Mad Men Living On in 2015? : The Unequal Pay for Equal Work Debate

Please read the following article from the Huffington Post Blogs page:

“Half a Century Later, Mad Men’s Peggy Olson Is Still Waiting for Paycheck Fairness”

For Friday, April 3rd Discussion

(I’ve been on a Mad Men binge so if you don’t like Mad Men, sorry. I’m obsessed.)

In her blog, Deborah J. Vagins discusses the still very prevalent issue of unequal pay for equal work.

In the 1960’s President Kennedy signed into effect the Equal Pay Act, which theoretically was supposed to force employers to pay their female employees the same as their male counterparts that hold the same position. Example, if a man were a copywriter and an advertising agency (Mad Men reference again), his female coworker also a copywriter would receive the same pay. In general, pretty awesome and life changing for women’s right.

However, over time loopholes were found and even today in 2015, there still is a wage gap between men and women. Most recently, an analysis of the California Capitol found that women who work in the Capitol or on legislative staff do not receive the same pay as their male counterparts. (You can find more information about this here if you’re interested).

Even in 2015, many feel like they can’t do much, quoting Vagins:

“It’s 2015 and women’s wages lag behind men, many of the tools to do anything about it are weak, and most workers still cannot talk about their pay without fear of retaliation.”

In general, women still in 2015 do not receive the same wages as men.

For fun, here’s a chart from the White House Website published in August 2014:

So what do you think:

• Are lawmakers doing enough to make “equal pay for equal work” a priority or do you think they are just sweeping it under the rug?
• Regarding the quote by Vagins, do you feel like women “cannot talk about their pay without fear of retaliation”- why or why not?
• Based on your ideas and opinions about feminism, does feminism help or hinder the progress of the “equal pay” push?

Into the Dark, Disturbing World of “Thinspiration”

**TRIGGER WARNING**: This blog post contains themes that may be triggering to people struggling with/recovering from an eating disorder.

Please read the following article, and watch this youtube video (they’re not that long, promise).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/08/thinspiration-blogs_n_1264459.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik19cU1UKb4

 

Thinspiration (“thin inspiration”) is a disturbing pocket of the popular blogging world of Tumblr. “Thinspo” blogs are blogs typically run by teenage girls with disordered eating habits, if not full-blown eating disorders. These blogs contain a range of disturbing content: from pictures of stick thin women, “motivational” quotes designed to encourage restricted food intake and overexercising, images of anorexic television characters, especially Cassie Ainsworth from the hit British TV show Skins, and tips and “boot camps” for losing weight and/or acquiring an eating disorder. These blogs also serve as an online diary, where the blog authors give personal stories, food journals, diet/exercise regimes, weight goals, personal mantras, before/after photos, photos of self injury, and other personal information that they often never share with anyone outside of the cyber community. I chose not to post any actual examples of these blogs, because the nature of the content can be strangely engrossing, and extremely triggering.

The article I assigned contains interviews with a couple authors of thinspiration blogs, and what was especially frightening is that these girls do not seem to realize how dangerous the material they post is. Not only is the material dangerous for the individual poster, but for the entire closeted community of disordered people who “rely” on each other to continue fueling their downward spirals. One of the interviewees, Natalie, regularly emails and skypes fellow tumblr users, to keep each other “motivated” to stay on the dangerous path of starvation and extreme weight loss. The article cites a couple studies to illustrate the extent of the damage incited by thinspiration: “A 2011 study conducted by researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel found that the more time teenage girls spend on social-networking sites, the more prone they are to negative body image and eating disorders.” A more extreme example comes from a residential eating disorder rehabilitation facility in Chicago, which reports that “between 30 and 50 percent of its teen patients actively use social media to support their eating disorders.”

The world of Thinspiration and online eating disorder communities are not exclusive to Tumblr. Similar communities cropped up before Tumblr was popular, and in 2001 Yahoo removed 115 pro-anorexia websites. Thus far, Tumblr has not taken any similar action, although their communications director claims that they “take it very seriously” and are “ not interested in Tumblr promoting the acceptability of damaging practices.” Now that you have had a glimpse into the world of Thinspo blogs, my question is this: what, if anything, should Tumblr do about this disturbing community? Should Tumblr follow Yahoo’s example and delete blogs with thinspo content, or should they remain an impartial server? Also, what would you say to the blog authors who claim that their disordered habits are a personal “lifestyle choice”, which they should be free to blog about?

Fifty Shades of Southern Belles?

Throughout high school, I always bumped heads with this girl named Helen. Helen wore a lot of Lilly Pulitzer and most of her family lived in South Carolina. “I just love southern boys,” she  announced to our history class one day after returning from her cousin’s cotillion. “They always hold the door open for you. And they always say thank you.”

Helen was a self-proclaimed “Southern Belle” who insisted on “traditional dating” (this meant boys “making all the moves”). She planned on attending college in the South—this was extremely important as she was most likely going to meet her future husband there. Obviously this girl does not represent the South as a whole, but I couldn’t help but be surprised after reading this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/09/people-in-the-south-are-really-into-fifty-shades-of-grey/.

More pre-sale tickets for “Fifty Shades of Grey” sold in the South than any other part of the country! Does this mean that the ideas expressed in “Fifty Shades”—submission, inegalitarian gender roles, and fairy tale romance—are ideas reflected in Southern attitudes towards women?

Something that’s fascinated me, especially since coming to GW, is how individuals are shaped by the region they’re from. Myself, for example. I speed walk everywhere without trying, I am easily frustrated by slow moving lines and tourists, I wear wool coats and own Bean boots. I’m so stereotypical and uptight—and I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m from Fairfield County, Connecticut, a region just forty-five minutes away from “The City”.

Clearly there are stereotypes about the South, too, as Helen proves. I’m sure she and her kin are easy-going, hospitable, sweet tea-drinkers (but obviously I understand that she doesn’t represent women from that region as a whole).

But in general, I feel that Southern women face more tropes than women from the Northeast. I feel as though Southern women are stereotyped as subservient, husband-doting “belles”—this article sums these stereotypes up pretty well http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheryl-st-germain/southern-women-myths-stereotypes_b_4999992.html. Or just watch an episode of TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta” (an interesting note: the show originally took place in NYC).

I wish the article was able to break down the percent of sales by gender—my guess is that more women than men bought tickets, but it would be extremely interesting if it were the opposite. Obviously, there has to be some sort of explanation why “Fifty Shades” ticket sales in the South are so high. From my perspective, this data proves that stereotypes about Southern women are more often than not true. Regionally and culturally speaking, the south must be more comfortable with the ideas that Fifty Shades represents than the North does.

Why are women in the South stereotyped so much more than women in the North? Perhaps it’s more tradition than stereotype? And if it is “Southern tradition”, is it still okay?

And, classmates from the South: do you identify or reject these stereotypes? And from your perspective, are there any stereotypes about women in the North that I may be missing?

In advertisement, are important figures more influential than super models?

In a world full of creative geniuses, in order to be successful at selling an idea or product one must reach to the target buyers in their Achilles’ heel. Please read the following articles What if all the major fashion brands ditched supermodels and hired super women instead? and ‘Super Women’ Replace Supermodels In Fashion Ads And The Results Are Epic.

Every day society is faced to advertisement. Even if an individual does not notice it, we are constantly exposed to ads that deliver the message of whether we can or cannot live with or without certain product. These advertisements picture the product very appealingly to the individual and he or she is then directly thrown into the desire of acquiring it. How do advertisements sell their idea? They hit on the buyers weak points. They present the product or idea using individuals with certain characteristics. These characteristics typically are traits any woman or men wished he or she had. By picturing the product with this “perfect individual” the public is attracted to the product.

Advertisers base their campaigns only on superficial traits that attract people. They use super models that are only known because of their flawless physical features. Buyers do not even know their names in most cases, unless it is a recognized super model. But again, to be a recognized super model you just have to fit into the perfect parameters society sets. What would happen if this advertisements substitute the super models with important figures? Would it be as effective? Or maybe even more effective?

Recently Céline, had one of the most influential writers in America, Joan Didion, pose for their sunglasses campaign. Given this, Elisa Rodriguez-Villa, was then attracted to Photoshop important woman figures in big name brands’ advertisements. About Joan Didion’s for a Cé campaign, she says “I’ve never even been able to afford a pair of socks by Céline, but all of the sudden they had my attention on so many levels”. She explains that the reason of her project is that when she recently skimming throught fashion magazines she was getting bored of seeing always the same: woman whom you did not even know their names but had the “perfect characteristics.” Rodriguez-Villa states that after seeing such an important figure, as Jian Didion, in the advertisement she was suddenly attracted to the product, an attraction she probably wouldn’t have felt if a super model was modeling it. Being this the situation, I ask you why do you think that advertisements use perfect super models to sell their products instead of actual important people whom have accomplished significant and influential things?

I would say that this is because people of such importance would be out of context posing and / or supporting these expensive brands. Take for example the photo-shopped image by Rodriguez-Villa of Malala Yousafzai with the Louis Viutton bags. Malala is an activist for female education that had lived through extreme poberty conditions and is fighting against sexism; why would she be posing besides these brands’ expensive bags? With the money needed to buy this product she could, and probably would, use it for another cause. So, do you believe if that by using important figures brands would rise their sells or people would just be confused by having to different poles in one image? Or the success of the campaign depends most likely on the product?

For more information about the Joan Didion Céline campaign visit Joan Didion Stars In Céline’s New Campaign.