Margo Valles

CST 590
Clipping # 1
Women in Harm’s Way. Howard Kurtz, Newsweek
Feb. 28. 2011
During the turmoil and protests in Egypt, the U.S. first heard about the assaults on

journalists with the story of CNN’s Anderson Cooper being beat down by angry protestors. In

this article, it focuses on CBS’s Lara Logan and how she was attacked in Egypt. In the bottom

column it “features” the stories of other women who have been reporting in war zones or

reported against governments.

The article first describes in the second paragraph how courageous she was to go into

warzones despite having children. The fact that she has children is very much emphasized in this

paragraph. This evokes the feeling that she somehow is handicapped by this setback. It tells the

reader that she doesn’t belong in a war zone, a place that is made by men, for men. The article

cites that only after having children did she ever “hesitate” or become “squeamish” of her job,

thus suggesting that her children have made her a weaker, less reliable reporter because she

should not be at the front lines. The article is suggesting that she belongs at home with her

children.

The diction in the article is very interesting as well; words like “fearless”, “courage”,

“wrangled”, “rode” and “cocky” are used repeatedly. These words create an image of cowboys

and the Wild West. Why are such words used to describe a female reporter? I can understand

“fearless” and “courage” but “wrangled”, “cocky” and “rode” seem very odd to me. Perhaps,

they are suggesting that she used her sexuality or confidence to ride to becoming “legendary”
from being a “lowly radio stinger.” Or perhaps such words are used in the same way many

republicans utilize the same diction to describe themselves. It’s like idolizing and glorifying the

cowboy (or in this case the cowgirl) to depict her has being on a new frontier, wherein women

are scarce.

In the middle of the article, it describes how she was attacked and sexually assaulted by a

“frenzied mob” only to be saved by a group of Egyptian women and soldiers. This led me to

wonder where the article for the Egyptian women was. Of course it wasn’t anywhere. Did these

women risk being sexually assaulted themselves when they saved Logan? If so, then this article

plays off the perceived desirability of white women to foreign men by white men. She is again

depicted in a place where she is not safe and should really be at home doting on her children.

This article is like the Black History month of female journalism. For something that is

under the radar as these women were (I didn’t know who any of them were), this paragraph, and

ten little pictures plus a sentence for each did not do anyone much justice. Some of the women in

the bottom pictures have died because of their ability to break news. Maybe these short sentences

serve as a grim foretelling of Logan’s fate, as the author would put it. Women in journalism is a

very broad subject, and deserves more than just two pages in a magazine. Lara Logan herself

deserves more than just a quarter of a page, while in the same magazine; a whole five page

feature is dedicated to George Clooney. The title, “Women in Harm’s Way” is puzzling to me.

There is never a “Men in Harm’s Way” article because men are expected to be the out there,

heroic, cowboy-like, and stoic. So what is so special about women going into war zones? The

title reinforces the assertion that women don’t belong there, out in the hot, armed warzones

because it would be just a terrible thing if they were to die.

Margo Valles
CST 590
Clipping # 2
Saying No to $1 Billion. Maria Streshinsky, The Atlantic
March 2011
Inequality and injustice plague our national Native American reserves but there is little

media outlets covering these issues. In the first few pages of this month’s Atlantic, buried among

several other stories, was this article about the Oglala Sioux’s refusal to accept a one billion

dollar offer from the federal Indian’s Claims Commission for the taking of their land,

specifically the Black Hills of South Dakota. This article does focus around gender in that

Streshinky focuses primarily on the men of the tribe who are depicted in the article as the

decision-makers.

The only women are mentioned are when she describes the unemployment rate. When

she mentions, “Rape is pandemic,” we consider how unemployment becomes related to rape.

Many conclusions can be drawn but I recall our readings on Imperialism and see that this is

much of the same. When the Native Americans were driven away from their lands, without

successful defense, the men are effeminate because they are unable to protect themselves. Today,

they oppressed with the unemployment and poverty that is difficult to escape from. Because men

cannot become aggressive with the people who will not hire or create jobs for them, they exert

the anger towards women. Additionally, if men are not being hired, then it is certain that women

will not be hired at all; which leaves them at home to worry about children and housework. The

men’s masculinity is questioned much like it was when their ancestors were removed from their

lands; they are unable to provide for their family.

 This leads me to question, what happens to the family or relationship dynamic in these

impoverished reserves when the expectation of men providing cannot be met? This not only

occurs in Indian reserves but other places like, black ghettos, where stigma’s against black men

deny them work; American suburbia, when companies fire the white or blue collar men to

employ their workforce overseas to cut costs; and even overseas in such places as Iraq where the

cost of starting up a business for American business men is expensive and half of the labor force

works for the government. Was rape pandemic Argentina in the mid 1990’s when the World

Bank swindled money from the government?

The article also mentions that “almost half of Oglala Sioux over 40 have diabetes.”

Perhaps the same conclusions can be drawn here too. No work means no health care, which leads

to few or no resources for the impoverished to care for themselves and seek medical help. Mario

Gonzales sees that poverty churns out a vicious cycle, which is why he felt that the Indian

Claims Commission’s offer was not going to solve their problems at the source
Margo Valles
CST 590
Clipping # 3
The Good Girl, Miranda Cosgrove. Peggy Orenstein, New York Times Magazine
March 23, 2011
The cover of this past weekend’s New York Times Magazine features a somewhat

stunned and lifeless looking Miranda Cosgrove with the headline “Big Girl Now.” The article on

Cosgrove examines and ponders what will become of the child star and if she will follow in the

footsteps of so many teen stars before her. The difficulties she faces to overcome the down sides

of stardom are highlighted but she is mainly portrayed to be a better role model than girls like

Lindsey Lohan and Miley Cyrus.

The article raises good points about the adversity she faces but the article is also deeply

gendered. The article leaves out questions about how boys in the same industry usually transition

into manhood virtually painlessly and unscathed. The article expresses concern over Cosgrove’s

future and transition into womanhood but there is no one particularly worried about Justin

Bieber’s coming of age (who, like Miranda, is on the cusp of adulthood at age seventeen), how

will he be able to embrace his sexuality? Perhaps for a boy, being interested in sex is not seen as

being in conflict with being “good.” It is seen as merely “natural” for boys to be interested in

sex. This can explain the fact that Justin Bieber manages to maintain a wholesome image while

palling around with the likes of Usher, who’s had a slew of chart topping hits on the topic of his

infidelity, or Ludacris, who’s song “Sex Room” includes the lyrics, “You better get a couple

towels baby/’Cause we about to slip and slide/You don’t ever need a horse or saddle/I’mma give

you this dick to ride.” And what does this say about these men’s masculinity and reputation? Are

they so eager to earn a couple million dollars to hang out with a seventeen year old white boy?
 It is not surprising that our culture views sexual women as objects, and sexual men as

subjects. As girls become sexually aware, they somehow stop being people and start being

things. After all, the easiest way for a budding teen starlet to signify that she has metamorphosed

into womanhood is to pose nude. What more direct way to say, “I’m not a little girl anymore”

than to show off your secondary sex characteristics? Remember Britney Spears’ “I’m a Slave 4

U”? That was the year I was nine years old and my parents stopped buying me Brittany Spears

CDs. Yet somehow, even male stars who flirt with exhibitionism on the way to their adult

careers seem to emerge unscathed. Let’s not forget that Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe signalled

his own maturity by shedding all his clothes for a role in “Equus.”

By worrying about young women while assuming that–no matter what trouble they get

up to–boys will, in the end, be all right, the article is doing boys a tremendous disservice. Like

Miranda Cosgrove, Angus T. Jones (of “Two and a Half Men” fame) turns eighteen this year.

Unlike Miranda Cosgrove, he hasn’t spent the decade sheltered in the bosom of Disney–he’s

spent it at the side of a womanizing, drug abusing, violent, emotionally disturbed man (yes, that

would be Charlie Sheen). Given the two situations, I’m vastly more concerned about the long

term mental wellness of Jones–yet I’ve yet to see any columnists agonizing about his future. I

highly doubt that it is easier for boys to become men than it is for girls to become women under

the media’s gaze and attention. Another case to point out in child stardom debauchery is “The

Partidge Family’s” Danny Bonadouce who has spiraled into infamy for his drug use and violent

behavior. This expectation that it is natural for celebrity males to misbehave sets a hypocritical

social expectation of them. And what about younger tween stars to come? Does this industry just

churn out emotionally distressed boys and girls?

Margo Valles
CST 590
Clipping # 4
When Freedom is Bad for Business. Megan McArdle, The Atlantic
March, 2011
This article was featured in the first pages of the business section of The Atlantic. It

mainly focuses on how Iraq has become more difficult for Americans to startup businesses.

However, the picture above illustrates the deeper strife that Iraqi men citizen face, unable to

work. McArdle mainly sympathizes with the American Business men by citing from the World

Bank that it costs over two thousand dollars to start up a business. She tries to evoke some sort of

emotion from the reader that you too, should feel sorry for the poor white businessman.

However, she does talk about the repercussions that women face because men are unemployed.

Much like, the Oglala Sioux article, I analyzed, I must question whether or not issues like rape or

obesity are rampant.

Much of the article was written of the intent to glorify the reasons for the Iraq war by

justifying it with the word “Freedom,” which leads me to recall the chapter on F reedom in A

Brief History of Neoliberalism. McArdle quotes President George W. Bush’s 2002 speech which

spells out that the war was meant to profit from. Again, “Freedom” means the ability to make

business and profit. It’s not a coincidence that statistics are taken from The World Bank while

not mentioning the swindling of millions from the global south by the same people. The author

also tries to mention the “good things” that Americans have done for Iraq but it comes across as

a lame excuse. Also, by mentioning the biblical aspects of happenings in Iraq the commentary

becomes close minded.