Yesterday morning I joined Molly Adams, Brian Babylon, and Siri Bulusu on Vocalo’s morning program to discuss last week’s brouhaha about the CNN iReport article on India and harassment culture. Remember that brouhaha? It was before the Miley brouhaha. We should make a calendar to keep all the brouhahas straight, don’t you think?
If you recall, the issue here is decidedly NOT questioning the author’s personal experience in India, but rather questioning the tone and context of her article. Questions to think about:
- What are our obligations to contextualize our suffering on the scale of greater suffering?
- How much do we need to call out our own privilege to avoid sounding off on the “plight of the white woman”?
- What can we do to condemn harassment, sexual assault and rape without stereotyping an entire nation of men?
- How do we acknowledge the particular problems of one country while simultaneously recognizing that we have similar problems of our own?
- Is it appropriating to relate the trauma of other people who do not have access to the megaphones we have in order to justify our own trauma? Is there a way to do that gracefully and justly?
As always, I enjoy my time with the Morning Amp crew and look forward to future discussions of tricky issues in gender and media.
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