Best Countries For Women

I think by now everyone knows the US is not the best place in the world when it comes to gender equality. Especially when it comes to policies about maternity and child care and other things like that, largely due to the fact that not a lot of women make up our government, unlike in these countries

https://www.facebook.com/attn/videos/1346216882080434/?autoplay_reason=all_page_organic_allowed&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=2&app_id=2392950137&live_video_guests=0

Dads doing hair

Cinderfella

I thought this video was an interesting spin on the story, my one issue is still the fact that the shoes are glass, that's a bad idea regardless of gender. Then the real reason for the video is shown because it's an ad for a children's book that doesn't tell the story of a princess getting saved by a prince

https://www.facebook.com/rebelgirls/videos/1629783527049636/

Miracle Girl

I came across a video about a girl who was kidnapped, beaten, raped, and left for dead by a man who lived with her family when she was little. While her story is horrific in and of itself, the fact that the man who did it will possibly be able to go free one day is worse. But despite that, she is doing amazing things to try and help girls who have gone through what she did by being someone they can talk to, she gives out her phone number through a nonprofit she started so they can have a support system.

https://www.facebook.com/crimewatchdaily/videos/1428873350470786/

Anti-Rape Tweets

One thing people always tend to say while shaming a rape victim is that they had an orgasm so they must have enjoyed it, therefore it can't be rape. While this is ridiculously untrue for many reasons, usually I think it's easiest to make people feel stupid for saying things like that with facts. Which is exactly what this woman did on her twitter account. In a series of tweets she explained that the body responds to outside influences instinctively. To put it in terms that everyone can understand, she used tickling as an analogy because everyone's been tickled, and everyone laughs when they're tickled, but not everyone likes being tickled. So when a woman gets wet while she's being raped, it's not because she likes it, it's because her body is responding in order to protect itself from harm, and when she orgasms, it's just a natural response, not a sign of enjoyment.

http://www.boredpanda.com/rape-explained-sexual-assault-clvrarose/

MTV Awards Pt II

I know I said in the last post that I don't watch award shows, and this is going to make it seem like I was lying but I swear I wasn't, these things just come up a lot on facebook I promise. Emma Watson wasn't the only English actress to win an award this weekend, Millie Bobby Brown of Netflix series Stranger Things also won. Having seen the show and loved her character Eleven, I fully agree with her winning even though I'm not sure what award she even won. It's what she said in her speech that is making me write this, while she was making her teary eyed thanks to her family, the cast and crew, and the fans, she specifically mentioned the writers. She thanked them for creating "a badass, iconic female character" which struck me as a strange thing to hear from a thirteen year old about her role on a streaming service only TV series that only has one season to date. But once I thought about it I realized she wasn't wrong, the show has reached that level of popularity where Eleven can arguably be considered more well known than female characters like Lara Croft and Princess Leia, who are both known as strong female characters. If you've seen the show then you know Eleven is one of maybe two characters who are actually helpful when stuff starts going bad, the other is still a man but the sheriff is also a great character regardless. If you haven't seen the show; see it.

Gender Neutral Awards

The MTV Movie and TV awards were this past weekend, which is not something I'd normally pay attention to since I don't watch award shows. I do still see clips on my facebook feed and things like that of who won what and said what in their speeches and all that. This time what I saw was that Emma Watson won a gender neutral award; best actor, for Beauty and the Beast. She said that it was an honor for her to have won an award the first year that they decided not to separate the categories by gender, especially since it was fan voted. Watson said that it was a big step in the right direction towards gender equality.

https://www.facebook.com/HuffPostUK/videos/455032018174284/

Social Psychology Videos

Being that it's now finals season and I have lots of work to do, I've had to find ways to procrastinate (because who would actually do all their work on a reasonable schedule instead of all at once the night before it was due right? Normally I'd do it by watching a tv show or cleaning my room or something else like that, but this past weekend my method of choice was binge watching almost entire channels of those social psychology videos on youtube; you know the ones with all the "how to (insert topic here)" videos about socializing and improving your work habits and stuff. Being that I'm a guy obviously most of the ones that came up were made by guys and focused on how to flirt with girls, and then videos from another channel that was actually made by a woman. I hadn't even thought of this until I noticed that she started her videos by saying that she didn't get why guys relied on videos made by guys for those topics instead of videos made by women, who would obviously know more about what women like in men than men do. It hadn't even occurred to me that all those videos I'd watched were basically mansplaining or just an arrogant way of trying to show that men know everything.

In class we talked about gender stereotypes, how women are expected to not play sports as much as men for example. I immediately thought of the scene from "The Sandlot" where Ham insults the other team's players by saying "you play ball like a girl". Then I remembered a parody video I'd seen of the movie based on if it had happened in modern day, and another one I'd seen of the song "summer nights" from Grease where everyone questions everything Kenickie says

Original "Sandlot"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSNJaJoOMao
"Sandlot" parody- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mbrouV5BlI
"Grease" parody- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9eHdb2bR9g

https://moviepilot.com/p/womens-march-2017-supergirl-melissa-benoist-the-flash/4193490
http://www.vh1.com/news/298961/celebrities-join-womens-march/?xrs=_s.fb_vh1main

Yesterday in class we mentioned celebrities who had attended the Women's Marches on Saturday, both of these articles are all about celebrities who attended the events. The first article is focused on actors and actresses from the CW's superhero shows all of which I am a fan of, the second one is a general list of some of the big name stars who attended some of the different events, like Scarlett Johannsson and Amy Schumer in DC, and Helen Mirren in New York.