Welcome! We're glad you found us. This is a class blog for Women in Performance: Choreographies of Resistance (WMST/DNCE 323) at California State University San Marcos. Throughout the semester we will be focusing on a range of topics with an emphasis on movement and feminism. "[We take on] multiple perspectives of women who have resisted cultural norms to forge new and brave perspectives on the body". This blog will help the students to create an exploration of the course material in relation to real world connections and experiences. Please feel free to take a look around, post questions, or comments. We hope you enjoy our findings and learn something new in the process.

Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racism. Show all posts

Thursday, March 15, 2012

No Feminism, Just Colors


by: Zhiqi Zhou
In "Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism," the author not only depicts feminism but also feminism of colors which sparks my brain in a multi-racial way. We have been talking about feminism all along in this class, and I am not going to address feminism any more. I want to point out my concerns of racism on mass media nowadays. In 2010, US demographics census reports: Whites are 63.7%, Blacks are 12.2%, Hispanic or Latino are 16.3% of the US population. Now, let us move the focus of our eyes to the mass media, TV, advertisements, movies, newspaper. Generally, this demographic statistics tells us, for every 6 white people you see on mass media, there should be an appearance of a black person, or for every 4 white people, you should see a Hispanic person. Is it how things are in real life? My answers is no. To intuitively support my point of view, I want to use a Corona commercial as example. In the commercial, there are four people drinking on the beach, and three of them are white and one is black. The commercial majorly focus on a white couple flirting with each other and drinking corona. Surprisingly, the black person in the commercial only makes a "hard-to-see" appearance. What did I think when I saw the commercial? I thought the commercial maker didn't want the commercial to be too racist so he or she put a black clown there to make it appear less offensive. However, all of this seems to be so overly done that audience like me would obviously notice the commercial maker's intention and the black "clown."


Corona Commercial Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bfsE-VMqQk    

Racism


by: Megan MacDonald

I don’t understand it. RACCCC-IIII-SSSSM. I try to sound it out with my mouth but it doesn’t make sense to me. When I see someone I see him or her as a human being, Not man or woman. Not black or brown or white. When I see someone I see him or her for the person I see portrayed through his or her actions. Color has never mattered to me. If someone has a positive outlook and a driven sense of accomplishment they are more than qualified to be my friend. I love every single person for the good qualities in them; if you consciously look for the good in people you will never be disappointed. When others allow racism and anti feminist philosophy to encourage the way they live their lives is when I know they are not fighting for what is right but what is known and of popular belief. When I am confronted with people of this nature I try to be as neutral as I can, however as a an independent accomplished, feminist woman it is hard for me to look back at the actions of these individuals and not argue. When judgment becomes based on color of skin instead of content of character is when I stop listening to mainstream media who views the value of an individual based on color and appearance instead of intelligence and talent.