Katie Bodnar

11/8/15
Honors 100
Paul Farmer is considered an advocate for those without a voice, a passionate promoter of
social justice. In his collection of speeches, he presents the idea of making hope and history
rhyme, implying that someday the better world we are hoping for will become history.
Something that Farmer did not explicitly address in his speech is the way that genders are
misrepresented in the media and the social implications that has for us in the way that it
perpetuates gender inequality, but I think his idea can still be applied to this topic.
Interestingly, much of reality as we perceive it is based on our interpretations of what we
see in the media. Rarely are women portrayed as doctors or lawyers or teachers, even in modern
day television programming. While this misrepresentation can be discouraging and even boarderline offensive to those who identify as someone not accurately portrayed in the media, the real
problem lies in how others internalize this version of reality as it is presented. For example, if a
woman in a television program is being portrayed as submissive and passive and her male
counterpart is assertive and dominate, women and men alike who are watching the program are
likely to internalize their gender role as it has been characterized in the program as well as expect
the other role from the other gender. This can lead to a perpetuation of the assumptions made
every day by many people that support traditional gender roles.
While there is no quick solution to rewire the social psyche, we can take the steps
suggested by Farmer to help remedy this misrepresentation. The first of these steps is to work
through the problem using partnership and innovation. With the help of other advocates for
gender equality or even the media producers themselves, we can begin a trend of equal gender
representation. Additionally, we could develop new programs or new ways of viewing and
interpreting media in order to help promote equality. Both of these approaches to change include
working with the people who can affect that change as someone who holds very little control. An
alternative to working form the top down, so to speak, would be to alter how we consume media
and though gaining an awareness of these misrepresentations.
Gaining awareness of distortions in gender representation would make us identify them
when they are presented in the media and then recognize that what is being presented in the
media is not always the truth. Just doing this will help make us more compassionate towards
those who might feel offended by how their identity is being portrayed and thus help to counter
the issue.
All this to say, I think it is important to realize that one, this ideal world of the future that
we are dreaming about is only going to become history if we all are dedicated and work hard to
achieve this goal and two, that we never are going to have a truly perfect world. What is
important is that we keeping fighting the good fight and striving for what we want, bit by bit,
problem by problem, because every step is a step in the right direction. Farmer presents this idea
of countering failures of imagination, and I agree with him; the only reason we think we cant
accomplish something is because we fail to imagine what needs to happened in order to get it
done.