Morehouse College and Pride Week

The Atlanta school has agreed to host gay pride week, yet had not put the event on their school schedule. Morehouse has a unique history and as their website dictates "Although times change, Morehouse’s mission remains steadfast: to produce academically superior, morally conscious leaders for the conditions and issues of today, whether “today” is post-Civil War or turn of the new millennium." Are gay rights not an issue of today? This would be a great opportunity for Morehouse to support LGBTQ rights and reaffirm their stance on equality in today's world.
Let Morehouse College know that they should be proud of their students creativeness, motivation, and steadfast beliefs in equality and publicly celebrate gay pride week. Call, e-mail, twitter, blog about Morehouse and applaud their steps towards celebrating diversity and let them know to hold gay pride week publicly and openly!

Morehouse College Contact Info:
President's Office- Fran Phillips-Calhoun Chief of Staff 404-215-2645

Office of Student Development
Dr. Waltrina E. Dufor, Director
Phone: 404-681-2800 x3461
Fax: 404-222-2584
wdufor@morehouse.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM -5:00 PM

Campus Operations

Andrè E. Bertrand
Vice President
ext. 2717
abertrand@morehouse.edu

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Campaign for Real Beauty?

Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty is a wonderful tug of effort to break down hardening stereotypes of feminine beauty. This is a wonderful step in the right direction. In any Intro to Women Studies class, the first thing everybody usually wants to talk about is the closed focus of society's norms of beauty for women. The crucial part of the discussion, I think, is that the problem with society's norms of women's beauty is that it is created by the desires of men and women themselves have not had the power to create it for themselves. That's why the norms are oppressive, and for the majority of the time are unrealistic. For a fantastic example do a simple google image search of "the perfect woman"....see the unrealistic sexual desires...most likely created by a man?
Now I just did a search on Dove. Apparently it is owned by the company Unilever and how much would you like to bet the number of female executives? What?! Zero...how did you know? I know that Dove is going in the right place of portraying semi-realistic images in their ads (not all of them, only the ones under the heading of "Campaign for Real Beauty"), but isn't the problem the authorship of these ads? And what is the intent behind the ads? A company is still a company that is fueled off of our money and they will say what they need to say in order for you to buy Dove. It reminds me of the SC Johnson ads that talked about how some of their manufacturing plants that made things like Windex were eco-friendly, fueled from the methane gas from landfills and how these products have a special green sticker on them so the consumer will know how their product was made. Of course I like the idea of using landfill fumes to energize a plant. But the real problem is the chemicals that are being produced from the products they are making in the first place.
There are these movements like environmentalism and feminism that have fought hard to make change. And then these ideas are corportized to try to gain a profit. Masked as eco-friendly because of a small adjustment made. They could take 10 steps, but instead they take one, and we applaud them for it by buying their products. Dove should make ALL their ads a "Campaign for Real Beauty" not just the ones that come on during Oprah.
On a good note for SC Johnson, the HRC gave them a score of 100 for the third consecutive year. So seems SC Johnson is taking another step or two.

Popping the Gay Bubble

I don't know when it was formed or the history of its origins, but I am aware now of its existence- the gay bubble. At least I thought I was in it, but I realized I moved just outside of its borders where I feel less insulated. Living in the bubble has its advantages, its long list of pros. The security, the comfort, the community and most importantly the validation. But staying in the comfort of the bubble you loose sight of the outside world where equality for LGBTQ still needs to be fought. You take for granted when you can grab your partners hand when strolling down the sidewalk. I think that this bubble has its major advantages to the newly out folks. But then when you step out of the bubble there's a hardening realization that you were in a bubble! Where instead of having a relaxed conversation on LGBTQ issues, you're having a full on argument which has turned into defending your very being. Where love apparently has its calculated perimeters and you're trying to stretch that meticulously drawn line so you fall within.

And I'm left wondering if people have learned anything from the battles that have been fought through the women's rights movement and the civil rights movement. Have the same arguments not already been made and lost? Have people not realized the fallacy of using God to promote hate? I think that believing that gays and lesbians don't deserve equality is not that different than beliefs of segregation or sexism.
And then there are those that fall in between- the "i don't hate gays, I know someone who is gay". These in between-ers are a little tricky because they think they understand. They don't understand why many are not willing to settle for civil unions. Instead we demand marriage, and they think it's just a lost battle. I don't think separate but equal exists. When you draw a line in a political context there is a distinction that is made and it has to do with power. The ones with power and the ones without. And I'm not going to fight for an empty box (civil unions) just to feel like I gained something.