Eunhee Kang-Women and Corporate America

Click to listen

While I was doing this media blog, a question came to my mind. ‘Why is business person, CEO, or boss of companies in advertisement or media always portrayed as male?’ I think the answer is in the stereotype that society holds on male and female figures in the workplace. For a long time, male leaders and authorities were dominant; therefore, people’s mental picture of a leader is set into the image of a man. I realized the serious problem generated from this stereotype after listening to the conversation from Oprah&Friends radio.

In Oprah&Friends radio, Jean Chatzky and New York Times columnist Lisa Belkin talked about the barrier that slows down women from succeeding in their workplaces. Lisa argued that women were looked slightly wrong when they try to stand out and show their leadership, because the society visualizes the leader as a male. She supported her opinion with scientific study that asked people to describe the qualities that leader should have. This study discovered that qualities differed across the countries, but no matter what qualities people selected, women were considered not to have those. Based on this result, Lisa Belkin effectively criticized the situation grabbing women from becoming successful.

Although Jean and Lisa held their opinion with scientific supports, their argument can appear biased to male workers. Inequality between male and female has changed by many feminists and egalitarians. Consequently, women were mostly valued equal to man and some were thought greater than men in general. Lisa stated that men think nice women are too nice and not nice women are rude. This opinion can differ between each men and it is too personal to generalize into a thought that men commonly holds on women.

Oprah Winfrey show has gained reputation for active humanitarian arts and feministic movements. Oprah not only hosts the TV show; she also created her radio to provide useful advice, supportive messages, and worldwide issues. Oprah&Friends radio is led by professionals like Jean Chatzky, a financial adviser and the author of bestselling books; therefore, information it delivers is helpful and persuasive to the listeners. Since the form of media is radio, the information is easily distributed to audience throughout radios at house, office, or cars.

====================================================================

"Women and Corporate America." Oprah.com - Live Your Best Life. 12 Sep. 2008

<http://www.oprah.com/media/20080601_OAF_071207_OAF_JC>

Soohyun Lee- stereotype

"What stereotypes do people have about you? What stereotypes do you have about other people? Are stereotypes beneficial or harmful? Why do you think this?"

Many of my friends told me that when they saw me at the first time, they thought I am a quiet girl who is unsociable, indifferent and does not smile a lot. However, after spending great deal of time with me, they realized that I am an outgoing and humorous person whom they can easily talk to. Although I do not want people to judge me by my first impression, I think walking out into the world without stereotypes is impossible. Any kind of stereotype is ubiquitous.

I have stereotype that all black people are good at playing sports. This stereotype came from my experience in cheerleading and from media. While cheering for TCIS basketball team, I could watch SAHS basketball team, which mostly consists of black people, play and I could not help but amaze at their skills. Moreover, in most of movies or TV shows that I watched, black people were portrayed as good athletes who are physically shaped. My own experience and the media influenced me to make a false generalization that all black people are talented athletes.

I think not all stereotypes are harmful nor do all lead to action. Having a stereotype over something is natural and unconscious phenomenon. For example, if you were walking down a dark alley, would you be more worried by an old lady or a couple of young men in hoodies? The answer to this question is very simple. Although making decision based on our stereotypes can be negative, I think stereotype itself is neutral because it does not necessarily affect our action. The idea that stereotype leads directly to immoral behavior is to undermine a belief in the capacity of people to exercise self-control.

Roots of the oppression of women -Internet (JEAN KIM)

In determining whether the myth of male dominance, saying that "women's subordination is a function of their biology or psychology", logical or not, the article provides an excerpt of the book called the Myths of Male Dominance by Eleanor Burke Leacock, a femminist-antrhopologist.

In the book Myths of Male Dominance, the author mentions a couple of articles she used as to demonstrate how the "universal male dominance is myth not fact". Though the articles from the past and even today depict women as inevitably "passive" and therefore often live subservient lives, the author defies such stereotype from her own experience and the cross cultural study of anthropology. By narrating on her own experience of unconsciously taking the role of a house keeper while both the author and her husband have independant work outside. The author explains how the passive learning of women's general role in a society/household accounts for the oppression of women and further blames such subservient tendency of women to the women's lack of will to rebel and voice up for their equal rights they deserve.

As an article on internet, the layout of the page is unique in which it has some kind of advertisement/ announcement section beside the article. As the website is of a national newspaper wirtten on a socialist worker's standpoint, the advertisement/announcement beside the article deliberately delivers the newspaper's characteristic and goal -to present "a socialist analysis of the events and forces that have shaped today's world and sharing the voices of those involved in the many efforts to try to change that world."

The article holds a value in which it provides an expertise opinion on the roots of the oppression of women. However, it is inevitably biased, since it only presents an extreme femminist view on the women's issue and thus prevents the readers from gaining a rational/ fair perspective on the same issue.

====================================================================

*BIBLIOGRAPHY) "Roots of women's oppression SocialistWorker.org." SocialistWorker.org. 14 Sep. 2008 .

Soohyun Lee- Tefal Ad

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fW9eP4U6SGc

This video is from Tefal commercial, which advertises an iron.
(The picture is not related to the video)

An advertisement is carefully directed to certain audience and is driven by specific objects. Also, its message is crafted to speak to that audience's most important concerns. For this advertisement, the intended audience is people who find it uncomfortable and troublesome to consistently refill water into an iron. However, just like in any other commercials that advertise household goods, in this commercial, a woman is portrayed as being responsible for domestic chores.

In these days, even though the pay gap between the sexes is narrowing and more women are gaining senior positions in the work place, I think equality at home is far from becoming a reality. As it is represented in the advertisement, women still take on the bulk of the housework and child care responsibilities. This kind of advertisement influences people to unconsciously think it is women’s job to take care of household affairs and to constantly monitor what needs to be done in the house. Children, while growing up watching these types of ad, will think the same way and if this continues to happen, inequality at home will not be ameliorated.

Women's sole responsibility for domestic chores can also lead to inequality in the work place. Women have less time for leisure and this hinders them from achieving their maximum of efficiency and reduces their ability to compete fairly at work. However, I found it ironic that whenever men try to do the cooking or cleaning, they never satisfy their partners. Eventually, women end up complaining and doing it all over again. In this aspect, I think women are holding themselves back and causing inequality. Women should abandon their inveterated thought that they are accountable for housework.

Soohyun Lee "Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War "

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/world/africa/07congo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=violence%20toward%20women&st=cse&scp=1


In this article, Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist shows how women in Congo suffer from sexual assaults. According to this article, "the sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world and researchers fear that Congo’s problem has metastasized into a wider social phenomenon. It is gone beyond the conflcit as the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to be going up and that brutality toward women had become almost normal."

The purpose of this article is to inform readers how severe the situation of women in Congo is and urge them to take action to aid these women. The writer especially talked about limited resources for rape victims as the following.

"But the problem seems bigger than the resources currently devoted to it. Panzi Hospital has 350 beds, and though a new ward is being built specifically for rape victims, the hospital sends women back to their villages before they have fully recovered because it needs space for the never-ending stream of new arrivals."

Moreover, quoting from the victims who suffered extreme violence, the writer tried to excite reader's sympathy and let readers understand the mental and phisical hardships faced by Congolese women.

Reading this article, I could not believe the harsh situation faced by the women in Congo. Since they have different culture and background than mine, It was hard to sympathize with them. The limitation lies in the fact that it is a publication. It might have left out necessary and crucial information or reasons behind the violence taken place in Congo as the authorities can always manipulate the article before its publication. Moreover, since this harsh case is only relevant to women in Congo, it hinders us from getting overall view on oppression of women.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 7 Sep. 2008 .

Eunhee Kang-Bolivia's Wrestlers

When I heard a phrase ‘oppression of women’, I instantly pictured a women suffering under the domination and power of male figure. However, through this article Cholitas Fight Back, I witnessed the power of women fighting back instead of accepting society’s stereotype as their unavoidable faith. Strong cholitas changed my fixed idea and showed me how oppression of women can be altered as a tool to open people’s eyes to acknowledge women as strong and independent like Bolivian women.

This article exposes strength of women who attempt to escape and fight against society’s oppression. In Bolivia, there are women wrestlers called fighting cholitas. They fight to show their strength and toughness to the public, and female and male wrestlers. One fighter said, “My goal is to lift up indigenous women, who have been treated with contempt.”, and Esperanza Cancina, one of the audience, said, “It’s a distraction. The cholitas fight here, and we laugh and forget our troubles for three to four hours. At home, we’re sad.” Through fighting or watching cholitas in the ring, many women feel freedom from reality of life that restricts them, although the lightness they feel might last only during the game.

Editor’s attempt was to tell the story of cholitas with cultural aspect. Since the article is written for and published by National Geographic magazine, the situation of fighting cholitas is fitted into cultural frame other than political or social view. The editor mentioned a social issue by explaining the treatment and reactions cholitas are receiving from men; however, it is stated in indirect manner, so that the cultural value is more strongly expressed.

National Geographic magazine is well known reliable source to the reader. It distributed environmental and cultural issues with insightful voice and solid evidence that population of readers is big. As this magazine deals with continuously raising issues or publicly unknown issues, it intrigues readers to flip the pages with curiosity. But this article also contains bias. The article only stated the view of female audience Esperanza, but the majority of audience filling the seats to watch cholita’s fight is men. The explanation about the reason for men watching the game isn’t clear, but I am assuming that it would be similar to women’s-to forget about troubles they have.
====================================================================
Guillermoprieto, Alma. “In the wrestling rings of Bolivia, skirts fly as CHOLITAS FIGHT BACK!” National Geographic Sep. 2008:112

Sterotype -JEAN KIM

Stereotype is a certain assumptions people make about other people due to a few known/visible facts. For instance,when an individual hears the term "Black American", it is most likely that he/she will immediately think of the words gangster, tattoo, hip-hop, and basketball. Likewise, people have stereotypes of Asians that all Asians must be good at math. Stereotype is such a dominant factor in our daily lives that nearly every individual holds a stereotype about each other, whether negative or positive.

People call me a girl with a multi personality. Day students, who do not get to see the "real Jean" often holds a stereotype of me, assuming that I am an extremely timid and shy girl who can never speak up. I can say that the dorm students, who have seen my active and humorous sides definitely know a larger portion of who I am, however they still have a certain sterotype about me. Since I ate more than most of the guys back when I was a freshman, they still think that I always eat a lot. The stereotypemy friends have about me is not as offensive as the ones with the black Americans. However, it could still have a negative effect on my life in ceratin circumstances such as a cheerleading tryout. If I had not yelled from my gut, I could have been disadvantaged, since the judges knew that I was known as a reserved person at school.

While other people have that stereotype about me and my personality in general, I find myself having stereotypes about other people as well. Just because I saw a few blond girls in Colorado who were fascinated by a British guy at the same camp, I have a stereotype of blond girls that they all get fascinated by a guy with a British accent. Though this kind of stereotype is not exactly "harmful", it can neither be considered beneficial, as I am most likely to make irrational judgement about girls with blond hair from my biased perspective of them.

Examining the two types of stereotype and some examples, I have come to conclude that stereotype has either neutral or negative effect on others. It may be harmful/negative when a person is receiving unfair treatment due to the stereotype other people have about him/her. It may simply be neutral if it does not have a direct, insulting, or threatening effect on an individual.

Eunhee Kang-China's X Factor:Girl Power

Female athletes’ power was globally proved through 2008 Beijing Olympics. This article generally supports the idea that oppression on women is less evident compare to previous days. Now female athletes perform their abilities in world wide stage and they accomplish better results than male athletes. The government is supporting and sponsoring women financially to cultivate them into better athletes. Women have shown their capacities to survive and endure hard trainings and willingness to overcome sufferings to stand as strong women. Although the editor mentioned about decrease of female population in China because of sexism and quota system, she emphasized the increasing power of women.

The number of medals and percentage stated in the article support that women’s participation and power in society has increased. However, this article focused on female Olympians in Chinese society; therefore, conclusion that women are treated equal to men might be less applied to other countries’ female athletes. As women are genetically less fit to play sports designed for male, they would receive more pressure to obtain medals. Since the editor’s purpose was to inform clear influence of women athletes to the readers, oppression and mistreatment that might have occurred behind the stage aren’t stated in the article; it consequently created a bias.

This article is credible and the editor’s voice is influential not only because the editor used solid evidence to argue her points, but also because the Time magazine is popularly know as reliable source to readers. Also the characteristic of magazine which focuses on specific themes, unlike those of newspaper which focuses on publishing daily reports or worldwide issues promptly, allows reader to associate messages with various issues included in that certain theme.

Oppression of women was severe in China because of the tradition that puts male into superior position. According to this article, “A traditional preference for boys over girls has led to widespread sex-based abortions, leaving China with one of the world’s most lopsided gender ratios.” As China is neighboring country, Korea has received direct and indirect influences from it. Korea had same problem, sex-based abortions; therefore, oppression of women in China wasn’t new or strange issue to me. However, as I have seen great performances of female athletes through Beijing Olympics and this article, I am convinced that China is definitely going through big social changes. After reading this article I saw possibilities of female athletes’ better future performance and female’s active participation in the society. Still biased perception on women exists, but I believe this movement in China can be a great impact for Chinese women to fight against oppression of women.

====================================================================
Beech, Hannah. “China’s X Factor: Girl Power” Time Magazine 21 Aug. 2008

Oppression of Women (JEAN KIM) -TV (CNN)

This news of Darfur women constantly being raped in the refugee camp is reported on CNN.
The news is reporting on the situation in which the women are exposed to extreme danger in Darfur and how the United Nations is putting forth the effort to educate the women in order to prevent them from further phsycial and mental damages. The news also informs the public of the ignorance of the Sudanese government of such atrocity taking place in their nation, as most of the women are afraid to report the situation in the fear of being told to leave the country by the government. Towards the end of the news report, the solution is suggested as more female police officers and the stronger United Nations' protection would possibly decrease the number of Darfur women being raped every time they go far way to get water and other daily supplies.


As an internationally well known news, CNN is most likely to present a neutral and objective perspectives on different events. However, as there is no such thing as a perfectly objective news, this report on the Darfur women's situation also presents a ceratin stance, delivering the message that more support and protection from a large organization such as the United Nations is needed in Darfur, Sudan.

Although the Darfur crisis is an issue that is internationally recognized as severely brutal, CNN may still present a skewed report, as it only points out what the Sudanese government is "not" doing, as a dominant broadcasting network in the West.

Oppression of Women (JEAN KIM)

One of the most famous, possibly a femminist live talk show, Tyra Banks Show took a unique approach to demonstrate the oppression of Muslim in the United States. Tyra had one ordinary American woman disguise herself as a Muslim woman with the traditional Islam costume and the hijab around her head and live a life as a Muslim woman for a day. While the woman and one actual Muslim woman were walking down the street and simply passing by other people, they noticed how most of the people had to stare at them at least once just because of their costume and the stereotype of a Muslim as a terrorist. They tried asking random people to take a picure of them and got rejected. Then they directly asked a person randomly what their first impression of them and the man refused to answer.

This particular episode of the show is provoking enough to create controversey among Muslim and non-Muslim women in the United States, as it only presents the extreme case of discrimination by a scenario that is intentionally set up to get the non-Muslim audience upset about the issue. Though it may be an efficient way to inform the people about the issue through the voice of a celebrity, it may be the show's limitation at the same time, since the label "celebrity" may over exaggerate any kind of issue and may prevent the audience from thinking rationally on different perspectives.

Moreover, as the show host, Tyra Banks is a non-Muslim, it is inevitable that it deliberately leaves out the fact that the Muslim women can "choose" to wear hijab and that they are actually proud to wear it in respect for their religion.

Soohyun Lee "Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/opinion/14kristof.html?scp=5&sq=raped&st=cse

"Mukhtaran Bibi is a woman who was sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped Ms. Mukhtaran, then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300." She was supposed to have committed suicide but she could get help from local Islamic leader and testify againt her attackers. She also built two schools, one for boys and the other for girls, thinking that the best way to overcome this harsh abuses was through better education. However, the authorities put Ms. Mukhtaran under house arrest to stop her from speaking out. Moreover, whenever she tried to go outside, police pointed their guns at her and she was barred from leaving her country. This is because the Pakistani government fear that "she might malign Pakistan's image."


The purpose of this editorial is to urge President Bush to take action against the Pakistani government's unfair treatment towards Ms. Mukhtaran. The author believes that President Bush's favorable attitude toward the "bold leadership" of the President Musharraf (Pakistan) caused Pakistani government to carry out such wrongful action against Ms. Mukhtaran. The purpose is very clearly represented in the editorial as the author stated "So, Mr. Bush, how about asking Mr. Musharraf to focus on finding Osama, instead of kidnapping rape victims who speak out? And invite Ms. Mukhtaran to the Oval Office - to show that Americans stand not only with generals who seize power, but also with ordinary people of extraordinary courage."

The limitation of this kind of media lies in the fact that an editorial writer builds on an argument and tries to persuade readers to think the same way she/he does. The following shows how personal and opinionated the editorial is.

"I've been sympathetic to Mr. Musharraf till now, despite his nuclear negligence, partly because he's cooperated in the war on terrorism and partly because he has done a good job nurturing Pakistan's economic growth, which in the long run is probably the best way to fight fundamentalism. So even when Mr. Musharraf denied me visas all this year, to block me from visiting Ms. Mukhtaran again and writing a follow-up column, I bit my tongue."

After reading this editorial, I cannot help but agree with the writer's viewpoint. However, since the editorial is intended to persuade readers to think the same way the writer does, it is a natural phenomenon that I support the writer's opinion. Although the writer of this editorial did a good job in explaining the harsh situation of Ms. Mukhtaran, he discredited Pakistani government without solid ground. Since he is in favor of Ms. Mukhtaran, he only wrote things that benefit her and degrade the government. It would have been better if he wrote what kind of difficulites are faced by Pakistani government to show that the editorial is unbiased and equally considers both sides. Moreover, I found it kind of ironic that Ms. Mykhtaran herself is drawing a clear line between man and woman. Although she speaks out for women's right, when she built two schools, she separated girls from boys. I wonder why she did not put them together in one school.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 6 Sep. 2008 .