This fine film attempts to cloak fifties “happy homemaker” stereotyping in the mantle of science. It opens as Janice and Carol, two sisters, try to decide which classes they want to attend next semester. Janice remarks that she wants to take some courses in Home Ec, to which Carol is aghast. “Home Economics?” she scoffs. “Why in the world do you want to take Home Economics?” Janice is not easily dissuaded, and replies “Why? Because that’s something I’m gonna need to KNOW. If I’m gonna be a homemaker the rest of my life, I want to know what I’m doing!”
To confirm her point of view, Janice visits “Miss Jenkins,” her Home Ec teacher, who explains that Home Economics isn’t just baking and sewing; it teaches “the fundamental principals of food buying” and “the psychology of clothing.” “Present-day textiles cannot be judged with confidence just by casual examination,” Miss Jenkins cautions, as we see shots of girls peering through microscopes and stretching cloth swatches on a mechanical rack. If Janice decides not to get married (“at least, not right away” Miss Jenkins chuckles) she can apply her Home Ec training to college courses such as chemistry and bacteriology, or so this film insists.
“Home economics training teaches ways of developing democratic practices within the home,” Miss Jenkins adds, patriotically, but she doesn’t have to say any more to convince Janice. “Anyone who’s going to be married and a homemaker would be foolish NOT to take Home Economics!”
Why Study Home Economics (clip)
Includes sociological research in comments.
I heard about this story and decided it was a great subject for a megapost.
Published on Feb 26, 2013
“Pop That” is the name of a rap video featuring a blinged out, booty-grabbing rapper. It’s making the rounds on YouTube right now.Nothing new, right? Well, the issue in this case is that the emcee grabbing the mic is not a man with gobs of street cred. He’s 10-years-old.In “Pop That” he says, “Coke ain’t a bad word.” Some of his other videos show him swearing and slapping a womanâs bottom.
LYRICS
Everythin’ to know about me
Is written on this page
A number you can reach me
My social and my age
Yes, I served in the army
It’s where I learned to shoot
Eighteen months in the desert
Pourin’ sand out of my boots
No, I’ve never been convicted of a crime
I could start this job at any time
I got a strong back, steel toes
I rarely call in sick, a good truck
What I don’t know I catch on real quick
I work weekends, if I have to, nights and holidays
Give you forty and then some
Whatever it takes
Three dollars and change at the pump
The cost of livin’s high and goin’ up
I put Robert down as a reference
He’s known me all my life
We attend the same church
He introduced me to my wife
I gave my last job everythin’
Before it headed south
Took the shoes off of my children’s feet
Food out of their mouths
Yesterday my folks offered to help
But they’re barely gettin’ by themselves
I got a strong back, steel toes
I rarely call in sick, a good truck
What I don’t know I catch on real quick
I work weekends, if I have to, nights and holidays
Give you forty and then some
Whatever it takes
Three dollars and change at the pump
The cost of livin’s high and goin’ up
I’m sure a hundred others have applied
But rumor has it you’re only takin’ five
I got a strong back, steel toes
I’m handy with a wrench
There’s nothin’ I can’t drive
There’s nothin’ I can’t fix
I work sunup to sundown
Ain’t too proud to sweep the floors
The bank has started callin’
And the wolves are at my door
Three dollars and change at the pump
The cost of livin’s high and goin’ up
D’Angelo Barksdale: Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down to the basement and say, “Hey Mr. Nugget—you the bomb. We sellin’ chicken faster than you can tear the bone out. So I’m gonna write my clowny ass name on this fat-ass check for you.”
Shit. Man, the nigga who invented them things? Still working in the basement for regular wage, thinking of some shit to make the fries taste better or some shit like that. Believe.
Published on Nov 30, 2012 by RTAmerica
According to a recent study, adult film actresses are happier, spiritually healthier and have higher self-esteem than other women. This is contrary to the belief that most of the women who have chosen the career path are drug attics and compelled to the industry due to a history of sexual abuse. Chanel Preston, adult film actress, joins us for more on the study.
Published on Dec 2, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
A week after the nation’s worst garment factory fire left 110 workers dead, Bangladeshis are starting to return to work in factories contracted by big-name foreign clothing companies. At an annual worth of $20bn, the garment industry makes up 80 per cent of the country’s economy. The fire service is now checking all 4,000 factories in the nation to ensure safety. Despite the risks, the three-and-a-half million people who work in the industry, money of whom had held protests following the fire in in Ashulia, are slowly returning to work because they rely on the $43 a month many of them are paid. Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reports from Ashulia.
Published on Mar 10, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
After years of denying any wrongdoing, Peru has reopened investigation into forcible sterilisation of women, what human rights groups say was a crime against humanity.
During the 1990s, more than 300,000 women were pressured into being sterilised by the government.
Doctors and nurses under Alberto Fujimori’s administration, between 1996 and 2000, were assigned monthly quotas and given bonuses based on the number of sterilisations they performed.
Al Jazeera’s Latin America Editor Lucia Newman reports from Anta on the women’s quest for justice.
Published on Oct 17, 2012 by VOAvideo
The village of Bagega, Nigeria, is the epicenter of Nigeria’s gold rush and what activists say is the worst outbreak of lead poisoning in recent history. The government has promised a life-saving cleanup, but small children continue to play in toxic dirt and activists say time is running out. Heather Murdock has more for VOA from Bagega.
Published on Oct 10, 2012 by NTDTV
It’s an unbelievable piece of satire in a country known for iron-fisted censorship and harsh handling of petitioners. Miao Cuihua, most likely a pseudonym, is doing what countless other migrant workers have done in the past—protest against unpaid wages. But she’s skipped the queue at the petition office. Instead, Miao has created a video that not only demands she receives her quote, “blood and sweat money,” but also mocks the Chinese regime’s propaganda machine—and it’s gone viral.
Above her reads “Migrant Worker Unpaid Salary News Conference” Her rambling rhetoric that follows could be lifted from any of China’s scripted foreign ministry briefings.
[Miao Cuihua, Unpaid Wages News Agency]:
“We are regretted to hear that the official of the Bureau of Civil Affairs said ‘I represent the government. When I say not to give you money, you won’t get money. What can you do? We propose to peacefully, reasonably, and legally request payment. Harmony is precious. Society stability is the priority. So never appeal illegally.’”
The language she uses is typical of China’s well-educated elite, not a migrant worker who mixes concrete for a living.
Her video has been online since May, but in the past few days it’s exploded.
[Xie Liusheng, Shenzhen City Rights Activist for Migrant Workers]:
“It is very interesting. It satirizes the government’s corruption from another angle.”
[Chen Yongmiao, Beijing-based political commentator]:
“In China, if those migrant workers don’t use this kind of special, ironic, and mocking news reporting way to speak up. They would hardly get any public attention.”
Miao worked for the funeral administration department of Hangu district government in Tianjin City. She says a court ruled in 2009 that they owed workers almost $600,000 in unpaid wages, and has never paid up.
Her video is now making Hangu officials take notice, and they have been quick to respond. They’re not paying her though, instead, they say her video is full of distortions and she’s trying to extort more money from the state.
At over three million, Peru has the highest child labour rate in the Americas.
Officially the practice is banned, but many poor families rely on the money their children earn. Of the nation’s three million child labourers, aged between five and 17, 70 per cent of them are engaging in activities that endanger their lives.
Now, thanks to the nation’s first children’s union – that monitors and defends minors who work – many of those children are getting some added protection.
