Aug
26
The Language of Human Trafficking
Tags: human trafficking
Filed Under Uncategorized | By Melissa Heald | Leave a Comment
Robin Sax over at the Huffington Post blogged about the problem of language when it comes to human trafficking. She argues that the term “human trafficking” makes people think only of overseas trafficking, whereas “child prostitution” suggests victims’ complicity. For child victims at least, Sax advocates for the use of domestic minor sex trafficking, or DMST, coined by Shared Hope International, because she believes it addresses some of the problems with the other terms.
Personally, I also take issue with some of the terminology around human trafficking, particularly its label as “modern-day slavery.” It seems to me that the “modern-day” part is unnecessary and reinforces the idea that “slavery” is (mostly) a problem of the past. But that’s just my two cents.
Aug
19
Brigitte Berman: Powerful Woman
Tags: activism, bullying, LGBTQ, youth
Filed Under Powerful Women | By Melissa Heald | Leave a Comment
Brigitte Berman is only 15, but she’s already a published author and accomplished anti-bullying activist. She takes a particular interest in the bullying of LGBT youth.
Brigitte is a prime example of how youth can and are agents of change! Who better to talk about bullying than someone currently making their way through high school??
I heard about Brigitte on Twitter via @ShelbyKnox (who herself began her activist journey as a teen).
Aug
18
Silly Girl, Muscles are for Boys
Tags: gender, media
Filed Under Uncategorized | By Tim Love | Leave a Comment
Okay, so maybe this is old news to some, but I just saw a commercial for a One A Day vitamin that made me jump off my couch and do that funny yelling at the TV thing as if anyone on it could hear me! The commercial markets two separate vitamins to young men and young women. The formula for young men helps grow strong muscles and the formula for women helps keep skin healthy.
I mean, what marketing genius. I’m so glad that finally someone figured out a way to simplify things and then sell us what we all really need – a product for the essence of who we are as men and women. They had the courage to market a product for young women’s appearance and young men’s physical strength. It just makes sense on so many levels: a)why encourage strong muscles in women when they don’t need strong muscles, they just need a man with strong muscles; b) why promote overall health when outward appearance is paramount for women; and c) why fill a young woman’s head with ideas that she would need to be strong or smart, or anything other than attractive. And as for you men, we all know that “real” men are strong and… and… well, that’s pretty much the entire definition of masculinity. Why worry about anything else, anything at all?
I recognize that this is just another in a long line of troubling over-generalizations and stereotypes based on gender that we see portrayed in the media, but this one floored me and broke my heart. Just hours before watching this commercial, my four-year-old daughter struck the most amazing pose to show off her muscles to me. Am I supposed to go tell her that she’s got it all wrong, that she should just strive to look good and that strength is for boys?
Aug
17
Sexualized Images of Girls in Video Games
Tags: feminism, media, pop culture
Filed Under Uncategorized | By Melissa Heald | Leave a Comment
The Path is a short horror video game developed by Tale of Tales. I first heard about The Path via an article on NPR. The article’s description raised some concerns for me due to what sounded like some pretty sexually violent imagery. Not too surprising or novel for a typical video game, but considering that the six characters the player can choose from are all girls age 19 and under, I decided to investigate for myself.
The purpose of this Little Red Riding Hood-esque game is supposedly to journey to Grandma’s house, but the real purpose is to meet the Big Bad Wolf…
I wandered around the forest for quite awhile as 11-year-old Rose with nothing much happening, until I stumbled across a lake with an abandoned canoe. I entered the canoe and paddled around for a moment when the wolf appeared… only he looked much more like a naked man than a wolf. The video quality isn’t great, but take a look at the video I made as I played:
As NPR describes, “he’s [the Big Bad Wolf] a white light that sweeps you into the sky. It feels ecstatic and horrifying at the same time. When it’s over, you’re left lying in a heap.”
Hmm… naked man pulls pre-teen girl into the sky, screen blacks out and she’s left lying on the ground in the fetal position. When she gets up and resumes walking, her gait is noticeably slower – sad and dejected looking. She even appears to be in some pain.
Am I reading too much into this? Do I just spend so much time thinking about these issues that I see sexualized violence when there is none? As I continued playing and learning about the game, I started to see other red flags. For example, 17-year-old Carmen’s character description claims, “But inside she knows that all she wants is a little bit of attention. From a strong and handsome man, perhaps. Who can keep her safe. Hold her tight. With a strength that approaches violence.”
Whoa! Ok, alarms blazing now. When I play as Carmen, at one point she muses while standing next to a pool of water, “I wish it were warmer, then I could go for a swim. And perhaps with any luck, be watched by a handsome forester.” Carmen is “legal,” but barely (17 is the age of consent in Texas).
It saddens me to see that a video game with all female-characters (pretty rare from my understanding) approaches the subject manner in this way. It could have been a wonderful opportunity to showcase positive images of girls in video games. Oh well, maybe next time, right?
Aug
13
Violence Against the Homeless
Tags: crime, social justice
Filed Under Uncategorized | By Melissa Heald | Leave a Comment
The particularly high rates of sexual assault faced by homeless people provide just one concrete example of why anti-oppression work is absolutely necessary if we hope to end sexual violence.
The New York Times ran a somewhat lengthy piece discussing the extraordinarily high levels of violence homeless people face. They also report that Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) introduced a bill in the House last week that would make attacks on the homeless a federal hate crime and require the FBI to collect data on it. So far the bill has not received support from any major civil rights groups. Opponents to the bill fear that the hate crime law would be weakened by including a factor like homelessness (since it is not necessarily a permanent state).
I certainly don’t know enough about federal hate crime law to know whether including homeless people would weaken it or not, but I do believe that homeless people qualify as an oppressed group, so to me it seems to make sense. I don’t necessarily believe, though, that policy change is the best way to approach the problem. Important, yes – but a true catalyst for change? I don’t think so.
People already know that it’s illegal to beat someone, rape them or light them on fire (yes, that’s an actual example mentioned in the article), but they do it anyway. Partly because homeless people are largely ignored in our country, so they feel empowered to get away with it. Harsher punishments aren’t going to change that. (It seems even more fruitless to address this problem from a policy standpoint when one considers the plethora of laws on the books that criminalize homeless people for engaging in the behaviors they must do to survive – e.g., loitering, sleeping in public places and panhandling.)
So what is the best approach to confronting the sexual assault of homeless people? Anyone out there working on a project specifically targeting the homeless population on your community?
Aug
12
Unsurprising News of the Day: Media Still Calling Rape “Sex”
Tags: crime, media commentary
Filed Under Uncategorized | By Melissa Heald | 2 Comments
Jezebel points out that Fox News wrote an article about a man charged with sexual battery and repeatedly referred to the sexual assaults as “sex.”
A 20-year-old Florida man was arrested for allegedly forcing women he met on MySpace to have sex with him.
Travis Lane Bragg of Winter Haven was charged with two counts of sexual battery over the weekend, according to MyFOXTampaBay.com.
One of his alleged victims, a 19-year-old woman, told Polk County detectives she had befriended Bragg on MySpace.
She said he forced her to have sex against her will when he came over to her house last Friday.
Deputies said a similar incident happened in May of 2008 with a different victim Bragg met on the social networking site.
Police say he lured that woman, also 19, to an isolated area and has [sic] sex with her despite her pleas for him to stop, according to MyFOXTampaBay.com. [Emphasis mine.]
They sure did use a lot of text in place of the one accurate word: “rape.”
Aug
10
Paranoid or Dead: The Modern Woman’s Dilemma
Tags: pop culture
Filed Under Humorless Feminist | By Melissa Heald | Leave a Comment
A few months ago, Wende blogged about an “anti-rape” email that’s actually full of some pretty victim-blaming stuff. Well, I just came across a blog post at The Sexist that tackles the same email and it was just too hilariously on-point not to share.
Just a taste:
These rape prevention tips, like all trustworthy advice, came to me courtesy of a friend’s ex-roommate’s mom’s yoga instructor. Some of the ideas here, culled from interviews with imprisoned rapists, are helpful enough—”be aware of your surroundings”; “go for the groin”; “if you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy.” Others—don’t wear clothes you can remove, stop helping babies, never ever drive anywhere—are more likely to keep women dependent than protected.
Make sure to read the whole thing!