Political Manifesto: Group 9: Commuters Unite

Group 9, members: Umber Bhatti, Sarah Chanh, Allen Matsumoto, Joseph Montoya, Trung Nguyen

Commuters Unite: Never be late because you can’t find space
Cause: New Parking Garages. SJSU needs to build more parking garages for students because the current garages are not sufficient enough to hold all of the cars. Since students have to pay $200 for a parking pass, they should always have a space waiting for them. Creating new garages would allow students to park within 10 minutes, instead of circling the garage for a long periods of time, or having to leave the house hours before class, just to make sure they’ll find a parking space.
Leader: Allen Matsumoto
Winning campaign slogan: A space we can believe in!

We  made a Facebook and Twitter account, a logo, and two posters. 

Our group came up with two ideas for posters. (Unfortunately I can't upload them on here because the file is not supported) One was created by Sarah Chanh where it shows a parking garage that actually has open spaces, and room for other cars. The other, made by Joseph Montoya, showed a paraking garage that was completely full, and had 3 cars competeing for one spot. It also read "3 cars, 1 spot, 5 minutes" to describe how students get late for class a lot because they can never find enough parking. 

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Environmental agency: Greenpeace USA

Greenpeace "is the largest independent direct action environmental organization in the world." They defend nature, and investigate and expose environmental abuse. They also advocate for the rights of all people. Their campaigns include: Stopping global warming, defending our oceans, protecting our forests, save the arctic, no new nukes, safety from toxic chemicals, and promoting sustainable agriculture. They take action in situations that are dire and effect many people.

the social media platforms they use are:
Greenpeace on Twitter
Greenpeace on Pinterest
Greenpeace on Facebook
Greenpeace on YouTube
Greenpeace on Flickr
Greenpeace on Google+

One of Greenpeace's campaign was very successful. They were able to get Facebook to pledge to move away from coal.

Greenpeace argued that Facebook consumed A LOT of coal, so they started an "Unfriend Facebook" campaign. Many Facebook users participated in this, enough to actually get the companies attention. 

Gender in advertising

Women have definitely been stereotyped and objectified in advertisements. In class we learned that women were first seen as dumb and incompetent. Then they were objectified sexually for cologne and car ads, and then they seem to  be more of the housewife and motherly types. Even today we still see all types of variations when it comes to women in the media, but it is more progressive and leaving these cliched stereotypes behind. 

In class we were shown this Diet Coke ad. Clearly the gender stereotypes have been reversed here. We see the man being "sexually exploited" and the women are the ones ogling at him. (Very exaggerated of course). The class was asked whether this was a negative image of men and if it was harmful to men. Most people agreed it wasn't harmful but they still said it was a negative depiction of men. I agree with the majority. In no way is this ad harmful to men. Men have never been dehumanized like women have in the media and in the real world, therefore there is no way one ad that is obviously suppose to be funny, could ever be harmful to them. It's just how you could never be racist to a white person. Prejudiced? Sure. But never racist because white people have never been institutionally, economically, or socially oppressed like races have been subjugated to. Same as how men never had to face sexism like women deal with everyday. I think its really important to remember that even though society is (in most cases) "progressing" the consequences of sexism and racism in our world and in media/advertisements are still being felt. 

Gender Stereotyping in advertising

There is definitely an issue with gender stereotyping in advertisements today. Women are still seen as objects and sexualized in a lot of ads. But in this post I will talk about kids toys. In an article from the New York Times, The author Elizabeth Sweet interestingly describes that though gender stereotypes have always  been a part of advertising, during the early 1900s there started to be less gender stereotypes. "In the 1970s toy ads often defied gender stereotypes by showing girls building and playing airplane captain, and boys cooking in the kitchen."


However the article goes on to say how by 1995 gender stereotypes were back and now in our current society it is extremely difficult to find toys that are not obviously marked by color or something else.

An article from The Atlantic, also written by  Elizabeth Sweet, goes on to talk about how even though sexism was accepted back in the day, now we actually have more rigid gender segregation in toys. It's ironic how society has advanced and women have made some significant gains, yet when it comes to this topic we are very backwards.

This gender stereotyping can have a really negative side effect on kids. It reinforces gender roles, making kids feel uncomfortable if they step outside of them. And it also can promote boys to think of less than girls. I can even see this in my 5 year old cousin. A lot of times he will tell me I can't do things that he can, and I'll remind him that I'm older and stronger than him he will say its because I am a girl. One time he even told me that hot Cheetos were too spicy for me...because I am a girl  -_-

I think currently we are moving forward in many ways, and advertisements with Nike, Kotex, and Always (#LikeAGirl) have called for more female empowerment. HOWEVER, when it comes to toys it seems to be a different story.