Framing #2

Find a few (3-4) examples of frames from groups that you feel do a particularly good job of framing, at least related to how they speak to you.  Discuss why they work.


The "Make it Better" movement which has evolved from the "It Gets Better" movement is one that I think illustrates really well done framing.  In fact, if "Make it better" didn't already exist, I probably would have used "It Gets Better" in my "Framing #1" post.  The message of "It gets better" is... static and for many people it could be perceived as completely not comforting, but rather passive and with a lack of seriousness.  The "Make it Better" movement promotes action and ownership for one's experience, and that is something that no one can take away and I whole-heartedly support action over waiting... for anything. 


Because I went to the DC Walk to End Modern Slavery this past weekend, my interest and past experience working/volunteering in the field of human and sex trafficking has been brought back to life.  I really appreciated the focus of domestic trafficking at this walk, because I have recently decided to no longer pursue an "international" career (even though I'm an International Studies concentration) and rather focus on domestic gender issues- women and girls' rehabilitation and education for self-sufficiency. Anyways, I also really like how the overall movement against human trafficking speaks to how trafficking does not only occur for sexual purposes- which is what is mostly heard of; but rather to a broader spectrum of slavery- especially labor.  My fiancee and I would like to collaborate at some point in the future with her work in the fair-trade, organic coffee industry and were just reading an article on one of her past employer's actions to push fair-trade because of the incredibly lower amounts of trafficked laborers in this situation. 


The pro-choice movement definitely makes sense for me, because agency, especially with one's body is vital to ending gender discrimination.  The argument that women need options that are safe and legal is so important- because even if these things are not in place- women will get abortions, however they will be exponentially more harmful with more consequences.  I saw this video of this man who was walking into a clinic to get an abortion because their unborn child was diagnosed with a condition that has a 0% survival chance, and when they got there, there were protesters screaming, etc. There was an update video of the man going to talk with the people who were protesting. Have a look for yourself: http://goodmenproject.com/2010/10/23/confronting-life/
PS: I especially like the line "Oh, You want to stand out in public, but don't want to make public statements?!"

Framing #1

Find an example of a movement that you agree with presenting their issue or argument and describe how you would reframe it to appeal to a wider audience.  Talk about why you made the change and how you hope it to be more effective.


The women's sexual liberation movement is one that I think could be reframed in order to gain a wider audience, and a more true response.  Right now, the women's sexual liberation movement is... exploitive, because of an overt confusion of what it means to be "sexually liberated."  Take for instance, the "Girls Gone Wild" enterprise, which goes to clubs, beach taverns and bars to videotape the partying, flirtation and sometimes flashing of women's breasts.  A great article was written in 2006 about the founder of Girls Gone Wild, which provides enlightening information to what really goes on in front of and behind the camera. 
Here is the link: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/aug/06/magazine/tm-gonewild32
A more recent story about a girl who's shirt was forced down by another individual in the GGW crew is here:http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_30865bcc-95eb-11df-9734-00127992bc8b.html


Leaving the cult of domesticity and embracing the power of birth control, American women (mostly) have become jaded into believing that liberation from sexual constraints equals freely and unnecessarily hypersexualizing oneself (flashing or not).  This could not be farther from the truth. While I do strongly believe in one's agency, I do not agree that in order to be liberated, one must do these acts which fourty- fifty years ago would have been absolutely taboo.  Unfortunately, this is the perspective of several individuals in the first Girls Gone Wild article. 

EL#1

For my EL#1 project, I decided to do a blog about sex tourism and it's link with child sex trafficking. I did a blog because of it's ability to be mutated and added to, as well as being an open link that anyone can use as reference, as opposed to a flyer, or sign.  I researched my topic in the context of American men traveling to south east Asian countries such as Thailand, Philippines and Cambodia to explicitly search out sexual engagements with local women.  I wanted to connect this sector of the tourism industry to that of child sex trafficking to hopefully make the point clear that those individuals who decide to participate in this kind of behavior could in fact be having sexual engagements with a child as young as five years old.  In order to publicize my blog, I decided to use what was closest to me and the people like me, so I advertised this website on Reddit.com- a website that I commonly use, that is filled with posts that any registered member can make, which can then be commented on, "up" or "down voted" and can also be used as a catalyst for useful information and input.  I also put this blog onto my Facebook, and my fiancee did the same, and I emailed some of my contacts in hopes of feedback, whether good, bad or indifferent.  Rather than getting feedback about the ACTUAL subject, people commented and actually argued (on Reddit) about my title, or the grammar used, or huge portions of the sex tourist industry that I intentionally left out (such as female sex tourism to predominately black countries like Kenya and Jamaica)... While this was interesting and the argument was pretty entertaining, I saw how difficult it can be to capture an audience and KEEP their attention without them resulting to critiques not useful to the actual project.
Here are (small) photos of my blog pages- note that each of the pages included my sources, whether it is visible on the photograph or not:

In the end, I learned a lot about a topic that I knew I was interested in and passionate about and hopefully this blog will continue to be a space for reference information, if nothing else- to the organizations from which I got my information, who have ways to take action against child sex trafficking and sex tourism alike.

Police Repression

Find a news story or video about the repression of protest groups in the United States in the past ten years, since the Battle in Seattle (what Wikipedia calls the “World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity“ and 9/11.  Reading the protest zone article and the one about organizing after Seattle might help.  Post the video or link and talk about what you found.  Are the actions justified?  Do they effect your feelings about the society we live in (positively or negatively)?


At the 2008 RNC- Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota there were four days of protest and also brutal police repression.  During these four days, tens of thousands of protesters were voicing their opinions about the "Republican agenda of ongoing war, tax cuts for the wealthy, corporate globalization, and the expansion of corporate power at the expense of the environment and workers’ rights." [quote from website below]  To handle these protests, which of course only got media attention because of the small percentage of people who acted in ways that were destructive to property, such as pushing over bus stops in an attempt to block the road of any delegates coming to the convention.  Because of this threats and the sheer number of people in attendance, the federal government armed the police forces with $50million to get tasers, rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray and these weapons did not go without use.  In fact, over the course of the week, there were over 800 arrests made, 30 of which were actually members of the media- journalists and these arrests were done by some of the 3,700 police officers dressed in riot gear.  In this article, from the Socialist Alternative group, who actually had a hand in some of the rallying that occurred during this week,(http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article13.php?id=922), the convention is examined by a group who was active in the protests, who were a part of the arrests and who prepared groups of people to participate in some of the marches, for example- the "Youth against war and racism" group was led by the Socialist Alternative.  This youth group was marching for an immediate end to the war in Iraq.  


This website, with an article and video also give a perspective of what went on during the September 1-4 protests in St. Paul http://blip.tv/file/1224287


Here are some photos from these four days:

Communication example

An example of communication by a social movement that I picked is the Human Rights Campaign website (hrc.org).  This means of communication by internet is vital to getting any word out these days and provides a reference point for information about the given subject.  Human Rights Campaign does a lot of good things, however I had some critiques of them before reading today's assignments and now I have the terms necessary to defend my argument.  While the Human Rights Campaign website is very clearly a "white" form of communication- they are proud of their information and make it known that they are the one's publishing it- which is completely important to maintaining loyalty and gaining a wider audience; I do not think that they are always consistent with what they convey as an organization to promote equal rights to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.  Their transgender agenda is.. really small and in comparison to the need for more push of not just things like ENDA, but just acceptance of ways of thinking outside the gender binary and the concept that gender is indeed fluid and is not innate according to whether you have a vagina or a penis or some of both- HRC may be considered failing their trans community.  In my opinion, when an organization gets as large as HRC, they become, if they weren't before, elitist and so mainstream that much of the grassroots concerns of "equal rights" gets lost in the messages.  For example, the poster child of hate crimes against LGBTQ persons is Matthew Shepard- really? the white, middle America, gay teenager with a REALLY nice mom and books and even plays surrounding this event.  What about hate crimes against trans individuals? lesbians? people of color in general? This is frustrating because they are the number one most popular organization for the LGBTQ community and well earned- they do do some great things for raising awareness and keeping in touch with their "targeted communication of integration" by claiming to unite all- I just don't see it. Also, who else is invisible? bisexuals. Just like so many other social movements- their claims get more narrow and more narrow, so that therefore those individuals who continually get pushed out of their line of upward movement are left behind- again. that isn't equal rights- that's using "equal rights" and "LGBTQ" as buzz words and using the all american, white boy image as one to "bring home" the notion that- hey america, this could be your kid.

Loyalty Pie

Family- girlfriend, daughter, sister, aunt, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, mother (of a kitten :) ) 35%

Activist- internships at Women for Women International and others, volunteer work, community engagement, listener 25%

Student- george mason, New century college, my study abroad experience to Philippines 25%

Political- left or... socialist 10%

State- American, voter 4%

Religion- spiritual, agnostic 1%

This was a more difficult exercise than I expected just because given percentages to how important something is to me made that concrete.  I found myself switching family and activist around several times, but have family first mostly because of my loyalty to my girlfriend.  She has a wonderful family, so i included extended family in that piece as well.  Activist, came next just because of what I do with my time and what I want to do with my life and that is incredibly important to me.  Student is one of my favorite identities, just because I do love school and I especially love New Century, I credit NCC for having made my college experience as fulfilling as it has been.  Political, State and Religion all sort of tie in together for me, but decided to keep them separate for numbers sake.  Political gets 10% because I would say that I am a political person- a lot of the issues that I am passionate about would be eradicated to a great degree if the politics around it were right.  Since I have some issues with the state and religion, such as not letting me get married when and where I want to, they are last.  :) That's actually interesting because i'm obviously staying somewhat loyal to the state, in hopes that it will change, soon-  since I haven't moved to another country that allows same sex marriages, but then again I don't have the ability to pick up and move like that for that reason...