Day 2 of the National NOW Conference really wore me out, so I am just getting around to writing about it. While I left the first day feeling invigorated and psyched about being with the feminists, I left yesterday feeling tired and yet again frustrated by the generational divide in the movement. More on that later. For now, I’ll do a quick run down of the highlights of the day.
Media Sessions
In typical me form, I went to 2 sessions on women in the media. The first was largely about the election coverage and the second was about how to interact with the media. Here’s what I learned.
- First, I recommend checking out the video below on sexism in the media. This was the first thing they showed in my first media session, and I think it does an excellent job of saying everything there is to say about women in the media.
- Second, one of the major points was the way that media bias is dominated by men (and I’d add white men). Women own just 6 percent of radio stations and 5 percent of TV stations. Minorities own just 7.7 percent of radio stations and 3.3 percent of TV stations. It’s no wonder “alternative” opinions and voices, such as those of women and people of color are not heard. It is clear that media ownership is one of the most pressing issues facing women today!
- Third, people briefly touched on gender stereotypes and oversexualization in ads targeting young girls. For more information, check out this report from the American Psychological Association. Also, if you want to be outraged, check out this commercial for Hasbro’s Cottage designed for girls that teaches them out to be a good housewife. You can’t even believe it is from 2007/2008.
- What can you do? Apparently, if you write a letter to a media outlet expressing your dissatisfaction with their programming or news coverage, your one letter will count as the opinion of 1,000 people! I’ve written to MSNBC plenty of times and I would encourage other people to do the same!
Lilly Ledbetter
Now gave Lilly Ledbetter a Woman of Courage Award and then she delivered a pretty excellent speech. For those you who aren’t familiar with Lilly Ledbetter, she sued Goodyear for pay discrimination, but the Supreme Court decided against her a 5-4 decision despite the fact she had a nearly perfect case against them. The Court, led by Roberts and Alito, determined that she could not sue for the discrimination she faced over the course of her entire career because she did not report the discrimination within the first 180 days of its occurence (meaning she would have had to report it within a 180 days of her FIRST paycheck, no matter how unrealistic that is). Ms. Ledbetter told her story, which was quite interesting to hear first hand, but it is really one ancedote that she shared at the end that I want to mention. On the day the Supreme Court ruled against Ms. Ledbetter (after a 10 year struggle), NBC came to her house and interviewed her. Following the interview, they asked her to go into the kitchen and bake a cake, so that they could show that footage during her report. Ms. Ledbetter refused and made coffee instead. The next day, CNN made the same request, against she refused. It blew my mind that such major news outlets seemed so wildly concerned with showing a woman back in the kitchen after making such a stink, the message of course being, things would have been better for everyone if she stayed there in the first place. Further proof for why we need to do a better job teaching people about media literacy.
The Elections Session
The elections session was what really did me in yesterday. It was the last session of the day and it definitely got pretty heated, only ending when the NOW officers basically forced everyone out of the room. I’m pretty sure if the session had gone another 10 minutes everyone would have been screaming at everyone. So, I was obviously disappointed in the session. I was hoping to go and hear more about what women have to look forward to in the next election, but instead, the session largely felt like a room full of mostly older feminists who were still quite bitter about Hillary Clinton’s loss. This was a problem all weekend, but I think this session revealed just how much work the movement has to do.
The session started off fairly normally, focusing on issues that would be important for women in this election and why it would be important to work to defeat John McCain. Some of the issues discussed included:
- Infrastructure Improvements
- Supreme Court appointments since 3 seats will likely open next term
- Making sure that feminist voices are heard
- Subprime mortages, which disproportionately target women
- Including the Equal Rights Amendment, now called the Women’s Equality Amendment in the Democratic platform
- Ratifying CEDAW
McCain’s Record was also discussed. Here are those low-lights.
- Against the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which restored Title IX and many other statues
- Against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would correct the Supreme Court’s decision
- Against universal health care
- Against sCHIP expansion because it would cover too many children
- Against the Civil Rights Act of 1990
- Against gay marriage, gay adoption
- For bombing Iran, more military
- Poor family values. He left his first wife when he returned from war and saw she was disfigured for a younger woman.
- Against abortion
- Against funding for teen pregancy prevention
- Against global family planning
- For abstinence-only education
- Likes to make jokes at the expense of women.
Now, at this point, you may be noticing, as I did, that no one in the session discussed anything, such as Barack Obama, that women should be for and should be excited about in the election. Everything was anti-McCain and anti-continued conservative policies. Obviously, I agree with that stance, but I was pissed about the way these issues were discussed. How is it possible that a solid hour had passed and not ONE of the panelists was able to mention one reason why feminists could be excited about Barack Obama as a candidate? I understand people are upset about Hillary’s failed run (and I am disappointed we don’t get a woman too), but I found the silence about Obama fairly offensive. It is ridiculous that no one could get excited about supporting a dynamic candidate like Obama that has won his own battles against discrimination and that no one could discuss some of his policy positions that would benefit women (and that definitely exist). Moreover, haven’t people learned from the last election hat it is not enough to just be against a candidate, you have to be for something yourself?
Just as I was getting pretty worked up about this, the question and answer session began and many women began to express their feelings that they would not support Obama because the race was stolen from Hillary. I have obviously heard that in the news, but I really didn’t think people were serious about it, that it was a media scheme to make an issue where one did not exist. As it turns out, there is a definite contingent of older feminists who, in my opinion are acting like spoiled children because they did not get their way. Throughout the weekend, I kept hearing some of these older women (let me be clear, I do not believe that all older women feel this way or that only older women feel this way, and I definitely think this group is small minority) blame everyone but Hillary for the loss. For them, it was the media’s fault, it was the DNC’s fault, etc. Granted, I agree that the media was a disaster, but it was also clear Hillary made many mistakes, most notably in my mind, allowing the race-baiting that occurred during the primary season. It seemed for many of the people in this minority, that Obama did not deserve to win because he was complicit in the plan to steal away the nomination that was rightfully Hillary’s. That attitude of entitlement just drives me crazy and I have to say, I walked away deeply upset that even a small minority of people that are part of the same movement as I am could take such a view and actually vote for someone who is wildly against women’s issues just to avoid voting for Obama. I also have to admit, I was disappointed that the panelists themselves did not discuss what Obama has to offer. I know it was a tough loss for them and I understand the disappointment of having to wait even longer for a woman president, but at some point, isn’t it time to move on and fight the next fight? Especially when the next fight means that feminists will be able to support another historic candidate who genuinely excites many Americans? It is just upsetting to me that such a vocal minority could set back progress for women and could give the impression that feminists are bitter, angry women who get pissed off and throw a fit when things do not go their way. It was also troubling to me that when one young woman got up and tried present an opinion about unity and disappointment in those who just wanted to be bitter, a screaming match ensued that quickly resulted in the session being shut down. That kind of disunity, disrespect, and bitterness is just not what we need right now. I feel bad about complaining about other feminists, but I just feel like it is important to honestly discuss and confront these issues, especially because allowing this attitude to persist, in my opinion, is unacceptable.
1 Comment
July 22, 2008 at 1:12 am
Guess I will be adding Goodyear to my list of companies to boycott.