News for the Week of 4/26

"Whiting: A Ballot Proposal to Kill Gays? It Comes from the Wack Mind of an H.B. Lawyer." The Orange County Register. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mclaughlin-656305-grady-speech.html

We've all heard about the religious freedom law that has been passed in Indiana which makes it legal to discriminate against minorities, and we thought that was bad. Well, it gets worse: a lawyer from Huntington Beach, California, Matthew McLaughlin proposed a ballot to make it legal to kill gays. His proposal is this, "Any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." The author of this article talks about how absurd he finds this proposal, but also tells of how he attempted to make contact with McLaughlin for an interview, but to no avail. He also talked to Kevin O'Grady, the executive director of the LGBT Center OC, who expressed his opinion about how the homophobic atmosphere of Orange County encourages this kind of behavior, just as the religious freedom act in Indiana.

When I first heard about this on Tumblr I thought, "Surely not, surely this is some kind of made up headline," because Tumblr users often do that. Much to my dismay, this is a very real situation, and it is absolutely sickening. First of all, this lawyer wants to legalize murder, in fact to invoke a genocide. This is all coming out of a very devout Christian, one who believes public schools should require the bible be taught as a source of faith and has "rich uses of the English language," however he seems to be falling short on some of the basics: the sixth commandment, "Thou shall not murder." This man is a huge hypocrite, and some might go as far as to call him an idiot. Who would want to hire themselves a lawyer who would be totally okay with genocide? This is a dangerous thing though, even if this proposal is not put on the ballot for 2016, thinking like this can cause damage. It lends legitimacy to homophobic acts that are not as extreme, but still harmful to a great many people.



"Experiment On." Peta2com Site Wide Activity RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.
http://www.peta2.com/issues/animals-are-not-ours-to-experiment-on/

This article and video discuss and show the effects of animal testing, and how cruel it is. They bring up points such as how many drugs and pharmaceuticals that pass the animal trials fail once they reach human trials. Animals do not provide accurate data for drug testing because they are very different from humans, a rat is not just a little man, and therefore its body will react differently to that of a person. Animals are put in cages, denied food and water, have chemicals rubbed into their eyes and onto their skin, have electrodes implanted into their brains, and are usually killed and dissected afterwards.

I am absolutely against animal testing, because it is nothing more than abuse. When was the last time you saw a bunny wearing mascara? So why do we need to test those kinds of products on them? Many people dislike this organization (Peta and Peta2) and claim they are too radical of a group to produce reliable information, but that is complete bullshit (excuse my language). What this company is about is keeping animals safe and healthy and loved. Just imagine your house rabbit or your cat being shaved down to the skin and having burning chemicals poured over it just for the sake of seeing its reaction? You wouldn't like it much, but these animals do not have to be our own pets for us to care about their well-being. All we have to do is live cruelty free.

News for the Week of 4/19

"Stop Fem-Splaining: What #womenagainstfeminism Get Right." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
http://time.com/3028827/women-against-feminism-gets-it-right/ 

So this article is explaining as to why "Women against feminism" have some valid points in their arguments against gender equality (which is what feminism is). It brings up examples of their arguments such as: how feminists victimize women and stereotype all men as predators, how feminists all have hairy armpits and consider all heterosexual sex as rape, and the most popular one being how feminism is not about gender equality, but about making women superior to men.

My biggest problem with this is how completely wrong all of these accusations are on the part of anti-feminists. Most of these used to come from men who clearly did not want to give up their gender advantage, but there now is an onslaught coming from women as well (which is really confusing). To me, saying "women against feminism" is as ridiculous as saying "Jews for Hitler," or "black people for slavery," it makes no sense right? Another thing that often pops up in anti-feminism arguments is how they are not feminists, but egalitarians. This is a very interesting one to counter. People say they don't identify as a feminist because they believe in equality, and a word that has a gender-specific prefix must mean it's only about one gender right? No, in fact, feminism is about gender equality, whether you are male, female, both, trans, or anything else, feminism fights for everyone's social equality. However, there are some other things I'd like to point out before moving on from this: female, woman, she, human, mankind. All of these are words we use every day and never think twice about how most female words are derived from that of a man, yet people still get their panties in a twist over the word feminism. Feminism is no more about one gender than mankind is, feminism does want to help men as well, because they too suffer from the sexism of the patriarchy. I care that the patriarchy tells men that they have to be stoic beasts, incapable of emotion; I care that the patriarchy tells men that they're lust-filled monsters, incapable of controlling their own libidos; I care that the patriarchy tells men that they can't be raped or assaulted because the patriarchy believes women are too weak and inferior to be dangerous. I'd like to end this with one last message directed to women who stick their chins into the sky and smugly say "I'm a woman, and I don't need feminism." There are ten things you are implying with that one simple sentence: 1.) My life is perfectly okay and I don't really care what other women go through 2.) I think feminists are just whiny and can't take jokes that perpetuate harmful stereotypes 3.) I believe that people are just obsessed with political correctness 4.) I am blind to the fact that there are still problems faced by women 5.) I have forgotten that feminism is the reason I have rights (such as driving and voting) in the first place 6.) I have no idea that feminism is an egalitarian movement that fights for everyone's rights regardless of gender, sexuality, race or religion 7.) I am more concerned about semantics that hunan rights 8.) I can't distinguish between real feminists and crappy people who call themselves feminists 9.) I still believe in the false notion that feminism is about hating men 10.) I really have no idea what feminism is.


"How Mental Illness is Misrepresented in the Media." US News. U.S. News & World Report, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-wellness/articles/2015/04/16/how-mental-illness-is-misrepresented-in-the-media

We all know that mental illnesses are a very large problem, and doctors have only recently figured out how to treat them. This article discusses how because they are so unknown to most people (everyone that hasn't studied psychology), the media depicts mentally ill people in horribly inaccurate ways. People are often shown as violent and criminal (most often associated with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and anger management issues), and childish (often with identity disorders), and just somehow different: their clothes and hair are messy, their eyes are crazy, maybe they're dressed entirely in black.

These kinds of stereotypes can bring on many hurtful ideas towards mentally ill people, and how they are treated. If someone is taught that someone with a mental illness is all of these stereotypes, that person will fear them, and distance themselves as much as possible; they'll be in the "them" category, separated from "us." There is also the major issue that someone with a mental illness is not treated differently at all, which is also harmful. Someone who broke their ankle will not be forces to participate in gym class because they are clearly handicapped, however someone with social anxiety will be forced to make a presentation in the front of their entire class because they're just "working themselves up," or "making a big deal out of nothing." The brain can get sick just like any other part of your body, and society as a whole needs to know how to treat these people, because harmful stereotypes can never lead to anything good, and hurt perfectly good people.

News for the Week of 4/11

"Pizza Shop That Backed Indiana Religious Freedom Law Reopens." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
http://time.com/3816667/indiana-religious-freedom-law-pizza-shop/

Pretty much everyone has heard of the "Religious Freedom Law" that's been passed most recently in Indiana. This gives business owners the "freedom" to discriminate against minorities, and the main targets of this discrimination are gay people. The article here talks about a pizza shop that, while it did serve gay people, refused to cater a same-sex marriage under the guise of religious freedom. The owner of the pizzeria says this would conflict with his Christian beliefs.
Here's the problem with this man's "beliefs," however: it is not the actual marriage that the Christian faith is opposed to; it is homosexuality as a whole. "'If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (Leviticus 20:13) This is the section of the bible that people use to defend their homophobia; this is their "religious freedom." So, not only is this man a hypocrite, the entire Christian faith is hypocritical to the point where people have the cherry pick the "good" parts of the bible in order for their religion not to seem ridiculous. As you can probably tell, I am both amused and disgusted at this hypocrisy, because no one should be able to legally dehumanize someone else because their 2000-year-old moral code says it's okay.



¨This Girl Was Sent Home by Her School Because Her Outfit Was 'too Revealing'¨ Metro Sister of Schoolgirl Sent Home for Wearing Revealing Outfit Says Dress Code Encourages Bodyshaming Comments. n.p., 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/10/sister-of-schoolgirl-sent-home-for-wearing-revealing-outfit-says-dress-codes-encourage-body-shaming-5143262/

A girl in Texas, Macy Edgerly, was sent home from school because she violated the guidelines of the school's dress code. This, however, has stirred up a lot of controversy because Macy's outfit covers her entirely leaving only her calves and forearms exposed. Her older sister, Erica, took to Facebook to publicly address/call out those guidelines for dress. She is not criticizing the school directly, but rather society for expecting such rules for schools to follow and enforce.
I think this article speaks the truth. For the most part, dress codes are pretty sexist and do contribute to rape culture in that manner. They are not pointless, because there is a level of appropriateness expected in school, however most (if not all) schools extend the dress code for girls because their outfits might ¨distract the boys.¨ This is incredibly sexist, as it is not only sexualizing the female teenage body and not the male, but it also implies that guys are more entitled to a distraction-free education than girls are. This argument can also be made when people say ¨Shes too young to be wearing shorts/skirts that short.¨ If that is the case, then this girl is also too young for someone to be sexualizing her body in that way. Women in society are constantly seen as sexual objects, and that's why they're handed a long list of restrictions of what they can wear/do, when boys just have to be wearing a shirt, pants, and shoes,

All Packed Up With Nowhere To Go

This is an image taken of salvaged suitcases from victims of the concentration camps during the Holocaust. The prisoners were under the impression that they were to leave their belongings in these suitcases to be returned to them when they left the camps. This is not what happened, however, as they were merely taken away from the inmates. By doing this, they were not only taking away their possessions but also their humanity in a sense. The people in these camps are now penny-less without anything to call their own except for a crust of bread, and that is only a maybe. This relates to Night because Elie and his family go through this process of dehumanization as well. Wiesel says on page 24, “The world had become a hermetically sealed cattle car.” This quote means to show the Jewish peoples’ sense of fear, and how they were suffocating not only physically but mentally as well. The picture above not only shows the sheer volume of people who had to go through this, but also how they had to go through it with absolutely nothing; everything was taken from them, even their right to be a human. The things that were contained within these suitcases held value to their owners, but also stories and memories too. The Nazis took away the Jewish peoples’ tangible possessions, and their actual roots as well. If that isn’t one definition of pure hate, I don’t know what is.