It is important to speak out when injustices are happening, to prove not everyone has the same mindset as those causing the disservice. If something someone is passionate about then they should never stand aside while someone else causes their passion a disservice, said passion should be defended and kept close to those who try to protect it. Someone should always have to speak up for what is right even when everyone tells them it isn’t worth it, it’s always worth it if it’s something that means a lot to them. Everything and anything is worth fighting for if it means a great deal to someone and it has a great offense done to it. Speak for it, defend it, fight until the very end if need be do whatever needs to be done to defend the things that …show more content…
Ellen DeGeneres faced persecution for her character and herself, personally, coming out as gay. Ellen held a variety of jobs until she looked to comedy, building her reputation at small clubs and coffeehouses before working up to Clyde’s Club by 1981. In April 1997 DeGeneres made television history when she, revealed she was a lesbian(“Biography”). In 1997 DeGeneres was a recipient of the coveted Peabody Award, (“The My Hero Project-Ellen Lee DeGeneres”), and became an advocate of LGBT rights(“Ellen DeGeneres”). Her coming out on television was an act of bravery(“The My Hero Project-Ellen Lee DeGeneres”). Afterwards the show received criticism from other networks, but applause from gay-friendly activists, including DeGeneres’s mother. In 2008 DeGeneres married her girlfriend, Portia de Rossi(“Ellen DeGeneres”). This was important because people were beginning to think that someone they’ve been watching could be anything other than perfect, and idealistic. This affected many people as well as DeGeneres herself and the LGBT community. The coming out of Ellen DeGeneres affected people by showing others it didn’t matter what other people thought of a person in general, and caused many others to come out or to simply be themselves and discard judgements people …show more content…
These examples are inspirational because in a time when they were faced with intolerance towards them or they were discriminated against for who they were, they still stood with their beliefs. Just because one person causes a disservice doesn’t mean that those who are following know what they are doing. They follow others, knowing no better than those leading them. There are injustices that happen day to day and nothing is being done about them. Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “The world suffers a lot. Not because of bad people, but because of the silence of good people,” by this Bonaparte meant that everyone and everything suffers when good people pay no attention and bad people are allowed to go unshackled, and unchecked. There will always be a need for people to stop the disservices that happen in the world, and the people as a whole could staunch those who go against others with trivial manners to stop
In addition to lobbying politicians, Pat wanted to change local attitudes so, taking advantage of her popularity as a guest speaker at Rotary, Lions, Toastmasters and other local groups, she made gay equality her subject at every meeting she spoke at, and convinced many locals previously unconcerned by the matter, of the injustices faced by the gay and lesbian communities. “I was so angry that gays were treated differently. We are all equal and should be treated the same. It is unfair and unjust to be judged as a person on your sexuality” she said.
Anita Bryant was an Anti-Gay Activist with no past political history yet, she was still a huge reason a lot of people in the 70’s were anti-gay. “Bryant’s background… hardly gave her credentials as an authority on homosexuality...Unfortunately, gay activists had little knowledge about how the media works. Bryant was pretty… if baited too far, she did marvelously telegenic things… that was all she needed. As far as the media… was concerned, she was an authority on homosexuality”(156). Even though she had little knowledge about what gay people were actually like and gave out untrue statistics multiple times, because she was pretty and famous, it basically gave her a right to talk about subjects she was uneducated on. It just shows how unfair gay people had it because they were in the minority. It also again, shows the demonization of the LGBT
middle of paper ... ... No one particularly wants to put themselves in a situation where they feel uncomfortable, especially when it comes to people speaking out against injustices. From the examples of history and the examples of daily occurrences that we experience everyday, it has become evident that there is a fine line between protecting national security and depriving people of their basic civil rights. History is always repeating itself when it comes to the way people treat each other.
Many people take stands for different reasons. Some take stands to send a message out
...ld have lived in a better situation. People sometimes focus on their own needs at the expense of others because they think that having their needs is the only way to survive and so they just decide to not care about others and they become indifferent .You can lose your life when speaking out or acting against injustice, but at least you lost your life with bravery and not because you were too weak to protect yourself. In the other hand silence and inaction in the face of injustice encourages the tormentor; making the oppressor feel like they can do anything to you or your loved ones, which can go against your will and what you want, and eventually hurt you or the people around you. People need to be brave and not be indifferent and they need to stand up every time they see something unfairly happened to them or the people around and don’t care about the consequences.
we as a people have to speak out on the injustices done to all of our people. Whether it’s in unpopular
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Standing up for what one believes in is crucial. Taking a stance shows that one has a robust sense of their beliefs and morals. Standing up for what one believes in takes
So instead people should speak their voice and let others know what their message is. Because without integrity, Courage, and beliefs we wouldn’t have equal right between blacks and whites in this country, we wouldn’t have lives be protected and saved by Woman and Men in uniform, and we wouldn’t even have a country without our Founding fathers speaking up.
middle of paper ... ... But, this microscope she was living under, where the tabloids constantly were creating press about her probable homosexuality, pressured her to come out publicly when SHE wanted the world to know. But, the public was not that comfortable with DeGeneres’s new confession and ceased to view her sitcom and respect her as a comedian..
When television first appeared back in the 1940's, times were very different. What we would consider completely normal today would have seemed quite taboo just a few decades ago. For example, in 1953, Lucille Ball was not allowed to say the word "pregnant" while she was expecting baby Ricky and it wasn't until the 1960's show Bewitched, that we saw a married couple actually sharing the same bed. Considering how conservative the television networks were back then, it is not hard to deduce that something as controversial as homosexuality would be far from discussed or portrayed at any level. It was only in 1973 that television premiered its first homosexual character. Over the next three decades the emergence of gay and lesbian characters in television has increased and decreased as the times have changed. Due to the resurgence of conservatism that came back in the early 1980's, homosexual topics were again reduced to a minimum. Since that time though, as many people can see, there has been a rise of gay and lesbian characters on television. One might think after a first glance at the previous sentence that there has been progress among gay and lesbian communities to have a fair representation in the media. However, if one looks hard at the circumstances surrounding their portrayal, many people may start to believe that if there has been any progress then it has been quite minimal.
...s. 90’s television has taken the issue of homosexuality and instead of being melodramatic and too serious, comedy was used to represent homosexual lifestyle. For example television shows such as ‘Queer Eye for Straight Guy’ as well as sitcoms like ‘Will and Grace and ‘Ellen’ made light of gay culture and allowed audiences to associate with the humour without necessarily being homosexual.
To begin with, one of the things that makes Ellen DeGeneres really appreciated in today’s society is her huge support with gay’s equality. Since Ellen is lesbian herself, she knows all the difficulties that come along with first of all, accepting yourself and being confident, then trying to not get affected by society’s way of portraying gays . Today’s society has taught us that being gay is a threat and a huge sin, but Ellen DeGeneres is one of the few people whom have changed that. Since Ellen is a well-known celebrity because of the various shows and movies she has starred in, many people look up to her. One way it is clear that Ellen supports homosexuals are through her novels. The novels “The Funny Thing is...”, “My Point and I Do Have One” or “Seriously...I’m Kidding”, are all personally written and narrated by Ellen DeGeneres . All ...
The 1990s saw a surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek
For example, the representation of women on television was for a long time restricted to roles of “loving wives, dutiful daughters, gossiping girlfriends, fashion plates, and the occasional dowdy maid, nanny, or granny” (Zeisler 2008, p. 9), which is a reflection on the roles it was considered ‘acceptable’ for women to take on in real life. Often going against the hegemonic gender ideal is used as shorthand for comedy within popular culture, such as men dressed femininely being played for laughs on countless sitcoms. Popular culture that genuinely challenges hegemonic ideology often faces backlash, as was the case when Ellen DeGeneres’ character coming out on Ellen (1997), as did the actress in real life, resulted in the show being cancelled after only one more season. This is reflective of what was the pervasive belief, that heterosexuality is the only acceptable option, though the changing attitudes about this can be seen through the increased inclusion of gay and bisexual characters in pop culture over the past two decades. Looking at the relationship between gender and popular culture consequently becomes important to the field of gender studies as it provides a way to study not only what is considered to be the gender norms in a society, but how these norms have