Author: gillespie.355

The Fosters Text Review

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“It’s not where you come from. It’s where you belong. Nothin’ I would trade. I wouldn’t have it any other way. You’re surrounded by love and you’re wanted. So never feel alone. You are home with me right where you belong” (The Fosters Theme Song). The Fosters was a television show in the 2010s that centered around a lesbian couple, of White and biracial skin tones, that worked in the police force and school system, which led to their desire to bring in foster children. At the beginning of the show, they explain their adoption of Latino twins at a young age and the relationship where one mother has her own White birth son, but now they begin to foster a teenage girl and her younger brother, both White. Throughout the series, these mothers work to defend their children, all of them, as the claim there is no difference between adopted and birth children. However, this family is faced with adversity in many aspects.

As we saw in The Leavers, foster children often face an identity crisis of not understanding who they are. Because the fostered children in this show can never feel safe, like if they make one wrong move, they will be kicked out, they struggle to express who they truly are. Callie and Jude, the fostered children, struggle to voice their opinions and come out as gay because they fear the consequences they have faced in other families before. As discussed in class, this is not uncommon amongst foster children. Furthermore, Brandon is the only biological child of Steph, and the adopted or fostered kids have moments where they feel that he is treated differently than them. In this scenario, a One and Other relationship forms similar to what de Beauvoir described because the other children understand their situation based on his situation and this leads to that crisis identity of understanding themselves. The One and Other relationship can also be seen in regard to a stepparent versus birth parent. As both parents are in Brandon’s life, Lena often feels left out of conversations even though she is the one helping to raise Brandon. She takes the role of Other because Brandon’s birth parents have displayed themselves as the One. Despite her efforts in raising him, her opinions are frowned upon because of her status, making her feel as though she is not really a part of his entire life.

The Fosters is a clear example of the struggle adopted and fostered kids face in understanding or finding their identity and the One and Other relationship discussed by de Beauvoir. Through this show, we can look at a multitude of aspects in our own lives to compare how we treat others and how this makes us feel. I personally learned a lot watching The Fosters and I know that other students would as well. As stated in the theme song, “it’s not where you come from. It’s where you belong” (The Fosters Theme Song). This is the motto of the family and a beautiful example of what our world needs.

 

Works Cited

“The Fosters Theme Song Lyrics.” Lyrics On Demand, www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/thefosterslyrics.html.

Gelman, Vlada. “Fosters EP on ‘Emotional’ Series Finale, Resolving ‘Brallie’ and Spinoff Plans.” TVLine, TVLine, 3 July 2018, tvline.com/2018/06/06/the-fosters-recap-series-finale-callie-mariana-spinoff-spoilers/.

“Yo, is this sexist?” featuring Skye Vaske, Rachel Martin, and Abriella Gillespie

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https://osu.zoom.us/rec/share/GlkJZbAvOGxTkkqVYgKz_dhZGzZUbLxOmgGOgqMUDcwbnMnRX9L-yiThsGQTT3gH.aTZKFa0CDvKzsEaD?startTime=1617459502000

Okay hi everybody, welcome to our podcast. This is going to be our little episode called “Yo, is this sexist?” My name is Skye Vaske and I’m a fourth year neuroscience major at The Ohio State University.
Hi I’m Bri and I’m a first year accounting major at The Ohio State University.
Hi I’m Rachel Martin and I’m a second year studying ultrasound technology at The Ohio State University.
So today we’re gonna be talking a little bit about sexism, and just in general, gender discrimination, whether or not it’s systemic, how we look at it in our daily lives. We’re going to have a few examples that we’re going to talk about today, so I will just go ahead and jump into our first one here, which is something that we’re all probably familiar with to a degree. But it is with the US women’s national soccer team and the fact that they filed a lawsuit against the US Soccer Foundation in 2019. I’ll give a little bit of background about that, if you are unfamiliar. So in 2019 the US women’s national team filed a class action lawsuit against the US Soccer Foundation, which is the USSF for gender discrimination. It’s important to note how well the women have done in comparison to the men’s team, so the women won the World Cup in 2019 and 2015 and twice before that in 1991 and 1999. The men’s team best finish ever was third place in 1930 and they did not even qualify for the 2018 World Cup. So the foundation for the lawsuit was proposed on the hypothetical situation where, if the men and women US teams each won 20 of the non tournament games that they are required to play. The women’s team would earn $5,000 per game and the men’s team would earn $13,000 per game. From 2013 to 2016, women earned $15,000 for making the team, while men earned $55,000 in 2014 and then $69,000 in 2018. Also part of this lawsuit for gender discrimination was included the claim of unequal working conditions, such as being provided turf instead of grass and if you’re familiar with soccer you’ll know that turf is generally harder on the body and it’s better to be practicing on actual grass. In addition to that, the women also described not receiving the same quality of accommodations as the men’s team, so that would be like flights, travel accommodations, as well as hotel stays. It’s a very complex issue, partly because the men and women teams sign different contracts so it’s difficult for them to base a legal claim on it when they agreed to the legality of it in the first place and ultimately in 2020 this case was dismissed, but the women’s team reached an agreement with the USSF that they weren’t super happy with, but it was something. So I want to propose the question to you Rachel and Bri, do you think this is sexist or do you see this as a systemic injustice that we need to talk about?
Yeah I think that as mentioned in those stats, women win bigger competitions more often than men, and yet they’re still not being given fair treatment. While I understand that men may have more viewers, this does not justify the difference in their playing conditions. If a woman is not paid as much because of viewer ratings, I could handle that, but when women are not even given the same treatment as purely a soccer player, that seems unfair and uncalled for to me.
Right.
Yeah I definitely agree with you guys and I think that this is a very common systemic problem we see with men and women and similar sports. You know, the fact that they’re signing unequal contracts indicates the systemic nature of men and women receiving unequal pay for equal performances.
Yeah I actually saw something similar in a startup gym that I worked at where women served as childcare workers smoothie bar baristas, and cleaners, while men were leading as salesmen, fitness directors, and the personal trainers. Not only was this a common thread when I started there, but throughout my five months in the organization they continued to hire men and women to the same roles I mentioned before, and they disregarded the people who already worked there. I tried to advocate for men being allowed around the kids because they’re employees of the gym anyway, and we were told, this is not right and men cannot be around children. A typical day for me consisted of sweeping floors, cleaning counters, and watching kids. Meanwhile, I watched my male counterparts take prospects on tours and train their clients. Even though we were trained in all, the argument always seemed to be that people imagined a man as fit rather than a woman. So when they see a big man they think I want to be him, but where’s the role model for women? Now, this can obviously be seen as systemic and not just during our time, but over the past hundreds of years where women had to settle for roles not already taken by men. So I have a few questions for you. Are women better suited for these roles or are they being discriminated against? What image is this painting in society when we say men should not be alone, or even with someone else, around children? Ladies, is this sexist?
There’s some really interesting questions you propose, and that is a very interesting situation as well. When you mentioned whether or not women are better suited for these roles, I think, or at least I hope that most of us can agree that that’s not really the case that it’s not that women are just better at being caretakers and men are just better at doing physical work. I think there’s like you said part of the systemic nature is that it’s just programmed into our social structure. These gender roles that you know we teach our children as they’re growing up, we see perpetuated in society that women are generally more comforting and caring. They’re taught to express emotion more than express emotion more than men, and when you think of you know your mother versus father generally we hear the narrative of the comforting mother who’s there for you when you need her and the fathers as the tough love and the person who will more so help you fix your car and whatnot. And I think it’s interesting that you also bring up the fact that hundreds of years ago, we had the same sort of social roles and I think that really can be thought of as the source and like you said, really hitting home the the systemic nature of everything, where men’s biological physical capabilities made them better suited for things like hunting, but in today’s structure that’s really just not the case.
Yeah I totally agree, I think that as a woman, I only think that we’re better suited for these roles solely due to the way that we grow up within our families and For me, growing up, you know me and my mom would always stay inside cook, bake, and clean, you know, doing the motherly roles as opposed to my brother and dad going out to the barn and working with tools, you know, doing the more physical and exertion work compared to the domestic roles that me and my mother would do around the house. And you know going off that example Bri, I’ve also seen a similar example at my job. I’ve worked at Target for three years now And about every year we get a new manager for the store and every single one is always a man, so I think that this says a lot about the hiring system and goes into effect that some hires think that women do not fit the role of a leader and favor the men as they’re looked at to be a stronger leader. And also all of the human human resource HR positions are always filled by women, and I think that it is this way because women typically are more understanding and provide the care and help for their employees. And there are many stereotypes that men and women personalities are a lot different when compared to each other, and I think that society has stereotypes that portray that men are more vocal and stronger leaders. And also many stereotypes that women do not handle stress very well compared to men and that women get flustered more often than men when in a manager position in the workforce. And even looking at other places, including local restaurants, companies, and stores, I’ve also noticed that the majority of managers for companies are mostly men. So I think, all in all, I think management is deeply segregated by gender and from what I’ve seen in my experience as an employee at Target for three years now, I definitely have seen this segregation. So what do you guys think about this?
I think that a good question to ask following that is, do you guys think that this creates a One and Other relationship? What do you think about men getting the bigger and more important roles in society, while women basically get whatever’s left over?
That’s a good point. I think that ties really well into what Rachel was just saying as well with her experience with management. I think this does create a One and Other relationship depending on which way you look at it, but you have in that relationship we know that the One is the one that creates the entire dynamic in the first place by setting themselves up as superior to whoever the Other is and thus treating them that way and creating the entire relationship. And then the context that Rachel was talking about and how we’ve seen with our other examples, we have a situation where men are hiring other men to to take on leadership roles, management positions, you know we even see very few women CEOs and CFOs. So in those situations it’s like the men are setting themselves up to be superior to the women and thus creating the whole dynamic in the first place and basically Othering women into inferior positions.
Yeah that’s a great point and I even saw that in the gym where I worked at where women always saw themselves as the Other through that man’s eyes because he had set himself up as being the One. He was the buff man and the one that you think of when you think gym stereotype, so the women always felt like they were less than them. So now we’re going to ask you guys to think back to a time when you saw adversity or faced adversity as a woman. Was it similar to one of these experiences that we had? As seen in our three different experiences, there’s a common thread of sexism appearing for women across the board, thus making it a systemic issue. Whether this be in the workplace, in everyday lives, or in an organization, women face adversity on a daily basis and must work to overcome all of the obstacles thrown at them like the pay gap, the emotional stereotype, their nurturing nature, or the dominance formed from the One and Other relationship. The question is, when will this power dynamic, or power struggle, cease to exist? If a woman can perform equally or better than a man, who is to say she cannot or should not?
Okay, great. Well, thank you everybody. That was our “Yo, is this sexist?” podcast. We hope you learned something and were able to do a little bit of reflecting like we were able to. Thank you so much!

Works Cited

Kaplan, Emily. “U.S. Women’s Soccer Equal Pay Fight: What’s the Latest, and What’s next?” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 9 Nov. 2019, www.espn.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/27175927/us-women-soccer-equal-pay-fight-latest-next.

9 to 5: Gender Inequalities in the Workplace

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“You would think that I would deserve a fair promotion…want to move ahead but the boss won’t seem to let me…I swear sometimes that man is out to get me” (Dolly Parton). Women face many issues in the workplace including, but not limited to, equal pay, non-inclusion, biases, sexual harassment, and many do not have a woman as a role model within their organization. Throughout my first year as a college student, I encountered the majority of these issues all within one job, and although I discussed it in another diary, the situation has worsened to the point of resignation. In diary #2, I mentioned that I worked in a startup gym in Northeast Ohio that follows the typical gym stereotype. In my time there, women were childcare workers, smoothie bar baristas, and cleaners while the men were salesmen and personal trainers. While some may argue this is gender biased in both directions, the real issue is that men are given the better, higher paying jobs in comparison to the women with no indication that they do it better. Easily, this can be compared to Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the One and the Other as discussed in The Second Sex. Women have always been viewed as the Other in society as men were clearly the One throughout history, but as women have taken on more roles, how should this power dynamic be changing?

Because this was my second diary of systemic injustice, there have been many case developments since my submission. After having multiple people quit or get fired, they proceeded to hire men back into membership or leadership roles and women back into service roles. As shown in the image below, this is not uncommon worldwide.

“The share of women in services reaches as high as 77 per cent and 91.4 per cent respectively in East Asia and Northern America” (UN Women). Even within the service industry, women are rarely given a fair chance to step into leadership roles. According to MSN, “A 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute found that women have historically been steered into certain career paths (think: nurses, teachers, childcare workers), and that, in turn, can lead to different outcomes in pay and other factors” as seen in the featured image and the article linked below (“Most Common”).

“Women’s work” and the gender pay gap: How discrimination, societal norms, and other forces affect women’s occupational choices—and their pay

After experiencing these unfortunate discrepancies first-hand with my previous employer, I better understood the fight for equality amongst genders in the workplace. As I ended diary 2, gender inequality and discrimination are real problems in the workplace and in society as a whole. Although this is a preconception dating back hundreds of years, society has been progressive, and you would think there would have been more done for equality by now. If a woman can perform equally or better than a man, who is to say she cannot or should not? Until society responsibly accepts and addresses gender biases in the workplace and uplifts capable women to positions of leadership, stereotypical dilemmas, like the one I faced, will continue to be prevalent in our lives.

 

Works Cited

Most Common Jobs Held by Women Today, www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/most-common-jobs-held-by-women-today/ss-BB19pa2y.

Parton, Dolly. “9 to 5.” 9 to 5 And Odd Jobs, RCA Studios, 1980.  

Report • By Jessica Schieder and Elise Gould • July 20. “‘Women’s Work’ and the Gender Pay Gap: How Discrimination, Societal Norms, and Other Forces Affect Women’s Occupational Choices-and Their Pay.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/womens-work-and-the-gender-pay-gap-how-discrimination-societal-norms-and-other-forces-affect-womens-occupational-choices-and-their-pay/.

UN Women. https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/infographic/changingworldofwork/en/index.html, 2017

Week 4: The Importance and Significance of the Discipline of Nonviolence to Achieve a Positive Result

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The United States was founded in the concept of civil disobedience, inasmuch as the nation’s Founding Fathers felt it necessary to protect the right to free speech and the right to assemble, making these principles essential elements of the First Amendment when drafting the United States Constitution (Admin). Nonviolent protests, sit-ins, boycotts, strikes, and marches have been integral to enacting change within our history. These nonviolent actions were driving forces in the success of movements for civil liberties, racial equality, equal voting rights, and fair labor practices among others.

Nonviolent resistance is seen as more effective than violent actions because it is rooted in the morality that harming another human, especially without provocation, is immoral and unjust. Nonviolent action appeals to the humanity of the opposition, seeking not to overpower or humiliate, but to love their enemies with the intent to gain friendship and ultimately respect (Admin). Nonviolent actions are statistically more likely to be successful than violent actions when seeking to create change or right injustices. The graph from a Washington Post article by Max Fisher located in the featured image section posits that “an uprising becomes 50 percent more likely to fail if it turns to violence” (Max Fisher). It is further asserted that “a violent uprising can end up polarizing people in support of the government, whereas a government crackdown against a nonviolent uprising will often reduce public support for the regime” thereby increasing the success of nonviolent campaigns (Fisher).

The principles of nonviolence and pacifism were utilized and taught by influential figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and Congressman John Lewis. A portion of March Book One describes the actions taken by John Lewis and his fellow protestors while trying to integrate a Woolworth lunch counter in Nashville during the segregation period of the 1960s. The group was successful because they employed techniques of nonviolence that they had trained and implemented not only in their strategies to reach a desired outcome but within their daily lives. They were organized, respectful, and polite when faced with adversity thereby leading to a peaceable resolve in time by changing the attitude of their opposition (“Nonviolence Philosophy”). These nonviolent actions and the results epitomize the very constructs the Founding Fathers sought to provide and protect.

Works Cited:

Admin on July 14th, 2016. “On Violence in the South: Nonviolent Protest.” Center for the Study of Southern Culture, 14 July 2016, southernstudies.olemiss.edu/on-violence-in-the-south-nonviolent-protest/#:~:text=On%20Violence%20in%20the%20South:%20Nonviolent%20Protest%20As,Southern%20Culture%20volume%20on%20Violence,%20published%20in%202011.

Aydin, Andrew, Lewis, John, and Powell, Nate. March: Book One. Top Shelf Productions, 2013.

Fisher, Max. “Peaceful Protest Is Much More Effective than Violence for Toppling Dictators.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/11/05/peaceful-protest-is-much-more-effective-than-violence-in-toppling-dictators/.

“Nonviolent Philosophy and Self Defense  :  Articles and Essays  :  Civil Rights History Project  :  Digital Collections  :  Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/nonviolent-philosophy-and-self-defense/#:~:text=Nonviolent%20Philosophy%20and%20Self%20Defense%20The%20success%20of,activists%20who%20adopted%20the%20strategy%20of%20nonviolent%20protest.