Welcome to Recap Monday for March 29-April 1, 2010! The JHC had a crazy week last week around as our casino fundraiser took place over the weekend.
Last week, the John Humphrey Centre invited one of our own to speak for the Human Rights Facilitators on the topic of gender and media. The presentation focused on the view that while “gender rights” are legally enshrined and protected, culturally, we have stagnated as a society. Gender rights, which are emphatically NOT the same thing as “women’s rights”, have moved forward incrementally but in a reactionary sense–that is, instead of taking a pro-active stance on improving gender rights for women, LGBTQ and others, we tend to regress to stereotypes and false dichotomies.
Celebrity culture or mass media culture has a tendency to perpetuate the old stereotypes about the “virgin/whore” trope, as evidenced by the ongoing saga of Angelina Jolie versus Jennifer Aniston (we know it’s not in anyway an important issue; it was just a funny example). Mainstream media continues to portray women politicians through a sexual lens, using words like hysterical, hissy fit, emotional, etc to describe behaviours and commentary on wardrobe choices. Hillary Clinton, Belinda Stronach, Nancy Pelosi and other high-ranking female politicians are particularly susceptible to attack partly because of their high-profiles and because they are outspoken.
That is not to say that women cannot participate equally in society as electability of women politicians is not the issue. The studies seem to indicate that if a female candidate is put into a viable riding, the voters basically don’t care if they are female or male. But the studies also confirm that there are very few women running for public office at all, which is a problem with regards to fair representation given that half the population is female.
There was also discussion over the changing medium of media itself and that online media and web 2.0 has put up a seriously challenge to the hegemony held by traditional media. Web 2.0 is more likely to be gender friendly as anyone with a computer can make their voices heard and produce a variety of POVs and arguments, which changes the dynamic.
Overall, the presentation did a good job of presenting one facet of gender rights and media.
