Tag Archives: politics

Where Is America’s Daddy Leave?

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America is not so forward thinking as we would hope. Sure, occasionally gay people gain a few rights, and now we can reference those times we elected a half black President. This does not mean that America is any where near reaching the equality mark for any area of discrimination.

People don’t want to hear that we live in a discriminatory patriarchal world anymore, but the numbers don’t lie. Paternal leave is rarely offered in America. Women are in fact still penalized for maternity leave- after her fourth maternity leave, the CEO of Crest White Strips was asked to step down. Instead, she took her case to court.

In Sweden, the men are very much pushed into accepting their equal rights to a leave from work after a child is born. In 1995, Sweden introduced “daddy leave”. It had an immediate impact. No father was forced to stay home, but the family lost one month of subsidies if he did not. Soon more than 80% of men accepted paternal leave. Obviously, men could not as readily validate staying at work whilst losing money.

Money is a great motivator, but pride works even better. The pride that keeps these men at work when they have the paid option at to be at home with their lovely offspring is the same pride that makes them now accept parental leaves. Since the better option has now been normalized, men are capable of accepting their newfound equality.

This is not merely a fight for equal rights for women in the workplace, but also for equal rights for men in the home. The right to stay home with your child is not one afforded to most American men, and we are supposedly a superpower country.

Gender roles are so deeply, socially ingrained from birth that it seems we can do nothing to fight Sweden’s fight. Luckily, other countries are following suit: Germany, Portugal, and Iceland.

I take at this legislation as something that America is not good at: preventative measures. While this law has helped lower the divorce rate, raise women’s pay by seven percent, fight gender inequality, and probably more often raises strongly attached children, America can’t be interested in it because it is not a quick fix.

This isn’t just about parental leave, but gender equality in general. Only twelve of the five hundred CEOS of Fortune 500 companies are women. I know that national pride is important, but it is hard to be proud of my supposed super power homeland when they are not capable of doing so many things that a tiny, peaceful country of Sweden can do.



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Fox News Can’t Take A Joke

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Does anyone view Fox News as an actual news program? I mean—they’re not really relevant they’re more of a propaganda show, right? Well, I guess they didn’t get that memo because the “hosts” of the show “The Five” decided to attack Jon Stewart. Again, Jon Stewart who hosts a satirical news program was attacked by guys that call themselves newsmen.

Jon Stewart’s show is aimed at making fun of news because—it’s an easy target. The times we live in are ridiculous so “The Daily Show” points that out. Sometimes, actual news comes out of the show but it’s mainly a show that says, “Hey, world stop being an douchebag”. It’s not the place you turn for breaking news. It’s an opinion show. It’s the opinion of Jon Stewart and his writers.

Fox News is a racist, disgusting, barbaric program and Jon Stewart routinely calls them out for it. This behavior is what has him in their crosshairs this week. One of the hosts from “The Five”, Eric Bolling, said that Congressman Ellison is “very dangerous” and has been “the Muslim apologist in Congress for a long time.” He also noted that Ellison “raised his right hand and took the oath of office on the Quran” that’s probably because Congressman Ellison is a Muslim and swearing on a Bible mean d*ck to him. He used his religion’s holy book to swear an oath…WHAT A DANGEROUS MAN! He also took on Bob Beckel who called for America to restrict Muslim students from entering the country.

So, Jon Stewart made fun of two men who said that America should racially profile people and prevent people of a certain religion from entering a country that was built on religious freedom.

In response to Stewart calling them racists, Bolling turned to an article from the Union Leader newspaper, in which he said a professor agreed with his theory. The professor Bolling mentioned cited no sources or studies in the article. Instead, she made a similarly sweeping assertion:

“When we talk about radicalized Islamic ideologies, it’s a very small population within Islam,” she said. “Only about 10 percent of Muslims are fundamentalists, and only 1 percent of that 10 percent have a radical understanding of Islam.”

“Hey Jonny boy, pull up a chair right here between Bob and me and let’s debate this thing,” Bolling said. “You got the cojones?” Does Jon Stewart have the balls to debate an article by a professor that has no sources and therefore is stating her personal opinion? Yeah, I don’t think that needs a response from Stewart.

Beckel stepped up next and said “I was a liberal activist and a progressive before you were out of your Pampers,” Beckel said. “You may get on a TV show and talk liberal politics. I’ve been on the lines registering voters, being on union lines, and others. Maybe you want to bring your credentials up here.”

Says the man on the most conservative television program. He is not a liberal. He can pretend to be all he wants. He is a paid host on a conservative network and he is there to give the illusion of a balanced panel. Methinks thou doth protest too much.



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Men in the Movement

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PBS ran an amazing miniseries called Makers: Women that Made America. If you didn’t catch it on TV make sure you watch it online. As impressed as I was with the women in the documentary I found myself more impressed by the men by their side.
One woman spoke of how when she was elected to Congress everyone tried swearing in her husband, not her. It got me thinking about how much it must have taken for a man to stand aside in the 1950’s. Everyone knows that men like to give each other a hard time, little insults here and there. I wonder what was said around whiskey and brandy when a man’s wife was elected.

Not all men were worth admiration at the time. In this documentary they spoke of the men in the feminist movement still expecting their girlfriend’s to cook dinner after the protests and in fact the radical feminist movement became mostly women when they got tired of the men in the movement telling them to “shut up” after their speeches.

Still, it’s not easy to take a back seat to a powerful woman. Even in today’s time—how often do we hear that a celebrity couple breaks up because the female becomes more popular than the male? The ego is quite a hard thing to face. As much as I love the women of the feminist movement I’ve got to say I tip my hat to the men that stood next to them and helped them take that step.

So often women are overlooked, behind every great man is a great woman. I’d like to think it goes both ways. As great team is a great team no matter who’s backing who. That’s how a great team and a great couple work—taking turns having each other’s back.



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I Hate Zoe Barnes

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How amazing in House of Cards on Netflix? It so good that it makes me forget that I know creepy things about Kevin Spacey—that’s how good it is! It’s near perfection. Robin Wright? Stop it. Just stop being so perfect! She’s brilliant in this! She looks amazing, she’s made Claire completely three-dimensional, I want to be Claire Underwood. Kevin Spacey, you cheeky bugger! Spacey has always been a brilliant actor and there’s no part he’s played that he hasn’t killed. This is just another example of his talent.
For those of you who haven’t watched it yet, go do it. It’s all on Netflix and you will not be sorry. It’s a political thriller that revolves around Claire and Frank Underwood. It’s political chess, it’s drama, it’s intense, and it’s gorgeous. I just love everything about it. Well, almost everything. I hate Zoe Barnes.
Zoe Barnes is a young up and coming writer trying to make a name for herself. She starts a working relationship with Congressman Frank Underwood. He’s her source, she’s his puppet. I loved that angle. Then of course, they start having an affair. Whatever, that’s fine, these shows always do something like that. But I hoped that when they moved in that direction that it wouldn’t be so high school. Truth be told I hoped it wouldn’t happen at all. Sex complicates things and I needed this relationship to be uncomplicated!
See, Zoe fancies herself and independent woman. She lives in a crap apartment because she refuses to ask her parents for money. She’s going to make it on her own! She even talks Frank into becoming her source. She’s a clever girl. Then she starts turning into a needy girl. Asking for Frank’s advice on everything from what meetings she should take to calling her Father on Father’s Day.
Claire, Frank’s wife, is aware of the affair and seemingly doesn’t care. This is just moving a pawn in their game. However, Zoe showing up to an event and shaking Claire’s hand—ugh you suck Zoe Barnes. She stands there in her too-tight-white dress and acts like she belongs there and isn’t there on the good graces of the Underwood’s. All I’m saying is a little self-awareness goes a long way.
I don’t want to ruin the series for anyone so I’ll cut it short here. Basically, I feel like if you’re going to write a character like Zoe Barnes you either have to make her likeable (like she started out) or completely detestable (like she’s becoming). I know some people would argue that’s the Walter White effect. But, the thing is Walter White is the guy you’re rooting for and he slowly turns into the bad guy. But he’s the lead guy—you always root for the lead guy. Zoe is a secondary character and the Underwood’s are the bad guys you root for.
In short, Zoe Barnes is the weak link in House of Cards mainly because she’s a cliché. This was the first season of the show and the first foray into scripted “television” for Netflix. Maybe next season they’ll get it right. There better be a next season. Man, how good is House of Cards?!?



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