Final Project

Sejin Kim

Acts of Resistance: Activist, Interlopers, and Pranksters

Professor Cacoilo

May 7, 2019

            In the United States, people discriminate based on race/ethnicity, age, gender, and education level. There is a very present gender wage gap in the U.S. It is also known that male-dominated industries tend to have higher wages than industries and occupations made up mostly of female workers. To face all these problems, I made several posters which tackle the notion that equal work deserves equal payment and that we should not discriminate people solely based on their gender.
I could say that the Guerrilla Girls inspired me the most for my semester project. The Guerrilla Girls are an ongoing female activist group in the United States. The Guerrilla Girls are standing up against sexism in our society. They have made a lot of different types of posters that show they are against a lot of discrimination that women face in our society. Women have been discriminated or denigrated with their work all over the history. Women have been treated as an object of men’s property, have been ignored or have had their ideas stolen by men. Every human being deserves equal rights without any kind of discrimination.

Trump - Gender Equality is Priority

The first poster is about Donald Trump, the president of the United States. As many people know, president Donald Trump is a symbol of a patriarchy. Donald Trump is a white man, who owns various hotels, casinos, and golf courses. After Trump became president of the United States, he obtained more power and honor in the political world. I believed president Trump would be perfect as a character for my activist poster since he is a well-known man with power who very publically belittles women. There is a well-known campaign slogan spoken by president Trump, “Make America Great Again”. I have used this line to point out that America needs to fix the gender gap to become a better country. President Trump is holding up his index finger in this photo, and his index finger can be viewed as a number one, which will fit well with the line that I have added on poster. I have added “Gender Equality is Priority” because it is a fact that we must make our society equal for everybody no matter what kind of gender you are. Trump is known for being a man who insulted women in the public, and I made this poster by twisting his actions.

Poster "It's Just a Symbolic Feature It Does Not Define Who You Are"

                                  

The second poster is regarding how our society labels us and noting that we are more than how these labels define us. People would often say that a boy should like the color blue and a girl should like pink or boy should be more tough and girl should be more emotional. In our society we often divide each other based on our gender, however, we are all similar human beings who are capable of anything. I wanted to talk about how we have no difference between man and woman in my poster.

The third and fourth posters are about how everyone deserves equal amount of payment through equal work. In Korea, men receive better opportunities and payment than women because Korea still has a patriarchy system. People in Korea often say that man should earn money and woman should take care of their children. This patriarchy system is getting fixed more and more, however, there are still a lot of old fashion minded people still discriminating women.

Equal Work Deserves Equal Payment - Food Industry

                          

Often food is something that a woman has to make for the family in our society. In a society ruled by the patriarchy system, they often say that a female must know how to cook and male should not be near the kitchen. Even with cooking as a job, male chefs often receive better opportunities and payment than female chefs. In Korea, many of the chefs that come out in  TV shows are mainly male chefs. These are the reason why I made this poster to stand against the patriarchy system even in the cooking industry.

Equal Work Deserves Equal Payment - Construction Industry

                         

In the construction industry or any place that requires strength, they often do not give an equal opportunity and payment to female. However, it is not about the gender. It is more about who that person is. There are men who are weaker than women and women who do have better skills than men. However, in these industries they often do discriminate females.

Bibliography

Blenman, Joy. “The Companies Donald Trump Owns.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 5 May 2019, https://www.investopedia.com/updates/donald-trump-companies/
“Earnings and Wages - Gender Wage Gap - OECD Data.” TheOECD, https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/gender-wage-gap.htm

“The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap.” AAUW, https://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The Gender Pay Gap for Women Food Processing Workers.” Narrow the Gap, https://narrowthegap.co/gap/food-processing-workers-all-other
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The Gender Pay Gap for Women Construction Managers.” Narrow the Gap, https://narrowthegap.co/gap/construction-managers