Constance and her girlfriend finally celebrate

About time!

Almost two months ago the Itawamba County School District refused to allow Constance McMillen to bring her girlfriend to her high-school prom and later canceled the event altogether. Then, earlier this month, McMillen was sent to a "fake prom" after courts ruled that refusing her a ticket was discrimination.

But now, after months of media attention and painful teenage experiences, McMillen gets a second chance to celebrate. According to a Stylelist post, "Millions of outraged Americans have come to McMillen's defense, including Lance Bass (a Mississippi native), Green Day, the American Humanist Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Cat Cora." After receiving donations from a number of human rights groups and countless supporters, a new prom will take place in Tupelo, Mississippi on May 8, 2010.

The "Second Chance" dance is bound to beat the pants off of the average high-school prom. Musical guest Hey Champ, celebrity DJ Quest Love and other unknown stars are supposed to attend. And this time, all students are invited.

High school is tough enough without discrimination and scrutiny from peers. But Constance's determination has led to support for other gay teens. In a mass e-mail from the Human Rights Campaign sent out April 12, President Joe Solmonese said, "Since Constance McMillen and her girlfriend were sent to a "fake prom" while her classmates had their own secret prom, 72,037 HRC supporters have signed a petition to show the Itawamba County school board we're on her side."

This petition sends a message to Congress in support of the Student Non-Discrimination Act soon to be introduced in both the House and Senate. The act would extend discrimination protection to LGBT students, prohibiting any school program or activity receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating against any public school student on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

So Constance finally gets her prom, and hopefully other LGBT students will eventually be extended the same rights as all of their peers.

Land grabs II: PBS NewsHour covers Ethiopia's Farming Investments

PBS NewsHour is first mainstream medium I've seen discuss land grabs.

Last Thursday, PBS NewsHour aired a newscast discussing the conflicts arising from foreign commercial agricultural investment in Ethiopia, an impoverished region without food security. The report is part of a collaboration with the Project for Under-Told Stories at St. John's University in Minnesota and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and is the first mainstream newscast I've seen addressing the devestation of land grabs in poor countries.

As I posted last week, the World Bank and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations) both seem to suggest that there can be benefits to foreign land acquisitions when handled properly. However, most social justice organizations argue that the practice is unsustainable--threatening food security for indigenous populations in poor countries that have little representation when these deals are made.

The biggest problem regarding land grabbing is the lack of transparency of such transactions. Not only are deals made behind the backs of the local people affected the most, but most deals are also made in secrecy, leaving the public blind to this major agricultural issue. Even the world's major agricultural organizations such as IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) have little data on how many transactions are actually in affect. In fact, progressive, under-the-radar media and blogs seem to be the only ones covering the topic.

Consequently, I'm thrilled to see Fred de Sam Lazaro and PBS increasing transparency by covering such an underreported issue. I strongly reccommend watching the newscast. Hopefully it will increase international awareness and motivate other journalists to research this threat to Africa's food security.

The Meatrix uses humor to expose horrors of factory farming to public

The Meatrix, a viral video that launched in November 2003, is a "unique vehicle by which to educate, entertain and motivate people to create change," according to its site. Now a series, these videos seek to educate viewers about where there food comes from, shedding a humorous, yet grotesque light on the hidden horrors of factory farming.

The Meatrix, which was released by Free Range Studios, has several suggestions for sustainable eating including: eating less meat, seeking out sustainable restaurants and shopping at local farmer's markets.

I appreciated that suggestions from The Meatrix didn't seem horribly extreme, and seemed to focus on health, a concern more easily related to the general public. A quirky way of promoting sustainable eating for all ages.

Land grabbing: food security and exploitation

Until a couple of days ago, I'd never heard about land grabbing. However, according to an article published by the Oakland Institute, around 180 instances of land grabbing have been reported since mid-2008.

The same article defines land grabbing as "the purchase or lease of vast tracts of land by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors from mostly poor, developing countries in order to produce crops for export." For example, China may set up large pork and chicken operations in Australia to keep up with the demand for meat among Chinese consumers. Meat consumption in China has quadrupled in the last 30 years, a common trend among countries in a period of rapid industrialization.

As countries grow wealthier and tastes expand, large agribusinesses search for ways to satisfy consumers by mass producing well-liked products; however, such expansion takes land. Consequently, wealthy countries buy or lease land cheap from poorer nations. However, this can cause ecological problems for those nations, and in some cases increase food insecurity for countries already struggling.

The Oakland Institute says that, "The International Food Policy Research Institute (IF PRI) has reported that foreign investors sought or secured between 37 million and 49 million acres of farmland in the developing world between 2006 and the middle of 2009." That's 49 million acres those countries can no longer use to grow their own food.

Farmlandgrab.org, a blog that aggregated news reports on the issue as a resource for activists, non-government organizations and journalists, says the World Bank, in an attempt to address the growing trend, put out principles for responsible agro-enterprise investment. However, legions of organizations promoting sustainable agriculture condemn the World Bank for legitimizing the practice.

I'm hoping to learn more about this practice in the future. Hopefully, mainstream news will soon pick up a topic that is potentially exploiting unknown numbers of poor countries. Just food for thought.

WTF?: padded bikinis for girls

Popular British discount retailer, Primark pulled a line of sexy, padded swim suits for girls off the shelves last week after scrutiny from local tabloids and angry parents. The bikini was marketed to 7-year-olds hoping to boost their training-bra bosoms. Critics suggested that the bikinis furthered the sexualization of young girls.

According to a Daily Mail article, child protection consultant Shy Keenan of Phoenix Chief Advocates, an organization that seeks to help victims of pedophiles to better child protection, said, "It never fails to amaze us just how many ordinary High St household names are now prepared to exploit the disgusting ‘paedophile pound’ to feed a dark market that has no place in our society, let alone near our children."

Feminists and gender theorists have been pointing to fashion and pop culture for creating a pedophile-friendly society for years. Yet, I still notice when looking at this season's Victoria's Secret swimsuit catalog that some models look uncomfortably young--and sexy.

Despite the continued sexualization of young girls in Western culture, it's nice to see people speaking out about padded bathing suits for children. Last fall, when a Peruvian 9-year-old covered Britney Spears' "Toxic" video scene by scene, gossip blogs spoke out, getting the video pulled from YouTube. And last week when the padded suits made headlines, even right-leaning Fox news quoted Dr. Keith Ablow, Fox News medical member and psychiatrist, as saying, “It can be psychologically damaging to encourage girls at age 7 or close to that age to consider themselves as sexually attractive to boys or men."

Padded bikinis before puberty is disgusting, but not surprising. However, public outcry and media recognition of the continued oppression of young girls seems to be a step in the right direction.

Online Inequality: The Facebook-MySpace Divide

Art by CrazyItalian503

Unlike most of my demographic, I am still and active MySpace user, spending most of my time on Facebook but occasionally switching between the two social-networking sites. In 2006, I created a Facebook account almost as a right-of-passage into the world of higher education. I only maintain my MySpace account to stalk my 14-year-old brother and to keep in touch with the select few friends who haven’t made the switch to Facebook.

As a regular at both Web sites, I have noticed a large disconnect between my Facebook and MySpace friends. When I first joined Facebook, all of my friends were college students (as the site originally intended). Now professionals, like real estate agents and friends’ parents, have hopped on the Facebook bandwagon, too.

However, when I go on MySpace I find that my friends’ list has a much different composition. Many of my MySpace friends are bands or musicians, since a large component of the site is music driven. Also, my brother and his middle-school buddies are all on MySpace, but not on Facebook. Surprisingly, many of my working-class friends from high school who stayed at home, didn’t attend major universities or have had children are also active MySpace users. I have even noticed that people who are active on both Facebook and MySpace display different information about themselves on each site. For example, I noticed that one friend’s MySpace default photo is of her and her newborn son, while her main photo on Facebook is of her partying with friends.

This left me wondering--is MySpace becoming the preferred networking site for working-class folk? Is Facebook for academic snobs?

Ethnographic researcher danah boyd noticed a similar trend. Boyd, a social media researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, has done extensive research on the attitudes youngsters have toward both sites, and has found that social networking is not the great equalizer but rather, an example of how pervasive inequality can be.

In a 2007 article titled “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace,” boyd writes that, “The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other ‘good’ kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. . . They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom and live in a world dictated by after school activities.”

Boyd found a much different crowd of teens flocking to MySpace. She writes that, “MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, ‘burnouts,’ ‘alternative kids,’ ‘art fags,’ punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools.”

In other words, MySpace is for losers and Facebook is for squares.

Boyd’s research on social networking is as astonishing as it is sad. According to the blog Cause Global: Social Media for Social Change, California 17 year old, Craig, told boyd:

“The higher castes of high school moved to Facebook. It was more cultured, and less cheesy. The lower class usually were content to stick to MySpace. Any high school student who has a Facebook will tell you that MySpace users are more likely to be barely educated and obnoxious. Like Peet’s is more cultured than Starbucks, and Jazz is more cultured than bubblegum pop, and like Macs are more cultured than PC’s, Facebook is of a cooler caliber than MySpace.”

Although seemingly thorough, boyd’s research only covers teen attitudes toward both sites; however, I am curious to see if my observations about my own Facebook and MySpace friends, who range from middle-school children to women in their 70s, are coincidental or the direct result of elitist attitudes about social networking. For now, I will keep my MySpace and encourage my little brother to do the same.

Panama City Beach spring breakers escape studies, but not gender stereotypes

Spring break beach party in Panama City, Fla. Photos by Christina Green.

Two weeks ago, for spring break I went where many, many college students have gone before: Panama City Beach, Fla. As an older (22), slightly overweight dork from Ohio, I was certainly out of my element. I usually spend vacations reading books and hitting museums, not playing beach baseball and grinding on strangers next to stages in front of a student-hotel hot spot.

Overall, my brotastic voyage was a successful one—everyone in my group got sufficiently drunk and no one died. Other students weren’t so lucky. High-school football star and Cincinnati native, Matt James, died after falling from third-floor balcony after drinking. Although a tragic and extreme case, I was unsurprised when hearing the reports after returning from a week on Panama Beach. It leaves me wondering how many accounts of alcohol poisoning and STDs Panama City hospitals are treating this year (statistics aren’t available yet).

However, outside of the obvious binge drinking and sexual promiscuity, other aspects of Panama spring break were disheartening. From a sociological standpoint, the objectification of women ran rampant. Not only were women (and girls) pressured by men to return to hotel rooms for after hours or accept shots and drinks they hadn’t poured themselves, women were also publicly exploited on stage. One female student I traveled with signed a waiver (once drunk) releasing the rights to footage from a booty-shaking contest she participated in. She thinks the waiver gave rights to MTV—but isn’t sure.

Fortunately, a booty-shaking contest is seemingly tame; however, a best-legs contest I witnessed was more humiliating for the young, drunk women on stage. The contest involved women getting on stage, straddling men below, having their legs and buns felt by judges and being rated on a scale from one to 10. I can only infer from surprised looks on their faces that these women were unaware of the judging process until going on stage. Not quite Girls Gone Wild, but not something to include in a postcard to Mom and Dad either.

Aspects of spring break, specifically the borderline-lethal quantities of alcohol, were dangerous, yet characteristic of a typical college party scene. However, with not one one-piece swimsuit for miles and party-profiteers targeting women over men, the spring-break climate was surprisingly gendered. Female students may have escaped their parents and studies, but Florida wasn’t far enough to escape sexist attitudes from peers.