In a pop culture class I took last semester, the professor felt that my generation—traditionally referred to by scholars as “Generation Y”—could more aptly be named “The Internet Generation.” Truly, my life revolves around the services of the Internet, and I couldn’t imagine existing without it. Whenever I want information about anything at all, I simply click on my Google bookmark and suddenly have a world of knowledge at my fingertips. In the same vein, it is incredibly exciting and convenient to attend college in such a technologically advanced era; all of my research is conducted through online engines that search scholarly journals and books, and I even get to take a class on blogging!
The online resources and blogs that I will be referring to as I blog over the course of this semester are of great interest to me, and I know they will prove invaluably helpful. For instance, one of my resources—the homepage of the See Jane project—will enhance my knowledge of gender portrayals in the media. This is a passionate interest of mine, and I predict that I will write several blogs on the topic. The See Jane project will provide me with updates on the research being conducted to quantify gender portrayals in media, especially children’s programming. Here is the mission statement of the project:
Gender equity has progressed in many ways, but male characters still dominate television, movies, and other media for young children. Since women and girls make up half of the human race, the presence of a wide variety of female characters in our children's earliest media is essential for both girls' and boys' development. See Jane seeks to engage professionals and parents in a call to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters -- and to reduce gender stereotyping -- in media made for children 11 and under.
The goal of the website, thus, is to provide adults with information about how many women are being portrayed in children’s media and how they could potentially affect Hollywood policymakers’ decisions regarding gender equality for their children’s sake. This website will provide me with information I would not be able to access anywhere else because the complete findings of the studies being conducted (several of which took place at USC’s Annenberg, and for one of which I was a researcher) have not yet been published. Thus, this resource is Internet-specific.
Another online resource of mine, the website for Ms. Magazine, will continually keep me updated with the articles that the premier feminist magazine is publishing. Although the website is replicating a print source and is not Internet-specific, it will be helpful for me to have news about what is helping or endangering the livelihoods of women right at my fingertips. The website, which is geared towards a feminist audience (male or female), features daily feminist news, information about how to become a part of or aid the “We had Abortions” petition that Ms. sponsors, and provides links to three feminist blogs that are written by Ms. staff members. I predict that these three blogs, written through the same feminist lens as the magazine, will provide me with a deeper insight into the Ms. foundation itself as well as feminism in general. I will continually check the news posted on this website for inspiration for my own feminist perspective and so that I will write a better, more enticing blog.
A blog I found interesting and added to my resources list is called “Hey Ladies: Anything and Everything from a Woman’s Point of View,” and recently featured a blog titled “You Might Be a Feminist If…” This blog entry focuses on the writer’s opinion that women have not been doing a very good job of informing their daughters about the world improvements that the feminist movement has brought on in the past few decades, and this is why current girls tolerate names such as “bitch” or “whore.” Although the woman’s writing style seems a bit unprofessional, I enjoy reading her perspectives on society and feminism. The blogger may be able to provide me with inspiration and empowerment when it comes to my own blog. As for the blog’s audience, the writer intends to speak to women about current issues pertaining to females. Obviously, since this is an online piece of writing, it is Internet-specific and is not replicating a printed source, and the blog is linked to several other pieces of online writing pertaining to gender—one of which, I was surprised and giddy to see, is my own blog!
All of the aforementioned online sites are just of few of the helpful and fascinating resources I found thanks to the incredible information-diffusing power of the Internet. The will prove invaluable in the formation of “Sugar and Spice or Rough and Tough?” over the course of this semester, and will help me grow as a feminist and as a human being.
