Going Colorblind

"On the other hand, the younger generation confuses talking about race with being racist, she said. 'We all grew up in the '80s with the PC police on high alert and we don't know how to talk about it anymore," she said. "We need to be able to talk about it.'" -- "Colorblind" Generation Struggles with Race, Haley Edwards

   This quote, I feel gets to the root of the problem with race in the United States. When I was growing up in the 1990s everything was hyper-sensitized and political correctness was "in." As a result talking about race was about as comfortable as walking through a land mine field with snow shoes on. Anyone who was black was African American, regardless of whether they were from a country in Africa or not. No one inquired. Teachers trumpeted the fact that everyone was exactly the same, which I believe lead to an ignorance about black culture. Black culture was effectively wiped from any curriculum along with any other ethnicities and their cultural ties. I remember once for St. Patrick's Day the teacher made everyone put an "O" in front of their last name, to "get in the spirit" as she said. A few black people, jewish people, and myself (hispanic) protested. It did not seem to phase our teacher and for the rest of the day I was referred to as Kat O'Salazar. Ridiculous. 


   While our teacher certainly didn't mean to offend anyone, and did not realize the negative affects of her colorblindness, she was accomplishing two things with her little St. Patrick's Day game. First, she was throwing everyone onto a level ethnic playing field and disregarding their own cultural identities. Second, she was trivializing a culturally rich holiday and creating a stereotype. Instead of teaching use what Irish culture/identity consisted of, she was teaching us that anyone with a last name starting with an "O" was Irish. 

   Americans make the assumption that cultural identity can be equalized and ignored but in doing so racial slurs only end up morphing and growing. When we choose to ignore race in public discourse and between one another, what different races from our own consist of has to be made up by ourselves instead of amongst different perspectives. A white person cannot simply inquire into what it's like to be Muslim or Mexican or Moreman or African American in America without seeming to be interested in pidgeon-holing the interviewee into a racial stereotype. 


   Racism becomes just as hard to talk about if you are a white person than if you were black. If you're white you already have a 50% chance in the eyes of others, to be racist. If you're black and make a racial comment you are often not as criticized by peers, Amy Olson expresses this frustration for white people trying not to be perceived as racist, "'sometimes I put my foot in my mouth,' she said. 'If I say "black" they say, "It's African-American." Or my dad works with a lot of Native Americans, and he says they like to be called "Indian." So I never know what's right."'

   Reflecting on the 1990's nostalgically I remember the way predominately white television shows would guiltily throw a black character in, even in a nonsensical way, in order to seem non-racist and colorblind. This caused a lot of eye rolls for audiences who were acutely aware of the ploy, particularly in the case of the popular Boy Meets World. Boy Meets World was a popular family/teen show that centered around the young Corey Matthews and his family and friends as he grows up. The cast was exclusively white up until Season 5 when Angela Moore is introduced and becomes Shawn's first serious girlfriend. While Angela interacts with the other white characters no mention of her being different than them racially is made at all. Few comments about race are made at all. While Shawn is a very white-American boy dating a black girl, the two have no problems carrying on a mixed race courtship and neither of them are faced with any of the societal obstacles that would likely occur in real life. The only comments ever made in reference to Angela's blackness is when the group is sitting around chatting about what their "soap opera names" would be (this show had a large child/adolescent audience so discussing "stripper names" would be inappropriate) with the rules being that you take your middle name and follow it by your street name (for example: I would be "Patricia Loma"). Each person in the group goes around saying what their name would be and then it's Angela's turn: "Well then my name would be Shaniqua Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard..." She chuckles to herself and waits for everyone to laugh but the friends all just sit quietly, not understanding, "Boy, I've gotta get some black friends," she finishes. Another comment in regard to Angela's getting an A on a paper is made, "What was your paper on?" one friend asks, "How to maintain a black identity when you have three very white friends," she replies sarcastically.


   While I understand the reasoning behind wanting to remain "colorblind" and believing that everyone should be on an equal and race-less playing field, I do not believe it does well to help eliminate racism and is only an excuse for ignoring the problem. People should not have to divorce themselves from their race, heritage, culture, or ethnicity in order to be accepted into society, instead, society should make the effort to recognize all the interesting differences between people and appreciate them as positives to a person's identity, not negatives.

"No, but..." Feminism, no one wants to say the "F" word

"About one-third of our content analysis sample refers to a growing phenomenon that we call "no, but..." feminism. In this new version of feminism, women resist being labeled (or labeling themselves) as feminists, but they still endorse feminist objectives of gender equity." --The Myth of Postfeminism, p. 883

   This "no, but..." feminism concept is all too pertinent in every day exchanges and within the daily media. At some point Americans reached a degree of feministic equality, sometime during the 1980s, when all of the solidified complaints feminists made in defense of women were solved. The right to vote, equal pay in the workforce, accessibility to birth control, sexual freedom, anti-sexual harassment codes of conduct, and many other problems women had been arguing against for years were finally over. At this point America breathed a sigh of relief and largely abandoned the notion that any more feminist movements needed to occur, what else did women need anyway? Thus, any lingering feminists were met with raised eyebrows, rolling eyes, and a certain degree of agitated hostility. Feminism is over, at this point women who remained on the soap box did so for their own entertainment. This is when feminism gained its stigma that remains on into today, the stigma of "postfeminism" and that any people that declare themselves "feminists" now are raging extremists.

   What Americans forgot to address were the long-lasting affects of all the tangible anti-feminist doctrines that had gone on for so long. Anti-feminism was not over, it holds fast even today, and even in the minds of people who would outwardly say they agree women are equal to men and that they should be rightfully, then sneer at a woman who runs for president and discount her support and achievements as the result of "crazy feminists." The bitterness that has accumulated behind feminism is that of people who believe that women who still complain about women's rights are nitpicking. I found this quote about "no, but..." feminism to be the most relevant to everyday life. I have heard friends utter the very phrase, and many women who fit the definition of a feminist discard the label in order to legitimize their feelings, "Look I'm no feminist, but this is not fair..." I have heard in many a classroom and it works in contrast to people who stand up and say they think something is anti-feminist.

   Shortly after the recent presidential election I came across a YouTube video created by www.womensmediacenter.com about the prevalence of sexism that still permeates our society today. The video was a compilation of all the major news coverage from networks both conservative and liberal, FOX and MSNBC, and the atrociously sexist/anti-feminists remarks made in the course of the election year. Most of the comments made were predominantly about Hillary Clinton, but some were even about fellow news casters and professionals of the female persuasion. Such statements were made as, "If you look at the calculation that goes into everything Hillary Clinton does, for her to argue that she was not aware of what she was communicating by her dress is like Barry Bonds saying he thought he was rubbing down with flaxseed oil," "Men wont vote for Hillary Clinton because she reminds them of their nagging wives," "When she comes on television I involuntarily cross my legs," and "Men are depressed and it's their own fault because men are allowing women to take over the world." Most of the comments made although heinous were laughed off.

Sexism Sells --But We're Not Buying It video

   This video points out just how deeply the issue of inequality for women runs in our culture and how far it is from being resolved. Most of the comments made were so embedded in the conversations between pundits that I myself did not even really notice them until they were isolated and brought to my attention. Through what I have read of The Myth of Postfeminism and through what I have seen within my own social circles and in the media, the high negative ratings Sex and the City received from men who had not even seen the movie but declared dislike of seeing an all women cast on sites like the International Movie Database, to harshness with which Hillary Clinton was met in her progress through the campaign year, and Warner Brothers' president Jeff Robinov and his statement "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead," according to DeadlineHollywood allegedly because all movies with female leads thus far have bombed in the box office the inequality toward women rages on into the new decade.

Eliminating Gender Roles

"In its recurrent focus on the 'problem' of women's work both in and out of the home, Wife Swap's exploration of gender roles in the family addresses core questions related to the erosion of these separate and gendered spheres. The series features a range of women whose different employment and domestic circumstances reflect the current diversity of family and labor relations. This includes, for example, women who work in the home as caregivers and self-employed women with home based businesses, full-time career driven business women, couples who work together and live off the land and so on. Moreover, highlighting a recent social trend, various stay at home dads are presented as well, offering an obvious contrast to the male breadwinner model. The variety of work situations and the different configurations of women's (and men's) relationships to the public and private realms of Wife Swap speak to the changing realities of American working families and appear to reflect these larger shifts in gender and employment." --"The Cultural Politics of Wife Swap: Taste, Lifestyle Media, and the American Family"

   In the Myers/Sutton episode of Wife Swap, two very different families with very different gender role ideas are spliced together when their maternal figures are switched. Samantha Myers represents the more modern feminist stereotype of a career woman uninterested in her children and demanding of her husband. She openly shares her dislike of children in front of her son, daughter, and infant, and allows her husband to stay home and take care of the house and pick out her clothes. The children as a result are cold and alienating towards everyone new they meet, valuing intelligence (something that they have found to be the only thing that can win approval from their mother on) to be their main source of culture capital and act condescendingly to those lacking their level of brain capacity. The second wife, Karen Sutton, represents the traditional and antiquated obedient wife who must wait on her husband and children hand and foot. She is degraded by her husband and daughters and told "you're the woman!" should she ask for her husband to participate in the chores. Karen's life teeters on slavery as no one in her family offers to assume independence and orders are barked at her day and night without a single sincere "thank you" muttered.

   At least in this episode (although I expect in others as well) Wife Swap does some good in introducing the wrongs of gender roles within a family existing at all. While it might be assumed that by the end of the episode poor house-wife Karen would gain some of the freedoms that Samantha has, Samantha gains some valuable knowledge from the generally considered "ignorant" traditional family as well. The lesson that seems to be learned is that no gender within the home should be made to feel inferior to another, each person should be able to enjoy respect from their spouse and family members as an equal individual who has career goals as well as time to spend bonding with their family members. Samantha's husband realized that in becoming the "whipped" stay-at-home dad he had a lot of commonalities with Karen in that neither one of them seemed to have a "life" outside of the home, or a place in which they could excel outside of the family and how trivial that lack of personal advancement had made them feel. Samantha, and Karen's husband, both on some level realized that by trumpeting their own power and sense of self worth they had been stomping all over the emotions of their loved ones and alienating their family members.

   By the end of the episode the audience sees results in both families showing more empathy toward one another and working together more as an efficient team rather than a dysfunctional hierarchy. Here I see substantial value in the messages of Wife Swap in that it provides an answer to the question of how to deal with feminism in the family without causing the same gender roles burdened by women for so many years merely to transition to the male. On some levels Wife Swap helps the feminist movement move toward abolishing gendered stereotypes by presenting it in a more reasonable manner, that even a family like The Suttons are able to navigate around, and shows that an elimination of gender roles within the family certainly does not have to mean emasculation of the male. I found this concept within the reading as exhibited in the episode to be most intriguing because I found its principle creeping into other forms of media as well, particularly in the new Disney film The Princess & the Frog.

   The new Disney film (executed in the traditional non-Pixar 2-D format) The Princess & the Frog mimicked the traditional Disney princess films in many ways but evolved to fit new perceptions of women today in the character of Tiana and her lifelong goal to own her own restaurant. The film focuses on Tiana's aspirations and portrays the sense of "blood, sweat, and tears" she pours into being able to afford the down payment on a rundown old building she hopes to convert into a booming culinary business. Tiana represents the first female character in a traditionally animated Disney movie that is beautiful and wity as well as independent and career-driven. The Princess & the Frog takes this feminist influence within the story a step further however, when it shows with what exhaustion and loneliness Tiana returns home after a long day of waitressing jobs and although she tosses her tips into a savings jar with satisfaction, she must also turn down friends' plees to spend time with her, have fun, relax, or enjoy the company of others. When she meets Prince Naveen, she motivates him to not be so lazy and reliant of his ancestrial financial funds and to "make something of himself." Naveen in turn teaches Tiana that she can enjoy life without having to sacrifice all her dreams and hard work. The happy ending that pulls The Princess & the Frog to a close is not Tiana being swept off her feet by Naveen and never having to work again, nor is it Naveen being made a dishwasher in the back of Tiana's ritzy restaurant. Instead, like Wife Swap's focus on equality between genders instead of gender roles flip-flopped, Tiana and Naveen co-own the restaurant and run it together after working very hard (and having fun along the way) in accomplishing their now shared dream.

   Thus, I feel this quote's analysis of how Wife Swap deals with gender roles is spot-on with what other mainstream forms of media are picking up on concerning the woman's place within society. The idea is that neither women, no men for that matter, need to be segregated off into a role but can balance the joys of both career, family, friends, and hobbies and respect their spouses to do so as well. Marriage is now perceived as a partnership, not a place for "ownership" in the modern societal circle.