Hello readers! Its Sha! Back again with 2 other hot topics to discuss.
PART 1: My thoughts and subverticment making experience.
Here is our group’s poster:
TBH at first, I thought poster-making out of magazines and newspaper cuttings was old school and going to be boring. But, when we came to a conclusion about what we were going to do and started hunting for the pictures and letters, it all turned out to be total fun. Feminism is an eminent topic that is being addressed in various perspectives in different parts of the world. Basically feminism is the advocacy of female rights.
One of such parts of feminism that my group mates and I wanted to address was that, whenever we think of a domestic helper, we always see a picture of a lady who does all the domestic works and takes care of the children and elderly at home. Or at least, that is about the idea. But, have we ever thought of a male individual being hired to do domestic help or any other domestic
care-giving jobs? I bet not. We might likely have heard of butlers in hotels but unlikely to hear of a mid-age domestic helper who has come all the way from his home country to work for a family. Why is that ? Are women obliged to do certain work?
Well, this subverticement by us is just a simple way for us to bring out our vision of what feminism is? That is feminism in one way is the non-obligatory state of any individual to do any particular work. That is, both men and women should be involved in all kinds of job sectors. There should be no gender bias when it comes to work.
PART 2: Mediated Public Sphere
To put in very simple terms, mediated public sphere is a platform where individuals are able to share any societal issues with the ultimate aim of influencing political actions.
Above, you can see two images of public spheres from the olden days. Way before technology was introduced. People used to gather in a particular place like coffee shops, libraries, etc in order to share their griefs about any issues they face.
Well, as we all know now public spheres have become highly influenced by technologies. People are able to share any thoughts or opinions online within seconds. One of the very important public spheres that we all might have heard of is the #MeToo movement. This act was initiated by Tarana Burke. It then spread like wild fire among many people around the world. This act helps women voice out the injustice that happens to them in their workplace, and other places where their voices will not be easily heard.
The first picture shows the founder of the #MeToo movement. The second one shows one of the Survivor’s march along Sunset Boulevard.
Women have started to come out of their houses and step into the world of “labour for pay” in the past century. Even if we can confidently say that women are nowadays playing very important roles in almost all the different sectors, are we really sure about their safety in their working environment? There have been many situations where women have to keep their mouth shut just because they have to feed their family and they cannot afford to lose their jobs by talking about the abuses that happen to them.
Tarana Burke initially started this to discuss about the physical abuses towards black women. It started in the year 2006 and became very widespread in the next 6 months. It is now being used worldwide in order to discuss and resolve various issues faced by women from all walks of lives. It is a very safe platform for women to share any of their issues. Such an inspiring use of the public sphere through media. There have been many other such mediated spheres that were created in the aim of addressing different issues. Some of those are, #BringBackOurGirls, #BlackLivesMatter, #HeForSHe, etc.
Preparing for this blog post has really made me realize how fortunate I am to live in such a safe and sound environment. I would not be able to assure that there is purely no action against women in Singapore. But, comparatively Singapore is a very safe and sound place for working women.
That’s that for this week’s post. Meet you guys soon in my post!
References
(āHistory of the hashtagā, 2016)
Article title: History of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter: Social activism on Twitter
Website title: Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech
URL: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/08/15/the-hashtag-blacklivesmatter-emerges-social-activism-on-twitter
(āAboutā, n.d.)
Article title: About – Me Too Movement
Website title: Me Too Movement
URL: https://metoomvmt.org/about/
(#MeToo: thousands march in LA as sexual misconduct allegations continue, 2017)
Author: Martin Pengelly
Article title: #MeToo: thousands march in LA as sexual misconduct allegations continue
Website title: the Guardian
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/12/metoo-march-hollywood-sexual-assault-harassment
(The Evolution of the Public Sphere | Digital America, 2020)
Article title: The Evolution of the Public Sphere | Digital America
Website title: Tocqueville.richmond.edu
URL: http://tocqueville.richmond.edu/digitalamerica/?p=914
Akshaya's Blog 
Hi Sha, great blog post! I like how organized your groupās poster design is! I get what you mean about thinking the group work was gonna be kinda lame at first. I was initially like, who even reads magazines nowadays? But then it sort of hit me that since this assignment is about feminism, and this class is about the mediaā¦ Maybe weāre made to use magazines to drive home the point regarding the depiction of women in media? Since magazines are part of the media tooā¦ I donāt know, Iām just trying to hit the word count here.
The #meToo movement brought to light a lot of sexual harassment/sexual assault cases and the movement is still pretty prominent in recent years with the hashtag trending on social media in 2017. Itās really unfortunate that itās so difficult to speak up about this lest you suffer consequences like getting fired from your job. Maybe one day, women will be free to speak up about this kind of issues but until then, people can at least get their voices heard through the media. Anyway, good luck with your next blog post! Just one more and weāre done!
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Hey Sha! It was great working with you on the project. I like your example of women in the workplace. However, I don’t think Singapore is entirely “safe and sound” enough. The #HeforShe movement highlights the struggle of women in first world settings. Where they don’t entirely get abused, but may have be subject to certain stigma or miss out on opportunities because of their gender.I think it’s still a worthwhile problem.
I found the older examples of public spheres interesting, the internet has definitely evolved the way we express opinions, and how genuine our opinions are. Anyway, looking forward to your next post!
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Hello Sha! I loved your groupās Subvertisement on āmaid agenciesā and I would like to be in the same group with you in time to come because I realized we havenāt worked with each other before! š
Anyways, I agree that mediated public spheres have evolved to something slightly different but still serves a similar function where it is heart where people discuss about different topics! Your example on the #MeToo movement suggests the benefits that a public sphere can do, and it is so empowering! Yes, there might not be an issue on female inequality as a whole country however I do still feel that there might be minorities that might occur at workplaces or at domestic households! As we transit into the new generation, I really hope that we would not struggle with inequality on gender and race and all live-in harmony!
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