Most of the money the media makes is from advertising, so they go all out to get it done in a way appealing to the public. For the most part, women have a lot of roles to play in ads, but they do have a lot of demands and restrictions that drive them crazy if you will.

It is not far-fetched to know that their self-confidence and self-esteem are affected by the initial order to stay thin. Girls are supposed to be sweet and soft and sexy and be attractive.

To get to that point, they eat tiny portions of a meal in order not to put on weight and for those that may have put on a few pounds, employ different tactics to lose as much weight as possible including starving.

Most of the ads I decided to take a look at, show that these women go at length to look good for the cameras. They certainly do their level best to fit in clothes that make their sizes look smaller on the screens.

In some of these ads, the depiction of women was mostly sexual as it is clear that sex sells. It seems as if society is comfortable with it and is on to it in almost every aspect of life. These acts have been going on for ages.

It has become commonplace to have sex images in almost everything in our daily lives.

Things have changed a little bit regarding the way the media represent women in the past.

In the recent advertising of women especially, homemakers were not entirely friendly, and that was not only damaging to their image, but it was also demoralizing. Perhaps the women’s movement had something to do with it.

Society’s understanding of beauty has not changed much over the years. Still today, the ads are full of fair skinned, thin and perhaps long and curly hair women.

There is no denying the increase in some hate groups in the country became more pronounced after America elected its first black president. The behavior or manner of speech of those who hate become conspicuous enough to draw public attention. It is agreed by many that to have hate in the open makes for awareness that could lead to efforts to condemn it.

The proliferation of hate groups has the internet as a participant in a process beyond a scope never before seen. That is not to say the internet is to blame since it is there for all to use. Limitation of its purpose as a communication vehicle to only one school of thought will intensify any negative aspect of the internet.

Hate crime is illegal, but hate-speech is not unless with certain exceptions. The First Amendment carefully guards free speech and hate groups have wasted no time in utilizing it to its capacity.

Certain categories of people such as gays, Jews, and blacks have been the subjects of hate speech which in itself is bad enough. But justifying hate with faith especially Christians who use the Bible to prove it, fall short of their ethos.

Hate is not the monopoly of one religion as we know and it is not confined to just religious groups. There are supremacist groups as well that raise eyebrows. “The most extreme manifestation of hate crime but a far more widespread form of expressing bigotry is through hate speech.” Lind (2013)

Over three dozen states had legalized gay marriage, but there are still some resentments with groups that claim it is an act of decline to a low level and that it threatens families. These are merely claims.

Mike Wallace had to apologize for his controversial 1967 documentary of gays being “harmful to society than adultery, abortion or prostitution.”

 

 

 

This winter, my reading list has to include all three of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels. I watched her speech given on feminism more than once thinking to myself, here is someone who has positioned herself to promote the cause of women and perhaps believes all is well with us men. Looking at her pedigree, she is an elite with educated parents in a country with a large percentage of not so successful women.

When the term gender gets used, our minds run mainly to women as if we men either don’t exist or that we are without issues. “A feminist is a man or woman who says there is a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it,” She said.http://www.tedxeuston.com.

My understanding is that she is referring mainly to women.It is true that men are still in most positions of power, but there are too many of us that are powerless and susceptible to being hurt in various ways.

We are prone to engage in behaviors that make us open to many of the ills of society as are women.

Our health is failing faster than women; more men commit suicide than women. “Males take their lives at nearly four times the rate of females and comprise approximately 80 percent of all suicide.”  Callanan, J., & Davis, M.(2012) To compound the problem, some of us do not even know which gender we belong to until after we are well advanced in years, giving credence to the notion that indeed, we are problematic.

And when some of us discover our sexuality and make a choice that does not meet the approval of others, we are looked upon as a “threat to human existence” since we do not bear children. “Women can have babies; men can’t ”  said Adichie.

When we go by the dictates of culture, the choices are no longer ours. They are laid down for us, and we just follow what has been prescribed by past generations. Adichie disagrees saying, “culture is constantly changing, and culture does not make people, people make them.”

Men I am made to believe should not cry in order not to appear weak as it is the female gender that carries the emblem of weakness. But crying has been scientifically proven to do with testosterone suggesting why women cry more.So it is ok for us to cry.

The world is changing fast, and Miss Adichie’s efforts are a catalyst ensuring that we take notice of such changes as they relate to the female gender whom she portrayed as victims in society.

“It is a man’s world, but it is nothing without a woman’s touch,” a famous singer once sang. That was James Brown who himself is known to have had some problems with the ladies.

The world has changed since Brown acknowledged the significant role women play in our lives. There is no doubt that he knew that in as much as women cook well, to say that they belong in the kitchen like Adichie’s president in Nigeria claims is nothing more than a myopic view of the gender that gives birth to us.

Musician Fela Kuti had a song “Lady,” in which he depicts African women as not submissive to men. He claims African women prefer to be referred to as a lady and not a woman.If his lyrics were right, how come he was able to marry 27 of them? To have shared a man with 26 other women is never lady-like. And they were not coerced by Kuti.

Adichie talks about our masculinity and her along with the rest look to us to use it for protection should they need one. They expect us to open the door for them, pull the chair for them to sit, and make certain they serve themselves first at the dinner table. All, just common courtesy.

“A Century of Excellence: The Pulitzer Prizes and Journalism’s Impact at UNT,” screams the front page of The Campus Chat, the student newspaper of the University of North Texas that has morphed into the North Texas Daily.

The Mayborn Graduate Institute of UNT, observed a proud moment September 29,2016, when five Pulitzer Prize Finalists and five Pulitzer Prize Winners, all former UNT students took the stage at the UNT Student Union Lyceum to display their tradition of respect that span 100 years, for the much-maligned profession that is journalism.

Telling how they have earned this distinction among all journalists, each panel member showed how writing and photography, when done well, right wrongs in society.

Leona Allen who graduated in 1986, worked for the Dallas Times Herald before joining the Akron Beacon Journal where she rose to the position of editor. She is currently the deputy managing editor at the Dallas Morning News. Her work on public housing and the discrimination against minorities in the housing market earned her this much-coveted prize for examining race relations and hidden biases.

“Writing about race relations create risks and challenges. People do not want to talk about it. What it takes to get people to open up, show that you care,” she said. She talked about how she paired with a white reporter to get into certain neighborhoods. The housing laws have since changed for the better.

Dan Malone over a period of two years, investigating what he titled “Abuses of Authority” documented in the Dallas Morning News, how Texas law enforcement officials habitually infringed upon the rights of citizens. “Texas has more cops investigated than any other in the country,” he told the audience. He twitched expressing a beating of a kid in a holding cell for something in his words, “not-so-glorious.”

David Klement’s Pulitzer is for his team-work at the Detroit Free Press where they told the story of the Detroit riots that unfolds even today due to lack of housing and jobs. He graduated from UNT in 1962 and had written about 11,000 editorials.

UNT Adjunct Professor Gayle Reaves’ 14-part series – “Violence against women: A question of Human Rights,” deservingly got her the gold, the Pulitzer. She worked at the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Weekly.

Senior Director of Media Content, UNT Health Science Center Kerry Gunnels collaborated with Gayle Reeves at the Dallas Morning News and shared the Pulitzer for violence against women in 1992.

Melissa Boughton, Eric Gay, Kalani Gordon, Ray Mosely and Kenneth “Chip” Somodevilla have all been finalists.Ray Mosely is a 1952 graduate at a time when UNT was Texas State College. For 59 years, he covered events around the world as an international journalist from Africa to South Asia and beyond.  A Pulitzer for the report on the Little Rock school integration crisis in 1957, at the Arkansas Gazette, was won. He contributed to the coverage.

These writers and photographers made the argument that people the world over, just desire to be free and equal under the law. “Regardless of how massive the story may be, the human element is what reaches out and touches people,” one said.