OLD MOVIES ON A RAINY DAY

Channel surfing on a rainy day, as I tried to catch up on some office paper work, I came upon a movie that didn't seem too difficult to figure the plot even though I clearly had come into the middle of something, so I stayed to the end. I was right, it was not too deep or complex to put the plot together. The movie was released in 1933 so was delightful in the morals of the day.

Plot summary from IMDB: Mary Stevens (Kay Francis) and her old friend Don Andrews (Lyle Talbot) find themselves graduating from medical school at the same time. They decide to set up their respective medical offices in the same building. Mary builds her reputation despite many patients refusing to be treated by a woman. Don, however, begins dating Lois Cavanaugh (Thelma Todd), whose family is rich and influential, and neglects his practice for the privileges of a social life. Despite Mary's love for Don, he marries Lois and sets up a new office with a high class clientele. He also gives Mary a new office right next to his; while she ends up making a name for herself in the medical community, Don begins to pilfer funds from his practice. Jealousy and mistrust drive Mary and Don apart, seemingly for good. Two years go by and Mary, now a famous doctor, takes a much-needed vacation. While on vacation she runs into Don, who is now on the lam from the authorities. Mary and Don have an affair, and Don tries to get a divorce. Lois is willing but her father doesn't want the Cavanaugh name mixed up in any scandal. He clears Don's name and gets all charges against Don dropped, on the condition that Don will not divorce Lois for at least six months. When Mary finds herself pregnant with Don's child and Don unable to marry her, she must decide whether she should tell Don or raise the child on her own. Written by Stacia Kissick {srm12@ksu.edu}

From 1933 to today, gender bias seems unchanged in some professions. Notable, though, was the change in mores. Mary has a son, unbeknownst to the father of the child. As she travels with a nurse for the child, she is shown powdering the little boy with almost a full container of talcum powder sprinkled onto the entire front of that little body! Later on in the script, she is contemplating suicide. She is diverted from her plan by a hysterical father demanding that she save the life of his little one, who has swallowed a safety pin. As her oath to Hippocrates grabs her away from her own pain, she tries to get the pin out of the throat of the child but doesn't have the proper tool. Frustrated, she runs her hands through her hair and discovers she has a bobby pin with which she removes the safety pin from the child's throat, commenting no man would have come up with that idea!

As the movie ended, I could not help but realize that, while these actors and actresses were long since dead, the plot had not aged as much as they. Indeed, we now have no-fault divorce though falling in love with a married man has not become an extinct process. Women still have to fight harder and be better than men in many situations to prove themselves. While women are said to outnumber men in our society, they are often more apt to side with men than other women.

There is still a very long way to go!

WHY THE WORLD FOR WOMEN CHANGES SLOWLY

In one common experiment, the Goldberg Paradigm, people are asked to evaluate a particular article or speech, supposedly by a man. Others are asked to evaluate the identical presentation, but from a woman. Typically, in countries all over the world, the very same words are rated higher coming from a man. Since the provocative findings of an early study by Goldberg (1968), researchers have addressed the possibility that evaluations of others and their work may be prejudicial against women. Goldberg obtained evidence which appeared to indicate that raters of a series of articles (attributed to male or female authors) showed a degree of bias against the work of females. Goldberg's subjects were female students, and Goldberg's conclusion was that females are prejudiced against other females.

In most states, polls show Hillary Clinton ahead of Barack Obama among voters making $50,000 a year or less -- many of whom say the economy is their top concern. Yes, the New York senator who appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine as Big Business's candidate is winning economically insecure, lower-income communities over the Illinois senator who grew up as an organizer helping those communities combat unemployment. This absurd phenomenon is a product of both message and bias.

Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks has a lot of fun with the clip featuring progressive writer Naomi Wolf and Fox News anchorman Shepard Smith. Shepard Smith talks over her, points a finger and says, "Don't go Fox on me!" There were then, on TYT, jokes made about the newscasters on Fox not giving news but giving propaganda and how frightened they would be to have to go look for another job which would actually require them to find and present actual truth and news.

Women are still underpaid in comparison to men. A recent study on ABC suggested the bias which exists against women being hired. Men and women being asked the same questions and giving the same answers were perceived differently.

It was very gratifying to see that MSNBC suspended David Shuster from further broadcasting because of his perjorative remark about Chelsea Clinton. While I did not read the NY Times chastising of Chris Matthews for his biased statements against Hillary Clinton, I understand that there was one. It is about time the media polices its own for perpetuating biases against women and, all I can say is, shame on the women who allow it and help keep it going out of their own fear that they will somehow be different if they are seen as equal and different from men. Remember, in the Stepford Wives, it was a women who turned all of them into robots, not a man! In A Knight's Tale, Rufus Sewell equates women to cattle. The brotherhood of men should be ashamed that their view of women has evolved so little in several centuries.