Schitt’s Creek is a heartwarming comedy that follows a quirky family and their life. After having all their money taken from them, the Rose family had to move to a small town and quickly change their lavish way of living. It is difficult for the Rose family to adapt at first. They clearly had different lifestyles than the rest of the town because of their previous socioeconomic status. However, the rest of the town begins to warm up to the Rose family and vice versa. The audience is submerged into the life of the son, David Rose, and his sexuality. From the beginning of the series, David makes it clear that he identifies as pansexual. David explains that he is attracted to a person regardless of their gender identity. David shares funny stories and memories of his past relationships throughout the show, until he meets his future husband, Patrick. David and Patrick’s relationship is followed closely throughout the series. One important thing to note is the fact that David’s sexuality was accepted by everyone in the town. It was not even brought up by anyone; it was just a known fact. This is very different from other TV series or movies, which almost always have one character who is not comfortable with homosexuality. Schitt’s Creek shows a community in which it is normalized; everyone is okay with David and never questions him. This can show the audience a different perspective into how our world could look like it if it was not so divided by hate. I think the creators of Schitt’s Creek wanted to provide people with a TV show that accepts everyone. It brings up the question of how/why identity, specifically sexual, can influence people to act differently towards someone of a different sexuality.
Reilly Young: Okay, so I’m Riley and today we are discussing the injustices says that women face in the world today and also I have
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Reilly Young: Lexi and Nicky here with me.
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Lexi Edwards: Hi I am Lexi
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I’m Nicky.
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ndattilo: Today we’re going to start off with a story from something that I experienced probably a couple weeks here on campus, um,
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ndattilo: I was leaving the North Rec gym and it was in the morning and this man was walking in front of me and then he turned around, looked down saw I was wearing tight leggings and like kind of a just a gym shirt. He pulled to the side.
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ndattilo: And then directly followed me as I passed him and he followed me down the street where I live and
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ndattilo: Basically just a feeling of discomfort. I had to call my roommate. And then I realized that this is not the first time it’s happened, especially
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ndattilo: On a campus this big. It happens to so many women in it. It’s very scary, we always have to be hyper aware of our surroundings and we can never walk alone. I’m sure you guys have experienced something like this, right, or at least a lot of your friends.
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Lexi Edwards: Yeah, for sure. Like, I got to college and I was 17
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Lexi Edwards: And you know even going out with two other of your girlfriends, like you’re still scared and you still as like a target and guys are going to cat call you. Regardless, you know, of honestly what you’re wearing it seems like, especially on a college
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Lexi Edwards: Campus. So it’s definitely like nerve racking and I totally understand you.
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Lexi Edwards: And it’s just kind of just being in college and just being a young woman kind of already like insecure kind of about your body, you just have to watch your surroundings, all the time too. So I understand you.
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Reilly Young: Yeah, I totally agree with you both, I think I never really experienced things like that background where I’m from.
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Reilly Young: And just because I was younger, I wasn’t like as much as the target but definitely coming to college and being in Columbus, since it is like a bigger city.
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Reilly Young: I’ve definitely experienced things like that. And also, like, I really stress like definitely like always walking with people, even though I know it’s sometimes hard to always have a buddy to walk with but
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Reilly Young: I think we should just educate men more on the fact that, like, it’s not
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Reilly Young: Our job to like dress a certain way so that we don’t get targeted, but it’s
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Reilly Young: The guys that should be educated on this issue. What do you all think?
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ndattilo: Yeah, definitely
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ndattilo: Definitely, it shouldn’t be the term, the phrase boys will be boys, you know it’s it’s kind of along those lines that that’s not something that should be said
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ndattilo: It’s not our responsibility to not be harassed, it’s their responsibility to not do the harassing you know what I mean, stuff like that.
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Lexi Edwards: Yeah, I definitely agree. And so an experience that I’ve had.
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Lexi Edwards: Is that I’m on the women’s gymnastics team. And you know what we wear already for competitions and stuff, it’s you know, it’s kind of, it’s not like your average, you know, shorts and, you know,
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Lexi Edwards: Jersey of what like basketball players would wear. So in the weight room. We were just coming straight from practice and I would just have or we would just wear our lift shirt and then keep our spandex on from practice.
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Lexi Edwards: And we did that all last summer and all fall semester and until the spring semester.
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Lexi Edwards: Our lift coach notified our head coach and said that that was not okay anymore, and that our attire was inappropriate.
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Lexi Edwards: And there was no discussion. No if, ands, or buts, we didn’t get to say a word about it.
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Lexi Edwards: So we kind of felt, you know, a little annoyed and kind of felt like a target because we were just like we’ve been wearing this, you know, for very
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Lexi Edwards: Very long time for two semesters and now it’s all of a sudden a problem because now we’re distracting. But how, how is that our fault. It just felt like it was our fault and that we couldn’t even control it. So,
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Lexi Edwards: Along with the boys will be boys. I feel like that phrase can only go on but for so long and
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Lexi Edwards: I know us women like our anatomy is different. But why do we have to change for them. And why are we always being told what to do, what to wear or how to Act by them.
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Lexi Edwards: This phrase just it just seems to be an excuse for boys to act or behave in whatever manner that they desire, honestly.
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Lexi Edwards: So some ways that I feel like we can maybe fix this is possibly from the start. I feel like they could have made the rules so that male and
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Lexi Edwards: female athletes could wear the exact same thing. We both could grow running shorts and a t-shirt or I also feel like the situation could have been just communicated differently or communicated better because at the end. At the end of the day. We’re all adults. We’re all adults here and
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Lexi Edwards: I definitely feel like the communication could have been better. What do you guys think any thoughts on that situation?
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ndattilo: For sure. I have a question. Did your head coach ever say anything to the lift coach, like, What do you mean, why can’t they wear that or did you just not wear it anymore.
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Lexi Edwards: She might have said that. But that was not communicated with us. She gave a very brief answer probably we as a head coach, she just kind of wanted to, you know, follow the rules or whatnot. Yeah.
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Lexi Edwards: Yeah, there was just no communication and it was just that was the rule. And that’s what we’re sticking to so don’t ask.
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Yeah.
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Reilly Young: So yeah, I also kind of have a similar story to Lexi, but it doesn’t have to do with
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Reilly Young: injustices of men versus women it’s more
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Reilly Young: Of a racial issue, but I’m in the dance program here at Ohio State. And we have required attire as well.
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Reilly Young: In our ballet classes we’re required to wear a leotard, pink tights, and our hair in a bun and this has been the entire since like ballet was created like hundreds of years ago and ballet is definitely like the stereotypical like
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Reilly Young: Form of dance. It’s like the standard and everything.
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Reilly Young: But this year it was brought to my attention and the attention of like the department that many of
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Reilly Young: The non white dancers in the department have come forward about the fact that ballet is a western art form and it’s not necessarily like the foundation of dance.
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Reilly Young: And the hair and the attire requirements are actually kind of discriminatory so
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Reilly Young: Specifically, some of the black students here stated that their hair doesn’t necessarily like it cannot go into a ballet bun that is commonly like required
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Reilly Young: And I never even like thought about that before that they that caused them like stress that maybe like they wouldn’t get a good grade because a lot of our grade is based on like attire and participation, because it is a dance class and
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Reilly Young: I’ve danced for almost 15 years now, honestly never once thought about the fact that, like having your hair being a requirement is like a form of systematic racism until
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Reilly Young: It was brought to my attention by some of my like fellow dancers, so
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Reilly Young: I just was wondering like, what would you all have done if something like this. What happened in one of your classes like would you have spoken up like and told the teachers about like your issue or would you like spoken to a friend like what would you all have done.
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Lexi Edwards: Well me speaking from being an African American woman. I definitely can relate to that.
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Lexi Edwards: I’ve always loved my hair and everything, but it can be challenging to always follow you know I mean there’s such even like you said in ballet. It’s such strict dress code and guidelines that you have to follow to and like my hair is not always easy to manage
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Lexi Edwards: You know, it’s not always easy to put up into a bun. It definitely takes some effort and not all black females are educated on their hair because just recently I feel like a lot of natural hair products have come out.
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Lexi Edwards: And that we’ve been able to use so that’s that’s been nice but it hasn’t been it hasn’t been like that forever. So I definitely think that I would have came to
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Lexi Edwards: You know, to the director, the teacher or talk to my friends about it because there’s nothing like being singled out. It’s like when you already stand out.
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Lexi Edwards: In a crowd. You know, it’s like you always want to look your best feel your best and you know when you stand out and you don’t feel your best or you just are uncomfortable. And I feel like it is appropriate to speak up. What do you guys think?
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ndattilo: Yeah, I think I agree with that, especially Riley, as you were saying that you weren’t aware of that. Because obviously you didn’t have to worry about that.
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ndattilo: So I think just going up to someone who could have had that issue, making sure they were okay and you know just talking to them about it. Um, I think that’s hopefully I would like to think that I would do that in that situation.
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Reilly Young: At the bare minimum. Yeah, I totally agree. Definitely like after instance like it definitely just made me think about others, a lot like not that I don’t think of others first, but just think of what would I do like in other people’s shoes or what more can I do to like support
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Reilly Young: The other women around me and stuff like that. So, um,
Reilly Young: Okay, so the next topic. I think we could discuss would be
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Reilly Young: The wage gap between men and women, men and women, in most cases, like in the United States don’t receive the same salary even if they do the same job and
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Reilly Young: They could have the same exact degree in college background still not be paid the same like and this has been happening for years and years.
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Reilly Young: I personally think that gender shouldn’t affect a paycheck whatsoever, like there should be no difference in earnings and I feel like we need to start taking action.
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Reilly Young: Whether it’s women and men speaking up about this of any age or any level social class like I think everyone needs to get on board with this.
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Reilly Young: What action do you all think that we should take to fix this?
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ndattilo: I think that it has to start with legal action, you know, starting from the government or something like that, and even realizing that wage gap is one in justice that is brought up a lot. But there’s also other injustices, especially in the workplace that women face.
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ndattilo: For example, like pregnant women. They are discriminated against, not given the same opportunities or forced to go on leave, and stuff like that, I think, um,
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ndattilo: If we like bring more attention to it. Um, I think that, that could be something that could possibly work to fix those injustices.
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Lexi Edwards: No, Yeah, definitely. And like women are no longer like strictly domestic workers there are women that are doctors, lawyers, astronauts, you name it, and for the same job that they’re still getting paid less
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Lexi Edwards: Just because of the dominance and hierarchy that men have over women so I definitely agree with you, Nicky, and Riley, that it does start with like awareness and
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Lexi Edwards: I think that there still is room for change. For sure.
I recently received an email from the Undergraduate Women in Business club here at OSU that brought up the fact of inequality between genders in the workplace. I have always learned about things such as the gender wage gap and discrimination towards women at work, but it is becoming more of a reality for me as I am getting jobs and deciding what I want to do in the future. Some examples of the mistreatment that women receive in their workplace are being held to different standards than men, not being given a promotion or new opportunity, being talked down upon, and even being rejected because of a pregnancy. This is all completely unfair and unwarranted. Women are just as eligible as men are at completing the same task. These unfair treatments can be frustrating and make women feel helpless. Discrimination against women in the workplace is a systemic injustice because it has been happening since women began to work. Women are always being looked down upon and are seen as “not as qualified” or “incapable” compared to men. The fact that women are not hired, forced to go on leave, or purposefully given less tasks to do while they are pregnant is bizarre. Just because the woman’s body is capable of carrying a fetus for nine months, does not make her any less able to work. One thing that can be done to help change these occurrences is to have stricter laws regulating all the worker’s salaries at a business to make sure there are no wages discriminating against any gender or person of color. Another thing that can happen in a workplace are meetings that teach employees about the biases, conscious or unconscious, that a person can have against someone who is unlike them.
The unfair treatment of women in the workplace relates to the idea of Othering that we have been talking about in this class. Men are seen as the One group. They hold a lot of the power and this leads to women not being able to have the same advantages from the beginning.
For this week’s reading, we will be focusing on the book Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe. The book illustrates how life in Nigeria was pre-colonialism. The book mainly focuses on one of many diverse cultures of Africa, the Igbo people. The Igbo people lived in an advanced society with a complex language, belief system, and political system. One of the main points that Achebe shows throughout the book is how the community was harmonious and conflict was attempted to be settled peacefully before turning to war or violence.
About halfway through the book, white colonists begin to arrive and settle near the villages. Shortly after, a group of white men destroyed and killed an entire village. The British colonists continue to infiltrate the villages by building churches and schools. Missionaries begin to have success with converting the indigenous people to Christianity. This angers Okonkwo and other leaders of the Igbo people because it threatens their power and control of the village. So, the British incarcerate the leaders for not cooperating.
This story is not far from what actually happened during the colonization of Africa. Schools were built during colonialism that only taught Western education, such as the English language and Christianity. The colonists believed it was their duty to “help” the “culturally inferior” indigneous people, which is also known as the White Man’s Burden. The colonists forced their way of life onto the indigenous people and disregarded the traditional way of life by rejecting all old beliefs. Not only was the indigenous people’s beliefs and language taken away from them, but the colonists also exploited their land and resources; this was done very violently by killing many, many people. The colonists justified it by claiming it was their obligation.
