The "isms" described in the text are so much more prevalent in today's media than I originally thought they would be. When we received this assignment I thought "how in the world am I going find an example for all four?!" However, as I thought back on the last year and the media I've read, as well as spent a little time on Facebook throughout this week I found multiple examples of each:
Racism
As I thought about this "ism" I immediately thought back to this article below. It just so happened that one of the presidential candidates made a mistake in her speech that could be considered extremely racist.
"Hillary Clinton Gets Busted Making Disgustingly Racist Comment… Media Says Nothing...
"During a campaign speech Thursday in South Carolina that addressed the progressive notion of “white privilege,” the former secretary of state claimed that even “open-minded” white people still get nervous when approached by a young black man wearing a hoodie...
"Truth be told, she actually said virtually the same thing in a speech last month in San Francisco, proclaiming: “For a lot of well-meaning, open-minded white people, the sight of a young black man in a hoodie still evokes a twinge of fear.” (conservativetribue.com)
Sexism
My dad is a firefighter and so I find myself searching for firefighter paraphernalia online. In one of my recent searches to find my dad something for Christmas I found the following shirt. At first all I thought was that this shirt had the strangest picture, but then I read the text and realized how sexist the words could be. The phrase "firefighter brotherhood" removes the idea that women are also in the service. However, there are many women who are in the service that would not be able to be included in this "brotherhood."
Ageism
Why is it so normal to hear a comment about old people this or young people that? I found the following meme as I scrolled through Facebook this week. To use the words "old people" and "hip" in the same meme is definitely following this idea of ageism.
Heterosexism
I found an article on Good4Utah.com. Was it necessary to mention that they were "gay men."? It is definitely interesting to go into the news and other forms of media and notice all of the times that heterosexism is used. We don't really think about it, however, it does exist and we as writers should be more conscious of avoiding it.
The last example is an excellent one. Unless it was proven or a very strong possibility it was a heterosexist hate crime, the sexual orientation of the victims was completely irrelevant. In fact, mentioning it might lead to the assumption that it was a hate crime, regardless of the actual motives for the attack.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, the headline stating that they were "attacked and assaulted" is redundant. Maybe they just wanted to clarify and obfuscate, or wanted to make it apparent and obvious.
I agree with the other comment, the only reason why "Gay men" was necessary is if it was a hate crime for the men being gay. Other wise great examples, I am related to female family members that are firefighters, so I appreciate the post.
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