Belgian human zoos and Anthony Bourdain's show displays positionality in Kenya

I know we are moving on, but I think it is important to reinforce parts of what we learned about during this week’s theme—postcolonial critiques of GAD. Specifically, I will focus on postcolonialism’s effort to rewrite and recover history, recover marginalized and secluded voices, and critique and reject the legacy of colonialism.

Upon his visit to the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium, Congolese artist, Aime Mpane, found statues that depicted Belgian colonialists as heroes for their primitive Congolese children. Further, Congolese like Mpane were taught that Belgium brought civilization to their land. Mpane asserts that his people’s history has been confiscated and ignored. This reality was reinforced The Ohio State University professor, Sarah Van Beurden, who claimed that when she acquired her bachelors and masters degree at the University of Leuvnen in Belgium in the 1990s, the university did not provide courses related to the effects of colonialism, in contrast to its hour-away neighbor, Ghent University. Thus, the dark history of a nation—slave labor exploitation for wild rubber extraction—was covered up to hide the military violence at the service of Belgian leader, King Leopold II.

Moreover, research that seeks to rewrite Congolese history found that King Leopold set up a temporary exhibit on his property to display Congolese in a village, who were “fed by an organizing committee,” to the public. Later, a replica of this human zoo was displayed at the 1958 Brussels world's fair. These activities represented the Congolese as simple artifacts and ignored their voices and history, which caused Congolese at the fair to protest.

In an effort to critique and reject the positive legacy of Belgian colonialism, the Royal Museum of Central Africa experienced reform in 2001, shut down for reconstruction in 2013, and is expected to open at the end of this year. Now, marginalized and secluded voices and history will be recovered with an accurate representation of Congolese history at the museum. The museum attempts to be accurate through the honest dialogue that will be attached to colonial artifacts and contemporary Congolese art. Please see the link to the article for further details. I suggest you listen to the six minute recording if you are tired of reading things.

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/26/649600217/where-human-zoos-once-stood-a-belgian-museum-now-faces-its-colonial-past

This social and political article reminded me of two things, my TV perception of the Global South (i.e. Africa and Latin America) growing up and my American history courses. First, like the Congolese who read Belgian history, I feel like I read colonialist or, simply and naively put, white history. These white men were America’s forefathers who civilized the wild land with their ideas and technology. However, it completely ignored other voices—Native American—and in modern times, it ignores our diverse country. How do people from diverse identities and lands in the world identify with the American forefathers? 

Second, during my childhood, I spent hours watching television, and occasionally I would see commercials that asked Americans to sponsor poor children in the Global South (GS). This depiction is narrow, problematic, and ignores the complexity of the GS. Fast forward to a social justice retreat in 2016, and I still heard concerns about poor children in the GS. I was sympathetic to this concern, but also concerned about its persistence. I feel like I am leaving this discussion closed ended, but do new representations of the Global South and marginalized voices, whether in educational institutions or on television, have a responsibility to represent diverse voices and histories? Definitely, yes, but how do we encourage this? Anyway, I think the following representation of parts of Kenya makes a good attempt at providing more accurate and diverse social, political, and economical histories. Anthony Bourdain demonstrates his humility and intellect at the end when he claims that this representation of Kenya is mostly through his voice. Positionality in the house!

I think postcolonial topics begin at 03:40 and end at 18:00 minutes.  Between that time, topics range from the African American's understanding of positionality, colonialism, economic influence of foreign markets, and modern Kenyan voices. I think I will use parts of the rest of the episode for a future blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaPYM9hrUVE&list=PLcO0bNs-7eqLJPhUXI7cf-8gTNp8vZVCy&t=0s&index=6

Thank you for your time.

The Straight World Order

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to share this TEDx talk with you called "Ending the straight world order" by Mads Ananda Lodahl from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Lodahl talks about being a gay male in Denmark, the implications this has had on his life and the daily threats of violence he faces.  He also discusses how heteronormativity or as he calls it 'the straight world order' is so deeply engrained in society.

Lodahl describes the straight world order as "a place that puts heterosexuality, traditional gender roles and men at the top" and anyone who does not fit into these boxes is subsequently labelled as deviant or outside of the norm. Jolly (2009) describes the history of heteronormativity and she uses a similar definition to describe how this issue is not just for the LGTBQ.

Although Lodahl's talk does not discuss this issue in relation to international development work and he only discusses his western experience with heteronormativity, I think some of what he speaks about relates to our current readings and also our readings about power and knowledge creation (McEwan 2001).   At one point, Lodahl questions how heterosexuality became the norm and how anything outside of this is considered deviant.  He says that it is not "about asking why someone chose to be gay, but rather asking why someone is 'normal' and truly questioning where these terms came from."

Jolly (2009) describes how development work can both reinforce and challenge inequalities and how heteronormativity is an interesting frame to understand this dichotomy.  Similarly, Lodahl asks who are the victims and perpetrators of the first world order? He answers his own question by saying that everyone is: "we are all being terribly limited by the first world order but at the same time we also all contribute to the upholding of it."

Here is another video that explains how gender and sexual norms are present in everyday situations.  Like the character in the video, I have definitely been guilty of making similar assumptions.  Additionally, I did not realize the impacts of assuming heterosexualty as the 'norm' can have on development practice, especially issues described by Jolly (2009) such as HIV/AIDS, violence against women and household models and family forms. 

Of course, there are different norms across cultures, hierarchies of race, class ethnicities, age, citizenship and whether someone has a disability, so the experience with heteronormativity in everyday life and among development can be drastically different for each person.

Right To Movement

Have you ever ran for a cause? If not, It is worth trying. Right to Movement (RTM) is a global running community with runners and established communities all over the world running for the basic human right to freedom of movement. I am honored to be part of this community. We believe in the basic human right of Freedom of Movement. We believe that everyone, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, have the freedom of movement. We also believe that the world needs more cultural bridges and fewer discriminatory walls to enable free movement. Movement of people, movement of property, movement of ideas, and movement of stories. We believe storytelling is the most powerful tool in the world and the world needs new real stories.

The movement was launched in Palestine. It aims to bring awareness about the Palestinian cause through telling a different story about Palestine. As it creates a platform for Palestinians to tell their story. Furthermore, this movement is inclusive and aims to empower women through creating a proper atmosphere for Palestinian women to run and manifest their human rights. In Palestine, the culture of running outdoors did not exist and especially for women. However, RTM was successful with spreading this sport. Additionally, RTM launched the Palestinian marathon in 2013 at Bethlehem. Runners from more than 60 countries have been running the Palestinian marathon. The number of women running in the Palestinian marathon is 46% of total participants.

RTM tackles social and political structures and advocates for human rights. One of the unique aspects of this movement is the growing participation of women. Women started to feel empowered and capable to express themselves in many social- political levels. This grass-root movement was strongly supported by the social media platforms. Through social media, communities who are not able to meet physically due to the political limitations in Palestine got connected. We are all running for the same causes in Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and many other cities in Palestine and around the world. In addition, we have presented Palestine in international races. This campaign empowered women and supported them to speak up, to take action, and to follow their passion.  

  (The pictures are from the Palestinian marathon. We can see the runners running near the Israeli illegal apartheid wall as it cuts through the city of Bethlehem. The route of the marathon represents the daily life of in Palestine and the limitations on movement.)

           This year during February, the first Right to Movement ZANZI HALF filled the streets of Stone Town, Zanzibar. A race to highlight gender equality and women's rights. People came from all over the Tanzanian archipelago, East Africa and the world. And amazingly: 54% of all runners were women! Elite athletes, first time runners, children and tourists all pushed through the morning heat in bright colors and hit the finish line before the sun was too high in the sky. 

 To conclude, RTM is a Palestinian grassroots initiative that runs for the basic human right to freedom of movement and for women empowerment. I find this movement applies GAD through engaging the local community and empowering women through sports.

 

White Feminism...

Hello everybody,

I've just come across this video on AJ+ Youtube channel that is a Qatari channel. I know there are a lot of videos about white feminism but I think this one resonates with and summarizes a number of topics addressed in the readings we're doing for next class, especially Mohanty's.
Enjoy watching...

Gender and Sport

Video: Women in Sports face harassment - real guys reading real tweets

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tU-D-m2JY8

Last week Friday my friend and I went to play Basketball at Ping Centre (Recreational Facilities at Ohio University). We usually find a couple of boys playing and no girls. We thought if we showed up at the court we could get a chance to join the boys for a while since it's not that challenging or fun to just play against one opponent. We warmed up on the other side before approaching 4 boys who were challenging each other. They agreed for us to join them as we divided into two teams. Before the game even started, I already had a feeling of discomfort that I decided to ignore. Throughout the game, the boys didn't event put any effort in challenging us, whether dribbling, crossing over, or even making any baskets. We were there to play our best while they were making jokes. We realized because we were girls, they played differently. They didn't challenge us or even try to score without laughing or travelling. It was very disappointing to experience that especially here at OU. I had different expectations towards this place. My friend, who has attended OSU, says it's no different. She had to fight her way up to prove that she is worthy of being a part of the game. This blog will be focusing on Gender and sport. 

Sport, like other institutions that benefit men such as politics, is a "Gendered Institution" that constitutes practices, images and ideologies, that are male related. It is a male constructed arena that has for a long time rejected women's capabilities to be considered athletes. Even after world record breaking women such as Serena Williams, Babe Didrikson-Zaharias, Billie Jean King, Lisa Leslie, and Allyson Felix just to name a few, women are still at the far end of earning respect without scrutiny in sports. Even today as we speak, men and women are perceived differently and experience sports differently. Not because of their sex, but by the existing social normative hegemonic ideologies that exist around this phenomena. These ideologies are embedded within cultures, practices, and values that makes it difficult for many women to gain respect and compete as athletes. 

As Acker (1992) pointed out, "the relevant question becomes not why are women excluded, but to what extent have the overall institution structure, and the character of particular institutional areas been formed by and through gender?" (p.568). Some scholars have regarded sport as an archetype for masculinity. The beliefs and perceptions that control, segregate, and diminish women's participation in sports continue to arise in different forms. Bias criticism towards their bodies, dress, hair, tone of voice, aggression, etiquette, has increasingly been one of the most discussed topics by many feminist movements. If it's not their dress-code, its their tone of voice, if it's not their hairstyle, it's their intense aggression that's frowned upon. From media to public opinion, women are usually scrutinized for things that men are rarely, if never, scrutinized for. This gender division in sport stems from the need for men to separate themselves from women in order to express or display their masculinity, strength, and dominance. Since these character traits are not expected in women, those who stepped into the field were targets for judgement and criticism. It is unusual for a male Basketball athlete to be criticized for his shorts than it is for a female athlete, or for them to be criticized for speaking up against referees of umpires. More of this shows how women in sports are as much not separated from societal expectations to perform and act according to their gender roles.

During the recent FIFA World Cup in Russia, there were many memes created online portraying men with TV remote controls either glued to their hands or tied to their necks. The opposite showed women being asked to stay out of the TV rooms for the month of the World Cup to give their husbands, brothers, boyfriends, male friends, and male relatives a chance to enjoy the matches without disturbance. These memes were shared throughout the course of the World Cup with further captions of laughter and jokes. I found it to be disrespectful and more so sexist as a football fan. It's 2018 and we know that there are many female athletes from all over the world, we have female football teams that compete at the Olympics, and in Botswana, many of our best teams that bring medals from international games are female. This was a disappointment how people today still perpetuate a perception that women belong outside the sports arena. Some of the memes indicate how women are expected to not participate in any sport related activities, even to watch just as the image above showing a woman being told that her place is in the kitchen. These ideas contribute to many problems such as gender based violence and harassment.

To read more on 'Gender and Sport' here are some interesting articles and journals that further analyze this phenomena https://philarchive.org/archive/YOUTLA-4

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/0-387-36218-5_26.pdf

GAD Concept map

Hi everyone,

Here is the concept map of GAD:

Have a good weekend.

Best,

Andrea Padilla

The challenges and difficulties of using the word “development”

For many, development has become such a mainstream word that sometimes people forget about the meaning behind it as well as the discourses that shaped it. For others, it is difficult to use the word without giving their own opinion about it. This is because the critiques have been so many, that they cannot simply use development as if it had one solely definition. In this sense, I believe that the complexity of defining it relies on being able to actually measure it and compare it with other countries, so that the ones that are “developed” can “help” the ones that are “underdeveloped or developing”.  Furthermore, another factor that makes it difficult to define development is related to the determination of an identity, through what Gustavo Esteva called: an “inverted mirror of other’s reality” (Esteva, 2009, p. 2). Thus, after more than four decades of development policies and studies, I think that the concept of development can be considered as still in construction or maybe as something that will never be able to have a global definition due to cultural differences.

When looking up for the definition of development in Real Academia Española (RAE), I was surprised to read that it involved a progress in economic, social or cultural scopes (Real Academia Española, 2018). I was surprised because I immediately linked the concept with Growth Theory. I mention this because it focuses on economic growth as the first factor for progress and then on changes in social and cultural factors to achieve development (Brohman, 1996, p. 11). Additionally, when looking up for synonyms of development in Thesaurus, evolution came up as an option, making me think about Rostow’s stages of growth model (Brohman, 1996, p. 11; Dictionary.com, LLC, 2018). I made this connection because evolution is usually associated with living beings that pass through several stages to achieve genetic potential as in Rostow’s model, just that at the end you achieve economic growth (Brohman, 1996, p. 11; Esteva, 2009, p. 3). Consequently, by doing this analysis exercise, I confirmed my thoughts about how the traditional concept of development, which means achieving economic growth, is still deeply embedded in our society. In other words, it is still considered as a universal truth by many, even by people who write dictionaries and who have influence on thousands of readers around the world.

Later, when I looked up for the definition of development in the Cambridge dictionary, I read that a person develops only when she or he grows or changes and becomes more advanced (Cambridge University Press, 2018). This reminded me of Gustavo Esteva’s article about development because he stated that when President Truman used for the first time the term “underdevelopment” in one of his speeches, he defined who is developed and who is not (Esteva, 2009, p. 1). In fact, on January 20, 1949, Harry Truman indicated that two billion people were underdeveloped (Esteva, 2009, p. 2). And by saying so, the perception that billions of people had about themselves and about others changed drastically on that day (Esteva, 2009, p. 2). According to Esteva (2009), Truman’s speech downsized diversity and made those two billion people feel inferior in comparison to North American people (p. 2). Furthermore, his speech represented what the ideal model of development should be and how people can become more “advanced” by following it. Hence, Gustavo Esteva (2009) says in his article that all of this is what made two thirds of the world look at development just through the eyes of the United States.

Last but not least, as a response to the narrow definitions of development explained in the second paragraph and third paragraph, I also wanted to mention that there have been many good attempts to improve the concept and make it more diverse. One example is the concept of development by Amartya Sen. His definition focuses on development as an expansion of freedoms through which people can live the life they think they enjoy most (Sen, 1999, p. 1). This definition can be seen as one that is focusing more on the social aspects of people. Nonetheless, Sen’s theory has been criticized because it still emphasizes on economic growth as a mean to expand a person’s freedom.

In conclusion, I believe that the traditional concept of development has determined one solely model of life and that it should continue to be modified, so that it applies to a broader number of people. There has already been progress in the field towards a more inclusive concept, but I think there is still a lot more to do. I even consider the possibility of having to reconstruct the concept of development from zero and this time ask the opinion of people from different backgrounds to define the concept. In contrast with this, I also think that achieving a global consensus about the definition of development may be too difficult and that it is sometimes a utopia due to the many differences between countries. Thus, as many other in the world, my mind is still struggling about what the solution for this problem should be or if there is simply no solution.

You can read more about Gustavo Esteva, a post development theorist, as well as about Amartya Sen, contributor to the creation of the Human Development Index, by looking at the following reference list:

References

Brohman, J. (1996). The Postwar Tradition in Theory, Popular Development: Rethinking the Theory and Practice of Development. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Cambridge University Press. (2018). Development. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/development

Dictionary.com, LLC. (2018). Development. Retrieved from       https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/development?s=t

Esteva, G. (2009). Development. The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power. Retrieved from http://shifter-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/wolfgang-sachs-the-development-dictionary-n-a-guide-to-knowledge-as-power-2nd-ed-2010-1.pdf

Real Academia Española. (2018). Desarrollar. Retrieved from http://dle.rae.es/?id=CTvYRBI

Sen, A. (1999). Introduction: Development as Freedom. Retrieved from http://www.c3l.uni-oldenburg.de/cde/OMDE625/Sen/Sen-intro.pdf

Explanation of Amartya Sen’s theory in video format:

Thank you and I hope you enjoy reading this blog entry.

Best,

Andrea Padilla

What are your thoughts on this photo?

"BREAK THE SILENCE-END THE VIOLENCE"

Thought this could open up some discussion regarding Janee's post. Tried to post in the comments, but it wouldn't let me!

The Power of Silence

Before reading the article “Choosing silence: rethinking voice, agency and women’s empowerment” by Parpart and Kabeer 2010, I was not aware that ‘empowerment’ was an academic discourse and one that warrants a great deal of attention across gender and development studies.  I was also interested to learn that the term ‘empowerment’ and the ways in which women can be empowered represents a topic of contention within development studies and beyond.

Throughout gender and development research and in feminist literature, the idea of voice and speaking out against issues and calling out societal inequalities produces empowerment.  On the other hand, women who stay silent and choose not to speak out about such inequalities are viewed as “disempowered” and their actions, or lack thereof, will be unable to illicit any type of social change (Parpart and Kabeer 2010).  Overall, silence is seen as “a symbol of passivity and powerlessness”; but Parpart and Kabeer argue that women can be empowered through “silence and secrecy” and I agree with the argument made by Parpart and Kabeer 2010. 

I grew up in the United States and after reading this article, I realize how much I take advantage of being able to speak freely and openly express my political, personal and sexual beliefs to the people around me (both friends and strangers).  As described in the article, many people, especially women, who live in war-torn countries, political conflict or countries that still view men as dominate and women as subordinate do not have this luxury.  Women (or men) who speak poorly about their government, call attention to violence in the home or challenge the powerful are met with family shaming, embarrassment, acts of violence including brutal rape and sometimes even death (Parpart and Kabeer 2010).  Silence for these women is not seen as disempowerment but rather as a means of survival.  So much of feminist and development literature does not consider why many women decide to remain silent.    

Parpart and Kabeer 2010 describe how silence and secrecy can be used as tools of empowerment and provide agency for women who would face these dangerous consequences if they were to speak out. When directly speaking out is not safe, silent protest can be an equally effective way to illicit change and draw attention to an important issue.  Some examples of these include silent vigils and creating literal or metaphorical symbols to challenge social injustices and inequalities. 

I began to reflect on the concept of silent protests and the first examples that popped into my head was when the football player Colin Kaeparnick kneeled during the national anthem during an NFL game in 2016 to protest police violence, promote social justice and challenge racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.  Although only one individual started this protest, it is now a wide spread phenomenon with other members of the NFL and players from other sports teams kneeling during the national anthem.  Additionally, I thought of the students in schools all across the United States who staged a wide-spread walk out to protest gun violence and government inaction on gun control after another school shooting occurred in Florida a month prior.  Silent protests can be extremely powerful and have a greater impact than tradition or ‘radical’ forms of resistance. 

As I was googling more about silent protests, I came across this article title “A silent protest with a very loud message: Stop Kavanaugh”, published on September 5, 2018.  A group of women wore red and white costumes similar to the ones worn in the Handmaids Tale, to Capitol Hill in Washington DC to protest the new Supreme Court Judge, Brett Kavanaugh.   Kavanaugh was chosen by President Trump to fill a spot on the Supreme Court.  Kavanaugh is known to hold conservative viewpoints towards the LGBTQ community and abortion.  The red dresses and white hats symbolize the oppression suffered by the women in the Handmaids Tale, which tells the story of women who are forced into sexual servitude with their sexual and reproductive rights completely stripped away under a totalitarian government.  This symbology is a powerful way to protest women’s right to have authority over their own bodies.

The Handmaids Tale protest has direct parallels to how Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (and the other silent protests described by Parpart and Kabeel 2010), a group of women who walked around the presidential palace wearing white head scarves representing the diapers of their lost children in an effort to build awareness and bring down the corrupt and violent government in Argentina.

These examples show that sometimes using strong imagery and relatable metaphors to mobilize public opinion and challenge social injustices can be more powerful than speaking out as feminist literature has continually praised.

Silent protests can take many forms; they can be small individuals acts like wearing white socks and western-style clothing under a burqa or they can be collective acts like a nationwide school walk out or a group of women dressed in costumes protesting their right to choose.

Please find the article I mention listed below, in addition to an article about the nation-wide school walk out.

Handmaids Tale:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/05/politics/kavanaugh-senate-hearing-handmaids-tale-protesters/index.html

School walk out:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/students-plan-national-school-walkout-to-protest-shootings-1521019801

PS. I'm sorry this post is so long... I realize now I may have wrote a bit too much! 

What is Behind the Numbers of Women Representation?

I have always thought that gender is a word that refers to women only until I started to learn about gender issues in the last couple of years and knew that gender refers to both men and women. I guess I had that presumption because women in a developing country like Palestine, which is under the Israeli occupation, are still struggling to gain their basic rights. I was surprised to see this confusion about what really gender is in Lorber’s (2004) article. However, in Palestine, I could say that women have reached a certain level of gender equality, yet it is not satisfying because I see it as superficial for two main reasons.

First, when I say women, this does not include all women in all sectors of the society. Women who were and are able to, for example, participate in the political life or get a decent job represent a certain category of women, who belong to a rich and/or highly educated family. This is not to make generalizations, but it is quite common. The other reason is that kind of equality or representation of women does not have that great impact in positively changing the stereotypes about women's roles or enhancing the position of women in the society. I see it as a collective aspiration that lacks a clear plan and results in individualistic achievements on the ground.

A good example of this is the organization that I used to work for back home. It is a local human rights organization that established a women’s right unit as a part of its various units. Women representation in the entire organization constitutes around 75% of the overall staff. It is a rate to be proud of, but quantity does not suffice to reflect the quality of this representation, especially in an organization that is male-dominated on the administration level. Moreover, a significant aspect that combines gender and development, which has a negative influence on women representation “quota”, is that such organizations care about the funds they receive from abroad. Therefore, they behave in accordance with the international donors’ policies. This again contributes to the superficiality of gender equality and women’s quota politically, socially…etc.

Having these policies imposed by external organizations, the positive change of women status will not go beyond a numeric value. Therefore, gender-related issues should be included in the educational system in the first place and be adopted by the society to make a difference. I should be fair to all women who have great success stories in their struggle for other women back home, yet this remains an individual and random voice that a government and its, inter alia, political, judicial and institutional bodies will not listen to. It is a sad reality that reflects the strong connection between gender issues and development policies that both do not rise from within the society itself.

Following are Facts and Figures about Leadership and Political Participation in Palestine, which supports my argument. Looking at these figures could reflect the positive side of women representation but let us have a closer look at the type of posts women hold.

http://palestine.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures

PS: This blog post is based on the first week readings but I was not able to publish it for technical reasons.  

Woman's Image distorted by Advertising

Women in Development is a complex and confusing concept. As mentioned by Caroline Moser in her article "Third World Policy Approaches to Women in Development", this approach was shaped by the Women's Decade in 1976-85 (p.62). Three decades later, we are still struggling to define the woman's role and her contribution to the development process. I have to confess, I am fairly confused with the extremes that portray woman's image today, from an obedient household servant to the aggressively sexy lady on the cover page of a magazine.

This topic is not new and yet it continuously yields media attention and raises serious question marks from the regular audience such as me and many more people concerned about women’s image in the public eyes. The advertising is a powerful tool in a consumerist society.  It is appealing, bold, and yet superficial. It is meant to sell everything to anyone, to brainwash and create a perception of what and who is worth nowadays. This is what we see and learn every day from commercials, advertisers and aired promotions.

In my search for materials to support this argument, I came across an amazing video titled - Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women with Jean Kilbourne (available below). Kilbourne raises awareness about this social issue and points to a number of other concerns such as i) the tragedy of the ideal, ii) objectivation of women in the advertisement, and iii) public health issues.

The tragedy of the ideal. From an early age, girls’ perception about their own body is based on the ideal as advertised by commercials. It must be slim, fit, well-shaped and flawless. When the ideal fails to be reached one’s self-esteem is diminished which may result in serious damages to the personality and long-lasting frustrations. The public sees the perfect beauty designed by technology, but in reality, it turns out to be a fake. Without an appropriate awareness raising for both men and women, the entire society will continue to promote and support the gender stereotypes.

Objectivation of women in the advertisement. Although widely spread, many do not understand what the issue of sexist publicity is all about and how an advertisement can be sexist at all. The answer is not hidden too far. Almost all tabloids and magazines use the female body for commercial purposes. Women’s image is not associated with her personality, it is just a thing used to represent another thing. It is sad to notice that in time this approach creates a wrong perception that women can be treated like an object, which triggers a new social issue – violence against women. Inevitably, this trend of objectivating and thus dehumanizing women promotes a wrong system of beliefs and values and sets the core stones for a distorted society.

Public health issues. It is strange enough to admit that misrepresented image of women promoted as an ideal can artificially produce a health issue achieving public concern rates, known as anorexia. It is outrageous that young women will starve to death just to keep the doll body size and to look exactly as their idols. It is our fault that we accept and live with the idea of perfection. Most importantly, we consciously deny the individualism and the inner beauty appreciating more the material values and the image promoted by others. 

I am truly concerned that the women’s image in the 21st century is so much distorted and is more than ever set as a canvass for sexist commercials.  I want to believe that public concern about this issue is high enough to speak up and to augment an anti-movement to address this problem at its core.

A simple way to define gender and differentiate between Gender and sexuality definitions is that ‘Gender'refers to the socially constructed roles and relationships between men and women. Gender concerns men and women, including interpretations of both femininity and masculinity.

 The difference between ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ is only to biological differences. Gender definition does not mean only focusing on women rights and studies, but somewhat on the inequalities between females and males, and should not be confused with feminism or women’s studies.

Talking about gender roles and how we are expected to act, speak dress, and conduct ourselves based upon our specified sex. As an example, girls and women are generally supposed to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, acting more quickly and choose specific colors and do particular actions. Men are typically expected to be Strong, aggressive, and emotionless. Every society, culture and ethnic group has their gender role expectations, but the roles vary from group to another. They can also change in the same community over time. When it comes to gender, we have another definition which is  Gender expression which is the ways we present ourselves. The definitions of gender expression vary from society to society, because what gender means in ours, means something completely different in another. We often think of gender expression as being on a scale from masculine to feminine, but two systems and measurement on each of them. For some people, their gender expression matches their gender identity. For some people, their gender expression does not align, And for some people, gender expression is a representation.

 In Egypt, the Arab world's powerhouse, women may work outside the home, go to school, university, and are free to vote. However, in education and the labor market, women struggle behind. On paper, women are four times more likely to be unemployed than men. They are also paid less. Four years after the revolution, in which women were a defining presence, they are still fighting for basics equal rights.

Egyptian society is built on the belief that men and women have different natures, talents, and inherent tendencies. This becomes most clear in the range of the family where each gender has a different part to play. Men are created for going out in the world and are responsible for providing financially for the family. Women are accommodated for remaining within the family, caring for the home, the children, and their husbands. Moreover, women's natural sexuality is believed to be continually threatening the social balance of society (notably, men) and is, therefore, best controlled through women's modesty and women remaining as much as possible within the private sphere of the family. This belief is reinforced through cultural and religious norms that are increasingly advocating that family roles of both women and men are necessary for maintaining societal structure; dominant gender constructions, therefore, support keeping women in the home and oppose women working and abandoning their original roles. Nonetheless, modern images of women as economic assets and providers are rapidly coming into conflict with what is perceived as divinely inspired roles.

 This short documentary was made by al Jajera channel about four different women in Egypt, breaking one of the most significant gender roles back in Egypt by working as drivers and driving different vehicles which are stereotyped by the society as "Men job," They drive from a rickshaw to a 36-tonne truck. I founded their stories very inspiring, watching them deal with all the difficulties and struggle. Starting with their families and their effort to convince them about their jobs, dealing with the state and pressuring to get their licenses as drivers in a society that believes that women's place is their home considered to be enormous progress.