Gendered Colors

This past weekend I was volunteering at a community event for children. The students we work with are from elementary schools from the nearby area. One of the activities we had them do was make a cape for the quidditch game they were going to play. We had two colors for the fabric; pink and blue. When I saw that the only options were these two colors I thought to myself that this was not right. When the children lined up to get their fabric, they were all confused. Some girls wanted blue and some boys wanted pink, but that was not possible because these colors were already designated. Boys had the blue and girls had the pink. The children looked very disappointed and that made me angry. Now I understand that maybe this was not done intentionally but it did cause harm. This incident made me realize that even before children are born, we have designated colors for them. The pink always represents a girl, the blue a boy and the yellow represents a neutral color. This is ridiculous. If a boy is seen with pink, he is automatically judged as being gay and feminine. But when a girl is seen using the color blue, there is not much criticism. Society sets gendered colors even before the baby is born, which makes the children grow up with this idea that if you use any other color than what is linked with your gender, it is wrong. This incident made me recapitulate about my life and how the colors have been represented throughout it. I say no to gendered colors! Do you?!

Here are some images I would like to share with you.

http://www.wisegeek.com/have-pink-and-blue-always-been-considered-gender-specific-colors.htm

Gender Notions

I found this picture from a Blog site and even though to some it may not be a big deal, I thought it was very interesting.  It's a picture of a section of the California Department of Motor Vehicles Driver's Manual, which says that "women with young children" are allowed more time to cross the street. 


I thought it was important to point out how gender notions are implemented in the smallest ways. Women are not the only care takers of children, men (aka fathers) are also care takers of children. It frustrates me how in our society, we assume that taking care of children is a woman's job. We demonstrate these assumptions in small but consistent ways. Next time you see an ad that has anything to do with children, pay attention to whether or not it has a woman or man. I think we might be surprised at how often these assumptions occur in our daily life. 

Draft-Liberation Era

Here

Yankee Response to October's Anti-Gay Mob

Last month, I posted a video of a group of Yankee fans who thought it would be amusing to yell anti-gay slurs to the tune of "YMCA" to fans of the opposing team. The offensive song played off the stereotype that all LGBT people are diseased.

The song lyrics? "Gay man, get up off of your knees / I said gay man, you will catch a disease / I said gay man, don't touch me please / because you have got a disease." And the homophobia only kicks it up another notch at the chorus.

As a reminder, here's October's video of the song.



What I have to say is that I'm somewhat heartened by the response. Community members and hundreds of fans responded to the video by emailing Yankees senior public relations personnel, especially after people began to realize that fans in a certain section of the stadium had been singing the tune for years.

Yankees spokesperson Alice McGillion stated: "the Yankees have zero tolerance for this and any kind of abuse." Security around that section of the bleachers will also be tightened, and people caught singing the song will be ejected from the game immediately.

Lady Gaga at Gay Rights Rally

Lady Gaga is a very powerful advocate for the LGBT community. Since the start of her career and throughout her rise to fame she has supported the LGBT community. In this clip she is challenging Obama and his administration to fulfill the promises that they made to the LGBT community. She also promises that she will not tolerate misogynistic or homophobic behavior in the music industry at all.

Boys Beware

While surfing YouTube a few days ago, I came across this 1950's vintage propaganda video


Here are a few of the things that jumped out and caught my eye: "Ralph was sick, a sickness that was not visible... contagious.... sickness of the mind... demands an intimate relationship with members of the same sex...he may appear normal"

I still struggle when trying to rationalize the common mentality of the time. I had to keep reminding myself that it was considered an illness in those days, that to be a homosexual was to be a menace to society and a threat to the way of life. But what really frightens me is the thought that there are still people who think this way. Maybe not verbatim, but they certainly share the same ideals. They still hold that gays are sick in the same way that pedophiles are. All I can hope for is progress in our society.

"Homophobia in Military: Not What You Would Think"

According to this article on The Huffington Post, "70 percent of the armed forces do not believe that openly-serving gays would be harmful to morale." They go on to say that it is likely because of the age differences (many young people today are simply more accepting) and also the personalization, menacing that if you serve in the military and you know someone who is fighting alongside you that happens to be gay, you are more likely to support gay people in the military.

The article later states the importance that military has historically had in defining social norms (i.e. integration). When I read things like this, all I can think is: If the military is completely fine with the men and women, who risk their lives every day, being gay why is Don't Ask Don't Tell still in effect?