posted
I do understand the irony of it, but the message that we all need to be prepared needs to get out. I wouldn't even mind if the press picks this up and runs with it. At least the message of getting prepared would be getting out there.
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Actually, the link isn't all THAT ironic. It links to a site that explains how to make your own disaster-preparedness kits, which is especially important when you realize that the government certainly isn't going to prepare for disaster FOR you.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I parsed that sentence as "the government certainly isn't going to prepare disaster FOR you," and thought "well, I should hope not!"
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Ah...but see the hurricane hit in August which must have been National "Don't Bother Us, We're on Vacation" Month.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Is the message "you better be prepared" really out there? What I see is "The government is supposed to be in there rescuing you hours after the hurricane hits, and if they don't there's a sinister reason why they didn't (be it racism, Bush hates poor people, local govt. incompetence, the horse show directors fault, take your pick.)"
I would personally love to see someone stand up and say "Hey, everybody living in hurricane prone areas better always have a supply of clean water and non-perishable food on hand, because in the event of a major disaster it might be days before we can get to you." But I'm not seeing that in the media. I think that would actually be a much more helpful message than the blame game that is going on.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
If they could also have a car, full tank of gas, healthy credit card and family out of town that they can stay with, that would also be good.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:I would personally love to see someone stand up and say "Hey, everybody living in hurricane prone areas better always have a supply of clean water and non-perishable food on hand, because in the event of a major disaster it might be days before we can get to you." But I'm not seeing that in the media. I think that would actually be a much more helpful message than the blame game that is going on.
No - the concentration is on how you should be prepared to help people who aren't economically or physically able to get away from the flood do so.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
So exactly how are you going to accomplish that? Everytime a hurricane is in the gulf everyone in the gulf state region gets free gas cards?
I'm not talking about people like hospital or nursing home patients who have no way to evacuate themselves - every facility with helpless patients and people needs to have its own disaster evacuation plan. Heck, I'd be surprised if they didn't. When my kids were in preschool we were given a copy of the evacuation plan for the preschool - told where they would take the kids, and how to get in touch with them in the event some sort of disaster made evacuation necessary. Every facility like a school, hospital, nursing home, should do that too.
But it's a fact that we can't predict exactly where these things will land. It's a fact that it's virtually impossible to evacuate everyone in the path of a hurricane, no matter where it hits. It's a fact that some people won't evacuate even if they are ordered to do so.
All those facts being on the table, maybe we should be telling people "here is what you need to be doing, what you personally need to be responsible for doing in the event of an emergency."
I think that is an extremely useful message to be getting out and I don't see it anywhere.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
In adition, the way the woman and girl are staring adoringly up at the man makes me want to hurl.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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romany, me too! I was wary of saying it though in case I was shot down as overly sensitive. It's a really disgustingly stupid picture and were I American I'd write to them to get it changed.
Imagine having such a thing on a Government website!
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Yeah! I mean, just imagine, a man's wife and daughter actually looking as though they love and admire him rather than despise him as the blundering, insensitive, stupid oaf that he is. How dare they!
Seriously, it's comments like that that make me want to hurl.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Barrack Obama made a good point about preparedness for the poor. If they can't prepare for it, someone has to help them, or someone has to answer the questions about all the bodies being picked up after events like Katrina.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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The thing is, they could have achieved the same effect without the male being the "center of adoration."
All it would have taken is for there to be a man and woman looking at each other (more or less at eye level), holding each other. Kid or kids could be looking up at both of them.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I believe it's the implication that the wife and daughter are helpless without the husband that's the problem. But that's largely a perceptual thing that would probably come as a huge surprise to the person who took the picture.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Sure, they could have. And? I still see nothing wrong with the way they did do it. I see families behaving like that all the time. In fact, it's perfectly normal for them to do behave like that, and in many other ways that show that they love each other as well. Just because some feminists are enraged that things could be so does not make it wrong to portray it. Quite the contrary.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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What do you want, a composite of every sort of different family type all rolled into one? What a hoot that would be. Seriously, you people are so infected by the politically correct virus that you are nearly beyond recovery.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Seriously, it's comments like that that make me want to hurl.
Come on, d_h, that cloying picture clearly portrays the man as the pillar of strength; the America, as the caption says.
And besides, for all you can try to empathize with how it is to see pictures like that you don't have to put up with that sort of thing (which is never intentional) on a regular basis. Example:
When I came through customs into Canada with my mother and two sisters without my father we were greeted very condescendingly by the male officer: "Hello ladies!" You had to be there to know how irritating it was. It was humiliating. It was like having an uncle patting you on the head. And my mother is fifty! But if we had complained what would have said? That the officer greeted us in a friendly manner? You can't define these things or describe them.
I understand what you are saying, d_h. I've noticed it too, how men in some television are portrayed as weak or stupid or sloppy. I don't watch those shows as much as you don't.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Obviously, we know different families. I don't currently know any in which the father/husband is the "center" or even "protector."
The other kind exists as well. I know that. I just don't happen to know any right now, although I have in the past.
It's also my experience that it's not just women who identify themselves as feminists who have a problem with this kind of stuff.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
"Oh honey! Thank goodness you went to the Homeland Security website and got us ready for that nasty ole hurricane! Otherwise how would we have known to pack up all our priceless belongings, buy some water and a first aid kit, hop into our Mercedes SUV and hightail it out of the state long before the rain ever started? Thank goodness we have look to take care of us! *sigh*"
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
This is a minor thing, I think, and not necessarily something to make a big deal. But comments like "just because some feminists are enraged that things could be so" aggravate me.
Can you accept that some feminists might not be bothered at all that this is so for many people, but are still upset that the image of Father as King Over Helpless Subjects reinforces a stereotype they believe is harmful?
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I live in a family that looks similar to that (me, the hubby, and one kid) but I can guarantee we would NOT look like that in the face of any disaster. It would be me taking care of our daughter, packing the car, calling the relatives, getting the dog in the car, and me yelling directions to my husband. There is the picture we really need.
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote: All it would have taken is for there to be a man and woman looking at each other (more or less at eye level), holding each other. Kid or kids could be looking up at both of them.
posted
Unfortunately, many men do view women as not only physically weaker, but also intellectually inferior and incapable of standing on their own without male help. Some seem to do it unconsciously, but the view is not only out there, it's out there in a whole lot of men. I'm sure it's out there in some men here, whether or not they realize it.
d_h, that is what people are reacting to. And it isn't just "some feminists." It's normal, strong, intelligent women, the type of which you see quite a bit of on Hatrack.
So, stow your condescending references to "some feminists" and realize that ordinary women see misogyny way more frequently than you seem to want to admit.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote: Can you accept that some feminists might not be bothered at all that this is so for many people, but are still upset that the image of Father as King Over Helpless Subjects reinforces a stereotype they believe is harmful?
I can. And I also maintain that you are reading that into the picture with an extremely condescending attitude.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Heck, even if the woman didn't have her arm curled up on her chest like a Romance novel heroine...
Were she still under her husband's arm but was looking down at their daughter with him instead of gazing into his manfully competent eyes, it would help.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
If it makes it any better, you can read that as "helpfully-intended suggestion" rather than "shot down".
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
"Helpfully-intended suggestion" along with heapin' helpin' of condescension. You know, in case you were short on that today.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Well, yes, I realise that. But you catch my drift. It's hard to say anything when the objection isn't obvious.
I didn't say anything about Mr. Customs Man, of course. He was just doing his job, or so he thought. I just gave that as an example of what doesn't happen to you so it doesn't build up so much.
This picture, however, is clearly agreed-upon to be rather deriding.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Try this - reverse the image. Have the husband be a foot shorter than the wife, hanging on her adoringly as she benevolently gazes down on him and their daughter. Look a little one-sided?
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
You find being addressed as "ladies" condescending? I confess I don't understand. Sure, I find it awkward when I'm with other guys and someone addresses us as "gentlemen", but it's hardly offensive.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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No, Chis, it doesn't. Men cuddle up to their wives all the time. And if they don't, I would suggest that their relationship is slightly unhealthy.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
On the other hand, d_h, instead of immediately consigning the reaction of so many people on this board to "overreaction" and "ultra-feminism," maybe you could spend a few seconds and try to see the other side of things--such as, perhaps, why not just Teshi, but also romany, and Eljay, and Chris, and Mandy, and sndrake, and me ALL felt that way about that picture.
As I said above, ordinary women deal with misogyny in varying degrees every day. Try, just for a second, to see that.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I do see that. But that picture was in no way misogynist, and reactions to it were hyper-sensitive. There seems to be a politically correct paranoia about such things that prompts many people to read misogyny into everything that does not expressly oppose it, and everyone else to follow along with it for fear of being seen as an insensitive cad.
Like you just did right now. Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
There's a difference between every possible point on a coastline which might be affected by a hurricane and the mandatory evacuation zone, Belle.
eg The mayor of NewOrleans decided to park ~2000 city-owned/controlled buses. So insteada ferrying out 60thousand or so people -- which coulda been accomplished while adding very little expense to the cost of getting those buses out of harms way, probably less than the cost incurred during normal operations -- the buses are?were sitting underwater. And they'll hafta be replaced with new buses at GREAT EXPENSE. Or at least extensively repaired&refurbished, at merely great expense.
posted
Ah, "politically correct"--the favorite bugbear of Republicans everywhere. So, all of us--the entire list of people in my last post--are ALL ascribing to politically correct paranoia? Whilst you are the lone voice of sanity?
Are you telling me that you can't even conceive, even the tiniest bit, of how we might see what we see in that picture?
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
My posts were intented to be funny, by the way (they weren't; no one laughed). I am not offended by the picture (actually I am much more offended byt he stupid ad!) but I certainly think it is unrealistic. That said, I didn't even notice it until someone pointed it out. Now lets all just take a deep breath...
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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