Refugee Women Dehumanized by Thailand's Government

An article I read on the web recently in Marie Claire describes how a 23 year old
young lady in Thailand is living. Her name is Zember and she is a refugee from Burma who has been living in a village in Thailand
for the past two decades. Since she was five years old she has worn traditional
Kayan neck rings but now she wants to take them off and be just like other young
ladies around the world. The problem is that the Thailand government of Mae Hong Son has put
these Kayan women in small, unsanitary villages and uses them as human tourist
attractions. Approximately 40,000 tourists a year pay $8 to drive thru these
“virtual human zoos” and also buy souvenirs and postcards of these women with
their neck rings. These women earn a small wage, about $45 a month, to
participate and to “smile and say nothing” to the tourist, who are mostly
Americans. If the women discuss their situation or are seen using cell phones or
doing anything modern then the village owners dock their wages or all together
don’t pay them. The owners say that these things may ruin their “traditional”
image and tourist will quit paying to see them. Because of their status in
Thailand as refugees they aren’t allowed to seek other employment opportunities.
New Zealand and Finland have offered Zember and other Kayan refugee’s
resettlement but the government in Thailand keeps blocking their exit visas.
20,000 other Burmese refugees have received exit visas and have relocated but
they were said to lack the same commercial value of the Kayan women, such as
Zember. The Governor of Mae Hong Son has issued press releases that state that
the Kayan women are happy, safe and don’t want to leave. Zember says that simply
isn’t true. They live in very poor conditions with no medical care and no
freedom.
The treatment of these women is so wrong and dehumanizing on so
many levels I don’t even know where to begin. Why should Zember and the other
Kayan women be forced to stay in Thailand, being treated like animals in a zoo
without any rights while the government receives financial incentives from
tourist to keep them this way? The Thailand government benefits from tourism but
the women suffer.
For a story of other women just like Zember visit the
website for Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom.

Yaz the Birth Control That Was Too Good To Be True

Yaz, a birth control pill that Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals produces, according to an article in the New York Times, was called out last week by the Food and Drug Administration for misleading commercials. The commercials in question promoted this new birth control pill as having more positive benefits than it actually does and down playing the serious health risks of the drug. This ad campaign used symbols, the hyperbole technique, and the “Simple Solution” approach to sell their product to young women.
The You Tube ad that I have at the top of this page uses symbols, such as, young successful women in a stylish setting to promote what a smart, educated decision using Yaz is. Bayer also used the “hyperbole” technique in this ad by making claims that this new pill significantly helps women suffering from severe Premenstrual Syndrome, mood swings and can help clear up acne too. Regulators for the FDA say that these claims have been simply over blown. The Yaz advertisements also offer the “Simple Solution” approach by telling these women that just by taking this birth control you also can get the benefits of easier periods and better skin and promoting it as a “lifestyle” not just birth control.
The FDA has forced Bayer to run $20 million in commercials from now until July that restates the effects of this birth control to reinforce the serious health risk that it can cause. Bayer made $616 million in sales of Yaz last year alone so is a new restated ad campaign that will run for five months really hurting them that much for using such misleading and deceptive advertisements? No, probably not, but is nice to know that the FDA is getting a little tougher on those drugs companies that are trying to exaggerate their products benefits. These pharmaceutical companies gain millions of dollars from running these misleading ads at our cost. Why should we care if pharmaceutical companies inflate the benefits of some drugs and down play the negative health risk that they could have on us, well, we should know the full truth about these drugs before we ingest them and become more informed consumers.

Young Girls Dressing Too Sexy

Over the past several years I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend in young girls across America. They strive to imitate celebrities that they see in the media, going as far as even dressing like them. It isn’t uncommon anymore to see girls as young as ten years old in short, short skirts or revealing shirts and even high heel shoes. The media and advertising has been promoting these clothes to younger and younger girls consistently and making the girls think that they should look provocative and sexy even if they are much too young.
Advertisers use the “Bandwagon” technique to sell these girls on the idea that everyone is dressing like this and they too should dress sexy to be cool and fit in. Walk into any mall across America and you can see this fashion phenomenon that has caught on with our tween and teen girls. The message that the media and advertisers are sending these girls way to early is the sexist view of the advertising world that women, and now girls, are just objects of men’s desires and that they are only important if they are pleasing to the male eye. This has to be starting a very destructive and degrading self image for these young girls.
They may also be pressured to start acting more sexual younger. Our teen pregnancy rate is one of the highest of industrialized countries. For the last three decades we’d managed to lower the teen pregnancy rate but now we are seeing girls as young as twelve and thirteen getting pregnant and getting STD’s.
Jean Kilbourne has even written a book about this scary new fashion trend. We need to fight back against the advertisers and media and teach our young girls that there is so much more to being a woman than looking sexy and that their self worth should not come from wearing inappropriate, provocative clothing.

Too Fat, Too Slim No Happy Medium in the Media

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen in the media that Jessica Simpson has put on a little weight and gained a few more curves. The press was very critical of her body changes, calling her fat and making such a big deal out of this that other celebrities have spoken out in her defense. At the same time the media has reported that Lindsay Lohan has recently lost weight and even accused her of being on drugs because of the weight loss.
Is the press ever happy? There doesn’t seem to be a “perfect” size anymore. Media has always objectifies women and focused on our looks but in the last decade I feel this has intensified and is also targeting younger girls more than ever before. Physicians today are seeing a large number of young girls with eating disorders, such as, anorexia and bulimia.
According to a study that was sited on AAP News, the official magazine of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 548 girls from fifth grade to twelve grades were surveyed to see how the media has influenced them on weight control concerns, behaviors and their body image perceptions. Fifty- nine percent of these girls said they were dissatisfied with their body shape, and sixty-six percent of them wanted to loss weight. Of these girls sixty-six percent of them said that reading fashion magazines and that the appearance of the models in the magazines does influences their idea of a perfect female body. Forty-seven percent of the girls wanted to loss weight because of viewing the magazine photos. Our media is sending a dangerously distorted image of women’s bodies today and the young girls of our world are being dramatically affected.
In the past couple of years we have seen some media promoting a more positive and healthy body image. For instance, Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign uses real women of all shapes and sizes to promote their products. Also, the Tyra Banks Show regularly discusses topics on body image and the media. Tyra herself is always an advocate for promoting healthier more realistic body image and points out frequently that the celebrities and models seen in photos aren’t shown how they honestly look but are airbrushed, have special effects lighting and wear heavy stage make up.
We need to be better role models for young girls and educated them on healthy, positive body images, as well as, become better consumers that demand the media be more socially conscience and responsible about the body images that they put all over the media.