No to a Military Attack against Syria! we want stability and Peace! a simple citizen from the Middle East

I am enraged, those 2 days, all what TVs and media are covering are the supposed military attacks USA, France and Great Britain might do against Syria.

And since than, all the messages I am getting are “keep safe” “we will suspend our meetings” “stay home” ….

What??? I know that my post is just for me and wont be read by the BIG guys, but maybe if some of their team members may read it, they will understand, that some people who are “citizens” here in this part of the world are AGAINST any military attack!!! Syria is already living under the bombs, bombing more and letting foreign powers intervene as they did in Irak, Afghanistan, Libya or else, is a huge Mistake. Can they consider the citizens that are living in the region?? can they consider that if it didn’t work in other parts of the world, it won’t work in Syria too?!!!

I am afraid, Yes I am, for the security of those who are still living in Syria, for those who are living like me in Lebanon, and trying to make a living albeit the bombings and explosions we are witnessing!

Dear Big Guys, the Soft politic is in my opinion the solution, the political solution is still needed as it happened in Lebanon in 1989, and after in Doha….

Please dears think about it!! Syria is already a war-torn country and chemical weapons is already been used, don’t “add oil to the fire” and use a military attack, even those who you think needs you for a military attack are not as clean as they should be ! Fundamentalism, extremism, and dictatorship are all for me, simple citizen of this Middle East unacceptable!

Rita Chemaly

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Biaised Women Image…. using sex and charm of women to sell products and reinforce social roles

Look at the Lebanese Highways and especially at the huge billboards everywhere!

 Women, teenagers, Men, children are harassed by pictures and advertisements using the women body and brain as a housewife, as a sexy doll, as a bimbo.

the examples in Lebanon are numerous. ( here are some previous examples taken from my blog : My body is not to be used for your crap ads! women’s body are sacred and not objects!

Salons de Beaute pour ENFANTS! au Liban tout est travaille pour Arranger l’image de soi

You can be Seduced by a Taouk…. or a warak arich on a women body… , for more info also do check Kherrberr website: here are great examples from it Mothers Are Not Washing Machines  , Scholl’s Babybotte: Influencing Children’s Gender Roles ! )

The problem is that me and other Lebanese and non Lebanese women living in Lebanon and bombarded by such pictures and adv will integrate them in our mind and we won’t be able to see the prejudice and discrimination they create after a while.

The small boy and the small girl are definitely influenced by those ads such as the “Babybotte and Barbie Adv! To the boy we will find it normal to buy and offer a Lego game that will help him use his brain, as for girls, we will find it normal to offer a doll, for her to pamper and integrate as an image of the mother she will once be!

I will always and always repeat that we live in a world were stereotypes related to gender role division are very difficult to overcome, but WE can do it!!

we have to be able to discern gender biased images, games and advertisements!

is it normal for media to use My body to market a car!?! I understand that women bodies are attractive but we have to stop using them and Instrumentalising them as objects for marketing!

  The gender division is so normal that when we go to a shop in Lebanon for children you’ll have a part in pink with lots of dolls and dentelles, and carrycots, and small kitchens and other part with cabs, construction games, army clothes, superman clothes for boys.

This is from where gender stereotyping begins! Malls, and shops for children!!!

Images and social Roles (women as a housewife, and men as house caretaker, and a society saviour ( the superman) ) are so commonly engraved in our sub conscience we usually reproduce and replicate them over and over! I was so glad when my Brother in Law wrote to me, “let your husband help you Iron your future new born clothes , this task is not just for women!!”

That is how we go out of the vicious circle of reproducing social roles and reinforcing social stereotypes!

I am working on it, Are you???

I loved this flyer that we (my husband and I found at the gynecologist, a Men bottle feeding his child) …. Do you think that this is common in Lebanon?? it is rare to find husbands helping with the education part of the children, why? again social roles, manly roles, patriarchal culture, and all those big issues we have to try to fight and overcome!

 Rita Chemaly

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Do you know how to use Twitter and Facebook Efficiently? Not all know…

because many “illiterate ” digital, have shown an interest on how to use Facebook, twitter and other social media platforms,

the National commission for women in Lebanon and the Ministry of Social Affairs have tailored a special training program for beginner users.

They gave me the responsibility to train “Digitally” illiterate women and men on how to use Social Media platforms to make some noise on the web about the causes they champion.

It was one of the most wonderful experience, seeing elder women who usually open Facebook to contact their children abroad with (their help), try to figure out how to make keywords, write catchy status, make interesting pictures….

for you here is the synopsis and the overview of the training program specially tailored for those wonderful women and men!

Rita Chemaly

 

 

 

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