"There is difference and there is power. And who holds the power decides the meaning of the difference." --June Jordan

Friday, August 8, 2008

Today in Double Standards

Last week, I put up a post called Today in Double Standards, hilighting quotes and links to blog posts that specifically noted ways in which men and women are unfairly treated differently in society. Since pointing out double standards is one of the most effective ways we have for revealing sexism and demonstrating a need for feminism, I think I'm just going to make this a regular feature on the blog. I thought about making it a weekly thing, but I don't think I'm consistent enough to actually be sure to post it regularaly on a certain day, so I'll just add them as I notice them.

So, without further rambling, Today in Double Standards:


Faith at Muslimah Media Watch:
Some women suicide bombers are motivated by personal factors and some are coerced. However, there is hardly ever a look at the ideological and political reasons for why women become suicide bombers. I suspect this is because of gender bias. Women are seen as irrational and emotional and the reasons for why they become terrorists are portrayed as irrational and emotional. This is completely different from how male suicide bombers are portrayed. Coverage of male suicide bombers usually does not focus on personal factors and almost exclusively focuses on religion, ideology and politics. Coverage of male suicide bombers focuses on their causes and usually not the bomber himself. This leads to portraying male suicide bombers as having more rational reasons for becoming suicide bombers.

Melissa at Women and Hollywood:
He actually said that kids should drop out of high school smoke a lot of pot and write a movie about it. Aside from that being the stupidest advice EVER, I don't think if a young female actress said this it would be looked at as funny. I think she would get her ass kicked. Me thinks I smell the "double standard."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how the stripper-turned-writer who wrote "Juno" fits into that last one. I didn't really hear much other than "she used to be a stripper", but I read somewhere that she wrote a book about her time as a stripper, and maybe she became one just to write about it and escaped judgement. Either way, I think it's true for either sex that no matter what you've done in your past, if you warm our hearts, we'll forgive you.

Tracey said...

I don't really think Diablo Cody escaped judgment, though. Sure, people went nuts over her movie and she got a lot of press, but she caught a lot of criticism for being so outspoken and unapologetic about her past, and the media shamed her like crazy after she wore that tattoo-revealing animal print dress to the Oscars. They kept bringing up her stripper past and calling her trashy and whatnot. I think that reputation is going to follow her wherever she goes, whereas I don't ever hear Seth Rogen constantly referred to as a "stoner", despite what he said in that video clip.

Anonymous said...

Ahh, okay, I never heard any of that. And didn't watch the Oscars, naturally. I thought everyone was like, "You used to strip, and now you're writing sweet movies. Way to turn your life around, dear."