Missrepresentation in Politics

The under and misrepresentation of women in politics is much worse than anyone could have expected, subtly and sometimes more blatantly woven into discussions so that even women start to believe them. I know that there aren’t enough women in politics, and the problem of under-representation is one that I can understand. One that can easily be solved by just adding more women to the political sphere. The connection between under and misrepresentation, however, is one that I did not make. The reason there aren’t many women in politics is because of the way women are portrayed, taking away potential role models for young girls who want to become later involved. This vicious cycle results in the status quo: a world ruled by men.

Since fourth grade, I have wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice. One of my role models was Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first female woman of color on the Supreme Court. I always had her to look up to, and before I was exposed to a lot of media- I never really heard anything bad about her. My opinion of her was one of a little girl trying to find someone like her, and while she was not a black woman of color (like I later found in Yvette Mcgee Brown), it was enough for me. Imagine not even having that. Imagine a world where women are slammed by media if they manage to make it to a position of power in the first place. Oh wait, that's just the world we live in.

The saddest thing about it is seeing the way that media has changed over the course of even my lifetime, and the effect that it has had on both of my younger sister. My sister in eighth grade has become caught up in a world of shaming women for the way they look and idealizing a certain figure that is very hard to come by. While she doesn’t see it as rude, she makes comments that put other women down and is much more focused on appearances than the actual content. Due to this shallow analysis of the world, she knows barely anything about politics and women in power outside of Michelle Obama. She has no one to emulate and sees only women being put down so that is what she embodies. Another girl who caved to the ways of the world

Sonia Sotomayor in black formal shirt and with arms crossed, looking straight into camera smiling

Comments

Politics in the English Language (Orwell)

1. I agree with Orwell's position. While basic language may be an instrument of growth, we use language for more than mere communication He goes into detail about how politicians twist their words and intentionally create vagueness to confuse and appease the masses- something that had been a successful political tactic. When used properly, language is for communication, but when used more manipulatively, it can become a weapon, with fallacies illustrating the way we use language to a achieve a negative goal. Even as I right this, I am torn between sounding super professional and using a bunch of fillers words so I can make this blogpost reach half a page. 2.Orwell objects to ready made phrases and mixed metaphors because they are overdone and no longer cause an image to form in a reader's mind, they are often misused, and when they are utilized, it is because writes have become lazy and are trying to avoid investing time and effort into creating their own unique phrases. ...

feminism in media

What does it mean to be a feminist? By definition, feminism means “ the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” So anyone who believes that men and women should be equal meets this definition. Unfortunately, this definition of a feminist has been warped by the media to mean something else entirely. Now a feminist is seen as someone who hates men, believes that women should be in power, and doesn’t shave their legs (what men usually believe) or must always be going to protests, advocating for equal rights, stopping every person that makes a joke, and owning their body 100%, someone who never does things for a man (what women usually believe). The problem is, nothing good comes out of these definitions. The only result is people feeling left out of “being a feminist” or do not want to identify with that term because it stands for something that many think of as bad. Media has been the main factor in spreading these two definitions. Look at things like the ...

no one reads anymore and i am distraught

What happened to reading? What happened to getting into bed late at night with a book and not wanting to sleep because you are in the middle of a good chapter but every chapter is a good chapter so once you finish the good chapter you still aren’t ready to sleep because there are so many more and your parents come into your room and it’s 11 but you are in third grade and your bedtime is 8:30 so you wait for them to sleep then you pull out the super cool pen you have that has a flashlight at the end of it then you read until you fall asleep with the book in your lap and when you wake up in the morning the light is still on and you have lost your page so you quickly search for it as you rub the sleep out of your eyes and hurry up to get dressed so you can read on the couch? Just me? Oddly specific anecdote aside, it has been so long since I have been able to get together with someone and talk about a book in depth. Not a school book, but a book we have both read in our spare time...

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