latin american princesa {LAP}

What irritates me most about the media coverage of the race for the democratic nomination is the constant harping about gender and the less harped on question of race. Why do people think that it is strange that Obama got a higher percentage of female votes than Hillary in Iowa? Why don’t they question how many men voted for any male candidate? Do they think women are so stupid that they would vote for Hillary just because she is a woman? Shouldn’t female voters, like male voters, choose the candidate they feel best represents their interests?

The gender question seems to be getting more of this kind of bogus coverage than the race issue. We could blame it on the media and our patriarchal society. We could say that for a white male dominated patriarchal America, a man, no matter what color, is still better than a woman. But I won’t say that. That is an easy cop out. No, I think the media is reflecting a major difference in the campaigns of the two front-runners. She plays the gender card. He does not play the race card. She is running as a woman, to be the first female president. He is not running as a black man, to be the first black president. Early on this resulted in accusations of “not being black enough” which Obama cleverly quieted. I feel for Hillary. She’s smart and strong and could be a good leader, but it’s true she is part of the status quo. She hasn’t realized that she is more than just a woman. Or at least her campaign is not really showing that.

We can’t pretend that race and gender are not factors. Many people are surprised at the amount of white support for Obama. Certainly good questions related to race and gender will reveal interesting new dynamics. The problem is that Hillary and her campaign are making gender more of a focal point than Obama is with race.

When Obama speaks one hears a black man (with my eyes closed I almost hear MLK). But he is many things. He is multiracial, he is well-educated, he is a husband, he is a father, he is a citizen, he has lived abroad…. But most of all he is my hero for not allowing one aspect of his identity to define who he is. Stereotypes reduce us to one small, and often negative, aspect of our identity, stripping us of the rest of our selves. That’s why stereotypes can be so damaging to self-esteem. SO WHY DO IT TO OURSELVES? Why limit ourselves to only one aspect of who we are?

The progressive liberal in me may love Gravel’s frankness and audacity, but Obama could be what America needs to help us recognize and fully include multiple facets of our identities: black, white, immigrant, hopeful, energetic, ambitious, and complex. Obama as president would embody that new America so many of us are obviously yearning for: color full not color-blind. This would certainly play a role in both foreign and domestic issues, breaking with the colonialist, imperialist mentality inherited from European ancestors. Sarkozy is shaking up the French political establishment. Chavez, Lula and Morales represent dramatic changes in Latin America (how good the changes are remains to be seen). Sadly Bhutto’s assassination destroys a bit of democratic hope for that region.

Could we be on the brink of a new era in which the Euro-American arrogant superiority complex is slowly replaced by dynamic, new ways of thinking?

I hope so. But I don’t quite see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet.

Racialicious just posted a video from Aljazeera on female soccer players in Egypt. I immediately thought about the Ameri-centric discussion that was also recently featured on Racialicious.

I’d like to extend the discussion to the Euro-centric views in a lot of Western media. We are bombarded with images of other countries as backward. I remember when Schwarzenegger was first elected, one U.S. news agency found some fat, toothless Austrian to interview. Here in Europe they always manage to find the fattest, dumbest American to show. But mostly it is the developing world, the East, the South, the Rest (non-Euro), which the Western European and U.S. dominated media stereotype as backward.

Continue reading Euro-centrism and matters of context…

In Turkey, the presidential election is not just about politics and issues, but also about what the wife wears. One potential candidate’s wife wears a headscarf (oh scandalous! ) and another’s wife doesn’t. When are men going to stop using women as pawns in their macho competitive games? While Turkey is officially a secular state and the headscarf is banned from public administration and schools, is the issue really about the wife’s sense of fashion?

Of course Hillary’s cleavage was major news ( ). I thought cleavage was only news worthy if it was Beyoncé or JLo’s cleavage?

Continue reading Presidential elections are about women’s fashion…

This is too funny: Robber jailed for sex toy ‘armed’ raid. Talk about gender “confusion.” A tool of pleasure transforms into a tool of violence in one male’s hands.

I just read about Flying: Confessions of a free woman, a documentary series that is being called “the real person’s Sex and the City.”

The Sex and the City association is sure to get this film more attention from the media and the public. I always watched Sex and the City (re-runs because I missed the first wave) with mixed feelings. It was funny and it did bring up important topics (occasionally). Usually, however I wanted to puke at the excess and waste the characters portrayed, whining about their bad dates while every day there are women somewhere enduring violence, rape and terrible injustice. My favorite moment was when Carrie realized she had spent $40,000 on shoes and might be homeless soon. I only wish she had been forced onto the street and addressed a problem that many women face (although usually not due to their own careless spending on luxury goods, like in Carrie’s case, but often because they are fleeing violence and injustice).

Continue reading A woman’s quest: a “real” sex and the city?…

It’s 2007, in a cosmopolitan capital city, in a wealthy western nation, and I hear that phrase. In a room with two women who drive and a man who doesn’t even have a license, I have to hear such an absurd statement. It was not the man who said it though, but the other woman. Double sigh.

Doesn’t anybody ever stop to think about the fact that men pay way more insurance? “That’s because men take more chances and some can be reckless.” This is true in some cases. Does that make them better drivers? No. Being careful is an important part of driving in my book.

Continue reading Stereotype challenge: women can’t drive!…