Public Discourse Blog (Stefany)

Before reading the Douglas book, I would have taken the view that the representations of women in today’s TV shows and films are a lot better than they used to be back in the day.  Also before reading the book, I had never heard the term “enlightened sexism.”  Douglas really opened my eyes to how necessary intentional feminism is and how far we still have to go. I took a 60-Hour Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victim Advocacy training course in October and it was incredibly eye-opening and impactful.  We talked a lot about what feminism means and why it’s so important; it’s something I think everyone should become more educated about.  The term “feminism” often gets a bad rap because of its association with women/femininity.  Even a simple Google search doesn’t do the term justice-- simply Googling feminism yields the result: “the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.  But it’s so much more than that.  See here, if you’re interested: https://w

On one hand, I think that online connections are most definitely useful for disseminating information, spreading ideas, and creating discussion among individuals and large groups of people who may not otherwise have had the opportunity to connect with one another.  Conversely, I do think that, overall, social media and other online connections enable people to take a very lazy approach to activism.  As I have said before, people seem happy to argue conflicting views with one another from behind the safety of their various screens, but where does that really get us?  Does anyone really change their viewpoints from these types of discussions?  I don’t think so, but at least they’re happening. As far as the Women’s March on Washington goes, I think it is absolutely phenomenal that it happened, and I wish I could have been there myself.  However, what was really accomplished by it?  What was the goal (of the organizers or attendees)?  Was the goal reached?  I can probably learn the answe

In the #RaceFail article written by Nathan Rambukanna, a tweet was shared including Game of Thrones in a list of the article’s #RaceFails. I was taken aback when I read the tweet because Game of Thrones is easily my favorite show.  I consider myself to be fairly aware of when things are whitewashed on TV, but GoT had never registered as such to me, so I did some research to see what other people are saying about it. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/apr/29/game-of-thrones-racism-sexism-rape http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lev-raphael/is-game-of-thrones-sexist_b_5240290.html https://smokeandstir.org/2013/06/22/game-of-thrones-racism-and-white-saviors/ It appears that each of the articles was written right around the end of the third season of the show, which was in 2014, so perhaps the writers would feel differently if they were to update the articles now that we are approaching the show’s seventh season. Pictured above is Daenerys Stormborn of the House Ta

1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men are sexually assault while in college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.  That’s 20% of women in college who will be sexually assaulted and, frankly, that number is unacceptable. On March 21st, 2016, the Naperville Sun published an article with what must have been a stunning headline to their readers: “Ten sex assaults at North Central in three years, reports show.”  Administrators who handle reports of sexual assaults on campus at North Central may have applauded this number, but when the Naperville Sun reported it in such a negative way, it hardly sounded like something to be proud of. The Naperville Sun compared North Central’s number of reports to those of other local colleges, including Benedictine University, Aurora University, and the University of St. Francis, each of which had numbers much lower than ours.  The author, Bill Bird, also criticized North Central for refusing to release further details about the repor

The topic of my first op-ed is an article written by the Naperville Sun about the number of sexual assaults on our campus because April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and it’s a topic that is very important to me.

“To the extent that these kinds of narratives reinforce the partisan political identification of viewers, and to the extent that they encourage those viewers to see the opposing party as morally weak or even evil, then it becomes more difficult to organize a public dialogue built around mutual respect, trust or openness.” This quote is essentially exactly what I said in my previous blog prompts.  People are drawn to news and media outlets that reflect their own personal views and values, and those outlets, coincidentally, tend to demonize or bash the other side.  It’s extremely polarizing, especially if viewers/subscribers are not going out of their way to develop a well-rounded view and learn about perspectives different than their own. I think that formats such as the listed shows both contribute to polarization (depending on which you watch) and raise the level of knowledge of their viewers.  I really enjoy The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver b

I'm not sure I agree with the statement in this blog prompt that we came to a consensus as a class that most public intellectuals are older white men.  Perhaps it is true, but I absolutely loved the example that someone shared about Laverne Cox being a public intellectual; I'm so happy to be living in a time where she is openly acknowledged and where she is able to use her platform to lift up others who are like her. I am afraid I can't speak to which academic fields or disciplines are most well represented in the media because I don't often watch the news or subscribe to any other media outlets regularly.  If I had to give my uninformed opinion, however, I would say that political science and economics seem to be quite commonplace.  Having earned my bachelor's degree in psychology, I would love to see more of that in the media. From what I see on TV in general or when I do catch the news, it seems to be fairly whitewashed, which can only allow for so much diver