Grrl Blog

Thank you @gorillaFC for choosing Reel Grrls as a non-profit partner! This is COOL!

Thank you, GINA!

Donate to Reel Grrls for #giveBIG and this dog could eat YOUR name next! (Thank you, Jennifer!)

Reel Grrl Zoey - gearing up to shoot The State of The Girl Summit. #WAGIRLS

jcstearns:

Dear LEGO - Take the Street Harassment Out of Your Stickers

My son is just getting into Legos, so I thought he’d love these stickers. Then I took a closer look and saw that one of the construction workers (the only one wearing “cool” sunglasses) was labeled “Hey Babe!”

I was stunned. Maybe it’s the fact that I just saw the team at Hollaback speak this month, or maybe it is that this is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, or maybe it is just that street harassment sucks. But chances are it was all three of these things that made me so mad to see a brand I love pushing this sort of thing.

The Hollaback website notes that street harassment is the most prevalent form of sexual violence for both men and women in the United States. Internationally, they point out, “studies show that between 70-99% of women experience street harassment at some point during their lives.”

Lego hasn’t really been on a roll recently when it comes to gender and its toys. See for example this post over at Ms. Magazine that picks apart the images of beauty in Lego’s new line of toys for girls (and check out the great ad from 1981 to see how far they have fallen).

Needless to say, I didn’t buy the stickers. 

Really, Lego? Geez!

nmsuwsprof:

“Teachers are often unaware of the gender distribution of talk in their classrooms. They usually consider that they give equal amounts of attention to girls and boys, and it is only when they make a tape recording that they realize that boys are dominating the interactions.

Dale Spender, an Australian feminist who has been a strong advocate of female rights in this area, noted that teachers who tried to restore the balance by deliberately ‘favouring’ the girls were astounded to find that despite their efforts they continued to devote more time to the boys in their classrooms.

Another study reported that a male science teacher who managed to create an atmosphere in which girls and boys contributed more equally to discussion felt that he was devoting 90 per cent of his attention to the girls. And so did his male pupils. They complained vociferously that the girls were getting too much talking time.In other public contexts, too, such as seminars and debates, when women and men are deliberately given an equal amount of the highly valued talking time, there is often a perception that they are getting more than their fair share.

Dale Spender explains this as follows:The talkativeness of women has been gauged in comparison not with men but with silence. Women have not been judged on the grounds of whether they talk more than men, but of whether they talk more than silent women.In other words, if women talk at all, this may be perceived as ‘too much’ by men who expect them to provide a silent, decorative background in many social contexts. This may sound outrageous, but think about how you react when precocious children dominate the talk at an adult party.

As women begin to make inroads into formerly ‘male’ domains such as business and professional contexts, we should not be surprised to find that their contributions are not always perceived positively or even accurately.”

—

Summer’s final for the RG Video + Performance class led by Wynne Greenwood.

More from Video + Performance at Reel Grrls, final projects.

Our Performance + Video Class shares their work!

Former Reel Grrl Nickey - looking AMAZING at the National Conference For Media Reform in a shirt she MADE herself! This GRRL make MEDIA and also FORWARD FASHION.

nickeyrobo:

Color bar shirt made into reality! #sewing #ncmr13

(Big, big hat tip to Whoresatmydoor who’s idea I totally ripped off.)