22nd Sep 2008
Transgender Bashing
Following up on Nas’s video on FOX, comes these two clips on a America’s Next Top Model contestant born a man, now a woman,
the insulting behavior of both the news anchor and the interviewee show just how far we have to go until all people are treated with respect. watch both videos. when the news isn’t the news, and becomes a propoganda tool of hate, we are in trouble.
thanks for highlighting the bias behind fox by re-posting this
Watching the Fox news clip just made me mad. The smarmy reporter who doesn’t know what to call Isis, (going back and forth between he, she and it) is close-minded and does nothing to help with hurtful stereotypes that already abound. Sure America’s Next Top Model may just be using Isis to attract viewers (which is problematic in itself) but the reporter does not need to be so insulting. Blah. I don’t have one positive thing to say about the reporter or the interviewee. As I said earlier, it’s news like this which perpetuates close-mindedness and prejudice in our society. I am thankful that GLAAD contacted Fox news to complain, however his apology was so scripted and generic, that it made me mad too.
Everyone has their own thoughts about certain subjects. That fact cannot be denied. However, problems arise when those thoughts are broadcast across airwaves to a large and generally unenlightened viewership (if the were enlightened would they be watching Fox news?). You can’t stop people from being homophobic or close-minded but we should strive to encourage respect. Clearly this is not the case on Fox news.
[...] Transgender Bashing [...]
This segment really bothered me, As journalists, they should be reporting the facts. I know that that is NEVER the case…. however, I think that being blatantly obvious about how they view the idea is just wrong.
I don’t know if I condone the act of sex changes, however, it’s the person who is undergoing the effects of it that truly has to deal with it’s outcome.
Having met a transgendered person only after having gone through the whole process (surgery and hormones and all) and spent quite a bit of time with him, and heard stories of how when he was a she was never EVER happy with who she was, I can only assume that this is better for him. He is extremely happy with who he is and what he has become. I don’t think that what this news cast did was right, and actually just makes the reporters for Fox news seem even more incompetent then they were already perceived.
I think that the show “America’s next top model’ is already a stupid show in that of itself, however, since it already does exists, why should any women be declined in any capacity. I think that allowing the differences in women to viewed as a positive thing rather than negative will only help young girls in today’s society become better women of tomorrow.
I am very happy that GLAAD did something about this terrible news report. It was unnecessary and uncalled for. Good for you GLAAD!!!
i believe that no matter what you read or watch, the media will always have something to say. The problem is that what they say is not always the right way to say it. I mean how many times do they change a story around in order to captivate their viewers?
Watching the clip made me feel like I was listening to two high school kids who were so clueless and removed from Queer issues that they didn’t even realize they were saying anything offensive. In high school I guess you can cut kids a bit of slack when they say mean things like that. You can rationalize that they were influenced by peer pressure or simply uninformed about transgendered people. But when two people over thirty behave in such a manner, it’s really sad. and what’s worse is that most of their viewers are so uninformed that they will tolerate such comments. It is so good that GLAAD wrote to Fox to complain and that the commentator made an apology on air. Even through the apology was formulaic, it still taught the commentator and the viewers that what they said was inappropriate. Education can come in many forms.
Hm… I must say it was the actual first time I watched anything from Fox News. How to describe it… I would say ridiculous and unprofessional mainly… I mean the journalist are there to inform us, not to insult people! Sure a good journalist can criticize, let’s say a politician or someone from the public spere if they showed their incompetence or did something wrong that should be said to the consumer of information.
Seriously, listening to that, I was thinking that the news on TQS, (which are from the same kind of level than the Journal de Montréal) a scandal interested network, seemed mature and of a certain quality.
Seriously, since when did the news, the day to day informational organ of society become some kind of Jerry Springer stage?
I think and hope that journalists like those two will eventually lose their jobs and stop the misinformation where its starting.
It seems bashing is becoming a trend in the media… the elections, where the ads aren’t to explain how the candidates are better than the others, but how the others ones are worst than them, this fox news thing, and probably an ocean of others… Somehow I can’t stand it, it’s one of my best motivations to shut the TV off, the media is getting like a big school courtyard, except that the supervisors don’t seem to really be attentive at what’s happening…
Trans people have long been pathologized in media [see Silence of the Lambs, Ace Ventura, Ugly Betty] and it pervades most cultural institutions, including our own. In educational psychology 300 we discuss teen moral development and alternative families without ever touching on sexual identity, gender identity or queer families, which aren’t even included under the rubric of ‘alternative family structures’.There is nothing in my Ed Psych textbook about respecting trans teenagers’ chosen names and pronouns, how to be an ally and mentor to a trans youth, or how to challenge heterosexist norms in the classroom. There is a group doing presentations on the topic of sexuality in my particular class, yet I remain unimpressed that it’s left up to them to start the discussion and if I felt I would be able to engage with the prof without being resented I would be agitating more forcefully.
Students do not arrive at the education faculty with any required understanding of what life is like for queer and trans teenagers or the children of queer and trans people. Many heterosexual/cisgendered students in education are open-minded and have educated themselves in their free time etc, but this should not be taken for granted. Some of us might move on to schools where these issues aren’t explicitly discussed due to a conservative atmosphere but it’s pretty safe to say that if you teach secondary you will be teaching at least some students who are aware that their sexuality is more complicated than they thought, or that their gender doesn’t align with what they’ve been assigned and they’d like to do something about that.
I cannot believe that one of their most concerns is about a trans on ANTM…
This has gotten me speechless again!
Things like this only provide a clearer statement of what Fox News station (and others alike) is offering to the public…ignorance and stupidity.
Well, it seems all the hot topics are in the air these days. I am quite amazed at this segment. First thing I would like to say is, why can’t the news reporter actually take the blame for this? Not like he wasn’t the only one going with this he/she/it gag, the other guy was too, but he didn’t have to apologize only for the Fox news network. “We apologize” should be “I apologize”. Kind of easy to go down behind the Fox logo when it was clearly his mouth doing the laughing at the matter. Personally, I do not see the point in reporting the fact that there is a transgender on America’s Next Top Model. If the show is true to it’s intentions as a competition, then Isa (not he/she thank you) made it to this level based on talent. Must have been a dull day in news. It’s not like the insults were any worse than you would hear on the streets though. It’s just shocking to hear it from “professionals” on a form of media. I long for the day where I do not have to worry about these kinds of issues but I do not believe that it will ever come. As for Tess’ remarks about the Ed Psyc textbook not touching on such issues, I wonder when the book was first published. It’s not like such social issues are brand spankin’ new but I do believe that they have never been so widely and openly spoken about as in recent times. It seems every year passes by and all of a sudden it can be said more and more in public. While I do believe we should be able to freely talk about such social issues, I still think people find it awkward which is why such news reports get attention. It is also why Tyra may be trying to jack up her ratings by using transgender to get her show in the spotlight. I really would have hoped not….
OH MY GOODNESS!!! I was extremely bothered by the clips! How can a reporter (who is supposed to be stating facts as Robyn S states correctly) be such a jerk? I hated how he kept switching back and forth between He She and It to refer to Isis. I see from previous posts that I’m not alone in that. His reporting shows how uncomfortable he is with Isis and her sexuality. This kind of attitude just creates more problems with sexual identity in our society. His obvious discomfort his way of showing that it’s not normal to be transsexual. Its true that America’s Next Top Model is probably using Isis as a way to capture the attention of viewers. The show has used other gimmicks, but I have more of a problem with letting girls with eating disorders on the show then having someone who is transsexual. at the same time it’s possible that having had girls with eating disorders on the show can make Isis the “sick” one for this season that they’ve only chosen for the public interest rather than her beauty. at the same time they’re letting someone in Isis’ position have a chance. I’ve never really watched America’s Next Top Model, but this has (as it was probably intended) made me want to check it out. Who knows, maybe she’ll win. It never ceases to amaze me how involved and in control the media is. Maybe this reporter was supposed to get the viewers interest (as he did) so that people would watch the show. Maybe the reporter was paid off. Media is so screwy sometimes. And I think some of these posts should contain problems with Canadian Media, I feel as if they’re only criticizing the USA. I do understand that the US has a lot of influence, but still. It would be appreciated on my end.
Let’s remember where this bash is coming from and lose any false hopes for “journalistic integrity” or even civil behaviour from a news racket like Fox. I agree that if you had stuck a microphone in the stall of a biker bar you may have found more evidence of sensitivity on trans-gender issues than these guys show when a camera is rolling on a national news program. I’m most disturbed by the dramatic lisp and semi-flaming mannerisms of Ian Drew. Are we supposed to assume that he is gay and therefore some kind of expert on “deviant culture”? Fox constantly plays with people’s perception of credibility based on appearance. Ask the black guy why Affirmitive Action programs are stupid. Get the cute brunette with the granny bun and glasses to talk about abortion as murder. How about some Mexican-looking lady to talk about hiring a private army to patrol America’s southern border? This stuff really works and has been common practice in propoganda in North America since Nixon lost the debate to Kennedy because of his non-photogenicity. We listen and think with our eyes now more than ever and I think we need to help our future students tell the difference between Fox and Shinola when they deal in any immersive visual media. As abhorrent as the intolerant messages are in this piece, it’s packaging and presentation are downright insidious.
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever watched anything so unprofessional before in my life. I’ve never really bothered to watch Fox News before because the local news station is always something we’ve watched at home. I have on the other hand heard about how Fox tends to be very close minded on many issues. It’s disgusting that people like that and even the show as a whole can be put on air. I don’t even want to think about how many people agree with what is said and stated - and I don’t only mean with that report. As news channel these people have responsibility to their viewers and instead they make a mockery of the topics. These people should not let their opinions be so obvious throughout the interview … it’s just wrong - especially when so many have access to it. I also felt like he was going out of his way to stumble upon the “he - she- it” when talking about Isis. I mean c’mon, it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out! It really sends a positive message to people who are uncomfortable with who they are (sarcasm btw). Honestly, I’m happy Isis is able to share with people who SHE is, and frankly I’d have more respect knowing this “right off the bat”, then finding out years later. this shows she’s comfortable with who she is and confident, which are great characteristics in a person. I hope she wins just to shock Fox and people who agree with the network!!
It’s interesting to see that many of us are offended when we watch the overt transbashing and transphobic stances of the Fox News anchor and the interviewee.
I challenge you to ask yourself how many times you notice the same behaviour in schools and a) Don’t notice it b) Notice but don’t say anything or c) Take an active stance against it or d) Perpetuate it/ laugh along.
While on your stage, I encourage you to take up this challenge and blog about it. Your comments so far have been engaging
After watching these two clips, I was convinced that Fox News is not an actual news station. To this point, I would have to agree with what Fred said: “they are suppose to inform us, not insult us”. I found the first segment very disrespectful and not at all professional. I mean, don’t they (two men discussing on the issue) realize that they are on National T.V? What image are they giving about the American journalists? I’m not even American and already i feel embarrassed because Canadians are often mistaken to holding the same opinions/ideas as the Americans. It really goes to show just how pathetic the media is turning out to be. As Dr. Steinberg said in her introduction to the clip, media (American media at least) has truly been a tool of hate. More and more I watch Fox News, the more i realize that they are simply out there to promote their own personal thoughts and ideologies…almost emphasizing that if we (as the general public) do not agree with their ideas, then we fall into the category of “social outcasts” of society. Anyone else notice how Fox News tends to scare their viewers to death? I mean, if we take their journalism word for word, we would probably end out in a psych ward thinking that the world is a horrible place.
As many of the others have said before me, I cannot believe that this was broadcast on Fow News. I feel embarrassed for these two men, who clearly have no respect for people, and are willing to express their opinion, when they should be reporting the facts. Since when is the news a place for news anchors and interviewees to express their opinions, which are insulting and highly unprofessional?
It seems that simply reporting the news is no longer sufficient for Fox News. They feel the need to add their own opinions in from time to time and insult the people who have taken the time to be interviewed for their news station. Watching this, was like watching the male version of “The View.” The problem, however, is that news shouldn’t have a view at all. It should be straight fact, and the viewer should be left to make his/her own opinion on the matter being presented.
When I fist clicked on the link, I was lead to the apology issued by the news anchor. My question, however, is to know if he truly realizes what he did was wrong and insulting, or if he was forced to do this to save Fox’s reputation. I’m leaning more towards the latter of the two, which just shows us how the media can lead us to believe certain things, even when it may not be true. The fact that he needed GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to realize that this segment was offensive, says a lot about his character as well.
“oh man, you’re gonna get a phone call!”
Since when is this kind of language appropriate for a “news” anchor. I don’t see how come some of us are shocked by this. The only mildly shocking thing about this is that it was on television. But this kind of opinion is MILD compared to what the lay person on the street is saying, even here in Canada. Exposure to this kind of phenomenon is relatively recent, and our culture is stil very much geared towards clear cut genders and gender roles. We have our own genetics to thank for this reluctance, because after all life wants to endure and we are slaves to this. I think it’s ok to feel conflicted about this issue. It’s not something that we think of everyday and that we learn about rather late in life. But the mature and responsible thing is to work out this ambiguity on our own, and not slander in public. But it has been very popular to “wash your dirty laundry in public” in… how do I put this neutrally… the American Christian model? Again, it’s for lack of a better word, and I do not wish to disparage and person who have a faith.
I’ve just honestly heard a lot worse coming from people on the street. I think we ought to stop thinking of North America as an open society. Québec doesn’t want anyone who doesn’t speak French, still terrified as it is that we are endangered. Gosh…
Just for fun, this is a tidbit from another website:
I hope that Tyra and crew won’t turn one contestant’s gender into a circus sideshow for the ratings. (Which will be tempting, as those ratings should be good.) At its best, Top Model can seem almost progressive, with a diverse panel of judges and guests like Benny Ninja and his vogueing divas straight out of Paris is Burning. But the show also tends to go the Tila Tequila way, highlighting whatever it is that makes a girl “different” —
(http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/08/americas-next-t.html?iid=top25-20080815-%27America%27s+Next+Top+Model%27+transgender+contestant)
No… milk something outrageous for ratings… who would dare do such a thing…
Sexuality in the media has become such a huge deal. It really seems as if it is all we ever really hear about these days – the idea of sexual preference and orientation. Furthermore, because the media has clearly become increasingly accessible for basically anyone, most of us absorb all the truths and the lies that it has to offer. This is especially true for the vast majority of today’s youth as they are developing their own sexual beliefs and patterns of behaviour with the media as one of their primary influences. What the media is focussing its attention on however is using this sexuality to define ourselves and through this definition, a label has been placed on what is deemed “acceptable” and “unacceptable.” Why is it that we now find the need to define ourselves by our sexual orientation and what is with this crazed obsession? Isn’t there more to ourselves than just this?
After watching these videos, I was not at all surprised to witness this reaction. I watch America’s Next Top Model and even on the show, it was a very controversial topic of discussion among the girls. Their immediate reaction (for the vast majority of them) was disgust and lack of understanding. They didn’t believe that she had a right to be on the show and that she was basically a joke – something done purely for publicity. But so what if it was? Does it really matter? The point here is that it shouldn’t. Everyone has a right to love who they want to and to be who they want to be. We should not judge people on behalf of their sexual orientation or preference. Instead, we should learn the meaning of acceptance and practice it. At the end of the day, people are going to do what they want, can’t we just deal with it?
i would totally have with you on saying that when the news becomes a place to express hate it can be dangerous. I am a huge fan of americas next top model and watch it because they pick socally different people to participate in this contest. If that man would have educated himself on that particular situation, he would know that isis is no longer a man, but fully a women. This news anchor does show that we still have a long way for our society to be accepting of different people.
The fox news network is undoubtably the pinnacle of the conservative republican. During Bush’ presidency their ratings skyrocketed via the presentation of stories such as these. They know that by doing this they’ll get a huge outcry from the people. This is because western society is fixated on sexuality, especially within the context of the media and that by insulting anyone who doesn’t fit what they believe to be right, people will toon in.
What’s also insulting is that the tv show itself knew exactly what would occur and likely banked on it. Although I don’t watch the show, it was impossible not to see the commericals that advertized the scandal and added fuel to the fire.
What’s important to society is that we learn to realize that the Fox News network is no more ‘news’ then a tabloid is. The only difference is that it’s the voice that the conservative hate mongrels feed off of and listen to. It’s a fact of society, albeit a sad one. Thankfully, given the way the media works, this scandal will only last untill the next takes it’s place in a week.
I was appalled by the reactions given on behalf of the news anchor and interviewee concerning the transvestite appearing on America’s Next Top Model. First and foremost, it is absolutely critical that a news anchorman remains completely unbiased in all of the news stories he presents. His job is to act as a mediator throughout the news stories he discusses, and to show absolutely no sign of opinion on the matter. He completely demoralized, and showed no concern for the feelings of anyone of the gay, bisexual, lesbian and transvestite community. It was horrifying listening to the news anchor continually refer to Iris as a “he” or “she”, and then snicker immediately afterwards. I found it very unkind of the interviewee to undermine himself and “US Weekly” on his behalf, simply because he was following the lead of the anchormans views on the matter. Although, it wasn’t as big of a deal for him because he is representing “US Weekly”, a magazine based on exploiting celebrities, and celebrity gossip; a very openly biased magazine and that is exactly why it survives and is so popular. On another note, I also found the news anchors apology to be very unsympathetic, showing no signs of remorse for the matter, which is again, a slap in the face for the whole transvestite community. Personally, I do not have a huge problem wish Fox News, and I do not think that other people should rethink their opinions on it either, after watching this news segment. It is obvious that the way the news anchor chose to express himself was solely personal, and not something that Fox News would give an approval of, I am sure. The news anchor should have taken his mistakes into his own hands and taken his apology a little further so that he at least seemed more sincere in the matter. His choice of words is largely affecting Fox News channel, and I think he should take his job a little more seriously and remember what he is there for; to report on stories, not to act upon them.
For this week’s blog, I decided to watch an episode of Dr. Phil and to analyze it using the interpretive framework provided by Quail, Razzano and Skalli in “Buying and Selling Culture: Talk Show Content, Audience and Labour as Commodities.” The topic of the episode in question was ostensibly that of documenting the experiences of adopted children who were reunited with their biological mother/brother on-camera. However, applying the hermeneutic framework provided by the article reveals the sometimes subtle dimensions of commodification and commercialization that use spectacle, the problem/key human experience and intertextuality to package the sincere experiences of these adopted people and their families for the consumption of television spectators.
The centerpiece of this episode of Dr. Phil was the emotional scenes which depict the reunion of the biological mother (or in one case, brother) and their grown-up children or sibling who had been put up for adoption. In some cases, these reunions are not very happy ones. Dr. Phil relatesa quote from a biological mother, who said of her child whom she had put up for adoption: “If I knew it would have come to find me, I would have aborted it.” The audience expresses great shock at the mother’s harsh and uncaring use of the pronoun “it” to refer to her child. The rest of the cases of mother-children or brother-brother reunion featured in the show are happy ones, however. Tears of joy are shed as emotional music plays in the background, underscoring the joy and gratefulness that pervades the scenes. The scenes are framed as scenes in a happy movie, and these spectacles entertain the audience with their heart-warming quality and the sincerity of the people involved. By packaging these scenes as spectacles for the audience to enjoy, the show ensures a decent viewership, and thus, satisfying advertising revenues. In-studio interviews of the people involved humanize the video spectacles and evoke such powerful feelings in the audience that many members, deeply touched, shed tears of joy for the featured families. The emotion is sincere, but the audience is not often aware that in expressing this emotion, they help in the process of packaging the commodity of the show and in bringing in revenues. As the authors say in the article, the audience is “employed” to help sell the show to viewers, and are paid for their service not through salary, but through the emotional satisfaction and entertainment (and perhaps, Phil would say, the useful psychological tidbits) that they derive from the show.
The core of this episode is the sincere and emotionally intense moment of the adopted children’s reunion with their biological family. This key human experience is the selling-point of the commodity that is the show. In its nature as an expression of the human experience, it has no price tag, but it is mobilized by the talk-show medium to bring in financial revenue for advertisers, which in turn support the show and the jobs created to make the show possible. Dr. Phil is a show whose key commodity value lies in its packaging of human problems and experiences as commodities for distribution through television networks. We are reminded of this throughout the episode by commercials for upcoming episodes such as “Ultimate weight loss challenge” and “How to save your marriage on the brink.” The subjects of previous episodes–teenage prostitution, incest, and other such topics—also reveal how the talk show medium capitalizes (literally) on human problems and experiences by turning them into the basis for the acquisition of economic capital.
The article also suggests that the talk show frequently functions as a kind of intertext, in which multiple media, products and commodities are interfaced together for presentation to the in-studio audience and the audience watching at home. This episode of Dr. Phil certainly fits this observation. Over the course of the show, Dr. Phil reveals that this episode is actually showing clips and guest stars from an upcoming show called “The Locator: Reunion Aftermath.” The whole show thus functions as a covert infomercial for this upcoming series. This is made unmistakably clear towards the end of the show, when Dr. Phil invites the host of The Locator to come on-stage to speak with him. With some of the reunited families still sitting on-stage for emotional effect, Phil interviews the host. The questions and comments raised in the interview serve clear purposes, and chief amongst these is that of legitimating the new show by presenting it with Dr. Phil’s “seal of approval.” The wording of the questions and comments serves to frame the host of The Locator as a sincere and caring person, a truly good guy, or in other words, someone worth watching. For instance, Phil says “I think it’s important for people to appreciate the sensitivity with which you (host of the new show) approach these things.” The Dr. Phil show here serves as an intertext which packages the new show and its host and sells them as a total product which fans of Phil’s show might enjoy checking out. Thinking they were just watching a set of heart-warming moments, the audience is actually watching the dance of a covert infomercial which is engaged in clear processes of commodification and commercialization.
In conclusion, this episode of the Dr. Phil show featuresmany of the key elements discussed in the article, such as the use of spectacle, the packaging of human experience and the talk show as intertext. This concrete application of the theoretical concepts mentioned in the article reveals how truly illuminating critical media literacy studies can be. While we can enjoy the happy moments pictured in this episode, it is also nice to be able to understand the sometimes subtle, sometimes flagrant economic processes which underlie the framing of these moments in the medium of the TV talk show.
After watching the video clips of the news anchor and the interviewee I couldn’t believe how unprofessional both men were acting. I could not believe that both men were laughing and cracking jokes on this girl’s situation. I have been watching America’s Next Top Model since it first started; and to be honest the attitude the news anchor and the interviewee had were almost the same as some of the girls living in the house with Isis. I could not believe as I was watching, some of the remarks the girls would make about her , and I would feel so bad watching it because you could tell in some situations that Isis actually felt uncomfortable. I personally think it is unforgivable the behaviour portrayed by the news anchor, he has a job to inform people of the current events that are going on and he is suppose to just inform the people not let them know his opinion by mocking and laughing at the situation. The way the anchor went about discussing the story was so disrespectful to the many people in Isis same situation. Just think about the other people in Isis’s same position that were probably watching; it is already hard for them to let everyone know about their situation and how they feel, and here comes the anchor making fun of the whole idea on national television for everyone to see. Honestly I think that the news anchor and the interviewee should have to apologize to Isis on television with her there, and let her explain her story. I think it would be more of a positive message; than just a simple apology.
I thought that news was suppose to be objective….journalists should keep their opinions to themselves, and keep at the task at hand of actually reporting the news.
This broadcaster was so biased and intolerant, I have no idea how he got the job of a news anchor in the first place. This seems to be an over whelming trend among journalists, more noticeably so, on American news networks. Intolerance is completely unacceptable, especially when it has the power to influence many individuals, as this news segment did. When people make decisions, like Isis did to be a women, it was her choice and hers alone. Her decision to do what she felt was right, should have no impact on any others, other than herself. Why these reporters were so clearly offended and felt the need to openly criticize her choice, is a sad testimony to the low level of tolerance in society. Not only do they repeatedly bash Isis, they proceed to insult the other contestants, essentially referring to them as men, and basically calling all the girls trailer trash. Even if, America’s Next Top model, did introduce a transgender contestant solely to boost their rating, I hope their ratings do go up.
Minorities should be made aware of, no matter how unusual they might be. It was a good choice on their behalf to introduce Isis into the show. If the girl has talent why shouldn’t she be allowed to compete? No matter what reporters say, we have to form our beliefs by ourselves. Clearly we can’t count on the news to objectively report a news story, that would be just too much to ask.
Its Fox what else do you expect. Turn the channel if you don’t like it. They obviously cater to a larger community of less educated and average people that have had little exposure to issues of gender outside of what they watch on TV. Fox is as big as it is for that reason alone. The emphasis is on ratings nothing more and nothing less. If the vast majority of TV watchers of North America were interested in political correctness we would all be watching something different. As with all things in media bottom line it’s about the buck. Why do you think America’s Next Top Model has this individual this season….ratings. Stir the pot and make people watch. What’s stupid is from what I understand Isis still has male genitalia. Someone please tell me how she is going to model on this show in a bikini? No one is interested in seeing her man hood protruding through. Maybe she will get lucky and get to model boxers. I have nothing against her desire to be female what so ever but I do think entering this contest was just stupid. And lets face it every ‘man’ that knows she was born a man will never comment on how gorgeous she is and obviously wont ever check for a camel toe! And for those that didn’t get the humour behind that…most men are still cavemen!
I’ve never watched Fox News before, but watching these clips made me realize how truly unprofessional it is. I really disliked how the news anchor kept switching between calling Isis a he/she, and snickering about it. When he mentioned that Isis said her cards were dealt differently, he said “boy, that’s an understatement.” It really boggles my mind how someone could be so ignorant on public television. When the interviewee came in, and stated that often they call the show “America’s Next Top Tranny,” I was outraged! Not only are they being offensive on television, but they’re saying this on the news!? The news is supposed to provide us with reliable information, not biased opinions about peoples’ sexuality. He went on to say that he’s not surprised, that often you can’t tell what the girls are (transsexual or not), and that most of the girls on the show aren’t the most high class women. Does he mean to say that being transsexual isn’t high class? Also, not only did he insult transsexuals, but all the women on the show. The news anchor asked if Isis’ voice was high or low. How is that relevant to the issue at all? Not to mention their unnecessary comments about Isis “covering it up.” Overall, the segment was very unprofessional, and instead of dealing with the issue at hand, it felt as if they were mocking the whole situation. I’m shocked that Fox would air this as news. Seeing this type of information aired on television is encouraging people to think that it’s okay to be prejudice and insult those who are not like them. America’s Next Top Model may feature transvestites, plus size models, girls with eating disorders, and twins as a “hook,” but I don’t see the problem with letting girls that are different have a chance to model just like anyone else. They don’t deserve to be insulted.
We were told to watch a talk show, and I decided to watch an old episode of Dr. Phil. It was about the issue of “cyberbullying.” It was about a thirteen year old girl who commited suicide because of hurtful comments she received on her myspace account. Although the issue was covered well on Dr. Phil, I find him very irritating. He had Megan Meier’s parents on the show, and instead of being comforting after their daughter’s death, he was being completely insensitive. I’ve watched Dr. Phil many times, and I can’t stand him. Instead of giving any real advice, he simply asks questions and makes the people on his show feel stupid or guilty.
Honestly, that “news” report doesn’t surprise me at all. I can’t stand the idea that this kind of crap is getting television time. It’s just biased, ignorant people bashing what they don’t understand. I mean what a compelling story that America’s Next Top Model is accepting people no matter “how their cards were dealt”. I applaud America’s Next Top Model for branching out and giving this person a chance to fulfill their dream. Maybe it’s a hook but that’s T.V. Fox themselves are using this “news” report as hook! I think we’d have more of a problem if they turned people away for eating disorders or being twins. It’s wrong for Fox as a “respectable and professional” news station to air this bull. What really got under my skin was how funny they both seemed to think it was. “America’s Next Top Tranny”, is that necessary? The whole “news” report sounded like a gossip magazine. It disturbs me to think that this is the kind of journalism that’s out there being watched. What happened to being objective? It promotes and encourages ignorance and intolerance. The ridiculousness didn’t stop there though! They continued to bash every other girl who stepped onto that show because apparently most are not high class women. Does he know them personally? What exactly is the definition of a high class woman anyways? The generalization just mystifies me. Props to the people who got them to apologize though. The news anchor wasn’t laughing anymore. Accepting people for who they are is not something to laugh about. Acceptance is important and we should strive for it. I don’t understand what Fox is thinking and how they can let such bad reporting get on the air.
Watching the clip from Fox News was interesting. It made me realize how people can be so closeminded. It was so wrong the way that the anchorman was reacting to the story. It was like watching a child. There was no need for hiim to laugh and giggle everytime he said her name or mentioned transexual. We live in a world today where people are much more accepting about these type of situations that you would think that he would have acted more maturally. He also insulted the show ANTM and the contestants. I enjoy watching ANTM and it is true that every season there is always one woman that stands out. What I like about the show is the variety of women that are chosen. Every season there is usually one plus size model. The women chosen are from different ethnicities and are all very different in their features.
The anchorman’s apology to this situation was not any better. It lasted like 30 seconds and was obviously not ment. He had absolutely no emotion on his face which made it seem that he really did not care.
I never watch talk shows but this week I decided to take a look at a couple of them. It is just amazing how they can really suck you in. They are always an hour long. When the show begins and they give you a preview of what is going to happen on the show, everything looks overly dramatic and silly yet you start watching and you cannot stop. They can be very addictive just because the stories are so dramatic sometimes that you are intrigued to know wha happened next.
I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words about my field experience so far. I have been placed in a high school in the west island called Pierrefonds Comprehensive. It is about 10 minutes away from my house by car. My impression of the school all these years has been that it is full of students with no future. I always based my opinion on the way the school looks from the outside. It has no windows and it is very old looking. It has the reputation of being the center of gang fights in the west island. When I arrived there last Monday morning and entered the school, my mouth dropped. It was very roomy and full of life. The students were very active as they were very loud while running around the school. Our CT came to pick me and my classmate up from the office and she was just a bundle of joy. All the students kept yelling: “hello Miss”, every time we passed by them. They were very polite and greeted us with open arms. Of course, when class started there were a few that passed snarky comments here and there but all and all, they were very friendly and surprisingly quite focused in their school work. They respected the teacher and listened to her when she spoke. I was blessed to have both Immersion and IB students in this field experience. Although I did notice a few differences between the two groups, they both had one thing in common. They may have both had their chatty and incredibly noisy periods but when the teacher spoke, they stopped immediately and caught on to her every word. I really hope that my students will respect me in that manner one day and i hope to inspire them as much as MS. Clarke’s students respect her.
Sexuality in the media is either negative or positive, and when it is positive it is usually looked at negatively. Music videos condone them while feminists are against them. While watching the news reporter of Fox state how Isis, the new transgender model of America’s Next Top Model is competing. All i thought was how people are ignorant and bias and how other’s will reflect what the reporter said and view it towards the new season. If you see the term Isis on wikipedia, it states that ISIS is the egyptian goddess of motherhood and wife, which is something that the new model wants to achieve later. Throughout the interview, they were always referring Isis as He/She or Him/Her. They apologized and said how being offensive is what they did not want, when in reality, it was exactly what they were doing. I think the polite thing to do was to just refer Isis as Her/She. The way the media/news send their messages to the world in relation to an event , in return show how the world thinks of them. I believe in opinions, but when it comes to the news, i believe they should remain neutral.
The clip was interesting, but not really necessary. It wasn’t really kind towards that person in particular (Isis) and the transgender society. This dicussion was a lack of respect towards Isis, transgender and people that were watching the show. It was a lack of respect towards Isis and transgender because these people have made a difficult choice in their life to inable them to be more happy and have a better self-esteem. By doing that the annoucer in the TV show distroyed everything they try to build as a society just by laughing at them. He approached the subject closeminded way and with discrimination. Medias think they can approach any subjects without being careful of what the consequences will be for the society. The announcer also had a lack of respect towards the society in gerenal, because he doesn’t have the right to say discriminary things like that on national television and expect us to stay there and do nothing. Like Amanda M. said the announcer didn’t look sorry for his words and he seemed to really don’t care about the negative effect of what he said had.
After reading chapter eight I am reminded of my childhood and the way solutions to all problems seemed much simpler to me then. When I was young I simply could not comprehend why people would kill one another when their countries were in disagreement. To me it seemed ridiculous. When I disagreed with someone or wanted something they wanted I might scream or be mean, but murder was certainly never on my mind. Now that I am older, my former views seem somehow hilarious to me. Could you imagine the U.S. striking back from 9/11 by simply meeting with the enemy and expressing how they disliked their behaviour and would appreciate it if they were nicer and more considerate of the feelings of others? I am no longer alarmed by violence. It has become a norm for me. Could opposing countries really just come together in a non-violent way and talk out their differences? Or is human greed perhaps just too strong to allow any type of compromise to take place between opposing parties. I don’t think two countries will ever split ten cookies equally between them, and if somehow each country ends up with 5 cookies, you can be sure that they will bomb one another for the other 5 cookies they are lacking. A court of law works well when the parties consist of 1 person each, but when the parties are entire nations, it becomes quite difficult to enforce any sentence the judge has prescribed. The more atrocities I witness, the more I feel hopeless in finding a remedy to these atrocities.
I never watch the Fox news and this is a big reason why. The anchor and the other guy were completely unprofessional in their way on discussing the situation. The anchor was constantly saying “he or her”, purposely to insult and to mock the transsexual person. They would constantly laugh at the situation, thus insinuating to the people watching that transsexual people are inferior and should be made fun of. Journalist should explain the story in an unbiased way to let people have their own opinion on the situation. They were so incredibly unprofessional that they were indirectly giving their opinion and telling the audience that this is a ridiculous and only a ploy to increase the show’s ratings. The apology that he gave was completely insincere, just by his word selection you can see that the only reason why he apologised was because he was forced by Fox. He apologised on behalf of Fox and not himself. It was he how was mocking the transsexual person and laughing about it. If anything he should said sorry on his behalf and the other guy, who were the culprits. It’s shocking to know that if GLAAD did not send them an e-mail, Fox would have never apologised. This show one that this network does not care if they offend people and will only say that they are wrong if people start complaining. Now thats a network that cares about its viewers.
One issue in particular that caught my attention as I was going through this weeks readings was the fact that for the first time in history, children growing up in today’s society are not learning about values, cultures, and life in general from their parents, family members, people in their community or schools, but rather by what they are exposed to on television. Living in a neighborhood full of young children, I sometimes find it surprising that I rarely hear or see kids playing outside. Looking back on when I was younger, I remember taking part in a wide variety of outdoor activities with my neighborhood friends all year round, which rarely left me any time for television (and neither was interested in sitting at home all day watching television when I could be outside playing with friends). However, throughout the years, with the introduction of new technologies, children seem to have better things to do with their time that requires them staying in. The fact that children are glued to the TV more than ever before makes it the perfect time for conglomerates to take advantage of this group of younger people that can be easily manipulated and almost effortlessly reached by advertisers.
Surprisingly enough, as stated in chapter ten of the readings, the most highly rated and popular programs on television are usually not violent. It makes you wonder then, why is it that half, or not more, of what we are exposed to on TV is violent in some form or another? There are two answers to this question that are explored in the chapter: The first deals with the fact that violence helps sell programs cheaply to broadcasters, and the second deals with the fact that it captures younger audiences thereby making violent programs a gold mine for advertisers. It just goes to show the power behind certain forms of media, and it makes me wonder how society’s younger generations will be affected by media, and in particular violence exhibited through media.
That was completely disrespectful. The anchor for Fox News only proved why this network cannot be taken seriously. The point of journalism is to give the news in an objective way, meaning without bias. Granted this is not easy, nor always possible, but this bias was just obvious. Starting with how the anchor refers to Iris. The anchor likes to say either he, she or it often rotating between the three within the same sentence. it reminds me of when we were kids and the boy with long hair was made fun of for being a girl. I distinctly remember 1 situation when the leader of our field trip would not let this boy go into the boy’s washroom. He had to get the teacher to tell the field trip leader that it was okay. It just seems petty and stupid. I love the concept of personal freedom as long no one is hurting anyone else. Iris isn’t hurting anyone, neither was the boy in my elementary class, so why make them feel bad? Does it make the anchor and commentator feel better about themselves when they make fun of transgendered people? If it does, then they shouldn’t be allowed to speak on tv anymore. I have anything against personal opinions (they’re like ass holes, every one has one and they all stink), but this is a news program, the idea is to give the audience the information and let them make their own opinions. I’m not trying to let the anchor off the hook, but one problem is the concept of 24 hour news networks. That’s a lot of time that must be filled. One of the unfortunate consequences is given air time to these two.
It is hard to imagine that the news stations which we turn to can show such little respect for those around them. The disrespect displayed by the Fox news anchor towards Isis has definitely strengthened my negative feelings towards this news station. Fox news has continuously used the slogan “fair & balanced” to describe their station, but their reports seem to defy such a statement. Reporters are supposed to be objective, but this particular news anchor clearly showed his feelings of awkwardness towards those who are transgendered. Instead of referring to Isis as a she, which is the gender she considers herself to be, the anchor deliberately calls Isis she/he. This shows viewers that the news anchor has little respect for those who are different. In addition, the other reporter goes as far as calling the Top Model contestants “not the classiest group of women”. If I were one of the contestants I would be outraged. To make matters worse, the reporter’s apology was short and insincere. Will fox news ever really be fair and balanced?
For this week’s assignment, we had to watch one talk show and relate it to Chapter 30. Even though I completely agree with the message projected by this chapter, I found it hard to relate the show that I watched with the buying and selling of culture. This week one of Oprah’s shows revolved around outstanding dogs and the abuse displayed by kennels. In this particular episode Oprah did not try to sell a particular book or a product. All she tried to do was encourage her viewers to protest against the cruelty of kennels. In a way I guess Oprah was trying to sell or get across her own opinions. However, every time I watch Dr. Phil I feel as if the only thing he does is sell his book or his wife’s book. Whenever Dr. Phil is dealing with a family in crisis, he always tells them that they can solve their problems by reading one of his books. This is a classic example of buying and selling culture, and unfortunately this infomercial concept is being adopted by many talk shows.
I’m confused about which readings go with which week…I wrote about talk shows last week and this week I read the chapters about violence so here is my blog…
I read the chapters on violence that were assigned this week. One of them I enjoyed, the other two I found a little sporadic and hard to follow (chapter 8 and 24). I always found it a little disturbing, how much our society seems to love violence. The video games, television shows, movies, music…all seem to encourage and demonstrate new forms of violence. Because of all this media, we have become more desensitized to it. In the book, there was the statistic of how many people died in Die Hard 1 compared to Die Hard 2 (it increased 15 times) but when I think back to those movies, one doesn’t seem to be more violent then the other. And because we have become less sensitive to violence, the media needs to push the envelope further and further so we now have movies that sometimes even solicit ridicule because of how far-fetched the violent scenes are. What led to this being accepted in our society? Not that long ago, TV was so censored that you couldn’t even show a bellybutton on I Dream of Jeanie, never mind murder and violence. Was it really a degeneration of family values or is it in fact the conglomeration of the media that decreased censorship and allowed for a flowering of violence? What can we do to change this, if it is true like they state in the book that most people are extremely against this increasing violence? I wonder if boycotting TV would actually get the attention of the big boys, enough so they will take into account what we really want to see on TV.
Yo, I pimped my culture and now it’s totally co-modified y’all - check it out! What I found most interesting about the article Chapter 30 is how money is generated for free from unwitting volunteers like the audience and product promoters. This sounds similar to the environmentalists’ argument that industrial pollution is possible because citizens unwittingly “donate” rivers, lakes and forests to industry by not demanding accountability for the mess made or at least requiring that companies factor cleanup costs into their profit models. I guess the waste produced by talk shows is less tangible but I can’t imagine that it doesn’t harm people somehow. Maybe the cultural equivalent is our general inability to appraise ideas or art. Maybe cutting arts and cultural funding in North America is an easy sell because we can’t assign it a monetary value so we don’t bother trying to appraise its worth. “Oprah, please help me decide what to read and listen to – I’m just too busy to look into that kinda stuff …” I can’t think of another society that creates art & music for focus groups and thinks that it pioneered the discovery of the only practical application for art & music – making money. I guess if we can’t convince industry to take responsibility for killing citizens and wildlife, there’s no hope in hell of convincing media moguls to help combat the ignorance they’ve cultivated.
If it was not Fox’s intention to bash transgendered people, then why did they laugh so much?If they really did not want to offend, they would have stopped Greg as he was talking.
This has just made me question media opinion programs a lot more. It seems that news the various news providers have taken to integrating opinion programs into their news lineups. The people on these programs offer their opinions to everything that is happening. Soe shows like crossfire that deals with politics, and the news anchor Lou Dobbs. Programs and people have been showing up like this all over the place. The editorials, the opinion section, the talk shows etc. I recently saw an ad for the National Post where it said it was a better paper because it had better opinions. I guess fact just dont sell anymore, now they differentiate each other by how different their opinions are. Any show that does not have an educated, well informed host or guest is just someone how wants to give his 2-bit opinion about something. Personaly i never watch those programs because they never really talk about anything, they just argue over minute points and and push their undesered opinion on people who dont know any better.
Wow! When people makes this disgusted face and say that they can’t stand watching Fox News and the shakes their head disappointedly, I never knew why because I never watched it myself. But after seeing those two video clips today, I totally know why people dislike Fox News so much, because I became one of those! I could have never imagined that a news reporter could be so biased and rude on TV. I didn’t even know that they’re allowed to say such discriminating and offensive things that are being aired publicly to thousands and thousands of people. The news reporter totally outraged me; it is unbelievable how he can laugh about such matters and treat Isis in such an unfair, biased way. The reporter was ultimately RUDE; he kept making fun of her gender, and going back and forth between he, she and “it.” I think that it is totally inappropriate and unnecessary for the reporter and the interviewee to go back and forth on their little biased conversation on TV because it is not only unprofessional but they’re making themselves look bad! Watching the clips just makes me mad! I can’t believe how people can say such things on TV; the reporter not only insulted and degraded Isis, but so many others as well, concurrently ruining his own reputation as a news reporter for being so unprofessional and prejudiced.
Nothing new there with Fox. The thing is, Fox is Fox you know what you are getting when you turn it on. Personally, i don’t watch fox because i just don’t like their product. I don’t understand who can watch their stuff. It’s obviously just uneducated people and people that cant afford anything other than rabbit ears that only show Fox (i really feel for those people, stuck with something their definitely don’t want to watch.)
On another note, today my girlfriend and i found ourselves planning our evening around the tv schedule. With tons of shows starting their new seasons, i couldn’t help but notice how tv runs our lives. We plan our nights and plans around certain shows, nights they air, times they air and so on. It’s so sad really, but with certain shows it kills me to miss an episode. How bad is that? It so sad how tv really runs our lives. I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of young kids and i never see them out playing or doing anything outside and it lives me to wonder what do they do with all their spare time inside other than sitting in front of a television set hours on end?
It is not surprising to me that there are narrow minded people like the FOX news reporter. What does surprise me however is how such ignorance and blatant discrimination is straightforwardly being put out there. Sure, there will always exist handfuls of people that refuse to except something new or tolerate anything different from them, I just always assumed that most close minded westerners were mostly somewhere in the heart of the States isolated form the rest of modern society who I thought had evolved well past such notions. What most shocked me about this “news clip” was how this clearly discriminating conversation between two chauvinists, took place in such a “matter of fact” fashion on live television. In today’s society where equality is “normal” and “right” and prejudice behaviors are frowned upon, how can a well known renowned television station like FOX exhibit such inappropriate, chauvinistic and all round discriminating behavior? on an informative news segment no less.
In hindsight however, it’s also somewhat prejudice of me to be making such assumptions. Regardless, I found that the FOX news anchor behaved very unprofessionally to say the least. When working as a professional, especially when your job involves relaying information to others, it is extremely necessary to seem as unbiased as possible. Commonly, educators in the teaching profession are constantly in the eyes of the public, thus faced with a similar situation.
As teachers we are held responsible not only for the academic advances of our students but in addition, we are expected to guide our pupils both morally and socially all the while acting as appropriate role models. A teacher’s role goes well beyond that of simply an informative educator. As open minded and wholehearted professional teachers, we must refrain from imposing our individual opinions and learn to leave all personal biases at the classroom door.
Shocking? Yes! In today’s society it is unusual to hear a TV news reporter discriminating a person and group in this manner, but would it have been this shocking 10 years ago? I first want to say ‘thank God’ we have all reacted like this. ‘Thank God’ someone demanded an apology, even though what was given can barely be considered one. At least we have reached a point where this reporter’s behaviour was looked down upon, but in my opinion we still have a long way to go because this reporter still has his job. Yes, Tyra has given Isis a chance on the show but can we actually believe that she didn’t make this decision for publicity? Whether she did or not we can look on the positive side and hope that Isis can be an inspiration and role model to other members of the GLBT community. I don’t know how many have actually watched the season but I saw an episode where Hannah, a small town girl from Alaska, actually pushed Isis away from her in the hot tub and I just found an article sarcastically beginning with “Don’t blame Top Model’s Hannah if she’s never interacted with gay, transgendered or even black people before.” (http://www.buddytv.com/articles/americas-next-top-model/exclusive-interview-hannah-of-23132.aspx) All the other girls reacted in Isis’ defence and accused Hannah of being racist which shocked Hannah herself. After reading the interview I believe that it may be true that Hannah just might not have interacted with someone like Isis before and this is where TV can be used an advantage to educate people coming from sheltered small towns about the diverse population we have out there. I can definitely say that growing up in Trinidad my first knowledge of the GLBT community came from cable TV. When I was younger it was unheard of, I have friends who had to grow up their whole lives hiding who they were due the type of closed minded community we were. Thankfully, due to the huge North American influence we are finally becoming more open minded. This is an example where media has played an important beneficial role.
This topic was of particular interest to me for two specific reasons. Firstly, I LOVE America’s Next Top Model. I don’t believe that it is a great ideal for young women to strive to become, but I certainly find it entertaining - both the pictures as well as the relationships between the ladies on the show. The body image that modelling portrays is obviously unrealistic and unattainable for the majority of us average women, however, that is a whole separate issue. The idea of having a transgender contestant on the show is perhaps primarily for ratings and to push the envelope, but the issue of transsexual individuals in society is a real issue. People are facing this problem on a daily basis, being descriminated against, and feeling isolated. I think that it is important to bring this problem to the forefront and to show that transgender individuals are not circus performers to be gawked at. Secondly, and primarily, I have a vested interest in this topic as I have a friend who underwent the transformation from female to male. It was a challenging time for him, but he thankfully had SOME supportive friends and family members. Putting this issue on such a popular program as ANTM, will hopefully put a positive spin on this, rather than be more detrimental. It can potentially be more damaging should they not show it in a positive light. Understandably it is difficult to empathize with this sort of struggle should you not be afflicted by it, but we can certainly try.
I think the attitude that the Fox news reporter had was absolutely disgusting in this news clip. His negative opinion towards the subject matter was so blatantly obvious and inappropriate. I feel very strongly that the media has no right to include personal opinions and biases on topics, especially such as this one which is very touchy and personal. Fox news is a form of media that is available to the entire public. It is completely unprofessional and unnecessary for the reporters to show their negative views on such subjects. The issues of transgender, transsexual, homosexuality etc are not ones to be tossed around without any consideration for the individuals who are faced with the reality of it. The fox news reporter spoke of the issue as though these were not real people with real feelings and emotions, and this is absolutely unacceptable.
This is a great example of why media education should have a significant part in education. If we do not bring up incidents such as this one in the classroom and discuss the reality of it, many youth will develop a warped view of society and the diversity it holds. It is extremely important that we as teachers are aware of what is going on in the media and bring it into discussion in the classroom in order to clarify and elaborate. An issue such as this involving the transgendered individual appearing on America’s Next Top Model is not something a lot of youth will talk about at home and this is why we must create an environment at school wherein these issues can be discussed.
Wow.
Fox does it once again. This video almost seemed like an SNL skit or Ron Burgundy from Anchorman. It’s unbelievable that someone who is in such a position of influence can conduct themselves in such a way on live TV. I had to watch the video twice to really take in all that had been thrown at me. This truly was shocking stuff for me as Fox is guilty for many other incidents like this one. Displays like this really make you question how far we have really come in terms of social rights in the western world. This type of harassment should simply not exist after the years of work of many during the civil rights movement. I think that the worst aspect of this video was the manner in which he chose to speak about the show’s contestant; it seemed that every time he spoke about her he purposely made the joke “he or I mean she”. Also the way he spoke to the “editor at large” of Us magazine was disgusting as he called him ‘buddy’ as if they were two immature high school students making a tasteless joke. The worst part about the whole thing was the bullshit apology given after the fact. In the apology he claimed that the segment was not meant to be offensive when the anchor’s clear purpose was to offend and essentially bully an entire group of people over the air. Our world has many problems and this short Youtube video displays one of them very well.
First of all, I cannot believe how unprofessional these two guys are, although, I have never really considered Fox News to be very professional anyway. Journalism is supposed to be neutral. This is a show that calls itself ‘news’. It seems more like tabloids. I think the most insulting thing Greg Jarrett does is constantly switch his reference to Isis as he and she. She wants to be a woman, just recognize her as such! Let her be who she wants to be – it doesn’t affect anyone but herself. I don’t know any transgendered people, but I would love to get their opinion on America’s Next Top Model having Isis on their show. Do they feel like this is a positive step for them, or do they see this as just way to get better ratings? And, even if it is just a way to increase ratings, can it still be beneficial? One thing I especially love about this segment is Ian Drew’s comment that he and his friends call ANTM “America’s next top trannie” and that “a lot of these girls you can’t tell what they are.” Talk about destroying women’s body image. A lot of people tend to think that the whole ordeal with women and their body image would be resolved if the media could just show heavier women. I don’t think this is the only solution. We need to see women of ALL different shapes and sizes. Not just heavier women. We need the variety, including the thin ones. When Drew says that comment about the models, he is making a statement about how a thin body is undesirable. Can we just stop criticizing women’s bodies and just shut up already? I say that as long as a model eats properly, exercises, and is healthy, then she meets the criteria for being a good model, regardless of her size.
I just watched the two clips that aired on FOX. I think it’s very discouraging to see that comments such as the ones that the anchorman said, still exist. The way that those two men laughed, joked and disrespected the contestant on the fashion show is terrible, and sadly, there are poeple out there without a microphone that think the same way. Our society claims that we have progressed and that there is respect towards the way others live and think. We claim that there is tolerance and that diversity is enriching. However this just proves the opposite, of course there has been improvement and that’s wonderful, but if people that think and act this way are in a position where they can have some kind of influence on forming opinions, then we’are not on the right path. I also would like to comment on the way he apologized. It was an apology that looked and sounded very fake and forced. If he was able to laugh for about 2 minutes, couldnt he have done the same to apologize? I know being on the air is expensive but because it is, it should be used to inform the society what is happening in the world, rather than offend members of society. This kind of behaviour only makes FOX news an unreliable source of information.
After reading chapters 8, 10 and 24 in the text, I began to reflect on media in times of war and conflict. First I thought about the selective reporting on war. I thought back to memories of the past, where I have had a one-sided understanding of many conflicts. When I was younger I didn’t realize that media outlets may present me with a biased representation of reality. However, it is clear to me now that there are few media outlets which allow for journalistic integrity, free from pressure to present a slanted view of the news. Chapter 8, also made me think of the driving forces behind media outlets. By this I’m referring to the fact that some news is deemed more “glamorous” than other news. I remember reading “Shake Hands with the Devil” by Gen. Romeo Dallaire, a couple of years ago, and reading about Dallaire’s desperation to have the Rwandans’ plight known around the world. Perhaps had the media cared more, there may have been more pressure for other countries to intervene or at least send aid. I guess that I have come to the realization that media is incredibly important in times of conflict, but also dangerous. If reports are slanted, they can breed ignorance and prejudice. If the media is non-existent, people are unaware of major events going on, and can thus not pressure their governments to act. Again we must remember to be critical of the media, take everything with a grain of salt, and use the internet to question the ‘facts’ that we are told. Through the internet we can get a more balanced view of the world.
I never liked the Fox News channel to begin with because I found it to be filled with propaganda and useless interviews, and after seeing the last clip I could not have proved my opinion any better. How can a huge corporation like Fox keep a moron like Greg Jarret as an anchor for their news segments when he’s going around bashing transgender people and referring them as “he/she”. Not only does he insult Isis throughout the whole interview, he does it while laughing as if this is some type of joke and if this is something that Americans should think is some type of joke. With people making these kinds of comments on television how can we not expect people to laugh at serious issues like the one at hand? The media plays a huge role in our society and if it starts treating serious issues with negative connotations, people will start looking at these issues as if they are not important and do not affect anybody whatsoever. Secondly, the apology was probably the biggest joke in the world, Greg Jarret did not mean it at all and I believe it was not sincere because it seemed as if it was forced rather than coming from his own beliefs. I’m sure if there was no criticism on making controversial statements, Fox News would have never made him apologized and I think it would have looked more sincere if there would have been a statement from the President of Fox News rather than some anchor.
From what I have read in this blog, Fox News has a bad reputation and the opinions about it are not positive at all. I had never seen Fox news before, until I saw the clips about America’s Next Top Model. But now I can see a bit of what makes people think like that. The way these men refer to Isis is outrageous!
I believe that journalism has diverged from its main purpose which is informing facts without distorting them. I think that giving information without any alteration is not easy, this happens even when we communicate with our friends or family. When talking about media, this is even harder as many interests are involved in these matters. As we know, media is a way in which people can be manipulated in different ways, I would say it is one of the most popular nowadays. Many people believe everything they see on TV and their opinions and actions are based on whatever they see or hear. It is sad to see how media is sending all these messages, instead of promoting respect and tolerance to others…
And yes, the apologies were so fake!
Wow. I could not believe it. How can people who direct such huge television channels can be stupid enough to let this on air? How can people be so stubborn and so ignorant into saying what the anchor man said? How can people perceive themselves as being better than others simply based on their gender identity? Who are they to say something negative about such issue?
This clip just shows how retarded people often are. It is sickening. I am so mad.
Isis has the right to be a woman. She has the right to see herself as a young, beautiful and successful woman. So what if she is born a guy? Her situation is no different than many others’ and it is just a good thing that she was able to get on such a popular show. It finally highlights what some people, put aside from the “mainstream society”, are going through, and what they are able to achieve. This nomination of Isis on the show is simply a good thing because it will give transsexual people a new role model to look at. Isis assumed who she is and knows what she can do, which is definitely a good thing, from my point of view.
For FOX channel, its anchor man, and the dude from the magazine, I would say that they seriously need to become more open-minded and to actually understand what they are to talk about before doing so. I think their apologies come way too late. What they have said is unacceptable. As media people, they should be careful with what they are saying, since many people could be hurt and offended by such sayings.
Moreover, being different is not something bad and having different types of people on a TV show does not necessarily means that it has been done to make more money. It simply reaches more categories of people, and it helps media to become more open, by depicting different types of people within the society.
I know that last weeks blog was or could have been about a talk show. I was sitting in my room and watching tv, and as I often do I decided to watch Oprah. I tuned in at the beginning and Oprah celebrity guest was Christina Applegate. Christina was there not to talk about her popular, Emmy nominated show Samantha Who?, however she was there to discuss he battle with breast cancer.
As I sat and watched and I’ll admit it, cried as well, I couldn’t help to think what kind of influence Oprah has on middle class suburban woman living in North America. I feel that it’s almost as if, if Oprah says something on her show, people are not only going to listen but will obliged to do something more.
Oprah’s affect on the media is so huge, I often wonder was this what she intended? I wonder if she knows what kind of influence she has on society. I’m sure she does. Her reaction to others reaction and how she deals with them shows the outsider that she does know how she affects people.
Oprah always has her tagline “What you need to know”. She makes it a point to let the people who are going to be affected by whatever it is she is talking about, know how to deal with it and how to even anticipate it.
I often hear how people don’t like Oprah and her attitude. I would have to say that if one woman is going to make sure that people know what to do and how to do it when faced with a challenge such as battling breast cancer, how can that be wrong?
If it weren’t for Oprah, how would have anyone known that Tom Cruise really and truly loves Katie Holmes!
I no this week we were suppose to blog about violence but after watching this short video clip about Isis it really bothered me. I don’t see how come the journalist had to keep on saying he or she as if she wasn’t human and was just a thing that no one knew where to classify. It is evident she is a SHE!! She changed her sex, therefore, I think she should be addressed as a she. Moreover, how can these two men judge not only this young girl, Isis, but all the young girls who go on this show. Getting into the modeling business is very hard. Although, Americas Next Top Model is a reality show and ost reality shows are ridiculous, I truly believe that it gives these girls a big opportunity to pursue their dream of becoming a model. Moreover, this show opens the contestant’s eyes as to how harsh the modeling business is.
Although, I personally believe that people should have the right to express their own opinion as well as ideas, these men weren’t giving their opinion. They were, on the other hand, mocking all transvestites.
Like the group GLAAD mentioned their comments were obnoxious, insulting and dehumanizing.
I am glad that he apologized but his apology was not sincere. By stating that the email he had received was the reason for his apology he demonstrated how ignorant and indifferent he was of his rude comments. His apology wasn’t sincerely from him, instead it seemed forced by the Fox News corporation or the GLAAD organization.
On the subject of homosexuality, in the past few week on my stage I’ve noticed an overuse of the word gay. Several of the young students overuse the word. In one of my classes, a group of students were antagonizing this little boy and calling him gay. The reason for which they were calling him gay were because he enjoyed doing his homework in colored pen and would often hang out with the girls in the class. While listening to these children and getting involved with their conversation I realized how unacceptable being homosexual is. Throughout my adolescents I was continuously being taught to be open minded because in Montreal we have a variety of cultures as well as a variety of people who are homosexual. I’m just surprised at how homosexuality is not accepted as much as I thought it was.
Overall, I think that there will always be individuals who are homophobic however, the journalist’s attitude towards transgender issues shouldn’t have been tolerated. It is one thing to give an opinion but another to mock or make fun of someone or a group of people, in this case.
I personally was totally disgudted about what fox news decided to pull. Off with this whole isis thing.we wonder why the american population is so naïve and think that gay paople are bad or blacks are less than whites etc… It is not all the americans fault when their leading news supplier anquors are bashing gay people and transgendered people, it is totally irresponsible for a news station to let their anchors laught and make jokes about people I n a minority . All it does is full the americans into beleiving bad facts and become sexist etc… I think that iris should sue fox for what thye did notonly did they ruin her public imaga but also they ruined her pontential in thr show and maybe even her modeling career it is wrong for them to do that.I am saying sorry for bad spelling and grammar on this post I am doing it on my blackberry in ontario
I would be surprised if this had aired on any other station, but because it was on Fox, I am not surprised. Although some of their programming is fun (doesn’t everyone love House?) their news is certainly lacking. Any channel that considers what Bill O’Reilly has to say has to be taken with a grain of salt (or maybe a whole shaker). Why is it so hard for people to just call her “her” and “she”? What is it about calling someone what they want to be called so hard for some people? Whether they agree with it or not, just calling Isis “she” does no harm to anyone. And the reporter’s comment along the lines of “she had me fooled!” is incredibly close-minded and self-centered. Like she is really trying to “fool” him. Does he honestly believe that people undergo such a major transition to “fool” other people?
I do not think he was trying to be offensive (although his apology certainly lacked sincerity), but it just goes to show how we can be hurtful and rude with our ignorance and refusal to go just a little out of our way to understand others better (especially if he knew he was going to this segment, a little research would not have hurt- and I mean more than just googling some definitions). If he had showed some semblance of an attempt to understand, and then made mistakes, then I would hope that people might be forgiving. However, since I think he went into the segment with the wrong attitude, I think he should be strongly encouraged not to make the same errors again.
Well for this week’s blog, we were suppose to talk about the violence in the media as discussed in the chapters 8-10-24 of our book. As I read chapter 8, there is one particular thing that bugged me. Apparently, the excuse given for the NATO bombing is “the Serb forces have killed more Albanians than we have killed Serbs”. I mean come on! Isn’t one of the first “good ethical conduct” we learn as young children is the fact that two wrongs does not make a right. To make mater worst, the media stuck to this logic and presented it through a form of propaganda, practically blaming the Serbs (the entire Serbian population and not only the people involved in the killing of Albanians), giving us the impression that the Serbs had it coming and basically “deserved it”. This just goes to show how strong of an effect media has on the entire world. The American news never showed the other side of the story… The story seen through innocent civilians perspectives. Come to think of it, its sad how we, as the public, are blinded by the media and kept away from the truth. Even during the course of my stage this week, I have overheard kids talking, and more like bashing on McCain in regards to the upcoming elections. They were making fun of the fact that McCain is so old that he is not familiar with new technology as portrayed by the comedians of the late show called MAD TV. When I asked the kids if they knew who he was, all that they could say was “some old dude running for president”. They had no clue who he was, what he did, or what his policies are! Not that I support McCain or anything, but it just bothered me to see these kids (grade 8’s) act this way, hold these opinions based on what they saw on TV. Hence, showing how powerful of an impact media has on our society!
I did not know where to blog again this week for the violence theme, but ill do it here in any case. The last violent movie i watched was I am legend with will smith i have to say the only reason for watching it was Will Smith, for no other reason whatsoever. I dont like violent movies at all because i find they make movies and in a way show that violence is ok. i remember during at least half the movie i was closing my eyes because it was scary and violent however i will say there was a thrill about it. I think that’s why many people are captivated by violent movies, tv shows and video games… All right i get theres a thrill about watching some violent movies but i find that there should be a limit to violent video games. i remember when supermario was “in” now its grand theft auto where you steal cars. what has this world come to? where people learn to steel, cheat. kill… all for fun. What about those young influencial children who don’t know fantasy from reality. I find in the media today there is too much violence. there is violence eberywhere we look and everywhere we turn. In all the csi and law and order shows, cops and many others, violence is one of the main aspects. I’m not saying i don’t watch them but whatever happened to good old family shows. i mean even in some kid shows there’s violence such as pokeman and dragon ball z, all they’re exposed to is violence. i think for the sake of our young and gullible viewers , attention should be paid to all the violence in the different forms of media around us.
well i am going to start the blog on Lizzie Mcguire. After reading the chapters, i cant say that i was really shocked about what i was reading. I heard of kids tv shows and shows in general depicting society’s sterotypes to a “t”. I have to admit though, that when i was younger, i did watch Lizzie Mcguire on a regular basis. I enjoyed the show very much, but at that age, i wasnt aware of the blainten stereotypes depicted in the show. While i was reading the chapter, i was thinking back to past episodes of Lizzie Mcguire, and thinking to myself “How true, and never thought about it that way…lol”. Anyways i would have to agree, that Hilary Duff does play the typical female (blond, slim, beautiful) on that show, but i would not have expected anyting different from a tv show on a major network. They want kids to look up to people like this, even if its not a good thing. I find though that when tv shows try to put more normal people on tv, average joes that watch those shows always put them down, saying things like ” wow, shes ugly” “shes fat” and other things along those lines. So how can we expect change when we always knock it.
Violence in media has been present since I was a child. During my youth, the portrayal of violence went from significant to omnipresent. I grew up with the ninja turtles in kindergarten, to which my father would cut out my sandwiches in the shape of turtles. The ninja turtles were radioactively charged super turtles, which were taught martial arts by a giant rat. In early elementary the power ranger era began. This was a new level of childhood violence. The rangers would fight hand-to-hand until they were overpowered, then in unison chant “it’s morphin’ time!” and a giant, Godzilla like robot would come together and fight the foe. Episodes pretty much had a story line as such, dialogue, dialogue, bad guy, fight fight fight, morph, fight fight fight, win, dialogue, dialogue, end. They always had terrible acting and an even worse story line. The average episode showed 26 acts of violence and this number per episode on new shows has only increased.
Children are now bombarded with acts of violence on a daily violence. Film, television, video games and even news, depict violence. This is concerning because children are impressionable. It has come to the point where as a society we are desensitized to acts of violence. In the case of some film, (i.e. Saw…) we are entertained by watching people suffering and being tortured. We now watch a “sport” more gruesome than boxing, called MMA (mixed martial arts). In MMA, the object is to beat your opponent with any part of your body, legs, feet, fists… Even once you knock down your opponent, you jump on his and pummel him with fists. People enjoy this as entertainment.
It is scary how depictions of violence have become so prevalent; it seems we are entertained by them. How long until, someone being beaten in the street is not helped but instead, wagers are placed and the beating watched and enjoyed by all?
Scotty G.
Violence in the media is an important topic to discuss. No matter what we are watching whether it be movies or television shows you can always count on seeing some sort of violence. I think one of the reasons we need to make children media literate has a lot to do with the fact that every time they turn on the T.V they are exposed to violence. When I was in high school I did a project on how violence on T.V affects children in a negative way. I found out that most children will re-enact what they see and have no idea of the consequences that will follow their actions. A good example is the Power Rangers… How many of us grew up watching them and then after the show would go act out the fighting scenes with our friends. The problem is children see good guys fighting bad guys and then they think that fighting can lead to good things…. the problem is children do not realize that in reality we do not deal with our problems the same way cartoons or television shows do. Personally I think if we explain to our children early on the difference between violence on T.V and violence in everyday life… then just maybe we wouldn’t have to worry so much about the negative effects T.V has. I am not saying that we need to ban our kids from T.V shows all I am trying to say is that maybe we need to educate our children a little more before exposing them to shows or characters that will influence their decisions
I have just read some of the comments about the Fox anchor commenting about the transgender on ANTM, I apologize for bringing it up again but i would like to comment. I am firm believer that just knowing what something or someone is, for instance reading the definition of what a transgendered is, does nothing to help accept them into our society as an active, respected member. Listening to the anchor man talk, I could hear the ignorance in his voice. Sure he may be good at spilling out information on the latest crime act, but when it comes to information that has not yet reach public discourse his ignorant bias on the matter leaks through. His distasteful jokes when correcting himself four times over in “attempt” to use the proper noun just baffled me. How could this man possibly be in the professional position of relaying news to our society? He had the opportunity to use that subject matter to open new varieties of discourse and set a tone for how this woman should be treated and respected.
We, ourselves, have a transsexual professor and McGill and it frustrates me to be in conversation with students who use her for the pit of their jokes. They treat her as the “other,” saying they cannot understand why she would do, how deep her voice is, among other judgmental comments that degrade this Professor. For me, i took a course called Sexual Diversities last year. Since then, the issue of anyone’s sexuality is non existent for me anymore. It does not matter to me or even faze me as to who you are attracted to or whether you feel more comfortable being male or female, regardless of sexual organs. I give credit to this course, which has educated me to expand my tolerance level. I just pity the anchor who may still not even get why what he did was completely inappropriate. It almost seems that people in those positions should be required to take courses on different sexualities, ethnicities etc. so they develop a more well-rounded knowledge base.
After doing the readings on media violence, the chapter that stood out most to me was chapter eight: television violence. One interesting thing that caught my eye was that scenes of crime and violence “occur an average of three to five times per hour in prime-time dramatic fiction, and between twenty and twenty and twenty-five times per hour in cartoons.” (104) I never noticed how much violence actually appears on television. When you think about it, children are watching cartoons like Spiderman, Batman, and even Looney Toons, which all depict violence. Take Looney Tunes for example, where the Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner are constantly chasing each other, trying to find different ways to harm each other. Sylvester the cat is always trying to kill Tweety bird, and Elmer Fudd is always trying to kill Bugs Bunny. We grew up watching television shows like Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, which also depict violence in every episode. The superhero shows are especially violent, and children may think it’s acceptable to fight because the heroes in their favourite shows are fighting to protect the world against evil.
Violence is not only portrayed in television, but also in movies, video games, and even in music. When I saw my boyfriend’s twelve year old cousin playing the video game “Grand Theft Auto,” I was shocked by what I was seeing! The purpose of the game is to work with gangs, murder people, steal cars, use weapons, and go against the police. Not to mention that the player regains his health by visiting prostitutes and beating them to death! Then we wonder why there is so much violence in the world!? Parents really need to talk to their children about the violence they’re seeing in the media. Also, a song/music video that used to terrify me in grade 6 was “Stan” by Eminem. It’s a song about how one of Eminem’s fans is obsessed with him, and kills his pregnant wife by driving her off a cliff. The music video and lyrics are filled with violence, not to mention Eminem’s songs “Kim,” and “Superman,” which speak violently about his ex-wife.
I was watching a show called the “the War at Home,” which is a comedy from a few years ago. One of the episodes was about media violence, and they were able to discuss it in a joking way. The episode talks about ratings on television and movies, and about the V-Chip. The main character says “Without the sex and violence, who the hell would want to watch TV?” http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/REBeEM5WKKQ/ I think it’s important that we know what is going on with violence in the media, and it’s good if we’re able to joke about it from time to time.
Overall, I think that it’s important to make sure what children are watching is appropriate for their age group. As long as parents and teachers are able to talk to children about the violence they’re seeing in the media, and teach them to read the media critically, things should be alright. I don’t think violence should be banned from the media, because it depicts what actually happens in the world sometimes. Just because we see violence on television, doesn’t mean we’re going to go out and act on it.
In this day and age, society is so focussed and absorbed in what the media has to offer - evidently addicted to what is available. It is generally believed that the constant watching of TV is thought to have varying influences in the way a child understands and interprets both the media and the world in which they live. There have been many studies that have shown that watching too much TV or spending too much time on the computer can get in the way of a child’s emotional, physical, and social growth. Furthermore, many have questioned the role that violent media (music videos, video games, the internet, and TV) plays in contributing to aggressive behaviour and creation of stereotypes. Studies have shown that, yes, TV can most defiantly have a negative impact on some people in this respect. Regardless, it has varying effects on different people and it is indeed only one of many potential causes of aggression.
On the other hand, however, it is important to note that the media also has the potential to increase one’s range of interest as it can expose him/her to a variety of activities and topics that he/she might not have otherwise encountered. Media is indeed one of the most effective forms of mass media that creates awareness of a wide range of human problems. Therefore, it is very important that we are aware and cautious of what we are watching in order to benefit from it rather than be disadvantaged by it. As for children, parents have the ability to discourage their children from watching particular shows and to encourage them to watch others. At the end of the day, it is clear that the media’s influence is not going to dissipate. To be honest, it is actually only getting stronger. Thus, instead of attempting to cut it out of our lives, I believe that it would be a better idea to merely be conscious and cautious of what it is that we are watching.
Being currently on my stage I find myself in a surprisingly weird predicament. For the first time ever, I’m really starting to feel “older” more mature and on a different page than most of today’s youth. Like many teachers before me, I on occasion can feel both outraged and violated by something a given student may say or do. This in fact surprises me a great deal because I’ve always up to recently considered myself a practicing member of today’s young generation. What I’ve realized however, is that I may not be as young and hip as I’d like to consider myself. Am I one of those “thinks she’s young and cool” kind of teachers, who in fact is anything but? No not yet, but I might one day be, and that’s what scares me.
Today’s generation may seem extremely disrespectful, even offensive and more corrupt then ever before, but hasn’t that always been the recurring argument? Our culture and society is ever changing, as is one generation from the next. As such, teachers ought to be constantly reassessing their ideals according to social changes in order to have suitable expectations for today’s students.
However as young people many students often behave inappropriately. Commonly, in spite of generational gaps, social economical backgrounds and various other stereotypes, we all as young people experience necessary growing pains that teach us crucial lessons, shape and lead us into adulthood. As teacher we must take into consideration current social norms and life styles in order to avoid the disconnection between present and past generations i.e. students and educators.
I feel that in keeping my perspective and never loosing sight of what it is to be a maturing person in our ever changing society, I can steer clear of ever becoming what I so desperately dread, one of those outdated, out of touch teachers.
Being currently on my stage I find myself in a surprisingly weird predicament. For the first time ever, I’m really starting to feel “older” more mature and on a different page than most of today’s youth. Like many teachers before me, I on occasion can feel both outraged and violated by something a given student may say or do. This in fact surprises me a great deal because I’ve always up to recently considered myself a practicing member of today’s young generation. What I’ve realized however, is that I may not be as young and hip as I’d like to consider myself. Am I one of those “thinks she’s young and cool” kind of teachers, who in fact is anything but? No not yet, but I might one day be, and that’s what scares me.
Today’s generation may seem extremely disrespectful, even offensive and more corrupt then ever before, but hasn’t that always been the recurring argument? Our culture and society is ever changing, as is one generation from the next. As such, teachers ought to be constantly reassessing their ideals according to social changes in order to have suitable expectations for today’s students.
However as young people many students often behave inappropriately. Commonly, in spite of generational gaps, social economical backgrounds and various other stereotypes, we all as young people experience necessary growing pains that teach us crucial lessons, shape and lead us into adulthood. As teacher we must take into consideration current social norms and life styles in order to avoid the disconnection between present and past generations i.e. students and educators.
I feel that in keeping my perspective and never loosing sight of what it is to be a maturing person in our ever changing society, I can steer clear of ever becoming what I so desperately dread, one of those outdated, out of touch teachers.
Oops!! Please disregard second post, it’s late and I accidentally submitted the same post twice. Sorry !!
I am disgusted with the way Fox news dealt with this story and for that matter the simple eight second apology did not cut it. If the story was simply about how this trans sexual was a contestant on the show it would not be so bad. What was disturbing was that the whole interview was an insult to the contestant and all trans sexuals for that matter. This poor girl has the mind of a woman in the body that was once male and there is not much she can do to ease her personal suffering other than what she has done. This is not a matter to make fun of.
Although it is only a marketing scheme and a very good one at that, I think that it is very nice to see this girl on America’s next top model. Yes, the producers of the show are making lots of money off of her, but they are also giving her the opportunity of a life time. The show is giving her the same chance any girl would have and this shows a great deal of acceptance by the producers. Overall, well done by America’s Next Top Model and poorly done by Fox News
It is really sad to see that people haven’t grown past those times of ignorance and judgment. I mean, why is it so hard to just keep your damn mouth shut and keep your negative thoughts to yourself. We can’t move backwards, only forwards. Which is something that scares me about Governor Pallin her religious and personal beliefs are those of my parents parents, and even their parents. And although I’ve heard be dubbed a “feminist”, what kind of women would take away the rights of her daughters. She is not feminist, she is no role model, she is no leader. Se can have the soccer moms and Joe-six packs of the south, I’m very content living my life in a nation that at least attempts to grow and move forward by including it’s people. The girl from America’s Next Top model deserves for than a lousy “sorry!” Get on board people, we must move forward, not backward.
This is a response to Chapter 40 on Homosexuality in the Media.
Today, many T.V shows have incorporated gay men and lesbian women to their shows. Having homosexual characters allow the show ratings to increase and the audience to expand.It is entertainment for the population! For example, in Will and Grace, Jack plays a gay character, but he is loved by all viewers. He is hillarious and I think that when people are watching him on the show they forget that he is playing a gay character. Guys on “American Idol” and “So you think you can dance” cannot reveal that they are gay to the public because they are supposed to be in touch with their masculine side. If you are flammingly gay and you show it, you will definetely not make it to the top in these types of shows. The message I get through this, is that it’s cool to like and laugh at a gay man, you can make fun of him and enjoy watching him on television, but it’s also alright not to take them seriously and not to think that they are able to accomplish other serious things in life. After reading a few of these examples in Chapter 40, I really seem to be asking myself the question; does media today really accept gay men and women? Yes, they are popular and funny characters in certain television shows, but are they being treated fairly or is the image of homosexuals just being used for publicity? Since some shows like “So you think you can dance?” will not allow homosexual people to reveal that they are gay, I do believe that they are being used. The media is so quick to air funny scenes starring gay people, but when push comes to shove , they really don’t care about getting a message across about homosexuality and how it should be accepted, they just want money.
I honestly thought that Homosexuality in general was getting better in today’s society, but after reading chapter 40, I’m not so sure anymore. Homosexuals are still not aloud to get married. It is against God’s will and people are doing all they can do to keep voting against this situation. People say that homosexuals have the right to do what they want in their lives and behind closed doors, but how can they do this if they are not aloud to unite as one? It is very disturbing to know that two people are in love and they are not aloud to express their love through marriage, even if they are gay. Straight men have much more power and respect than gay men, and gay men are very aware of this since they have restrictions to certain things such as marriage, whereas straight men do not. Gay men are also stereotyped beyond belief. People say that they are like females because they love shopping, it’s like talking to a girl and they give off this girlish tone. Media also states this is their own way. Usually the gay characters being used in whatever show fit this description perfectly. In reality, not all gay men act this way and I wish that the media and the rest of the society would treat them equally and with a little more respect. I agree with Chapter 40, that the media today is still not 100% accepting of homosexuality, and that Homophobia is still present.
After reading the section of the book on queer media, it is safe to say that the media is not totally accepting of homosexuality. The truth of the matter: it probably never will be. There’s alway