#9 Injustice In Our Youth, Not Our Legal System

Many have recently been made aware of the Steubenville rape- the event in which a 16 year-old girl was raped by two of her peers at a party, whilst others recorded the entire event via various social media outlets. The case of rape is undisputed; everyone knows that rape and assault are horrible crimes that are punishable through jail or other means. The deeper issue is the way that people handle such news. CNN recently received major criticism from the sympathetic way they portrayed the story. In their report, CNN anchor Harlow states, "These two young men who had such promising futures -- star football players, very good students -- literally watched as they believed their life fell apart," while another anchor asked a CNN legal analyst, “What’s the lasting effect though on two young men being found guilty juvenile court of rape essentially?” Another report on ABC news focuses solely on Ma’lik Richmond, a football player who can be seen in one of the photos carrying the unconscious girl. In a sense, this reaction is understandable- up to a point. In America, sports are glorified and the general populace is obsessed with the promise of the future for young, talented individuals, so naturally one emotion potentially felt by those is sadness for the lost potential of young boys so talented. However, while that is an understandable aspect, the fact that any story could be centered around sympathizing for the aggressor is preposterous. 
None should cry for the loss of a superstar athlete, they should cry for the girl who lost her privacy and was taken advantage of. As Mallory Ortberg said, "“Their dreams and hopes were not crushed by an impersonal, inexorable legal system; Mays and Richmond raped a girl and have been sentenced accordingly.” While it disturbs me that the media is handling the Steubenville case this way, it doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, numerous blog posts and news stories have already been written claiming that the whole case is simply being exaggerated. The website "The Other McCain" writes, "It seems that we may be witnessing a typical case of media malpractice, in which a crew of irresponsible bloggers and “hacktivists” are ginning up false accusations without regard for truth, and without concern for the harm done to innocent citizens of Steubenville," some details might be exaggerated, but a rape is a rape and an assault is an assault. That alone makes the aggressors guilty and the victim innocent.
This can all be chalked up to rape culture, a phenomenon deeply embedded in our lives. We as a culture have a common phrase, "boys will be boys." That phrase acts as a special get out of jail free card for any man who commits an unjust act such as this. Instead of analyzing why young men would behave in such a cruel way, we ascertain whether or not the victim's claims are legitimate. We claim that the victim must be to blame for some aspect of the crime, because there's no way that young high school boys could ever commit a crime so commonly associated with true evil. Slate's Amanda Marcotte describes it perfectly, "Claiming that it’s the victim’s fault for tempting men with her drinking/sexual activity/mini-skirt means telling yourself that as long as you aren’t as ‘slutty’ as the victim, you’ll be OK," and in turn, it protects the public from the knowledge that crimes are committed by normal people, not the evil monsters engendered from nightmares. Normal boys, young all-star athletes, even, can rape and molest and ruin someone. Instead of facing that reality though, the media hides behind the guise that there must have been something to cause them to act this way. The boys are given love and sympathy because something else has seemingly thrown their lives away, when it was their decision to rape in the first place. They might have been drunk, but plenty of people get intoxicated without raping a girl and tweeting about it. 


Davidson, Amy. "Life After Steubenville." The New Yorker. Conde Nast, 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Newcomb, Eric. "Beyond Steubenville: Rape Culture and Complicity." Christ and Pop Culture. Avalon, 25 Mar. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Shapiro, Rebecca. "Poppy Harlow, CNN Reporter, 'Outraged' Over Steubenville Rape Coverage Criticism: Report." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Mar. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Stacy, Robert M. "Steubenville ‘Rape Crew’? Non-Facts Smear the Innocent in an Ohio Town." The Other McCain. Alibi, 15 Jan. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Wblog Exclusive: Steubenville Teens on Tape Describe Night of Sexual. "Exclusive: Steubenville Teens on Tape Describe Night of Sexual Assault." ABC News. ABC News Network, 22 Mar. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

#8 Women + Body Hair = ???

When people think feminist, the image of a woman with hairy legs who never showers comes to mind. While this is a bit of a stereotype, there is some truth to the fact that a section of the women's rights movement centers around body hair positivity, and the attempt to destroy the idea that to be feminine is to be hairless. Women who decide to go "all natural" and live with body hair are often viewed as social pariahs, but usually only in America. In a sense, America has effectively brainwashed us into believing in a certain idea of beauty. There is really nothing natural about shaving body hair, and if you look at other countries and their women, you'll see that very few shave and wax and pluck to the extent of women (and sometimes men) in America. The idea of needing to be pure and "clean" was a constructed idea, and the fact that women are sometimes seen as "gross" just because they have hair on their bodies is completely ridiculous. If we truly want our youth to grow up with a healthy idea of beauty standards, one aspect of that should definitely begin with body hair.

The removal of underarm hair began in 1915. What some regard as the "Great Underarm Campaign" consisted of a series of marketing campaigns that told women that to be beautiful, they had to shave their armpits. In Harper's Bazaar, a beautiful young woman was depicted holding her arms over her heads while wearing a sundress. Her armpits were shaven, and the caption read: "Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair." There suddenly became a pertinent need for women to shave, and the new fashion trend was simply a sleek, clean armpit As skirts started to get shorter and society felt a need to see a woman's legs, corporations began to ran advertisements that cited the hairless Greek statues of women, trying to embed the idea that a hairless woman was a tradition set in place since the blooming of art itself. So, in a sense, we have been brainwashed. Little girls and boys grow up to watch advertisements and movies and television shows and their mothers and their friends and their role models with their bare legs and bare armpits and clean eyebrows and shaven upper lips. They grow up to hear these individuals speak about the troubles of shaving, while still relaying a sense that it is something that they need to do. 

(Emer O'Toole on This Morning)

The reason why shaving is held with such value isn't only due to societal pressures, though. It also has to do with the potential backlash. In May of 2012, a woman named Emer O'Toole went on a show called "This Morning," and exhibited her hairy armpits and legs. Naturally, there was a large outcry. One blog post in particular stated, "Watching her I nearly parted with my breakfast." The post went on to explain how it was a woman's duty to keep herself free of hair, and that any recent people who decided to do otherwise were just dumb, radical feminists. All of this hateful speech came from a woman. It is appalling to think that even women would think to join in with society and lower themselves to the position of an object of beauty and then, in turn, call a woman 'un-feminine' if she herself does not do so. Shaving is, essentially, a part of beauty, and beauty in our culture can often have damaging effects on women. In a society where women are mainly judged on their appearance, making fun of other women who do not try to look what is considered "the best" doesn't help anyone, it only adds to the problem. Now, there's nothing wrong with shaving. If it's what a woman or man feels they have to do, then they should be allowed to do it without being mocked or criticized. But this should go across the board. If a woman or man also does not feel like shaving at all, then they too should be free of criticism. 

One body-positive article states that a woman's road to women's rights usually begins with looking in the mirror and recognizing how deeply these imaginary ideals have been internalized. Once people start recognize that these ideals have merely been created in order to be used as weapons to create a horde of buyers who will buy whatever they can to erase any insecurity created by corporations, they might begin to cease judging those who choose not to conform to that standard. A person is still a person whether or not they don't look a certain way, and a woman is still a woman whether or not she shaves.

Cecil, Adams. "Who Decided Women Should Shave Their Legs and Underarms?" The Straight Dope. The Straight Dope, 6 Feb. 1991. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

Erikson, Jenny. "Arm Shaving Is One More Way Women Torture Themselves in the Name of Beauty." The Stir. CMI, 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

Platell, Amanda. "A Feminist Statement? No, Untamed Body Hair Is the Pits!" Mail Online. Daily Mail, 9 May 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

Skerman-Grey, Tasha. "Feminism, Body-Hair Activism and Anti-Capitalism." The Occupied Times RSS. The Occupied Times, 31 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

#7 Amazon Runs LGBT Advertisement: Progress?

There is no doubt that representation is a hot button topic in the entertainment industry today. As stated in a previous post, one of the biggest issues is the lack of POC in television shows, movies, commercials, etc. Being that the average person you see on the television is a conventionally attractive white person, there aren't a lot of chances for people who don't fall into that category to be able to see someone they can identify with, and those who are 'represented' may not be shown in a positive light, either. One of the biggest and most controversial issues today though is LGBT representation in mainstream commercials. Though you may be able to find a gay, bi, trans, etc characters in movies, seeing people who identify as such in commercials is a rare sight, seeing as how commercials are mainly meant to exist as a tool to entice the viewer to buy the product. Companies in the past have refrained from any sort of representation of gay individuals because they run of the risk of not selling any products, but lately more and more commercials have been running commercials featuring gay people. This begs the question, is being gay no longer a deterrent for the average buyer?

(Take a look at the commercial here.)

If you look at the evidence, the answer is clearly yes. As times begin to progress, the amount of people in support for gay marriage increases, and in turn, the amount of people who are pro-gray rights increase as well. As journalist George Will stated, "quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying." He's not lying, either. 57% of voters under the age of 30 are in support of gay marriage, as opposed to the 51% of the general American population. The the shift of power goes from old to young, so do the view points of the people. The fact that companies feel comfortable with displaying those who identify as gay under normal circumstances (that is, not using their sexuality as a joke or in a demeaning way) means that not only are steps being taken to improve the imbalance mainstream media has with representation, but that being in support of gay rights is no longer something that can ruin profits. 

That's not to say that people won't be outraged, though. This can be noted quite clearly just by looking at the first page of comments. "It's a shame what the world is coming to!" and "being gay is a mental illness" are just a few of the anti-gay opinions being posted on the video. The amount of negative comments cannot compare to the positive feedback, though. "Thank you Amazon.. This really means a lot to me.. Simple things like these will create tolerance in the future." and "Awesome commercial." are the two top comments. Companies who decide to make this risky choice are almost guaranteed to lose customers, but the amount of people in support of their decision greatly outnumber those who criticize it. Commercials such as these have the power to change opinions and create new perspectives on ideas. The gay couple in the commercial are not used as a gimmick or the butt of the joke, they are simply displayed as a normal couple. This normalcy is what audiences need to see, and it is possibly what could be seen throughout the entire entertainment industry. If displaying the average buyer of a product as a gay man doesn't deter buyers, then perhaps the actors in commercials will begin to reflect the rest of America as well instead of adhering to the same principles that they always have. I have to say that personally, I am very proud of Amazon for making this bold decision that will undoubtedly be marked as a stepping stone for future equality. 

Here are some LGBT commercials from over the years:

Italie, Leanne. "Ads out of Closet, into Mainstream with Gay Themes."Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 6 Match 2013. Web. 07 March 2013.

Stephanopoulos, George. "George Will: ‘Quite Literally, The Opposition to Gay Marriage Is Dying’." ABC News. ABC News Network, 9 December 2012. Web. 07 March 2013.

Winter, Caroline. "Gay-Themed Ads Over the Years." Businessweek. Bloomberg, 28 February 2013. Web. 07 March 2013.

Wong, Curtis M. "Gay-Themed Ads Are Becoming More Mainstream." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 March 2013. Web. 07 March 2013.

"Kindle Paperwhite Commercial." Fargo Moorhead News, Sports and Weather. Forum Communications, 06 March 2013. Web. 07 March 2013.