Saudi Arabia - The first ever women-only city?!

Kate told us about an amazing current event - the design and building of a brand new city in Saudi Arabia... for women only!!

Is this something to celebrate as CHANGE in recognition of women's rights in a society where inequality is so evident, or is it an example of CONTINUING gender segregation?
See her full report for more information and how it relates to the Society and Culture concepts.

Olympic Truce Campaign - 'Equal Olympic Opportunity'?!

With all the hype and excitement of the Olympics at the moment, Monica decided to look a little more closely at what issues have arisen in Olympics past and how they are today. A little healthy competition and banter between teams and countries is in full flow at the moment, but it has not always been a positive, internationally harmonious event.

Inequality and discrimination has been seen throughout the years the Olympic Games have started from the beginning until now. It was not until 1992 that the world united and everyone from all countries were able to compete in the Olympic Games. The following examples show some of the history:

The Olympic truce campaign has been created for all countries to travel to and from the games in peace with no racial discrimination from other countries or no conflicts and to also achieve peace throughout the games.  Within  the Olympic Village is an Olympic Peace Wall 2012 which is signed by all competitors of the Olympic  Games that have all agreed to live and compete in peace.

Colorado Shootings "I am the Joker"

Lucy analyses the recent news of the Colorado "Batman movie' shooting, linking it to a variety of the Society and Culture concepts.

A gunman wearing a gas mask and sheathed head-to-toe in body armor opened fire in a theater packed for a midnight showing of a just-released Batman movie, killing at least 12 people and wounding 58 others.

MEDIA: The suspected shooter, James E. Holmes, considered himself as the Joker from the famous batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises”. He was influenced from this type of media to go on the rampage in Colorado, and tried to bring the character to life.

PERSONAL IDENTITY: James E. Holmes identified himself as ‘the Joker.’ He was trying to bring a movie character to life, and changed his personal identity to one of a fiction character.
POWER: James E. Holt had a lot of power in the Colorado shootings, and would have felt very confident with all his weapons and his costuming.

Do I look suspicious??

What does our appearance say about us? What we wear, our body language, our style of communication...
The 'hoodie' has become a topic of debate as an item of clothing and what it represents, as well as the ongoing issues of race and skin colour stereotyping.

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on February 26, 2012, in Florida, USA.  Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old African American who was unarmed and wearing a hoodie.

George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old multi-racial Hispanic American, was the designated neighbourhood watch coordinator for The Retreat at Twin Lakes, the gated community where the shooting took place. Since the shooting and the trial, there have been protests, marches and campaigns.

Watch the campaign video to find out more about what happened. BUT be sure to look up other sources of information too to get a balanced view of the the story... there are many parts to it!

'Blue bra girl' rallies Egypt's women vs. oppression

Thank you to Sarah for this write up on a recent relevant news issue - see bold for links to S&C concepts!

A newspaper photo shows Egyptian security forces beating a female demonstrator during clashes in Cairo on Sunday.

Within every country all over the world there is gender inequality, whether it be the workplace, home, government etc. Recently in post-revolution Egypt, gender inequality has been a big issue, many people have been beginning to speak out and protest about woman’s rights and how they are severely lacking in Egypt.  Recently a protest was held in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where thousands of men and women gathered to demonstrate their feelings towards the inequality.

“When thousands of women take to the streets and demand they be listened to then this is a historic event (CHANGE!). The all male military dictatorship are trying to drive them off the streets with brute force, killings and beatings. But not only this brutal rape and humiliations. The military after they took over power in February performed invasive, pseudo-medical 'virginity tests' on several women arrested after a demonstration in March. This was rape intended to intimidate all women. So is the stripping of women and the beating of women in the recent march. The video of the young women where she was stripped and beaten by all male soldiers makes things clear. When her clothes were pulled off she was shown to be wearing a blue bra. She is now referred to as the "blue bra girl" and "blue bra" is being used on twitter to spread the word asking for support for the movement.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076547/Egypt-protests-Thousands-women-march-mistreatment-Tahrir-Square.html

The people are protesting against the pPesident Mubarak who has been in reign with his own regime for 30yrs. They have been influenced by the sucess of what happened in Tunisia. They want more freedom, more jobs and food prices to go down. The internet has been shut down because it is a way of communicating and protestors can gain support etc in this way. If you are shut down from communications you are more likely to stay at home and do nothing. Mobile phones are not working either. They have also closed down international news channels on tv so the locals do not know what is happening.

Kony 2012 - People Power???

POWER and AUTHORITY: Two key concepts in the Society and Culture course. The Kony 2012 campaign and 'craze' shows big changes in who has power and who influences authority.
A few things to consider:

- Does Kony have power or authority? - or neither? - or both?
- If so, WHY does Kony have power?
- Do Governments (African countries governments, American government, Australian government... and more!) have any power or authority over Kony?
- What sort of power and/or authority does the public have? In Uganda/Africa, in the USA, in Australia, around the world?
- How has the balance of power and authority changed over the last month? To who, from who?
- How has technology influenced this? Do Social Networking sites have any power or authority?

I could go on....

- If the public does have some power - then that includes you... do you feel in a position of power? Do you WANT that power?!!!

Please post more interesting questions in the comments box below!!! Or even your feedback and thoughts on any responses or answers would be even better!!!! :)

Kony 2012 - the video, the social networks.

KONY 2012: How Social Media Fueled the Most Viral Video of All Time

KONY 2012 took the social web by storm last week, as a 30-minute documentary seeking to arrest LRA leader Joseph Kony was viewed online nearly 100 million times.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project investigated how KONY 2012 became the most viral video of all time.

The key, Pew found, was 18 to 29-year-olds sharing links on Twitter and Facebook. While initially 77% of Twitter discussions were positive, the tone shifted as criticisms of the non-profit behind the film, Invisible Children, began to circulate.

Source: Yahoo News

Maybe this is true: Where did you learn about KONY 2012? Are Twitter and Facebook your go-to sources for current events? I am unfortunately out of that 18-29 age bracket and the first place I learnt about it was from YOU- the students, in lessons at school! And then later on the television news. Maybe this is just one small piece of evidence to back up how information and the power of the media is shifting through time.

In addition, our easy access to information today, i.e. via the internet means that we can easily adn quickly find additional information on something that interests us. Within 24 hours the campaign was initially supported and then questioned as people looked more closely at the issues and background to the Kony 2012 campaign and the Invisible Children Organisation.

Or... is this one aspect of our culture today? That as soon as someone or something becomes successful, there are underlying desires to bring that someone or something down? ... 'Tall poppy syndrome?'....???

Parents raise a 'gender-less' child

"Sex is what is 'between the legs' and gender is what is 'between the ears' "
This is quite a nice differentitation between sex and gender for the purpose of our understanding, but has been taken a stage further for a couple and their most recent child in Canada.
They have not told anyone what sex the baby is and will raise him/her as neither a girl or a boy, so that he/she may make their own choice on their gender.

Read one of the news reports on this here.

Clinical psychologist Dr Brenda Todd , a senior lecturer at City University , said the experiment has been tried before in the 1970s by a feminist academic and her husband, with limited success.

"When the child gets older, the influence of the peer group is much stronger than that of the family so, like it or not, it will become gender aware."
Dr Todd pointed to research she and a colleague did on children between the ages of nine months and 36 months.
"We found that they really did have stereotypical preferences even at that age, with the girls going for teddy bears and dolls and the boys going for balls and cars."

Find other reports on this and think about:
- Do you agree with what the parents are doing?
- Why do you think they have chosen to raise a genderless child?
- What benefits or problems do you think this could bring to the child as they grow up?