This section will help show the talent of Chrisman writers, artists, musicians and more as we highlighted work done by students throughout the halls of Chrisman. This work is not produced by Envoy staff members but is a proper portrayal of the work done at Chrisman. We will update throughout the year as exceptional work and assignments become available.
Using Films in a Historical Perspective
Persuasive Research Papers From Peter Mishler's Dual-Credit Composition and Reading Classes
Lights, Camera, Action! : Film as a Historical Representation
What Does It Mean To Be A True Historical Film: Film as Historical Representation?
“Is That Funny to You?”: Film as a Historical Representation
How to Live: Film as Historical Representation
Persuasive Research Papers From Peter Mishler's Dual-Credit Composition and Reading Classes
The Changing Role of Women
By: Brigit Leutzinger
A young woman was sitting in a bar reading her book and ignoring the constant sound of pulsing music and slamming glasses on the counter. Her friends had guilted her into coming to a bar downtown because she “needed a night out.” (their words not hers). Still dressed in her pencil skirt from work and a white blouse, she quietly sipped on her bitter vodka tonic, ignoring the advances of males as she tried to finish her novel. A little ways down the bar were two men whispering to themselves, trying their best not to be overheard however the bartender happened to have excellent hearing when it came to the patrons of his bar. The two men were speaking in hushed tones, “look at her sitting there ignoring everyone, she thinks she’s better than everyone just because she’s reading. Look at her in that skirt, the only reason someone would wear something like that is to get attention. Well we’ll give her attention tonight.” Before the men were given the opportunity to grab the young woman as she was making her way to the bathroom the authorities stopped the men. While the two men were escorted to the back of a police car, an officer made sure the woman got safely home with her work appropriate attire and all. In bars across America women are unsafe quietly sitting and reading in a bar because men sexualise their effort to just get out of the house. This young woman was saved from the torment the two men were planning because they thought she looked “stuck up” and wanted attention. That was their misconception but they were going to punish the woman because of their mistake. Society has voiced its opinion about the sexual nature of a female's body which in turn encouraged the sexualisation of young girls and the motto, “she was asking for it” all the while setting up impossible standards for a girl to achieve in order to be considered a beautiful and proper young lady.
Women have come a long way from staying home, doing the house work and taking care of the children. We have the right to vote for God's sake and now women are being thrown back in time, reduced to nothing more than a physical object. In this piece of writing “The Objectification of Women in Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist Culture” by Stephanie Nicholl Berberick, she emphasizes how the ideal female image effects the younger generation of girls. This is seen especially in advertising as women's bodies are exploited to sell useless objects. This encourages men believing they have the ability to “take” a women. Seeing an ad with a female using the product they assume buying the product will get them the girl as well. Companies are using these deceitful tactics to sell their product and it works. Unfortunately for the girls they then have to deal with the backlash that being associated with that product creates. Through all of these media endeavors the female body has been used in such a sexual manner when a woman attempts to feed her baby in public she is asked to refrain by a very troubled and embarrassed restaurant manager. Breasts are used for the biological purpose of feeding a baby, however, society has morphed their use through the media, a man feels uncomfortable seeing a woman feeding her child. What sense does it make to punish the child for a man's lack of control.
Berberick’s section detailing the social effects of these problems are only solidifying the idea that the physical form of a woman's body has come to mean many things and not all of them should be considered positive by females. Looking back at the swimsuit styles throughout the years and how they have continually become more revealing it's obvious how little the concern for personal conservation of a female's body there is in today's society. As Berberick reiterates in her piece, women are no longer seen as individuals: “the objectification of women not only induces states of shame and fear in women; it also promotes the treatment of them as inhuman playthings.” (7) To the common day average citizen wealth and physical attributes are more important than anything more substantial to a personality which is why we often see rich men parading around with beautiful women hanging off their arms. These girls are treated much like a necklace, pretty to look at and fun for a little while, but in the end annoying and tiresome. “Again there is the indication that women are not seen as people, but as a thing to be played with or used, much like a prop would be.” (9) Because the media encourages the idea of women only being good for ‘eye candy’ they are also encouraging the male thoughts of women having nothing tangible to contribute to society except being gawked at.
Jennifer A. Smith and Mindi Wisman collaborated on a piece of writing in 2011, from the New England Network for Child, Youth & Family Services, presenting the topic of how society and media has influenced the way young girls believe their morals should be. Smith and Wisman focus their attention on the information that young girls are easily influenced by the things they see in pop culture. Media plays a very important role in their lives as they are surrounded everyday seeing what is considered desirable by men and who they should be. This article stresses how much danger these girls could be in by becoming desensitized to the sexual acts that are heard and seen in the world. Girls with an especially difficult home life are especially at risk of becoming pregnant or sexually abused. Influential men in the world have done nothing to help correct this image of women which means the young girls are continually being told they need to be a size zero and cake makeup on their face. In this piece Smith and Wisman were attempting to inform the public about a very real problem. The early sexualization of girls is causing these young ladies to view themselves in only how sexually attractive they are to the opposite sex. Social workers and caseworkers have repeatedly expressed their concern over the young girls that are now coming into the homes with “sexualized behavior” which was not found in the girls 15 years ago. Smith and Wisman are hoping to help create a foundation in which young girls will be able to find support as they grow up and become the young women they were meant to be.
It has always been known that the media has a lot of influence over the younger generations. This never seemed to be a problem when the only programs on television was Animal Planet however in the writing “What are We doing to Girls”, Jennifer A. Smith and Mindi Wisman describe in recent years that T.V. programs have become crude and inappropriate. Kids experience Pop culture through shows and grow accustomed to seeing celebrities losing weight and getting surgery done to “enhance” themselves and begin to associate this with how they themselves should look and act: “according to a 2004 study by the Dove Real Beauty campaign, 42% of first- to third-grade girls want to be thinner, while 81% of 10-year-olds are afraid of getting fat.” (6) The top concern of girls today is how they look. Their clothes, makeup, even their weight needs to be perfect for them to feel even an iota of self worth. It is a common joke that a girl's self esteem is tied to her weight and physical looks when the jokes humor is anchored in truth. Society has told girls that they aren't anything more than a pretty object for someone to look at and these young girls are being brainwashed into thinking they could never be anything more. Girls are afraid of getting fat because they believe if they don't fit into the role society has set for them they won't be considered worth anything. Girls are starting to believe that the female norm is as a sexed-up barbie doll.
Males in today's society have distorted the image of a female's body and refuse to retract their previous opinions which happen to be completely incorrect. The physical form of a woman was not put on this earth for the express purpose of being physically attractive. When it is said a woman should be seen but not heard, this is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the world today. Girls have a brain. Girls have feelings. Girls are a heck of a lot smarter than men give us credit for yet men continue to ignore these excellent qualities and look only at the physical attributes. The woman who had been sitting in a bar reading her novel was dressed in work appropriate attire. To the average working female this term describes a pencil skirt, to the knees or below, and a nice button up shirt with very little to no cleavage. Even with these precautions taken by the woman she was still specifically sought out by these perverted men. Society condones this kind of behavior, humanity watches as women are exploited in television shows and does nothing to interfere or stop to this treatment. It has been a constant nuisance fending off the advances of greedy males in a society that is mainly managed by men. Society is quickly turning back to a misogynistically based country and it needs to be corrected. The saying boys will be boys is a misconception that only helps solidify the point i'm trying to make. Boys have the excuse that they're “just boys.” “They’re going through a phase,” but as long as we don't acknowledge what they're doing it will eventually stop. That’s B.S. These boys should be held accountable for their actions just as all adults should be. Society, the media, even adults make excuses for the way our country is slowly turning into a crude environment when they have to ability to stop it. It should never be acceptable to treat a girl, no matter how young or old she is, like shes an object. How uncomfortable would you be after being whistled at by a stranger knowing they were gawking at you as you walked by?
Works Cited
Smith, Jennifer A. "What Are We Doing to Girls?" The Furrow 41.1 (1990): 27-33.
Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
The New York Sociologist, Vol. 5, 2010, Stephanie N. "The Objectification of Women in
Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist Culture." The Objectification of
Women in Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist Culture (n.d.): n. pag.
Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
A young woman was sitting in a bar reading her book and ignoring the constant sound of pulsing music and slamming glasses on the counter. Her friends had guilted her into coming to a bar downtown because she “needed a night out.” (their words not hers). Still dressed in her pencil skirt from work and a white blouse, she quietly sipped on her bitter vodka tonic, ignoring the advances of males as she tried to finish her novel. A little ways down the bar were two men whispering to themselves, trying their best not to be overheard however the bartender happened to have excellent hearing when it came to the patrons of his bar. The two men were speaking in hushed tones, “look at her sitting there ignoring everyone, she thinks she’s better than everyone just because she’s reading. Look at her in that skirt, the only reason someone would wear something like that is to get attention. Well we’ll give her attention tonight.” Before the men were given the opportunity to grab the young woman as she was making her way to the bathroom the authorities stopped the men. While the two men were escorted to the back of a police car, an officer made sure the woman got safely home with her work appropriate attire and all. In bars across America women are unsafe quietly sitting and reading in a bar because men sexualise their effort to just get out of the house. This young woman was saved from the torment the two men were planning because they thought she looked “stuck up” and wanted attention. That was their misconception but they were going to punish the woman because of their mistake. Society has voiced its opinion about the sexual nature of a female's body which in turn encouraged the sexualisation of young girls and the motto, “she was asking for it” all the while setting up impossible standards for a girl to achieve in order to be considered a beautiful and proper young lady.
Women have come a long way from staying home, doing the house work and taking care of the children. We have the right to vote for God's sake and now women are being thrown back in time, reduced to nothing more than a physical object. In this piece of writing “The Objectification of Women in Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist Culture” by Stephanie Nicholl Berberick, she emphasizes how the ideal female image effects the younger generation of girls. This is seen especially in advertising as women's bodies are exploited to sell useless objects. This encourages men believing they have the ability to “take” a women. Seeing an ad with a female using the product they assume buying the product will get them the girl as well. Companies are using these deceitful tactics to sell their product and it works. Unfortunately for the girls they then have to deal with the backlash that being associated with that product creates. Through all of these media endeavors the female body has been used in such a sexual manner when a woman attempts to feed her baby in public she is asked to refrain by a very troubled and embarrassed restaurant manager. Breasts are used for the biological purpose of feeding a baby, however, society has morphed their use through the media, a man feels uncomfortable seeing a woman feeding her child. What sense does it make to punish the child for a man's lack of control.
Berberick’s section detailing the social effects of these problems are only solidifying the idea that the physical form of a woman's body has come to mean many things and not all of them should be considered positive by females. Looking back at the swimsuit styles throughout the years and how they have continually become more revealing it's obvious how little the concern for personal conservation of a female's body there is in today's society. As Berberick reiterates in her piece, women are no longer seen as individuals: “the objectification of women not only induces states of shame and fear in women; it also promotes the treatment of them as inhuman playthings.” (7) To the common day average citizen wealth and physical attributes are more important than anything more substantial to a personality which is why we often see rich men parading around with beautiful women hanging off their arms. These girls are treated much like a necklace, pretty to look at and fun for a little while, but in the end annoying and tiresome. “Again there is the indication that women are not seen as people, but as a thing to be played with or used, much like a prop would be.” (9) Because the media encourages the idea of women only being good for ‘eye candy’ they are also encouraging the male thoughts of women having nothing tangible to contribute to society except being gawked at.
Jennifer A. Smith and Mindi Wisman collaborated on a piece of writing in 2011, from the New England Network for Child, Youth & Family Services, presenting the topic of how society and media has influenced the way young girls believe their morals should be. Smith and Wisman focus their attention on the information that young girls are easily influenced by the things they see in pop culture. Media plays a very important role in their lives as they are surrounded everyday seeing what is considered desirable by men and who they should be. This article stresses how much danger these girls could be in by becoming desensitized to the sexual acts that are heard and seen in the world. Girls with an especially difficult home life are especially at risk of becoming pregnant or sexually abused. Influential men in the world have done nothing to help correct this image of women which means the young girls are continually being told they need to be a size zero and cake makeup on their face. In this piece Smith and Wisman were attempting to inform the public about a very real problem. The early sexualization of girls is causing these young ladies to view themselves in only how sexually attractive they are to the opposite sex. Social workers and caseworkers have repeatedly expressed their concern over the young girls that are now coming into the homes with “sexualized behavior” which was not found in the girls 15 years ago. Smith and Wisman are hoping to help create a foundation in which young girls will be able to find support as they grow up and become the young women they were meant to be.
It has always been known that the media has a lot of influence over the younger generations. This never seemed to be a problem when the only programs on television was Animal Planet however in the writing “What are We doing to Girls”, Jennifer A. Smith and Mindi Wisman describe in recent years that T.V. programs have become crude and inappropriate. Kids experience Pop culture through shows and grow accustomed to seeing celebrities losing weight and getting surgery done to “enhance” themselves and begin to associate this with how they themselves should look and act: “according to a 2004 study by the Dove Real Beauty campaign, 42% of first- to third-grade girls want to be thinner, while 81% of 10-year-olds are afraid of getting fat.” (6) The top concern of girls today is how they look. Their clothes, makeup, even their weight needs to be perfect for them to feel even an iota of self worth. It is a common joke that a girl's self esteem is tied to her weight and physical looks when the jokes humor is anchored in truth. Society has told girls that they aren't anything more than a pretty object for someone to look at and these young girls are being brainwashed into thinking they could never be anything more. Girls are afraid of getting fat because they believe if they don't fit into the role society has set for them they won't be considered worth anything. Girls are starting to believe that the female norm is as a sexed-up barbie doll.
Males in today's society have distorted the image of a female's body and refuse to retract their previous opinions which happen to be completely incorrect. The physical form of a woman was not put on this earth for the express purpose of being physically attractive. When it is said a woman should be seen but not heard, this is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the world today. Girls have a brain. Girls have feelings. Girls are a heck of a lot smarter than men give us credit for yet men continue to ignore these excellent qualities and look only at the physical attributes. The woman who had been sitting in a bar reading her novel was dressed in work appropriate attire. To the average working female this term describes a pencil skirt, to the knees or below, and a nice button up shirt with very little to no cleavage. Even with these precautions taken by the woman she was still specifically sought out by these perverted men. Society condones this kind of behavior, humanity watches as women are exploited in television shows and does nothing to interfere or stop to this treatment. It has been a constant nuisance fending off the advances of greedy males in a society that is mainly managed by men. Society is quickly turning back to a misogynistically based country and it needs to be corrected. The saying boys will be boys is a misconception that only helps solidify the point i'm trying to make. Boys have the excuse that they're “just boys.” “They’re going through a phase,” but as long as we don't acknowledge what they're doing it will eventually stop. That’s B.S. These boys should be held accountable for their actions just as all adults should be. Society, the media, even adults make excuses for the way our country is slowly turning into a crude environment when they have to ability to stop it. It should never be acceptable to treat a girl, no matter how young or old she is, like shes an object. How uncomfortable would you be after being whistled at by a stranger knowing they were gawking at you as you walked by?
Works Cited
Smith, Jennifer A. "What Are We Doing to Girls?" The Furrow 41.1 (1990): 27-33.
Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
The New York Sociologist, Vol. 5, 2010, Stephanie N. "The Objectification of Women in
Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist Culture." The Objectification of
Women in Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist Culture (n.d.): n. pag.
Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Ignoring 800,000 People Doesn’t Make Them Go Away
By: Jacob Black
In today’s world there are constant shifts in the norms we experience in our day-to-day lives, but they most are passing and are usually insignificant ones like new technology or tv shows, but more often than not we expect the major norms to stay as rigid as possible with very few deviations. We carry out our customs with intense familiarity and feel as though our way of life is at risk once we encounter a significant difference, particularly when people of other cultures meld into our own and we face an apparent culture clash. Notably in current news, there is an immigration crisis plaguing Europe as hundreds of thousands of people flee their home countries in the Middle East in order to avoid the war. Some are walking across entire countries, others arriving in boats and rafts in the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately they are being met with extremely negative reception and with the overcrowding of shelters and ever shrinking opportunities to find a new place to live, the refugees are facing the difficulties of assimilating into the European lifestyle because of their negative status in the public’s eye and their own deeply held cultures. It may be expected for immigrants to accept the regulations of their new culture as they try to integrate, but once those regulations overlook the humanity of the situation the harder it becomes to foster a sense of unity and acceptance if the culture they are integrating into actively tries to exclude those in need. As immigration continues to grow in the media’s eye with the crisis in Europe and being the dominating subject of presidential hopefuls it is easy to lose the humanity in the subject after they arrive. While it may be expected for immigrants to accept the regulations of their new culture as they try to integrate; the current system of integration is highly flawed and is in need of reform.
Melissa Eddy, Rick Lyman, and Alison Smale’s article, “Germany Orders Curbs at Border in Migrant Crisis” posted in the New York Times on September 13th, 2015 brings up the issue of Europe’s inability to handle the sheer amount of refugees coming into countries like Germany and overwhelming the local authorities after one day which resulted in the halting of all trains into the country and the closing of the German/Austrian border. A distinctive section of the article focused on how the refugees are left with no options when dealing with the border customs with many people being sent to refugee camps after the trains in the Munich Station were unable to sustain the amount of people entering Germany after 12,000 people arrived in one day. Causing many consecutive trains to re-rout away from Germany’s border, while the refugees were only able to accept their unfortunate circumstances. The article concludes by expressing that the conditions of traveling are becoming even more deplorable, with 4,330 refugees being detained by Hungary at the Serbian border after attempting to cross illegally, setting a ‘record’ for the single most arrests in one day, beating the previous ‘record’ by over 700 people. Demonstrating that the conditions the refugees must endure will likely not lighten up in the perceivable future. The authors chronicle how the harsh conditions and obstacles these refugees face as they leave behind their lives in a war torn country don’t end once they’ve reached Europe. Camps that are barely functioning with minimal resources and relief efforts stalled by contradicting policies, and inhumane treatment by host countries are doing little to make these struggling people feel as though they will be welcomed one day by those who truly care about their futures and well being.
The gravity of the railway crisis is poignantly realised when Smale, Lyman, and Eddy expose how unprepared the system was for the crowd that was to come. The trio cite how the authorities in charge of the operation never expected the situation to unfold the way it did, and how the best immediate solution for the railways to recover was to reorganize by shutting them down entirely or imposing heavy restrictions on domestic movement. These restrictions also came a surprise to everyone involved in the relocation efforts and caught nearly everyone in the transportation system completely off guard since the information was distributed by messages on signs that essentially said the railways were closed without saying why, and simply read: “No railway service by order of German authorities due to the German migrant crisis.” (2). This section of the article reflects how the flood of people desperate to find a better life are being treated like a nuisance as they arrive in droves and they are being reduced to numbers in a refugee camp as their basic needs are failing to be met as they run out of food, transportation, sanitation and access to fresh water. Being forced to endure these conditions even as those conditions continue to steadily decline.
As these abhorrent conditions continue to be documented on a daily basis it is clear that the situation is in need of reform in Europe’s immigration policy if these refugees hope to escape their war torn homeland and live a better life. Ian Traynor of The Guardian published an article entitled “Refugee Crisis: Juncker calls for radical overhaul of EU immigration policies”. Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, urged on September 9th that a ‘common regime’ of European border guards. And opening legal channels to assist coordinate arrivals to Europe, as well as the creation of binding and permanent systems for absorbing the influx of refugees 'fairly' across the continent. Traynor comments on how this action reflects many of Europe’s governments historical record of taking in refugees, Traynor listed Europe assisting refugees fleeing from the persecution of the Huguenots during the 17th century in France and the slavic wars in the 1990s. Emphasising that the Geneva conventions were established to regulate the treatment of refugees and were aimed at helping Europeans that were left to face the hardships of World War 2. With such a track record, Juncker questions why the system is faltering now and what can be done to help optimize the process, proposing a permanent new system of international sharing of refugees in crises by enforcing certain numbers to to certain countries that can support them and increasing international border security to deter illegal crossing.
This proposal is a breath of fresh air not only to the refugees but also the nations taking them in as they are now beginning serious talks about which countries will be taking on the heavier burdens and which are more financially able to support their influx of refugees. Juncker confirmed that Brussels would be making requests to other nations to come to an agreement as to how 160,000 refugees would be distributed to countries like Italy, Hungary, and Greece, noting that this had to be on a ‘binding agreement’ rather than on a voluntary basis since many countries are still apprehensive about accepting so many people. Juncker expressed that: “Today it is Europe that is sought as a place of refuge and exile. It is Europe today that represents a beacon of hope...That is something to be proud of and not something to fear.” (1). Reflecting on how the apparent Islamophobia plaguing many European countries must be put aside in order to help our fellow man and how the first step to showing the rest of the world that Europe is willing to take on the responsibilities of the immigration crisis by sharing the burden instead of setting quotas of exactly how many people one country will take before they decide they’ve done their part and turn their backs on the issues.
It is clear that whatever course of action Europe decides on, it must be implemented as quickly as possible. With the crisis still being monitored closely by the world’s electric eye the pressure to act on the situation is palpable, but more needs to be done to help these people who are only looking for an escape from their war-torn past. More than just arresting the refugees and placing them is barely functioning camps, more than figuring out how to carve up the influx like slices of pie, and more than kind rhetoric. Hungary must stop detaining families, Austria and Turkey must stop sending their refugees back to Hungary, Germany must re-open its borders, Europe must put aside their xenophobia/ Islamophobia. While in the U.S. we as a nation must work with the EU to enforce their proposals of sharing the burden and accept more than just 10,000 refugees ourselves. Finally, fellow Arab nations in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia and the UAE must accept their responsibility and begin taking in those struggling refugees like their Theocratic systems dictate they must if we, not only as nations, but we as a world must do when a crisis of this nature and scale arises.
Works Cited
Lyman, Rick; Melissa, Eddy; Smale, Alison. "Germany Orders Curbs at Border in Migrant Crisis." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Sept. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Traynor, Ian. “Refugee Crisis: Juncker Calls for Radical Overhaul of EU Immigration Policies.” The Guardian, 9 Sept. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
In today’s world there are constant shifts in the norms we experience in our day-to-day lives, but they most are passing and are usually insignificant ones like new technology or tv shows, but more often than not we expect the major norms to stay as rigid as possible with very few deviations. We carry out our customs with intense familiarity and feel as though our way of life is at risk once we encounter a significant difference, particularly when people of other cultures meld into our own and we face an apparent culture clash. Notably in current news, there is an immigration crisis plaguing Europe as hundreds of thousands of people flee their home countries in the Middle East in order to avoid the war. Some are walking across entire countries, others arriving in boats and rafts in the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately they are being met with extremely negative reception and with the overcrowding of shelters and ever shrinking opportunities to find a new place to live, the refugees are facing the difficulties of assimilating into the European lifestyle because of their negative status in the public’s eye and their own deeply held cultures. It may be expected for immigrants to accept the regulations of their new culture as they try to integrate, but once those regulations overlook the humanity of the situation the harder it becomes to foster a sense of unity and acceptance if the culture they are integrating into actively tries to exclude those in need. As immigration continues to grow in the media’s eye with the crisis in Europe and being the dominating subject of presidential hopefuls it is easy to lose the humanity in the subject after they arrive. While it may be expected for immigrants to accept the regulations of their new culture as they try to integrate; the current system of integration is highly flawed and is in need of reform.
Melissa Eddy, Rick Lyman, and Alison Smale’s article, “Germany Orders Curbs at Border in Migrant Crisis” posted in the New York Times on September 13th, 2015 brings up the issue of Europe’s inability to handle the sheer amount of refugees coming into countries like Germany and overwhelming the local authorities after one day which resulted in the halting of all trains into the country and the closing of the German/Austrian border. A distinctive section of the article focused on how the refugees are left with no options when dealing with the border customs with many people being sent to refugee camps after the trains in the Munich Station were unable to sustain the amount of people entering Germany after 12,000 people arrived in one day. Causing many consecutive trains to re-rout away from Germany’s border, while the refugees were only able to accept their unfortunate circumstances. The article concludes by expressing that the conditions of traveling are becoming even more deplorable, with 4,330 refugees being detained by Hungary at the Serbian border after attempting to cross illegally, setting a ‘record’ for the single most arrests in one day, beating the previous ‘record’ by over 700 people. Demonstrating that the conditions the refugees must endure will likely not lighten up in the perceivable future. The authors chronicle how the harsh conditions and obstacles these refugees face as they leave behind their lives in a war torn country don’t end once they’ve reached Europe. Camps that are barely functioning with minimal resources and relief efforts stalled by contradicting policies, and inhumane treatment by host countries are doing little to make these struggling people feel as though they will be welcomed one day by those who truly care about their futures and well being.
The gravity of the railway crisis is poignantly realised when Smale, Lyman, and Eddy expose how unprepared the system was for the crowd that was to come. The trio cite how the authorities in charge of the operation never expected the situation to unfold the way it did, and how the best immediate solution for the railways to recover was to reorganize by shutting them down entirely or imposing heavy restrictions on domestic movement. These restrictions also came a surprise to everyone involved in the relocation efforts and caught nearly everyone in the transportation system completely off guard since the information was distributed by messages on signs that essentially said the railways were closed without saying why, and simply read: “No railway service by order of German authorities due to the German migrant crisis.” (2). This section of the article reflects how the flood of people desperate to find a better life are being treated like a nuisance as they arrive in droves and they are being reduced to numbers in a refugee camp as their basic needs are failing to be met as they run out of food, transportation, sanitation and access to fresh water. Being forced to endure these conditions even as those conditions continue to steadily decline.
As these abhorrent conditions continue to be documented on a daily basis it is clear that the situation is in need of reform in Europe’s immigration policy if these refugees hope to escape their war torn homeland and live a better life. Ian Traynor of The Guardian published an article entitled “Refugee Crisis: Juncker calls for radical overhaul of EU immigration policies”. Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, urged on September 9th that a ‘common regime’ of European border guards. And opening legal channels to assist coordinate arrivals to Europe, as well as the creation of binding and permanent systems for absorbing the influx of refugees 'fairly' across the continent. Traynor comments on how this action reflects many of Europe’s governments historical record of taking in refugees, Traynor listed Europe assisting refugees fleeing from the persecution of the Huguenots during the 17th century in France and the slavic wars in the 1990s. Emphasising that the Geneva conventions were established to regulate the treatment of refugees and were aimed at helping Europeans that were left to face the hardships of World War 2. With such a track record, Juncker questions why the system is faltering now and what can be done to help optimize the process, proposing a permanent new system of international sharing of refugees in crises by enforcing certain numbers to to certain countries that can support them and increasing international border security to deter illegal crossing.
This proposal is a breath of fresh air not only to the refugees but also the nations taking them in as they are now beginning serious talks about which countries will be taking on the heavier burdens and which are more financially able to support their influx of refugees. Juncker confirmed that Brussels would be making requests to other nations to come to an agreement as to how 160,000 refugees would be distributed to countries like Italy, Hungary, and Greece, noting that this had to be on a ‘binding agreement’ rather than on a voluntary basis since many countries are still apprehensive about accepting so many people. Juncker expressed that: “Today it is Europe that is sought as a place of refuge and exile. It is Europe today that represents a beacon of hope...That is something to be proud of and not something to fear.” (1). Reflecting on how the apparent Islamophobia plaguing many European countries must be put aside in order to help our fellow man and how the first step to showing the rest of the world that Europe is willing to take on the responsibilities of the immigration crisis by sharing the burden instead of setting quotas of exactly how many people one country will take before they decide they’ve done their part and turn their backs on the issues.
It is clear that whatever course of action Europe decides on, it must be implemented as quickly as possible. With the crisis still being monitored closely by the world’s electric eye the pressure to act on the situation is palpable, but more needs to be done to help these people who are only looking for an escape from their war-torn past. More than just arresting the refugees and placing them is barely functioning camps, more than figuring out how to carve up the influx like slices of pie, and more than kind rhetoric. Hungary must stop detaining families, Austria and Turkey must stop sending their refugees back to Hungary, Germany must re-open its borders, Europe must put aside their xenophobia/ Islamophobia. While in the U.S. we as a nation must work with the EU to enforce their proposals of sharing the burden and accept more than just 10,000 refugees ourselves. Finally, fellow Arab nations in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia and the UAE must accept their responsibility and begin taking in those struggling refugees like their Theocratic systems dictate they must if we, not only as nations, but we as a world must do when a crisis of this nature and scale arises.
Works Cited
Lyman, Rick; Melissa, Eddy; Smale, Alison. "Germany Orders Curbs at Border in Migrant Crisis." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Sept. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Traynor, Ian. “Refugee Crisis: Juncker Calls for Radical Overhaul of EU Immigration Policies.” The Guardian, 9 Sept. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
He/She/They: On the Topic of Correction
By: Britany Hanks
I work with a woman who was, biologically, born a male. She is very feminine and beautiful, and most people who come through our store don’t even realize anything out of the ordinary about her. When people do notice, they’re generally very nice about it and will pull one of us aside and ask about her gender to make sure they don’t offend her. Of course, not all customers can be as nice as others and most of us are constantly on high alert and low tolerance for people disrespecting her. Especially those of us who are part of the LGBT community such as myself and one of my coworkers, R. She is an activist for almost everything she can be- feminism, LGBT-ism, et cetera, and it often gets her into trouble because she doesn’t know when to shut her mouth. One day at work, we were talking about this trans friend to another coworker who wasn’t quite getting the proper pronouns. Rather than waiting for her to finish and then attempting to explain the proper way to refer to this girl, R interrupted her every few words to correct her and wouldn’t let her continue until she had used the right pronoun, even going so far as to make her change “when she was a boy,” which to most transgender people would be acceptable phrasing, to “when she identified as a boy and hadn’t started transitioning.” It was extremely excessive and painful to watch, even for someone who understands the importance of such a thing. A few sentences in, the girl who was trying to tell her story about our coworker gave up and wouldn’t finish telling me her story until R went away. She had obviously not been messing up the pronouns on purpose, and I later explained to R that it wasn’t our place to get more upset about this girl’s pronouns than she would ever get.
With Caitlyn Jenner having outed herself as a female, transgenderism has become an increasingly prevalent issue in our society over the past several months. These names are popping up everywhere. Newer ones like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, along with ones who have been around for quite awhile longer, such as Chaz Bono. It’s sparked civilized debates and strong arguments--which are usually more along the lines of uneducated opinions and name-calling over Facebook. There are many people who just believe that people should always be the gender they were born as, biologically. Others believe that you can be born female on the inside even if you are physically a male, and vice versa. Regardless of which view is actually true, it is crucial to use someone’s chosen name and preferred pronouns-- whether they go by he, she, they, or anything else. Many do misuse these pronouns in a malicious way; however, a lot of people also just have trouble using them for memory or comprehension reasons. Activists spend a lot of time preaching about being nice to everyone and building up confidence, but many of them don’t realize how much they hurt other people in the process. While it is important for everyone to respect and do their best with gender pronouns chosen by non-binary people, we should be more tolerant and patient of those who have trouble understanding and remembering these pronouns.
In, “Gender-Neutral Pronouns: When ‘they’ doesn’t identify as either male or female,” Washington Post Civilities columnist Steven Petrow has a response to the big question about pronouns: do we use different pronouns even if their grammatical incorrectness makes us uncomfortable? In short, he tells us-- yes. He tells of a friend of his that prefers ‘they’ pronouns, and how even though it’s confusing, it’s more important to respect their wishes. If it makes people uncomfortable to refer to someone by a strange pronoun, they should consider how uncomfortable it must make a person who is out of the gender binary to be called ‘he’ or ‘she’ incorrectly- many of us have had our genders mistaken, be it by our voice or our hair or our clothing. Most people will tell you it’s not comfortable. This article refers mostly to the use of the plural ‘they’, but is just as applicable to the improper use of ‘he/she’ because it all comes down to one important central idea.
“Language is about respect,” (1) Petrow writes, as he points out that it’s not as complicated as it may seem, “and we should all do our best to recognize how people wish to be identified, whether it is using their preferred name or a pronoun spelled any which way.” The writer explains that even he has trouble remembering and pronouncing all these pronouns- especially as new terms such as ‘ze’ and ‘hir’ are being coined- but he knows that respecting someone’s personal wishes is more important than grammar or confusion. While it is true that using these pronouns is important, people need to understand that getting everyone to immediately pick up these pronouns is not a realistic goal and in short, some people will be confused. Being rude and aggressive towards people who are trying their best just because they mess up is worse than people actually messing up the pronouns because the former has malicious intent.
Chicago Tribune writer Clarence Page gave his input this year on the forthcoming transgender movement in an article headlined, “While Society Grapples with Pronouns, Transgenders Fight for Acceptance”. He tells about a coworker of his that went through a gender transition, and her difficulties having worked in the media- comparing it to Caitlyn Jenner being so famous and having to be in the press all the time. Page speculates which direction the media exposure will lead this topic in. He references the Time article, “The Transgender Tipping Point”, a very positive story featuring Laverne Cox and her transition, ending in a feel-good story about a very young child (gender unknown) who asked how to handle bullying at school and being told by Cox to always remember that they were beautiful no matter what. Page is obviously accepting of transgenderism, but nevertheless has issues remembering proper pronouns and switching pronouns after knowing someone by their biological pronouns for so long.
Page explains a few of the troubles that transgenders face in society, but focuses mainly on this: “The hardest part of adjusting to a friend's sex change? Figuring out the pronouns.” (1). No matter how much you want to get them correct for the person, it can be difficult when you’ve known the person for such a long time as one thing. It’s the same concept as forgetting to call a teacher by their new name once they get married. This can be especially hard for someone like Caitlyn Jenner who was so well known in the media even before she transitioned. There’s all the old news articles that referred to her as Bruce and used male pronouns. It can be hard to change all the large sites that refer to her as such (Wikipedia, for example), and just as difficult for everyone to change the way they view her in their mind. Transgenders and their allies generally make a big deal about making sure people get these pronouns correct- anywhere from correcting pronouns as the offender speaks to yelling at them and calling them awful things. As Page gently explained in this article, sometimes it’s just difficult to remember. And that’s okay.
It’s hard being friends with someone who has beliefs so strong that they are completely domineering over everyone else when those beliefs come up. Most people tread lightly around R, wanting to keep from sending her on these long and unnecessary rants about equality. I know that it doesn’t help anyone for us to let her think that her way of helping often crosses over into hurting. I’m the one that keeps her in line, because the big thing about messing up someone’s pronouns and berating someone for messing up those pronouns is this- neither of them really help, but only one of them is hurting. Obviously not the one most people would choose at first glance. The thing about messing up is that every single transgender goes through it all the time- and most of them are pretty nice about it as long as you’re not purposely calling them the wrong gender. But those people who want to help tend to correct by overcorrecting- not just telling people they’re wrong, but yelling at them for it. We overcorrect for many things, aside from just gender pronouns. Men go out of their way to let women be independent for fear of seeming sexist; and an unrealistic level of effort is put into trying to make people with different skin colors fit in- when really if we would just afford each other a normal and appropriate amount of respect in the first place, we wouldn’t have to overcorrect ourselves to try to fix the mistakes of others. We shouldn’t try to treat people especially well because something they can’t change makes them an easy target of oppression- treating them differently in a good way is still alienating them and making them feel like they can’t fit in on their own. The reality about transgenderism is this- if you looked out on a large crowd of people, such as on the streets of New York or at a concert, you wouldn’t be able to tell the genders of quite a few people, let alone figure out who was born that way. It’s a simple, “actually I’m a girl,” an apology, and mutual respect.
Works Cited
Page, Clarence. "While Society Grapples with Pronouns, Transgenders Fight for Acceptance." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, 9 June 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Petrow, Steven. "Gender-neutral Pronouns." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
I work with a woman who was, biologically, born a male. She is very feminine and beautiful, and most people who come through our store don’t even realize anything out of the ordinary about her. When people do notice, they’re generally very nice about it and will pull one of us aside and ask about her gender to make sure they don’t offend her. Of course, not all customers can be as nice as others and most of us are constantly on high alert and low tolerance for people disrespecting her. Especially those of us who are part of the LGBT community such as myself and one of my coworkers, R. She is an activist for almost everything she can be- feminism, LGBT-ism, et cetera, and it often gets her into trouble because she doesn’t know when to shut her mouth. One day at work, we were talking about this trans friend to another coworker who wasn’t quite getting the proper pronouns. Rather than waiting for her to finish and then attempting to explain the proper way to refer to this girl, R interrupted her every few words to correct her and wouldn’t let her continue until she had used the right pronoun, even going so far as to make her change “when she was a boy,” which to most transgender people would be acceptable phrasing, to “when she identified as a boy and hadn’t started transitioning.” It was extremely excessive and painful to watch, even for someone who understands the importance of such a thing. A few sentences in, the girl who was trying to tell her story about our coworker gave up and wouldn’t finish telling me her story until R went away. She had obviously not been messing up the pronouns on purpose, and I later explained to R that it wasn’t our place to get more upset about this girl’s pronouns than she would ever get.
With Caitlyn Jenner having outed herself as a female, transgenderism has become an increasingly prevalent issue in our society over the past several months. These names are popping up everywhere. Newer ones like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, along with ones who have been around for quite awhile longer, such as Chaz Bono. It’s sparked civilized debates and strong arguments--which are usually more along the lines of uneducated opinions and name-calling over Facebook. There are many people who just believe that people should always be the gender they were born as, biologically. Others believe that you can be born female on the inside even if you are physically a male, and vice versa. Regardless of which view is actually true, it is crucial to use someone’s chosen name and preferred pronouns-- whether they go by he, she, they, or anything else. Many do misuse these pronouns in a malicious way; however, a lot of people also just have trouble using them for memory or comprehension reasons. Activists spend a lot of time preaching about being nice to everyone and building up confidence, but many of them don’t realize how much they hurt other people in the process. While it is important for everyone to respect and do their best with gender pronouns chosen by non-binary people, we should be more tolerant and patient of those who have trouble understanding and remembering these pronouns.
In, “Gender-Neutral Pronouns: When ‘they’ doesn’t identify as either male or female,” Washington Post Civilities columnist Steven Petrow has a response to the big question about pronouns: do we use different pronouns even if their grammatical incorrectness makes us uncomfortable? In short, he tells us-- yes. He tells of a friend of his that prefers ‘they’ pronouns, and how even though it’s confusing, it’s more important to respect their wishes. If it makes people uncomfortable to refer to someone by a strange pronoun, they should consider how uncomfortable it must make a person who is out of the gender binary to be called ‘he’ or ‘she’ incorrectly- many of us have had our genders mistaken, be it by our voice or our hair or our clothing. Most people will tell you it’s not comfortable. This article refers mostly to the use of the plural ‘they’, but is just as applicable to the improper use of ‘he/she’ because it all comes down to one important central idea.
“Language is about respect,” (1) Petrow writes, as he points out that it’s not as complicated as it may seem, “and we should all do our best to recognize how people wish to be identified, whether it is using their preferred name or a pronoun spelled any which way.” The writer explains that even he has trouble remembering and pronouncing all these pronouns- especially as new terms such as ‘ze’ and ‘hir’ are being coined- but he knows that respecting someone’s personal wishes is more important than grammar or confusion. While it is true that using these pronouns is important, people need to understand that getting everyone to immediately pick up these pronouns is not a realistic goal and in short, some people will be confused. Being rude and aggressive towards people who are trying their best just because they mess up is worse than people actually messing up the pronouns because the former has malicious intent.
Chicago Tribune writer Clarence Page gave his input this year on the forthcoming transgender movement in an article headlined, “While Society Grapples with Pronouns, Transgenders Fight for Acceptance”. He tells about a coworker of his that went through a gender transition, and her difficulties having worked in the media- comparing it to Caitlyn Jenner being so famous and having to be in the press all the time. Page speculates which direction the media exposure will lead this topic in. He references the Time article, “The Transgender Tipping Point”, a very positive story featuring Laverne Cox and her transition, ending in a feel-good story about a very young child (gender unknown) who asked how to handle bullying at school and being told by Cox to always remember that they were beautiful no matter what. Page is obviously accepting of transgenderism, but nevertheless has issues remembering proper pronouns and switching pronouns after knowing someone by their biological pronouns for so long.
Page explains a few of the troubles that transgenders face in society, but focuses mainly on this: “The hardest part of adjusting to a friend's sex change? Figuring out the pronouns.” (1). No matter how much you want to get them correct for the person, it can be difficult when you’ve known the person for such a long time as one thing. It’s the same concept as forgetting to call a teacher by their new name once they get married. This can be especially hard for someone like Caitlyn Jenner who was so well known in the media even before she transitioned. There’s all the old news articles that referred to her as Bruce and used male pronouns. It can be hard to change all the large sites that refer to her as such (Wikipedia, for example), and just as difficult for everyone to change the way they view her in their mind. Transgenders and their allies generally make a big deal about making sure people get these pronouns correct- anywhere from correcting pronouns as the offender speaks to yelling at them and calling them awful things. As Page gently explained in this article, sometimes it’s just difficult to remember. And that’s okay.
It’s hard being friends with someone who has beliefs so strong that they are completely domineering over everyone else when those beliefs come up. Most people tread lightly around R, wanting to keep from sending her on these long and unnecessary rants about equality. I know that it doesn’t help anyone for us to let her think that her way of helping often crosses over into hurting. I’m the one that keeps her in line, because the big thing about messing up someone’s pronouns and berating someone for messing up those pronouns is this- neither of them really help, but only one of them is hurting. Obviously not the one most people would choose at first glance. The thing about messing up is that every single transgender goes through it all the time- and most of them are pretty nice about it as long as you’re not purposely calling them the wrong gender. But those people who want to help tend to correct by overcorrecting- not just telling people they’re wrong, but yelling at them for it. We overcorrect for many things, aside from just gender pronouns. Men go out of their way to let women be independent for fear of seeming sexist; and an unrealistic level of effort is put into trying to make people with different skin colors fit in- when really if we would just afford each other a normal and appropriate amount of respect in the first place, we wouldn’t have to overcorrect ourselves to try to fix the mistakes of others. We shouldn’t try to treat people especially well because something they can’t change makes them an easy target of oppression- treating them differently in a good way is still alienating them and making them feel like they can’t fit in on their own. The reality about transgenderism is this- if you looked out on a large crowd of people, such as on the streets of New York or at a concert, you wouldn’t be able to tell the genders of quite a few people, let alone figure out who was born that way. It’s a simple, “actually I’m a girl,” an apology, and mutual respect.
Works Cited
Page, Clarence. "While Society Grapples with Pronouns, Transgenders Fight for Acceptance." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, 9 June 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Petrow, Steven. "Gender-neutral Pronouns." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.