St. Patrick's Day

On Wednesday, March 17, college students (and others) across America will wear green, eat beef and cabbage, and go to parties where they will drink green beer and Irish car bombs—a drink with Guiness, Bailey’s, and Jameson. But how many people celebrating St. Patrick’s Day really know why they are celebrating?

I think it’s great that so many countries celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and in doing so, recognize the old, rich, interesting culture of Ireland. Yet, the problem today is that many people celebrate the holiday and don’t recognize that culture. Companies like McDonald’s use St. Patrick’s Day as a marketing tool, selling Shamrock Shakes—vanilla milkshakes with peppermint extract and green food coloring—during this time of year. There’s even a website, www.shamrockshake.com, where people talk about where they can find the nearest McDonald’s that sells a Shamrock Shake. What does this tell us about the Irish culture? History? Nothing, and, nothing.

Who is Saint Patrick? Well, he was the patron saint of Ireland and is one of Christianity's most widely known figures (Visit www.history.com/topics/who-was-saint-patrick for more info). This is interesting, in that Christianity is America’s majority religion. You would think that Saint Patrick and the culture he represents, then, would be acknowledged and respected a bit more by some of America’s biggest companies. What about Celtic music? Ireland’s beautiful geography?

Many people, Irish and non-Irish, do celebrate Saint Patrick’s day honoring Irish culture, traditions, food, and drink; but still too many people use the holiday as another justification to consume large amounts of alcohol, market food with green food-coloring, and sell cheap plastic decorations. I've seen too many shiny plastic green hats and shamrock necklaces.

*On a side note, not only do MacDonald’s Shamrock Shakes use St. Patrick’s Day as a marketing tool (neglecting Irish culture in the process), but food-coloring contains many chemicals, many of which are toxic. As reported on Science News, The majority of food colors are made with petroleum . . . and are a derivative of petrochemicals and coal tar. These chemicals are in no way made to be ingested by humans or any other animal. In fact, food dye is pulled off of the market regularly because of health concerns . . . [some are] shown to cause ADHD, multiple types of cancer, male sterility, and many other issues” (http://science-news.org/artificial-food-coloring/artificial-food-coloring-dangers/).

And plastic? We really don’t need any more cheap plastic decorations. Google “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” and you’ll see what I mean. Or visit www.greatgarbagepatch.org.

And here’s some traditional Irish music for you to enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_nc4-xxdMA

Important Non-News

It's March 1--the first day of women's history month. And yes, feminists (myself included) have much to celebrate, but much work ahead...

Browsing the toy aisle yesterday, looking for a gift to bring home to poor teething 8-month Evelyn, I saw this: Toys by Fisher Price called something like "Play My Way," which are little toy kits that each come with accessories for a certain activity/profession. There are four different kits: Kitchen, Baby Care Center, Tools, and Doctor. Although I shouldn't have been too surprised, I was nonetheless appalled to see that the kitchen and baby care kits are explicitly marketed towards girls--pink packaging and pictures of young girls playing with the accessories. And the tool and doctor kits are marketed to boys--red and blue packaging with pictures of young boys playing with tools and doctor accessories.

I am just disgusted that Fisher Price, one of the nation's most well-known toy companies, is so outrageously sexist, and that they are marketing these sexist ideologies to children. CHILDREN! I hope parents and anyone who is considering ever becoming a parent will not buy into this BS. Let your little girl know that she is not confined to the kitchen and to baby-care. And let your little boy know that it's perfectly fine, acceptable, admirable if he wants to cook and/or take care of children. Do not impede their ambition and potential, please. Don't let the packaging of toys dictate who that toy is appropriate for.

And I have to ask you--which do you think would unsettle people more--a girl given the red and blue doctor/tool kit, or a boy given the pink baby/kitchen kit? I would guess that latter. It seems to unsettle people more when a boy plays with "girl toys" than when a girl plays with "boy toys;" it seems to unsettle people more when a boy wears pink than when a girl wears blue. Why? Well, for a boy to do "girl things" is to take a step DOWN--to be more feminine, more submissive, less dominating, LESS POWERFUL. For a girl to do boy things is to take a step up, to aspire to gain more power, which doesn't seem to bother society as a much. But for a boy to willingly give up his "manly" position to be more feminine? That's a no-no. That's why society accepts women wearing skirts or pants, but if a man wears a skirt, something must be wrong with him, right?

Think about it. Sexism is alive, well, and impacting your future, your children, your future children, your children's future, and the future of everyone you care about. Do you CARE?

Feel free to comment.

Using Google Images, search "Fisher Price Play My Way" and see what you find.

Fourth wave. . .

I was sitting in health class today, listening to my instructor talk about sexual harassment and violence and so forth. One of the factors leading to sexual violence and rape was "Beliefs that demean women and condone aggression," which is all too true, but the instructor went on to say that we see this a lot in other countries, like in the East, where women have to cover every body part and are not allowed to look at men, and "it's way different than here."

Poor, poor instructor. He doesn't know better. And neither do a lot, A LOT of other people. It's not that different here. Women aren't forced to cover their bodies or anything (in fact, they're sometimes expected to do the opposite. . . ), but America is full of beliefs and actions that demean women and condone aggression. EXAMPLE: Porn.

As stated in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "pornography shows men and women taking pleasure in activities that objectify women and treat women as less than human. By depicting female subjects as dehumanized objects, pornography encourages the idea that women can be treated without moral regard — i.e., raped and tortured. [Helen] Longino writes, 'What's wrong with pornography, then, is its degrading and dehumanizing portrayal of women (and not its sexual content). Pornography, by its very nature, requires that women be subordinate to men and mere instruments for the fulfillment of male fantasies.'" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-sex-markets/#VioAgaWom)

And anyone who thinks that porn is not big in America also doesn't know any better. The porn industry revenues billions of dollars each year. BILLIONS. BILLIONS! (http://mises.org/story/3668)

(Not) enough said.