Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Issue #3: Human Rights and Women's Rights
Welcome. You are now reading the second issue of 309: The Online Magazine. The themes of this issue are human rights and women's rights. Happy reading, and please be sure to bookmark us!
Female Genital Mutilation
By Rob Mason
Female Genital Mutilation is a ritual that is practiced throughout the world, including the United States, which professionals deem unnecessary and dangerous. It involves the removal of healthily functioning parts of a female's genitalia, and is said to prevent women from being overly sexual and cheating on their husbands.
Dr. Erin Mitchell, an adjunct lecturer in the Women’s Studies department at Plattsburgh State, said FGM is often compared to male circumcision, but while both are unneces-sary, FGM is much more drastic and damaging. “A more appropriate analogy would be between FGM and a penisdectomy,” Mitchell said, “which is the total removal of the penis.”
According to Amnesty International’s website, www.amnesty.org, FGM is usually per-formed in very unsanitary conditions by a midwife, not a doctor, and they often use dirty razor blades, scissors, knives, or pieces of glass. These instruments are often used on many girls in succession, so diseases such as HIV and other infections are transmitted from one girl to the next.
“Anesthesia is rarely used when FGM’s are being performed,” Mitchell said. “Imagine having an operation like that while being fully cognizant and able to feel everything that is happening to your body. It’s horrific to even think about”
FGM is performed on girls of various ages said Dr. James Armstrong, who teaches a course titled Sexuality and Culture at PSUC. Some are only a few days old, while others are much older. Many girls also die as a result of infections which set in after the un-sanitary procedure he said.
Beyond these consequences, the long-term complications include genital malformation and recurrent urinary infection. “There are also a wide range of obstetric problems which are found in women who have undergone FGM as well,” Armstrong said. “Because damage usually occurs to birth canal, many babies run the risk of having their heads crushed if the mother isn't further ‘opened’ to allow the baby to pass through.”
There are many reasons given for the continuing practice of FGM in various cultures throughout the world, including family honor, insurance of virginity and faithfulness to a husband. Due to the fact that it is a centuries old custom for many of these people, they are unwilling to put an end to the practice even though those who do not share the cus-tom consider it to be barbaric, and numerous worldwide efforts have been undertaken to ban the practice of FGM. It is now illegal in several countries now, but certain cultures still continue to perform FGM of their young girls despite it being against the law.
For more information on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation, please visit http://www.amnesty.org/.
The Three Main Types of Female Genital Mutilation
-Sunna Circumcision: removal of the prepuce and/or tip of the clitoris.
-Clitoridectomy: removal of the clitoris and adjacent labia.
-Infibulation: removal of clitoris and majora and minora labia, followed by the securing of the scraped sides of the vulva across the vagina with thorns or catgut. A small piece of wood is used to create an opening to allow the passage of urine and menstrual blood.
Female Genital Mutilation is a ritual that is practiced throughout the world, including the United States, which professionals deem unnecessary and dangerous. It involves the removal of healthily functioning parts of a female's genitalia, and is said to prevent women from being overly sexual and cheating on their husbands.
Dr. Erin Mitchell, an adjunct lecturer in the Women’s Studies department at Plattsburgh State, said FGM is often compared to male circumcision, but while both are unneces-sary, FGM is much more drastic and damaging. “A more appropriate analogy would be between FGM and a penisdectomy,” Mitchell said, “which is the total removal of the penis.”
According to Amnesty International’s website, www.amnesty.org, FGM is usually per-formed in very unsanitary conditions by a midwife, not a doctor, and they often use dirty razor blades, scissors, knives, or pieces of glass. These instruments are often used on many girls in succession, so diseases such as HIV and other infections are transmitted from one girl to the next.
“Anesthesia is rarely used when FGM’s are being performed,” Mitchell said. “Imagine having an operation like that while being fully cognizant and able to feel everything that is happening to your body. It’s horrific to even think about”
FGM is performed on girls of various ages said Dr. James Armstrong, who teaches a course titled Sexuality and Culture at PSUC. Some are only a few days old, while others are much older. Many girls also die as a result of infections which set in after the un-sanitary procedure he said.
Beyond these consequences, the long-term complications include genital malformation and recurrent urinary infection. “There are also a wide range of obstetric problems which are found in women who have undergone FGM as well,” Armstrong said. “Because damage usually occurs to birth canal, many babies run the risk of having their heads crushed if the mother isn't further ‘opened’ to allow the baby to pass through.”
There are many reasons given for the continuing practice of FGM in various cultures throughout the world, including family honor, insurance of virginity and faithfulness to a husband. Due to the fact that it is a centuries old custom for many of these people, they are unwilling to put an end to the practice even though those who do not share the cus-tom consider it to be barbaric, and numerous worldwide efforts have been undertaken to ban the practice of FGM. It is now illegal in several countries now, but certain cultures still continue to perform FGM of their young girls despite it being against the law.
For more information on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation, please visit http://www.amnesty.org/.
The Three Main Types of Female Genital Mutilation
-Sunna Circumcision: removal of the prepuce and/or tip of the clitoris.
-Clitoridectomy: removal of the clitoris and adjacent labia.
-Infibulation: removal of clitoris and majora and minora labia, followed by the securing of the scraped sides of the vulva across the vagina with thorns or catgut. A small piece of wood is used to create an opening to allow the passage of urine and menstrual blood.
There is work to be done.
By Michael O'Keefe
There is work to be done.
But who is going to do it?
A 13-year old boy, originally from Mexico but now residing in Southern Michigan, knows the answer. Hunched over in a 20 square mile cucumber field, the boy is only halfway through his 12-hour day, and it is already over 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside. His mother, father and two sisters are both working beside him.
Now the real question comes. Who takes care of this little boy, who works harder than most adults?
According to humanrightswatch.org, there are numerous states in the U.S., which have agricultural programs that support child labor.
Many of these children have few rights, including basic rights such as not working under hazardous or overly strenuous work.
Some more serious accusations include not providing drinking water for the workers, as well as below minimum wage pay.
Also, many of these children are students. These children are also losing out on their education while working well into the school season.
According to stopchildlabornow.org, the minimum national age for doing hazardous agricultural work is 16.
Some of these activities, which are illegal for those under 16, include, driving a bus, truck or tractor, herding bulls or boars, moving chemicals and working inside enclosed areas.
According to an article on humanrightswatch.org, Zama Coursen-Neff, the director for Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said that she thinks child laborers “deserve the same rights as the teens working at McDonalds.”
She also said she believes that many of the laborers are working under conditions that are illegal under international law.
The U.S. Department of Labor homepage lists 26 states that allow those under the legal age to work, but offers no way of verifying the age of laborers.
And although a majority of the states keep their minimum working age above the federal minimum, most states also allow special working papers, which allow children to do so any way.
According to ncbi.org, child labor accounts for over 20,000 worker’s compensation injuries, 200,000 injuries, and over 70 deaths each year.
States, such as Nevada, offer permits to children younger that 14, but does not require that children over 14 get working papers.
And although the laws may be in blatant violation of not only international, but also federal laws, the impact on not only the economy but society as well may be too great for immediate change.
There is work to be done.
But who is going to do it?
A 13-year old boy, originally from Mexico but now residing in Southern Michigan, knows the answer. Hunched over in a 20 square mile cucumber field, the boy is only halfway through his 12-hour day, and it is already over 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside. His mother, father and two sisters are both working beside him.
Now the real question comes. Who takes care of this little boy, who works harder than most adults?
According to humanrightswatch.org, there are numerous states in the U.S., which have agricultural programs that support child labor.
Many of these children have few rights, including basic rights such as not working under hazardous or overly strenuous work.
Some more serious accusations include not providing drinking water for the workers, as well as below minimum wage pay.
Also, many of these children are students. These children are also losing out on their education while working well into the school season.
According to stopchildlabornow.org, the minimum national age for doing hazardous agricultural work is 16.
Some of these activities, which are illegal for those under 16, include, driving a bus, truck or tractor, herding bulls or boars, moving chemicals and working inside enclosed areas.
According to an article on humanrightswatch.org, Zama Coursen-Neff, the director for Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said that she thinks child laborers “deserve the same rights as the teens working at McDonalds.”
She also said she believes that many of the laborers are working under conditions that are illegal under international law.
The U.S. Department of Labor homepage lists 26 states that allow those under the legal age to work, but offers no way of verifying the age of laborers.
And although a majority of the states keep their minimum working age above the federal minimum, most states also allow special working papers, which allow children to do so any way.
According to ncbi.org, child labor accounts for over 20,000 worker’s compensation injuries, 200,000 injuries, and over 70 deaths each year.
States, such as Nevada, offer permits to children younger that 14, but does not require that children over 14 get working papers.
And although the laws may be in blatant violation of not only international, but also federal laws, the impact on not only the economy but society as well may be too great for immediate change.
Insurance Story
By Bryan Bergeron
A report published by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) in October found that women face “unfair and discriminatory practices when obtaining health insurance in the individual market.”
The report, entitled, “Still nowhere to turn: Insurance companies treat women like a pre-existing condition,” can be found on NWLC’s website, http://www.nwlc.org. The report states that the current health insurance system regards being a woman as a “pre-existing” condition. According to the report, gender ratings continue to occur in a majority of states, causing significant challenges for women trying to obtain individual health insurance. The report also showed that it is common for non-smoking females to be charged more for coverage then male smokers, while a majority of individual markets exclude maternity care.
The recent report also uncovered the fact that it is still legal for insurers in some states to reject applicants who are survivors of domestic violence.
Currently, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia have yet to pass legislation prohibiting insurance companies from claiming that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition.
“That’s making someone ineligible for coverage not because of something they did to themselves, but for something that someone has done to them,” said Maria Luisa O’Neal, the programs service coordinator for the National Coalition against Domestic Violence in Denver, Co. said.
While the amount of coverage’s that are being denied or dropped due to domestic violence is impossible to be measured, the practice is still occurring throughout the United States, O’Neal said.
“It’s hard to keep a measure because there is no place where this information is being recorded, but I know that if happens a lot,” O’Neal said.
An article published by the Huffington Post on Oct. 21 proves O’Neal’s statement to be true.
The article focuses on Christina Turner, a 45-year old woman who was prescribed a month’s worth of anti-HIV medication after she was sexually assaulted by two men. Due to this prescription, insurers would not provide Turner with coverage because they believed that her HIV medication posed too many health risks.
The article also tells the story of Kimberly Fallon, a 38 year-old native of Ithaca N.Y. Fallon was penalized in her insurance due to an admission that she was raped a year earlier, and sexually assaulted in an incident in college 17 years earlier.
“Morally, this type of thing is not ok, but it all boils down to whether or not insurers can get away with it or not,” O’Neal said. “Basically, you are out of luck if they are legally within their guidelines.”
United Health Care was contacted for comment on this story, but did not return phone calls.
The recent report was the second such study published by the NWLC in the past two years. The first report, entitled “Nowhere to turn: How the individual health insurance market fails women,” was published in 2008.
Since the publication of these reports, states have been working to ban the discriminatory practices that women face when applying for individual health insurance, said Grace Lesser, a programs assistant at the National Women’s Law Center.
In April of 2009, Arkansas passed legislation prohibiting health insurance companies from denying coverage to women who were previously associated with domestic violence. California also took action in October 2009 by becoming the 11th state to ban gender ratings in the individual health insurance market.
Currently, North Carolina is in the process of creating legislation that will ban insurers from claiming that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition, said Brenda Rivera Sanchez, the legal project coordinator for North Carolina’s Coalition against Domestic Violence.
In a letter provided by Rivera, Wayne Goodwin, the insurance commissioner for the North Carolina Department of Insurance states his desire to be taken off the list of eight states that have yet to ban this practice.
The letter, which was addressed to Senator Richard Burr, states that “the N.C. Department of Insurance and I strongly disagree with any assertions that the status of being a victim of domestic violence is allowed to be considered a pre-existing condition in North Carolina.”
Not all states, however, are taking measures to stop this type of discrimination from occurring.
In Oklahoma, the power of large corporations and big businesses is too strong to take down, said Marcia Smith, the coalition director for the Oklahoma Coalition against domestic violence and sexual assault.
According to Smith, there is no current legislation in the works that would stop insurance companies from the discriminatory practices that were outline in the report by the NWLC.
“Any time we try to help these victims, we receive opposition from the large corporations,” Smith said. “They use an economic justification that it cost too much money to help these women- they say it’s too costly.”
While increased media coverage on these issues has caused the movement in Oklahoma to gain some momentum, Smith said that the power of big businesses might be too powerful to take down. Their power might inhibit any legislation from moving forward, Smith said.
“It’s not surprising that it’s an issue and I think that if we move forth with the issues that insurance companies will fight us hard and try to force us to back down,” Smith said. “It’s not unusual in Oklahoma that big businesses and corporations do not support things that we try and do for victims- any time we try to address a serious topic it just becomes a money issue.
A high poverty rate within Oklahoma also contributes to the problems, Smith said. According to an article published on August 27, 2008, on the Oklahoma Policy Institutes web site, Okpolicy.org, 577,000 Oklahomans lived in poverty in 2007, while the poverty rate for women was 17.5 per cent the same year.
Due to this, many women are unable to receive insurance through their work, which forces them to apply for individual health insurance, Smith said.
“Oklahoma is a very high poverty rate state, and we have a lot of people who are uninsured,” Smith said. “A lot of the people that we see in these centers are part of this socio-economic group.”
Numerous Senators from Oklahoma were contacted for comment on this story, but did not return phone calls.
The inability to receive health care through work has not only complicated things in Oklahoma. For women everywhere, there aren’t many places to turn to if they are unable to procure insurance through an employer, said Susan Kelly, the program director of Stop Domestic Violence, which is a program component of behavioral health services in Plattsburgh N.Y.
“It’s very hard for anyone to get health insurance if they don’t get it from their employer,” Kelly said.
When it comes down to it, Kelly believes that the whole issue boils down to money.
“People that have money can get things, and people who don’t can’t,” Kelly said. “I’m sure Donald Trump doesn’t need insurance- he can just pay in cash.”
While the media coverage surrounding the current health care debate has gotten people talking, and has given a voice to the issues surrounding women’s access to insurance, the issue is far from being resolved, said Smith.
“We’ve come a long way, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the status of women in my lifetime, but we still have a long way to go,” said Smith.
Regardless, this voice is the first step to reform.
“I think the most gratifying thing about this report being published is that it is allowing us to get more in touch with insurance companies and to get our word out,” Lesser said.
A report published by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) in October found that women face “unfair and discriminatory practices when obtaining health insurance in the individual market.”
The report, entitled, “Still nowhere to turn: Insurance companies treat women like a pre-existing condition,” can be found on NWLC’s website, http://www.nwlc.org. The report states that the current health insurance system regards being a woman as a “pre-existing” condition. According to the report, gender ratings continue to occur in a majority of states, causing significant challenges for women trying to obtain individual health insurance. The report also showed that it is common for non-smoking females to be charged more for coverage then male smokers, while a majority of individual markets exclude maternity care.
The recent report also uncovered the fact that it is still legal for insurers in some states to reject applicants who are survivors of domestic violence.
Currently, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia have yet to pass legislation prohibiting insurance companies from claiming that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition.
“That’s making someone ineligible for coverage not because of something they did to themselves, but for something that someone has done to them,” said Maria Luisa O’Neal, the programs service coordinator for the National Coalition against Domestic Violence in Denver, Co. said.
While the amount of coverage’s that are being denied or dropped due to domestic violence is impossible to be measured, the practice is still occurring throughout the United States, O’Neal said.
“It’s hard to keep a measure because there is no place where this information is being recorded, but I know that if happens a lot,” O’Neal said.
An article published by the Huffington Post on Oct. 21 proves O’Neal’s statement to be true.
The article focuses on Christina Turner, a 45-year old woman who was prescribed a month’s worth of anti-HIV medication after she was sexually assaulted by two men. Due to this prescription, insurers would not provide Turner with coverage because they believed that her HIV medication posed too many health risks.
The article also tells the story of Kimberly Fallon, a 38 year-old native of Ithaca N.Y. Fallon was penalized in her insurance due to an admission that she was raped a year earlier, and sexually assaulted in an incident in college 17 years earlier.
“Morally, this type of thing is not ok, but it all boils down to whether or not insurers can get away with it or not,” O’Neal said. “Basically, you are out of luck if they are legally within their guidelines.”
United Health Care was contacted for comment on this story, but did not return phone calls.
The recent report was the second such study published by the NWLC in the past two years. The first report, entitled “Nowhere to turn: How the individual health insurance market fails women,” was published in 2008.
Since the publication of these reports, states have been working to ban the discriminatory practices that women face when applying for individual health insurance, said Grace Lesser, a programs assistant at the National Women’s Law Center.
In April of 2009, Arkansas passed legislation prohibiting health insurance companies from denying coverage to women who were previously associated with domestic violence. California also took action in October 2009 by becoming the 11th state to ban gender ratings in the individual health insurance market.
Currently, North Carolina is in the process of creating legislation that will ban insurers from claiming that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition, said Brenda Rivera Sanchez, the legal project coordinator for North Carolina’s Coalition against Domestic Violence.
In a letter provided by Rivera, Wayne Goodwin, the insurance commissioner for the North Carolina Department of Insurance states his desire to be taken off the list of eight states that have yet to ban this practice.
The letter, which was addressed to Senator Richard Burr, states that “the N.C. Department of Insurance and I strongly disagree with any assertions that the status of being a victim of domestic violence is allowed to be considered a pre-existing condition in North Carolina.”
Not all states, however, are taking measures to stop this type of discrimination from occurring.
In Oklahoma, the power of large corporations and big businesses is too strong to take down, said Marcia Smith, the coalition director for the Oklahoma Coalition against domestic violence and sexual assault.
According to Smith, there is no current legislation in the works that would stop insurance companies from the discriminatory practices that were outline in the report by the NWLC.
“Any time we try to help these victims, we receive opposition from the large corporations,” Smith said. “They use an economic justification that it cost too much money to help these women- they say it’s too costly.”
While increased media coverage on these issues has caused the movement in Oklahoma to gain some momentum, Smith said that the power of big businesses might be too powerful to take down. Their power might inhibit any legislation from moving forward, Smith said.
“It’s not surprising that it’s an issue and I think that if we move forth with the issues that insurance companies will fight us hard and try to force us to back down,” Smith said. “It’s not unusual in Oklahoma that big businesses and corporations do not support things that we try and do for victims- any time we try to address a serious topic it just becomes a money issue.
A high poverty rate within Oklahoma also contributes to the problems, Smith said. According to an article published on August 27, 2008, on the Oklahoma Policy Institutes web site, Okpolicy.org, 577,000 Oklahomans lived in poverty in 2007, while the poverty rate for women was 17.5 per cent the same year.
Due to this, many women are unable to receive insurance through their work, which forces them to apply for individual health insurance, Smith said.
“Oklahoma is a very high poverty rate state, and we have a lot of people who are uninsured,” Smith said. “A lot of the people that we see in these centers are part of this socio-economic group.”
Numerous Senators from Oklahoma were contacted for comment on this story, but did not return phone calls.
The inability to receive health care through work has not only complicated things in Oklahoma. For women everywhere, there aren’t many places to turn to if they are unable to procure insurance through an employer, said Susan Kelly, the program director of Stop Domestic Violence, which is a program component of behavioral health services in Plattsburgh N.Y.
“It’s very hard for anyone to get health insurance if they don’t get it from their employer,” Kelly said.
When it comes down to it, Kelly believes that the whole issue boils down to money.
“People that have money can get things, and people who don’t can’t,” Kelly said. “I’m sure Donald Trump doesn’t need insurance- he can just pay in cash.”
While the media coverage surrounding the current health care debate has gotten people talking, and has given a voice to the issues surrounding women’s access to insurance, the issue is far from being resolved, said Smith.
“We’ve come a long way, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the status of women in my lifetime, but we still have a long way to go,” said Smith.
Regardless, this voice is the first step to reform.
“I think the most gratifying thing about this report being published is that it is allowing us to get more in touch with insurance companies and to get our word out,” Lesser said.
Male Abortion Rights
Male Abortion Rights
By Nicholas Persad
A door opens and slams shut. A young couple walks into their living room. The countenance of the man is one that shows disgust and anger. The woman looks annoyed and frustrated. The man begins to plead with the woman. She looks at him and says, “It’s not your decision to make. You are not the one who will feel the effects of this for nine months.” The man walks away distraught.
This is often the scenario that occurs when there is an unwanted pregnancy in a relationship and the male has no control over the decision to abort the unborn child. Since Roe v. Wade, the most influential abortion case in U.S. History, which allows women to terminate an unwanted pregnancy once the fetus does not reach the point of viability there has been a great discrepancy as to what is fair for both persons in the relationship.
People who are pro-choice believe that is it the woman’s right to choose whether or not she wants to continue with the pregnancy as she is the one who will experience all the physical and emotional baggage that accompanies being pregnant. Also, it is seen as one of the few decisions that women are allowed to make on their own and if it were a mutual decision it would seemingly once again allow men to have full control.
People who are pro-life believe that regardless of the circumstance all life should be brought into this world with only a few exceptions such as if the pregnancy is life threatening. The current situation allows the woman to have full control of determining if the fetus is allowed to develop. Therefore if a man wants to keep the child and the woman does not he would have no way of preventing her from getting an abortion. This is where many critics of Roe v Wade say it is unjust.
“Men have absolutely no say in the matter of their children’s survival,” said Rev. Dr. Pablo Sanchez, director of ProLifeJoes, an online pro-life center. “Roe v. Wade took care of that, and the mindset of the modern woman does not generally support the rights of men.”
In an article titled, ‘Shouldn’t Men have ‘choice’ too?’ by Meghan Daum, a columnist for the LA Times, Daum promotes the point that Roe v. Wade allows women to protect their futures but it does not however allow for the protection of the future of the males in scenarios where the woman does not want to have an abortion but the man does. The man will thus be obligated to support a child that he never wanted until that child is 18. The article states, “But just as women should not be punished for choosing to terminate a pregnancy, men should not be punished when those women choose not to,”
By Nicholas Persad
A door opens and slams shut. A young couple walks into their living room. The countenance of the man is one that shows disgust and anger. The woman looks annoyed and frustrated. The man begins to plead with the woman. She looks at him and says, “It’s not your decision to make. You are not the one who will feel the effects of this for nine months.” The man walks away distraught.
This is often the scenario that occurs when there is an unwanted pregnancy in a relationship and the male has no control over the decision to abort the unborn child. Since Roe v. Wade, the most influential abortion case in U.S. History, which allows women to terminate an unwanted pregnancy once the fetus does not reach the point of viability there has been a great discrepancy as to what is fair for both persons in the relationship.
People who are pro-choice believe that is it the woman’s right to choose whether or not she wants to continue with the pregnancy as she is the one who will experience all the physical and emotional baggage that accompanies being pregnant. Also, it is seen as one of the few decisions that women are allowed to make on their own and if it were a mutual decision it would seemingly once again allow men to have full control.
People who are pro-life believe that regardless of the circumstance all life should be brought into this world with only a few exceptions such as if the pregnancy is life threatening. The current situation allows the woman to have full control of determining if the fetus is allowed to develop. Therefore if a man wants to keep the child and the woman does not he would have no way of preventing her from getting an abortion. This is where many critics of Roe v Wade say it is unjust.
“Men have absolutely no say in the matter of their children’s survival,” said Rev. Dr. Pablo Sanchez, director of ProLifeJoes, an online pro-life center. “Roe v. Wade took care of that, and the mindset of the modern woman does not generally support the rights of men.”
In an article titled, ‘Shouldn’t Men have ‘choice’ too?’ by Meghan Daum, a columnist for the LA Times, Daum promotes the point that Roe v. Wade allows women to protect their futures but it does not however allow for the protection of the future of the males in scenarios where the woman does not want to have an abortion but the man does. The man will thus be obligated to support a child that he never wanted until that child is 18. The article states, “But just as women should not be punished for choosing to terminate a pregnancy, men should not be punished when those women choose not to,”
The rights of men when it comes to abortion does not seem to be an issue that is at the forefront of the mind of the public or media so any change that could take place is not going to happen any time soon.
“Perhaps this will change, but it remains a sad place for men to be when their women are not pro-life. All we have currently is prayer and hope,” Sanchez said.
Money not a motivator for some egg donors
Money not a motivator for some egg donors
By Nicodia Williams
Human egg donation was a scarce topic not very long ago. However, an increasing demand for eggs and growing compensation for donors are encouraging more women to consider it.
With a full time job as a paralegal by day and a LSAT teacher by night, no credit card debt and a more than O.K. life, 28-year-old Jennifer decided to do something many would consider fairly unorthodox. She donated her eggs to an infertile couple.
“I see egg donation as part of a process of collaborative reproduction— a way that women can help each other to transcend the limitations of biology in order to lead more well-rounded lives,” said Jennifer, who declined to give her last name to protect her identity.
A Texas native, Jennifer represents a handful of what fertility clinics call “known donors” who aren’t in it just for the money. However, as the nation's economy falters, some fertility clinics say interest in donating has increased. But this has proven not to be the case in states like Illinois and New York.
According to Jan Berman, donor and recipient counselor at the Center for Egg Options, a full-service Egg Donation and Surrogacy Center in Illinois, egg donors need to understand that they don’t just walk into a fertility clinic, give their eggs and receive a check.
“It is a significant part-time job. These women go through an entire legal process before the procedure. Most women very often do come back because they feel so bad for these infertile and hopeful mothers,” said Berman.
Jennifer, who first donated her eggs at age 25 said she was very comfortable with her quality of life before she decided to go ahead with the donation.
For her, it was about helping couples who have faced so much disappointment, find joy.
Egg donation is done through an In Vitro Fertilization, IVF procedure where the donor’s ovaries are stimulated with hormone stimulation medications to have the donor produce multiple eggs. Doctors then remove these eggs from the donor’s ovaries by inserting a needle and ultrasound probe through the donor’s genitalia.
“I hadn't planned on donating a second time, but I stepped in after a donor dropped out of a cycle. She had been in it for the money but once the day came where she had to inject herself with medication for the first time, she found that financial motivation wasn't enough to keep her going.”
Numerous news reports have presumed that nearly all egg donors are marginalized, desperate girls who have only a foggy understanding of the implications of their decision to donate eggs.
Dr. Fred Licciardi, a specialist in reproductive medicine at NYU Fertility Center said he has not seen an increase in the number of applications for egg donations. “Money is a motivator, but it's not the only one. Most donors, but not all, have other altruistic reasons for donation.”
Jennifer said she believes that just because most egg donors are young women doesn't mean that they aren't capable of weighing risks and making important decisions. “Some critics go so far as to liken egg donation to prostitution. It is entirely possible that some donors fit this profile, but many do not,” said Jennifer.
In 1996, women in federally monitored programs donated eggs a little over 3,800 times. That number has risen steadily, to more than 10,000 in 2004, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control has compiled data.
What about women who need these donors?
Women are born carrying all the eggs they’ll have for their lifetime, and after puberty, they’ll start to release at least one a month. By the time they hit menopause, they’re ovaries stop producing eggs. For these women, however, the technology of egg donation has been their only hope in fulfilling their dreams of motherhood.
When a woman who has passed her prime years decides she wants to have a baby, chances are she will probably use another woman’s egg to conceive. This exact thing occurred with 40-year-old Emily, whose name has been changed for personal reasons.
The forty-year-old donor recipient, who lives in Chicago, was diagnosed with Stage IV endometriosis; her fallopian tubes are scarred shut; and her ovaries consistently produce cysts that have to be removed.
Unlike adopting a child or using a surrogate, using an egg donor means you get pregnant and bear the child yourself.
“A woman over 40 without all of these other problems doesn’t generally conceive easily. Add all of these other issues, and it’s a true recipe for heartache,” said Emily.
The theory is that at 40, a woman still has a good egg or two in there. However, at this point the majority of them will be “chromosomally compromised”, meaning most of them are not likely to be fertilized, so unless a person has the money and the time and the emotional stamina to withstand cycle after cycle while searching for that “golden egg”, the best bet is to move on to donor eggs.
“Young women want to go to college. Single mothers want to buy their children school clothes; it’s totally understandable. However, I think that it takes a certain type of woman to donate her eggs, even if she’s doing it for the money. I believe that there’s integrity and strength of character in the act. I believe that, despite the pay check, these women really do want to help,” said Emily.
Berman said she does not think all women are motivated by the hefty compensation of up to $10,000 egg donors receive.
“Most of the women I’ve worked with are initially interested because they just want to give. They get a wonderful feeling that they are not only helping infertile women, but they are helping themselves and becoming educated about the whole process,” said Berman.
Emily, who has yet to conceive after three failed attempts with her own eggs, is about to undergo a fresh transfer with her donor. She said the women who donate their eggs with good intentions are called—the blessed known donors—friends, cousins, sisters and the like. They do it for no reason other than they love you and want you to be happy.
“The real truth of the matter is that the couple on the receiving end of the donation doesn’t care why the woman donated, be it for money or purely to help; all they care about is that they donated, and they are forever grateful for that fact,” she said.
By Nicodia Williams
Human egg donation was a scarce topic not very long ago. However, an increasing demand for eggs and growing compensation for donors are encouraging more women to consider it.
With a full time job as a paralegal by day and a LSAT teacher by night, no credit card debt and a more than O.K. life, 28-year-old Jennifer decided to do something many would consider fairly unorthodox. She donated her eggs to an infertile couple.
“I see egg donation as part of a process of collaborative reproduction— a way that women can help each other to transcend the limitations of biology in order to lead more well-rounded lives,” said Jennifer, who declined to give her last name to protect her identity.
A Texas native, Jennifer represents a handful of what fertility clinics call “known donors” who aren’t in it just for the money. However, as the nation's economy falters, some fertility clinics say interest in donating has increased. But this has proven not to be the case in states like Illinois and New York.
According to Jan Berman, donor and recipient counselor at the Center for Egg Options, a full-service Egg Donation and Surrogacy Center in Illinois, egg donors need to understand that they don’t just walk into a fertility clinic, give their eggs and receive a check.
“It is a significant part-time job. These women go through an entire legal process before the procedure. Most women very often do come back because they feel so bad for these infertile and hopeful mothers,” said Berman.
Jennifer, who first donated her eggs at age 25 said she was very comfortable with her quality of life before she decided to go ahead with the donation.
For her, it was about helping couples who have faced so much disappointment, find joy.
Egg donation is done through an In Vitro Fertilization, IVF procedure where the donor’s ovaries are stimulated with hormone stimulation medications to have the donor produce multiple eggs. Doctors then remove these eggs from the donor’s ovaries by inserting a needle and ultrasound probe through the donor’s genitalia.
“I hadn't planned on donating a second time, but I stepped in after a donor dropped out of a cycle. She had been in it for the money but once the day came where she had to inject herself with medication for the first time, she found that financial motivation wasn't enough to keep her going.”
Numerous news reports have presumed that nearly all egg donors are marginalized, desperate girls who have only a foggy understanding of the implications of their decision to donate eggs.
Dr. Fred Licciardi, a specialist in reproductive medicine at NYU Fertility Center said he has not seen an increase in the number of applications for egg donations. “Money is a motivator, but it's not the only one. Most donors, but not all, have other altruistic reasons for donation.”
Jennifer said she believes that just because most egg donors are young women doesn't mean that they aren't capable of weighing risks and making important decisions. “Some critics go so far as to liken egg donation to prostitution. It is entirely possible that some donors fit this profile, but many do not,” said Jennifer.
In 1996, women in federally monitored programs donated eggs a little over 3,800 times. That number has risen steadily, to more than 10,000 in 2004, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control has compiled data.
What about women who need these donors?
Women are born carrying all the eggs they’ll have for their lifetime, and after puberty, they’ll start to release at least one a month. By the time they hit menopause, they’re ovaries stop producing eggs. For these women, however, the technology of egg donation has been their only hope in fulfilling their dreams of motherhood.
When a woman who has passed her prime years decides she wants to have a baby, chances are she will probably use another woman’s egg to conceive. This exact thing occurred with 40-year-old Emily, whose name has been changed for personal reasons.
The forty-year-old donor recipient, who lives in Chicago, was diagnosed with Stage IV endometriosis; her fallopian tubes are scarred shut; and her ovaries consistently produce cysts that have to be removed.
Unlike adopting a child or using a surrogate, using an egg donor means you get pregnant and bear the child yourself.
“A woman over 40 without all of these other problems doesn’t generally conceive easily. Add all of these other issues, and it’s a true recipe for heartache,” said Emily.
The theory is that at 40, a woman still has a good egg or two in there. However, at this point the majority of them will be “chromosomally compromised”, meaning most of them are not likely to be fertilized, so unless a person has the money and the time and the emotional stamina to withstand cycle after cycle while searching for that “golden egg”, the best bet is to move on to donor eggs.
“Young women want to go to college. Single mothers want to buy their children school clothes; it’s totally understandable. However, I think that it takes a certain type of woman to donate her eggs, even if she’s doing it for the money. I believe that there’s integrity and strength of character in the act. I believe that, despite the pay check, these women really do want to help,” said Emily.
Berman said she does not think all women are motivated by the hefty compensation of up to $10,000 egg donors receive.
“Most of the women I’ve worked with are initially interested because they just want to give. They get a wonderful feeling that they are not only helping infertile women, but they are helping themselves and becoming educated about the whole process,” said Berman.
Emily, who has yet to conceive after three failed attempts with her own eggs, is about to undergo a fresh transfer with her donor. She said the women who donate their eggs with good intentions are called—the blessed known donors—friends, cousins, sisters and the like. They do it for no reason other than they love you and want you to be happy.
“The real truth of the matter is that the couple on the receiving end of the donation doesn’t care why the woman donated, be it for money or purely to help; all they care about is that they donated, and they are forever grateful for that fact,” she said.
Racism Story
By Jessica Eason
The next morning when I woke up I decided to read all the comments left on my shirt. I laughed at the ones that were on the front and when I flipped it over in big black writing were the words “my roommate is a nigger.”
There on my shirt was the word I hated most.
It was my freshman year at SUNY Plattsburgh, and my first semester started off with a big bang there was plenty of partying and soaking in a new environment. I was dealing with a lot of new things for the first time in my life. The experience at the start of the semester was great, I got along with my roommate, the dining hall food wasn’t too bad, and my classes weren’t very hard. College started off amazing and I was praying it would stay this way. However it all changed one night.
It was a Thursday night, right before parent’s weekend, so a group of us planned to go out on Thirsty Thursday since Friday night was shot. We were heading to a graffiti party, which is a party were you wear white t-shirts and people write on them with markers. The group headed out and was ready to party. My shirt had funny to inappropriate comments, which were written by friends or stranger. When it came to my roommates turn, she wrote on my back and giggled. I left thinking nothing off it until the next morning. I found her comment in plain bold letters on the back of my shirt, and there was no way she could deny it was her.
My father is black, and my mother is white. I have never looked at myself as one race, so to be classified as such by a small minded person made it feel worse. The part that made it most sickening, was that I had lived with the person who wrote it for about a month.
I hide the shirt in one of my draws in my room since my parents were coming later and I didn’t want to bombard them with this. I thought nothing of it for the past few weeks, blaming it on the fact that she had been drinking maybe; she wasn’t thinking clearly.
The content on the shirt didn’t really affect me until I saw that it wasn’t a mistake. Her mind was blocked off by crazy thoughts that someone had instilled in her, and I was the punching bag she decided to test them out on.
My roommate grew up in Johnstown, New York, 35 minutes out of Albany. The town demographic is over 90% white. She possibly grew up close minded and I was probably the first person of color for her to associate herself with. It was a shell shock for her, for she didn’t know how to communicate in an intelligent way without having a racist undertone.
I realized her writing “nigger” on my back wasn’t a joke or a misunderstanding a few weeks later. Time had passed and I didn’t think anything of the shirt incident anymore until one night at a friend’s house. I accompanied some friends to a small party at a friend’s house one weekend, we sat around and talking and playing beer pong.
My roommate ran track in high school and made it to Empires for high jumping, which is a big deal because the competition features the best from around the state. A mutual friend of ours asked her if she ever placed when she was there and her response was, “No black bitches could always jump higher than me.” I was within an ear shot of the comment and very offended, but yet again I said nothing.
In my mind I slowly started to piece everything together. My roommate was a racist and I was fed up with listening to the comments that spilled out of her mouth.
I called my parents and explained everything that was happening, they were appalled. My father made phone calls to the dean, and campus police. He sent me to set up meeting after meeting. We were looking for a solution.
The definition of a hate crime by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 states that “a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim… because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.”
Plattsburgh State University has college policies too, and in my eyes their policies were broken. In section VIII of SUNY Plattsburgh Campus Handbook, under discrimination and harassment it states “with Federal and State anti-discrimination legislation, has adopted a complaint procedure for the prompt and equitable investigation and resolution of allegations of unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, nation origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status or marital status.” Clearly, I was being discriminated against based on my race.
My father sent me to University Police. I sat down for an interview and was told to bring the shirt. In the end they said she had not committed any crime. Chief of University Police, Arlene Sabo, stated that there was certainly a bias relationship, but the culprit would have had to deface my property without my permission. I invited people to write on my shirt, so it is not against the law.
The police weren’t able to do anything since it wasn’t considered a hate crime. When asked about the incident Sabo said, “Why anyone would think that was appropriate baffles me.” If I had not invited individuals to write on my shirt and her comment stood alone, in all sense it would have been considered a hate crime.
Sabo said “No one is condoning what the person said.” The college tried to smooth over the situation by setting up meeting with me and my roommate to find some resolution to the problem.
The only problem with the definition of a hate crime is there is no grey line it’s either black, white or nothing else. But what about those crimes that are committed for the purpose of hate? They fall into that grey line, so what about those victims?
I brought the issues up to my roommate, but it didn’t go over so well. She believed that she had done nothing wrong. Her response was “I’ve never lived with you people, I don’t know how to act around you people.” She didn’t comprehend how she was classifying me as a group rather than an individual. I asked her if she knew who Civil Rights Leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was, she looked at me as if I had two heads and said “no.”
I wondered how could someone be so cut off from the world around us, she didn’t even know about the man whose accomplishment we celebrate annually.
The Center for Diversity, Pluralism, and Inclusions (CDPI), Outreach Coordinator Kevin Pearson explained that there is plenty of racism here at Plattsburgh, but it does not fall into the definition of a hate crime. CDIP deals with less than the amount of racial issues that occur on campus, many students don’t feel comfortable enough to come forward, there not sure of the aftermath. Each semester there are two to four instances that CDPI will work with, said Pearson.
Pearson explains CDPI’s idea of Dual Victimization. The one who makes the remarks and is a racist, but there is something that contributed to what created this multiply factors they have become victims as well, 18 years of teaching one way can be hard to undo.
Plattsburgh State though is doing a lot to open the minds of their students. In the class diversity through film about 200 to 300 students pass through the class each year. Some of the students see a new light on things, some don’t, but being able to change just a few is the point of the class. You cannot change the world in a second; it takes time to break down barriers and old habits.
Dean of Students, Stephen Matthews, say the college is trying to bring diversity and understanding to the campus. Matthews has taken over orientation since 2000, and he says that they have been putting on a diversity workshop since before he started. The workshop went from a few minutes to an hour long. Is it going to change people outlooks, maybe not, but it will give them something to think about stated Matthews.
There are many close mind people who are here, and Matthew’s know and understands that. When asked how he felt about people having these ideas he stated, “If you choice to have those options it’s not against the law.” “I would like to think we have more open minded people then close minded,” said Matthews.
Plattsburgh State has an average of two or less hate crimes on its campus each year stated Matthews. From 2006 to 2008 there have been an average of two hate crimes on Plattsburgh States campus, as seen in the SUNY Plattsburgh Crime Statistics
What happened to me wouldn’t be considered a hate crime in the book of the law, but to many others it was. My rights were violated by another human being with an ill-intent behind it. The college did everything to find some way to prove to me that they were working in my favor. They had me sit down with my roommate and discuss the issues. To me the problem was never resolved. I still have a grudge on the school as a whole. I was put through hell, and no justice was served because I fell in between that grey line.
The next morning when I woke up I decided to read all the comments left on my shirt. I laughed at the ones that were on the front and when I flipped it over in big black writing were the words “my roommate is a nigger.”
There on my shirt was the word I hated most.
It was my freshman year at SUNY Plattsburgh, and my first semester started off with a big bang there was plenty of partying and soaking in a new environment. I was dealing with a lot of new things for the first time in my life. The experience at the start of the semester was great, I got along with my roommate, the dining hall food wasn’t too bad, and my classes weren’t very hard. College started off amazing and I was praying it would stay this way. However it all changed one night.
It was a Thursday night, right before parent’s weekend, so a group of us planned to go out on Thirsty Thursday since Friday night was shot. We were heading to a graffiti party, which is a party were you wear white t-shirts and people write on them with markers. The group headed out and was ready to party. My shirt had funny to inappropriate comments, which were written by friends or stranger. When it came to my roommates turn, she wrote on my back and giggled. I left thinking nothing off it until the next morning. I found her comment in plain bold letters on the back of my shirt, and there was no way she could deny it was her.
My father is black, and my mother is white. I have never looked at myself as one race, so to be classified as such by a small minded person made it feel worse. The part that made it most sickening, was that I had lived with the person who wrote it for about a month.
I hide the shirt in one of my draws in my room since my parents were coming later and I didn’t want to bombard them with this. I thought nothing of it for the past few weeks, blaming it on the fact that she had been drinking maybe; she wasn’t thinking clearly.
The content on the shirt didn’t really affect me until I saw that it wasn’t a mistake. Her mind was blocked off by crazy thoughts that someone had instilled in her, and I was the punching bag she decided to test them out on.
My roommate grew up in Johnstown, New York, 35 minutes out of Albany. The town demographic is over 90% white. She possibly grew up close minded and I was probably the first person of color for her to associate herself with. It was a shell shock for her, for she didn’t know how to communicate in an intelligent way without having a racist undertone.
I realized her writing “nigger” on my back wasn’t a joke or a misunderstanding a few weeks later. Time had passed and I didn’t think anything of the shirt incident anymore until one night at a friend’s house. I accompanied some friends to a small party at a friend’s house one weekend, we sat around and talking and playing beer pong.
My roommate ran track in high school and made it to Empires for high jumping, which is a big deal because the competition features the best from around the state. A mutual friend of ours asked her if she ever placed when she was there and her response was, “No black bitches could always jump higher than me.” I was within an ear shot of the comment and very offended, but yet again I said nothing.
In my mind I slowly started to piece everything together. My roommate was a racist and I was fed up with listening to the comments that spilled out of her mouth.
I called my parents and explained everything that was happening, they were appalled. My father made phone calls to the dean, and campus police. He sent me to set up meeting after meeting. We were looking for a solution.
The definition of a hate crime by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 states that “a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim… because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.”
Plattsburgh State University has college policies too, and in my eyes their policies were broken. In section VIII of SUNY Plattsburgh Campus Handbook, under discrimination and harassment it states “with Federal and State anti-discrimination legislation, has adopted a complaint procedure for the prompt and equitable investigation and resolution of allegations of unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, nation origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status or marital status.” Clearly, I was being discriminated against based on my race.
My father sent me to University Police. I sat down for an interview and was told to bring the shirt. In the end they said she had not committed any crime. Chief of University Police, Arlene Sabo, stated that there was certainly a bias relationship, but the culprit would have had to deface my property without my permission. I invited people to write on my shirt, so it is not against the law.
The police weren’t able to do anything since it wasn’t considered a hate crime. When asked about the incident Sabo said, “Why anyone would think that was appropriate baffles me.” If I had not invited individuals to write on my shirt and her comment stood alone, in all sense it would have been considered a hate crime.
Sabo said “No one is condoning what the person said.” The college tried to smooth over the situation by setting up meeting with me and my roommate to find some resolution to the problem.
The only problem with the definition of a hate crime is there is no grey line it’s either black, white or nothing else. But what about those crimes that are committed for the purpose of hate? They fall into that grey line, so what about those victims?
I brought the issues up to my roommate, but it didn’t go over so well. She believed that she had done nothing wrong. Her response was “I’ve never lived with you people, I don’t know how to act around you people.” She didn’t comprehend how she was classifying me as a group rather than an individual. I asked her if she knew who Civil Rights Leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was, she looked at me as if I had two heads and said “no.”
I wondered how could someone be so cut off from the world around us, she didn’t even know about the man whose accomplishment we celebrate annually.
The Center for Diversity, Pluralism, and Inclusions (CDPI), Outreach Coordinator Kevin Pearson explained that there is plenty of racism here at Plattsburgh, but it does not fall into the definition of a hate crime. CDIP deals with less than the amount of racial issues that occur on campus, many students don’t feel comfortable enough to come forward, there not sure of the aftermath. Each semester there are two to four instances that CDPI will work with, said Pearson.
Pearson explains CDPI’s idea of Dual Victimization. The one who makes the remarks and is a racist, but there is something that contributed to what created this multiply factors they have become victims as well, 18 years of teaching one way can be hard to undo.
Plattsburgh State though is doing a lot to open the minds of their students. In the class diversity through film about 200 to 300 students pass through the class each year. Some of the students see a new light on things, some don’t, but being able to change just a few is the point of the class. You cannot change the world in a second; it takes time to break down barriers and old habits.
Dean of Students, Stephen Matthews, say the college is trying to bring diversity and understanding to the campus. Matthews has taken over orientation since 2000, and he says that they have been putting on a diversity workshop since before he started. The workshop went from a few minutes to an hour long. Is it going to change people outlooks, maybe not, but it will give them something to think about stated Matthews.
There are many close mind people who are here, and Matthew’s know and understands that. When asked how he felt about people having these ideas he stated, “If you choice to have those options it’s not against the law.” “I would like to think we have more open minded people then close minded,” said Matthews.
Plattsburgh State has an average of two or less hate crimes on its campus each year stated Matthews. From 2006 to 2008 there have been an average of two hate crimes on Plattsburgh States campus, as seen in the SUNY Plattsburgh Crime Statistics
What happened to me wouldn’t be considered a hate crime in the book of the law, but to many others it was. My rights were violated by another human being with an ill-intent behind it. The college did everything to find some way to prove to me that they were working in my favor. They had me sit down with my roommate and discuss the issues. To me the problem was never resolved. I still have a grudge on the school as a whole. I was put through hell, and no justice was served because I fell in between that grey line.
Acts of Feminism and Women Activism Through Out the Grains of Time
By Nicole Weber
The act of feminism is defined as “Working for change and expansion of women right,” says K.A. Branagan from the Gender and Women Studies department.
Women have been working to gain equal rights since 1848, with the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined women’s grievances. The Declaration of Sentiments was the first plateau for feminists and women activists journey of achieving equality. Since then, the fight for women’s right to vote; ability to have a job, to dress and socialize a certain way were all stepping stones toward reaching a distant goal: equality of men.
In the year 2009 women are still being oppressed and silenced; kept in their place looking pretty and filing papers, holding jobs together by the waist bands and keeping their mouths zipped shut.
How far has society progressed since 1848, and who is responsible for talking the talk and walking the walk?
Mother Teresa
Credits: nobelprize.org
In 1948, Mother Teresa was allowed permission to leave her convent and help those in the slums of Calcutta, also known as, Kolkata, India. Mother Teresa created her own charity, The Missionaries of Charity. The Missionaries of Charity has helped with natural disasters and poverty stricken. Mother Teresa won a Nobel Prize in 1979.
“I idolize Mother Teresa and people who dedicate their lives toward helping others,” says Kristen McCormack a Plattsburgh State student.
Credits: geocities.com
Eleanor Roosevelt aided the Red Cross and volunteered in Navy hospitals during WWI. In WWII Roosevelt went overseas to create stronger ally ties. Roosevelt helped out in the League of Women Voters, joined the Women's Trade Union League, and worked for the Women's Division of the New York State Democratic Committee. Later Roosevelt was appointed by Truman in 1946 to be the United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, and Roosevelt was reappointed by JFK in 1961. Roosevelt was also Director of the Human Rights Commission during the drafting of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights.
“I’m really inspired by her [Roosevelt], she used her position (as first lady) to benefit other people. She created the main pieces of legislation and contract of human rights,” says Samantha Stuber a Plattsburgh State student.
Betty Friedan
Credits: frogstylebiscuit.com
Betty Friedan, regarded by the Encyclopedia of World Biography, is the leader of women’s rights and feminist movement. Friedan was a member of National Organization of Women, the National Abortion Rights Action League and the National Women’s Political Caucus. Friedan also wrote the Feminine Mystique in 1963. The Feminine Mystique explored the idealized image of femininity at the time and critiqued its label.
“It [The Feminine Mystique] was a catalyst for the housewife revolution. She wrote about the unhappiness of being a housewife, how women should be treated and how they should have something in their lives (other than being a housewife),” Stuber says “It was a step toward the way we are now,” says Stuber. Stuber adds that she is scared to think of a life where the Feminine Mystique would not have been published and where she would have no other choice but to live as a housewife.
Margaret Chase Smith and Shirley Chisholm
Credits: mcslibrary.org
Credits: voanews.com
This past election was thought to be the closest a woman has ever been at winning a presidential election. Prior to Hillary though were presidential candidates Margaret Chase Smith and Shirley Chisholm.
Margaret Chase Smith had been elected United States Senate in 1948, and then ran for Republican presidential primaries in 1964. Smith was the first woman to have her name on the presidential nomination. Refusing to withdraw Smith came up second place to Republican Senator Barry Goldwater.
Breaking down an additional wall Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman to run for presidential nomination. Chisholm served in New York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968 where she proposed a bill that aided day-care centers and increased the funding for schools based on a per-pupil rate. In 1968 Chisholm ran for New York’s Twelfth Congressional District. She not only won the position but the title of being the first African American elected to Congress. Chisholm elected an all women staff while she was in congress. She spoke out on civil rights, women’s rights, poverty and the Vietnam War.
January 25, 1972 Chisholm’s presented her presidential speech, "I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people."
After the women’s rights movement, life for women wasn’t living in Kansas anymore; there was color, and new opportunities that would’ve never been fathomed. Still till this day, it is not a question that women have a disadvantage in society, and women still climb steeper and steeper stepping-stones. Women can only continue to do just that and hope to see the top of the mountain so they can fly.
The act of feminism is defined as “Working for change and expansion of women right,” says K.A. Branagan from the Gender and Women Studies department.
Women have been working to gain equal rights since 1848, with the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined women’s grievances. The Declaration of Sentiments was the first plateau for feminists and women activists journey of achieving equality. Since then, the fight for women’s right to vote; ability to have a job, to dress and socialize a certain way were all stepping stones toward reaching a distant goal: equality of men.
In the year 2009 women are still being oppressed and silenced; kept in their place looking pretty and filing papers, holding jobs together by the waist bands and keeping their mouths zipped shut.
How far has society progressed since 1848, and who is responsible for talking the talk and walking the walk?
_________________________________
Mother Teresa
In 1948, Mother Teresa was allowed permission to leave her convent and help those in the slums of Calcutta, also known as, Kolkata, India. Mother Teresa created her own charity, The Missionaries of Charity. The Missionaries of Charity has helped with natural disasters and poverty stricken. Mother Teresa won a Nobel Prize in 1979.
“I idolize Mother Teresa and people who dedicate their lives toward helping others,” says Kristen McCormack a Plattsburgh State student.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Credits: geocities.com
Eleanor Roosevelt aided the Red Cross and volunteered in Navy hospitals during WWI. In WWII Roosevelt went overseas to create stronger ally ties. Roosevelt helped out in the League of Women Voters, joined the Women's Trade Union League, and worked for the Women's Division of the New York State Democratic Committee. Later Roosevelt was appointed by Truman in 1946 to be the United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, and Roosevelt was reappointed by JFK in 1961. Roosevelt was also Director of the Human Rights Commission during the drafting of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights.
“I’m really inspired by her [Roosevelt], she used her position (as first lady) to benefit other people. She created the main pieces of legislation and contract of human rights,” says Samantha Stuber a Plattsburgh State student.
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan, regarded by the Encyclopedia of World Biography, is the leader of women’s rights and feminist movement. Friedan was a member of National Organization of Women, the National Abortion Rights Action League and the National Women’s Political Caucus. Friedan also wrote the Feminine Mystique in 1963. The Feminine Mystique explored the idealized image of femininity at the time and critiqued its label.
“It [The Feminine Mystique] was a catalyst for the housewife revolution. She wrote about the unhappiness of being a housewife, how women should be treated and how they should have something in their lives (other than being a housewife),” Stuber says “It was a step toward the way we are now,” says Stuber. Stuber adds that she is scared to think of a life where the Feminine Mystique would not have been published and where she would have no other choice but to live as a housewife.
Margaret Chase Smith and Shirley Chisholm
Credits: voanews.com
This past election was thought to be the closest a woman has ever been at winning a presidential election. Prior to Hillary though were presidential candidates Margaret Chase Smith and Shirley Chisholm.
Margaret Chase Smith had been elected United States Senate in 1948, and then ran for Republican presidential primaries in 1964. Smith was the first woman to have her name on the presidential nomination. Refusing to withdraw Smith came up second place to Republican Senator Barry Goldwater.
Breaking down an additional wall Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman to run for presidential nomination. Chisholm served in New York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968 where she proposed a bill that aided day-care centers and increased the funding for schools based on a per-pupil rate. In 1968 Chisholm ran for New York’s Twelfth Congressional District. She not only won the position but the title of being the first African American elected to Congress. Chisholm elected an all women staff while she was in congress. She spoke out on civil rights, women’s rights, poverty and the Vietnam War.
January 25, 1972 Chisholm’s presented her presidential speech, "I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people."
After the women’s rights movement, life for women wasn’t living in Kansas anymore; there was color, and new opportunities that would’ve never been fathomed. Still till this day, it is not a question that women have a disadvantage in society, and women still climb steeper and steeper stepping-stones. Women can only continue to do just that and hope to see the top of the mountain so they can fly.
2010 World Cup
By Ronald Mello
With the approaching 2010 World Cup, issues have arisen that have been unseen in other hosting countries of recent decades. This World Cup is the first to be held in an African country, making it both an opportunity and possible catastrophe. It is the 19th cup to take place with the first world cup being played in Urguay in 1930. Though to say the first world cup did not have its own fair share of problems would be an understatement, the differences from that world cup to this one are much more evident.
One of the biggest problems right now that has critics commentating is the removal of shack dwellers in the South African city of Durban. In response to their successful bid for the world cup in 2010, they have been doing numerous construction projects to get the city up to par with cities that have held the cup in the past. They are actively trying to improve the public transport infrastructure, build new stadiums for the many world cup games, and remove thousands of poor civilians whose homes are merely shacks which are an eye-sore for visiting tourists.
New legislation of the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination & Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill, whose aim is to eliminate “slums” in KwaZulu-Natal province, prevent new “slums” from developing, upgrade and control existing “slums,” monitor the performance of departments and municipalities in the elimination of “slums” and the prevention of new “slums” from developing.
It has also detailed plans to make sure that all of this really happens. The Bill, with information gathered from the government site dedicated to dealing with the housing of Durban and other South African cities, says that it aims to “improve the living conditions of communities,” but it has no detailed plans to make sure that this really happens. It is therefore clear that its real purpose is to get rid of “slums” rather than to improve the conditions in which people live.
The shack dwellers movement was actively fighting this bill in court. As of October 14th, 2009, the supreme court of South Africa ruled that the legislation was indeed unconstitutional. This is a great step forward for the group which now has the backing to fight those who are trying to kick them off the land.
The Abahlali baseMjondolo movement began in Durban, South Africa, in early 2005 and is the largest group of militant poor in South Africa today. Information gathered from their website at http://www.abahlali.org/ said that the group began with a blockade by Kennedy Road residents protesting against the proposed sale of a nearby piece of land which had been promised to them by the local council as a site for permanent housing. Since then, the movement has survived fires, attempted evictions of their members, destruction of shacks, hundreds of arrests and continuous harassment by the local municipal council and the police.
The Abahlali baseMjondolo group has gathered the attention and support of various Human rights organizations and foreign media. A Human Rights group out of California, the Grey Panthers, is actively protesting the removal of shack dwellers. A spokesperson for the group, contacted via email, went through a list of ideas to get the plight of the shack dweller out there to the media and world. He is one of the people putting together an online protest which people can sign to show their support against the government of South Africa.
Dr. Michael Sutcliffe, the Municipal manager of the South African city of Durban, is in charge of overseeing the events that are taking place before the 2010 world cup.
“We have done everything to ensure that all our own preparations for the event are part of a broader 2010 and beyond strategy,” said Sutcliffe. He says that the ongoing change in the city is not only for the World Cup, but to make the transition for Durban into a modern city.
“Overall, the preparations for 2010 are well on track and our iconic Moses Mabhida stadium will undoubtedly be a flagship for the event.”
With the approaching 2010 World Cup, issues have arisen that have been unseen in other hosting countries of recent decades. This World Cup is the first to be held in an African country, making it both an opportunity and possible catastrophe. It is the 19th cup to take place with the first world cup being played in Urguay in 1930. Though to say the first world cup did not have its own fair share of problems would be an understatement, the differences from that world cup to this one are much more evident.
One of the biggest problems right now that has critics commentating is the removal of shack dwellers in the South African city of Durban. In response to their successful bid for the world cup in 2010, they have been doing numerous construction projects to get the city up to par with cities that have held the cup in the past. They are actively trying to improve the public transport infrastructure, build new stadiums for the many world cup games, and remove thousands of poor civilians whose homes are merely shacks which are an eye-sore for visiting tourists.
New legislation of the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination & Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill, whose aim is to eliminate “slums” in KwaZulu-Natal province, prevent new “slums” from developing, upgrade and control existing “slums,” monitor the performance of departments and municipalities in the elimination of “slums” and the prevention of new “slums” from developing.
It has also detailed plans to make sure that all of this really happens. The Bill, with information gathered from the government site dedicated to dealing with the housing of Durban and other South African cities, says that it aims to “improve the living conditions of communities,” but it has no detailed plans to make sure that this really happens. It is therefore clear that its real purpose is to get rid of “slums” rather than to improve the conditions in which people live.
The shack dwellers movement was actively fighting this bill in court. As of October 14th, 2009, the supreme court of South Africa ruled that the legislation was indeed unconstitutional. This is a great step forward for the group which now has the backing to fight those who are trying to kick them off the land.
The Abahlali baseMjondolo movement began in Durban, South Africa, in early 2005 and is the largest group of militant poor in South Africa today. Information gathered from their website at http://www.abahlali.org/ said that the group began with a blockade by Kennedy Road residents protesting against the proposed sale of a nearby piece of land which had been promised to them by the local council as a site for permanent housing. Since then, the movement has survived fires, attempted evictions of their members, destruction of shacks, hundreds of arrests and continuous harassment by the local municipal council and the police.
The Abahlali baseMjondolo group has gathered the attention and support of various Human rights organizations and foreign media. A Human Rights group out of California, the Grey Panthers, is actively protesting the removal of shack dwellers. A spokesperson for the group, contacted via email, went through a list of ideas to get the plight of the shack dweller out there to the media and world. He is one of the people putting together an online protest which people can sign to show their support against the government of South Africa.
Dr. Michael Sutcliffe, the Municipal manager of the South African city of Durban, is in charge of overseeing the events that are taking place before the 2010 world cup.
“We have done everything to ensure that all our own preparations for the event are part of a broader 2010 and beyond strategy,” said Sutcliffe. He says that the ongoing change in the city is not only for the World Cup, but to make the transition for Durban into a modern city.
“Overall, the preparations for 2010 are well on track and our iconic Moses Mabhida stadium will undoubtedly be a flagship for the event.”
The Man in the Box
By Jenna Burleigh
Possibly moments from death, a soldier sits in a fox hole with his comrades as bullets and shrapnel fly overhead. Bombs blasting in the background, the other men around him begin to pray, wishing to live one more day. Just one more day and they can see their wives and girlfriends again. But there is no woman on this soldier’s mind. All he can think of is the man he left at home: the man of his dreams. He thinks of those broad shoulders and that wily grin. Then the world ends.
What is it like to die, knowing you’ve lived a lie? Is there a sense of freedom, a release unattained in life? Or perhaps the box that has constrained one in life becomes the chains that imprison one in death, leaving loved ones clueless as to who the person in the box truly was.
Homosexuality is not uncommon in America, but it is not yet widely accepted. For soldiers and members of the armed forces, constraints of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy force them to conceal their sexual orientation, keep secret a part of their life, or face being discharged.
Keeping to his campaign promises, President Obama has voiced that he wants to do away with the DADT policy, promising that change will come, though not soon. In a recent speech at a dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, Obama said, “I will end ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,” according to an article in the Huffington Post.
“It was originally set up as a compromise under the Clinton administration,” says Kay Branagan, lecturer of gender and women’s studies and Africana studies at Plattsburgh State.
The policy allowed for homosexuals, who had previously been denied this right, to be able to serve in the armed forces. President Clinton, who signed the policy in 1993, hoped to deliver on his campaign promises to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
Since ’93, more than 12,500 people have been dismissed due to their orientation.
“The military tells you that you can serve, provided you don’t say anything about being gay,” says David McReynolds, a homosexual pacifist and former member of the War Resistor’s League. “If you declare your homosexuality, you’ll be thrown out.”
The DADT policy, though put in place with good intentions, still infringes upon the rights of American citizens. “We’ve recognized the sacrifices people are making to serve our country and to protect our freedoms, and we need everyone to be treated equally. That’s all it is: equal treatment,” says Patricia Bentley, gay rights activist and librarian at PSUC.
“These are the last great issues of civil rights in the United States. It’s time. Everyone is created equal,” Bentley says.
On Oct. 10, thousands of Americans rallied in Washington D.C., waving signs and banners in support of repealing the DADT policy. The LGBT community marched in efforts of getting Obama to keep his promises, and end discrimination against homosexuals in the military.
Branagan says she thinks this discrimination is a way to deny homosexuals the fundamentals of citizenship. “Serving in the military has always been a basic idea of ‘who is a citizen?’” Branagan says. “It’s defining who exactly is a citizen.”
“According to news reports, the pentagon formalized the idea of banning gays from the military… on the grounds that homosexuality is incompatible with military service,” says Harvey Schantz, political science professor at PSUC.
“In May of ’93, only 44 percent of [Americans] thought that openly gay people should be in the military,” Schantz says, compared to 75 percent in 2008. “At the time, it seemed like a radical change.”
As the years progressed, popular opinions changed, with increasing support for homosexuality to be accepted in the military. “What once seemed unacceptable now seems palatable,” Schantz says.
“Because of changing attitudes, it’s no longer a viable discriminatory practice. It needs to be abandoned,” Bentley says. “We need to celebrate all the people who are willing to serve and protect us.”
There are disagreements whether or not this policy serves any real purpose. “I think that it’s working because it has been in place for a number of years. But as societal opinions change, as morays change, it sometimes requires a look back at earlier views and decisions,” Schantz says. “The decisions and laws of one era may be outdated in a later era.”
Schantz says the policy was good in the sense that it allowed homosexuals into the military, but it left people wanting more. “The negative effect is that people of that group feel they are being denied the right to display exactly who they are and to exercise their rights to practice as they wish.”
McReynolds says he is absolutely opposed to the DADT policy. “It means [homosexuals] have to lead a partial and incomplete life by hiding.”
Branagan says the military should be able to dismiss homosexuals on the basis of their orientation “only if they want to dismiss heterosexuals on the basis of theirs.”
She and Bentley both say they think the DADT policy negatively affects the military because it requires skilled members of the armed forces to be dismissed for no other reason than their orientation.
“[DADT] continued the policies of the past and ended up with more people being removed because of that,” Branagan says.
“We need every gifted, bright, young person who is willing to serve us,” Bentley says.
As a pacifist, McReynolds says he is completely against all war. “War and nationalism are terrible things,” he says. However, he stands by an individual’s civil rights. “Anyone who wants to serve in [the military] should have the right to do so.”
He also says he believes the DADT policy is unjust. “Because you’re deviating from a social norm, you’re going to be punished for that,” he says, calling the policy a “violation of constitutional rights.”
For many in the armed forces, being obligated to live in a “box” may be more painful than being buried in one.
Sidebar:
Gay marriage is legal or recognized here: Connecticut, D.C. (not yet a law, but it currently recognizes marriages from other states), Massachusetts, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Civil unions are recognized here: New Hampshire, New Jersey,
State has no laws prohibiting same-sex marriage: New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island,
Gay marriage is banned or not recognized here: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
States passed law to allow gay marriage, then overturned this ruling, banning gay marriage: California
Possibly moments from death, a soldier sits in a fox hole with his comrades as bullets and shrapnel fly overhead. Bombs blasting in the background, the other men around him begin to pray, wishing to live one more day. Just one more day and they can see their wives and girlfriends again. But there is no woman on this soldier’s mind. All he can think of is the man he left at home: the man of his dreams. He thinks of those broad shoulders and that wily grin. Then the world ends.
What is it like to die, knowing you’ve lived a lie? Is there a sense of freedom, a release unattained in life? Or perhaps the box that has constrained one in life becomes the chains that imprison one in death, leaving loved ones clueless as to who the person in the box truly was.
Homosexuality is not uncommon in America, but it is not yet widely accepted. For soldiers and members of the armed forces, constraints of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy force them to conceal their sexual orientation, keep secret a part of their life, or face being discharged.
Keeping to his campaign promises, President Obama has voiced that he wants to do away with the DADT policy, promising that change will come, though not soon. In a recent speech at a dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, Obama said, “I will end ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,” according to an article in the Huffington Post.
“It was originally set up as a compromise under the Clinton administration,” says Kay Branagan, lecturer of gender and women’s studies and Africana studies at Plattsburgh State.
The policy allowed for homosexuals, who had previously been denied this right, to be able to serve in the armed forces. President Clinton, who signed the policy in 1993, hoped to deliver on his campaign promises to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
Since ’93, more than 12,500 people have been dismissed due to their orientation.
“The military tells you that you can serve, provided you don’t say anything about being gay,” says David McReynolds, a homosexual pacifist and former member of the War Resistor’s League. “If you declare your homosexuality, you’ll be thrown out.”
The DADT policy, though put in place with good intentions, still infringes upon the rights of American citizens. “We’ve recognized the sacrifices people are making to serve our country and to protect our freedoms, and we need everyone to be treated equally. That’s all it is: equal treatment,” says Patricia Bentley, gay rights activist and librarian at PSUC.
“These are the last great issues of civil rights in the United States. It’s time. Everyone is created equal,” Bentley says.
On Oct. 10, thousands of Americans rallied in Washington D.C., waving signs and banners in support of repealing the DADT policy. The LGBT community marched in efforts of getting Obama to keep his promises, and end discrimination against homosexuals in the military.
Branagan says she thinks this discrimination is a way to deny homosexuals the fundamentals of citizenship. “Serving in the military has always been a basic idea of ‘who is a citizen?’” Branagan says. “It’s defining who exactly is a citizen.”
“According to news reports, the pentagon formalized the idea of banning gays from the military… on the grounds that homosexuality is incompatible with military service,” says Harvey Schantz, political science professor at PSUC.
“In May of ’93, only 44 percent of [Americans] thought that openly gay people should be in the military,” Schantz says, compared to 75 percent in 2008. “At the time, it seemed like a radical change.”
As the years progressed, popular opinions changed, with increasing support for homosexuality to be accepted in the military. “What once seemed unacceptable now seems palatable,” Schantz says.
“Because of changing attitudes, it’s no longer a viable discriminatory practice. It needs to be abandoned,” Bentley says. “We need to celebrate all the people who are willing to serve and protect us.”
There are disagreements whether or not this policy serves any real purpose. “I think that it’s working because it has been in place for a number of years. But as societal opinions change, as morays change, it sometimes requires a look back at earlier views and decisions,” Schantz says. “The decisions and laws of one era may be outdated in a later era.”
Schantz says the policy was good in the sense that it allowed homosexuals into the military, but it left people wanting more. “The negative effect is that people of that group feel they are being denied the right to display exactly who they are and to exercise their rights to practice as they wish.”
McReynolds says he is absolutely opposed to the DADT policy. “It means [homosexuals] have to lead a partial and incomplete life by hiding.”
Branagan says the military should be able to dismiss homosexuals on the basis of their orientation “only if they want to dismiss heterosexuals on the basis of theirs.”
She and Bentley both say they think the DADT policy negatively affects the military because it requires skilled members of the armed forces to be dismissed for no other reason than their orientation.
“[DADT] continued the policies of the past and ended up with more people being removed because of that,” Branagan says.
“We need every gifted, bright, young person who is willing to serve us,” Bentley says.
As a pacifist, McReynolds says he is completely against all war. “War and nationalism are terrible things,” he says. However, he stands by an individual’s civil rights. “Anyone who wants to serve in [the military] should have the right to do so.”
He also says he believes the DADT policy is unjust. “Because you’re deviating from a social norm, you’re going to be punished for that,” he says, calling the policy a “violation of constitutional rights.”
For many in the armed forces, being obligated to live in a “box” may be more painful than being buried in one.
Sidebar:
Gay marriage is legal or recognized here: Connecticut, D.C. (not yet a law, but it currently recognizes marriages from other states), Massachusetts, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Civil unions are recognized here: New Hampshire, New Jersey,
State has no laws prohibiting same-sex marriage: New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island,
Gay marriage is banned or not recognized here: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
States passed law to allow gay marriage, then overturned this ruling, banning gay marriage: California
The election of President Obama made US history.
By Lindsay Blair
The election of President Obama made US history. The United States greeted the first black President since time began with cries of hysteria and shouts of joy. When Obama was elected, many thought the path of racism saw an end. But with federal laws and visa restrictions binding many who come to the US for sanctity and with increasing prejudice against those coming from Latin America, the age of racism may be evolving rather than becoming obsolete.
CNN recently ran a series ‘Latino in America: Chasing the Dream’ which, for one of the first times, nationally and directly addressed the differences in attitudes between race, credentials and appearance regarding the prejudice against Latinos. It has been said that the fastest growing immigrant group in America, those coming from South and Central America, face some of the most prejudice in today’s society.
In a report, ‘Why racial and ethnical disparities persist’ released by the National Poverty Centre, January 2009, it states that the differences between social and official attitudes towards blacks and Latinos in America are still a dominant feature of race issues in society. The report, written by Ann Chih Lin and David R. Harris, says that Latinos, in particular, face higher rates of prejudice than black people, but the white society faces least prejudice and the most privileges overall.
“The implication of cumulative disadvantage is that racial disparities will be slow to yield to even overall improvements in equality. Meanwhile, the advantaged, who are most likely to see equality’s benefits, are protected from realizing that racial disadvantage traps others in poverty,” the report from the NPC says.
Despite persistent evidence that racial disparities do exist, the appointment of government officials of ethnic roots is becoming a stepping stone to reducing some prejudice. Sonia Sotomayor, of Latino descent, was recently appointed as the first Latina Supreme Court Judge...
The election of President Obama made US history. The United States greeted the first black President since time began with cries of hysteria and shouts of joy. When Obama was elected, many thought the path of racism saw an end. But with federal laws and visa restrictions binding many who come to the US for sanctity and with increasing prejudice against those coming from Latin America, the age of racism may be evolving rather than becoming obsolete.
CNN recently ran a series ‘Latino in America: Chasing the Dream’ which, for one of the first times, nationally and directly addressed the differences in attitudes between race, credentials and appearance regarding the prejudice against Latinos. It has been said that the fastest growing immigrant group in America, those coming from South and Central America, face some of the most prejudice in today’s society.
In a report, ‘Why racial and ethnical disparities persist’ released by the National Poverty Centre, January 2009, it states that the differences between social and official attitudes towards blacks and Latinos in America are still a dominant feature of race issues in society. The report, written by Ann Chih Lin and David R. Harris, says that Latinos, in particular, face higher rates of prejudice than black people, but the white society faces least prejudice and the most privileges overall.
“The implication of cumulative disadvantage is that racial disparities will be slow to yield to even overall improvements in equality. Meanwhile, the advantaged, who are most likely to see equality’s benefits, are protected from realizing that racial disadvantage traps others in poverty,” the report from the NPC says.
Despite persistent evidence that racial disparities do exist, the appointment of government officials of ethnic roots is becoming a stepping stone to reducing some prejudice. Sonia Sotomayor, of Latino descent, was recently appointed as the first Latina Supreme Court Judge...
Equity Not Equality
By Justin Schultz
Sarah Belawski found the perfect apartment, a quaint two bedroom flat on the top floor in mid-town Albany. She and her girlfriend Beth Gannon decided to celebrate the move by hosting a housewarming party and inviting some of her closest friends.
Sarah put a lot of time into preparing the festivities. She purchased a variety of drinks, hired a bartender, and made a spread of hor d’oeuvres including her popular dip. Sarah introduced her guests, and spent time conversing with everyone at the affair as snow speckled the night sky. She felt at home in the company of her friends, but in the back of her mind she worried if a new lease would be offered when hers expired in six months.
Sarah worried about the future of her living arrangement not because of potential problems with her neighbors, rent disputes, or the other run of the mill problems one may encounter when leasing. She worried about her situation because of her gender identity. Belawski is a transgender female and was going through the process of updating her license to reflect the gender identity she considers herself. She knew this identity could lead to potential problems with her landlord.
However, she knew if a problem arose, the Albany County legal system would be on her side. Additionally, Belawski was up to speed on gender rights issues, and willing to take action to protect herself.
“I knew if he retracted the lease, I had legal protection,” said Belawski, “but if the same thing happened a few miles away, I would have had trouble with it.”
Albany County has laws that protect people from discrimination based on sexual identity. However, there are no such laws at the state level in New York. Laws offering protection for sexual and gender identity are determined by county, and there are still many that do not recognize this as grounds for discrimination.
Belawski is hopeful that the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) will be passed in New York. The bill, if enacted into law, would provide anti-discrimination protection for people of all gender identities in the workplace, public, and at home.
“If the bill passes, I don’t have to limit myself to where I live,” said Belawski, “a statewide law would mean I don’t have to worry about it either.”
Belawski thinks the United States may be a few steps closer to offering protection from discrimination.
“Last week at the Federal level, the Matthew Shepard Law was passed,” said Belawski, “it’s a step in the right direction.”
The Matthew Shepard Law was passed to protect people of all gender identities from hate crimes. But there is still no federal laws in the United States to protect people from discrimination based on gender identity. Belawski realizes that gender identity is a basis for discrimination in the workplace nationwide and there will continue to be if a law is not enacted.
“I work in a place where it’s not an issue,” said Belawski, an employee at the New York State Department of Labor, “but it’s not that way for many people.”
Non-discrimination rules in the workplace are offered at the discretion of the company.
“I read somewhere that 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination rules,” said Belawski, “but Mobil refuses to have any such rules. So many gays and transgender people have started to boycott Mobil and shop accordingly.”
These issues became a concern for Belawski prior to beginning hormone treatment 14 months ago. She came out openly as a transgender female a few months later. In that time, she filed paperwork to reflect her new self.
“It’s a long process to change the information on an ID,” said Belawski, “there’s a lot of paperwork and it’s quite expensive.”
The paperwork to obtain a new identification card presented a challenge, but being asked to present her ID created a fear within.
“I hoped I would not be in a situation where I had to show my ID,” said Belawski, “When my ID still said that I was Tom and a male, I was denied from places including stores and clubs.”
Sarah’s girlfriend Beth Gannon is also a transgender female. Gannon has experienced some hardships since her own transition in 2004.
“Early in my transition, I was harassed in stores and out on the streets,” said Gannon, “Things were also dicey with my parents for a while.”
Gannon also has had trouble when it comes to presenting her identification card.
“I catch static occasionally,” said Gannon, “I haven’t had my license changed. So there have been a few instances of issues. Nothing major, which I am really fortunate for. I have never been put in any dangerous situations.”
Presenting one’s ID are not the only uncomfortable situations experienced .
“If I use a men’s room, strangers inform me that I’m a faggot,” said Belawski, “if I use a women’s room, then I’m told I don’t belong there.”
Belawski was relieved that her employers tried to make the bathroom situation less of a hassle.
“There were two men’s bathrooms and one women’s bathroom at my office,” said Belawski, “So my employer made one of the rest rooms a unisex bathroom, which was very accommodating.”
But there still remains some issues with the bathroom.
“In the entire time since they have created a unisex bathroom, I’ve only seen four or five women use it,” said Belawski, “otherwise, it has been all males.”
Belawski was touched by the story of a speaker at a conference who had a much more difficult bathroom situation at work.
“The individual was not allowed to use the bathroom in the building and had to find a restroom elsewhere,” said Belawski, “they had to leave their place of work to go find a bathroom… Ridiculous.”
Belawski decided that it was important to inform people and encourage them to accept people of all gender identities to prevent such situations. She began calling congressmen to ask them to support measures to ensure anti-discrimination laws and legalized marriage for gays, lesbians, and transgender people. She urged her friends to pick up the phone and follow her lead.
“I’m not that active myself,” said Gannon, “but someone certainly has to do it. She looks at the information available on the table and finds out who can be called about the issue. She actively volunteers herself. I’m very proud of Sarah for the role she has taken.”
Belawski also took an active role by volunteering at the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Center (CDGLCC). But she also found some irony at the community center.
“Notice the lack of ‘T’ in that name,” said Belawski, “LGBT: the ‘T’ is silent.”
That aside, Belawski feels it’s important to have a role at the CDGLCC.
“Because we all get shit on, we all have to pull together,” said Belawski.
There have been a number of times where Belawski has felt she was “shit on.”
“I lost my best friend,” said Belawski, “She was a woman with strong views on what it means to be a woman. She was a first wave feminist who felt I perpetuated negative stereotypes of women.” She felt that transgender people who identify as female created an artificial parody of women.”
The situation proved to be difficult.
“I made the choice to stand up for myself,” said Belawski, “I had to say what you are saying is dehumanizing and wrong. It was the hardest part of my transition to lose such a close friend.”
Belawski never felt that becoming a woman was based on women’s rights issues.
“It wasn’t a decision to become a female,” said Belawski, “It was to try and stop being a male.”
The decision was to live the rest of her life as a female had created a longstanding conflict within Belawski.
“I knew for a long time that I was unhappy as a male, about 12 to 13 years,” said Belawski.
The decision to became a woman became easier after a few important encounters.
“The catalyst came when I met other trans-women,” said Belawski, “the media portrayal was wrong. It took actually meeting other trans-women to realize this. I realized that I can live my life as a trans and not be crazy. I could be normal.”
Belawski was concerned that her family might take the news in a similar fashion as her one-time friend. But she was relieved to find out that they were much more supportive.
“My family took the news surprisingly well,” said Belawski, “I first came out to my sister. I told her face-to-face, and she was fine with it.”
Belawski took a different approach to inform her father. She wrote him a letter.
“I had a lot of fear coming out to my father,” said Belawski, “he had a tough time with it. But he has grown to accept it.”
She had a tougher time breaking the news to her grandparents.
“They had the toughest time dealing with it,” said Belawski.
By telling her family members about her transition noticed a theme.
“My sister, who is of my generation had no problems with it. My father had a tough time, but he accepts it. My grandparents still have a hard time with it,” said Belawski, “I think it’s reflective of the generations. But on the positive side, it shows that the younger generations are beginning to accept transgender people more and more.”
Belawski’s sentiment is evidenced by a situation experienced by the child of an ex-girlfriend.
“Her child came out as trans at the age of 13,” said Belawski, “I think that is amazing, and reflective of changes of the time.”
Belawski hopes that people continue to become more accepting of transgender people. This gives her hope that the GENDA bill will be passed in New York and that the United States will some day take action against discrimination towards people of all gender identities.
“It’s about equity, not equality,” said Belawski.
Sarah Belawski of Albany, NY is an active against discrimination towards transgender people.
Sarah Belawski found the perfect apartment, a quaint two bedroom flat on the top floor in mid-town Albany. She and her girlfriend Beth Gannon decided to celebrate the move by hosting a housewarming party and inviting some of her closest friends.
Sarah put a lot of time into preparing the festivities. She purchased a variety of drinks, hired a bartender, and made a spread of hor d’oeuvres including her popular dip. Sarah introduced her guests, and spent time conversing with everyone at the affair as snow speckled the night sky. She felt at home in the company of her friends, but in the back of her mind she worried if a new lease would be offered when hers expired in six months.
Sarah worried about the future of her living arrangement not because of potential problems with her neighbors, rent disputes, or the other run of the mill problems one may encounter when leasing. She worried about her situation because of her gender identity. Belawski is a transgender female and was going through the process of updating her license to reflect the gender identity she considers herself. She knew this identity could lead to potential problems with her landlord.
However, she knew if a problem arose, the Albany County legal system would be on her side. Additionally, Belawski was up to speed on gender rights issues, and willing to take action to protect herself.
“I knew if he retracted the lease, I had legal protection,” said Belawski, “but if the same thing happened a few miles away, I would have had trouble with it.”
Albany County has laws that protect people from discrimination based on sexual identity. However, there are no such laws at the state level in New York. Laws offering protection for sexual and gender identity are determined by county, and there are still many that do not recognize this as grounds for discrimination.
Belawski is hopeful that the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) will be passed in New York. The bill, if enacted into law, would provide anti-discrimination protection for people of all gender identities in the workplace, public, and at home.
“If the bill passes, I don’t have to limit myself to where I live,” said Belawski, “a statewide law would mean I don’t have to worry about it either.”
Belawski thinks the United States may be a few steps closer to offering protection from discrimination.
“Last week at the Federal level, the Matthew Shepard Law was passed,” said Belawski, “it’s a step in the right direction.”
The Matthew Shepard Law was passed to protect people of all gender identities from hate crimes. But there is still no federal laws in the United States to protect people from discrimination based on gender identity. Belawski realizes that gender identity is a basis for discrimination in the workplace nationwide and there will continue to be if a law is not enacted.
“I work in a place where it’s not an issue,” said Belawski, an employee at the New York State Department of Labor, “but it’s not that way for many people.”
Non-discrimination rules in the workplace are offered at the discretion of the company.
“I read somewhere that 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination rules,” said Belawski, “but Mobil refuses to have any such rules. So many gays and transgender people have started to boycott Mobil and shop accordingly.”
These issues became a concern for Belawski prior to beginning hormone treatment 14 months ago. She came out openly as a transgender female a few months later. In that time, she filed paperwork to reflect her new self.
“It’s a long process to change the information on an ID,” said Belawski, “there’s a lot of paperwork and it’s quite expensive.”
The paperwork to obtain a new identification card presented a challenge, but being asked to present her ID created a fear within.
“I hoped I would not be in a situation where I had to show my ID,” said Belawski, “When my ID still said that I was Tom and a male, I was denied from places including stores and clubs.”
Sarah’s girlfriend Beth Gannon is also a transgender female. Gannon has experienced some hardships since her own transition in 2004.
“Early in my transition, I was harassed in stores and out on the streets,” said Gannon, “Things were also dicey with my parents for a while.”
Gannon also has had trouble when it comes to presenting her identification card.
“I catch static occasionally,” said Gannon, “I haven’t had my license changed. So there have been a few instances of issues. Nothing major, which I am really fortunate for. I have never been put in any dangerous situations.”
Presenting one’s ID are not the only uncomfortable situations experienced .
“If I use a men’s room, strangers inform me that I’m a faggot,” said Belawski, “if I use a women’s room, then I’m told I don’t belong there.”
Belawski was relieved that her employers tried to make the bathroom situation less of a hassle.
“There were two men’s bathrooms and one women’s bathroom at my office,” said Belawski, “So my employer made one of the rest rooms a unisex bathroom, which was very accommodating.”
But there still remains some issues with the bathroom.
“In the entire time since they have created a unisex bathroom, I’ve only seen four or five women use it,” said Belawski, “otherwise, it has been all males.”
Belawski was touched by the story of a speaker at a conference who had a much more difficult bathroom situation at work.
“The individual was not allowed to use the bathroom in the building and had to find a restroom elsewhere,” said Belawski, “they had to leave their place of work to go find a bathroom… Ridiculous.”
Belawski decided that it was important to inform people and encourage them to accept people of all gender identities to prevent such situations. She began calling congressmen to ask them to support measures to ensure anti-discrimination laws and legalized marriage for gays, lesbians, and transgender people. She urged her friends to pick up the phone and follow her lead.
“I’m not that active myself,” said Gannon, “but someone certainly has to do it. She looks at the information available on the table and finds out who can be called about the issue. She actively volunteers herself. I’m very proud of Sarah for the role she has taken.”
Belawski also took an active role by volunteering at the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Center (CDGLCC). But she also found some irony at the community center.
“Notice the lack of ‘T’ in that name,” said Belawski, “LGBT: the ‘T’ is silent.”
That aside, Belawski feels it’s important to have a role at the CDGLCC.
“Because we all get shit on, we all have to pull together,” said Belawski.
There have been a number of times where Belawski has felt she was “shit on.”
“I lost my best friend,” said Belawski, “She was a woman with strong views on what it means to be a woman. She was a first wave feminist who felt I perpetuated negative stereotypes of women.” She felt that transgender people who identify as female created an artificial parody of women.”
The situation proved to be difficult.
“I made the choice to stand up for myself,” said Belawski, “I had to say what you are saying is dehumanizing and wrong. It was the hardest part of my transition to lose such a close friend.”
Belawski never felt that becoming a woman was based on women’s rights issues.
“It wasn’t a decision to become a female,” said Belawski, “It was to try and stop being a male.”
The decision was to live the rest of her life as a female had created a longstanding conflict within Belawski.
“I knew for a long time that I was unhappy as a male, about 12 to 13 years,” said Belawski.
The decision to became a woman became easier after a few important encounters.
“The catalyst came when I met other trans-women,” said Belawski, “the media portrayal was wrong. It took actually meeting other trans-women to realize this. I realized that I can live my life as a trans and not be crazy. I could be normal.”
Belawski was concerned that her family might take the news in a similar fashion as her one-time friend. But she was relieved to find out that they were much more supportive.
“My family took the news surprisingly well,” said Belawski, “I first came out to my sister. I told her face-to-face, and she was fine with it.”
Belawski took a different approach to inform her father. She wrote him a letter.
“I had a lot of fear coming out to my father,” said Belawski, “he had a tough time with it. But he has grown to accept it.”
She had a tougher time breaking the news to her grandparents.
“They had the toughest time dealing with it,” said Belawski.
By telling her family members about her transition noticed a theme.
“My sister, who is of my generation had no problems with it. My father had a tough time, but he accepts it. My grandparents still have a hard time with it,” said Belawski, “I think it’s reflective of the generations. But on the positive side, it shows that the younger generations are beginning to accept transgender people more and more.”
Belawski’s sentiment is evidenced by a situation experienced by the child of an ex-girlfriend.
“Her child came out as trans at the age of 13,” said Belawski, “I think that is amazing, and reflective of changes of the time.”
Belawski hopes that people continue to become more accepting of transgender people. This gives her hope that the GENDA bill will be passed in New York and that the United States will some day take action against discrimination towards people of all gender identities.
“It’s about equity, not equality,” said Belawski.
Sarah Belawski of Albany, NY is an active against discrimination towards transgender people.
Abortion in the state of Oklahoma
By Jameson Sempey
Women who get an abortion in the state of Oklahoma will be required to answer a 37 question questionnaire, the answers of which will be published on a public Web site by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, effective Nov. 1.
Many with pro-choice views feel this is an invasion of privacy, and an attack on a woman’s right to choose.
"Anti-choice forces will stop at nothing to prevent women from having access to abortion services, including resorting to a cheap legislative trick that's quite clearly unconstitutional," said Jennifer Mondino, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, in a press release from the center for reproductive rights.
A law suit has been filed by former state representative Wanda Stapleton and Lora Joyce Davis, an Oklahoma resident, according to the release.
Stapleton claims that the law is in violation of the constitution because the Oklahoma constitution requires that a law only addresses one subject at a time, while the law covers four different subjects.
The law would put a ban on sex-selective abortion, require doctors who perform abortions or treat patients who have had abortions to report patient information to the state health department, and it creates new responsibilities for the state health department.
"As taxpayers in this state, we expect our representatives to follow the state constitution, not pick and choose what measures suit them, then pass unconstitutional legislation that shortchanges their constituents by a quarter-of-a-million dollars," Stapleton said in the release.
Those who are pro-life find that these pro-choice individuals don’t understand the law.
“Abortion advocates either don’t understand – or else are intentionally misrepresenting – Oklahoma’s new abortion-reporting law,” said Tony Lauinger, state chairman of Oklahomans For Life in a National Right to Life press release. “It is not true, as alleged, that reports about individual women’s abortions will be posted online, nor will reports about individual abortions contain personal identifying information: no name, no address, no hometown, no county of residence, no patient ID number. To say otherwise is clearly false and misleads the public.”
Stapleton and Davis filed Davis v. W.A. Drew Edmondson as in the Oklahoma County District Court. Anne Zachritz of Oklahoma City and Martha Hardwick of Tulsa are co-counsel, according to the release from the center for reproductive rights.
– Four states – North Dakota, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri – do not allow private insurers the option to cover non-life threatening abortions under any circumstances. Rhode Island, on the contrary, has passed a permanent enjoinment to prevent such a law from being passed in the state. All four states have public funding for life endangering situations that require abortions, as well as abortions in light of rape and/or incest, but do not publically fund all “medically necessary abortions.”
Mandated Counseling, Consent, and notice - Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming require both parental consent and notice for a minor to have an abortion performed. Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah are 3 of the 9 states that include information on fetal pain. Texas and Oklahoma are two of six states that include information on a breast cancer link in the counseling prior to an abortion. Utah and Texas are two of seven states that provide negative psychological effects from abortion in the counseling. While Wyoming requires the consent and notice, they do not require counseling before the procedure.
- Abortions induced in North America – 1.5 Million
- Asia has the highest number of total abortions induced, but per 1,000 women aged 15-44 the rate of abortions induced is 29. Africa’s rate is also 29; Europe’s rate is 28; Latin America’s is the highest at 31; North America’s is 21; and Oceania’s rate is 17.
- In 2003, there were approximately nine million abortions induced.
- Between 1995 and 2003, the number of abortions induced decreased by approximately 4 million.
- Eastern Europe has the highest abortion rate worldwide, and in 2003 the rate of abortions was higher than the rate of births (105 abortions to 100 births).
- According to Guttmacher Institute, abortion law does not affect the amount of abortions induced. Abortion is illegal in many parts of Africa, but the rate of abortion per 1,000 women age 15-44 is 29. The lowest rates are in Northern and Western Europe, where there are not many restrictions on the circumstances upon which abortions can be performed.
**Information from lawfind.com and the Guttmacher Institute
Women who get an abortion in the state of Oklahoma will be required to answer a 37 question questionnaire, the answers of which will be published on a public Web site by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, effective Nov. 1.
Many with pro-choice views feel this is an invasion of privacy, and an attack on a woman’s right to choose.
"Anti-choice forces will stop at nothing to prevent women from having access to abortion services, including resorting to a cheap legislative trick that's quite clearly unconstitutional," said Jennifer Mondino, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, in a press release from the center for reproductive rights.
A law suit has been filed by former state representative Wanda Stapleton and Lora Joyce Davis, an Oklahoma resident, according to the release.
Stapleton claims that the law is in violation of the constitution because the Oklahoma constitution requires that a law only addresses one subject at a time, while the law covers four different subjects.
The law would put a ban on sex-selective abortion, require doctors who perform abortions or treat patients who have had abortions to report patient information to the state health department, and it creates new responsibilities for the state health department.
"As taxpayers in this state, we expect our representatives to follow the state constitution, not pick and choose what measures suit them, then pass unconstitutional legislation that shortchanges their constituents by a quarter-of-a-million dollars," Stapleton said in the release.
Those who are pro-life find that these pro-choice individuals don’t understand the law.
“Abortion advocates either don’t understand – or else are intentionally misrepresenting – Oklahoma’s new abortion-reporting law,” said Tony Lauinger, state chairman of Oklahomans For Life in a National Right to Life press release. “It is not true, as alleged, that reports about individual women’s abortions will be posted online, nor will reports about individual abortions contain personal identifying information: no name, no address, no hometown, no county of residence, no patient ID number. To say otherwise is clearly false and misleads the public.”
Stapleton and Davis filed Davis v. W.A. Drew Edmondson as in the Oklahoma County District Court. Anne Zachritz of Oklahoma City and Martha Hardwick of Tulsa are co-counsel, according to the release from the center for reproductive rights.
– Four states – North Dakota, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri – do not allow private insurers the option to cover non-life threatening abortions under any circumstances. Rhode Island, on the contrary, has passed a permanent enjoinment to prevent such a law from being passed in the state. All four states have public funding for life endangering situations that require abortions, as well as abortions in light of rape and/or incest, but do not publically fund all “medically necessary abortions.”
Abortion Facts
Restricting Abortion Laws
Ban on private insurers covering abortionsMandated Counseling, Consent, and notice - Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming require both parental consent and notice for a minor to have an abortion performed. Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah are 3 of the 9 states that include information on fetal pain. Texas and Oklahoma are two of six states that include information on a breast cancer link in the counseling prior to an abortion. Utah and Texas are two of seven states that provide negative psychological effects from abortion in the counseling. While Wyoming requires the consent and notice, they do not require counseling before the procedure.
Liberal Abortion Laws
No legal definition – New Jersey and Oregon have no legal definition of a lawful abortion. In fact, Oregon does not define what an unlawful abortion is either. New Jersey defines an unlawful abortion as a partial birth abortion, unless the life of the mother is in danger.Abortions Performed (2003)
- Abortions induced worldwide – 41.6 Million- Abortions induced in North America – 1.5 Million
- Asia has the highest number of total abortions induced, but per 1,000 women aged 15-44 the rate of abortions induced is 29. Africa’s rate is also 29; Europe’s rate is 28; Latin America’s is the highest at 31; North America’s is 21; and Oceania’s rate is 17.
- In 2003, there were approximately nine million abortions induced.
- Between 1995 and 2003, the number of abortions induced decreased by approximately 4 million.
- Eastern Europe has the highest abortion rate worldwide, and in 2003 the rate of abortions was higher than the rate of births (105 abortions to 100 births).
- According to Guttmacher Institute, abortion law does not affect the amount of abortions induced. Abortion is illegal in many parts of Africa, but the rate of abortion per 1,000 women age 15-44 is 29. The lowest rates are in Northern and Western Europe, where there are not many restrictions on the circumstances upon which abortions can be performed.
**Information from lawfind.com and the Guttmacher Institute
Mutants, Mickey Mouse and Gay Rights
By Charlie Peppers
“There will be no gay heroes in the Marvel Universe.”
Those are the words of Jim Shooter, Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics in the 1980s. Although Shooter doesn’t identify as homophobic, he acted in accordance with the Comics Code of Authority. The CCA deemed certain material, including homosexuality, inappropriate for people under 18 years of age.
Shooter didn’t lift a finger to change this policy or the disenfranchisement of gay people in comic books. Not surprisingly, times have changed and the CCA has fizzled into non-existence. Ever since then 25 gay heroes have “teleported” into Marvel Comics.
Still, Disney has bought Marvel Comics for $4 billion dollars. Will Disney’s famous sugar-coated heterosexism kill Marvel’s burgeoning representation of homosexuality?*
Plattsburgh State professor Jessamyn Neuhaus, who specializes in history and pop culture, doesn’t believe there’s a clear answer.
“Well, Disney’s enormous,” said Neuhaus. “It’s a huge organization. It’s got its eye on profit… It’s got brand and part of that brand is wholesomeness.”
Donn Sica, the owner of Fantastic Planet, a comic book shop, doesn’t think Disney will change the quality of Marvel Comics.
“They (Disney) have several divisions, like Miramax,” said Sica. “They bought it (Marvel Comics) because they like what they saw. They appeal to boys and girls at a certain age… They want to put out many platforms.”
Jack Pneuman, President of S.O.U.L. (Sexual Orientation Ubiquity League) and PSUC student, suggested there’s no easy way to foretell what will happen.
“If they (Marvel Comics) change the producers who make the storyline, it’ll (gay heroes in the comics) change,” said Pneuman. “I don’t know of homosexuality in Disney. But I don’t Disney’s completely homophobic, because they have ‘gay day’ at Disney land. There must be some acceptance.”
Gary Marsh, the president of entertainment for the Disney Channel, threw in his two cents about how his company represents homosexuality.
“There have been characters on Disney Channel who I think people have thought were gay,” said Marsh. “That’s for the audience to interpret… What we’re about is telling a great story, a relevant story, a story that addresses the needs, concerns, dreams and aspirations and hopes of much of our audience.”
Surprisingly enough, some writers at Marvel Comics don’t share Marsh’s viewpoint about their own gay hero characters. In June of this year, Shatterstar and Rictor shared their first on-screen kiss in issue #45 of X-Factor, a spin-off of the X-Men franchise. Rob Liefeld, the writer who created Shatterstar, voiced his discontentment about the storyline.
“As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay,” said Liefeld. “Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this. Seems totally contrived. Shatterstar is akin to Maximus in Gladiator. He’s a warrior, a Spartan, and not a gay one.”
Peter David, the writer of the issue, responded to Liefeld’s attitude and said: “When you put forward comments that begin with, essentially, ‘Some of my best friends are gay and end with ‘I can’t wait to undo this,’ you have to be screamingly naïve to not realize you’re going to come across as a raging homophobe.”
Pneuman, who’s also a comic book fan, applauded the representation of marginalized groups in the X-Men franchise, in spite of Liefeld’s promise to undo the first on-screen gay kiss in X-Factor #45.
“Part of what made Marvel Comics so good, particularly in things like X-Men, was the wide-variety of characters they had,” said Pneuman. “They’re able to represent every demographic, if they choose. This allows readers to identify with the characters. Obviously, you don’t want to exclude any of your demographic because some of them are gay.”
Neuhaus thinks fans, like Pneuman, ultimately decide what the attitude toward homosexuality is in the comic book industry. She said comic book fans can make or break a movie. The growing gay rights movement loosely affected the mindset of Kitty Pryde, a fictional character in the X-Men franchise.
Pryde said the following in response to a social outcast, who committed suicide due to being a mutant, in New Mutants #45:
“Who was he, then, that we gather to mourn him? Who am I? A four-eyed, flat-chested, brat, chick, brain, hebe, stuck-up Xavier’s snob freak! Don’t like the words? I could use nicer. I’ve heard worse. Who here hasn’t? So often, so causally, that maybe we’ve forgotten the power they have to hurt. Nigger, spic, wop, slope, faggot, mute—the list is so long. And so cruel. They’re labels. Put downs. And they hurt.”
Sometimes it takes a mutant superhero girl to speak indirectly for gay rights. Even in Marvel Comics. Even in America.
*Neither Marvel Comics nor Disney could be reached for comment.
Credit: ???
“There will be no gay heroes in the Marvel Universe.”
Those are the words of Jim Shooter, Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics in the 1980s. Although Shooter doesn’t identify as homophobic, he acted in accordance with the Comics Code of Authority. The CCA deemed certain material, including homosexuality, inappropriate for people under 18 years of age.
Shooter didn’t lift a finger to change this policy or the disenfranchisement of gay people in comic books. Not surprisingly, times have changed and the CCA has fizzled into non-existence. Ever since then 25 gay heroes have “teleported” into Marvel Comics.
Still, Disney has bought Marvel Comics for $4 billion dollars. Will Disney’s famous sugar-coated heterosexism kill Marvel’s burgeoning representation of homosexuality?*
Plattsburgh State professor Jessamyn Neuhaus, who specializes in history and pop culture, doesn’t believe there’s a clear answer.
“Well, Disney’s enormous,” said Neuhaus. “It’s a huge organization. It’s got its eye on profit… It’s got brand and part of that brand is wholesomeness.”
Donn Sica, the owner of Fantastic Planet, a comic book shop, doesn’t think Disney will change the quality of Marvel Comics.
“They (Disney) have several divisions, like Miramax,” said Sica. “They bought it (Marvel Comics) because they like what they saw. They appeal to boys and girls at a certain age… They want to put out many platforms.”
Jack Pneuman, President of S.O.U.L. (Sexual Orientation Ubiquity League) and PSUC student, suggested there’s no easy way to foretell what will happen.
“If they (Marvel Comics) change the producers who make the storyline, it’ll (gay heroes in the comics) change,” said Pneuman. “I don’t know of homosexuality in Disney. But I don’t Disney’s completely homophobic, because they have ‘gay day’ at Disney land. There must be some acceptance.”
Gary Marsh, the president of entertainment for the Disney Channel, threw in his two cents about how his company represents homosexuality.
“There have been characters on Disney Channel who I think people have thought were gay,” said Marsh. “That’s for the audience to interpret… What we’re about is telling a great story, a relevant story, a story that addresses the needs, concerns, dreams and aspirations and hopes of much of our audience.”
Surprisingly enough, some writers at Marvel Comics don’t share Marsh’s viewpoint about their own gay hero characters. In June of this year, Shatterstar and Rictor shared their first on-screen kiss in issue #45 of X-Factor, a spin-off of the X-Men franchise. Rob Liefeld, the writer who created Shatterstar, voiced his discontentment about the storyline.
“As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay,” said Liefeld. “Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this. Seems totally contrived. Shatterstar is akin to Maximus in Gladiator. He’s a warrior, a Spartan, and not a gay one.”
Peter David, the writer of the issue, responded to Liefeld’s attitude and said: “When you put forward comments that begin with, essentially, ‘Some of my best friends are gay and end with ‘I can’t wait to undo this,’ you have to be screamingly naïve to not realize you’re going to come across as a raging homophobe.”
Pneuman, who’s also a comic book fan, applauded the representation of marginalized groups in the X-Men franchise, in spite of Liefeld’s promise to undo the first on-screen gay kiss in X-Factor #45.
“Part of what made Marvel Comics so good, particularly in things like X-Men, was the wide-variety of characters they had,” said Pneuman. “They’re able to represent every demographic, if they choose. This allows readers to identify with the characters. Obviously, you don’t want to exclude any of your demographic because some of them are gay.”
Neuhaus thinks fans, like Pneuman, ultimately decide what the attitude toward homosexuality is in the comic book industry. She said comic book fans can make or break a movie. The growing gay rights movement loosely affected the mindset of Kitty Pryde, a fictional character in the X-Men franchise.
Pryde said the following in response to a social outcast, who committed suicide due to being a mutant, in New Mutants #45:
“Who was he, then, that we gather to mourn him? Who am I? A four-eyed, flat-chested, brat, chick, brain, hebe, stuck-up Xavier’s snob freak! Don’t like the words? I could use nicer. I’ve heard worse. Who here hasn’t? So often, so causally, that maybe we’ve forgotten the power they have to hurt. Nigger, spic, wop, slope, faggot, mute—the list is so long. And so cruel. They’re labels. Put downs. And they hurt.”
Sometimes it takes a mutant superhero girl to speak indirectly for gay rights. Even in Marvel Comics. Even in America.
*Neither Marvel Comics nor Disney could be reached for comment.
Credit: ???
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Issue #2: Music
Welcome. You are now reading the second issue of 309: The Online Magazine. The theme of this issue is music. Happy reading, and please be sure to bookmark us!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Music and Rebellion: A timeless phenomenon
Pop culture has many times been deemed a catalyst for change. The era of rock and roll altered genre and social beliefs, but how far did these changes really rift the beliefs of a conformist society?
By Lindsay Blair
A smoke-filled club in Memphis, late on a Saturday night in the 1954. The drums begin to beat and the strings of a guitar rift and surge through the awaiting crowds. The beat flows through the room. The girls scream.
Here is the rise of a new phenomenon in entertainment and popular culture. Here is a young rising star, who shakes his hips to the electric beat of rock and roll and the girls go wild. Here is Elvis Aaron Presley.
The adults disagree. The images of Elvis gyrating on their screens are deemed inappropriate and crude. But a rebellion against conformity is the new hip. A generational conflict ensues and social change is merely a drum-beat away.
In decades gone by music meant more than just entertainment. Music was political activism and expression of social frustrations, which created the basis of social change and a revolt against conformity. Before marketing corporations founded rock and roll music as the profitable product that it has become, rhythm and blues music was seen as a foundation for social and political change. The marketing of music today revolves around making money rather than influencing changes in race, civil rights and acting out against conformity. Can we ever go back to those days when music was so much more than an institution?
According to David P. Szatmary, author of “Rockin’ in Time: A social history of rock and roll”, the blues formed the basis of rock and roll. The blues were a creation of black slaves, who used this music to communicate their adaptations from African musical heritage to their new American surroundings. Later, stars such as Elvis Presley in 1954 and Chuck Berry adapted the euphemistic rock and roll beats to bring forth a music genre accessible to all races. This, in the heart of the civil rights movement in the US, caused revolutionary conflicts and changes and brought the power of youth culture to the surface.
“There were a lot of things going on (in the fifties) but probably the one thing that had the most resonance and the most long standing influence would be the connections between rock and roll and race,” according the Professor Jessamyn Newhaus at Plattsburgh State.
“For the US, race was the perpetual problem, it was really what really influenced the music of rock and roll. Other things were going on, consumer culture, generational divide, but the fact that rock and roll had its roots in an African American art form was something that made it revolutionary. It was something that white teenagers and black teenagers both liked and wanted to listen to and that really did cross boundaries,” continued Newhaus, professor in the Department of history.
The fifties was a time when social boundaries were being tested, according to Newhaus. The civil rights movement was in full swing. Anyone who had access to a television or a newspaper, could see that there were constant challenges against society’s “status-quo” and racial segregations were being directly disputed. Although it was not the first time that these things had been challenged, this was the time when a new extent was reached and people wanted to bring their beliefs into the mainstream.
Stemming from the African American musical art form and spreading from Chicago and New York hotspots, rock and roll in some ways was a catalyst for change, says Hannah Sheehy, a senior at Plattsburgh State majoring in American History and Politics.
“Rebellion and rejecting of conformity came in (in the fifties). I think it that it became bohemian to not conform,”
“Before the 1950s all the music was what they called crooners, it was all cool and innocent and calm and mellow. (Although) there’s always been a thing with music and rebellion, like jazz on the 20s, in the late fifties, rock and roll was the start of (change) and it was threatening to adults because it was about having sex and staying up to party all night,” says Sheehy.
Conformity was a major factor of society at the time when rock and roll music came about. Social tensions surrounding post-war climate and Cold war ideologies caused friction between right and wrong ways of behaving. The behavior of youth culture, in relation to their adherence to rock and roll music was a threat to adults, who saw rock and roll as a medium for delinquents and sexual deviants.
Rock and roll was a euphemism for sexual intercourse. “The beat of the music was very wild and it wasn’t steady like the crooners, it was very provocative. I think a lot of it was that youth just liked the music but adults thought that they liked it because they wanted to go out and have sex and fight like the lyrics said,” says Sheehy.
Newhaus agrees, “There were young women who did seem out of control, they were screaming and yelling they were expressing their sexuality in a way that was definitely making grown-ups anxious.”
The generational gap between youths and adults came to a peak in the fifties and sixties. Sheehy says, “By that stage youth were a lot more intelligent that a lot of people gave them credit for and I think they had their own opinions that were obviously different to their parents because they were a whole new generation.”
Jill Keefe, a woman who experienced the generational conflicts in the era, told the New York Times, “For most of us it was the music, rock and roll that captured the energy. It was the catalyst for social change, for protest, for rebellion.”
Music has through time created a kind of phenomenon and means of expression. The era of rock and roll encapsulated a social vision which revolutionized cultural, political and social beliefs. In a report titled, “The Consumption of Music and the Expression of Values” by Wilfred Dolfsma and published in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc. in 1999. It states, “Within a period of two years after 1955, for instance, the music scene in the USA changed dramatically. Record companies are major players in the economic sphere nowadays, and pop music (culture) is used extensively in places or fields that seem at first sight not directly related to it.
“The phenomenon has strictly economic aspects, some of which are measurable but also has aspects that might be better called 'social' or 'cultural'. These different aspects are intertwined. Since the late 1950s and early 1960s pop music (culture) has become an important way for many people to distinguish themselves from others. They consume music as a way of showing who they are, and what they want to be.”
Rock and roll music was used as a means of expression, as well as a means of profitable entertainment. Rock and roll as music was a commodity; it was bought and sold, according to Newhaus. The success of rock and roll and the changes it caused, however, were not a commodity. Abolishment of segregation in music venues, acting out against conformity and challenging a very rigid domestic containment all became part of a bigger social movement, which, although surrounded by generational conflict, altered perceptions timelessly.
But this is a timeless thing. It is a cycle, adults will always in some part disagree with what youth are doing, according to Newhaus. “That’s what makes pop culture so interesting it wasn’t that people set out to make a statement, to change the world, they set out to express themselves, to be musicians. But it just so happened that the impact of that (in the fifties and sixties) it had social ramifications as well,”
Pop culture has a major influence on society, it changes norms and it alters perceptions. But Newhaus believes that this timeless concept is still happening today and probably into the future, “I would say we are on the tail end of a panic about video games. For a long time people were worried about video games,”
“People have just gotten used to it, I don’t know what the next thing will be, if I could predict that then I would be a genius. I could see into the future.”
By Lindsay Blair
A smoke-filled club in Memphis, late on a Saturday night in the 1954. The drums begin to beat and the strings of a guitar rift and surge through the awaiting crowds. The beat flows through the room. The girls scream.
Here is the rise of a new phenomenon in entertainment and popular culture. Here is a young rising star, who shakes his hips to the electric beat of rock and roll and the girls go wild. Here is Elvis Aaron Presley.
The adults disagree. The images of Elvis gyrating on their screens are deemed inappropriate and crude. But a rebellion against conformity is the new hip. A generational conflict ensues and social change is merely a drum-beat away.
In decades gone by music meant more than just entertainment. Music was political activism and expression of social frustrations, which created the basis of social change and a revolt against conformity. Before marketing corporations founded rock and roll music as the profitable product that it has become, rhythm and blues music was seen as a foundation for social and political change. The marketing of music today revolves around making money rather than influencing changes in race, civil rights and acting out against conformity. Can we ever go back to those days when music was so much more than an institution?
According to David P. Szatmary, author of “Rockin’ in Time: A social history of rock and roll”, the blues formed the basis of rock and roll. The blues were a creation of black slaves, who used this music to communicate their adaptations from African musical heritage to their new American surroundings. Later, stars such as Elvis Presley in 1954 and Chuck Berry adapted the euphemistic rock and roll beats to bring forth a music genre accessible to all races. This, in the heart of the civil rights movement in the US, caused revolutionary conflicts and changes and brought the power of youth culture to the surface.
“There were a lot of things going on (in the fifties) but probably the one thing that had the most resonance and the most long standing influence would be the connections between rock and roll and race,” according the Professor Jessamyn Newhaus at Plattsburgh State.
“For the US, race was the perpetual problem, it was really what really influenced the music of rock and roll. Other things were going on, consumer culture, generational divide, but the fact that rock and roll had its roots in an African American art form was something that made it revolutionary. It was something that white teenagers and black teenagers both liked and wanted to listen to and that really did cross boundaries,” continued Newhaus, professor in the Department of history.
The fifties was a time when social boundaries were being tested, according to Newhaus. The civil rights movement was in full swing. Anyone who had access to a television or a newspaper, could see that there were constant challenges against society’s “status-quo” and racial segregations were being directly disputed. Although it was not the first time that these things had been challenged, this was the time when a new extent was reached and people wanted to bring their beliefs into the mainstream.
Stemming from the African American musical art form and spreading from Chicago and New York hotspots, rock and roll in some ways was a catalyst for change, says Hannah Sheehy, a senior at Plattsburgh State majoring in American History and Politics.
“Rebellion and rejecting of conformity came in (in the fifties). I think it that it became bohemian to not conform,”
“Before the 1950s all the music was what they called crooners, it was all cool and innocent and calm and mellow. (Although) there’s always been a thing with music and rebellion, like jazz on the 20s, in the late fifties, rock and roll was the start of (change) and it was threatening to adults because it was about having sex and staying up to party all night,” says Sheehy.
Conformity was a major factor of society at the time when rock and roll music came about. Social tensions surrounding post-war climate and Cold war ideologies caused friction between right and wrong ways of behaving. The behavior of youth culture, in relation to their adherence to rock and roll music was a threat to adults, who saw rock and roll as a medium for delinquents and sexual deviants.
Rock and roll was a euphemism for sexual intercourse. “The beat of the music was very wild and it wasn’t steady like the crooners, it was very provocative. I think a lot of it was that youth just liked the music but adults thought that they liked it because they wanted to go out and have sex and fight like the lyrics said,” says Sheehy.
Newhaus agrees, “There were young women who did seem out of control, they were screaming and yelling they were expressing their sexuality in a way that was definitely making grown-ups anxious.”
The generational gap between youths and adults came to a peak in the fifties and sixties. Sheehy says, “By that stage youth were a lot more intelligent that a lot of people gave them credit for and I think they had their own opinions that were obviously different to their parents because they were a whole new generation.”
Jill Keefe, a woman who experienced the generational conflicts in the era, told the New York Times, “For most of us it was the music, rock and roll that captured the energy. It was the catalyst for social change, for protest, for rebellion.”
Music has through time created a kind of phenomenon and means of expression. The era of rock and roll encapsulated a social vision which revolutionized cultural, political and social beliefs. In a report titled, “The Consumption of Music and the Expression of Values” by Wilfred Dolfsma and published in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc. in 1999. It states, “Within a period of two years after 1955, for instance, the music scene in the USA changed dramatically. Record companies are major players in the economic sphere nowadays, and pop music (culture) is used extensively in places or fields that seem at first sight not directly related to it.
“The phenomenon has strictly economic aspects, some of which are measurable but also has aspects that might be better called 'social' or 'cultural'. These different aspects are intertwined. Since the late 1950s and early 1960s pop music (culture) has become an important way for many people to distinguish themselves from others. They consume music as a way of showing who they are, and what they want to be.”
Rock and roll music was used as a means of expression, as well as a means of profitable entertainment. Rock and roll as music was a commodity; it was bought and sold, according to Newhaus. The success of rock and roll and the changes it caused, however, were not a commodity. Abolishment of segregation in music venues, acting out against conformity and challenging a very rigid domestic containment all became part of a bigger social movement, which, although surrounded by generational conflict, altered perceptions timelessly.
But this is a timeless thing. It is a cycle, adults will always in some part disagree with what youth are doing, according to Newhaus. “That’s what makes pop culture so interesting it wasn’t that people set out to make a statement, to change the world, they set out to express themselves, to be musicians. But it just so happened that the impact of that (in the fifties and sixties) it had social ramifications as well,”
Pop culture has a major influence on society, it changes norms and it alters perceptions. But Newhaus believes that this timeless concept is still happening today and probably into the future, “I would say we are on the tail end of a panic about video games. For a long time people were worried about video games,”
“People have just gotten used to it, I don’t know what the next thing will be, if I could predict that then I would be a genius. I could see into the future.”
The Auto-Tune
By Bryan Bergeron
Since its creation in 1997, Auto-tune has taken the music industry by storm. Ever since Cher first used the software program in her 1998 hit “Believe,” artists from every genre have been flocking to the new technology in order to “tighten” up those lyrical and instrumental mishaps in their different recordings.
Developed by Dr. Harold Hildebrand of Antares Audio Technologies, Auto-Tune is a computer software program that “corrects pitch problems in vocals and other solo instruments.” Basically, this innovative technology allows for artist to achieve perfect pitch, whenever and wherever. In other words, it has made the impossible possible. It is an artist’s dream come true, and musicians ranging from Kanye West to Faith Evans are taking advantage of the software.
Not all artists, however, are incorporating this new craze into their music. For some, this new technology is a cop out. It lessens the uniqueness of music, and allows for artists to record a sound that is not their own.
For others, this technology is innovative, creative and new. It adds another element to an ever expanding music industry, and lets musicians delve into a creative technological world that has the capabilities of taking music into a whole new dimension. Put simply, the Auto-Tune makes perfection possible, and some artists can’t ignore this fact.
For some people, however, perfection is something that shouldn’t be associated with music. The uniqueness and individuality that is expressed through the songs of different musicians is what makes music so great. The diversity within the music world allows for everyone to find their own certain niche. It allows for everyone to find some sort of music that appeals to them. With this current Auto-Tune craze, however, some people believe that music is becoming less unique; it’s becoming less creative simply because everyone’s recording is becoming, well, perfect.
“I don’t really think that Auto-Tune is a bad thing, but it’s just being overused,” Said Chris Mann, a musician who has been playing guitar and piano for close to ten years. “I mean look at Lil Wayne, all he uses now is Auto-Tune; it’s just getting overdone.”
Apart from the belief that it is being overused in music nowadays, some feel as though the new software can give musicians an easy outlet.
“People who can’t sing very well are using it all the time,” said Ryan Williams, a Plattsburgh State student who constantly has the new synthesized sound “bumpin’” out of his headphones. “Look at T-Paine, he can’t sing so he just uses the Auto-Tune. His lyrics are good, but he’s obviously not good at singing, so he just uses the Auto-Tune to sounds better.”
Tim Victor, music major at Plattsburgh State, who plays a wide array of instruments including the guitar, piano, bass and xylophone, agrees that the Auto-Tune is allowing for musicians to sometimes take the easy way out.
““Artists like T-pain and Kanye West still have a tremendous amount of talent when it comes to songwriting, but at the same time they are just using the Auto-Tune as a crutch. They shouldn’t be singing- they don’t have good voices,” Victor said.
Victor also believes that this new software has lessened the amount of creativity that is found in today’s music.
“It (Auto-Tune) doesn’t allow for creativity; it gives everyone the same sound and the same voice,” Victor said. “People who don’t use it have their own personal sound and thats what makes different types of music unique. Every time you hear Auto-Tune on a track, it’s not any different than the last song you’ve heard with Auto-Tune.”
Apart from the belief that the Auto-Tune will lessen creativity, some people simply enjoy hearing a person’s real, actual voice in music. There are people out there who don’t want to hear perfection.
“I think that what talented people do with their real voice sounds much better than a voice that has been dubbed over with an Auto-Tune,” Mann said.
Others, however, disagree with the belief that the Auto-Tune limits the creativity that can be found within music. Herm Matlock, a music professor at Plattsburgh State, and the teacher of a class, entitled, “The history of American pop music in the north and south”, believes that the Auto-Tune has the capabilities of expanding a musician’s creative thoughts. In his mind, the new technology has the ability to enhance the sound of music. At the same time, however, he acknowledges the fact that the software could also have negative impacts upon the music world.
“With any new technology that comes out, there are people who will use it in a very efficient and creative way,” Matlock said. “These people would have had this same creative vision without this technology, so this technology can only help with creating their music. However, there are people out there who will use this kind of thing to cover up their flaws, which will produce dishonest records and that is bad for the music industry.”
Matlock points out that digitally produced music has been around for decades, so this new technology is simply an advancement in an always evolving musical world.
“In my opinion, the greatest produced album is Queens CD “Night at the Opera”, and there were a ton of altercations on that CD. That proves that technology really can help music, and that it can help create peoples musical visions,” Matlock said.
Williams, a Plattsburgh State student who regularly listens to Auto-Tune produced tracks, agrees that the software can help create musicians “musical visions”; in fact, he believes that the technology has already changed the sound of rap.
“It brought rap to a new level and gave it a new direction,” Williams said. “It has opened doors to new kinds of music and styles- it’s given rap a new sound.”
The scary thing about the Auto-Tune, however, is the fact that it makes recordings sound flawless. The singer’s voice is never off pitch; a note is never missed. On top of that, instrumentals never miss a beat in an Auto-Tune produced track. They are just as perfect as the lead singer’s voice. Therefore, this technology has the capabilities of making anyone sound good, which could make it possible for people with inadequate musical talent to make it big. Mann, however, doesn’t think that the software will allow for untalented musicians to rake in the millions; instead, he thinks the exact opposite.
“Nowadays, there are so many people that have access to the Auto-Tune, and there are so many talented musicians out there that it’s still going to be hard to get noticed,” Mann said. “Now that you can manufacture good music, it’s probably harder for people to get noticed since there are more people out there using the technology. “
Like Mann, Matlock does not believe that this new technology will allow for just anyone to get noticed in the music industry. At the same time, however, he would not be surprised if this software helped some less talented people get noticed. In his opinion, there have always been people who have gotten famous due to things other than their musical talents.
“In the pop world, we’ve always had people become big stars for things other than their musical talents. That kind of stuff has been around for a long, long, time,” Matlock said.
Since its creation in 1997, Auto-tune has taken the music industry by storm. Ever since Cher first used the software program in her 1998 hit “Believe,” artists from every genre have been flocking to the new technology in order to “tighten” up those lyrical and instrumental mishaps in their different recordings.
Developed by Dr. Harold Hildebrand of Antares Audio Technologies, Auto-Tune is a computer software program that “corrects pitch problems in vocals and other solo instruments.” Basically, this innovative technology allows for artist to achieve perfect pitch, whenever and wherever. In other words, it has made the impossible possible. It is an artist’s dream come true, and musicians ranging from Kanye West to Faith Evans are taking advantage of the software.
Not all artists, however, are incorporating this new craze into their music. For some, this new technology is a cop out. It lessens the uniqueness of music, and allows for artists to record a sound that is not their own.
For others, this technology is innovative, creative and new. It adds another element to an ever expanding music industry, and lets musicians delve into a creative technological world that has the capabilities of taking music into a whole new dimension. Put simply, the Auto-Tune makes perfection possible, and some artists can’t ignore this fact.
For some people, however, perfection is something that shouldn’t be associated with music. The uniqueness and individuality that is expressed through the songs of different musicians is what makes music so great. The diversity within the music world allows for everyone to find their own certain niche. It allows for everyone to find some sort of music that appeals to them. With this current Auto-Tune craze, however, some people believe that music is becoming less unique; it’s becoming less creative simply because everyone’s recording is becoming, well, perfect.
“I don’t really think that Auto-Tune is a bad thing, but it’s just being overused,” Said Chris Mann, a musician who has been playing guitar and piano for close to ten years. “I mean look at Lil Wayne, all he uses now is Auto-Tune; it’s just getting overdone.”
Apart from the belief that it is being overused in music nowadays, some feel as though the new software can give musicians an easy outlet.
“People who can’t sing very well are using it all the time,” said Ryan Williams, a Plattsburgh State student who constantly has the new synthesized sound “bumpin’” out of his headphones. “Look at T-Paine, he can’t sing so he just uses the Auto-Tune. His lyrics are good, but he’s obviously not good at singing, so he just uses the Auto-Tune to sounds better.”
Tim Victor, music major at Plattsburgh State, who plays a wide array of instruments including the guitar, piano, bass and xylophone, agrees that the Auto-Tune is allowing for musicians to sometimes take the easy way out.
““Artists like T-pain and Kanye West still have a tremendous amount of talent when it comes to songwriting, but at the same time they are just using the Auto-Tune as a crutch. They shouldn’t be singing- they don’t have good voices,” Victor said.
Victor also believes that this new software has lessened the amount of creativity that is found in today’s music.
“It (Auto-Tune) doesn’t allow for creativity; it gives everyone the same sound and the same voice,” Victor said. “People who don’t use it have their own personal sound and thats what makes different types of music unique. Every time you hear Auto-Tune on a track, it’s not any different than the last song you’ve heard with Auto-Tune.”
Apart from the belief that the Auto-Tune will lessen creativity, some people simply enjoy hearing a person’s real, actual voice in music. There are people out there who don’t want to hear perfection.
“I think that what talented people do with their real voice sounds much better than a voice that has been dubbed over with an Auto-Tune,” Mann said.
Others, however, disagree with the belief that the Auto-Tune limits the creativity that can be found within music. Herm Matlock, a music professor at Plattsburgh State, and the teacher of a class, entitled, “The history of American pop music in the north and south”, believes that the Auto-Tune has the capabilities of expanding a musician’s creative thoughts. In his mind, the new technology has the ability to enhance the sound of music. At the same time, however, he acknowledges the fact that the software could also have negative impacts upon the music world.
“With any new technology that comes out, there are people who will use it in a very efficient and creative way,” Matlock said. “These people would have had this same creative vision without this technology, so this technology can only help with creating their music. However, there are people out there who will use this kind of thing to cover up their flaws, which will produce dishonest records and that is bad for the music industry.”
Matlock points out that digitally produced music has been around for decades, so this new technology is simply an advancement in an always evolving musical world.
“In my opinion, the greatest produced album is Queens CD “Night at the Opera”, and there were a ton of altercations on that CD. That proves that technology really can help music, and that it can help create peoples musical visions,” Matlock said.
Williams, a Plattsburgh State student who regularly listens to Auto-Tune produced tracks, agrees that the software can help create musicians “musical visions”; in fact, he believes that the technology has already changed the sound of rap.
“It brought rap to a new level and gave it a new direction,” Williams said. “It has opened doors to new kinds of music and styles- it’s given rap a new sound.”
The scary thing about the Auto-Tune, however, is the fact that it makes recordings sound flawless. The singer’s voice is never off pitch; a note is never missed. On top of that, instrumentals never miss a beat in an Auto-Tune produced track. They are just as perfect as the lead singer’s voice. Therefore, this technology has the capabilities of making anyone sound good, which could make it possible for people with inadequate musical talent to make it big. Mann, however, doesn’t think that the software will allow for untalented musicians to rake in the millions; instead, he thinks the exact opposite.
“Nowadays, there are so many people that have access to the Auto-Tune, and there are so many talented musicians out there that it’s still going to be hard to get noticed,” Mann said. “Now that you can manufacture good music, it’s probably harder for people to get noticed since there are more people out there using the technology. “
Like Mann, Matlock does not believe that this new technology will allow for just anyone to get noticed in the music industry. At the same time, however, he would not be surprised if this software helped some less talented people get noticed. In his opinion, there have always been people who have gotten famous due to things other than their musical talents.
“In the pop world, we’ve always had people become big stars for things other than their musical talents. That kind of stuff has been around for a long, long, time,” Matlock said.
A Technological Ride of a Lifetime
By Jenna Burleigh
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Strapped inside a metal car, he’s slowly climbing to the peak of a rollercoaster. One more “tick” and the noise dies out. He draws in a deep breath before plunging over the edge. His stomach leaping into his chest, he’s racing, falling, hurling himself toward the ground at tremendous speeds.
Perhaps this is not exactly what Thomas Edison envisioned when he introduced the world to the phonograph, but music technology has progressed in a manner that resembles a rollercoaster ride.
The slow ascent of this ride technically began with the phonautograph, invented by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857. While this device could record sound, it had no way of playing it back, which is probably why many people think of Edison when it comes to early musical devices.
The phonograph came along in 1877, which first recorded the human voice. This was followed in the same year by the gramophone, invented by Emile Berliner. This is where the cart briefly pauses, just for a moment, before the plunge.
“Before the twentieth century, listening to music was a temporal, fleeting experience- and a rare treat… The invention of recording, the phonograph, brought [people] home,” writes Mark Coleman, author of “Playback: From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money.”
Technology took off, as vinyl records and spring motor record players were introduced.
By 1920, electrical and magnetic recordings, as well as amplification systems, took over for vinyl records. These inventions drove the recording industry. Also introduced in 1920 was KDKA, the first radio station.
Long-playing records and full frequency range recordings came about in the ‘40s.
At this point, we’re roaring down the track like there’s no tomorrow. That unpleasant, yet exhilarating, gut-clenching feeling is holding fast.
The ‘60s gave birth to 8-track and audio cassette tapes. Before long, these “must-haves” became obsolete with the introduction to digital media. SONY released the first digital audio recording device, “pro use,” in 1978.
The following year, SONY revolutionized music as it released the walkman portable audio cassette player, the first truly portable, personal music player.
Compact discs (CDs) became commercially available in 1988. “The technology of sound recording, writ large, has profoundly transformed modern musical life,” writes Mark Katz in Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music.
And now we’ve reached the point where our knuckles have turned white and our faces are distorted into horrific shapes as we scream until our lungs feel like they will give out.
MP3 technology became commercially available in 1987. It wasn’t until 2001 that Apple introduced the hot-ticket item the iPod, which is still one of the most popular devices sold today.
Richard Davies, music professor at Plattsburgh State, commented on the pros and cons of music technology.
One clear advantage of modern technology is definitely the availability of music. It is fast, and in many cases, literally at your fingertips. People don’t need to leave their homes to purchase an album or song they want. All it takes is an iTunes card, and anyone can download their favorite songs. “It puts everything at your hand,” Davies says.
New technology has facilitated finding musical “gems.” The internet has become an outlet for musicians to let people hear their work. “It’s good for independent artists. They’re able to get their music out,” Davies says.
The downside of the digital era is that everything starts to sound the same. “I think that’s the bad side of technology, the way music is created is kind of homogenized,” Davies says.
Brandon Frenyea, Digi-Tech specialist at Best Buy, agrees with Davies. “Digital technology loses a lot of its lust. It loses a lot of its ‘umph,’ I guess you could say.”
Frenyea says the convenience of digital media comes with the cost of better sound. “Vinyl sounded a lot better than average digital technology, but it was harder to copy. The tapes always wore out,” he says.
Surprisingly, according to Frenyea, vinyl is making a comeback. It is not likely to out-sell the oh-so-popular iPod any time soon, but some people are excited to see vinyl again.
But comeback or not, vinyl is a thing of the past, and new technology is rapidly outpacing itself. “It’s always re-innovating, always changing. There’s always something better, something bigger, something newer, something cheaper,” Frenyea says.
It is this movement that makes people, particularly younger generations, want everything to be available to them quickly.
“It’s going to keep progressing and progressing and progressing to the point where it can’t get any faster and there’s going to be a problem,” Frenyea says. “People are going to have a problem with any kind of technology if it stops moving as fast as it does.”
So this is where we are in this musical rollercoaster. We are uncertain when the ride will stop, or where it may take us, but we know there is certainly still more to come.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Strapped inside a metal car, he’s slowly climbing to the peak of a rollercoaster. One more “tick” and the noise dies out. He draws in a deep breath before plunging over the edge. His stomach leaping into his chest, he’s racing, falling, hurling himself toward the ground at tremendous speeds.
Perhaps this is not exactly what Thomas Edison envisioned when he introduced the world to the phonograph, but music technology has progressed in a manner that resembles a rollercoaster ride.
The slow ascent of this ride technically began with the phonautograph, invented by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857. While this device could record sound, it had no way of playing it back, which is probably why many people think of Edison when it comes to early musical devices.
The phonograph came along in 1877, which first recorded the human voice. This was followed in the same year by the gramophone, invented by Emile Berliner. This is where the cart briefly pauses, just for a moment, before the plunge.
“Before the twentieth century, listening to music was a temporal, fleeting experience- and a rare treat… The invention of recording, the phonograph, brought [people] home,” writes Mark Coleman, author of “Playback: From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money.”
Technology took off, as vinyl records and spring motor record players were introduced.
By 1920, electrical and magnetic recordings, as well as amplification systems, took over for vinyl records. These inventions drove the recording industry. Also introduced in 1920 was KDKA, the first radio station.
Long-playing records and full frequency range recordings came about in the ‘40s.
At this point, we’re roaring down the track like there’s no tomorrow. That unpleasant, yet exhilarating, gut-clenching feeling is holding fast.
The ‘60s gave birth to 8-track and audio cassette tapes. Before long, these “must-haves” became obsolete with the introduction to digital media. SONY released the first digital audio recording device, “pro use,” in 1978.
The following year, SONY revolutionized music as it released the walkman portable audio cassette player, the first truly portable, personal music player.
Compact discs (CDs) became commercially available in 1988. “The technology of sound recording, writ large, has profoundly transformed modern musical life,” writes Mark Katz in Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music.
And now we’ve reached the point where our knuckles have turned white and our faces are distorted into horrific shapes as we scream until our lungs feel like they will give out.
MP3 technology became commercially available in 1987. It wasn’t until 2001 that Apple introduced the hot-ticket item the iPod, which is still one of the most popular devices sold today.
Richard Davies, music professor at Plattsburgh State, commented on the pros and cons of music technology.
One clear advantage of modern technology is definitely the availability of music. It is fast, and in many cases, literally at your fingertips. People don’t need to leave their homes to purchase an album or song they want. All it takes is an iTunes card, and anyone can download their favorite songs. “It puts everything at your hand,” Davies says.
New technology has facilitated finding musical “gems.” The internet has become an outlet for musicians to let people hear their work. “It’s good for independent artists. They’re able to get their music out,” Davies says.
The downside of the digital era is that everything starts to sound the same. “I think that’s the bad side of technology, the way music is created is kind of homogenized,” Davies says.
Brandon Frenyea, Digi-Tech specialist at Best Buy, agrees with Davies. “Digital technology loses a lot of its lust. It loses a lot of its ‘umph,’ I guess you could say.”
Frenyea says the convenience of digital media comes with the cost of better sound. “Vinyl sounded a lot better than average digital technology, but it was harder to copy. The tapes always wore out,” he says.
Surprisingly, according to Frenyea, vinyl is making a comeback. It is not likely to out-sell the oh-so-popular iPod any time soon, but some people are excited to see vinyl again.
But comeback or not, vinyl is a thing of the past, and new technology is rapidly outpacing itself. “It’s always re-innovating, always changing. There’s always something better, something bigger, something newer, something cheaper,” Frenyea says.
It is this movement that makes people, particularly younger generations, want everything to be available to them quickly.
“It’s going to keep progressing and progressing and progressing to the point where it can’t get any faster and there’s going to be a problem,” Frenyea says. “People are going to have a problem with any kind of technology if it stops moving as fast as it does.”
So this is where we are in this musical rollercoaster. We are uncertain when the ride will stop, or where it may take us, but we know there is certainly still more to come.
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