“Homeward Bound” Summary
In
Homeward Bound by Linda Hirshman, Professor at Brandeis University, speaks
about how “feminism has largely failed in its goals.” Hirshman states that
there are more women in universities than men, but there are not as many women
in elite jobs because private lives have barely changed. Hirhsman then goes
into the history of feminism, when it started and when it slowed down. Hirshman
says, “Women are letting their career slide to tend the home fires,” meaning
the barrier to advancement is at home. Hirshman provides a lot of data in her
article because “the plural of anecdote is data.” The three rules feminists
should follow are to “prepare yourself to qualify for good work, treat work
seriously, and don’t put yourself in a position of unequal resources when you
marry.” Hirshman then goes on to talk about economics and home economics. She
claims that it would simply be better for the mother to quit her job because
the amount she makes would be spent on getting a nanny for the child. Lastly,
Hirshman states we care because the choices women make for themselves are not
right.
Works
Cited
Linda,
Hirshman. "Homeward Bound." The American Prospect. The
American Prospect, 21
Nov. 2005. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
“YouTube
Star Swings Through Her Hometown” Summary
In
“YouTube Star Swings Through Her Hometown” Gabe Rosenberg, a journalist that
previously wrote for Pittsburgh Post – Gazette, talks about YouTube star
Justine Ezarik’s book signing in her hometown Pittsburgh. Justine Ezarik known
as “iJustine” on her YouTube channel released her first book I, Justine, which “is dedicated to “The
Internet.”” Rosenberg says Pittsburg is where Ezarik found her passion for video
making. Rosenberg states she simply made and uploaded videos out of boredom.
Rosenberg asserts that Ezarik details in I,
Justine about, “her very public persona has ended up in a lack of privacy and
security, compounded by considerable sexism in her chosen worlds of tech.” Rosenberg
writes that the hateful comments stuck more with Ezarik than the positive, and
supportive comments.
Works
Cited
Rosenberg, Gabe.
"YOUTUBE STAR SWINGS THROUGH HER
HOMETOWN." Pittsburgh Post –Gazette 05 Jun 2015. ProQuest.Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
“How Sexism Plays Out on
YouTube” Summary
In the article “How Sexism Plays Out on YouTube” Fruzsina Eördögh, a journalist
covering various Internet phenomena including YouTube, provides insight on the
hardships women YouTubers face. Eördögh says there are many nasty and
disturbing comments on many YouTube videos featuring women. Eördögh writes, “It’s not just the trolls or haters in the comments section
of videos; all YouTubers have been hating on women for gendered
reasons since the site’s inception.” Eördögh asserts many women
YouTubers haven’t had success because they focus, and stick to the beauty
section. Eördögh says the supporters of derogatory comments are those who
believe it’s the victim’s fault. Eördögh tells us that a woman wearing a tank
top in her video sends both genders into a sexist frenzy. Eördögh continues by
telling us men are allowed to be sexual and have no restriction on their videos
but if a woman shows off her bikini in her video its considered mature content.
Eördögh lastly states viewers tend to think woman who don’t make “traditional”
feminine videos plan out when to upload their videos on YouTube.
Works Cited
Eördögh, Fruzsina. "How Sexism
Plays Out on YouTube." The One and Only Fruzsina Eördögh. 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
Exercise One: Scene Me
In English class
my professor decided we should have a debate, and oh boy was it an interesting
topic. Who has it harder males or females? The class immediately split in half girls
to the right, boys to the left. Harry Styles decided to start a discussion and brought
up that he felt men had it harder. What I remember is just about every girl in
class turning to look at Harry in either laughing confusion or anger. Ashley
asked the curly haired boy, “Harry do you get your menstrual cycle every
month?” This caused the whole class to erupt in laughter. Harry replied slowly
in a deep british accent, “No, but why do men have to act tough all the time?”
Ohr simply replied, “Harry you don’t. All girls have a different meaning and
outlook of what characteristics make an ideal man. Some think the ideal man is
the American hegemonic male, like Channing Tatum, others like the handsome male
prototype, like Zayn Malik. You don’t have to act like the tortured soul
byronic hero.” Liam almost yelled, “In my hometown, Wolverhampton, it was
tough, if the money didn’t come in that meant the men failed.” Fatima matched
his tone in saying, “Women feel pressured to do everything right and be kind in
the process.” James yelled, “It’s easier to be the victim!” Rebecca yelled
back, “There wouldn’t have to be a victim if there wasn’t someone making the
victim! Oh my god! I want to slap you but that wouldn’t be very lady like of
me.” Louis who was the least masculine looking pretended to lift something
heavy and then proceeded to put his hand behind his back said, “Those who
labored with their bodies had a shorter life span than woman.” Nicole replied,
“But… it wasn’t just men and if women lived into old age that meant they
continued to live with heartbreak. Natalie said in a serious tone, “I think I
can speak for every girl in this classroom, and say we all want to be guys.”
Josh replied in his surfer dude accent, “No way! We want to be girls, but we
can’t do anything about it. So, that sucks.” Just as Josh finished the bell
rang, and everyone left class, and went on to discuss the topic during lunch.
This turned into a food fight that got everyone detention, and the English
professor thought he shouldn’t bring the topic up in any of his future classes.
The English professor changed his mind the next day.
Exercise Two
Ethnography: Have roles for women and men
changed in the last thirty years?
Thirty years ago, men were expected to
earn more than women. Do we still hold
such beliefs? For this topic I asked the
female students of California State University, Northridge to fill out a
questionnaire provided by my English Professor. I chose this method because
college students are in serious relationships and income is always an issue.
In
today’s society we still hold the belief that men are expected to earn more
than women. When asked how important is it for these women (through their own
work) to be well off financially five out of ten said it is very important, and
the other half said they would rather be rich than poor. Then when asked who
they believe should be the primary breadwinner two out of ten said women and
when asked to come up with a percentage split they said it didn’t matter. Yet,
one out of the two said yes when asked if they would perceive their boyfriend
or husband to be less masculine if they earned less than them.
Something interesting that I found out
was eight out of ten students said the primary breadwinner should be
fifty/fifty, but when asked to come up with a percentage split they all wrote
60(men)/40(women). Thirty percent said no when asked if they would perceive
their boyfriend or husband to be less masculine if they earned less than them. One
interviewee actually apologized for saying yes and for being more traditional.
Another interviewee wrote, “If I am earning $10/ hour he should be earning $11/
hour. I need a man that’s always better than me, and to challenge me so I can
be better. I don’t need a bum.” Fifty percent of CSUN students said that they
don’t consider a person’s income or earning potential because “they’re a
college student,” or because it’s their partner, and love is enough. Seventy
percent said responsibilities for the domestic sphere should be split evenly
between all tasks (cooking, bill paying, cleaning, child care, etc.). The other thirty percent said the men should
only do the bill paying and yard work and the wife should do the rest.
Overall, I believe we have people who
believe in the traditional roles, and people who don’t. People’s thoughts are
evolving, and things are changing. Just how fast you catch onto the trends is
up to you.
Sexism On YouTube
A vlog is a video blog. A person who
vlogs is a vlogger. Most vloggers post their videos on YouTube, which makes
them YouTubers. Now, if you are familiar with YouTubers and vloggers, when I
say woman YouTubers, do you automatically think of beauty vloggers like Jenna
Marbles and Zoella? YouTube, launched in 2005, providing a forum for people to
upload videos to connect, share, and inspire people, but there is still rampant
sexism on YouTube. Sexism on YouTube is an issue because it highlights and
exacerbates gender inequality. Women on YouTube get more hateful and critical comments
than men simply because they are female, they are overall less respected, and
they are subjected to double standards because they are objectified even if not
relevant to the videos they upload. Those who hide behind a computer screen,
and simply write hateful comments don’t realize there is another person on the
other side, and that their comments hurt.
Women on YouTube get more hateful
comments than men. In the essay ‘My Most Attractive Adversary’ posted on Women’s
Village, Madeline Kane states “the fact of being female is always an issue.”
The comments on videos for most women on YouTube are derogatory, and have
nothing to do with the content of their videos. In Jenna Marbles “Some Thoughts
On Avocados” video, she rants about avocados. Aaron Barnai commented, “Is
avocado slang for vag or something?” What does Marbles ranting about avocados
have to do with woman body parts? While Tyler Oakley’s “Sued Because Of My
Book???” video, in which he answers his fans questions about his book, has many
more positive comments than his fellow vlogger Jenna Marbles. While both videos
have around a millions views, the Jenna Marbles video has more dislikes than
Tyler Oakley’s. Some may argue this because Tyler Oakley is male he has more
likes and more positive comments.
In “YouTube Star Swings Through Her
Hometown” Gabe Rosenberg, a journalist that previously wrote for the Pittsburgh Post – Gazette, discusses
YouTube star Justine Ezarik’s also known as “iJustine” on her YouTube channel.
Rosenberg asserts that Ezarik details in her book I, Justine that “her very public
persona has ended up in a lack of privacy and security, compounded by
considerable sexism in her chosen worlds of tech.” Putting herself out
there for everyone to see came with negative outcomes. Rosenberg writes that
the hateful comments stuck more with Ezarik than the positive comments. Most
people who write rude comments don’t think there is another person on the other
end are actually hurt by what they wrote.
In the article “How Sexism Plays Out on YouTube” Fruzsina Eördögh, a journalist covering various Internet phenomena
including YouTube, says there are many nasty and disturbing comments on
many YouTube videos featuring women. Eördögh writes, “It’s not just the trolls
or haters in the comments section of videos; all YouTubers have
been hating on women for gendered reasons since the site’s
inception.” Some gendered reasons could be that females are perceived as annoying,
all women want to do is give guys makeovers, and guys are more chill. Eördögh
says the supporters of derogatory comments are those who believe it’s the
victim’s fault, i.e. the female vlogger. Eördögh tells us that a woman wearing
a tank top in her video sends both genders into a sexist frenzy. Based on YouTube comments, it is clear
that women are less respected overall.
VidCon, the conference where fans come together and meet
their favorite Youtubers, sexism was a topic brought up to the beauty pannel. The bulk of attendees at VidCon are young
women (Spencer). In “What it’s really like to be a women on YouTube” Rae Votta,
a writer for The Daily Dot, says at
the VidCon Beauty vloggers panel, Kalel Cullen talks to the small crowd at the
panel about girl on girl hate. We as women need to come together and stop the
derogatory comments from being said from either gender. Some suggestions of
what needs to be done are to address the issues and emphasize them (Votta).
Vidcon puts their Code of Conduct on each badge that states, “VidCon is a safe place for all attendees. VidCon
is a private event and people who mistreat or disrespect other people will be
removed and not allowed for the duration of the event” (Votta). According to
Rae Votta last year women “gathered outside the convention center for an
impromptu session. This year, their voices were spread across three different
panels of varying size, addressing longstanding issues and hot-button topics
that arose in the past year.” In addition, Vidcon banned men who abused their
power in the YouTube space and did the right thing by cutting ties “in the wake
of allegations” (Votta).
Women on YouTube are generally less
respected because women are often viewed as objects rather than as equals.
Women are objectified by references such as lovely and beautiful. Due to the
fact that women are less respected on YouTube, they often have to post on less
substantive topics, such as beauty. Akihla Hughes, an active vlogger “emphasizes
that the stigma around beauty vlogging traps women entering the space who have
been tricked by society into believing they can only do certain kinds on
content” (Votta). This trick being that the vloggers are only good at making
videos in their space and are only allowed to make video of the same content.
Women on YouTube try to avoid the sexist culture by putting themselves in the
beauty section, even though it doesn’t stop the anti-women haters from writing
rude comments (Eördögh).
They are subjected to more criticism based on their appearance.
Women on YouTube are subjected to double
standards because they are viewed for their bodies, when what they are wearing or
look like has nothing to do with the videos they upload. For example, Emily
Graslie, who runs an educational channel, The Brain Scoop, said that if she
doesn’t continuously upload educational videos and wear teacher appropriate
clothing, viewers won’t take her seriously (Votta). In addition she felt that
she had to upload videos of the same content because she felt if she talked
about anything beauty related people would no longer care about the educational
message she’s trying to promote (Votta). When YouTuber iJustine wore a tank many
critiqued her for looking “inappropriate”, and one YouTuber went on a tirade
about IJustine to thirty thousand viewers and gave her the nickname “iWhore.”
The disturbing nickname to this day haunts IJustine.
YouTube has safety mode feature, which
gives the viewer more control. Safety mode is a “setting that helps
screen out potentially objectionable content that you may prefer not to see or
don't want others in your family to stumble across while enjoying YouTube.” For
example, if women wore a bikini
and the YouTube community doesn’t like it, it is considered mature content with
an age restriction, you must be eighteen or older to view the content. Men are
allowed to be sexual, or wear no shirt, and have no age restrictions on their
videos. When a video has an age restriction women lose their ability to make
money, because YouTube doesn’t run ads on age restricted content (Eördögh). When YouTubers don’t make money, they
can’t buy products to make there next video, and so on. YouTube is making it
hard for women to be successful on YouTube, because if it is considered mature
content these women can not run ads, which makes it more difficult to find
through the search engine.
Although some may say women YouTubers
have it easy because it’s easier to get sponsored, they are at a disadvantage because
they are looked down upon for making the same videos as men.
If women vloggers don’t make traditional feminine videos, viewers tend to think
women are trying to hard to be one of the guys. There are only two female vloggers, Zoella and Daily Grace,
who are in the top ten vloggers. This is because YouTube is a male dominant
market because women can seem intimidating (Eördögh). For this
reason women still have it
hard being successful vloggers.
Women vloggers face many hardships based
on their gender in order to prevent this the vlogging community we need to be
supportive, be respectable, and come together collectively to stop hateful and
derogatory comments from being posted. Women
are helping each other, making collaborations, and noticing what helping one
another does for women. If there
was someone you cared about that wanted to become a vlogger you would want him
or her to enjoy what he or she are doing.
Works Cited
Eördögh, Fruzsina. "How Sexism
Plays Out on YouTube." The One and Only Fruzsina Eördögh. 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
Marbles, Jenna. “Some Thoughts On
Avocados.” Online video clip. YouTube. JennaMarbles. 1 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.
Oakley, Tyler. “Sued Because Of My Book??? | Tyler Oakley.” Online video clip. YouTube. Tyler Oakley. 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.
Rosenberg, Gabe.
"YouTube Star Swings Through Her Hometown." Pittsburgh Post
–Gazette 05 Jun 2015. ProQuest.Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
"Safety Mode: Giving You More
Control on YouTube." Official YouTube Blog. 10 Feb. 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
Spencer, Kate. "VidCon
Explained: 5 Reasons You Must Pay Attention To YouTubers." VH1. Viacom International Inc., 2 July 2014. Web.
17 Oct. 2015.
Votta, Rae. "What It's Really
like to Be a Woman on YouTube." The Daily Dot. The Daily Dot, 14 July 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
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