Ongoing Writing Project - Essay Example

Text Song: Face Down (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus) Summary: Face Down is performed by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. The song is about the story of a girl who stayed with her partner despite being abused by him. Instead of leaving him, she just accepted her fate and continues to be the punching bag of her partner. Whenever she is hurt, she always tries to cover it with make-up and tell herself that it’s not going to happen again. Every time she gives up, her partner tries to win her over once more and she accepts him again. The song can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ux6SlOE9Qk. The text was created to open the minds of those women who suffered the same to finally speak up and stand up for their selves. The song was part of the band’s album entitled Don’t You Fake It which was released last July 18, 2006 and re-released on March 20, 2007. Analysis: The song of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was one of the selected 16 songs of The Pixel Project’s “16 for 16” Campaign. The campaign was about the 16 days of activism against gender violence while raising fund to help end violence against women. The song takes the issue of abusive men and that one day they will get what they deserve. This song reflects the machismo in our society. The history of our society narrated how men are dominating against the women. They are superior and they take control and lead. Women are seen to be submissive despite being abused. Despite being hurt, the women tend to understand and accept their fate. Instead of taking a stand and fight for their rights, women keep their mouth shut even if they are violated. This song is used to communicate the message that women should take their stand and that men should end their violence because they will be facing their comeuppance soon. Text #2: Profession Summary: The second “text” about gender issue is about profession. If we try to check how many men are top executives of a certain company versus the women who got top positions, we can see that gender plays significant role. Two of the most popular companies worldwide exhibit the example of how gender plays role in their top executive team. Microsoft and Starbucks companies show examples of this matter. The list of their top executives can be found on the following sites: http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-senior-leaders/ and http://news.starbucks.com/leadership. This text will be analyzed to check if there are gender issues in the professional world. The lists contain the current leaders of Microsoft and Starbucks. Analysis: The 16 Microsoft Senior Leaders are composed of 12 male and 4 females. The four females are the EVPs of HR, Business Development and Chief Financial Officer. All other top positions or 75% of the total top positions are occupied by males. Starbucks Company posed 84% male occupancy on their leadership team. With 16 males including their CEO, they dominate the top positions of the company. Their female executives occupy the position of EVP for Gen. Counsel and Secretary, Global Chief Marketing Officer, and EVP/Pres. of Teavania. There is no denying that this gender bias is imminent to our community. Take for example the highest position one could ever have in a country. How many women were elected as President of the US? Men are seen to be more fit in handling top positions until today. Whenever there are two similar resumes submitted by male and female applicant, the male would be seen as someone better than the female while the female has make to work harder and prove herself to be capable as well. Text #3: Written: Article Summary: The article entitled “Yes, Gender Inequality Is A Men’s Issue” is written by Jane Porter. The text is about Emma Watson’s call for men to fight together with women against gender inequality as such issue affects men too. The articles discussed ways on why and how men can help change gender inequality such as sponsoring women to help them climb up the ladder in the company where they work or by simply joining in the conversation. The text can be found on the website of Fast Company, http://www.fastcompany.com/3036289/strong-female-lead/yes-gender-equality-is-a-mens-issue. The purpose of this text is to help enlighten men about their role in helping gender inequality and that they too, are affected by this issue. This article was written by Porter on September 26, 2014. Analysis: The article discussed that gender inequality affects men as well and that they need to join the women to resolve this longstanding issue. Men can also help by sponsoring women in climbing up the executive ladder and acknowledging that there are more actions to do. Men are encouraged to keep an open mind to the the gender inequality that women face today. This is a new way of looking into the gender inequality issue that we used to know. As we know, men do not recognize this issue for a long time for a reason that maybe they greatly benefit from it. They become more powerful, rich, and famous and they can take the lead. Who wants to take these benefits away from them? There has been too little deliberation that men are affected by the gender inequality issue in a negative way, thus make them more hesitant to address the issue. Hence, this is the reason why all these groups try to educate men about it and why this article was published. Text #4: Multi-media: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry Summary: The movie entitled I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was released last July 20, 2007 by Universal Pictures. The movie is about two heterosexual firefighters who pretended to be homosexual to file for domestic partnership benefits. Larry Valentine played by Kevin James is a widow with two kids. Because of the risk of his job as a firefighter he is afraid that he might not be able to transfer primary benefits to his children thus the reason to ask his best friend Chuck Levine played by Adam Sandler to pretend as homosexual to enter in civil union. Chuck owed his life to Larry after being saved from a fatal accident while they were on duty so he eventually agreed to Larry’s proposal. The two pretended to be homosexuals and married each other in the end to prove that they are not committing fraud. This movie was created to entertain the audience as well as portray typical gender stereotyping in the community. Analysis: In the movie, Chuck and Larry tried to hide their “fake” relationship from the public but their relationship was made public through a newspaper. Their colleagues refused to work with them and they felt and understood how homosexuals were persecuted in the society. Until today, LGBT group are still fighting for their rights. Most of them have experienced being discriminated due to their gender preferences. Gender inequality is not only an issue between male and female but also with LGBT. This is issue is not new, like in the movie, gender preference can affect individual’s profession. They are not respected but violated as well. People see less of their worth because of their gender and not what they are capable of. A good firefighter can be seen as incompetent and unsuitable for the job if he admits to be gay. This is the reason why a lot of these individuals prefer to hide their gender preferences. Text #5: Kinesthetic: Ballet Summary: Have you seen a lot of male ballet dancers? Gender issues cannot only be seen in art and movies, heard in songs, or read in articles. They also exist in the world of dance. Many of us have stereotyped dances with gender. Hip hop dance is associated with male than female. On the other hand folk dances, jazz and ballet are more popular with female. When you watch or go to ballet recitals, you see that most of the dancers are female. Female children are mostly sent to ballet schools when they are still toddlers. It is very seldom that you see a 5 year old boy sent to ballet training schools. The parents of this toddler will likely enroll him in a basketball training camp or send him to other sports camp such as baseball and football. Analysis: Parents choose, if not control, the gender of their children. Even if they are still babies, they are pre-assigned with gender. Baby boys are given toys such as basketball, toy soldiers, and toy airplanes in contrast to baby girls handed with Barbie, ballet costumes and shoes. In the case of ballet, there is a very slight chance of parents handing their baby boy a pair of ballet shoes and leotard. Growing up, most of them prefer not to associate themselves with something that might cause them being stereotyped as feminine. In the case of ballet, the number of male dancers against female dancers is very low. Because of this, the society sees male dancers as feminine if not gay. Those male ballet dancers who wear leotard despite heterosexuals are perceived to be homosexuals. This is one of the reasons why male dancers interested in ballet prefer to choose other dance genre such as hip hop instead. References: Emimusic. “The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus-Face Down.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 27 February 2009. Web. 28 November 2014. “Leadership Team.” Starbucks. Starbucks Newsroom, n.d. Web. 28 November 2014. “Microsoft Senior Leaders.” Microsoft. News Center, n.d. Web. 28 November 2014. Porter, Jane. “Yes, Gender Equality Is A Men’s Issue.” FastCompany.com. Fast Company. , 26 Sep. 2014. Web. 28 November 2014. Read More