Tea Party and Wall St Protests: Inherently Opposite

I, like the rest of the country now, am still absorbed in the coverage of the Occupy Wall St protest. As you may remember this event caught my attention from the very beginning and I was disappointed in the little coverage it received. But now even with the media circus going on, I am still unhappy. There is undeniably a lot of coverage in the media but the analysis is so basic to me. "Basic" is honestly the best word that I could come up with without insulting the many journalists who I know are now rigorously playing catch up in reporting this event. But honestly, all these comparisons with the Tea Party are simplistic at best. The Tea Party is a wing of the Republican Party; it always has been. While they have been portrayed as the angry renegade group, the Tea Party has never suggested a structural change of the our current political system. NEVER. What they have done is demand a return and a reinvigoration of the most conservative and parochial ideas this country has ever seen. They are reformists at best.

This is NOT the same as the Occupy Wall St. These people are not reformists. At least not from what I can tell. The change they ask for, the demand for more participation is in its very essence revolutionary. It is at its roots a denouncement of capitalism. And these days people seem to be equating being American with being Capitalist, a statement I will always strongly disagree with. The Occupation protests all over the country are spotlighting structural problems with our economic system and though they may not have the language to explain it yet, they want structural solutions. Naturally this is a strange idea to most people and unfortunately the media seems to be confused as to how to respond to it. But I don't blame them. This is a new idea at its core. One that is rarely given credence in the public.

Angered Journalist Speaks Up: Police Brutality on Wall Street

Men Set the Pace, But Women Draw the Race

The most intriguing sentence of the Belkin article to me was, "It might as well have been the 1950s, but with skimpier clothing, fewer inhibitions and better birth control. " In that one line there was both a brilliant observation, but also a dangerous assumption. While she seemed to ask "Are women any more equal in or outside of the classroom today than they were in the 1950s?" I was more interested in asking, "Who determines what 'progress' is within the women's movement for equality?" Is the way a women dresses to a college party an indicator of how far all women have come in the fight to be taken seriously. On the one hand, Belkin observed that her female students were at the top of the class and that they competed on par if not better than their male counterparts. But somehow once they stepped into the social realm of college life, their roles regressed and women somehow no longer could think for themselves.

While I thought the actions of the Duke fraternity students were despicable, I don't judge the women who showed up either. I cant speak for all women, but I can say that for my friends and I it's important to us to be dressed in a way that allows us to be both comfortable and confident when we go out. And many times that means being "sexy" (and we all have different definitions of what that means). But at the same time I think that we are all smart, driven and socially critical young women. And that DOESN'T change if we wear a skimpy dress to a party. We all know very well what men's intentions are when we are invited to a party. But we also know full well how we expect to be treated and what we will allow and what we wont. As Belkin says "men may set the pace", but women determine the direction and the course of the race. Feel free to challenge me but as young women we are subject to many social pressures, but part of becoming an adult is learning to know what you will and wont stand for. Belkin may just be observing women and men at that critical stage. Then the question becomes how do those same pattens of social behavior change once we enter the "real world"? Do they just disapper? I doubt it. But Ill let you know this same time next year.

Refections on Times Square Bombing

Saturday nights' attempted terrorist attack in New York's Times Sqaure, brought me right back to the day of 9-11. Once again my home is front and center of the discussion about national security, terrorism and possible connections to Islamic radicalism. Could it be that almost ten years later, New York could be no safer than before. I guess the fact that it was an "attempted" attack should count for something, but with last Christmas' attack also looming in my mind, I feel like this is just a game of Russian roulette. And New York has no choice but to play. All politics aside, my reaction comes down to a very unavoidable fear. Unavoidable not in the sense that its innate, but in the sense that no one is offering me an alternative way to feel. Pundits have no answers, neither do law enforcement or politicians. The fact is that either you feel fear and push incidents like this so far in the back of your mind, that you can continue to think about the "normal" things. But its a catch 22, because people say that if you feel fear, then you let "them" win. But if you dont feel fear than you've missed the point and there's nothing to worry about.

What my fear tells me is that there is a threat in the world that is out of my control to stop or to solve. So what is there to do? New York is my home and it is to millions of others as well. So how am I to feel? I go home in a couple of weeks by a bus that drops me off directly in the middle of Times Square. Normally I hang around to enjoy the noise and the smells. This time I think I'll just hurry home.

Why I Am Passionate about the AIDS Fight

I know that this video is probably from before the election, but I just thought it was important to post in light of South Africa's recent efforts to fight against the AIDS epidemic. I have been thinking about the AIDS fight in general recently. Every year I do the New York AIDS walk, not because I think that raising my little $2oo dollars will make any real difference but for purely selfish reasons. I need to be reminded that this is something that affects every community, not just LGBT or African people. And I also need to feel empowered that I can do something about it. Seeing all those people walking with so much energy and resolve is inspiring. I wish I could articulate why I feel so passionate about this issue. No one close to me has been affected by AIDS, but how often is there a negative force in the world that affects so many people, yet is completely preventable and treatable. Its not cancer. We can stop it. Its not some genetic disease. We can do something about this.

A Double Feature: Jessica Simpson in Morroco

Jessica Simpson's has a new reality show where she goes to different countries and tries to understand what their definition of beauty is. I saw this episode and thought it symbolized so much. There are so many assumptions behind the very idea of a show like this. Who is to say that you can ever understand another culture? They are not static things with unchanging definitions. How do you define an Indian type of beauty versus an American one, when both dont technically exist, when people would contest with either definition. And Simpson's attempt at cultural sensitivity and immersion is recognized for what it by the woman in this video. It's a shallow attempt at understanding in order to reinforce your own "correctness" (for lack of a better word). What do you think? Do you see something else happening in this video? I'm only interested in the first two minutes of it. But maybe you see more.

This Week's Video: Islam's "The View"

Check this out. Barbara Walters' "The View" has an Arabic counterpart on MBC. I came across this PBS video featuring four Islamic women who talk about all kinds of issues from an Arabic/Middle Easter prospective. They represent different nationalities, ages and ethnicities and they talk about tough issues such as homosexuality and women's rights.

It made me think about how Americans talk about the Islamic world as if it's so static, as if nothing will ever change. But so much has changed already and will continue to even as we debate about it. And even as I am writing this blog, I become more aware of my own stereotypes about Islam especially as it pertains to women. You learn a lot just listening to people talk about themselves. I wonder what these women would think if they watched the American "The View."


WIDE ANGLE | Dishing Democracy | Excerpt | PBS
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