New Ways of Learning and Seeing is Needed

As I found myself watching the news last night, waiting for the outcome of the budget crisis,I found myself elated when I found that military families will be getting paid which as far as I knew was a major sticking point in the budget problem. As I read through the news reports about the settlement I also learned however, that a budget for planned parenthood had not been set and continued to be one of the major causes of the lack of a definite budget. An issue that affects half of the population of the country somehow did not take precedence over the payment schedule of a few country service men? Barbara Weiner spells it out perfectly,"Although half our population are girls and women, less than one quarter of them are in positions to make major decisions." If more women would be making major decisions for other women, I would hope that issues like planned parenthood and abortion rights would take precedence over the payment for a male dominated industry, an industry designed to teach men to kill other men.

Women,next to minorities are severely underrepresented in politics but so much more in media. Media has such a strong grasp on our society and is able to manipulate ideas, facts, and popular opinion and its an atrocity that women rarely can be a part of that. Often relegated to cooking shows and day time television, women voices are rarely ever heard but a majority of the country who get their daily intake of information from networks like Fox and CNN. Carol Jenkins in her research realized " women comprise only 10 percent of general managers, only 15 percent of programmers, and only

15 percent of the on-air talent." when she looked at radio personnel.

There is hope on the horizon however. When we deviate from mainstream media we see the possibility of amazing alternative media being thrust into the forefront of new stories. Ms. Magazine for example is an alternative form of Media. Ms. Magazine, as well as their blog, is written for women,by women and often features stories about women from around the world. Many of their current stories discuss the issues facing a woman in Libya who was gang raped then physically harmed and restrained my hotel workers who were in support of the current Gaddafi regime. Ms. Magazine was started in 1972 and and according to their site was an instant hit with prominent women who supported the feminist content."Ms. struck a chord with women. Its 300,000 “one-shot” test copies sold out nationwide in eight days. It generated an astonishing 26,000 subscription orders and over 20,000 reader letters within weeks."

I consider myself a big internet person so my favorite part of Ms. Is actually their online Blog. Their blog consists of tabs that talk about so many different things like Art, different countries around the world,health, life and media itself.This is important to women because the information given is PRO-WOMEN. Ms Magazine has no interests in stifling women and their sexual health, their interests or even their political allegiances. It only seeks to give information from a womens point of view which I think is obviously needed in Media. Media is owned and operated by men,with maybe a handful of women scattered in varied positions to show that these networks aren't sexist. More women are needed to write and review stories to give an opinion seldom seen in Media today.