Christie Fewkes

Week 9

I think this week was the most challenging unit yet.  So many times, we struggle with the right words for articles only to find that we have to rethink every word or phrase we have written. Although sexist language has never been an issue for me, I didn’t realize how easily it can slip into our everyday vocabulary and our writing.  The simple use of the word fireman rather than firefighter is a perfect example.  

The world of sports seems to have more than their fair share of sexism when it comes to reporting. One example of sexism in the media was made quite popular during the Olympics this past summer. The Chicago Tribune newspaper identified bronze medal winner Corey Cogell-Unrein in a headline as the “wife” of a Chicago football player. The headline failed to give Cogell-Urein’s name.  She is a competitor in the sport of trap shooting

“Simpson and Delilah” is the second episode of The Simpsons second season, airing on October 18, 1990. In the episode Homer’s hair grows back due to the air of a new drug Dimoxinil. After his hair grows back, Homer notices that he gets treated nicely and even gets a promotion.  This is an exert from an online source that shows that people with long hair and fashion are of different sexual orientation and that is a stereotype of heterosexism.  Homer never has hair and when he does that fits a general stereotype of how we view gay men.

Now that I am actually looking, ageism seems to be everywhere. Prevention magazine recently noted that Older people are not all hard-of-hearing. You don’t need to shout at them or use the same voice you would use with a small child. No one likes being patronized. According to research reported in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, young adults give directions differently to 65-year-olds than they do to 21-year-olds. Specifically, they speak to older adults more slowly and in higher-pitched voices — two speech patterns associated with being patronizing, notes Prevention. “When adults talk to you the way they do to a two-year-old, they’re presuming you’re not fully competent, and that’s demeaning,” study co-author Jessica Hehman, assistant professor of psychology and director of the Psychology of Aging Lab at the University of Redlands, told Prevention. A friend just switched personal trainers because at 70, she was tired of hearing “good job” every time she completed an exercise set. “I’m not six years old, after all,” she said. “What was next? A star chart?”

Racism can sometimes be accidental or unintentional, as is the sign below. Blacks is actually the name of a store.