'Cybersexism' By Laurie Penny

In the article Skin Deep written by Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin, they discuss and look deeper into the diverse differences in skin color. Our skin color has developed over the years to be dark enough to prevent the damaging sunlight that has been harming our skin and the nutrient folate that it carries. At the same time out skin is light enough to receive vitamin D.

Virtually all of us believe that we are in control of our lives but unconsciously the internet has managed to signification influence our actions, thoughts and beliefs. It has allowed us to think it’s normal to share our daily movements with our alleged followers, sharing our inner and deepest secrets; we are trying to make a lasting impression to the world while trying to seek external validation. Sometimes we compare our own lives to those of who we follow and become obsessed that our life doesn't live up to others, allowing us to create doubt in ourselves. Is it right that “girls seek comfort on social media when they are worried” rather than talking to her parents? No, it’s not! We as millions of us regularly seek external validation we leave the flood gates wide open for people to manipulate some vulnerable states of mind. The modern term associated with people that abuse the social network is – troll. “A troll in internet slang, is somebody who deliberately upsets others be starting arguments or posting inflammatory messages on blogs, chartrooms or forums” Therefore, the “anonymity of the internet is the perfect playground” for trolls, but we shouldn't let them prey on our vulnerability, we shouldn't succumb to the exploit they are trying to achieve. Trolls are experts on detecting your negativity and will play on that, knowing that you are anxious to

In Webs of Violence: The Camp Grant Indian Massacre, Nation, and Genocidal Alliances by Nicole Guidotti indepthly analyzes the endless possibilities that surround such a brutal tragedy and critically questions our basis of understanding that is derived from mass produced narratives. The Camp Grant Massacre exemplifies the paradigm of a mass produced historical narrative that erases, silences, and conceals various aspects of what took place at the time. Guidotti makes this notion of incomplete storytelling evident numerous times throughout the chapter. Guidotti references countless historians, socialists, and individuals from countless fields, in order to not only strengthen her arguments, but to also provide a more detailed comprehension in

“What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger” (p. 28). In the scientific novel Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince, self-acclaimed “Medical Maverick” Dr. Moalem makes in-depth analyses of current human diseases that, ironically, may have actually been beneficial to the survival and evolution of mankind throughout its existence on Earth. With the use of myriad scientific studies and research, he formulates surprising theories about the potentially positive correlation between disease and humanity. Survival of the Sickest presents a novel concept that greatly contradicts what have been universally accepted beliefs surrounding biology and the process of human evolution for a long time. Though the associations may seem arbitrary at first glance, Moalem narrates the scientific world’s findings that strongly exemplify this concept. Three of the diseases that he examines, hemochromatosis, Type 1 diabetes, and favism, could have in fact proved useful for helping humans resist other illnesses and surviving a harsh environment.

It is no surprise that the internet can be a horrible place for avid users; especially for women, who never failed to be a main target to abuse, discrimination, and harassment. In Sarah Ratchford’s article, she makes a very bold statement by convincing its readers that “the courts have just sanctioned men to say whatever they want to women”. Essentially, she fails to convince its more educated readers and those who have more of a knowledgeable idea on the matter. She uses very aggressive emotional fallacies by using scare tactics; she also uses ethical fallacies through his hasty assumptions, and finally uses logical fallacies through her dogmatic approach. Ratchford’s tries to convince about the issue by mainly focusing on her combinations between emotional fallacies and her logical fallacies.

The power of the internet has allowed us to stay active even after death. In the article “Web immortality: the social media sites that keep you alive in the digital world” written by Jenny Kleeman, shows how sites like DeadSocial’ have thousands of users planning their social life after death. The idea is to leave yourself behind for the future to see what you have done in life. Emerging services for digital immortality have created a new approach to one’s death. One should use it as a way to stay connected to the world and leave a permanent legacy behind.

According to a study done on gender stereotypes in mass media continues to oppress women by the roles they played in the past. “Men have been perceived as the head of the household and women were mainly housewives. Nowadays the differences between male and female roles are smaller, however mass media still perpetuates traditional gender stereotypes” (krytyka). This may have been true sixty years ago, but a lot of women support their families in 2015. The media oppresses women by keeping them locked up in their old traditional roles. When women try to speak out against this outrageousness they get ridiculed by powerful men on social media. Huffington Post wrote an article on gender stereotypes stating, “This reticence of women in Social Media is largely a result of the unfavorable, and even often abusive, responses they get purely on the basis of their gender”(Ramasubbu). This is exactly what happens when women try to speak out about issues or politics. They get verbally attacked with constant slanders and gender jokes.

Providing a platform to reach potentially large audiences, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become a powerful tools in sparking trends, spreading activist movements and governing societal norms. The popular photo sharing app Instagram, which recently celebrated crossing the 400 million user mark in September of 2015 , has however been the subject of much criticism for its controversial censorship policies revolving around the female body. There have been multiple outrages of photos being removed and accounts being deleted for defiance of the sites regulations, with many famous faces weighing in to the argument - most notably Rihanna who’s post of her topless cover of Lui Magazine (fig.1) was removed.

Recently Bethany Cosentino, musician and frontwoman of LA based band Best Coast, appeared on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah to speak about sexism in the music industry. This isn’t a new topic to be discussed but is still very relevant especially considering the recent events and exposures of misogyny and sexual abuse in the music industry. This discussion brought me back to 2013 when Lauren Mayberry lead vocalist of Scottish band Chvches wrote an open letter addressing the harassment and misogyny she had faced in the music industry and online. In response to her letter published on internet news site the guardian she was positively received and a number of fellow female musicians came forward and addressed sexism they had faced in their own careers and also addressed how the availability of female entertainers and celebrities through social media has opened new grounds for a disproportionate amount of harassment. I myself have face numerous instances of sexism and online harassment but unlike women in the media who often have to keep their social media open for promotional reason I have the privilege of making my social media activity private where only those with my permission can view or comment. The privacy of my account is somewhat irrelevant on platforms like twitter where I can still be addressed publically by people who don’t follow me but the volume of harassment I face is minimal in comparison to someone like Lauren Mayberry. If I were in a similar situation I like to think I’d handle it in the same fashion that Lauren Mayberry and Bethany Cosentino did. They used their media platforms to project their voices and spoke out against this very serious

Our project presentation branched out into different parts of feminism, including Transgender women, the oversexualization of women, and the history of women’s rights over time. This issue came to our attention in a variety of ways. Before our research, women’s rights and equality had already been a concern, as it is an ongoing problem for many decades, and even centuries. Most of us had heard the term from relatives or off of social media sites, such as Tumblr, Twitter, and more; and as we grew older we became more aware of the ongoing problem. Most of our information came from extremely well known sources, such as the American Psychological Association, New York Times, and Huffington Post. Before our presentation and research, we saw public

It has revolved into the idea of showing dominance over women, stating “Who’s important?” I’ve never learned anything about women until this class. I have teachers told me ‘Women have done nothing important on our history” And I believe Claiming an Education by Adrienne Rich shows a great representation of this. Towards the middle of the article, she” we learn how men have perceived and organized their experience- You are hearing about what men have decided is important” (rich 19). Already, you see since the beginning of time women weren’t talked in the terms of the human population, the only importance they had was barring children. However the effect of this brought a new branch of learning specifically for women. Rich “Women students began to demand a women studies courses- to claim women directed education” (Rich 20). Obviously, this was a benefit, but despite all these course, society hasn’t changed its ways of thinking. Generally speaking, inequality has not only impacted women emotionally, but mentally.

“Women accounted for only twenty-nine percent of the speaking roles and all too often, they were primarily there to look decorative - roughly a third involved wearing sexually revealing clothes or being partially naked” (Lenard). The reason this statistic is crucial to this paper is because in this digital age children are mostly influenced by the media, what they see on television, or films, what they hear in the music they listened to, and what they read online on their social media sites, what does it due to them when they see women as simple background characters, or sexualized objects. Even though the media may have become very progressive in this day and age, sexism in the media still

The media has been a source for disseminating powerful and important information and values for a long time. Penni Mitchell talks about the goals and features of the feminist media from 1960’s to present. The whole point of the feminist media is to serve as a safe haven for women to “communicate with one another through pages, magazines, essays and pamphlets to build support for their cause” (Mitchell 57). The topics range from sexual harassment at work to normal day-to-day battles.

Media has played a fundamental part in helping feminism. Twitter, one of the most popularly used websites and apps, had changed the game. Women now have a world-wide platform to voice their concerns and opinions. From hashtags such as #BringBackOurGirls and #YesAllWomen, which have been tweeted and re-tweeted millions of times, to

The word feminism essentially represents the cumulative number of ideologies and movements that advocate the equal rights of women on all grounds. While the concept has been present for centuries, its magnitude in the United States has only become largely recognized throughout the 20th century. In particular, feminism has had its most lasting effects through two large waves in the early 1900’s, whilst fighting for women’s suffrage, and the 1960’s to 1970’s, which focused on women in the workplace and counteracting the submissive roles assigned to women in the 1950’s. These political battles for gender equality have left lasting footprints on today’s society by giving women opportunities previously unattainable. Still, the fight for women’s rights is far from over, as today’s females face a new struggle involving the media. With the rapid progression of modern technology has come the immensely degrading trend of objectifying women. Women’s position in the media is heavily flawed, as females are seen as little more than their physical appeal, instead of human beings with large amounts of potential. This objectification is most prominently displayed through children’s literature, the use of advertisements, and sexual abuse, and must be eradicated for the security and equality of all women. Despite the decades of progress that have elevated the rights of women in this country, society will not obtain true gender equality until the media changes, since it has counteracted