Who do I think I am?

I read this book as a junior in high school,
and decided then that I wanted to be a journalist.

My name is Stevie Borrello and I am a junior studying media and journalism. My life changed all because of one book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. That’s all it took for me to finally recognize that the world was bigger than just my problems or concerns. After reading about a topic—women in Afghanistan during the time of the Taliban—that I had no prior knowledge of, I realized how many aspects of my life I never acknowledged. I was a teenage girl in a country that had many more freedoms and liberties than a large part of the world, especially as a woman. But over time I also saw how limited my life still was as a woman in the United States. In television and advertisements, women are seen as a sex symbol and nothing else. There aren’t a vast number of films or television shows directed by women, and the media industry is mostly male-dominated. Women are not seen as being equal or even close to it, the simple fact that we get paid less than men only shows how far behind our society still it. I can still remember my mother telling me before I went off to school that guys would try to take advantage of me, even the good ones, and I would have to fend them off and stand my ground. And this angered me; why couldn’t these men learn as they were growing up how to treat a woman properly and know personal boundaries? Why did I have to be the one constantly fighting battles that I was already set up to lose?

Most of Nicholas Kristof's work focuses on female
oppression around the world, and how to empower them.

The more I read topics of female oppression in the news and watched the way women were portrayed on televisions shows, the more I realized the role of women in the media, as well as their stories that needed to be heard, was very small and unimportant. Being exposed to this kind of media as a 16-year-old girl was very unhealthy and detrimental for my development. Women in magazines all had tiny waists and flawless features, only valuing women for their outside physical image. The female roles in television in film are usually in the shadows of a male-driven storyline. There is always news of women being assaulted and raped, everywhere in the country and the world. All of these aspects can make a girl feel very worthless and weak in life and in her future goals. I was one of the cognizant few that actually noticed this inadequacy, so much so that I was determined to pursue a career in journalism—to bring more awareness to female oppression and encourage empowerment. It was encouraging to see that other journalists over the years have also dedicated themselves to this mission, one of my favorites being Nicholas Kristof. His novel, co-written with his wife (yes finally, females!), Half the Sky, was an inspiration for me, reading the work that these people have done in countries all over the world to give women empowerment and opportunity.

As you can see, writing and print definitely have a large impact on my perspectives. But I also turn to film, especially documentaries, which helps shed light on these lesser-known stories. I really enjoy the Op-Doc series on The New York Times website. It covers common stories that most people can connect with or understand, such as poverty or being a foreigner, but it is told in such a unique way that it allows the viewers to take on a new perspective to the previous stigmas that were formed by the society surrounding them. I hope to do the same with my stories of women in roles that might be familiar to society, but show them something new or different that they never would have thought of before. I think the moving image takes viewers to another level where writing sometimes cannot, by actually showing the characters and actually making them human, so the audience can connect and have a lasting impact with them. I want to create that impact.

But creating that impact will be difficult, especially being a woman. Not only because the media industry is male-dominated, but also due to the dangers women face in other countries. Part of my goal is to be a foreign correspondent and tell the stories of women in other countries, just like Nicholas Kristof. But I have seen what can happen to female reporters in foreign lands. Lara Logan, a journalist for CBS, was sexually assaulted by a riot group in Egypt and barely made it out alive. While her camera crew was made up of men, who were also beaten, she suffered more injuries and assaults because she was a woman. It only shows that women are still only seen as an object and are thought to be powerless, and should therefore be taken over. This is so frustrating for me, and probably the reason I define myself as a feminist. Women should not be seen as an inferior who should be dominated in any way, physically, mentally or emotionally. Our sex should not be the only defining characteristic for our entire identity and the way we live; yet this is how it has been determined by society. But people like Lara Logan have only continued to fight for women’s rights and speak out against injustices towards others and even themselves.

All of these media examples I gave, from a book to people in the media, have been monumental aspects in shaping my life and my goals. It was not until I looked at the media in my life with an active eye that I realized its major role not only in my life, but also in every single person’s life in this society. Even though most people might passively be media consumers, they are then encouraging these media inaccuracies, in the portrayal of women and other minority groups, to only continue to shape our society. Every time people tweet their approval of advertisements that portray women as sex symbols, or whenever they share a celebrity story Buzzfeed post, they are allowing the media to define what is important and acceptable for our society. Instead we need to look at the media as a tool that we can improve and utilize to make more people aware of inaccuracies and major issues in the world. Everyone will be molded by the media presence, so why not be changed by it for the better?