Discrimination or protection?

So, we had a fairly heated argument in my Race, Gender and Media class the other night. Someone (damn you, whoever you are!) brought up the Lara Logan situation and the conversation for the night snowballed from there.

One position was that maybe Lara Logan shouldn’t have put herself in the situation she was in to begin with, which I feel is totally wrong. She had security, but I’m fairly certain it wasn’t her prerogative to get separated from them. Beyond that, and as a personal aside, I don’t feel like she had competent (or maybe just too few) security since the situation escalated to what it did.

Now, the teacher, who was a (female) night reporter for the cop beat when she was younger brought up that she (and any female) should be able to take any job they wish without the risk of something happening to her. Or at least that’s how I took it, the classroom was a tad chaotic with everyone talking about something a little bit different I think.

So my position is this: Women you can have whatever job you want. By all means, take the tough jobs, because I sure as hell don’t want the dangerous ones. But with that being said, if you sign up for something dangerous, you know what you’re getting yourself into. When you’re dealing with a mob of people, you should expect that it’s a highly volatile situation and take every precaution to protect yourself.

Where this seemed to hit the nerves of some people was that they took it as I said you should expect to get sexually assaulted. That’s not what I meant at all, but instead that you should be prepared for anything. You wouldn’t take a job at the local oil field and not expect that, however small the chances are, you might get blown off the face of the earth in a freak accident.

That’s what this was – an isolated incident that Nostradamus couldn’t have even predicted. But it’s still a risk you take.

Point of view

What's the deal with point of view? Why is it that I can see something,  but someone else sees it in a completely different light? It's all in our heads. Maybe we're reading too much into it. Or maybe, just maybe, there is actually something to this.

In my Race, Gender and the Media class the other night, we were going over this article where they painted two professional women in completely different ways. One was in a sultry, red dress and the other in a white, powerful women's suit. I saw the contrast and I jumped to conclusions, too. But in the long run, it probably wouldn't have bothered me had classmates gotten so vocal over it. But after class discussion, it did bother me.

Which leads me to the reason I am talking about this:

I wasn't thinking about this until my girlfriend and I had an argument over what the best Disney movies were when we were kids. I voted Space Jam (which she says isn't Disney...and technically she's right) and she voted something that I don't remember because I was entirely too busy defending my beloved Space Jam (I think she might have picked Beauty and the Beast).

Okay, yes I know that Space Jam isn't a Disney movie, it's Warner Brothers.  But my argument was that anything in those huge, plastic VHS containers that was aimed at kids should be classified as a Disney movie. We had several of these around the house. My mom would say, "Okay, kids. Pick a Disney movie and watch it." I always ran for Space Jam before my sisters could pick something terrible like Mulan or Lady and the Tramp.

But we had tons of movies we all considered "Disney" because of that case it was in. Charlie Brown's Christmas special, a few Scooby-Doo movies and any of the Nickelodeon movies in those sweet orange boxes.

So beyond my movie disagreement, what else do people see that others don't? Is that why advertisers have to retract so many ads? I don't find most of them offensive at all, but obviously someone did or they'd never take them off air.

Or maybe that's why people have to be so careful to be politically correct these days. You'll offend someone, and we wouldn't want that.

Maybe that explains why my mom thinks playing with matches is dangerous? Okay, you're right. I am dangerous with matches.

I think our nation's skin has collectively grown thinner in the last few decades, but maybe that's a good thing. Shouldn't you always take other people into consideration? That's for you to decide.

Oh, and don't be a Disney purist.

Women in sportscasting.

We got on the subject of women in sportscasting today in class, and it made me wonder how bad women have it.

When I think of women in sportscasting I immediately think of two women in particular -- Erin Andrews and Jenn Sterger. Is that fair? I'm sure it's not, but that's who my brain jumps to. It seems that most female sportscasters are inherently attractive. Is that fair? Definitely not, but it seems to be a trend.

Ugly men get the same job every day, just look at Michael Strahan. Okay, in fairness I'm not even sure what he looks like because I can't stop staring at his teeth.

So where does this put us? The industry is obviously male-dominated. Women's sports don't garner the same attention as men's sports, and whatever the reasons are (no comment here!), I feel like that leaves the door open for more men in the industry.

Personally, if I'm watching a men's sport like football or men's basketball, I'd rather listen to a man talk about it. On the other hand, if I'm watching a women's sport like softball or women's tennis, I'd rather hear a female talking about it. If I'm watching the WNBA...who am I kidding, I don't watch the WNBA, sorry ladies!

I don't know what we can do, but seeing as I'd ultimately prefer to end up in the sports industry for my career, I'd love to not have my work environment viewed as sexist. Sports have always  been dominated by men, both in viewing and participation, but does that mean men should get the first look at jobs in the field? I don't know.