Chicago's Own Pagina en Blanco

It has come to light recently that mayor Daley's nephew committed a crime that was covered up for a long time. His nephew  was drunk and punched another man who was at the same bar. The man died at the scene. Daley found out about the incident and called the Chicago police covered it up in order to maintain his family's reputation. The mother has just spoke up against this revealing the truth. She is suing the cops for changing the story just for the mayor's reputation. Read more here.

This article was interesting to me because of our Pagina en Blanco projects that we did in class. I think that this is a perfect example of this. This event was whitewashed from the history of the Daley family because it could have caused problems with his image. They wanted the public to focus on mayor Daley's career and have nothing distract from the way he is perceived.

This is alarming because people in power are able to control what the public finds out. The police, who I consider to be very trustworthy are the bad guys in this situation. It's hard to believe that they were in on this too. Whatever the authorities say we are supposed to trust, but these paginas en blanco are what make me question the reliablitiy of the government.

You Are What You Wear

After watching the documentary called MISSrepresentation in class, I started to become more aware of sexist comments in the media. Specifically referring to women in a professional position. I saw a video on the Huffington Post of a news anchor making an extremely offensive comment. (video)

The man in the video said that women should use their bodies as an asset to help them be successful in court. This made me think about sexism in the workplace. Women are often put under the spotlight for what we wear in a professional setting. Not because of the quality of the clothes, but how they fit our bodies. One woman could be accused of looking inappropriate because of her body type and how the clothes look on her while another could be ignored. This is something that should not be happening. 

A woman should never have to feel like she should use this method to command attention. The news anchor is basically saying it would be strategic to show off your body so that men would be distracted. Because obviously women aren't smart enough to succeed otherwise. 

Tough Crowd

How many times have you been on YouTube and seen someone comment something like: "If you put yourself out there, you should expect criticism." ? For me, the answer is many. People often use this as an excuse to comment something mean. It makes people feel better about the fact that they are posting something extremely rude on a complete stranger's video, picture or post. 

My mom came across this video and showed me it explaining that she thought it was so cute. She couldn't stop laughing at the boy's mature way of speaking. I agreed, and was shocked when I found an  article talking about the criticism that the parents received after posting this video. (article)

The author of this article is appalled that anyone could say such things and make these assumptions about a family that they've never met. "The onlookers were jumping to conclusions about a family they knew nothing about with nothing to go on except their prejudices." 

I completely agree with Navarrette (the author) when he says this. It is unfair to assume things about a family from a 3 minute video of their (very cute) toddler trying to convince his mom to give him a cupcake. 

Earlier in the article he says: "This isn't about privacy; when you post content online, you give up the right to privacy. This is about propriety; it's about having manners, knowing your place, and respecting boundaries. Just because someone posts wedding pictures doesn't mean you criticize the bride's dress." What Navarrette is saying is that this is a matter of being nice. I think that no matter what, if people put themselves out there,  they are still people and still have feelings. It is not worth it to assume things about these people because of a post on a social media site.

Don't Give It To a Russian

There is a new campaign in Ukraine called "Don't Give It To A Russian"  The campaign is meant in protest of Russian actions in Crimea such as kidnapping, taking away rights, limiting journalism and other things. read more about the issue here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10723540/Ukrainian-women-launch-sex-strike-against-Russian-men.html.

The idea of a "sex strike" has apparently been around for a while and is an attempt to control men. I can't decide whether I think this is degrading that these women are doing this or not. I think that they are standing up for what they believe in, but do you really have to say that you won't have relations with any Russian man because of the dictatorship that they are most likely not directly responsible for? 

I think that part of this protest is being done for attention. When the men are deprived of these relationships with women then maybe they will be more motivated to stand up for them. The only reason I really clicked on this article is because I had never heard of something like a "sex strike" and the idea seemed so weird to me. I understand that women are trying to be smart by commanding power over men in anyway that they can but I can't help but think that this isn't going to do anything. It definitely is a new way of protesting.