RGM Post 5

Something that has been getting some attention in the media lately is Jennifer Lawrence and her stance against unequal pay in Hollywood. She recently wrote an essay for Lena Dunham's newsletter addressing the huge gap in the pay of men and women in Hollywood.

Other actresses (Emma Watson, Elizabeth Banks, and Sienna Miller) have backed her up on Twitter and other media outlets showing their support. The thing that I like about what is going on, is that instead of sitting back and seeing the problem but doing nothing, these women are fighting for what they want to change.

While I do think that actors and actresses make a ridiculous amount of money to begin with (which makes her problem almost non-relatable), the fact that even big name stars are dealing with the same inequality that other women are dealing with is startling but almost heartening. It's just not something that I have given much thought I guess.

Another cool thing is that one of her male co-stars, Bradley Cooper, is supporting her and telling her to know what she is worth and to not back down in her negotiating when getting parts for movies.

But these people are influencers. And they can get the message out there much easier than I could. And there are so many people who love these actresses and will actually listen to them. It makes me hopeful that something might actually change.

By having the power of the media on them almost 24/7, actresses can bring issues to light in ways that I wouldn't be able to.

Here is a video on ABC news.com talking about the issue. There are also several articles talking about other actors' responses to her essay.

Some people are pretty upset at Jeremy Renner's reaction. He was asked if he would be willing to help out to try to change the way things are, and he responded that it wasn't his job, which obviously made a ton of people mad.

But really, it isn't his job. He has explained himself since then saying that he has no knowledge about the negotiating process and that he wouldn't know where to start, and not that he didn't care about unequal pay.

It's just interesting to me how much media coverage it is all getting.

RGM post 4

In class we watched the Rihanna and Eminem video for the song "Love the Way You Lie". Honestly, when the song comes on the radio, I sing along with it. I don't like the lyrics at all, but I don't ever really stop to think about what I'm singing because the song is pretty catchy. After watching the video, I think I will probably change the station when it comes on now.

 It was completely awful and really made me rethink the kind of stuff I listen to without really thinking about what the artists are singing about. 

We are fed so much garbage by the media, and if you are like me at all, we don't really think twice about the things we are listening to or watching. 

It isn't just the music industry either. No matter where you look, whether it’s advertising, movies or magazines, we are being told how we should be. 

It kind of relates to the documentary we watched a few weeks ago about women's views of themselves. We are told how we should look and act and think and feel. And we don't stop and think about how it affects us or younger girls. 

In the case of this particular music video, it affects men and women alike. It seemed to say that if you're in an abusive relationship, there's no getting out of it, and you should just accept the way things are. And it blows my mind that Rihanna would make a video like that after her awful relationship. 

And the video sparked a pretty heated discussion in class that I don’t think I’ll get into, but it made me glad to hear that the majority of the class disliked the video and everything it was telling people. I’m glad that they want to go into their respective fields after graduating and make a real difference there. 

RGM Post 3

It's been a while since I've blogged about class, but a few classes ago we were talking about how women are told from a very young age how we should look. Ads are everywhere we look, telling us we aren't skinny enough or tall enough, or that we are too tall or too skinny. The media shows this perfect body type that is impossible to achieve because even the women being photographed don't look that way. They've been airbrushed and photoshopped to the point that they almost don't look like the same person anymore. And that is the standard of beauty that we are measured by.

We also watched a video called "Killing us softly" that talked about the same sort of issues. But one thing that she brought up that stuck with me is that we are told to be sexy but innocent. We have to have that sexiness in order to please the men around us, but we also have to have the innocence of a child or we are condemned. And there is such a double standard here. Men are praised for the amount of women they sleep with, and are judged for being a virgin. But it's the exact opposite for women.

I'm not trying to say that women should go sleep around all the time too, because my beliefs hold me to a different standard altogether. But the double standard is completely ridiculous.

Another thing that’s been on my mind is the sexualization of women in advertisements. For our projects we just turned in I analyzed a magazine from 1971. None of the ads had women in anything but completely reasonable clothes and situated in normal positions. I hate the fact that people decided that sex sells and that it’s the only way to sell to men especially.