Do you see me?

Do you see me? I don’t think you do, so let me shed some light and quote Nayyirah Waheed,”Never trust anyone who says they do not see color. This means to them, you are invisible,” and this invisibility cloak extends to gender.

I asked a simple question about women’s roles in movies. Most of the people referred to movies produced in the last two decades spanning approximately 12,000 A-listed films. From the titles listed by my family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, a list of about 45 movies was compiled where the woman is the strong protagonist, not a comic book character, not bitchy, and not looking for romance. People listed movies, TV series, short films that expanded well beyond A-listed films and was encompassing a base of closes 50,000 movies and only about 45 tiles could be conjured up.

On average, most people watch 5 hours of TV daily. According to IMDb since 1900 an average 2577 movies are produced per year. In the past 10 years, things have exploded from 4584 in 2005 to 9387 in 2015.

Do you see me?

In 4,370 speaking/named characters on screen (good/bad/indifferent):
100 top‐grossing films of 2015
68.6% male
31.4% female
Gender ratio of 2.2 males/1 female.

There has been no meaningful change between 2007 and 2015.

Of the 100 top films of 2007- 2015
32% depicted a female lead/co lead
5 films portrayed female leads/co leads 45 years of age or older
26 films portrayed male leads/co leads 45 years of age or older.

When you do see me, what am I?
from 2007-2015
12% Women protagonists
30.2% women in sexually revealing clothing
7.7% men in sexually revealing clothing
29% women nudity
9.5% male nudity

100 top‐grossing films of 2015
1,365 directors, writers, and producers:
81% men
19% women.
107 directors
92.5% men
7.5% women.

2007-2015 in 800 films and 886 directors
4.1% women directors
Gender ratio of 24 men/1 female.
3 Black women directors
1 Asian female director

Women-directed films had 6.8% more females on screen
Women-written films had 7.5% more females on screen

The above data is from, Stacy Smith: The data behind Hollywood’s sexism

Why is the film industry important? Because the growing body of psychological research and theory on gender and leadership note, there are role incongruities and prejudice toward females and female leaders when it comes from the social information people receive from their daily lives. Storytelling is important. Women are being left out of that history, left out of the dialogue, and portrayed in sexualized and trivialized ways. What we see on-screen and what we see in the world, does not match. Stories tell us what societies value and they offer us lessons.

Prejudice is learned, and to white men of privilege, they do not see women. Therefore, women, you need to share your stories of strength and preserve our history.

#Womeninspirechange #doclead #bywomen #WICCD

MOVIE LIST: woman is the strong protagonist, not a comic book character, not bitchy, and not looking for romance

Helen Keller
Corrina, Corrina
The Blind Side
Tracks
Driving Miss Daisy
Erin Brockovich
Sister Act
A League of Their Own
The Help
9 to 5
Mame
Contact
Gravity
Hidden Figures
Denial
Temple Gardin
The Iron Lady
Elizabeth
Anne of Green Gables
The Legend of Billie Jean
Joan of Arc
Julie and Julia
To Kill A Mockingbird
Philomena
Matilda
Gorillas in the Mist
Silkwood
Norma Rae
Panic Room
“Merkel” – yet to be released
Alien – Saga
Victor Victoria
Orphan Black
Million Dollar Baby
Silence of the Lambs
GI Jane
Sister Cities
Extremities
Dead Calm
Brokedown Palace
Changeling
Mad Max: Fury Road
Agora
The Whistleblower

May 13, 2017

Mother’s Day Gift Idea

Women inspire change! This year I have been investing in people; people that uphold equal humanity. Therefore, I want to help you find a story, one that speaks to you and in doing so you can help to change a life. Just go to Kiva and start your own portfolio or send a gift card for someone to join. There you have the chance to make a loan to people in more than 80 countries so they can start businesses, go to school and improve life for their families.

It’s your choice, inspire change.

#WomenInspireChange #Kiva

May 1, 2017

Through the looking glass and the Trump women

“Trump won white women without college degrees by 27 points in November. He lost college-educated white women by 7 points to Clinton.” As I read the latest Washington Post article, “‘Just knowing he’s here makes me feel good’: Women at NRA convention”, along with sipping on my morning coffee, all I could do was laugh then recoil in fear as the nightmare unfolds that we are in Wonderland where the ruler is the “King of the Duds.” “Trump’s approval rating has been trending downward among women since he took office, …just 34 percent among all women.” I am awake, together with more women as they awake, we might be able to pull others out of this world of nonsense.

Now, let me be plain-spoken, Donald J Trump is a Demagogue. In, January, I shook up the hornet’s nest and ostended, “he is a leader that exploits prejudice and ignorance.”

Let me illustrate, a woman, “Jansen, doesn’t understand why, in her words, ‘so many topics have become controversial, such as Trump’s business ties.'” She continues, “‘He’s doing nothing but things for us. . . . To the resistance, it’s like, follow him. Take a chance. Follow him. He’s your leader.'” The absurdity of her quote makes things become, curiouser and curiouser! “‘I’ll be damned if anybody’s going to tell me that I can and can’t do something.’ ” Thereupon, she denotes to hell with laws and rules, the things that define government. Her irrationality is the embodiment of ungovernable, blind, and aimless fury.

Lafavor, a woman, “’born and raised in the woods.’” Equates the NRA rally and her Second Amendment right to a “‘man’s playground,” she said, waving her hand toward the convention hall. ‘This is Disney World for men. . . . It’s comfortable, familiar for me, personally. But most women, not so much.’” To this I scream, “wake up”.

Finally, when the dirt is laundered, it remains about money. “’I’m ready for that wall to be built,'” said Patricia Valentine, 67, who is adamant about deporting Mexican citizens. Be that as it may, DJT in this very rally said, “’freedom is a gift from God.’” Does your leader have the holy retribution to take what God has given another? Dolefully, his followers are lost on the simple and logical connection. Valentine continues, “’I’m ready for him to cut taxes on businesses like my husband had,'” and inescapably, there it is – Capitalism. Money is their blood of life.

As I questioned before, “why did legions believe that an elitist would lead them to salvation and financial freedom? That answer is simple. It is the nature of a demagogue to exploit the ignorant.”

With that said, I will continue to uphold equal humanity for it is in my nature.

April 29, 2017April 29, 2017

A riddle

A Riddle –

A man and his child are driving on I-95, and they’re in a terrible accident. The father is killed. The seriously injured child is unconscious and airlifted to the nearest Level I Trauma Center. As they’re bringing the child off the helicopter to the arriving trauma team, the Trauma Surgeon-in-Chief runs up and says, “I can’t treat this kid, that’s my child.”

How is this possible?

A conversation between two women.
WHITE WOMAN (WW): All women face the same oppression as women. All women are similarly situated in patriarchy, and therefore all women have a kind of intuitive solidarity or sisterhood.

BLACK WOMAN (BW): I’m not so sure. Let me ask you a question. So, when you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, what do you see?

WW: I see a woman.

BW: You see, that’s the problem for me. Because when I wake up in the morning and I look in the mirror, I see a black woman. To me, race is visible. But to you, race is invisible. You don’t see it.

And that’s how privilege works. You see, privilege is invisible to those who have it. It is a luxury. Privilege is invisible to those who have it!

As I have quoted before;
“Never trust anyone who says they do not see color.
This means to them, you are invisible.”
― Nayyirah Waheed

Men are invisible. “What?”
When people hear the word “gender,” they think it means women, gay, lesbian, bisexual. Until women can confront a men’s sense of entitlement, I don’t believe that we will understand why a great number of men resist gender equality. Men don’t have a gender. This is one of the ways that dominant systems maintain and reproduce themselves. Rarely is a dominating system challenged to think about its dominance; that’s one of the keys to power and privilege, the ability to go unexamined, lacking introspection, in fact, being rendered invisible. White men in the United States and Europe are the beneficiaries of the single greatest affirmative action program in the history of the world; they are invisible.

The lack of speaking out is silence, and isn’t silence a form of consent and complicity? We have heard that before in male rhetoric around female violence. “She didn’t say no”. That leads to the next question, why are men left out of the term, “female violence”?

“In the end, what will hurt the most is not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
― Martin Luther King

Humanity needs more adult men with power to start prioritizing these issues because gender equality is good for men. Young men want lives where they have a marvelous relationship with their child; where their children are safe from predators. They expect their partners to work outside the home and be just as committed to their careers as they are. When men participate in housework and childcare, their kids are happier and healthier. When men share housework and childcare, their wives are happier. When men share, they live longer, are happier, have daughters with high esteem, sons believing in gender equality, and they themselves are more successful and more profitable in business.

The World Economics Forum was reporting that it wouldn’t be until 2133 until Equal Pay would be a reality, but with recent global changes, it has been pushed back to 2186. Sadly, it will take 7 generations until that female Trauma Surgeon-in-Chief, the child’s mother, will be paid equally.
PS: Alternatively, it could have been one of the child’s two dads. Upholding equal humanity.

#womeninspirechange #HeforShe

April 12, 2017

Wednesday Wreading: Like a Winding Sheet

Originally published in Vogue, the story chronicles the conflicted thoughts and feelings of Louise Mallard upon hearing of the death of her husband.

“Like a Winding Sheet” by Ann Petry (1945)

April 9, 2017April 9, 2017

Women Who Hate Women

Women who hate women

What is cultural sexism?
It refers to the selectively unjustified negative behavior against women or men as members of a social category. It is particularly used to denote discrimination against girls and women. Research has suggested four levels of sexism? Individual, social/structural, institutional, and cultural.

If women hate women, what is a female misogynist?
Simply put, a misogynist is that person who hates women.

Recent Office Scenario:
Recently a woman called the office, set up an emergency appointment for the next morning. The next day she shows up 45 minutes late. She never called to inform staff she was going to be late or reschedule. Furthermore, there was no emergency. When my female manager canceled her appointment, she became belligerent. One could hear the childish rant as she huffed off after attacking with women with vulgar comments. Well, when she received her no-show/same day cancellation bill, things became hysterically comical over the phone. All of her attacks were towards the women in the office on a personal, educational, social, and cultural levels.

This lead to an open discussion with my staff about the self professing, “fun loving, peace happy” woman. My Team believed if it were a male physician, this would not have happened. If she were talking to a male manager, she would not have continued her unjustified negative behavior. There was a clear understanding that they were attacked for being women. They evaluated her previous visits & encounters noticing several key points. We know that education is the key to success. So let’s get educated on how a female misogynist behaves.

How to Identifying a Female Misogynist

She will zero in on a woman and choose her as their target.
As time goes on, her Dr. Jekyll & Ms. Hyde personality begins to show. She may change quickly from charming to rude, and from rude back to charming.
She will make promises to her women friends and often fails to keep them. With men, on the other hand, she will almost always keep her word.
She will be late for appointments and get-togethers with her women friends, but be quite punctual with men.
Her behavior toward women, in general, is extravagant, bitchy, controlling, and self-centered.
She is extremely competitive, especially with women. If a woman does better than her socially or professionally, she feels terrible and may attack aggressively towards them.
She will unknowingly treat women differently from men in the workplace and social settings, allowing men various liberties for which she will criticize female colleagues or friends.

According to Psychology Today:
” Women haters get off on treating women badly. Every time they can put down a woman or hurt her feelings, they unconsciously feel good because deep down in their hidden brain, their bad behavior is rewarded with a dose of the pleasure chemical dopamine—which makes them want to repeat the behavior again and again.”

Here are a few come-backs to choke the fire and break the cycle.

1. You’re the adult, control the behavior quickly
“Did you just say that…in the office? Tone it down. ” Make it non-negotiable.

2. Volley back against predictable attacks
Go there first. “Ms.X, you’re getting emotional. Let’s get back to the issue–whether this or that.”

3. Call out the insult directly
“It sounds like you’re calling our office women dumb, and that hurts my feelings! You need to stay on topic without being offensive”.

We are exposed to misogynistic attacks by men and women based on our individual reasons, social interactions, the level of education, and lifestyle customs. Hence, giving your female team the ability to have strategies for a verbal repartee is important and makes your workplace a little better for the other women around you.

#womeninspirechange

#supportwomen

April 5, 2017

Wednesday Wreading: The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour | Kate Chopin

A woman is given the news that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Over the next hour, she thinks about what her life will be and experiences a range of emotions.

Read Here

April 2, 2017April 2, 2017

Women and not girls

THERE WAS ONCE

Copied from: Blip Magazine Archive – NEW WORLD WRITING

“There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest.”

“Forest? Forest is passé, I mean, I’ve had it with all this wilderness stuff. It’s not a right image of our society, today. Let’s have some urban for a change.”

“There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the suburbs.”

“That’s better. But I have to seriously query this word poor.”

“But she was poor!”

“Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor.”

“But none of the money was hers! The whole point of the story is that the wicked stepmother makes her wear old clothes and sleep in the fireplace-”

“Aha! They had a fireplace! With poor, let me tell you, there’s no fireplace. Come down to the park, come to the subway stations after dark, come down to where they sleep in cardboard boxes, and I’ll show you poor!”

“There was once a middle-class girl, as beautiful as she was good-”

“Stop right there. I think we can cut the beautiful, don’t you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can’t you make her, well, more average?”

“There was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out, who-”

“I don’t think it’s nice to make fun of people’s appearances. Plus, you’re encouraging anorexia.”

“I wasn’t making fun! I was just describing-”

“Skip the description. Description oppresses. But you can say what colour she was.”

“What colour?”

“You know. Black, white, red, brown, yellow. Those are the choices. And I’m telling you right now, I’ve had enough of white. Dominant culture this, dominant culture that-”

“I don’t know what colour.”

“Well, it would probably be your colour, wouldn’t it?”

“But this isn’t about me! It’s about this girl-”

“Everything is about you.”

“Sounds to me like you don’t want to hear this story at all.”

“Oh well, go on. You could make her ethnic. That might help.”

“There was once a girl of indeterminate descent, as average-looking as she was good, who lived with her wicked-”

“Another thing. Good and wicked. Don’t you think you should transcend those puritanical judgmental moralistic epithets? I mean, so much of that is conditioning, isn’t it?”

“There was once a girl, as average-looking as she was well-adjusted, who lived with her stepmother, who was not a very open and loving person because she herself had been abused in childhood.”

“Better. But I am so tired of negative female images! And stepmothers-they always get it in the neck! Change it to stepfather, why don’t you? That would make more sense anyway, considering the bad behaviour you’re about to describe. And throw in some whips and chains. We all know what those twisted, repressed, middle-aged men are like-”

“Hey, just a minute! I’m a middle-aged-”

“Stuff it, Mister Nosy Parker. Nobody asked you to stick in your oar, or whatever you want to call that thing. This is between the two of us. Go on.”

“There was once a girl-”

“How old was she?”

“I don’t know. She was young.”

“This ends with a marriage, right?”

“Well, not to blow the plot, but-yes.”

“Then you can scratch the condescending paternalistic terminology. It’s woman, pal. Woman.”

“There was once-”

“What’s this was, once? Enough of the dead past. Tell me about now.”

“There-”

“So?”

“So, what?”

“So, why not here?”

Photo by: Ryan McGuire

March 30, 2017April 5, 2017

The Perspective Drawing Room on ERA

The post I placed on Facebook was meant for spin and reflection. It is an interesting look into the drawing room of a man’s mind with regards to the equal rights amendment and accepted subjugation of women in the workplace & home.

Women, you need to get mad, very mad. History shows that this will not end well for us.

Dialogue:

What hollow words from a pro-misogynistic and ineffectual leader. Show women you have advanced beyond your pussy grabbing, children voyeur, body shaming tactics that got you elected. Your behavior may have been acceptable to the minority of women who voted for you, but you are grossly inadequate and unacceptable to the majority of women in the United States. Elevate women, finish the deal and provide constitutional protection with liberty and justice for all. Women are entitled to equality of rights under the law that shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the account of sex.

MAN: I’m a little confused, Jenneffer. What “Constitutional Protection” and “Equality of Rights” are Currently being denied women by President Trump?

ME: What I wrote was for him to elevate women and provide them constitutional protection. Equal rights for all has been unfinished business in the United States. Doing so would not require spending or a budget. So maybe this is a deal he can finish.

MAN: You still didn’t answer the question as to what specific Constitutional protections and rights women are Currently being denied?

ME: Let me ask you, other than voting/suffrage, where are a women’s rights protected? Amendment 14 does not reflect equality, but discusses the rights guaranteed. Such that you are not deprived, but it does not protect equality of sexes. Equality. I wan…See More
Like · Reply · 2 · 13 hrs

MAN: OK, Jenneffer. I have no argument with “Equality”,and I respect, your position of a “Level playing field”. Maybe my gender, (and age) 😉 prevents me from seeing where women are denied “Equal Justice”. Would you propose “Tilting” the Playing field to achieve your goal?

ME: I want an agreement of equality protected by my government. I did not detail any tilting in my statement.
Like · Reply · 4 · 12 hrs

MAN: Last comment: (Promise) >>> I See just the opposite. The minute you get the government involved in “Equalization”, you HAVE “Tilted” the playing field. (Just another form of “Affirmative Action”). The laws are already there preventing discrimination. Our constitution guarantees Equal opportunity, NOT Equal Outcome.
Like · Reply · 1 hr · Edited

ME: No, they are already “tilted” in favor of men. Men hold rights and women if treated unequally, must prove that they hold them. Scalia brought forth that women and men are not equal in the Constitution, specifically the 14th Amendment, does not protect against sex discrimination. A person may not be deprived certain liberties, but women are not entitled to equal distribution of them. There’s nothing the courts can do to protect women from government-sanctioned discrimination. Laws preventing women from working in certain professions, using property, building credit, obtaining bank loans/credit cards without husband consent, serving on juries, or working at night were upheld under this standard. Equal rights under the Constitution remove any ambiguity and allows the Courts a clear directive to rule on cases if need be.
Our country is founded on the Constitution; 50% of the people within the United States are not clearly addressed. The 14th Amendment additionally, directs the jurisdiction to the States to uphold the equal protection of the laws. It is possible a State may take away a women’s rights, and the Court will not have a Constitutional ground to rule in favor of equality.

Note: Title IX, addresses some of these issues, but it only addresses public and private schools/universities that receive federal funding.
Like · Reply · 2 mins

ME: Thank you that was fun.

This was written in response to Trump revoking the 2014 Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces order on March 27. Two rules were lost that had the strongest impact on women workers: paycheck transparency and a ban on forced arbitration clauses for sexual harassment, sexual assault or discrimination claims. By overturning the Fair Pay order, Trump made it possible for businesses with federal contracts to force sexual harassment cases into secret proceedings. He is doing a great job of protecting his business partners and has opened the door to work place sex discrimination and sexual harassment, which is to be expected from a man that brags about his pussy grabbing skills. Female employee’s beware, claims against a company will be hidden again and you will not know who your sexual predators are, such as DJT himself.
Paycheck transparency is lost, making it harder for women to rectify discriminatory wages and the pay gap only increases as women become more educated and climb the corporate ladder. The previous Administration realized the abuse though the Government Accountability Office and even published a report detailing the Federal Labor Law Violations by selected federal contractors.
Two words: Misogynistic Demagogue.