It's a Public Space, Not a MAN's Space

The world we live in, the sidewalks we share, the streets we walk, the public spaces we inhabit belong to us. We, as human beings live in this world, and therefore have no right to make other feel uncomfortable or unsafe in their own communities. 

Yet there are men who believe the world is a man's space, and women merely inhabit that space for male enjoyment. These men cat call and makes stupid jokes at us in hopes that we bat out eyelashes and titter. 

This cartoon is a pretty accurate representation of the harassment women deal with every day. I want to share this cartoon titled "Harassment" from  Robot Hugs. The author uses it as a medium to respectfully explain different types of sexual harassment usually directed at women by certain men. I say "certain men," because I want to be clear that I know that all men do not sexually harass women in any of the ways represented in the cartoon. In fact, this cartoon makes that perfectly clear.


Here are three panels from the cartoon. The full-length appeared too small on my post, so you can find the rest here.

One major issue for women being harassed is knowing how to articulate different types of sexual harassment to their male counterparts. What I like about this illustration, is that the author breaks the issues down in a way the reader can explain it to someone else. 

There are men who sincerely want to understand and change their way of thinking, and then there are men who do not. As in many cases, there are always going to be people who will not change their minds. 

Women are conditioned to stay silent and just accept street harassment as a way of life. Let's keep in mind that how women to deal with harassment is their business, but staying quiet and moving on should not have to be a blanket reaction for everyone. 

This segment from Robot Hugs' cartoon represents the power dynamic that represents the world as a  a man's space:

I want to be clear that while not everything compliment thrown at me by unknown men is a come-on, I do find it annoying and unwanted attention. I do not want all the attention I receive to be targeted at my appearance. And there are other women who feel the same.

Some men feel entitled to our attention. If we don't smile back or greet them, we earn their ire. In their eyes, you've been branded an unfuckable, frigid bitch

In a recent case, a man killed a woman in Detroit for rejecting his advances. Not even the old "I've got a boyfriend" response worked. His pride was wounded, and if he couldn't have her, no one could. This is the attitude makes women objects for man's enjoyment instead of human beings. 

Today, while pulling my bike over to the sidewalk to catch my breath and drink my water, a man passed me and said something about hitching a ride on my bike. I ignore the comment, as I don't think it's funny, and I am trying to maintain my personal space. 

He then said, "Have a good day, MISS!," and adds an emphasis on the "miss" as though I didn't hear him when he made the stupid joke.

I continue to ignore him because I feel my personal space is intruded on, and I do not like dealing with stupid comments during my afternoon walks/rides. All I wanted to do was catch my breath and find a place to lock my bike. His joke was stupid and turned me off to even wanting to talk to him. 

As he walked farther away, he said, "Not everything I say is a pick up." 

Maybe that is true, but he is still giving me attention that makes me feel uncomfortable. It sounded like he wanted me to acknowledge him in some way. Maybe asking to hitch a ride on my bike was a euphemism for sex.  I don't know what went on in his mind. 

I've encountered this man once or twice before in my neighborhood. He always asks me if he can hitch a ride on my bike. Every time, I will refuse to stroke his ego with batting eyelashes, a smile and silly tittering. I am a grown woman, not a mindless blow-up doll. 

He was enforcing a power dynamic that is all too visible to women who walk independently in their neighborhoods. If you walk alone, these men consider you an  "uncontrolled woman" who is not owned, and therefore ripe for the taking. 

If you walk with a male partner, street harassers consider you "taken" or "owned" and may not bother you. Although, some women are still harassed even when they are with their male partners.

The next step in ending street harassment is to inform our male friends how to identify harassment or unwanted attention. Bystander training should be key in this education. College campuses should offer mandatory programs to male and female students about rape, sexual assault and harassment.

But the education should not have to start in college. High schools need to teach sexual assault awareness more, as well. That way, men and women entering college from high school will have a starting awareness.  On top of that, self-defense classes should be offered, and possibly made mandatory in gym class. Think about how expensive those classes are outside of school. Low-income students could take free self-defense classes to feel safer and more empowered.

But why stop there? Communities everywhere should offer free sexual harassment and rape awareness programs for adults and families.

While there is no guarantee that education efforts will end rape/harassment for good, the ideas is that if enough bystanders are educated, they can turn to a man harassing a woman and say, "Enough of that. She doesn't want that kind of attention." That kind of support and dialogue from strangers in my community would make women feel safer.

Palestinian Youth Speak to Philadelphia

The Philadelphia International Action Center (Philly IAC) organized the Palestinian Youth speak to Philadelphia event at the Calvary Church on 48th and Baltimore, Tuesday, Aug. 12.

Neighbors gathered to celebrate the resistance of the Palestinian people. Three Palestinian-American youth spoke about ways in which we can help contribute to the resistance to free Palestine.

Topics covered were women's involvement in the Palestinian resistance movement, genocide and personal experiences with the movement.

I covered this event for local paper the Westside Weekly in West Philadelphia. Here is a link to my story.

Side note: For some reason, the link won't open on iPones. It works on my laptop and Android tablet. I think it has to do with the Westside Weekly's website.

Anyway, check out the story.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32117525/westside/2014/Vol26/No26/index.html#/9/zoomed

The "Cult of Self"

An article in Adbusters caught my eye recently. Titled "Cult of Self,"  it's about how our economy promotes a self-serving attitude to the point of the individual becoming morally bankrupt. As short as the article is (one paragraph), it holds so much meaning and connection to the retail company I worked for.

This issue of Adbusters uses a hole in the middle of the person's head to represent the metaphorical hole in our psyches created by consumerist culture. 

Interestingly, the writer discusses how we are taught to be self serving and individualistic in order to get a good job. The problem is that "self serving" and "individualistic" are jargon exploited by corporations to manipulate consumers and employees to accomplish their goals.

This is the cult of self the author refers to. Author Chris Hughes writes,

It is the cult of self that is killing the United States. This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt...

Hughes' article was an "Aha!" moment for me. I've noticed this "superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance" often in the world of retail and job interviews. Working as a cashier at a retail store, I saw these traits within the upper management all the time. The managers always displayed creepy fake grins and high-fived employees for doing their jobs. They constantly bombarded us with corporate lingo while pretending they love their jobs just to advance themselves.  I knew from day one they were not "pro associate" as they claimed.

I quit when the managers wrote me up for receiving a negative customer review that mentioned my name. A customer was not happy about having to ask twice to have her glass item wrapped. So, the managers sat me down and requested that I sign this write up. Of, course I refused to sign a write up for something I don't even remember happening.

The assistant manager wrote that I refused to sign it and required me to sign off on the refusal. Pointing her finger at me with a sinister scowl on her harsh face, she swore that from then on my behavior would be closely monitored. She wanted me to make the customers feel as though they were in Disney Land. Once released from the meeting, I made the decision to gather my things and quit.

There is also "a need for constant stimulation" in these jobs. Management always wanted us to have something to do. Even if I completed all the tasks required of me in the dressing room or at the register, the managers are always trying to find busy work for me to do.

There was a tine when I finished organizing the accessories on the displays outside of the dressing room and all clothes were floor ready, and I decided to write some story ideas in my notebook to clear my head. Unfortunately for me, the managers do not take kindly to free-thinking creativity in their store. They happened to be observing employees that day just in case auditors visited. Of course, they caught me writing in my notebook, ganged up on me and handed me a paper with "customer service guidelines" on it.

It was as though they thought me ignorant of my duties. I was perfectly aware of my job requirements, and business was slow so, so I needed a little down time to write. I told them all of my work was done, and I was just taking a moment to clear my head of some story ideas.

"It"s therapeutic to me in such a mind-numbing job," I told them as they stared at me, blinking in confusion. Apparently that wasn't a satisfactory answer, so they proceeded to talk to me about the importance of always performing mindless tasks unless I was on break. The store manager called my writing, "an offense" and gave me a warning.

Lesson learned: When working for a retail corporation, one always needs to appear busy even when all duties are finished.

Hughes also brings up the fact that there is always "a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt" within our economy. For example, when we go for a job interview, it is considered appropriate to remove all facial piercings and wear "job appropriate clothes." Normally, that constitutes black pants/skirts/dresses, white shirts/blouses, and black shoes. Job candidates must put on airs and justify why we're better than the previous and interviewees. Pretend to be a clean-cut man or woman with no taboo in his/her life.

Okay. I understand the importance of highlighting your skills and qualifications for a job, but I don't see how your clothes reflect how well you can do that job. It makes sense in a superficial society when employees judge a lot based on appearance. It doesn't make sense to me after mulling it over in my head again and again.

Is this not deception and manipulation? Lay on that superficial charm with the fake smile, and pretend you're happy to see your interviewer when you would rather be on your couch, writing and drinking tea with cookies. We may as well get plastic surgery to keep a permanent smile on our faces at all times. Make customers feel as though they've been to Disney Land.

 Hughes continues,

...And this is also the ethic promoted by corporations. It is the ethic of unfettered capitalism. It is the misguided belief that personal style and personal advancement, mistaken for individualism, are the same as democratic equality. It is the nationwide celebrations of image over substance, of illusion over truth. And it is why investment bankers blink in confusion when questioned about the morality of billions in profits they made by selling worthless toxic assets to investors. 

Basically, the people who run corporations and banks are psychopaths because they do not think or care about the morality of their decisions.

Hughes states that the cult of self is "the misguided belief that personal style and personal advancement, mistaken for individualism, are the same as democratic equality." Rather than everyone having equal opportunity for advancement, it is about whoever is the biggest, baddest cutthroat or manipulator in the office, store or company. The managers at my store didn't get to where they want to be by being outspoken about workplace issues such as wages and unions. Rather, they were promoted for constantly ingratiating themselves to customers, upper management and corporate bigwigs.

The last line of that segment describes investment bankers blinking in confusion "when questioned about the morality of billions in profits they made by selling worthless toxic assets." They don't care about the truth. If they ever did, they learned to push such thoughts out of their minds to do their jobs.  CEOs, investment bankers or store managers, didn't get to where they are by being honest with themselves or their employers. So, when I told my managers I wrote in my notebook because retail jobs are mindless and suck, they stared at me in silence. The "cult of self" warped their minds to see only profit instead of morality.

To close, Hughes writes,

We have a right, in the cult of the self, to get whatever we desire. We can do anything, even belittle and destroy those around us, including our friends, to make money, to be happy and to become famous. Once fame and wealth are achieved, they become their own justification, their own morality. How one gets there is irrelevant.

I couldn't have said it better myself. My managers were trained, as the managers before them, to belittle us with corporate lingo, even though they think it motivates us. We are all adults, yet we get high-fives for doing our jobs instead of a simple "thank you." That's how a teacher treats six-year-old students. Where does this leave all of us employees? We go home every day feeling disgruntled and exhausted from giving customers satisfaction while we get none in return.

The least a boss could do is say, "Hey, let's be real. None of us want to be here. Let's get together and bitch about horrible our jobs are and get drinks." I would like a lot more than seeing their cheesy grins while being told to give 100% customer service and being paid the lowest wage an employer is legally allowed to pay us.

But if you say that to them, they'll blink in confusion at you.

Snog, Marry, Avoid? raises questions about beauty

BBC Three makeover show Snog, Marry, Avoid? transforms men and women from their not so socially acceptable selves to cookie-cutter images of what society prefers.

Take Mel, for example. She sported a hardcore, punk rock look complete with a leather jacket, ripped pants, piercings, pink mohawk. You name it. She had it.

Throughout the episode, parents and friends were interviewed for their opinions on Mel's tough punk look. By the end of the episode, she wore her hair long and curled and a red dress with a lacy top exposing her cleavage.

With her new look, the show host interviewed men on the street and asked them if they would snog, marry or avoid her. Most said snog. One said he would marry her.

Here's the beef I and other viewers have with this. Is Mel's decision based on what she wanted to do to make herself happy? Or was it based on the pressure she received from her parents and friends' criticism?

 I haven't been able to watch other episodes from the website, but from what I've read in the synopses, most of the makeover subjects are dressed in ways that society finds unacceptable. By the end of these episodes, they come out more aesthetically pleasing to the their loved ones and strange men they've never met and probably will never meet.

As commenter atenonaisekai posted in the Gizmodo article,

FUCK THIS SHIT. Punk is about not caring what your lot finds attractive. When the sort of men who prefer cookie-cutter cheerleader types find you unattractive, you are doing something right. 

At the same time, some think that people who dress in punk rock make themselves cookie-cutter images of each other. Gizmodo commenter Organized Chaos writes in response,

A lot of youth who do the punk thing (or the goth thing, or emo thing, etc.) do it to hide the fact that they do care about what others think. They hide their insecurities behind a new facade. In their attempt to set themselves apart from one group, to be different, all they end up doing is becoming a cookie-cutter image of another group.

Presented with these opposing viewpoints, one must ask why these people decide to be on Snog, Marry, Avoid? to begin with. Do they truly want a drastic change in their appearances, or are they feeling pressured to make their loved ones happy? Is it a little of both? Does it even matter? Am I just over thinking this? You decide, readers.

Warp Speed? Nope. Try nuclear fusion.

Gizmodo  reported  that a group of University of Washington researchers is working on a spaceship powered by nuclear fusion.

What does this mean exactly? Well, a the time it takes to travel to Mars would be reduced from eight or nine months to only three.

Let's not get excited too fast. It's pretty amazing that they're working on this technology, but we're still in the "Stone Age of Space exploration" as Gizmodo puts it.

Harnessing nuclear fusion, the substance of deadly hydrogen bombs and the power source of the sun, would make for speedier and safer space travel, Sloughs explained. 

Looks as though things are looking up in the way of space travel for the human race. Still, I doubt I will see any Star Trek level space travel in my time. We still have a long way to go.

Want a more scientific and lengthier explanation? Read the article here. 

School "Fatally Understaffed"

It is my understanding that schools should provide as much care as they can to students. Whether that be educational care or health assistance. When Gov. Tom Corbett slashed the school district's budget leading to dangerously understaffed schools, many schools were left without essential employees such as nurses.

Due to a shortage of nurses in Bryant Elementary School, a little girl named Laporshia Massey died of asthma complications. The school had only one nurse who was there two days a week. The day Massey died was not one of those days.

The parents are outraged, and rightly so. While the school was unable to supply a nurse, shouldn't someone have called paramedics as soon as Massey complained of breathing difficulties? Now there are so many questions floating around. What happened in school that day? What were the present staff doing? Were they following protocol? A more thorough investigation should give us the answers to those questions.

Apparently, Bryant Elementary was severely understaffed last year, as well. According to the article in CityPaper, a protesting nurse warned that other staff members in the school were not competent enough to deal with asthmatic students. The District source in the article said that her life could have been saved had staff responded appropriately to her illness.

Does that mean produce a nurse out of thin air? No. It means calling 911. Isn't that what they teach you in elementary school? I remember lessons on how to call 911. The staff should have been setting that example in this real-life emergency. I remember attendants in the cafeteria being trained in CPR and how to handle other health emergencies. I guess none of the faculty that day knew what to do. That's scary to parents. Parents and students should be scared after this. I would be.

This budget crisis has led to a child's death. Massey was only in elementary school. That's one more child carelessly killed by a seriously deprived system. A child and potentially great mind has been lost at the hands of Tom Corbett. People should be taking to the streets for change.

Thanks to Corbett, the school district has 3,000 fewer staff members than it did in June. Currently, there are 179 nurses working in public, private and parochial schools, down from 289 in 2011.

Don't impoverished families already have it hard enough getting sufficient health care for their children? Maybe our country spends too much on useless crap to be able to afford education anymore. Too bad politicians will never experience the death of a child due to understaffed schools because they send their kids to rich private schools. Maybe if Corbett lost a kid to staff incompetence, he'd think twice about cutting education funding.

Glenn Beck's new look

Glenn Beck sported a new look today wearing condom gloves and a birth control pill "nose ring" all in an attempt to make a point that birth control will decrease the rates of abortion.

I still can't help but think that there is a deeper and more disturbing meaning beneath his act. While donning his new look, Beck said it was in response to MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry's wearing tampon earrings. Harris-Perry wore tampon earrings in response to Texas' misogynistic move to confiscate all feminine hygiene products from protesters during the abortion debate.

Beck proceeded to mock Harris-Perry, stating that she looked like an idiot. Beck responded that if she had been wearing marshmallows on her ears, he might be attracted to her. OK. So, Glenn has a marshmallow fetish? I don't get it. I don't think anyone gets it. Glenn Beck just thinks he is funny. He tells an inside joke about being aroused by marshmallows that no one else gets.

He mockingly remarked that Melissa looked "as credible as I do, and that's saying something because your entire network practically made a living off of mocking me while I was doing pie charts about how our country was going to be destroyed through spending habits and using actual pies. You're wearing tampon earings, darling."  I love how he adds the condescending and sexist "darling" at the end of his spiel. You can hear the rest in the video linked.

Beck was trying to say that he supports birth control because abortion is bad, and birth control decreases abortion rates since it prevents getting preggers and bebehz.

Anyway, Beck and his fellow co-hosts proceeded to mock Harris-Perry's book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America. 

So, that whole segment was about mocking wommenz and being downright misogynist. What else is new?