Feminist News Round-up 10.06.12
Same-Sex Marriage Supported by Celebrities
If the democratic system won’t bring equality, celebrity endorsements might get you there. This week, Marie Claire magazine (owned by the same company that brought you Channel Seven) in partnership with GetUp officially announced its support for marriage equality in Australia. The magazine launched the ‘I do’ campaign, showcasing pictures of celebrities who advocate same-sex marriage.
Obviously equality is a really controversial issue right now and there will always be people who don’t care much for it. In a fit of cross-promotion, channel seven’s morning show, Sunrise, featured a debate about same-sex marriage. The obligatory rant from a Christian lobbyist made him look insane and his particular group, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), complained to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). ACL charged channel seven of failing to present the ‘debate’ in an ‘impartial’ manner, as per the Industry Code of Practice. It further urged its members to contract the program’s sponsors and ask for them to withdraw advertising funding.
You can watch the debate below:
Sunrise has not experienced a decrease in revenue, and this additional support for marriage equality might be another step towards making it possible.
Women Writing Sci-Fi/Fantasy
While male authors have traditionally dominated the science fiction and fantasy genres, it seems in Australia there has been an increase in women writing the genre. And picking up a lot of prizes on the way. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, ‘fantasy has become something of a girls club’.
Condescension in the Workplace
Research from Harvard, NYU, and the University of Utah has shown that, as reported in Jezebel, ‘it is nearly impossible for men in “traditional” marriages (i.e. men whose wives don’t work) to treat women equally in the workplace.’ Interestingly, it doesn’t necessarily mean that male business leaders hate women or think that they aren’t capable of good work. Rather, as postulated in The Atlantic, ‘They are probably thinking of women as fragile beings who need to be taken care of, that want to stay at home and raise kids and don’t want to take risks and move to the top.’ These men were less inclined to give women a promotion and more likely to think the prevalence of women in the workplace was a bad thing. Given the same qualifications, they are also likely to think a job applicant with a female-name is significantly less desirable as an employee than an applicant with a male name.
Girls Score Highly
Marathwada, a region of India, has made headlines for having an extremely skewed gender ratio (more boys than girls) and a high level of illegal abortions on the basis of gender (also known as female foeticide). Nonetheless, the girls of the region have performed highly in a recent medical entrance examination. 22.32% of girls passed the test in the medical category. Only 13.66% boys were able to do so. Director of Directorate of Medical Education and Research, Pravin Shingare, said: ‘Girls have outshone the boys in Marathwada region. This has a lot of social significance as the same region is known for poor sex ratio and illegal abortions of female foetuses.’
(Image source: 1)
