An excercise

[adrienmundi]

Just for fun, try substituting any ethnic label (Albanian, Korean, Black, Iberian, etc.) for either "men" or "women" in the media, and then think about what sort of reaction such commentary would engender in the public. I'm curious as to your results.

Comments

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

come to think of it, what do you think of ethnic/cultural categories?

[adrienmundi]

I think they are useful but limited descriptors that tend to be used with the knowledge of their limitations (I somehow doubt that, when speaking of, say, the Italians, no one really beleives all Italians can be painted with the same brush). I'm not sure if I'm communicating the difference here or not.

Someone has to warn her...

[achasonc.livejournal.com]

Al-Jazeera airs purported bin Laden audiotapes
Voice calls for suicide attacks against Martha Stewart, her allies
Sunday, October 19, 2003 Posted: 5:47 PM EDT (2147 GMT)
(CNN)--In two audiotaped messages broadcast Saturday, a man purporting to be Osama bin Laden discussed Martha Stewart and threatened to launch suicide attacks against Martha Stewart and any countries that help her.

Thanks, I'll never look at CNN again without giggling.

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

possibly because i am slow, but
'fraid not

[adrienmundi]

That ethnicity is not a dominant, or fundamental, criteria? Ethnicity seems to be relegated to luck/accident, not an assumption of nature.

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

I am actually not sure that is entirely accurate (especially if we are talking about assumptions)
This is why it seemed to me that the analogy you are drawing is counterproductive in regards to the argument yu are trying to make. Will elaborate later

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

just real quick however, there is often an assumption of 'nature' in ethnic/racial classifications and moreover, "naturalness" is actually NOT the core enemy. An assumption of pure form is.

[adrienmundi]

Ah, OK, I think I've regained the perspective I had when I began this thread. I think what I meant was that there appears to be more of an awareness about 'ethnicity' such that offhand comments aren't made the same way as they are about 'gender', at least in public and polite company.

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

also, would you please point me to a media source where the above experiment would be applicable?