I have never sat down and given
much thought to my consumption of the media. Truth be told all I really do is
look at memes and watch Netflix; so at first I really considered myself to not
have much of a media influence. Then I began to consider the types of memes it
is I typically spend time looking at. And surprisingly they do have in
influence from time to time by social justice movements.
The most apparent examples for me to
discuss would be the “Misandry tree of knowledge” meme which briefly circulated
sometime last spring. As far as the consumption of Netflix programming is
concerned, I have also come to realize there are also several gender empowering
shows available. This includes Cable Girls; depicting women working within a
telephone company in Madrid and the challenges they faced within this time
period. Media such as this easily can influence others to understand the
struggle not only women face, but the struggles of all marginalized groups of
people.
Although, Netflix and Instagram are
becoming mainstream channels, these previously mentioned examples are rather
unknown or underground, and remain unmentioned by larger groups. The mainstream
media (cable news networks and talk shows) largely still presents information
from the perspective of those in power. The first example that comes to mind is
the story of the woman who had climbed the Statue of Liberty in protest earlier
this summer. Largely the reports consisted of a glossed over introduction of
who the activist was and then the charges presented against her for her
actions.
I very much dislike the poor
relationship between the actions of activists and their reputations from the
media. I find the reason they are not provided a proper way to speak out and be
heard within a setting of people ready to listen is largely due to the fact
that the people they take issue with are the same body controlling the modes of
outreach separating them from an understanding public. Being the “Middleman”,
the media is conveniently handed a paintbrush in which they may paint activists
as “crazed” or even “dangerous”. Such pasting of wrong labels allows those who
do not feel strongly either way, and may see the reasoning behind such action
being taken, allowing for them to choose to stand up may be inhibited now; because
they see those that speak out being depicted as crazed. This is not the case,
as passion for what is right should not be immediately linked to mental
instability.
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