I Blame the Media!

  
I personally as a woman hate being objectified as a "sex object". Women have control over how they present themselves in the world as women. They decide whether they want to be seen as a woman who chase men with money or as a woman who works hard to earn her own money. When women are seen as sex objects it is because that is how women present themselves. I dislike very much being objectified by men who assume that all women are going to go after men with money, but when the media presents us females in that way, all we can say is that not ALL women are like that. Even if we do state this, some people think otherwise. Music videos dress women in little clothing that show too much skin. Obviously women do have the choice to decide if they want to be dressed that way and they have the choice to decide if they even want to be in a music video that will present them in that way in the first place. It's no wonder why women are present as sex objects. Just look at many music videos. In tons of videos women are either dancing very sexual or acting in a sexual way. Is this how women want to keep representing themselves? How are we as women going to say that we are not sex objects when we have a plethora of women representing themselves in that way all over the media!

      The media all the time tends to think that in order for a woman to have attention they have to show their  bodies or acting  in provocative manner when that is not the case!  Women constantly in the street are being objectified as sex objects. A random man that I didn’t know came up to me tapped and looked at me up and down with a guile smile on his face as if he expected me to talk back and respond to him. All I could do was look at him and look away. First I didn’t even hear what he had said to me since I was listening to my Ipod. But then I kind of figured out what his point to tapping me was and it was to basically try and get my number. After I just looked at him and looked away I was not only disturbed, but disgusted. It disgusts me how men think that they can just come up to you and say whatever they want expecting us women to respond back with what they want to hear. Well, I plugged my earphone back in and he got upset and started to curse saying nasty things. Saying that I was ugly anyways saying “screw” you anyways I can get better. Now I laughed at that. It was funny to me how someone who gets denied starts to say things like that just because they didn’t get the attention they were expecting to get.
       All this falls back on the media. I blame the media for giving high hopes to men who watch men on videos and/or on television in general hit on a woman and be successful with it. It is not ALL the time that they will receive the attention they want. Especially if they are not being respectful. The media once again makes women look like sex objects.
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"Hola Amigos"

           One thing for sure is, although I'm a Salvadorian female born and raised in the US in Washington, DC, I STILL constantly experience racism. People still tend to assume that I'm Mexican because apparently all "Spanish" people in the US are Mexican. Why people ask that? I'm guessing it's because they quickly assume that when crossing the border you're coming from Mexico you have to be Mexican. Well NO. Not all HISPANICS, not "Spanish" people come from Mexico. There are other countries in the world where Hispanic people come from.
           Just about a week ago, I was coming from the metro station at Columbia Heights and this guy from California who was Italian and White, was passing out fliers for some college meeting and comes up to me and asks me one of the most ignorant questions a person can ask me, "Are you Mexican?" Right there and then I didn't like this guy. Sad thing about this is that he seemed to be a very nice person from how he was talking to me, but that ONE question he asked made me see him as an ignorant person. I answered his question and calmly told him, "No, I'm Salvadorian" and he says, "Yeah, you don't look like you would be Mexican". So now my questions are first, why would you even ask if I was Mexican if I "don't look Mexican" and how does a Mexican look? To me it's so rude and just plain ignorant for someone to ask a question like that. If you want to know where I'm from then just ask me "Where are you from" and you won't get on my bad side and you won't look ignorant. This guy's question just really made me realize that there is still racism going on. I mean I know he wasn't being racist towards me, but in a way I felt disrespected by his question as a Hispanic. I felt even more that people don't seem to understand that there are Hispanics from other countries other than Mexico!
          Then not just do people think that, but they also want to automatically speak to you in Spanish. Now I know it's not ALL people either, but there are people who do it. Especially when it's people who are not Hispanic, and they try to talk to me in Spanish because they assume once more that you don't understand English, and this can really get under my skin. One thing is to assume, but another thing is to just be plain ignorant. Like really, saying "Hola como estas?" or "Hola Amigos" because I'm Hispanic and you have to talk to me in Spanish is not necessary at all! I would understand if at first you talked to me in English and if I didn't understand what you were saying or you didn't understand what I was saying then it's okay to talk to me in Spanish, but just please don't automatically go into speaking Spanish because I'm Hispanic.

          There are also times when people just do it to be funny. But sometimes it's not funny at all, it's actually really rude. I get how there are times when someone you know does it and you're just kind of used to it because you know that they do not have bad intentions when they say things like that. But when someone you don't know does it I automatically feel like it's rude. Unless I have time to get to know the person then maybe my perspective towards them about their comments in Spanish would change, but other than that I don't think my thoughts towards people who assume I'm Mexican without asking and people who talk to me in Spanish first without even knowing if I understand English will remain the same.
       Now about the Santa Monica noose incident, I am actually NOT surprised at all about what the school did. The incident happened to an Africa-American student and White students did the "horse-play". The school didn't EVEN bother to call the student's parents to notify them about what happened to their child, about a white student connecting their son to a locker with a lock and yelling out "Slave for sale!" And yet people want to believe that racism doesn't exist anymore? REALLY?! I don't think so. Racism still exists and this incident COMPLETELY shows evidence of it! But not only did that happened, the school calls the students' parents who committed the ignorant incident instead! Are you kidding me!? I think it is completely RIDICULOUS to not even notify the African-American student's mother! It is clear that America is NOT post-racial. Racism still exists and I am sure that it is noticeable, but apparently nothing is being done to stop it or to even recognize the way it should be to prevent it from getting worse, because it is still going on. America needs to acknowledge that there are different races in this world besides the typical White race that people are used to. Racism will never go away and people will not be treated equal until people in America start to accept ALL races.

My Definition of Empowerment.

What does empowerment mean to you ?

             I honestly didn't even know what the word "empowerment" meant. Now to figure out what it means to me? Well in order to answer that question I had to find out what the word actually meant. I knew it had to do with power. It was kind of obvious since it included the word "power". So that kind of gave me somewhat of a hint. 

           At first I thought that "empowerment" was an adjective for some reason. I can't really explain why, but I guess that way it sounds made me think that it would be describing the type of power one has. What I also think of when I hear the word empowerment is government. I feel like it has to do so much with government. That since the government controls so much, I feel like they hold so much empowerment towards almost EVERYTHING. Although in the end, each person is responsible for themselves and who empowers them or not. But not once would I have ever thought of using the word "empowerment" on myself. Now that I know the definition of empowerment, to me it basically means having power towards someone or something. To me it means who controls you and who doesn't. Who decides for you and who doesn't. I guess when one is young empowerment isn't such a big deal. Since in the end whoever was older then you usually empowered you. But once one starts getting older and starts figuring out what empowerment really is, the feeling of someone empowering them isn't so great. I believe that although there will always be someone older or superior to me, I'M the one who in the end empowers myself. I make my decisions, I decide right from wrong. I hold the power to decide who I want to be and who I don't want to be. Whether or not I want to be successful. I remember when I was in the 8th grade and I was getting ready to "graduate" since my school called it a ceremony and not an actual graduation, but I remember that I was the one who decided what high school I wanted to go to. Yes, my mom did have some say in which high school I was going to go to, but in the end I decided which high school I would end up at. I felt great when my mother told me, "it's up to you  to decide which high school you want to go to, just make sure it's a good high school". By good she meant that it provided a good education, educated and dedicated teachers, and a safe and friendly environment. My mother wasn't going to let me go to a "bad" high school either and by bad she meant that the students didn't care about school, that the school let them do what they wanted, and that hardly any students even went to school. When it came to that we agreed on it. I didn't want to go to a school like that either. But overall I felt like everything was left up to me to where I went to high school and it was. I empowered myself to go to a well educated high school that gave me my hope to go to college like it does now. I empowered myself to succeed in high school and to make decisions that will take me somewhere in life. I empower myself to take responsibility for myself.
             I truly believe that my only obstacle to achieving empowerment is myself. I believe that unless you really don't want it, you are the only one who in the end should empower yourself. 

Empower Yourself! 

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