander. Click on the image to enlarge.
Suzanne Somers appeared on Oprah today and discussed her use of bioidentical hormones which she has sustained for a decade.
Not surprisingly, this fountain of youth can be obtained through extensive time, effort, and cost. Yip, that sounds realistic for the average woman. 60 pills daily? Sure. Estrogen daily? Bring it on. Progesterone two weeks a month? Check. A husband to make me my smoothie each morning to choke down those pills? Yup.
Somers invited cameras into her home to show her daily routine, seen below. First she rubs hormone lotion on the inside of her upper arm, always estrogen and two weeks a month progesterone. She then injects estriol vaginally, which she did not let cameras see.
Then there are her pills, all 60 of them. 40 in the morning with a smoothie and the rest at night. She admits the pill quantity is extreme, saying, “I know I look like some kind of fanatic.”
Hey, you said it.
This is a prime example of the five feminist critiques of the beauty norm in our culture:
1. COST (Hello!): time and money
2. Double-standard: her husband doesn’t seem too tripped out about his age and he looks FAR older than she does.
3. Choice and control: embracing a cult of youth and thinness as established, designed and perpetuated by large institutions that profit from this standard measure of beauty
4. Physical and mental health: dangerous drugs, toxic cosmetics and toiltries, barbaric exercise and food practices
5. Maintaining other forms of inequality: ageism, racism, classism
