The United States of America: A Corporate Dictatorship

          For a People who are supposedly so attached to their freedom Americans seem to have relinquished quite an enormous amount of it. It seems that some People are freer than others in this, the home of the brave. The People I am referring to are the newest members to Peoplehood and yet their rights already trump the ordinary citizens of this land commonly known as human beings. The legalized illegitimacy of regular folks is something that offends me greatly, since I happen to be included in that group. I have yet to incorporate myself you see.

          The Supreme Court of the United States of America recently took it upon itself to recognize man made conglomerates as People. These People are not like you and me they are special because they are far more powerful than regular American Citizens. Their power comes from their wealth, their connections to industry and their investors. It is the ultimate elitist club. Only the wealthy need apply. The weird thing is that most of the people in the club don’t have very much power either, only the very few at the top do, i.e. owners and CEOs. These are the real players, they are the ones making the decisions and calling the shots. The idea of equal representation under the law or by representatives in Congress is a fantasy for most individual Americans. It simply does not exist anymore if it ever did. Most of us, that is women, children, and minorities of every stripe are still waiting for our chance at real freedom and equality.

          Corporations dictate every aspect of life in America, from the food we eat, the water we drink the air we breathe, our exposure to toxins, to stress, the energy we use and our healthcare choices. Because we seem to have a myriad of offerings from corporations this does not mean we are a free people. It means we are given a set number of choices determined by specific corporations.  For most ordinary people our work schedules, again dictated by corporations, determines the amount of free time we are allowed. This is the measured time we must use to pursue other interests outside of work. In America this time is purposely extremely limited. It is all we are given to cultivate relationships with family and friends, raise our children, and enjoy entertainment and relaxation. It’s just enough to recharge for our real purpose in life which is to serve the Corporations.

          Every time anyone complains about the circumstances of living under a Corporate Dictatorship we get the same slap-down. You must work hard to succeed, you should be grateful you have a job, the 40 hour work week was a hard fought battle we shouldn’t push our luck.

          Women even though disproportionately responsible for raising the next generation of citizen human beings; are expected to embrace the work world as "white men" would and try to accept the resulting dual lifestyle as  hard won “equality”.  No attempt has been made to offer work schedules which coincide with children’s school schedules; even though women have been in the work force for over 50 years. Most employers are guilty of paying women workers 30% less than a man at the same job.  Corporations are responsible for the economic requirement of a two income household in order to maintain a middle class standard of living. We are told this was the price we had to pay for women entering the workforce. As corporations become more powerful the economic injustices continue to grow.

           Instead of a culture of being considerate to others who may be different than us corporations use our differences to induce fear and incite violence; violence toward women and children, death from suicide, and the promotion of a perpetual war economy. We are more afraid of speaking out against corporations for fear of becoming unemployable than openly despising our neighbors.

          Corporations have taken over and Americans are currently experiencing a serious set-back in their quest for freedom, equality and justice for all. Something needs to be done to limit the power, wealth and influence of Corporations if Americans really intend to be free.

~ Stephanie J. Gilley MS

 

The Backwards Depiction of Women in Advertising

Written by Stephanie J. Gilley 

          The prolific use of sexualized women in advertising is of deep concern for modern society. As we have learned since evolving significantly from our original state of bacteria, and as most of the world has openly acknowledged, women have much to offer beyond sexuality. Sadly our society uses the images of women sometimes subtly, other times in an over the top exploitive way to sell everything from T-shirts to TV programs.  

          The manner in which this is carried out usually involves the combination of several characteristics. The youthful expression of innocence, perverted as dizzy or vacant wide-eyed expressions combined with a visual display of the body often accentuated by computer enhancements. The resulting caricature is reminiscent to the offensive images used by propagandists against ethnic groups in the past. Groups were vilified for political and social reasons that society has since realized as absolutely unacceptable. Examples are unsavory depictions of Jews, Blacks, Irish immigrants and Arabs. The sexualized caricatures of women used in advertising, encourage marginalization of the female gender and promotes the idea of dependency on male approval for a woman to survive in our society.  Is this offensive advertising worth it just so corporations can make a quick and easy buck?

          It may be hard for some to understand the leap from ethnic group to gender. This may be because of several reasons. There are some men from almost every culture and ethnic group who are OK with the exploitation of women because it has been the norm for so long now. It’s accepted and expected almost everywhere. Women will sometimes object to being protected from exploitation because they have been conditioned by our American popular culture to seek approval from men. This approval is not merely a pat on the back.  Many women are unfortunately dependent upon the approval of misogynistic men in order to maintain a decent standard of living.  For instance a woman might be expected to agree, parrot back and participate in upholding this caricature or risk possible unemployment. If the man is her husband and she doesn’t comply, a woman could face the financial hardship of living life in America as a single mother. So when we allow the depiction of women as dizzy sexpots to become main-stream it reverberates through our society and into family groups. As these images permeate our culture it creates an unacceptable amount of collateral damage. It weakens us all when we allow the bashing, exploitation, or degradation of any group.

          The origin of these psychological ramifications, from widespread advertising that exploits the image of women to generate sales, is not complex. In America having high sales, making money, creating a business is seen as a great accomplishment and using sex to sell something, to obtain that goal is almost expected. Marketing using these images is just what American businesses do. Our women and girls feel the impact and the rest of the world has noticed, albeit disapprovingly, our blatant disregard of the problem.

          Is it because women are not seen as an ethnic group? Throughout history women have had to curry the favor of men; often regarding other women as a threat. This has much to do with our forced dependency on men.  We have been seen through their eyes as an accessory, for a large part of recent history. Like it or not women had been conditioned to seek the approval of men, and we are still playing that role to surprising and disappointing degree.

          What harm is done if a particular type of woman is used as a sexpot to sell T-shirts? Some say it shouldn’t insult all women. We have had competition for “a man” as part of our existence for so long some do not realize it is a big problem. We continue to be manipulated against our own best interests of real independence, equal treatment as people with human dignity. Women need to come together and improve the state of the world by insisting on an outward level of respect for all females. We are not merely an accessory for men. We have much more innate worth than to allow the sexualization of female images to be openly exploited for profit. As liberated as we like to think we are, these images are still here to the delight of capitalist profiteers. For too long now women have had to try to learn to just ignore them.  The use of these false caricatures is as offensive as the now socially unacceptable propaganda images of ethnic groups. And instead of hurting one group disproportionately these caricatures harm all of humanity. It is self-destructive on every level for the human race to allow exploiters to continue to demean the image of woman.

          It is important to look at this phenomenon critically and understand the true state of inequality facing women. Difficult as this may be it must be done. We need to look at the reality of it and disregard the backward attitude of those who benefit from the status quo.