Author Archives: christina.torres

After a very long wait and quite a few fights in the Senate, the gays and lesians of New York as well as a few other states were all around the city getting married.  After years of having untitled relatonships and settling for civil unions, homosexuals were now granted what they have been waiting for. 

New York is now the sixth and the largest state allowing gay marrage.  Excited and victorious advocates are now stretching their arms out to Maryland in hopes it is alliwed there as well but in the mean time, everyone in favor of gay marriage is enjoying their victory.  And of course there would be many protestors in opposition to the new law allowing gay marriage, but apparently nobody seemed to pay them in mind, instead they celebrated their days of now being able to freely marry their partners and live out their rights as a couple.

There was a total of 659 couples who picked up their marriage licenses at the court houses and 484 who wed at city marriage bearues.  Totaling in 1,143 marrigaes in New York.

One thing I found interesting though was that when the judge was pronouncing their marriage, they said ‘I now pronounce you married’, instead of husband and husband or wife and wife.  I’m not exactly sure but maybe the entire has yet to being completely in favor of the passing of this new bill.

Regardless, there were a lot of happy married couples, and other New Yorkers who were definitely happy about this new victory and I’m sure feel they still have a long way to go when it comes to passing it in other states.

Domestic work is easier said than done.  Cleaning, cooking, child care; it all may sound easy, but a lot of back breaking hard work and ‘elbow grease’ is put into these tasks.  Especially for the women who do this as a full-time job.  Most domestic workers are illegal immigrants who come to America in search of a better life and do what they can to better their lifestyle here and send money back home to relatives.  Since many of them are in the states illegally, if anything goes wrong with the job or they have an issue with their employers, usually none of these workers speak out against in fear of being sent back home.

But now they have means of being protected, The Domestic Worker’s Bill iof Rights.  The bill offers temporary disability benefits to full-time workers, redress for sexual harrassment in the workplace, time and a half for any overtime work, and consists of eight hour shift per day, with a total of forty hours per week and forty-four hours for live in workers.  Along with domestic workers, the bill also protects housekeepers, nannies, and caretakers of the elderly.

Many employers and employees of domestic work are unaware of the legislation and what it entails.  To spread awareness Ms.Francois, who works for the advocacy of the group Domestic Workers United, went all around the city of New York introducing herself, educating, and handing out pamphlets to domestic workers and nannies about the bill that was passed to ensure their safety and rights as workers.

Choosing beauty over comfort is something I’m sure we’re all guilty of.  As we discussed in class, many individuals of the upper class purchase couches that are expensive and yet pretty uncomfortable.  We can discuss why people of high culture spend so much money on uncomfortable couches and the only answer we can ultimately come up with is because it’s pretty and they would rather have an uncomfortable couch that was expensive instead of a decent looking couch at reasonable decent price all because their furniture is not actually meant to be used but to show off and look at.

The same rules apply for women who try to look nice for their husbands and for everyone in general when they step out the door.  Tim Gunn, American fashion consultant and cohost of Project Runway, explains this idea perfectly in his article.  He begins with saying that yes and “oversized t-shirts feel soft on your body, but you know what’s genuinely comfortable? Being dressed appropriatekly for your surroundings.”  As a society, the women back then were focused on choosing the white or yellow frige, now we’re all worrying about what to wear and where and impressing passerbys all day.  The idea he uses to back up his argument is that ‘when we look, we feel good.’

He even mentioned how he read an articel abnout a woman who even after being married to her husband for years, she made it her responsibility to get ready and make herself beautiful before he came home.  He prasied the idea, I for one thought it was a bit much.

Is this what not just women with their fridges or their husbands, but society as a whole is oming down to?!