(although this post is not regarding gender specifically, it is an important issue)
So, tomorrow I am taking off from work and class to go down to Augusta, Maine where a hearing about marriage equality will take place. If you live in Maine, it is really important to get down there to be supportive. They are bussing down people that are against this issue. If you are going, wear red to show support!
Come to the Public Hearing on the Marriage Bill (LD 1020)
April 22,2009 9:00 am
Maine’s marriage campaign is moving to the next level. The hearing on the marriage bill has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 22 at the Augusta Civic Center. Make no mistake about it: April 22 will be the single most important day of this campaign outside of the final vote. The media, legislators, governor, and people of Maine will be watching. We need you there.
Email april22@equalitymaine.org to RSVP for the marriage bill hearing. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number.
Our opponents already announced they will have over 1,000 people at the hearing. We cannot let them outnumber us on this critical day. The LGBT and allied community must come together like never before.
Please plan to bring your friends, family and children with you – this will be a family-friendly event. RSVP at april22@equalitymaine.org. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number. Once you RSVP, our staff will be in touch with important details about the hearing. Space will be limited, so we have to be organized and arrive early.
(Runner-Up That is!) And this could be why it lost her the crown. If you have not heard about this yet, watch this video below.
A friend on mine posted a blog this morning about the issue. In response to her blog someone said ::
You believe your friend’s choice to be gay is okay, but contradict your self by judging other’s choices and are wrong and should be banned. It’s her choice to do whatever she wants to do with her body. Everyone has the right to do whatever they want right? Everyone can have their own truth? That’s what I’m getting from your post.
to which I replied ::
Karen isn’t debating CHOICE here, obviously it is every girl’s little choice to fall victim to the countless images that tell them they are not good enough each day. It’s not a secret that advertisers pinpoint children (read “packaging girlhood” or watch “Killing Me Softly” or any of the social research on the subject). Our gender construction is the single most powerful thing we are taught from childbirth, and as much as it seems like a “choice” that a person will proceed doing the things they want, often times the norms that bog us down get in the way, so maybe a little girl who wants to run around in the dirty playing baseball instead starts putting on make-up and dresses. I realize this is all very extracted from the situation, but it is a part of the overall picture. ….I pose the question that : If beauty pageants and MAXIM and playboy and all these other ‘beauty-centric’ (and my problem with them is that they only consider beauty as ONE THING, being bigger is only one thing that is not part of this equation.) It oppresses people who do not fit into this category, as we hold it to such high pride in our society. Karen never said that people cannot do what they want, but the implication of what women do by getting extreme surgery and wading around half naked on stage poses a larger societal question, and really cannot be compared to homosexuality (another minority). Also, your assumption to say that Karen said that it was Phil’s CHOICE is a little off radar, most supporters of gay rights do not feel it is a choice. ….Finally , if it is all of the pageants “truth” to bow down to an impossible image so that people can judge what they look like in a swimsuit, and devalue intelligence and progressiveness, then that is a truth I certainly do not feel has a place in a society where we should be valuing each other regardless of vapid norms. ..
I wish people would open their minds, stop hiding behind their religion to gait forth their own intolerance. My friend Karen didn’t think that Carrie was homophobic per se, but that she wasn’t the poster child for morals either. I find what Carrie says to be interesting on a variety of levels. She details that “she grew up that way”, which is just as shitty as an excuse as “my religion tells me to feel that way”, people need to take responsibility for their own values. I realize it creates family tensions when you do not have the same belief system, but it also does not constitute holding people back.
Onto the gender issue (what this blog is all about!).
Miss America banks on gender norms to be successful. Does the girl look like the impossible images that we tote throughout society in movies and magazines. It sends the wrong message to 5 year old girls who insist on watching it because its on prime time and their mothers secretly always wanted to be in the pageant but ate two much (like a granola bar), didn’t vomit enough, didn’t have enough surgery, so they live vicariously through the idiot box and string their children into the same setting. I realize this is harsh and generalizing. It’s obviously only one scenario behind the scenes, but does not make it less credible. At what point do women have to stop emaciating and cutting themselves up to please general audiences. Now, I agree, there is a CHOICE, but I also think it is important to see how those choices become limited in the view of society. Beauty pageants send the wrong signal, period. They value looks above all else, and send the message that this is the only type of beauty that matters to be reigned “Miss America”.
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